Spring, Books, and People

One of the things I love about where I live is that I can walk to a bookstore. A bookstore that carries poetry, YA, romance, non-fiction, and a really fun selection of cards too. 

Independent Bookstore Day was on Saturday. If I involve more forms of transportation I can - and have - get to five different independent bookstores. (Some of you are gonna tell me there are more than that in the DC area, and I am going to tell you that I focus on the ones that carry genre fiction, and also, eventually I get tired.)

One of the things I love about spring, despite all the pollen, is that people are out and about. They are ready to linger, not just goal oriented. This particular weekend in DC there was also a big event downtown, and a reader con just across the river. In other words, there were crowds, such that I was going to limit my travels to the neighborhoods near me. But of course, there was a protest, a string of local concerts, on top of all the normal street vending and other outdoor gatherings. 

There is something so delightful about seeing people who are out and about for fun. About having the leisure to stop and grab snacks. I remember someone saying that was the thing they missed most in the early days of the pandemic, to get able to wander. 

Now, masked, and vaccinated, the ability to wander a bit, to linger a bit, to have a day where you get to take off your sweater as you wander around was just a delight.

Plus, I came home with more books. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Harry Belafonte passed this week, and his legacy is worth pondering.  May his loved ones find some comfort in the indelible mark he left.  

2.  They are testing out a way to revive coral reefs in Hawai'i.

3,  I caught up to this story about Leslye Penelope, whose Monsters We Defy I loved. 

Library Journeys and Sidequests

So, the joy of living in this city with surrounding suburbs is that many of the surrounding suburbs allow city dwellers like myself to get library cards there too.  This has been true for some time.  Growing up we went to both the Tenleytown library, and the Little Falls library on the regular.  Later they rebuilt the Bethesda library and we often went there.  (So a few years ago when they remodeled the Bethesda library and gave it a new name, I had one of those didn't they just - oh, yes, that over a decade ago.  Okay.)

I acquired a card I had been meaning to add to my repertoire during the pandemic when said library system allowed for online applications due to COVID.  Woot! Pandemic policies meant that I also hadn't had to present myself in person to renew anything in a while, and then this year, the lovely DC library asked me to present myself.  (I found it a little amusing, since I do a lot of virtual borrowing, but had been in there regularly to pick up free COVID tests, but they didn't swipe my card for that.  So I look like I'm never there.)

Anyway.  Said county offered me the option to renew online, which I gratefully accepted.  And then about a week later I tried to borrow one more thing and I could not.  I chalked it up to timing, but eventually determined that I had been sent a subsequent communication that actually, I could not really renew online.  Or like I could, but the online renewal would not give me access to the books, which let's face it is the thing I was after.  

So, fine.  I hopped on metro and decided to go visit one of the libraries in the system.  So it's worth noting that I made the rookie error of getting off a stop too soon.  But I decided to walk it.  This mostly worked.  It was the suburbs, so of course the sidewalk just up and disappeared on me at one point and while I was wandering and navigating, I mostly knew where I was, though I did at one point have to turn around.  (In my defense, I knew pretty quickly I was off track.)  

It's worth noting I had a functional phone with access to cell service the entire time, so while there was a danger I was going to walk much more than I had planned, the idea that I would be lost was not really on the table.  Also, this whole area was near where I had a friend who lived for several years and not too far from where I had worked, so I knew not only the main roads, but many of the side roads.  But more as a driver than a pedestrian.  

And of course, this particular area has changed a bit over the last decade.  So there were moments where I would be like, oh I remember driving by that church parking lot, or oh, I spent hours once in that drug store, and also oh, that's where I had to go pick up that thing.  Also, it was a really nice day.  I found the library.  Got my card and was out of there so quickly and efficiently I thought about hanging out in the AC a bit longer.  

(Oh it's also probably worth mentioning I had a great audiobook.)  And I stopped and grabbed some beverages at a shiny new grocery store (which was across the street from another shiny new grocery store.)  There were benches outside the store, and I got to sip my drink and watch some bumblebees get their pollenation on.  And then I headed back home.  

And promptly updated my card info so I could grab that library hold.   

Three Interesting Things

So, content warning for reference to rape.  

1. I became aware that "Beef" - which I shared an article about last week, involved David Chloe, who either confessed to rape on a podcast, or made a joke about raping someone, Reappropriate has a description of the situation here.  As you can see from the post date, this happened a while ago, so far, the folks involved with the show have not commented.  

2. And there was a situation where an author was asked to license her book for an AANHPI collection, if she removed the reference to racism.  The mentors of the collection have asked for the whole process to be revisited.   

3. The Merrie Monarch competition was held recently, and there are tons of performances available to watch.  Here are some.  

Let's Talk Colorism

Folks, I swear I had a cute post planned for today. And then. Well. 

So as you may know, Disney's been doing live action versions of things. As such, they have been rolling out announcements of casting for the live action "Lilo & Stitch". 

An open call was apparently held for Lilo, and a relatively unknown actress was cast. And then they announced the casting for Nani, Lilo's sister/guardian. 

Now first, obviously comparing real people to cartoons is fraught, but Lilo and Nani are pretty visibly brown in the cartoon version. The actresses cast are both of Hawaiian descent (yay!) and both grew up in Hawai'i (yay!). 

It's worth noting that in the cartoon, one of the voice actors for these two characters was raised in Hawai'i and neither were of Hawaiian descent so, if we are grading on a curve, we could call this improvement. 

It is also noticeable that the two actresses hired are pretty pale compared to their cartoon counterparts. This doesn't make them less Hawaiian. It does however speak to a different problem often found in media, where folks who are more visibly brown are often overlooked even for roles where being brown is part of the experience. 

And look, to be clear, I am a pale complected person of Hawaiian, Chinese, and European descent myself. I am not saying that lighter Hawaiians can't or should not play Hawaiian characters. They should! But to say that Hollywood in general and Disney specifically have often leaned towards a lighter choice is not really a bold or hot take. There's lots of data. 

These may really be the best two actresses for these roles. But it is fair for people to comment on and notice that the casting choices would have fit in equally well in a live action "Snow White".