Welcome to my mother’s womb. Now, I don’t think it’s my responsibility to educate you on reproduction so I will just point you toward the subject of this journey into the uterine gauntlet.
Eat, Stray, Love
You’re probably familiar with “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” by Cheryl Strayed or Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love”? They are two memoirs about two blonde-haired, blue-eyed women off to forget their troubled marriages and personal woes by trekking alone. On a structural level the resemblance is uncanny.
Into Thin Air
Good Company
On May 17, 2015 a shoot-out in Waco, Texas between rival biker gangs left nine dead, 18 injured and 165 arrested. Inside the bathroom of a Twin Peaks (a “Breastaurant” a la Hooters specializing in “eats, drinks and scenic views”) a scuffle turned to a brawl. The struggle moved from the bathroom onto the floor of the restaurant and, as it escalated, to the parking lot. Eventually, under the noontime sun, around 100 bikers were punching, kicking, clubbing, stabbing and shooting one another.
A Night in a Twin Bed
"Ulysses" Today
Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot. Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust: coloured signs. Limits of the diaphane. But he adds: in bodies. Then he was aware of them bodies before of them coloured. How? By knocking his sconce against them, sure. Go easy. Bald he was and a millionaire, maestro di color che sanno. Limit of the diaphane in. Why in? Diaphane, adiaphane. If you can put your five fingers through it it is a gate, if not a door. Shut your eyes and see.
Forest Fables
I squeezed Nikki’s hand in mine as the green gondola lurched forward into the foliage. Even though I had only lived in Costa Rica for a few years, between the ages of one and four, there was something calming about this rainforest, where my parents had lived for years, planning and building an aerial tram.
Sex, Lies, and Ampersands
The Evolution of Angst
On an otherwise insignificant afternoon, I was cleaning my room when a Blink-182 song came on shuffle through my computer speakers. For a moment that was gone before I could grasp it, I felt an indefinable sadness. I had often experienced that strange, visceral nostalgia that occurs when listening to music symbolic of past phases in one’s life, even if my old tastes are regrettable.
Copernicus on a Budget
Human curiosity has recently been defunded. In 2011, the Obama administration cut NASA’s budget by 20 percent. In spite of this, NASA has has achieved many accomplishments in the last year. They discovered running water on Mars this year, and, just last week, they discovered that at one point Mars had an atmosphere capable of supporting life. However, some of the more peculiar projects have been abandoned in the face of budget cuts. One of these oddities was the satellite LISA, which would have been sent to orbit the Sun and look for evidence of other universes.
God's Children
On October 26th the Campus Ministry USA came to Colorado College. More specifically, they came to the sidewalk outside Worner. If you don’t remember this visit, maybe a description of the cast will jog your memory: There was Brother Jed, who wore an unforgettable combination of cowboy hat, wooden staff depicting Christ’s crucifixion and a spiffy tan suit. Jed’s younger and louder fellow preacher (Jed told me he’s “sort of an intern”) is named Joshua. He donned a tux and usually carried a sign that said “JESUS SAVES.” And, of course, Cindy made an appearance too. She’s also known as “The Bloody Tampon Lady”—a sensible epithet considering the bloody tampons she waves around on a stick while preaching.
"Because We're Insane"
When Sam Feuerborn graduated from Fort Lewis College in 2012, he did not have a job lined up, a place to live or a five-year plan. Nor did he seek one. Instead, he broke up with his longtime girlfriend, moved into a Dodge van and drove through the West in pursuit of his passion: climbing. Thus began a lifestyle that, Feuerborn claims, has reaffirmed his life philosophy that “everything works out as it should.”
Along Came Poly
Sympathetic joy appears in all forms of relationships: marriage, committed but non-marital relationships, friendships and even interactions between strangers. The most common form of sympathetic joy is experienced in monogamous marriage, in which shared experiences, sensual exchange and lovemaking provide the platform for sympathetic joy, according to psychologist Jorge N. Ferrer.
Silenced
A few weeks into my homestay in Dakar, Senegal, I was sitting in the living room with my 15-year-old cousin. He was showing me rap music in Wolof, the national language of Senegal. One of the album covers featured a picture of Caitlyn Jenner with a big red X through her. Surprised, I asked him why she was on the cover. He replied that he didn’t know, he thought it was some French lady and I didn’t bother to correct him. “I like this song!” I said. “I wish I spoke Wolof so I could understand the lyrics.” “Oh, he’s saying that homosexuals are horrible and that he wants nothing to do with them,” he replied nonchalantly. My eight-year-old cousin was sitting next to me, bouncing up and down enjoying the violently homophobic rap song. I haven’t listened to Wolof rap since.
Sleight of Hand
The View from Naomi's House
On the morning of October 31, Noah Harpham, a tenant in an upstairs apartment of the townhouse, had been pacing around the street. As 35-year-old Iraq vet Andrew Alan Myers, who Naomi refers to as “the kid,” pedaled his bike out of the alley and onto N. Prospect Street, Harpham lifted his head, raised his rifle and fired three rounds into the unsuspecting cyclist.
Cut from the Herd
A light breeze sent yellowed leaves fluttering through the air on the morning of Nov. 20 as Colorado College students slowly trickled onto campus, carrying backpacks and holding steaming mugs of coffee. It was the last day before Thanksgiving break and most were anxious to get the day’s work done and head home for turkey dinners and some well-deserved downtime.
Unlike their peers, juniors Thad Pryor and Lou Henriques walked the other direction, away from the Worner Student Center. Neither carried backpacks, just single sheets of paper. Near the bottom, each read in bold, “In response to these findings of responsibility the following sanction is issued:” For Pryor, a two-year suspension, for Henriques, expulsion. Both were charged with “abusive behavior” and “disrupting campus activities.”
Words, Words, Words
Super Rich Kids
Cipher Rewound
Cipher hopped on the backwards trajectory, dug through the archives, and selected some gems we hope contribute to the current conversation. Past perspectives are alive and well, and through the worn newsprint we watched history repeat itself. We are still failing to understand how difference isn’t a threat. We are still convinced that guns are some kind of divine right. God forbid we still have ignorance sufficient to invite a white male pseudo-intellectual to speak on behalf of Black History month.