Hot Mess

A meandering look at this world we are in

Jan 20, 2025

∙ Paid

It’s hard to know where even to start. If you live in Los Angeles, normal life is only one of the chaotic, crazy things about your existence this week.

I am happy to report that I returned home to my apartment in Tujunga yesterday and that me and the kittens are doing well. There was some ash in my kitchen and living room, and there continues to be smoke in the sky, but overall it’s pleasant as far as aftermath goes. We have blue skies and community.

Trump takes power tomorrow as the 47th president of the United States, and maybe the last I want to say to really dig into the dark feelings this calls up in my stomach. Blech. The only bright spot I can think of is today I found out that Trump is a huge fan of the song YMCA because it’s very much not gay, he says, and will be hosting the Village People’s one remaining member to sign it at his party. The subversiveness of that last remaining Village Person singing for people who purport to hate all non-straights, and yet will be enjoying his music seems perfect to me. Maybe it will pull some people out of the closet by osmosis.

It’s hard to imagine what it will be like this time around. Saturday Night Live did a sketch last night that summed up the destabilizing speed with which the Trump administration burns institutions and social norms to the ground. The first term, I remember getting PTSD from all the NY Times alerts, each one worse and more shocking than the last.

This time, I am unplugged. I learned during that time to remove notifications from my news apps. And yesterday I left Instagram and Facebook, except for the occasional lurking and posting on my local buy-nothing group. I have deleted Instagram from my phone, and had to remind myself repeatedly yesterday that no, I didn’t have to take a photo of that thing at Doug Aitken’s opening at Regen Projects because I have no Instagram Stories on which to share it.

I took a photo of The Mountain, 2025 anyway because it was really cool. I worked briefly at his studio as a bookkeeper and saw the digital mock-ups they were working on before it was translated into resin and a witches brew of organic materials.

This is one of Doug Aitken’s P22 sculptures. They are covered in organic material, much like the Corn Palace of Mitchell, South Dakota.

I’m not the only one shedding Instagram right now. This is the week for a Meta blackout, spurned by Zuckerburg’s announcement on Fox News of all places that they would be canceling the fact-checking in favor of community policing, which goes so well on NextDoor, where my Tujunga neighbors like to talk menacingly about using their guns to take out petty criminals and the Biden-created Plandemic.

I decided to go off of Instagram forever because I kept thinking about Patti Smith’s song, “People Have The Power,” and what would it look like for us to take back power from the institutions that take up so much of our time and money.

I wondered:

What would it look like to throw stones at a behemoth like Meta and actually make a dent?

What would it look like to create an art community that can support artists outside of the current auction-driven art market?

What would it look like to give all trans people access to gender-affirming care regardless of governmental support?

With these scenarios, we might have to be willing to let go of the things our ego wants the most like validation, succeeding within the institution, and winning the fight. Maybe instead we have to find creative solutions that don’t offer the same shiny rewards or clear-cut resolution. Winning is great because there’s a clear loser, and you’re not it. But what if we make it less black and white?

It’s hard to imagine the solutions right now, but as I think about all these things, I knew the first thing I could do was take back my attention span so I can better align with what I am called to do next.

I’m hoping to dive back into dumb phone life in February just in time for Flip Phone February. I invite you to join me, if you dare.

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