1/20/18 review of 2018 Women's March on Colorado

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the 2018 Women's March on Colorado.

The thread gives some background on the march. It discusses the march's theme. It mentions the Native American women who were centered for the march. It discusses and gives photos of presentations by Karen Roberts Grissom, Candi CdeBaca, Chante Okic Ouye Wiya, Kim Desmond, Reverend Nancy Rojas, 100 Women in Black, Lauren Casteel, Kerrie Joy, Karmen Carter, and Faith Winter. The thread also gives a lot of photos from the march.

Some of my Twitter threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. This thread's coherency suffers as a result. My apologies. However, the tweets address themes from the march that were really interesting. And they show tons of great pictures. So the thread is worth a read.

1/18/20 discussion about my fanfiction Summer Azure ahead of 2018 Women's March

Here is the link to a Twitter thread I did in January of 2018 about my amateur novel Summer Azure.

Summer Azure can essentially be seen as a Dance Moms fanfiction mixed with a lesbian-themed variation on the Lolita story. It is a youth/adult romance about a dancing star girl who befriends and then falls in love with a reclusive businesswoman next door.

I wrote my thread about my novel on the eve of the 2nd annual Women's March, because the novel ends with the first Women's March. The thread gives a lot of background into how I came to write the story, my political reasons for writing the story, the way I wove the political themes into the story, and some basics about my characters and the plot, and how they all relate to my own personal life and political ideas, and how they all culminate with the Women's March.

Some of my Twitter threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. Unfortunately, this particular thread's coherency suffers a lot as a result. My apologies.

Here is the link to my novel Summer Azure, which is online and free to read.

1/15/18 review of 2018 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Marade

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the 2018 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Marade in Denver, Colorado.

The thread is short. But it gives some pretty good photos from the march and pre-march rally. It also mentions some themes discussed by the rally's speakers.

1/14/18 review of film The Mermaid, dir. by Stephen Chow

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the film The Mermaid, directed by Stephen Chow.

The thread gives a summary of the film. It also gives some background on the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's Yum Cha film series, which is where I saw the film. The thread discusses the film's blend of action, slapstick comedy, and environmentalism. The thread also discusses the film's themes, such as the validity of environmentalism, sham environmentalism, humanity's mistaken belief in invincibility, and the self-consciousness of self-made people.

Some of my threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. The coherency of this thread is pretty badly affected as a result. My apologies. But the tweets all address interesting aspects of the film. So it's still worth a read, in my opinion.

I saw this film at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Sloans Lake theater in Denver, Colorado.

1/14/18 review of Davon E. Johnson film screening at BAWM

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of a 2018 screening of films by Davon E. Johnson at the Black American West Museum and Heritage Center.

The thread gives some background on the BAWM and on Davon E. Johnson and his films. The thread discusses each of the short films screened: Amazing Grace, Peace 2 "U", The March on Washington, and The March for Freedom 1963. These films are largely focused on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the March on Washington.

Some of my threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. The coherency of this thread is slightly affected because of this. My apologies.

Here is the link to the website for the BAWM.

1/14/18 review of film Proud Mary, dir. by Babak Najafi

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the film Proud Mary, directed by Babak Najafi.

The thread gives a summary of the film. The thread discusses some of the performances I like. It discusses comparisons others and I made to other films. It discusses the action sequences. It discusses the film's visuals. And it discusses some reviewers' feeling that that film was too short. It discusses some of the film's themes, like family, crime families, motherhood, single motherhood, professional womanhood.

Some of my Twitter threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. The coherency of this thread suffers slightly as a result. My apologies.

I saw this film at the Regal UA Denver Pavilions theater in downtown Denver, Colorado.

1/13/18 review of housing policy and funding in Colorado

Here is the link to a Twitter thread I did in 2018 regarding housing policy and funding in Colorado.

The thread discusses two news articles regarding housing policy and funding. The thread praises Denver and Colorado for being focused on equitability. But it questions why this ideal of equitability never seems to flow through to funding for any of these ideas. It discusses the way taxation and tax dollar usage works in Colorado. But it also questions whether Colorado's taxing and spending structure is totally to blame.

Some of my Twitter threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. The coherency of this thread suffers a little bit because of that. My apologies.

1/11/18 review of State of Cities and State of State presentations

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of some 2018 political year initiation presentations in Colorado.

The thread covers the Denver Business Journal's annual State of the Cities panel, which includes mayors from some of Colorado's biggest cities; Governor John Hickenlooper's State of the State address; and Speaker of the House Crisanta Duran's opening remarks to Colorado's House of Representatives.

Some of my threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. This thread's coherency is pretty badly affected. My apologies. However, each tweet provides a lot of good info and insight. So I still think it's worth a read.

1/9/18 review of Denver Art Museum show Stampede: Animals in Art

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the Denver Art Museum show Stampede: Animals in Art.

The thread gives a summary of the show. The thread discusses some of the show's themes. And it gives some pictures and descriptions of work by artists such as Christian Hahn, Kim Dingle, Wenling Chen, Pia Stadtbaumer, Lin Tianmiao, Kiki Smith, Enrique Martinez Celaya, Georgia O'Keefe, Daniel Richter, Duke Beardsley, Inka Essenhigh, Rick Bartow, Deborah Butterfield, and E-Line Media.

Some of my threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. This has a slight effect on the coherency of this thread. My apologies.

Here is the link to the Denver Art Museum's web page for the show.

1/8/18 review of film Phantom Thread, dir. by Paul Thomas Anderson

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the film Phantom Thread, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

The thread gives a summary of the film. The thread discusses the film as a ghost story and a sort of fetish or BDSM story. It also discusses the themes of the film as a love story, such as finding the right person to love; accepting one's own faults; how to deal with others' faults; accepting, but also putting boundaries on, the behavior of talented people. The thread discusses what I liked about the film's visuals, fashions, and music.

Some of my threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. This has had a slight effect on the coherency of this thread. My apologies.

I saw this film at the Denver Film Society's Sie FilmCenter in Denver, Colorado.

1/6/18 review of film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, directed by Martin McDonagh.

The thread gives a summary of the film. The thread discusses some of the film's themes, such as grief and loss; forgiving ourselves; our good and bad sides; seeking redemption; idealized families, for individuals and communities; and the power our words have to change things. The thread also discusses Frances McDormand's great performance, as well as what made me a little bit reluctant to see the film.

Some of my threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. This has a pretty bad effect on the coherency of this thread. My apologies.

I saw this film at the Landmark Esquire Theatre in Denver, Colorado.

1/5/18 review of film I, Tonya, dir. by Craig Gillespie

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the film I, Tonya, directed by Craig Gillespie.

The thread gives a summary of the film and some background on the film's subject, Tonya Harding. The thread also discusses Margot Robbie's work producing, acting, and skating in the film. The thread discusses the themes of the film, like fame and celebrity; public expectations from and neglect of celebrities; how the media constructs narratives about celebrities; how the film itself constructs a narrative; the performances in the film; and the character dynamics in the film.

A lot of my threads have been twisted out of chronological order by Twitter's platform. This thread suffers in coherency a little bit as a result. My apologies.

I saw this film at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Sloans Lake theater in Denver, Colorado.

1/2/18 review of History Colorado exhibit Zoom In

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the History Colorado show Zoom In: The Centennial State in 100 Objects.

The thread gives a summary of the show and some background on History Colorado and its collections. The thread discusses the show's philosophy of preserving the past for the sake of the future. The thread also gives a lot of pictures from the show. It discusses themes from the show such as the presence and importance of the Ute people in Colorado; the healthiness of Colorado's residents; architecture in Colorado; Colorado as a state of firsts in the US; and some of my favorite items and moments from the show.

Here is the link to the web page for this exhibit on History Colorado's website.

1/1/18 review of film Loving Vincent, dir. by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the film Loving Vincent, directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman.

The thread gives a summary of the film and some background on the film's creation (the film was made entirely of animated oil paintings). The thread discusses how the film relates van Gogh's paintings and van Gogh's life and love of life; how van Gogh drew people to him; van Gogh's tortured soul; the wonderful performances in the film; the film's good use of sound; comparisons between the film and Citizen Kane, Raymond Chandler, and detective novels; the fanfiction feel of the film; and my favorite moment of the film.

I saw this film at the Landmark Esquire Theatre in Denver, Colorado.

Some quick thoughts/Support me on Ko-fi!

Thank you for checking out my blog! If you like my work, please visit my Ko-fi page, where you can support by making one-time donations in increments of $3.

This blog is a table of contents for my Twitter threads, starting in 2012, and working through toward the present. I include links to the threads, as well as quick descriptions of the threads.

From time to time, I like to do a blog post reflecting on the time frame of the threads I've most recently posted to this blog.

The posts below mark my final Twitter threads of 2017.

One thing I will mention up front about almost all the Twitter threads in the last three months of 2017 -- they have almost all been twisted out of shape by Twitter's platform.

I'm not sure what's happened. But almost every single one of the Twitter threads I posted from October of 2017 to December of 2017 has been "realigned" so that the tweets are all lined up in the thread out of chronological order.

This makes the threads kind of incoherent, or extremely incoherent, depending on the thread. The way I write my threads aims to make each tweet a sort of standalone. But all of my tweets are arranged in my thread according to some sort of logical pattern. Depending on how much the thread depends on that overall logical pattern, the twisted threads can end up sounding really incoherent.

So my apologies in advance for that.

Some notes on my personal life during this time period:

By December of 2017, I had gotten pretty consistent again with my Twitter thread posting. A lot of my social media work during 2016 and the first part of 2017 was on Instagram. But by mid-2017 I had moved back to Twitter pretty much entirely and have used that platform ever since.

My personal life was pretty quiet through the end of 2017. As I've mentioned a lot before, for my day job I'm a business consultant. For most of 2017 I had one client that accounted for almost all of my work. But that client ended up hindering a lot of my work. When I found ways around those roadblocks, the client then started to delay my paychecks, making it really difficult for me to pay my bills on time.

So in July of 2017 I took on a second client -- not necessarily because I needed the money, but simply because I needed to make sure I had at least one client from whom I could rely on steady cash flow, so I could pay my bills.

Things got worse and worse with my first client until October of 2017, when I had to stop working for the client altogether. I ended up transitioning to nearly full-time work for my second client. Through October and November of 2017, I did have to struggle a little bit with that client to get permission to do some specific things I wanted to do. But once I had that permission, I was able to drive performance for that company, through March of 2018, to an incredible level. My work for that client was the greatest work I have done so far for any client of my business consultancy. I only hope to attain or exceed that level of performance again.

So, in terms of work life, while I dealt with stress, I wasn't really dealing with terrible money issues. That freed me up to focus on my own personal pursuits. And I feel that really shows in my Twitter threads.

In May of 2017 I'd pretty much removed myself entirely from associating with Denver's art gallery scene. I felt like I'd been betrayed by the owners of a gallery I'd spent the previous two years doing a lot of volunteer work for. And I felt like I'd been hurt a lot by other folks in Denver's art gallery scene. So I just stopped talking to everybody.

So you'll notice that, while I still go to art museums from time to time, my visits to art galleries drops almost completely to nothing.

While I liked a lot of people in Denver's art gallery scene, the truth is that, outside my friends at the one specific art gallery, I didn't have any real friends in Denver's art gallery world, per se. So when I left that world, I didn't actually leave a lot of established relationships behind. That fact makes me sad. But it's also kind of a relief.

Like a lot of the rest of the United States, I was disappointed by the election results of 2016. I ended up not doing a lot of political activity in the first half of 2017. But after the Charlottesville tragedy, I, like many others in the US, got back on track with my political activity.

I tried to be active in a number of different ways. Hopefully that shows in my threads. I tried to pay attention to city, state, and national politics. I tried to attend regular assemblies, political meetings, and volunteer events like phone banking, etc. And I tried to read more political documents -- including documents put out by parties -- and an administration -- I didn't agree with.

I think that some of the things I paid attention to and some of the stances I took politically made some of my fellow Democrats upset. And while I don't agree with some of the things I said, I also don't regret some of the attempts I made to align myself with or try and empathize with people whose values were not the same as those of the Democrats.

I have always tried to think diplomatically. And that means you have to integrate your ideas with ideologies that don't match yours. Those ideologies may even be hostile in their opposition to your ideology. However, being diplomatic is about trying to find ways to work with people who don't have your best interests in mind.

I don't think the Democrats have been very diplomatic over the past few years. I'm not saying I blame my fellow Democrats. But I also don't feel bad about my own efforts at diplomacy. Not that it matters, anyway. I'm just one person out here all by myself. So...

Creatively, one big event of my life during this time was that I finished writing my amateur novel Summer Azure. The theme is essentially a Dance Moms fanfiction mixed with a lesbian version of a Lolita story. The themes definitely matched up with things I'd been thinking about for a long time.

I studied a lot of the history of youth/adult lesbian love scandals in the US and UK as part of my work on Summer Azure. And I'd studied that stuff for almost two years by the time I'd finished writing Summer Azure.

So by this time I felt confident enough in some of these topics that I began to discuss them on Twitter. Unfortunately, this may have led to me being even more ostracized -- and, by the way, subtweeted -- on Twitter than I had been before.

Unfortunately, I also began discussing this stuff as the United States began to use the Me Too movement in backlash against its sense of having been violated by 2016's election results. I don't feel like getting into details here. But in 2017 people in the US were accusing just about everybody -- but especially gay people and women -- of sexual assault. I stood against the silliness. And I stood against the then expanding assumptions that all youth/adult attraction was immediately some kind of sexual assault. As a result -- standing way against popular opinion -- I was even more ostracized on Twitter.

However, as you'll see in my 2018 threads, all of this research kind of dovetailed with a very big news event of that year: the passage of FOSTA-SESTA. My reactions to FOSTA-SESTA in 2018 kind of doubled up on the research I'd been doing on youth/adult love in 2016 and 2017 and in ways that likely made me even less palatable to the folks who had been following me on Twitter since 2012.

So that's a little bit of background as you read through the posts below, representing my Twitter threads from June through December of 2017.

Thank you, as always, for reading. Please feel free to provide any constructive feedback.

12/31/17 discussion of Denver's 2017 Green Roof Initiative

(Image source: https://www.denverpost.com/2017/12/31/denver-green-roof-law/)

Here is the link to my Twitter thread discussion of Denver's Green Roof Initiative, which was passed in 2017.

The thread discusses political movements from the 2010s I have found to be of key interest in the United States -- Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, and the DREAMERs (I might also nowadays count the Never Again movement and the Sunrise Movement).

The thread then discusses elements I liked about the Denver Green Roof Initiative -- its being grassroots, youth-driven, and civically engaged, and its working within the system. It discusses my own experiences with green roof building, environmentalism, and how I learned of the Denver Green Roof Initiative. It discusses the strengths and shortcomings of the initiative, as well as how I see the initiative serving as a model for other infrastructure innovation efforts in Denver's and Colorado's future.

Unfortunately -- this is yet another thread that has been twisted around by Twitter's platform, so that the tweets are all lined up out of chronological order -- making this thread in particular pretty incoherent. My apologies.

12/30/17 review of film The Greatest Showman, dir. by Michael Gracey

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the film The Greatest Showman, directed by Michael Gracey.

The thread gives a summary of the film. It discusses the style of the film, how the film uses music to drive the story, some of my favorite performances, some of my favorites songs from the film, the film in the context of Barnum & Bailey having stopped operating, the good screenwriting, and Zendaya's performance.

I saw this film at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's Sloans Lake theater in Denver, Colorado.

12/30/17 review of film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, dir. by Jake Kasdan

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, directed by Jake Kasdan.

The thread gives a summary of the film. It compares the film to other films, the fun aspect of the kids being in adult bodies, the performances of the kids, the game mechanics of the movie, and the Nick Jonas character.

I saw this film at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's Sloans Lake theater in Denver, Colorado.

12/30/17 review of the ASCE's 2017 Infrastructure Report Card

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2017 Infrastructure Report Card.

The thread gives a summary of and some background on the Infrastructure Report Card. The thread discusses how I came to learn of the Infrastructure Report Card, how I was using it to understand the White House's strategy for America's infrastructure better, some of the opportunities I saw from the report, how I imagined concepts like ROI could play into the opportunities, and some sectors I found particularly interesting.

Unfortunately -- this is yet another thread that has been twisted around on Twitter so that -- for some reason -- the tweets are now lined up in the thread out of chronological order, making the thread a little bit incoherent. My apologies.

12/20/17 review of MV for "Ma vie, mes reves," by Ringo Sheena

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the music video for the Ringo Sheena song "Ma vie, mes reves."

The thread gives a summary of the song, and some background on Ringo Sheena and how she came to write the song. The thread gives some background on the fashions for the MV. The thread discusses how Ringo Sheena has used body language in her previous performances. It then looks at how she used body language in the MV for "Ma vie, mes reves," and what meaning the body language gives to the video.

Unfortunately -- this is yet another thread of mine that has been twisted around on Twitter -- with the tweets all being aligned out of chronological order, making the thread somewhat incoherent. My apologies.

12/19/17 review of December, 2017, White House National Security Strategy

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the White House's December, 2017, National Security Strategy.

The thread gives a summary of the strategy and what I felt were good and not-so-good points about the strategy. I tried to emphasize an approach (for my fellow Democrats and liberals) of diplomacy regarding the administration through this thread. I still feel that way. However, I think I leaned a little more toward diplomacy than was correct when I mentioned some of the "TCO" language. I don't agree with what I said there. I still agree that the strategy did not address well enough the role of white supremacy as a threat to America's national security. I still feel that that is our biggest threat.

12/18/17 review of a Denver City Council meeting

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of a Denver City Council meeting I'd attended in December of 2017.

The thread gives some background on Denver's city council meetings. It then discusses some of the issues that were presented at the meeting. In particular, the thread discusses the passage of a bill that protects minority and women construction contractors with payment and process issues.

12/17/17 review of One Up Colorado regional cheerleading championship

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the 2017 One Up Colorado regional cheerleading championships.

The thread gives some background on the One Up program and the Colorado championships. It discusses how I'd learned of the competition. It discusses how cheerleading competitions and teams work. And it gives a lot of pictures of various teams, including the Cheer Central Suns, Peak Athletic, Kinetic Gymnastics, United Elite, Knight Time Cheer, 3oh3 Elite Cheer, Diamond Nite All Stars, Colorado Lightning All Stars, The Cheer Pitt KC, CheerForce Fresno, CheerForce OC, and Steele Athletics.

This thread is, unfortunately, another thread that has been twisted around on Twitter's platform -- with all of the tweets being strung together out of chronological order, making the thread a little incoherent. My apologies.

12/16/17 review of Jonathan Saiz solo show Blue Chipped at Understudy Gallery

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the 2017 Jonathan Saiz solo show Blue Chipped at Denver's Understudy Gallery.

The thread gives some background on Jonathan Saiz, his show, and the Understudy Gallery project, which is located at the Colorado Convention Center in Downtown Colorado. I also attended this show with Ray Rinaldi, one of Denver's top art critics. So the thread talks about him and his ongoing project One Good Eye.

12/16/17 review of film Star Wars: The Last Jedi, dir. by Rian Johnson

Here is the link to my Twitter thread review of the film Star Wars: The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson.

The thread gives a summary of the film. It discusses some things I liked about the film, such as the character arcs, the space it gave to the younger generation of characters, some of the crowd-pleasing and "fanfiction" elements of the story, some new aspects added to the Star Wars storyline, some characters I liked and didn't like, and my enjoyment of the Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) character.

Unfortunately, this is yet another thread that Twitter's platform has twisted around. All the tweets are strung together out of chronological order, making the thread a little incoherent. My apologies.

I saw this film at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's Sloans Lake theater in Denver, Colorado.