Episode 88: Inciting A Privileged Riot

Episode 88 of Inciting A Riot: the Podcast finds us inciting a privileged riot with the incomparable Crystal Blanton. Crystal is a social worker, Wiccan High Priestess, Pagan author, and expert in the fields of privilege and intersectionality.

We discuss these notions in the macrocosm of greater society as well as meditate on the privileges and disadvantages experienced in the Pagan community. Yes, we use the term 'Wiccanate' privilege. You're welcome.

Crystal Blanton can be found at:

CrystalBlanton.com

Twitter: @BlantonHPs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RevCrystal.Blanton

Her latest anthology, Shades of Ritual, can be purchased through Amazon (paperback and Kindle) here: 

http://smile.amazon.com/Shades-Ritual-Minority-Voices-Practice-ebook/dp/B00LE521BG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405871227&sr=8-1&keywords=shades+of+ritual

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

@IncitingARiot

Facebook.com/IncitingARiotPodcast

FireLyte@IncitingARiot.com

IncitingARiot.com

Episode 87: Inciting A Contractual Riot (featuring Dr. Leah Torres & Cory Hutcheson)

Episode 87 of Inciting A Riot the podcast was a long time coming, but it's filled with some amazing special guests!

Dr. Leah Torres comes on to discuss issues of women's health, defines birth control, and discusses the recent Hobby Lobby Supreme Court ruling.

Cory Hutcheson stops by for a discussion of the recent Slenderman stabbings as well as a greater conversation of social contracts in and around our community. 

Dr. Torres can be found at LeahTorres.com or on Twitter @LeahNTorres.

Cory can be heard on his podcast New World Witchery, on twitter @ctsluna, or at his blog: NewWorldWitchery.com.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Movie Review: Maleficent

Warning: If you're reading a movie review for a movie you haven't seen yet, you obviously want the film spoiled for you. Seriously, why are you even reading this right now? If you don't want spoilers, go watch that video about hamsters eating tiny burritos.

Maleficent is a Disney icon. An odd Disney icon, perhaps, as she has always been known by the moniker "Mistress of All Evil." (Rightly so as in the original 1950s Sleeping Beauty, the final showdown sees her summoning all the powers of Hell in order to become a fire-breathing dragon.) Since redemption stories are all the rage right now (read: Wicked the novel, Wicked the musical, the upcoming film adaptation of Wicked...seriously, this movie is an excuse to make Wicked but with Maleficent), one needs to realize one key point before they see the movie:

Maleficent is the protagonist.

Annoying Minority Questions (Sh*t Straight People Say)

Daniel-Ryan Spaulding has created the most accurate representation of what it's like for straight people to talk to gay people about being gay...reversed it...

and fucking nailed it.

For your viewing pleasure, I give you "If Gay Guys Said the Sh*t Straight People Say..."

"Traditional Values"

People that have a prejudice towards gender minorities, religious minorities, orientation minorities, and anyone that isn't a white bread eating member of the 1940 Americana mindset where if you aren't white, upper middle class or higher, Christian, and publicly asexual just need to be honest about their bigotry.

Please.

I'm getting very tired of hearing someone on the news or blog or web video talk about how the 'left wing agenda' or the 'gay agenda' is getting shoved down their throats or in their faces by simply existing. By simply acting how everyone else does.

The 5 Step Bumper Sticker Meme

Have you seen this meme floating around social media?

A lot of it sounds like common sense, right? Well...no. It doesn't. I was actually responding to this on social media, when I realized I'd written a blog post. So, I give you...

My 5 Step Guide to debunking the 5 Steps in this guy's 5 Step Guide to Admitting You're A Constitutional Buffoon:

Announcement: Pagan Podkin Supermoot 2014!

Attention! 

Attention! 

Pagan Podkin Supermoot 2014 Announcement! 

This year's Pagan Podkin Supermoot (PPSM) is officially HAPPENING!!! Set your calendars, podkin and fans, because it's time for the fifth annual gathering of all your favorite Pagan Podkin.

Details are as follows:

Why Tom Daley being Gay kind of sucks.

His speedo brings all the boys to the yard. Damn right, it's better than yours.

Four months ago, social media became ablaze with the news that Tom Daley - adorable British diving Olympic speedo-clad sensation - was...not a heterosexual man. In a video he recorded and posted to his YouTube channel last December, the heartthrob proclaimed that he was in a relationship with a man, but that he still '[fancied] girls'. While he didn't use, and insisted that he didn't want to use, the label of bisexual, people inferred that he was, at the very least, representing the folks out there in the middle of the Kinsey scale. Today, he's setting social media ablaze again...because he's decided he prefers the label 'gay'.

And...the more I think about that...the more it sucks.

Rooted (new-to-you poem)

I'd completely forgotten about this poem until I found it a few weeks ago.

Written in 2010.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Kenny Klein Arrested for Child Porn

Waking up today I expected to groggily drink a glass of water and then down several cups of caffeine followed by an acceptably healthy breakfast and a car ride to work. I never expected to wake up to the news that Kenny Klein - pagan author and musician - has been arrested and charged with 25 counts of possession of child pornography.

In what seems to be an open and shut case, Klein was arrested yesterday morning at 7:00am after a tip-off to authorities regarding his online activity:

Kenneth Klein, 59, was arrested around 7 a.m. at his home on the 2800 block of Carondelet Street. Detectives in the State Police Special Victims Unit began investigating Klein in February after receiving a tip about his online activities. Upon executing a search warrant of Klein's residence, they discovered on his computer a large volume of explicit photos and videos involving minors under the age of 13 engaging in sexually explicit activities, according to an arrest report. Klein admitted to detectives that the computer was his and that he had used the computer to share and download the explicit material, the report says.

When I look to our pagan leaders for statements, what I find is disturbing. Peg Aloi's article on the issue has a quote from her friend and fellow Patheos blogger, Lilith Dorsey who said this:

Pizza for Lent and the Nature of Sacrifice

The top items people are saying they will be giving up for Lent this year.

This weekend is big in our family. Partner's entire family comes in from all parts of the country to celebrate their collective birthdays. Literally, their collective birthdays. His birthday, his brother's birthday, his mother's birthday, and his step-father's birthday are all this week. You think it would suck to have a Christmas birthday? Try having your special day shared with everyone in your family.

So, this weekend we all went out to a local Italian(ish) restaurant, and my future sister in law refused an offer of ordering pizza. She said:

"I gave up pizza and dessert for Lent."

To which I immediately responded (come on...you knew I would), "Do you eat a lot of pizza?" 

"Not really," she said.

Then I asked what constituted dessert. (I cannot leave Well Enough alone.) Like, could she not have anything sweet after her meal? She determined that she could have fruit after her meal, because that's not dessert. I pushed it a little further.

"Could you have yogurt after your meal?" I asked.

"Yeah, because that's not dessert," she said.

"So, you could do a yogurt parfait, then?"

"Of course, because it isn't dessert."

I then asked what constituted dessert, and she gave some muddled answer that seemed to contain the word 'chocolate' several times. Again, she doesn't really eat much in the way of rich chocolate desserts. So, I asked her what seemed the obvious question at the time:

"If you don't eat any of this very often, what are you giving up?"

Her answer at first made me giggle, and then, today, I realized how honest and sobering it really was...

The First of Many Things

Today is the first day of Spring! In about 2 hours, give or take, we will officially be through with winter...at least according to the calendar. And, while Mother Nature seems to still be a little confused as to what season it is here in Chicagoland (it rained yesterday, snowed a little this morning, and has settled on being generally dreary the rest of the day) there are nevertheless signs of change.

Snow is, slowly, giving way to the greenery of the next season. While still a bit chilly, there is life underneath just waiting to burst through.

On the edges of my yard and along the house, the tulips have decided to choose, appropriately, the first day of spring to make themselves known.

Kika sniffed around all the greenery for a good half hour making little happy noises and running around the yard in glee.

Sock Magic

Magical tools can be found in all sorts of strange places these days. From conversations about turning your potpourri warmer into a slow-burning witchy cauldron, to using your iPod as a divinatory device, people are getting witchy where they can these days. In bygone eras our witchy ancestry, so we're led to believe, used what they had on handle - the broom, the cauldron, the sickle - because it's what they had. Not because a broom is more magical or special than any other household object.

And so, with all that very serious background, let's make magic with socks!

Art Flood Sale

As many of you know, my home was flooded a few weeks ago. We're still fighting with the insurance company over exactly how much they plan to cover. (Apparently 100% doesn't mean what it used to mean.) As such, I have realized exactly how much art I have on my walls and need to store long-term.

So, I'm having a flood sale! I know a lot of you have been so generous with your positive comments in the past regarding my artwork - TorchAndPaintbrush.etsy.com - and have expressed you'd like to buy an original piece. Now is your chance.

Today through Sunday, March 16, I'm letting you take 40% off every purchase over $10. So, anyone who's been wanting an original painting from me...now's a great time to make that happen. It's a huge help, because I wouldn't have to store it...and the money doesn't hurt either.

Head on over to Torch And Paintbrush to take a peek and see what you'd like to take home today!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Below are some examples of my artwork... Enjoy!

Why nobody's Looking...

This morning I woke up, I stumbled from bed, I let my dog go out to relieve herself, opened a can of cat food, put a scoop of dry dog food in the dog bowl, and sank back into bed. A short while later, Partner came home from work and got under the covers, too. We, of course, engaged in what every couple does on a lazy Sunday morning when you're both off work: we drank tea and caught up on some Netflix.

This is why nobody wants to see television shows or movies about real people doing real things for real. Real people are incredibly boring with occasional run-ins with excitement.

A lot of people in the gay blogosphere have been talking about the HBO show "Looking". In short, it's the new "Queer as Folk", a show about gay people being gay in their gay lives. Instead of a chilly Pennsylvania town, it's San Francisco, California, the alleged gay capitol of America. While critics seem to enjoy the show - 89% of critics gave it a positive review - fans everywhere aren't happy with it. Their chief complaint?

It's boring as Hell.