Weekly Checklist 1/10/23
For Your Physical Health:
Like a lot of us, putting on a few pounds during the holidays, there can be a new resolve about getting back on track. There are a lot of ideas out there, including diets and Intermittent Fasting, and all of that needs to be learned about and researched. But I have discovered a book that is very easy to read and part of the reverse-aging movement that is all over consciousness (and You Tube) these days. Check Out the international bestseller, “How Not To Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease” by Michael Greene with Gene Stone. What I like about the book is that, while it is so easy to read, there are almost 200 pages of “footnotes” at the end, listing all the science that is behind the book. A Must-Read.
For Your Literary Health:
I recently learned from following Sarah Schulman’s Facebook feed that an important lesbian author recently died Marijane Agnes Meaker (May 27, 1927 – November 21, 2022). She was an American writer who, along with Tereska Torres, was credited with launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre, the only accessible novel on that theme in the 1950s. Under the name Vin Packer, she wrote mystery books. As Ann Aldrich, she wrote nonfiction books about lesbians, and as M.E. Kerr, she wrote young-adult fiction. Mary James wrote books for younger children. A place to learn about her is in the amazing documentary on celebrated author Patrica Highsmith, whose work you can learn about by checking out “Loving Highsmith” on YouTube.
For Your Political Health:
For Your Productivity Health:
I have mixed feelings about AI, but there is no good reason to put our heads in the sand. I have some computer clients, and I have been informed that the release of CHATP3—which is free—can do a great deal to add functionality to our lives. I recently asked it to synthesize LGBTQ and People of Color with the uses and abuses of emotion-focused therapy and it kept improving in its specificity and I was able to polish the material and use it as a slide. If you want to know more, and there’s a lot to learn, here is one vaguely informative
For your Artistic Health:
I am in the process of trying to track down Chase Joynt’s documentary “Framing Agnes,” to illustrate the conflicts and courage of trans people. Inspired by the discovery of never-before-seen case files from transgender history, filmmaker and Assistant Professor Chase Joynt presents Framing Agnes, a film made in collaboration with University of Chicago sociologist Kristen Schilt, which blends sociological research, historical archives, and contemporary performance. It is based on an archive of gender-non-conforming subjects between 1957 and 1960. Joynt casts a trans actor to play Agnes and 5 other subjects. We learn of the historic subjects as well as the real people playing the subjects. I have some docs announcing the project, which are interesting: