the rapid-filled river & cool rocks

it's been a while, friends

hey there,

it’s been a while since i’ve written. a long while. about a year, even. i’ve managed to be up to both a lot and nothing at all, just sort of drifting along and grabbing at cool rocks and shit along the way.

some of those cool rocks have been starting to journal more, meeting n getting closer to some awesome people (hello to samson & abbey & doc my beloveds), and fantastic opportunities i’ve gained— one of which is a job in boston over the summer where i’ll get to work with 7-12 year olds and help them tell the stories they want to tell about boston’s national parks & ecology & history & people through film or collage or writing or whatever they’d like. and also some actual cool rocks.

another cool rock was this fantastic tarot deck i got for my birthday based on mexica gods, that’s connected me more to my history and allowed me to practice tarot in a way that feels particularly true to myself!

ANOTHER cool rock is that i’ve gotten to see a couple amazing concerts recently (ty segall and y la bamba!) and i’m really hoping i can start seeing more live music for cheap at smallish venues. i also got a cassette player and some tapes that i’m really excited about :^)

despite all the cool rocks, life has been quite the tiring row of river rapids recently, and navigating a balance between engaging in difficult and emotional issues, taking care of myself, and doing the things i have to do like school and chores, has been difficult. but i’m getting somewhere— and i’m finally done with my creative writing classes for this school year which means i get out at 2 instead of 5, now! yay! that means more time i have to balance between those three things and more!

i read a lot for about a month— most notably enjoying stone butch blues, my year of meats, annihilation, tropic of orange, and the sympathizer— and then stopped reading, but i’m hoping i’ll get back into reading again now that i have more time. one book i read for class— between the world and me by ta-nehisi coates— drew me into the world of podcasting with a friend, which is a new and welcome cool rock & creative outlet!

(it’s called kuan-kyeh tehuan, by the way! and you can listen to it on spotify. i’ve linked the podcast in this sentence.)

but despite all that, i’m writing this letter for a specific reason— the reason being that i recently latched onto the cool rock that is making zines! i’ve been wanting to make one for years, but always felt far too intimidated. it was a nice change to just go for it and make something, and in only two days, too!

here it is !

you’re free to turn your screen over and over to read this, or you can print it out (you’ll probably have to convert the png into a pdf) and fold it into a zine— and only use one sheet of paper! linked in these words is a little visual & word-based tutorial on how to do it

i’m pretty happy with how it came out, and excited to make another— and hopefully i’ll be sending more letters here, too.

here’s a little list of some horror movies i’ve watched and adored as a cool rock from me to you! if you like horror, that is.

• the ring

• rec (please please please watch it in spanish)

• his house

• under the shadow

• let the right one in

• raw

• the witch (this one i honestly didn’t enjoy much because of my personal aesthetic tastes, how slow it was, and how little i give a shit about europeans, but it was objectively pretty damn good— especially with its cinematography)

• the boy

• the thing

if you don’t, then it might not be such a cool rock to you, but here’s a few non-horror movies i like, a movie i am very excited to see, and a cool lyric i caught when i watched the hbo adaptation of between the world and me:

• the secret of kells

• raising arizona

• birdboy: the forgotten child

• el vampiro y el sexo

  • OR the version with a little less nudity, santo vs. las mujeres vampiros

  • both are just incredibly stupid and funny. best watched with a best friend.

• white men can’t jump (with jack harlow as the white man)

• “darkness can’t dress the socially undressed / and the hues you were taught to loathe”

i hope you all are treating yourself kindly and regularly admiring the cool rocks in your life.

best of omens,

xalli