Hi team,
Welcome to the twenty-eighth installment of Furloughed. Maybe it’s a newsletter about things I’m doing while furloughed, things you can do, or both.
Hello. On Sunday I move to Bristol. Hooray! I’ve dismantled my office chair and made piles of books and things, gotten tired, and sat down to write this instead. I am the Queen of procrastination. I wear the crown of Halloween devil horns I found while tidying.
This evening, I’ve made a nice big vegan lasagne for dinner. And my partner has given me extra hugs. I have said, “you can move to Bristol too!” and he has said, “or come and pick you up and bring you back to Oxford!” So the ‘let’s leave Oxford for good’ plan is still in its infancy.
This week, I’ve started to get more climate nerdy, reading about agroforestry and signing up to a welcome meeting for Green New Deal Rising. It looks like it was set up by Fatima Ibrahim from Green New Deal UK with Hannah Martin, who used to be at Greenpeace. But it follows the leaderless template of the Sunrise Movement in the US. I don’t know if it will be the answer. But no others have inspired me to join them yet (yes I have heard of the other, loud, group, no I don’t think I’d fit in there). It’s time to get serious about climate justice and stop climate apartheid.
Things to watch
Short things
Green New Deal Rising…
“The slogan of the yellow vest movement in France was: ‘you care about the end of the world, we care about the end of the month.’ And what a green new deal says is: everybody has the right to care about both. And here is how we are going to radically lower emissions, in line with science, [and] completely decarbonise our economies but do it in a way that leaves no worker behind” — Naomi Klein
And my friend sent this…
Series
Mainstay recommendations are City of Ghosts and Waffles + Mochi. And We Are Lady Parts.
One of the great things about not having had regular TV for a long time, is that when Netflix gets something Channel 4 had in 2016 it’s brand new. We started watching Crazyhead with Susan Wokoma. It is set in Bristol, which is exciting. And it’s great (other than unnecessary homophobic and sexist jokes. The male character who makes them isn’t hitting the Always Sunny humour mark, and you can write a stupid character without. So why?)
Documentaries
We watched the Fantastic Fungi documentary on Netflix and it was fantastic. Cheesy, mushroomy, far-out-circle-of-life-interconnectedness-y stuff. What more could you want?
Films
Last Saturday, on movie and homemade pizza night, we watched Good Boys. It was great. Hats off to the accurate portrayal of the time my parents were breaking up and school made us sing, ‘If You’re Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands.’
Things to read
Does the climate movement need a makeover?
“From being less likely to know how to swim when a flood hits, to being less likely to have funds in a bank account to fund evacuation or relocation, women are on the back foot when it comes to coping with the climate crisis.
But the story doesn’t end there. Gender equality and women’s leadership are a vital part of the solution. A growing body of research tells us outcomes for the planet are better when women have higher social and political status, are more fairly represented in leadership, and are centered in climate solutions. If you’re a feminist on a hot planet, you have to be a climate feminist” — Katharine Wilkinson
David Graeber: ‘To save the world, we’re going to have to stop working’
“As we’ve seen in lockdown, the more obviously your work benefits other people, the less they pay you. The system makes no sense. It’s also destroying the planet.” — David Graeber
Why Covid-19's second pandemic summer is hitting differently
“In effect, the United States is going through the epidemiological version of the Peter Jackson treatment. In "The Return of the King," the final film in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy that Jackson directed, an unassuming audience thinks things have wrapped up after more than 2 1/2 hours of epic fantasy. The war against evil has ended, the One Ring has been destroyed, the screen goes black and the music swells; some people begin gathering their coats and empty popcorn buckets.
But wait — there’s almost a half-hour left in this movie, including at least two more false endings. Embarrassed, the audience settles back down. The real Tolkien fans in the audience snicker at the fools who dared assume that things were over just because every signal Jackson had given them said it was.” — Hayes Brown
Books
When I get to Bristol there are a few more I’d like to add to my book pile. A friend has just told me a new bookshop, Bookhaus, has opened there. This book looks good.
Feel good
Spanish cave art was made by Neanderthals, study confirms
London's Hidden Tunnels Revealed In Amazing Cutaways
Repairing and reusing household goods could create thousands of green jobs across the UK
Christopher Walken Goes To, Er, Bristol In Stephen Merchant’s The Offenders – Exclusive Image — “As soon as I was let out I walked all over Bristol and discovered many nice places,” [he said.]
Pine martens return to the south of England for first time in over a century
‘Ted Lasso’ makes me want to be a better person
"There’s always room for more compassion, more grace, more charity, and more patience. We have the ability to be curious about people’s humanity and their lived experiences every day, with every person we interact with.”
Things to listen to
Podcasts
Mainstay recommendation is this Blindboy podcast with Emma Dabiri. And more Blindboy - How to Solve the Housing Crisis. And a podcast about doughnut economics.
Music
This song by Doja Cat was used as the credits rolled at the end of Good Boys movie. She also has this unexpected tribute to Sister, Sister.
Join a union and find your local mutual aid
You can join a union to help protect yourself and others. And your local Mutual Aid group.
UK government ‘failed to consider gender’ in its response to Covid pandemic
Sustainable Suppression
Avoid the three Cs - Confined. Crowded. Close-contact settings. Mask up.
Here’s Independent Sage’s vaccinations FAQ, if you or people you know have vaccine questions. They have also put out a document about the continuing need for support measures.
"No masks, no bubbles, no distance, no staggered start and finish times, no one-way systems, no air filters...with new rules indicating that a teacher with a covid-positive child can still teach me...This has to be the most dangerous time ever for kids in school" — 13-year-old Zach Graham, 6 August 2021
A video on how to ventilate a room
After two million deaths, we must have redress for mishandling the pandemic
People to listen to
Things to do
Sign this petition: Ban urban and garden pesticides to protect bees, other wildlife and human health
Make a Corsi cube to filter a room/ set up a crowdfund to make them for classrooms
Send me any fun things to do or look at you see so I can include them!