More of This, Please x July 2024

You're reading GET IT TOGETHER, a weekly newsletter that covers punk/indie/pop music, visual art, and related topics. I speak from a queer-feminist perspective about things that are often adjacent to my own creative practice.

This is a free post, but you can support my work for $5/month by becoming a newsletter supporter or sharing this with a friend. Thanks for reading.

It's been a heatwave for the past week and my biggest domestic issues have been defeating fire ants and safely removing a lizard from my house. A roadrunner got stuck in my backyard for a while yesterday. Lucy, my dog, has yet to notice any of the wildlife, thankfully. When there is so much outside these walls that I'm morally required to be angry about, I'm not trying to add much else to that fire.

I wish there was an outcome in November that could give me pride. I wish the awful things I've known and felt and tried to rail against weren't ramping up so smoothly in my lifetime. I wish I could wake up in this season of my life and feel like the cynicism of my last 20+ years hadn't been warranted.

But here we are.

The year of treading water continues and I now present to you a short list of tiny life rafts:

LA Zine Fest

I don't want to admit this but I hadn't been to a large-scale zine or comics fest since 2019. That's sad! So when I walked into a truly packed (and mask encouraging) LA Zine Fest recently it felt like a breath of fresh air. When so much revolves around digital content these days, printed matter has become even more important to me. It was even better to see friends like NOVA Community Arts and C U Next Tuesday Press and personal fav Koreangry in person and discover some new favs like Content Queen - a zine made by some badass ladies from the Bay Area inspired by "their favorite parts of their favorite magazines" in a very elder-millenial way. The whole afternoon renewed some energy for the zine projects I've had up my sleeve for a while now.

Sarah Welch

Another zine fest find was artist Sarah Welch, half of printmaking duo Mystic Multiples. Inspired by life on the Gulf Coast and decidedly the color green, her illustrations combine plant life, narrative art, and tarot themes. I'm always in the market for good risograph prints and was drawn to one with cicadas and leaves of an elephant ear plant. Her work is the kind where I just wanted to buy one of each.

Blank Punk Now

I knew about this before the zine fest but when I ran into James Spooner slinging the book himself, I had to buy a copy. An anthology curated by Spooner along with author Chris Terry, Blank Punk Now collects writing and illustrations by a range of Blank punk identities and generations. Featuring contributions by Maria Stovall, Brontez Purnell, Hanif Abdurraqib, Mars Dixon (of the band Aye Nako), and Soul Glo's Pierce Jordan, it's a collection of heavy hitters and critical interviews that I'm excited to dig into. Honestly, if you want me to talk about punk at all these days it had better be in a way that decenters whiteness and/or the heteropatriarchy so this just went to the top of my summer reading list.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk

Speaking of summer reading (or rather, listening), I'm finally ticking this 16-hour audiobook off my list. A lot of my reading and listening the past few months has been circling this topic and I'm surprised that I haven't read it yet for the number of times it has been mentioned in passing conversation. The book is rooted in science while remaining accessible and addressing the spectrum of traumatic events that can leave an indelible mark on one's body and brain quite literally. It's illuminating and useful (even if you're not someone with diagnosed PTSD or similar), and I wish I had read it years ago.

I'm listening to it for free from my library using the Libby app.

HOT TO GO

is gayer than YMCA.

📷 Follow me on Instagram
🔊 Follow Worriers on Instagram | TikTok | Spotify | Tidal
✉️ Email me at getittogether@laurendenitzio.com
📬 Write me a letter at PO Box 4684, Valley Village, CA 91617
☕ Say thanks and buy me a coffee