Some Useful Iceland-themed YouTube channels

Iceland Iceland

Whether one is abstractly planning a trip to Iceland or just massaging the idea for the IcelandAir Bad Photographer contest, here are some YouTube channel suggestions, sometimes based on one example from the channel.

RantWoman is amused by a few points:

--All the videos with the word "Mistakes" in the title.

--Advice from everyone not to buy expensive bottled water and shopping at the regular grocery chains, not the big tourist-oriented store in Reykjavik. Also comments about using the city bus from the airport and saving money over lagoon prices by going to the many public pools.

--Very adamant safety culture: no speeding. No drunk driving. No stopping except in designated lookout points to take photos. Park only where authorized. No walkiing on hot lava. Avoid sneaker waves. Do not get too near all kinds of edges of things. TAKE WEATHER WARNINGS SERIOUSLY.  Only 4x4 vehicles are allowed on the F roads, roads not on the ring road.

--Equally consistent culture about cleanliness: NO pooping out of doors. Shower completely nude before entering the various pools. Take shoes off when asked

--Contradictory advice about the Blue Lagoon, staying in Reykjavik...

Rick Steves Iceland

Learn Icelandic in 10 minutes 🇮🇸 Essential Phrases for Tourists Visiting Iceland

or at least an introduction before checking out the next video

Stop Using Google Maps in Iceland. Use This Instead

Info about weather and alerts specific to Iceland.

Note: other videos say use Google Maps to check location of Air BnB

How to Explore Iceland Like a Local (Avoid These 5 Mistakes!)

Skip the Blue lagoon because there are other cool hot springs near by

Visiting Iceland Summer 2026: Travel Guide & Best Local Tips! 🇮🇸

Base in Reykjavik and do day trips

What NOT to Do When Traveling To Iceland | 15 Mistakes To Avoid!

Don't base in Reykjavik.

Waterproof gear

5 Proven Ways to Avoid Crowds in Iceland (Like a Local)

travel in winter

Hidden Gems of Iceland: Avoid the Crowds & See the REAL Iceland!

Iceland Travel Tips: 10 Things You Need to Know (From a Local) 🇮🇸 

5 Mistakes You Make When You Arrive in Iceland    

Car rental, the "Flybus, and PUBLIC TRANSIT. RantWoman loves public transit and does not care that it will take longer. Maybe the Flybus for the first day, but public transit at some point.

The Blue lagoon is on the way from Keplavik airport to downtown Reykjavik but ...

20 Things Tourists in Iceland Learn Too Late

Weather can be even more fearsome than RantWoman previously imagined.

20 Things Tourists in Iceland Learn Too Late

VERY limited public transportation outside Reykjavik. No trains. Only intercity buses. RantWoman is a bus / slow travel nerd and might really enjoy some travel by bus

3 Iceland Itinerary Mistakes That Will Cost You Days

Don't spend too much of your trip at Reykjavik at the beginning.

Don't rush the South Coast islands

The Westman(?) Islands and The PUFFINS.

What will make Ideland unique to Me?

Iceland Itinerary Mistakes 90% of People Don’t Know About

10 Things You Should Never Do in Iceland (Locals Hate It!)

15 Ways to Insult Icelanders (A Guide for Travelers)

But, but, do blind people really do photography? Sure. Now take me to the volcanoes

Which details
are not in the Alt text and / or
should just be cropped

 

Still a few days left to enter the IcelandAir "Really bad photographer" contest, and RantWoman is trying to demonstrate unique skills.

RantWoman again encourages everyone who might be intrigued or even just slightly interested to read the contest guidelines.

Really bad photographer | Icelandair US

But, but RantWoman keeps talking about vision loss and accessibility mixed in with bad photography commentary.

Yep. Plenty of visually impaired and blind people are very interested in photography, both as a craft and as something essential for documenting  realities of daily life that Need To Be Dealt with. Lots of people in the blindness community get very good at describing our wildly varying visual experiences. Readers who need some RantWoman perspective, please consider checking out the Death By Powerpoint topics.

But, But this adventure sounds like it might involve a lot of outdoor activity and Ambassador Thwack the Badly Behaved White Cane and Anger management consultant has a thing or two to say.

Thwack may have a thing or two to say but RantWoman is in charge. Would RantWoman pursue some sighted guide options? Will RantWoman rely on AI or call-in services? RantWoman will be interested to know what is available in Iceland. Plus, RantWoman wonders how much choice a person will have about where to visit....

RantWoman, do you actually know anyone in Iceland?

RantWoman does not know anyone in Iceland but does know a very wise accessibility hero originally from Iceland. RantWoman met this person a long time ago at the sort of mentoring event where people with different life timeliness and blindness experiences get together to network, share perspectives.

These days, RantWoman encounters this person from Iceland on the internet. He turns up in online demos of people using screen readers, text to speech tools that enable blind users to navigate around the Internet, or at least to do so better than without screen readers. One reality of screen reader use is the playback speed of the speech. RantWoman tends to fall asleep when listening too long to normal speed screen reader speech and runs her own screen reader quiite a bit faster. However, many blind people working in tech or finance can be found on the internet demonstrating screen reader speeds a lot faster than RantWoman.

Please note: a screen reader is not the only thing necessary for online accessibility: websites, apps, portals all need to be developed with some standard features to ensure that screen reader users can find and operate the same functions as other users, some of whom might have other accessibility concerns. The people and organizations who do this right are truly accessibility heroes.

The real reason RantWoman considers this acquaintance a hero: RantWoman's most recent Google search turned up a LinkedIn profile showing a job at a large financial services organization and lots of  connections to other names widely recognized in the online accessibility world. These are the people who not only persist in their work in their own organizations but also insure that organizational websites work for the likes of RantWoman who just wants things to work so she can do other things sighted people take for granted, in this case including managing whatever earnings there will be for 10 days of work after one figures out what all expenses to take on to make the trip a success.

And for fun some erupting volcano videos for different perspective than the pacific coast subduction zone

25 million M3 of Magma on Hold by Grindavik - Earthquakes in South Iceland

Iceland Magma Is Primed, But When Will It Erupt? Geologist Analysis

Iceland Is On Fire

Iceland: Fourth and strongest volcanic eruption in three months | DW News

Bad photographer cred?

 

Again with the tree photo
this time basically
at the crack of dawn

Still a few days left to enter the IcelandAir "Really bad photographer" contest, and RantWoman is trying to demonstrate quirky skills.

RantWoman again encourages everyone who might be intrigued or even just slightly interested to read the contest guidelines.

Really bad photographer | Icelandair US

The contest does not want anyone who has ever done professional photography. Do the following comments mean RantWoman might be over-qualified? 

Part of the instructions ask for a one-minute video about a bad photography experience that still turned out well. There is also the part about other skills. One of RantWoman's skills is going on at length. Hence the multiple blog posts.

First Prize in the 4H photography category at the county fair: there were no other entries. 

This happened decades ago at an age when RantWoman officially could see enough with glasses to maybe do decent photos. RantWoman remembers giving a speech about sewing. RantWoman may have entered some baked goods. But the blue ribbon went to an album of black and white photos. RantWoman has long since lost the actual album but remembers that it was in black and white. Some of the composition was less than perfect, though RantWoman also remembers at least one shot of one of the town mountains that she really liked

The fambly reunions:

RantMom, may she rest in peace, and her siblings had a tradition, after their kids were grown and everyone was on less tenuous financial footing. of getting together every couple years with at least a few at a time of the cousin generation. So there RantWoman was recently looking at photos ahead of RantMom's memorial. Quite a bit of the time, RantWoman found herself thinking "who are theese people and why can't anyone take decent photographs? RantWoman can tell that photographs of people standing with light behind them in front of various forms of scenery do not do justice either to the people or to the scenery. Does that observation already make her overqualified for the contest? The memories are FUN regardless.

The cat and the disposable camera. 

While RantWoman was trying to land on her feet after her midlife vision-related DNA kicked in, RantWoman signed up for a workshop series called "Getting involved in your Neighborhood." Part of the project involved handing RantWoman a disposable camera with instructions to document one's surroundings. Very funny. RantWoman really could not even locate the camera viewfinder and took a few pictures just by framing the camera based on externam things she used to orient the camera. The Queen of Meow, RantWoman's cat overlord at the time liked to jump up onto the railing of the balcony across from RantWoman's apartment. To RantWoman's surprise, a couple of RantWoman's cat photos showed the Queen of Meow proudly strolling along the railing, oblivious to the 4-floor drop to the patio.

The incision at the bottom of RantWoman's neck.

Scroll forward a couple decades. Add a smartphone so theoretically RantWoman can better use her limited vision to frame the photos at least a little better. Oh, but wait: a new task. Recently RantWoman had a surgery related to a different strand of DNA lotto. The surgery involved a small incision at the base of RantWoman's neck, sealed up with surgical glue and steri strips. RantWoman lives alone and cannot really see into the mirror to monitor healing. RantWoman an also has a smart phone that attempts to tell her how to capture her face. RantWoman did not want to capture her face. RantWoman wanted to capture her incision as it healed. To do that RantWoman basically had to ignore the instructions offered. RantWoman probably would have been able to tell if she were developing a raging infection without photos. Luckily, RantWoman has a coupe people in her life willing to receive daily photos and comment on the evolving color palette. The doctor was impressed at the follow-up visit.

The daily tree motif

RantWoman's apartment looks out on a tree, actually more than one tree. RantWoman does daily tree photos more or less just for fun. RantWoman is not preoccupied about the quality, composition, contrast of the photos. RantWoman's task is to write alt text for the photos. Alt text is description used by screen reader users to describe content of photos. Nowadays, a lot of platforms have AI which automatically does a mediocre job. RantWoman's efforts are also possibly inadequate. Sometimes the descriptions include details like the building in the background or the plants growing on the window ledge or some observation about weather conditions. There is some dance of messing with AI, attempting to improve on AI, and meditation about how much description is just right for different situations. Does RantWoman just have weird ideas of fun?

Icelandair bad Photographer Contest

One of RantWoman's
daily tree(s) photos

There are only a few days left to enter the IcelandAir "Really bad photographer" contest.

RantWoman encourages everyone who might be intrigued or even just slightly interested to read the contest guidelines.

Really bad photographer | Icelandair US

The only small accessibility blip: Must be able to interact and choose one of 5 emojis to respond to one of the questions.

Need some tips?

• Just be yourself, no script needed.

• Share any other skills you have other than being bad at photography.

• What excites you most about this opportunity?

• Got a memorable photography fail? Tell us about it!

   

So there RantWoman was one night watching volcanic eruption videos, one of RantWoman's fave diversions from other horrors of the current timeline. There was a volcano erupting in Grundjavik for several days. The eruption was the kind of slow meltdown that opened wide features and crept closer and closer to a village until part of the village had to be evacuated. 

That eruption has faded from RantWoman's media streams, but along with the eruption videos YouTube sent RantWoman several videos of things one might do while visiting Iceland. The videos featured a certain amount of rugged hiking, sometimes in rainstorms, as well as ordinary daylife activities such as going to the grocery store or swimming in a completely non-chlorinated geothermally heated pool. 

The rugged hiking sometimes in pouring rain sounds like maybe not the biggest sell, but a possible trip to Iceland in June when days are longest still intrigues RantWoman enough to do a couple posts turning over the idea of entering the contest.

And why the tree motif? STAY TUNED.

As long as its AI slopaganda anyway, WHY can't it be audio described too????

 Is it okay to admit that the barrage of AI "slopaganda" related to the war in Iran are a bit of a guilty pleasure?

Some of the videos are so dead-on that RantWoman wonders where the authors are getting their cultural insights?

In some cases, RantWoman would be just fine with the content if it were not for the certainty that the content is coming from forces that probably do not have US interests at heart and are happily playing into multiple fractures in US society.

Never mind all that.

RantWoman has one simple question: as long as all the videos are all AI-generated anyway, can't SOMEONE add an audio description track for all the viewers who can't follow the frenzy and probably couldn't stand some of the imagery even if we could follow it?

Pretty please.

Here are a few examples just to fire up everyone's literary instincts and try to tackle the visual complexity.

Nice music. What is on screen?

RantWoman realizes that the audio experience is a little less frenetic if RantWoman listens at noraml speed than if she were to listen at her usual 1.5x

A collection of the Lego Iran War Movie bangers

At least some of the clips here have subtitles but RantWoman is thinking of Bad Bunny's halftime show and all the different rounds of cultural examination she has seen about it. Do some of these clips need that much cultural interpretation too? OR based on subtitles RantWoman manages to read, is it safe to just file it as dueling war propaganda in the same bucket as the Secretary of #WarCrimes praying?

TRUMP Blocked IRAN.. But Tankers KEEP COMING 🚨 - LEGO EDITION

Who did this one. Several comedy lines.

Iran Answers Trump’s Blockade With a LEGO Diss Track

US Blocked the Strait… Then Everything Went Wrong

The U S Blocked the Strait… Until This Happened

HE SAID HE WAS CHOSEN… Then Lost Everything

Get into Good Trouble. Get into FUN trouble.

 Another RantWoman YouTube channel rec.

Content warning: clips of President #StableGenius talking. Enough said?

RantWoman does not have time to wade through / curate all the internet content out there. The Dangerous ones apparently do. They present new collections every few days.

Here is their take on the Monday presser by President #StableGenius. 

They also have a vid about best signs of #NoKingsDay, complete with decent description of what the signs say, as well as a weekly compilation of videos that have gone viral. RantWoman finds some of the compiled videos more digestible than others. Oh Well

The BS Ballroom is NOT AN OFFICIAL ACT

RantWoman has decided several times not to go to law school, but RantWoman has, in the comment rant below the video, RantWoman would like to propose a project for a fresh aspiring lawyer. 

Time to test the #SCOTUS concept of "official acts?" What is the emergency??? Has the local #StableGenius violated so many laws, architectural and construction standards, procedures, constrains on bribery... that SOMEONE can make a case that immunity does not apply? I assume there is no chance the current DoJ would do it, but who might have standing to sue???? If President #StableGenius did not like the White House, why did he run for re-election??? Surely he can afford to live somewhere else and build his own dang ballroom. Besides, what's one more civil judgment for the #StableGenius to ignore??? When he finally slouches off this mortal coil, probate for his estate could be SO much fun....

From Bad Bunny to Don Arcadio

Fast initial commentary about Bad Bunny at the #SuperBowl

Screen size matters. 

RantWoman still does not want a big television in her apartment.  RantWoman saw #BadBunny perform via a very large screen. RantWoman found the production visually confusing. It probably would have been equally confusing viewed from a seat further back from the screen where RantWoman viewed some of the game with slightly more comfortable results.

Honestly, no matter what efforts are made in collaboration between @NFL and @ACBNational about #accessibility, with #SuperBowlLX, as with many other events rich in detail, RantWoman relies A LOT on social media commentary. This does not distress RantWoman. In fact, the discussion helps RantWoman feel included and feeds RantWoman's capacity just to blurt out opinions.

Audio / song:

RantWoman was part of both an in-person conversation and two text chats. English monolinguals were, to put it politely, confused. In RantWoman's case loud chatter made it hard to parse the song.

RantWoman solicited commentary from people in her circle and from one single voice on X. Commenters included two native Spanish speakers and two others with different levels of Spanish fluency. The verdicts: 

Rap is not anyone's most familiar idiom. One commenter observed that probably a string quartet would be an unlikely sell at the Super Bowl

Something was muddy

Many people have trouble understanding song lyrics, especially the first time one hears them.

RantWoman caught "Nunca! Nunca! Nunca! (Never, never, never) as well as a long list of countries in the Americas where futbol means something completely different from the Super Bowl.

On social media, mainly Elon's sandbox:

numerous hashtags

MUCH praise.

Lots of haters in the replies in AZ Rep. Adelita Grijalva's feed on X. RantWoman DESPERATELY wishes people would make at least minimal effort to listen about actual culture before spouting opinions RantWoman definitely consider disagreeable or weird at best and generally tiresome and hateful.

Thank GOD, no posts YET from CO rep Lauren Boebert.

A word from an NPR addict

RantWoman has a hard time simulating interest in football, even when the #SeaHawks are winning. After a delicious bowl of turkey chili assembled in fine and ingenious form by some of RantWoman's neighbors, RantWoman fled the watch party and went back to her apartment and NPR.

Latino USA was playing...

La Brega: Campeones | Episode 1 | Who Represents Us? 

La Brega: Campeones | Episodio 1 | ¿Quién nos representa?

And even more delightful if also in the weeds away from the #BenitoBowl, a trip down memory lane to the first college Spanish literature course RantWoman jumped into. RantWoman arrived at college having placed out of the language requirement based on high school Spanish and acutely aware of inability actually to understand anything. So RantWoman jumped into a course with Don Arcadio.about literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. Readers are invited to enjoy both segments above and Prof. Quinones discussion below of Puerto Rican identity.

Arcadio Díaz Quiñones y "El Arte de Bregar" - 22 años después

Muppets FOREVER and premiering TONIGHT on ABC and Disney Plus

RantWoman seldom flaks this blatantly for an entertainment venture, but the world needs MUPPETS right now.

Kermit the Frog on Return of The Muppet Show, Working with Seth Rogen & ...

NOT ONE MORE: Song for Minneapolis

Not One More - A Song for Alex Pretti | The Midnight Republic

Melania. Melania. The world plans to miss your movie.

Update from the YouTube comment repeated below:

A theater in Boston has been running ads promising free tickets and $50 to anyone willing to sit through the new Melania movie. RantWoman is forced to contemplate how much she would have to be paid. RantWoman thinks the privilege of RantWoman's eyeballs and attention on this movie should be worth at least $50,000, the same as the bonus being offered to people willing to sign up for ICE thuggery. RantWoman promises to be a LOT less violent and to TRY to find something redeeming about the movie and / or the current first lady. RantWoman admits it may be a tough sell, but RantWoman is ready for the challenge.

Trump Forced To Cancel This As Melania Humiliates Him Publicly

The US deserves a first lady who either is interesting enough for someone to want to make a documentary about without paying a bribe or modest enough not to care about documentaries.

Needless to say, I am NOT going to spend money on this movie but if someone wanted to bribe me with good popcorn and some form of light alcohol, just out of pity I would be happy to sit through the movie and try to find something redeeming to say about it or about Melania or about the ways the press attacks her. Probably looking for intellectual depth from a former underwear model is not realistic, but in a spirit of adventure I would be willing to try.

The whole thing reminds me of a cartoon I saw during the Reagan administration. Ronald and Nancy Reagan were standing next to Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev and the text had Pres. Reagan saying to Nancy "It's ok. I will get you a PhD in philosophy in the morning."

More Melania commentary

Melania FUMES After Kimmel Mocks DISASTER Movie Opening

Trump Meets #1 Fan Nicki Minaj, Has Repulsive Reaction to Ilhan Omar Attack & Still No Epstein Files

Melania's $40 Million Docu-Bribe Movie Premieres & Dems Make ICE Demands | The Daily Show

This resignation changes everything..

Springsteen's Scathing Protest | Italy: No ICE | Trump Threatens MAGA Donors | Skipping "Melania"

Trump Celebrates Melania’s Movie Premiere, Has New BFF Nicki Minaj & Government Shutdown Looms

MELANIA

Melania Trump’s Documentary BRIBE Is a Giant Flop

Melania Documentary FLOP Blows Up In Trump's Face

get to minute 13

"It feels like a caper."

"stylized"

How Melania’s ‘Doc’ Made Trump’s Chaos Even Worse | Inside Trump's Head

"the country's most famous immigrant" credited with ending the family separation during the first round of ... and now the news displacing the movie.

blame, backstabbing; Steohen Miller and Kristi Noem

Trump PANICS After Melania Movie BACKFIRES

🚨Trump RAGES As The WORLD LAUGHS At MELANIA'S MOVIE FLOP

Melania Trump's Documentary Premieres Worldwide

Melania Reacts After Her Movie Flop, Tensions Rise

Melania Trump Roasted After Documentary About Her Life BOMBS

Springsteen weighs in

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

Klingon culture, right on YouTube?

For the truest of the true dyed in the wool trekkies among us. RantWoman's official shiny object for the day though RantWoman is nowhere near enough of a Trekkie to consume with full insight.

batlh vIteqta’ | Klingon Doomgrass | A Star Trek Folk Metal Anthem 

Hoch maH! (We Are All!) | Hegh je'batlh | Klingon Foundry Metal

Qo'noS Hed | Klingon Jazz | Can Honor Swing? - YouTube

Hoch maH! (We Are All!) | Hegh je'batlh | Klingon Foundry Metal - YouTube

Epic Klingon War Song (Remastered/Extended)

Klingon Opera: The Divine Battle of Kahless

Klingon Music Theory is Weird

I Was Wrong About Klingon Music

Happy #OrangeAndBlack Day a little bit late.

 First RantWoman directs readers to  Newsline – Washington Council of the Blind, winner multiple years of The Hollis Leggett Braille Free Press Award.

Editor Heather Meares is a delight to work with!

Second, Heather is a big RantWoman fan, as demonstrated by both reprinting some RantWoman entries AND listing RantWoman in the Fall 2025 Resources.

Third and most unexpectedly RantWoman has been Recognized at the WA Council of the Blind Awards Banquet. RantWoman will have to check her certificate for the exact title of the award. True to RantWoman form, RantWoman has other things to say, but for now a short meditation on #Halloween, the 279th anniversary of Princeton University, and the fun and hope intended in some tactile graphic renderings.

First a word from Home | ViewPlus one of the vendors.

Next, awkward commentary about a #Halloween present, shown below.

For someone reading fingers only,
this is just a big blob

What could possibly be wrong with this picture???

Urk. It looks like fun even to many people with low vision, but someone reading fingers only will experience just a blob they struggle to identify.

When RantWoman has played around with TactileView tactile graphics software, she has concentrated on images with clear lines. The picture has some clear lines but the task would be rendering the clear lines and then doing whatever with the color print.

RantWoman does think that the tactile image might be more comprehensible if there were different tactile patterns for the different colors of the image. Definitely an idea that would be fun to experiment with, for example by assigning different colors to different tactile patterns.

Now, with thanks to the Princeton 279th anniversary homecoming page, some examples from the kids' sections.

Believable tiger cub line drawing
with foliage in the background.

A fierce tiger face
that might be too busy for
a clear tactile experience.

Just for fun:

A lecture RantWoman hopes will appear as a link or a podcast

Game Day Lecture: ‘Strange New Worlds: The Exploration of Planets Beyond the Solar System’ | Princeton Alumni

RantWoman especially liked some information about transportation, shuttles and even a reference to public transit!

And the tiger images come from a link with children's materials and a fun lesson plan about tigers: 

Orange & Black Day Activities for Kids | Princeton Alumni

So happy belated #OrangeAndBlackDay and 279th anniversary Princeton

Self-soothing with dead presidents

5 Dead Presidents ROAST Donald Trump - Club Dead

It's AI. You too can roast President #StableGenius

Call for Submissions: ACT UP Beyond New York City

#AIDS #GayHistory #LGBTQIA+

reprinted verbatim as a service to history

ACT UP BEYOND NEW YORK: Stories and Strategies from a Movement to End the
AIDS Crisis
**CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS**
Please forward widely!

*ACT UP Beyond New York:*
*Stories and Strategies from a Movement to End the AIDS Crisis*
*Edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore*

ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) started in New York in 1987 as
a direct action activist group “united in anger to end the AIDS crisis.”
Within a few years, there were over a hundred autonomous chapters in the US
and around the world, but beyond the story of the New York City chapter
this history has largely disappeared from the public record. *ACT UP Beyond
New York* seeks to change this—part historical corrective, part rallying
cry, and part activist handbook, this anthology will include essays,
conversations, and documentation from dozens of ACT UP chapters, from the
1980s to the present, in order to bring these crucial stories to public
attention.

*ACT UP Beyond New York* will consist entirely of writing by activists
about their experiences in ACT UP, on their own terms. Each ACT UP chapter
intervened in a specific cultural, political, and social environment, and I
am particularly interested in the specificities of each group. Each chapter
had its own methods of fighting for HIV/AIDS treatment and healthcare
access, resisting structural homophobia and discrimination against people
with AIDS, building community, and shifting consciousness.

What were the focuses of your group? The successes and failures? What
specific challenges did you face? What inspired you the most, and what let
you down?

I am interested in all the ways people came together (and failed to come
together) to fight for universal healthcare, racial justice, women with
HIV/AIDS, sex workers, gender transgression, disability justice, bisexual
inclusion, prisoners with HIV/AIDS, trans liberation, condom distribution,
needle exchange, housing, and a cure for HIV—not to mention all the
affinity groups and coalition actions to confront every issue of the day,
from anti-war activism to abortion access, police brutality to
gentrification.

I’m particularly interested in how ACT UP chapters made connections between
government inaction and structural homophobia, racism, classism, misogyny,
transphobia, and ableism. And, failed to make these connections.

What are your reflections on ACT UP Network meetings, experiments in
consensus process, intergenerational contact across the lines of identity
and experience, and strategies for organizing the most impactful protests?
What about organizing that centered HIV+ people and those with other immune
disorders (PISD caucus), the perils and possibilities of sex and activism,
and ACT UP chapters that continue today?

How did race, class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, religion, ethnicity,
indigeneity, and rural/urban experience affect organizing? What about
national origin, Global South/Global North perspective, HIV status, and
access to treatment and prevention, over time and in shifting contexts?

What were the dynamics within your ACT UP chapter? What forms of
collaboration, conflict, jealousy, trauma, and transformation emerged? What
surprising relationships became possible, and impossible? What was secret,
and what was public? What inspired you to organize, and how did you mourn
the loss of so many fellow activists, lovers, and friends? How do you
continue to mourn, celebrate, and intervene in the AIDS crisis today?

In our current dystopian moment, what can we learn from how ACT UP
organizers faced police repression, resurgent homophobia, right-wing
“family values” attacks, and brutal austerity politics? What are your tales
of camaraderie and desperation, bravery and commitment, creativity and
inspiration, success and failure?

People need to understand their own history in order to grasp what is
possible. I’m interested in your most intimate stories, in all their detail
and specificity—everything you worry the world refuses to recognize is what
I want to spotlight here.

*About the editor*: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
<https://mattildabernsteinsycamore.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a18db1d1c091dc84ba6adda22&id=1b1b0e03f3&e=b5d359604c>
is the award-winning author of seven books, most recently *Touching the Art*,
and the editor of six anthologies, most recently *Between Certain Death and
a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing Up with the AIDS Crisis*. She
has written widely about the AIDS crisis, including in her books *The
Freezer Door* and *Sketchtasy*, and her new novel, *Terry Dactyl
<https://mattildabernsteinsycamore.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a18db1d1c091dc84ba6adda22&id=da0b778afb&e=b5d359604c>*
*,* which will be out in November. Her time in ACT UP San Francisco changed
her life.

*About the publisher: *Haymarket Books is a radical, independent, nonprofit
book publisher based in Chicago whose mission is to publish books that
contribute to struggles for social and economic justice. Haymarket strives
to make its books a vibrant and organic part of social movements and the
education and development of a critical, engaged, and internationalist Left.

*Guidelines:* Please submit nonfiction personal essays of up to 4000 words,
as Word attachments (no PDFs, please), to nobodypasses@gmail.com. Short
essays are great, as are conversations in Q&A format, essays centered
around a particular action, and pieces that include visual elements
(especially flyers, posters, and other documentation). Feel free to contact
me with any queries. Contributors will be paid $200 for each essay
appearing in the anthology, and every contributor will receive a copy of
the book. The deadline for submissions is December 31, 2025, but the sooner
the better!

Follow your passions! Math as Art

Dr. June Huh - 2017 Regional Blavatnik Winner in Physical Sciences and E...

The Institute For Advanced Study counts as part of the Princeton Experience.

Enjoy this video

Jason Aldean comes to the Gorge, not exactly a large town even on big event weekends.

YouTube thinks RantWoman needs another video especially of African Americans telling people to CHILL OUT about Hason Aldean's "Try that in a small town."

Quote from the video below: "CMT took it down because it could incite violence (?)."

But of COURSE.

According to NPR, yes liberal nemesis to the President, Jason Aldean is performing at the Gorge in George WA this very weekend.

Watershed Festival 2025 Tickets | Gorge Amphitheatre

That explains YouTube sending RantWoman a bunch of reaction videos about his song 

Try That In A Small Town

Just to play along, RantWoman did a search and discovered a bunch of draft posts with still other Reaction videos. RantWoman is NOT going to post everything in drafts.

Instead RantWoman is going to link a previous well-read item.

Adventures of RantWoman: A few words from and about the earworm of the Week: Jason Aldean's "Try that in a Small Town"

Leave Epstein etc. to Jon Stewart, et al.

CONTENT WARNING: Epstein, vulgar language, references to child sex abuse, body parts, racism, pretty much the whole disgusting #PedoInChief gamut.

Jon Stewart Reacts to Colbert's Cancellation & Trump's "Bawdy" Epstein D...

The Gloves Are Off | "I Absolutely Love That Colbert Got Fired" | Trump & Epstein's Wonderful Secret

WSJ's Trump-Epstein Birthday Letter Bombshell Rocks MAGA; Trump's Doodles Resurface: A Closer Look

Voting, stuffing the ballot box, and lost email.

A recent email from RantMom's current retirement community reads something like:

 Dear Families

"Here is a link to vote (our community) best in category of Renton and then to visit every day and help stuff the ballot box...."

RantWoman has no basis for comparison with other facilities. RantWoman also is tired and not willing to go look for the email. The first time RantWoman clicked on the relevant link, she got lost and has not been back.  But RantWoman is happy to say a few words about things that have impressed her since RantMom moved in last year. 

Creative holiday meals. RantWoman and Little Sister dined with RantMom for easter brunch. Two items that completely charmed RantWoman: a green salad with a hint of fennel, fresh peas, and some other herbs and nicely spiced hot cross buns. The quiche and cheesecake were lovely too but RantWoman was most charmed by the salad and the rolls. RantWoman has previously written of creative use of flavorings for vegetables at Christmas.

Wonderful view of Lake Washington from the dining room. Not so much fun if one battles light sensitivity but the RantWomen have enjoyed meals there many times.

Landscaping as charming as the location that previously enticed RantWoman to her first retirement community.

Dining Room is a large and comfortable performance space for a number of music and dance schools.

The monthly calendar includes a whole range of activities: poetry reading, meditation, lectures about current events as well as monthly meetings with staff about things like changes in the dining room.

A bonus to the Lake Washington location: the community is right near a flight school. RantWoman finds it kind of fun, if a little noisy, to hear and watch small planes practice takeoffs in cold and dark skies in the winter.

A very conscientious director. Recently RantMom decided to move from one apartment to another because of elevator problems that did not have a clear timeline for resolution. The elevator problems got resolved just about the time RantMom moved to a new apartment that needs no elevator or stairs to get to from the front door. The move required a certain amount of paperwork and the director patiently kept saying "Now I need to talk about ...." It was courteous. It was respectful  It was all manageable.

A van available to save RantMom at least some of the trips she would otherwise do on ACCESS and a much shorter travel distance to RantMom's church.

RantMom moved from a location in Ravenna--and downsized a little more--because the Ravenna location is getting torn down and rebuilt. Uncertainty about planning dragged on for a number of years, but finally Era living just set some timelines, offered incentives to stay within the company, provided tours. RantWoman was also impressed by some special events to help residents share memories, say goodbye to the community, and then celebrated the clumps that moved to different locations.

All in all, much to be thankful for.

Shhh. Don't tell RantMom, RantWoman is also very glad that RantMom does not have to cook unless she really wants to. RantMom's hands have cooked plenty of meals over her life, but now neurological challenges in her hands make RantWoman nervous about anything involving RantMom having to do more with knives and hot liquids than enjoy meals in the dining room.