A Thank You, Updates and Reflections on Bob, Bruce, Randy, Leslie, Franchesca and the Necessity and Power of Art

Art Holds Power and Necessity and Must Be Supported and Taken In During This Terrible and Terrorizing Time.

To show my appreciation for your steadfast understanding, patience and support as my inflamed and spastic back muscles heal, I am offering 60% off forever on new paid subscriptions and upgrades until May 31.

My 50% discount for students, faculty and staff at higher education institutions with an .edu email continues. This expires on May 31 as well.

Thank you fellow bluestockings. I appreciate you and your patience and support as I healed from my inflamed back muscles made worse by MS muscle spasms. I am happy to say I am recovering and doing much better than I was last Friday and Saturday.

Along with prescription-strength ibuprofen and muscle relaxers, I rested on my heating pad at night and used Icy Hot patches twice a day. Of course, I enjoyed hot Epsom salt with lavender and Epsom salt bubble baths with lavender before I retired for the evening.

Yesterday I went for a healing massage. To further help my strained muscles, the massage therapist used herbal heat therapy, gua sha and a special hemp balm with peppermint and capsicum salve.

Since I had open time during my rest and self-care, I also contemplated my newsletter. I decided this summer to book a one-on-one meeting with

Sarah Fay

at Substack Writers @ Work to improve and build on on my Substack.

After my first one-on-one session, I will let readers know of what changes will occur. In addition, I signed up for Fay’s wait list to her 12-month program The Substack Mastermind.

My post analyzing the importance of and meaning behind Remmick the vampire being Irish in Ryan Coogler’s artistic masterpiece Sinners will arrive Tuesday — finally. I want to write a credible analysis that excruciating pain interfered with. I hope I will accomplish my goal.

Along with reading when the pain eased a bit, I also listened to the words and watched the art of the following artists. I find them galvanizing and inspirational during this time of tyranny and terror.

They remind me and I hope all of you fellow Bluestockings about the necessity of art to battle authoritarianism. We must use art in our toolbox of dissent.

Robert De Niro

He used his platform for accepting an Honorary Palme D’Or from Cannes to tell his fellow artists and international audience about art’s power. Through its inclusivity and ability to tell the truth, art unsettles autocrats. He also called on the world’s citizens and especially Americans to organize, protest and vote.

And of course, he told his audience exactly who Useful Idiot Krasnov and the Mump-Nazi Reich are. Since Useful Idiot Krasnov’s first administration, DeNiro has been, to say the least, critical of Useful Idiot Krasnov.

When Useful Idiot Krasnov first ran for a second term, the native New Yorker, who has always known Useful Idiot Krasnov was a “bozo”, said New Yorkers tolerated him. He also sat down for an interview with Michael Moore on his Rumble podcast. Demonstrating that he is a person we always want on our side, De Niro has stood up to and engaged with Mump-Nazi weak-minded bullies and cult members.

Bruce Springsteen

Encouraging people to speak out and protest, during his show in Manchester, England while on his Land of Hope and Dreams Tour, The Boss built on DeNiro’s Cannes speech.

He reiterated the power art holds and, like DeNiro, called out Useful Idiot Krasnov and his Mump-Nazi Reich for their ineptitude, sedition and criminality. Most importantly, he reminded everyone that when the guardrails of American government fail, the people are the last guardrails. It is us who hold the most power and can create change.

Our duty to rise up and dissent against authoritarian injustice, violence, cruelty and criminality that includes kidnapping people off the street and ending funds to care for marginalized and underserved children. Using our Constitutional free speech right to dissent must happen now.

Randy Rainbow

Confession time: Xanadu was my favorite movie when I was seven years old. It still remains a guilty pleasure. In elementary school, I played and played and played and played the vinyl album in my bedroom that I dance and sang to.

So when Randy Rainbow made this musical parody before the 2024 election, I knew I had to include it in today’s post. Though his prescient song now is haunting, it remains hilarious and ingenious.

Using one of my favorite childhood films and songs to warn us what would result if Useful Idiot Krasnov was re-elected, Rainbow’s talent for words, music and comedy puts into practice what De Niro and Springsteen said about art’s power and its ability to reveal the truth.

Leslie Jones

As for Leslie Jones, just make her the regular host of The Daily Show already. I became a fan during her first performance on Saturday Night Live where she started as a writer.

Her comedy has always been raw and direct. She does not suffer fools gladly and will drop f-bombs along the way just to make sure people know that.

On her recent hosting gig on The Daily Show, Jones uses her comedic art to say what the majority of us are thinking but some may be shy to state. The Democratic Party should take up “goofy” like it took up Governor Tim Walz “weird” adjective back in 2024.

Franchesca Ramsey

Larry Wilmore’s The Nightly Show introduced me to comedian and singer-songwriter Franchesca Ramsey. Her YouTube videos along with my independent education and graduate study of women’s, gender and sexuality studies teach me how to become a better ally and accomplice for African Americans and the Black race worldwide

Since the aftermath of November 5, Ramsey’s song “I Never Thought the Leopards Would Eat My Face” has taken off. Like Rainbow and Jones, Ramsey uses the art of comedy to reveal the sour truth of why Useful Idiot Krasnov won and what the United States now suffers.

Using the leopard allegory, she spotlights that those who let racism, cruelty, misogyny, xenophobia, transphobia, ableism, homophobia and selfishness drive their vote or non-vote now suffer the same pain they thought would only affect the marginalized. In other words, FAFO.

Like Robert, Bruce, Randy, Leslie and Franchesca, we must use our voice and our talents to peacefully defeat and end Useful Idiot Krasnov and the Mump-Nazi Reich. Perhaps we can also do it with a little humor.