MK and Alex’s Wedding Ceremony

My friends MK and Alex asked me to officiate their October 27, 2023 Halloween-themed wedding in Houston, TX, and I was honored to oblige. Below is the ceremony I wrote for them.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Welcome to MK and Alex’s wedding! Please silence your phones and devices and put them away. There’s a professional photographer here, you don’t need to take photos.

INTRODUCTION
My name is Nina Paley. I met MK and Alex just before a screening of my film Seder-Masochism in New York. The festival director had just whispered to me they’d gotten complaints about me being a “TERF”. As I wandered around in a familiar despair, a young woman introduced herself to me. “We love your work,” she said enthusiastically. And then, conspiratorially, “and also your ideas.” That perked me right up. Shortly after the screening we visited a vegan restaurant together. MK and Alex were still shell-shocked from the social implosion of the anarchist vegan co-op house they’d helped create. They were so smart, creative, and optimistic, I was utterly charmed by their tales of getting bashed up by idealism’s inevitable horrors. A year or two later they emailed me about their new women-centered feminist social media site, Spinster. I became a moderator, joined them on a visit to California, saw MK at the Michigan Framily Reunion, interviewed Alex and MK separately on the Heterodorx podcast, and otherwise follow them online. MK and Alex are a couple of brave and brilliant pioneers who have been through a lot together. Their relationship has already outlasted any of mine by a factor of at least two, so I am pleased to officiate their union.

INVOCATION
Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of God and these witnesses and the spectre of disappointed Radical Feminism to join together MK and Alex in holy matrimony; which is either an honorable estate instituted of God, or the maintaining of women as chattel property in Patriarchy. Into this holy estate, or disgrace to women’s liberation, these two persons present come now to be joined. Therefore, if anyone can show just cause why they may not be lawfully joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace – Radical Feminists excepted, they’ve already heard our arguments, Alex and MK really really REALLY want to get married anyway for some reason. Maybe they want to make babies? We know what causes that, talk to me after the ceremony and I can explain. 

READING
At this point in the ceremony it is traditional to read from the Apostle Paul, The first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13: Love is patient, love is kind, blah blah etc.

Now I shall read from by Toerien and Williams, “In Knots: Dilemmas of a Feminist Couple Contemplating Marriage” page 434:“…marriage remains thoroughly tainted by being a long-standing buttress for the patriarchal domination of women.” 

DECLARATION OF INTENT
MK and Alex, you have come together this day so that God may seal and strengthen your love in the presence of this gathering, and the Patriarchy may further enforce oppressive gender norms. I ask you to state your intentions: Have you both come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage? As if anyone has free choice uninfluenced by society? If so, answer by saying ‘I have.’ (I have.)

MK and Alex will now exchange vows. (Vows recited)

RING EXCHANGE
MK and Alex will now take off the rings they’ve been wearing for 6 months and pretend to exchange them, just as they will pretend the relationship they’ve been in for the last seven-and-a-half years will be consummated after this ceremony.

Alex, as you place the ring on MK’s finger, repeat after me: With this ring, I thee wed.

MK, as you place the ring on Alex’s finger, repeat after me: With this ring, I thee wed.

PRONOUNCEMENT
In so much as MK and Alex have consented together in holy wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, having given and pledged their faith, each to the other; by the vestiges of disappointed Radical Feminism, I pronounce you Adult Human Female and Husband. 

You may kiss the groom. Or not; your body your choice!

Share

Apocalypse Animated Lenticular prints!

I just got my test batch from the printer and they look as good in real life as they do in this video. (One of 8 in the video was printed at the wrong orientation, so that one is not offered, but it leaves 7 which was my goal anyway). Order yours here: https://apocalypseanimated.com/store/

Currently unsigned only, to US addresses only. I will offer more expensive, signed and numbered sets of 7 later. These are cheaper (but still expensive! Sorry, custom lenticulars ain’t cheap) because they ship directly from the printer. I’m also working on much larger 14″x11″ “walk-by” prints that can hang on walls, but hoo boy are those expensive.

Share

Mystic Symbolic: the developening

On January 27 I awoke with an idea for a mystic symbolic art generator. I immediately sketched copious notes and put out word I was looking for a coder to collaborate with. By some miracle, Atul Varma responded within an hour, which makes me believe this project really wants to exist.

My plans are vast and sprawling, so we’re starting simple. And by simple we mean bonkers:

Atul and I are on the same page regarding Free Software and Free Culture, so we’re both happy to share as we go along. You can generate your own strange images like the ones above by clicking the “randomize” button here:

https://toolness.github.io/mystic-symbolic/?p=creature

Here is the main Mystic Symbolic work-in-progress page:

https://toolness.github.io/mystic-symbolic/

And if you’re on guthub, which I am not yet but will be soon, there is this:

https://github.com/toolness/mystic-symbolic

This is a mere taste of things to come.

 

Share

Animakom Award

I was super-honored by my first lifetime achievement award from the Animakom festival in Bilbao Spain! I haven’t yet received the fancy glass plaque thingy in real life, but I did “attend” via video chat (starting around 54:30).

A few hours prior, I got interviewed by Thistle Pettersen of Women’s Liberation Radio News, and apparently had no f*cks to give as I cheerfully spouted unfiltered opinions of all kinds. That’s the great thing about getting older: you run out of fu*ks, and you get a lifetime achievement award.

Share

My account of the Total Eclipse of August 21, 2017

IMG_7777

It was very hot. We found a country cemetery (Ingram Hill Cemetery, outside Harrisburg IL) on a hill at the last minute. It had shade trees as well as open spaces, and a beautiful view. The great hills of Shawnee National Forest rose in the distance. A huge storm cloud hovered in the east. We’d been anxious that morning about clouds; the radar showed scattered rainstorms. There were other clouds around the horizon, but over our cemetery was all clear.

The eclipse was in progress by the time we got there. We wouldn’t have guessed; it was bright and hot. My weather app said “feels like 104F.” Just sitting in ____’s non-air-conditioned car was exhausting enough for me to break open my emergency electrolyte drink. We sat under a tree and walked out from time to time to gaze at the eclipse-in-progress with our Schnuck’s mylar-and-cardboard glasses. I pressed mine over my sunglasses and saw a fat crescent gradually get slimmer.

After a while everything looked the same, except I could take off my sunglasses. There was a puzzling, “is it getting dimmer? I can’t tell” period. Then we could tell: it was getting dimmer. Soon the quality of light was similar to late in the day, except it was coming from directly overhead. The shadows weren’t long, as you’d expect. The crescent was very slim now. We marveled at how bright the sun still was in spite of being mostly covered.

My eyes felt confused, like my irises were twitching open and closed trying to find the right level. The light was from overhead, but got dimmer and dimmer. ____ said it was like moonlight, only warmer and brighter.

Then, suddenly, it got dark. Not “very” dark, not night-time dark; just-after-sunset dark. The clouds on the horizon glowed pink and orange. Overhead was dark blue. We couldn’t see any stars or planets, whether because our eyes hadn’t adjusted, or because a mid-day eclipse with the sun at its zenith doesn’t darken the sky enough, we still don’t know. The corona was exactly like the pictures, except brighter. It was white-hot bright. The moon was a black disc. It looked like an eye in the sky.

Per other accounts, I kept saying “oh my god” as I looked around the
darkened landscape with a sunset directly overhead. Listening to myself I sounded like I was having sex for the first time.

Every day I unconsciously (and occasionally consciously) orient myself to the rays of the sun. It’s like sensing gravity: gravity is always “down,” whether you’re consciously paying attention or not. Sunlight is always coming from the sun, its qualities – strength, color, direction – always indicating where the sun is. The eclipse gave every indication the sun was setting, but it was directly overhead. It was wonderfully disorienting, as if gravity itself shifted and we were floating.

Then the shadow passed and it was suddenly brighter again, though very dim for mid-day. We put our eclipse glasses on again and saw the thinnest crescent, but that was enough to change everything back to day. The shadows returned, and soon the regular mid-day chorus of birds and insects did too. We marveled, stunned and delighted and moved, at what we had just seen.

Gradually we felt the temperature rise. We’d barely noticed the oppressive heat subside, until it came back. We chatted with some of the local people who had taken in the eclipse at the cemetery near us. Fortunately no one blared music, and although we weren’t completely alone, we had a lot of space to ourselves.

Then we drove home.

Eclipse2 - Frame 0

Share