Ramblings and webcomics from LeEMS
Let’s get this out of the way, the idea that individuals can save the earth by recycling and buying ‘sustainable’ products is, at least in part, a myth. Without corporations changing their processes and methods our individual efforts will not do enough to make a difference to future generations. That aside, I think it is good if people try and make a difference in their individual impact on the world by thinking through the items they choose to consume and from what companies they purchase those items.
We would never consider ourselves evangelists of sustainable living at my house. But we have been trying to examine our consumption of goods produced in our highly consumptive, industrial, and exploitative goods system. Our examination hit on many points, not all of which were strictly about waste. We started paying attention to ingredient labels on lotions, soaps, and shampoo to reduce the amount of petroleum products we were using and putting on our bodies. This was a natural extension of our long standing attempt to avoid preservative laden food at the supermarket. Of course, we made some changes there as well, like giving up on pre-shredded cheese (self shredded cheese melts and tastes so much better!).
Continue reading Trying for an Earth Healthy Lifestyle
Are you in the market for some ancient writings on magic in multiple languages with arresting illustrations and helpful diagrams? I am a sucker for ancient mystery texts, though my interest is far from well researched. So, when the Public Domain Review did a write up on the grimoire of Saint Cyprian, also known as Clavis Inferni (“The Key of Hell”), by Cyprianus, I saved it as a note to myself and possible blog post with the intention of diving deeper into it and its history. That note has been sitting around so long, the time to share it with y’all is now.
Cyprian, was either an intensely evil man or an astoundingly beautiful one. Accounts of the man behind the story vary. However, the name Cyprian became a pseudonym for people who lived on the fringes of society and practiced dark magic (Cvltnation). Cyprian was also linked to the Black School at Wittenberg, which was one of multiple schools in legend that were supposedly run by the Devil himself. Though the promise of secret knowledge was great, students entered the school with the knowledge that a percentage of them would be dragged to hell by the Devil before they could leave (Jason Colavito).
More images from the Clavis Inferni can be browsed at the Wellcome Collection‘s record of the book. And if you, like me, are drawn to old mystery texts, I would also suggest the Grimoire Encyclopedia. It collects links to online copies of ancient grimoires and captures metadata on the history, origins, and authors of the texts.
Jackie Ormes, born Zelda Mavin Jackson to parents William Winifield Jackson and Mary Brown Jackson in 1911, was an American cartoonist, journalist, editor, philanthropist, and ground-breaker . She was the first African American woman creator of a syndicated comic strip. Her comics, Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger, depicted strong, intelligent, and fashionable African American women, which was provocative on its own. Ever the innovator, Ormes would also often use her comics to comment on society as well, targeting racial issues and environmental pollution.
Just a year after launching her Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger strip, Ormes had a play doll of her Patty-Jo character produced by the Terri Lee doll company in 1947, just in time for Christmas. Like Torchy, whose comics would often be accompanied with paper doll style wardrobes, Patty-Jo had an upscale wardrobe, and is considered the first black doll on the market that did not depict and enforce racist stereotypes.
“No matter the strip, Ormes was presenting African American women in a way that no other cartoonist in the papers had done previously. Her characters were demure and dynamic, involved in and commenting on current events, sporting the latest fashions. They were upper class women. Torchy in Heartbeats was often accompanied by Torchy Togs, paper dolls of the character with a variety of high-end outfits.”
McGurk, Caitlin (2013) Found in the Collection: Jackie Ormes! (1911-1985). Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum Blog. https://library.osu.edu/site/cartoons/2013/02/22/found-in-the-collection-jackie-ormes-1911-1985/
Ormes continued making art after she retired from creating comics in 1956, and served on the founding board of directors of the DuSable Museum of African-American History and Art. In 2014, 29 years after her death, she was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. In 2018 she was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Industry Eisner Award Hall of Fame.
Jackie Ormes’ story enjoys plenty of documentation, and if you want to find more, I would highly recommend the post at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum Blog as a starting off point. There is also a biography available: Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist by Nancy Goldstein. I am currently on the hunt to see if I can get access to more of her Torchy strips; I love the art and melodrama of the samples I have been able to find so far.
It may be far from a holiday, especially for kids who would rather have another month of summer, but ‘back to school’ is a seasonal marker for many people, including those that work in the academic industries as I do. I’ve probably already intimated that summer can be a little tiring here in Florida. To me, the start of fall classes means fall is here even if the weather won’t change for months.
Of course, if you live within the world of college and university campuses, then rush week comes quickly on the heels of the start of the year. Not being devotees to Greek calendars, we have a selection of rush/hell week movies to fill out the watching.
If you are feeling like celebrating through movies like I do, check out the other Holidays in the Movies posts.
updated 8/24/2023
I have inherited all the sundry papers that my mom saved over the years. I have choice selections from my own school work, divorce paperwork, copies of hospital bills, and correspondence from family and friends, that I have been trying to whittle down. Included was a copy of the St. Petersburg Times from 1979. Charles Manson made the front page in St. Petersburg, FL ten years after the Manson Family Murders.
Did I mention my obsessive brainstorming for new research zines; have I said that I was working on a zine for pineapples? Well, beyond finding recipes for wine and vinegar, I have also found that pineapple plants, their leaves specifically, are used to make cloth. In the Phillipines, where most Piña cloth is currently made, it has been used to make the traditional Barong tagalog as well as embroidered kerchiefs and shawls (Wikipedia). The Piña cloth produced in the Phillipines is made via a time consuming manual process. It is often woven with silk to give it a nicer drape. Whether with silk or without, it is an oddly translucent and beautiful cloth.
We don’t celebrate Christmas in July because we have an all encompassing love of Christmas and we just have to have it more than once a year. Our mini holiday is more because we need a little imagined cooler weather; would never turn down the opportunity for another present and some some mulled cider; and could use a reminder that the yuletide feeling of love and hope for humanity doesn’t need to only happen once a year. However, while we spend weeks immersing ourselves in media for Christmas, Christmas in July gets a couple days at most. We make a selection of absolute favorites, White Christmas, and select a smattering of other features. This year that list includes:
Check out the other Holidays in the Movies posts.
Until ten years ago, Abby Fisher was known as the first African American woman to publish a cookbook in the United States. The details now known about her life give only the faintest sketch of a woman who worked her way from enslaved cook on the east coast to business owner and author on the west. Much of what we do know was unearthed by Karen Hess, southern cooking historian, who studied Abby Fisher and encouraged the reprinting of her book after a rare copy of Fisher’s book came up for auction (“What Mrs. Fisher Knows About…,” 2021). Because I am a lover of old cookbooks and have been on a hunt for all the fruitcake recipes, and of course Mrs. Fisher had one, I was elated to find Mrs. Fisher’s book online courtesy Michigan State University: https://n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5tt11. I have selected the recipes that look especially interesting to me in order share them here, but do go and check out the whole book!
Abby Fisher was born Abby Clifton to Andrew James, a white farmer of French decent, and Abbie Clifton, an African American, in South Carolina (“Abby Fisher,” 2021). During her research Hess could not find direct evidence that Abby Fisher was born into enslavement, but many have made that assumption based on Fisher’s date and location of birth (Rae, n.d.). An ad for her cookbook in the The San Francisco call from 1897 seems to support this assumption by indicating Abby Fisher was “raised in the family of the late Newton St. John of Mobile, Alabama (“An Excellent Cookery-Book,” 1897). Newton St. John was a prominent merchant and banker in Mobile prior to and after the Civil War. So, it must have been in the St. John kitchen where Abby Fisher first became a cook. Before the beginning of the Civil War, in the 1850s, Fisher met and married Alexander C. Fisher in Mobile (Rae, n.d.). After the Civil War, in 1877, the couple moved to San Francisco (“The African American Women of the Wild West,” n.d.). The 1880 census shows them on Second Street with four of their eleven eventual children. They are both listed as mixed race; Abby was working as a cook while her husband was a pickle and preserves manufacturer (“Abby Fisher,” 2021; “What Mrs. Fisher Knows About…,” 2021).
Continue reading What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern CookingWe gave up traditional cable a little while ago and currently have only a slim selection of streaming channels, most of them very specialized. For the most part a lot of our non-movie watching is on YouTube, and this I love so much I had to share:
I play the same record on every patriotic holiday: Timbuk 3’s Edge of Allegiance, because it starts with National Holiday. If we entertain guests, then perhaps I’ll bust out the Sousa, but Sousa takes a level of picnic commitment that is hard to rustle up in the heat of a Florida summer. Of course, like with many other holidays at my house, we get in the mood and stay in the mood with some carefully chosen movies.
Halloween and Christmas are extensive enough to warrant their own zines, but you can check out my previous posts on Thanksgiving, New Year, and Easter if you want more of this holiday moodiness, or check out all the other Holidays in the Movies posts.
Summer tends to feel terribly devoid of holidays, but there are some important dates to celebrate. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year. Like sun lovers who celebrate the winter solstice as a lengthening of days from then on out, I welcome the summer solstice as a herald of shorter days to come. The sun in Florida is blinding and relentless, so the thought of it receding just a bit is a comfort by this time of year. At the same time the hottest and brightest days of summer are still to come. These are the movies we are watching to get in the mood and learn to love summer again:
Don’t forget to check out all the other Holidays in the Movies posts.
*Holidays in the Movies posts will be treated like living posts and updated routinely. Last updated 6/28/2022
