023: Cold Front | 1 - 7 June

Will Potter's Green is the New Red at 15, Kae Tempest live, and two Love Islands have both launched

This week it’s COLD. Just as the Gregorian calendar ticked over to the start of June, so did the cold move in to chill the bones. I’m already daydreaming about heading up North for warmer weather; I just need to finalise this thesis…

More marking and NDIS clients this week. Along with some supervising exams, the start of not one, but two, Love Island seasons, and a gals’ night out with Adele and Cat to see Kae Tempest.

Here’s a photo of the three of us outside The Princess Theatre:

Cat, LC, and Adele

Here’s what I’ve been reading and listening to:

📚 BOOKS

Will Potter’s book Green is the New Red has its 15th anniversary, and he’s recorded audiobooks (when in Montreal) for both this and his new book, Little Red Barns - which I previously discussed.

Here’s what he said in his mailing list:

Will spent many years investigating how the FBI and federal prosecutors were labelling animal rights and environmental activists as terrorists in the years after September 11.

His argument was that these movements were the canaries in the coal mine. Criminalising dissent as terrorism, testing that playbook on these activists, was the starting gun. That it would be used against other social movements, too. And that’s exactly what happened and it continues to accelerate.

When Will was in the studio, reading the books aloud, he kept returning to the same patterns today, not just history. They are still unfolding.

He recorded a new introduction: reflecting on what it’s like to revisit those warnings now, as fascism rises in the United States in real time.

He says, “If we’re going to confront what’s happening right now, we have to understand its earliest chapters.”

Green Is the New Red is about how the FBI and corporations turned nonviolent environmental and animal rights activists into the #1 domestic terrorism threat after 9/11.

Little Red Barns continues that story, showing how the same national security and surveillance framework expanded outward — toward journalists and anyone exposing truths about powerful industries.

You can buy directly from Will’s website to support him, or find both on Audible and other audiobook stores.

For nostalgia’s sake, here’s an interview I did with Will at the Animal Rights Conference in Los Angeles in 2011:

🎤 LIVE MUSIC

Sunday night after dinner at SEN Legend near the ‘Gabba, (thanks for the recommendation, Ange), Adele and Cat joined me for our third time seeing Kae Tempest together. This time at The Princess Theatre in Brisbane as part of Open Season.

We’ve witnessed Kae’s transition from an awkward tomboy to a man who’s clearly happy and settled in himself — chav swagger and all. Every time, there’s this palpable earnestness, inspiration, and love coming off the stage. It’s beautiful to watch him be his true self and to see how that lands with the (queer people in the) audience. One younger woman had him sign her set list and got a hug — that would’ve made her year.

Here’s People’s Faces live on my TikTok.

And the original audio with these exceptional lyrics:

I saw it roaring

I felt it clawing at my clothes like a grieving friend

It said there are no new beginnings

Until everybody sees that the old ways need to end

But it’s hard to accept that we’re all one and the same flesh

Given the rampant divisions between oppressor and oppressed

But we are, though

More empathy, less greed, more respect

All I’ve got to say has already been said

I mean, you heard it from yourself

When you were lying in your bed and couldn’t sleep

Thinking, “Couldn’t we be doing this differently?”

I’m listening to every little whisper in the distance singing hymns

And I can, I can feel things changing

📺 TV SERIES

A heap of my favourite shows have now ended, including Euphoria, which was chaotic and ridiculous, but Zendaya and Coleman Domingo were outstanding. Happy for that chapter to be over now.

Just as I was thinking about a need for new shows, Love Island launched. Two of them.

Me and Adam from Seattle have run the Love Island Bluesky feed for a few years now. Last year - after way more people joining the app - it was wild!

Love Island S13

(around 57 episodes!)

ITV2/ITVX in the UK |Hulu/Disney+ in the USA (3-day delay) | 9Now in Australia | TVNZ+ in New Zealand | 🏴‍☠

They launched at night this year, which the usual cast of types. As usual, the gals are fun, and the guys are yet to be determined… Only the first week though. I like Robin and I like that Aidan’s brother was also cast.

Then, the next night, Love Island US also launched.

Love Island US S8

(around 37 episodes!)

Peacock | a few days delay on Stan in Australia (and S7) - previous series were on 9Now | ITVX generally broadcasts the show in the UK after the US series finishes | 🏴‍☠

I’m not sure how invested I will be this year, keeping up from the beginning rather than joining halfway feels like a commitment. I don’t know how voiceover artist Iain does it!

The US series is already more exciting: the aesthetics, the lighting, the cast, the intensity from the start (probably not ideal for the islanders, but great for viewers). The contrast in casting says a lot too — the UK cast Sam, who is hard of hearing (also boring so far); the US cast a Latina bronze Paralympian track-and-field medallist, Beatriz, with a prosthetic leg - a first! Both series cast pairs of brothers, but the US cast Charlie (from S7)’s brother. The US also brings a noticeably more multicultural vibe rather than the token one or two people of colour. Carbon copies appear on both, but the US version at least makes them interesting.

Not Suitable for Work

8 episodes

Hulu | Disney+ | 🏴‍☠

A new series from Mindy Kaling (The Sex Lives of College Girls) which is light, fun, and easy to watch. Recommend.

I’m grateful for new restaurants to check out, quality time with friends seeing inspiring performers, and a change of season to remind me that the only constancy is change