It really is just a mix of things this week with no clear common thread. And you know what, sometimes that’s exactly what you need.
Watch: Kids on the Slope (2012)
Kids on the Slope, an anime from the creators of Cowboy Bebop, about jazz and friendship.
Kids on the Slope is a Japanese animated series about a classically trained pianist who discovers jazz and learns to let go of some of his rigidity around music. It’s set in 1966 and explores themes about Catholicism in Japan, plus queer themes and male friendship.
It also features a pretty wonderful soundtrack composed by Yoko Kanno from Cowboy Bebop. The series also shares the same director, Shinichi Watanabe. I’ve seen it twice since it came out, and I get something new out of it every time.
Listen: Lonely Magic by Rebecca Sugar (2025)
The cover of Lonely Magic, illustrated by Rebecca Sugar.
Lonely Magic is a refreshing and relatively short seven-track album from Rebecca Sugar, who previously wrote music for Adventure Time and created Steven Universe. As both a songwriter and an illustrator, the album combines the two through original art and character designs. These sorts of touches further bring you into Sugar’s colorful – but still emotional – world.
The first song off the album, “Ice Water,” feels like the opening theme song for a character I’m rooting for. Don’t just listen to it, check out the hand drawn music video.
“Don’t care what happens to me
I just want art and beauty and truth
The dawn is breaking, and I don’t care
It turns the silver buildings blue”
“Algospeak Will Be the Unaliving of Me” by s.e. smith
The FlyTrap’s logo.
When I first got this article in my inbox, I was a little taken back because of the title. (Note: If you didn’t already know that I lost someone very important to suicide in 2024, well, now you do.) For this reason, it’s still hard for me to read these words without feeling something shitty.
But, I trust s.e. smith and chose to buckle up.
“Algospeak” is an online trend where people soften their speech to avoid censorship by algorithms on social media platforms, smith writes. Beyond the simple act of opting for euphemisms, smith argues that it’s further impeding our ability to communicate. Worse, it might even be another sign that we’re submitting in advance to fascism.
Over the last few decades, it feels like we’ve lost so much of our ability to communicate and use language with intention. smith’s words validated a lot of feelings that I’ve had while also challenging me or some of my discomforts. I’m not mad at it, but I sure am still thinking about it.
“We believe we will overcome our oppression in the end. Sometimes we do, but it often comes at the expense of those same radicals, smoothing out the roles of marginalized people in their own liberation fights and replacing them with mealymouthed promises of equality and advancement within the rigid and depressing structures of the world. Martin Luther King Jr. was a radical who fought for economic and social justice and overall systemic change; cherrypicked pull quotes turn his commitments to nonviolence into passivity and yearning.”
If you’re missing an independent and feminist news source in your life, check out The FlyTrap. I was a massive supporter of Bitch Media (founded in Portland!) and am grateful that it’s returned in somewhat of a new form. The FlyTrap not only includes many of the same contributors – including smith – but also re-prints old issues from Bitch Magazine.