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Gods and Monsters – Part 1: The Idiot Messiah

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Over the weekend there was a clip played on Fox News that went viral, as most things to do with Trump and the impeachment hearings have been. This clip is a little different; it plays into a narrative that others have been cautiously tapping into soundbites and rhetoric; this idea that Donald Trump is somehow ordained by God, or “the chosen one”. It’s been something he himself has dropped into interviews and press conferences, he was the chosen one to deal with China, even though he walked back any connotation to him being some kind of messiah. The damage was done, the well was poisoned, and the already religiously obsessed conservative evangelicals and Pentecostals had celebrated it with religious fervor. Rick Perry’s clip (because few people would follow up on what the interview actually was), would affirm the religiously republicans’ beliefs that Trump was some sort of religious figure. Normally anyone would say “listen to the whole interview or find the transcri...
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This is the end...

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New Marilyn Manson single drops by surprise: Curiously, some of Manson's best work has been his covers of others' work, like Gary Numan's "Down in the Park", Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams", Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus". Though, his attempt at covering Patti Smith's "Rock n Roll N*****" was absolutely a song any artist trying to be edgy should have stayed away from, I guess if anyone was going to throw themselves on that particular sword, it was going to be him. Having been thinking about this, Patti Smiths responses to being asked about the song, and wondering if I'd been  too critical in my assessment of his choice to cover it, I thought it deserved a brief context: it was a talking point by Smith around an essay being discussed at the time entitled "The White Negro" by Norman Mailer, where the derogatory term was talked about by way of applying it to a demographic of outsiders. She used the term to identify...
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Part 8a: Never have I ever... but that one time? I really wish I hadn't.

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NB: LGBT+ because it's exhausting, not because of disrespect. You know what I mean, I know what I mean, I'm not leaving anybody out. Also, while this focuses on a particularly negative experience of LGBT+ media, I will follow it up on some amazing experiences of LGBT+ media, so keep your pitchforks on the wall for the time being, k? "You haven't seen RuPaul's Drag Race?!" Sometimes I feel like questions and expectations like this are going to form a recurring theme through my blog, because it's inevitably a recurring theme through my life (and later, my transition). It's like I'm expected to, as "part" of the community, supposed to be pro-everything that in some way depicts the community. Whether I agree with it or not. My support is supposed to be there 100% and I'm expected to engage with queer media with utmost devotion because that's "the cause". If I were to tell you that I kind of approach queer media in a si...
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"That" Post... (or "there's two sides to every story")

Edit: There's no identifying information within the post to identify you or point anyone in your direction. You have right of reply, but going by what you've put forth in text messages since, issuing something that would look even remotely transphobic wouldn't be the best thing for someone in your position to do. Don't bully me into shutting up. --- "From the mouth of you,  You tell your truth.  From the mouth of me,  Softly...  Hear me." - Dark Dark Dark - Hear me. One of the things that's been an interesting part of the last few weeks is this concept of juggling priorities. For anyone who has been even casually following on Facebook, I've had some issues with suddenly stopping one antidepressant at above maximum dose to switch to another, on top of severe exhaustion from lack of sleep, trying to keep on top of my mental health, juggling a relationship, as well as everything that goes along with transitioning. I say interesting, it impli...
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Part 7 - So, who is this Sarah-Alice, and how is she different?

... she's not. So, it’s been a little while since I have been spending time in the world as myself, and one of the questions or assumptions I get the most is around how this changes me as a person, or the things that I do or am into. It’s funny because it assumes that I am now, all of a sudden, a completely different person and that the person I used to be is discarded. I’m suddenly into dress shopping (WHY CAN'T I FIND PLAIN BLACK SKIRTS ANYWHERE?!), reality TV, and all the stereotypically girly things that go with being female. I did recently discover getting sheetfaced and the ritual of staying up, getting drunk, doing your nails and inflicting Heathers on your best friend during a sleepover (honestly, I don't think she was prepared for that  movie). Not going to lie, it’s perfectly valid. But here is a list of some of the things that interest me or I use to describe myself: Theology nerd David Lynch fan A little bit goth Artist Feminist LGBT...
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Part 6 - Insert profound title here

Note: Part 5 got overwritten... by this post. Completely by accident. I'll rewrite it at some point, but oof. I was not thinking... Anyway. Let's jump back to part 1 for a moment. Not the whole post, just the part where I said it took thirty-eight years to feel comfortable in my own skin. I remember that day like it was yesterday... even though it was like three weeks ago now: M and I had traveled up to north of the bridge to retrieve Bx from under her desk; we got some KFC and sat on the beach and argued the ethics of feeding magpies chicken and whether it constituted some kind of cannibalism; and we listened to stories from Bx' grandfather and some pretty dreadful jokes. Then we packed a picnic dinner of assorted cheeses, leftover KFC, and some other swanky things and made our way down to a park by the river. Now, there are things that really kill me when travelling to new places, and it's the stupid things I take notice of that next to nobody else would pay a s...
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Part 4b - "To Wish Impossible Things"

After everything that had happened up until this point, it's safe to say I spiraled. Did I do it spectacularly? Was it a mess? Well... it was sex, alcohol, a lot of weed, a trip across to Auckland, experiencing sexual assault for the second time in my life, moving to Brisbane, getting engaged... and landing in the middle of a double murder investigation (which deserves a series of posts on its own). I managed to hit the ground in a way that only I could, but I also met a couple of genuinely amazing people through the absolute shit show I had found myself in. I think it was during all of the above that I was living as close to being Sarah than any other time in my life. The girl I was engaged to was someone I broached the topic of not feeling comfortable in my own skin with, and her response to it was to play with changing my name. Did I tell her that changing my name to something else that was masculine wasn't going to help the issue? No... but it did give me a bit of space...
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