Weekly Mourner

Weekly Mourner 7, August 24, 2020 By Ethan Elgersma (contributor) (From the Editor) This article by a guest contributor is about food. Oh yeah. And it is a recipe of sorts. A really good one. It’s a recipe we all need to begin to follow.      My Grandparents canned food for years. It was food that they had grown in their own sizable garden. I remember thinking about it like it was magic when I was little. What I mean by that is that I couldn’t wrap my mind around how someone could grown their own food, turn it into delicious, organic, tomato sauce, for example, and then keep jars and jars of it for what seemed like years. They had a whole pantry full of food they had grown and stored. They grew their own herbs and spices too. It’s not that they didn’t shop at a grocery store, but a great deal of the food we would eat at Sunday dinner was garden grown right in their own backyard. My Grandfather also composted scraps and replenished his own garden beds with it....

Weekly Mourner 1 By screm The Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law (re-read that slowly and shudder) requiring abortionists to be members in good standing and able to admit patients,  also referred to as “admitting privileges”, the text from the bill defines it as such:    "[A]ctive admitting privileges" means "the physician is a member in good standing of the medical staff of a hospital that is currently licensed by the department, with the ability to admit a patient and to provide diagnostic and surgical services to such patient." at hospitals within 30 miles of their clinics, for the safety of women who choose to abort their children. The law, called “The Louisiana Unsafe Abortion Protection Act” passed overwhelmingly in 2014. It never went into effect due to being tied up in court.  It’s obvious that this was an unconstitutional decision from the high court. Chief Justice Roberts was the deciding vote in the case and a controversial vote he was indeed. He s...

Weekly Mourner 6 Part 3 of “How to Look at Art; Basquiat” By screm YOU. ARE. PERISHABLE. “Gravestone”, 1987, Acrylic, crayon, on headboard, door and cabinet door.  140 x 172.4cm. Private Collection. ” What sunsets hold, Who can know? What cold plans under fate’s wings grow?  For even when good fortune shines, Death still turns the hands of time. So think your thoughts of self-control, Tell yourself where you will go, Say that you’ll do this or that, While basking in this evening’s glow, Enjoy the radiant streaks of gold, Look around as if you’ll always be, But behind you is the shadow deep; And it comes for all, It comes for you, And it comes for me.” -T.D. “A Sunset Is A Harbinger” by Thomas Damascus “Gravestone” was completed shortly after the death of Basquiat’s close friend, collaborator, and confidant, of several years, Andy Warhol. You know Andy; The famous pop art icon who coined the phrase: “Fifteen Minutes of Fame.” Warhol is probably best known for his repetitious pr...

Weekly Mourner 5, July 28, 2020 By screm Updated 7/31 (links added) Updated 7/30 (links added) Updated 7/28: As of the evening of July 28, 2020 Vimeo has also banned the video from its platform. Updated 8/9: (links added) The year was 1989 and elementary school kids everywhere giggled with absolute delight at the prospect of listening to a song called “Me So Horny”. And while the internet hadn’t yet captivated our souls, and e-speech hadn’t yet captivated our tongues, parents everywhere breathed a collective “WTF”.  “The 2 Live Crew”, the rap group that released the controversial album “As Nasty As They Want to Be” would face lawsuits, file lawsuits, even be arrested for performing the album live, if I’m recalling the whole mess correctly. Many people were seeking to stop the release due to the pornographic content of the album. And believe me, it was pornogrpahic… sorry Mom, I did give it a listen while at a friends house. He had cleverly stashed the cassette under his bed and in ...