//TIER Report 003
Greetings,
It's been too long since we have written one of these! I hope you are feeling well as you are reading.
First of all, let's take care of business.
We are still working on the rest of the Otome issue… despite appearances. Phoenix's contribution should be up in the next week or so, followed by Grace's and then Leanne's. Everything will be wrapped up by the end of month, even if there are some more hiccups along the way.
We are also making headway on our next issue. We have one essay currently ready to go and are commissioning at least two more. Looking forward to annoucing the theme and contributors soon. That issue will be wrapped up by the end of October.
We are also percolating on some changes coming to TIER. Consistent output has been the most relentless challenge of the outlet, thanks to our lives, the changing digital landscape, and whatever else you might like to blame it on. We're looking into adding different sorts of material to the site and maybe expanding our team a little to help with that. More concrete info to come!
Otherwise, here are some things we've been up to and enjoying since we last checked in.
Grace:
My reading and playing has felt especially ramshakle and unfocused lately… but to compensate I've been doing a lot of more… practical? hobbies.
For one, I installed Linux both on my ten year old Macbook Pro AND my gaming PC, in a process I would describe as easier than feared and harder than I would have hoped. My laptop has been geniunely revitalized though… It runs quieter and smoother than before and though I did back everything up, I've found that there's little that I've missed from the 10 years of cruft I had accumulated.
I am, of course, very skeptical of consumptive logics of "liberation." But also I find the overly disposable culture of American life soul-deadening to the extreme. Thinking of how many times I have ordered an iced coffee for here, only to be presented with a plastic cup. This Macbook was built to last, and though I've replaced a couple parts over the years, I have felt little to no need to upgrade. It has been incredibly refreshing to find that I don't need some new thing pulled from the earth. All I need is what I already have. It does take some know-how and some patience. But those are things very much worth cultivating.
I've also been thinking about coffee… and making coffee. Having something little to do for myself every morning has been a boon. And though I suppose I could have poured that into breakfast or yoga, my brain has latched on to coffee.
Phoenix:
I've discovered as of late that I enjoy comparative as well as parallel reading a lot. Especially if I feel like one text I'm reading or listening to is a temporal predecessor to another one. For instance, I'm reading The Land Where Lemons Grow by Helena Attlee which focuses on citrus fruit and how it became prominent as a cultural expression in Italy alongside Katie Goh's recent long essay Foreign Fruit about the hybridity of personal and societal histories using the orange as a guiding metaphor. These books aren't directly connected, publishing-wise, but both use citrus fruit as a way to interrogate sense of self and inherited struggles or privileges. As I move into the end half of the year I'm also going to be reading more visual mediums like comic issues and graphic novels too.
Planning to jump back into drawing as a hobby after many years. I've doodled here and there, but most of my work has been with words lately.
Big Walk was a big blessing for me as it was for others who needed some silliness and more ways to hang out with their long-distance friends in a stress-free and immersive digital space. House House's new game was also a good reminder for me to make time for hobbies in real life that I'd let fall to the wayside, like plant identification and allowing myself to roam outside without guilt. Ever since the pandemic quarantine has let up in my area, I still live with a near-constant sense of needing to maximize my productive hours. Unlearning toxic productivity remains one of my biggest hurdles and Big Walk's design philosophy has helped me make headway in this regard.
