Microcosm #3: Kate Bush, Bitter Water, Bitches, & Tr*mp’s Bronzer

This week's round up is a mess and I apologize.

I hope everyone had a beautiful, fun, and safe Halloween. Mine was very mellow this year. Several of the friends I surveyed agreed: this year did indeed feel strange. It wasn’t Halloween spirit that we lacked; I suppose, for me, it was energy. I was exhausted. It was the first year I couldn’t be bothered to dress up, decorate, go to a party, or pass out candy. And I love doing those things. But between the wedding last weekend and midterms this week, any excess enthusiasm within me has been funneled into my responsibilities and just getting to the other side in one piece. So I ended up not dressing up or going anywhere and watched The Lost Boys instead, which was fun because Ed had never seen it before, which meant he got to experience this for the first time.

What ensues below the divider line is kind of chaotic, but haven’t we all felt a bit chaotic lately? The impending election has filled me and everyone I know with dread and panic. The air feels charged and tense. It’s like we’ve lost our balance at the edge of a perilous cliff, and we will either regain that balance and continue with our lives or go careening down the side of a mountain. It’s that prolonged stomach-drop feeling I wish would disappear but won’t—it just lingers. It’s Scorpio season, baby.

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Kate Bush is working on new music.

My (now defunct) finsta for the longest time was @kate_bush_fan_account, and I still regret changing that name. I will never not love this woman—even when she was a tory, which has thankfully since been clarified and disproved as her quote was taken out of context. I’m very curious to hear what a 2024 Kate Bush even sounds like. Has all of the music released since her 2011 album 50 Words for Snow influenced her, or will she continue to be a visionary and make beautiful sounds that exist outside of space, time, and influence? Only time will tell.

This piece by Marlowe Granados about being a bitch.

A few months ago, I told one of my friends that one of my goals for this year is to be bitchier, because, ultimately, what feels bitchy for me will not read as bitchy for other people. What will actually happen is that I will finally start enforcing boundaries, be more forthcoming about my feelings, and stop letting people walk all over me like I usually do. I loved the parallels to Lady Macbeth because she’s one of my favorite literary characters (villains?). So bloodthirsty and fabulous.