A kid who lived for theater. That's what this is about. Telling stories, reaching someone you've never met—someone sitting in the dark at the back of the room. It's a tale of obsession and connection through performance art.

Rebellion runs thick in her blood, mixed with a heavy dose of pain. Four queens like a deck of cards. Four women across four generations of the same family. Their names are Qayah, and their stories refuse to be silenced.

Roses and honeysuckle in the air. Blackbirds making their metallic clicks as they settle for the night. Sky turning apricot with wisps of cloud like down feathers. Perfect way to ease into the year—wrapped in comfort reading.

Starting the year right with a fun literary game: a self-portrait drawn from book titles I read in 2025. Who am I? What I feel. Where I live. All answered through my reading list.

End-of-year recaps are my thing. My literary year was mixed: read tons of books, wrote way fewer posts (lots stayed in draft hell), and the favorites were scattered. Here's how it broke down.

Lucky I found art—otherwise I had everything it takes to become a terrorist. That's Niki de Saint-Phalle talking. I saw her retrospective at the Grand Palais in 2022, and it stuck with me. This book brought it all back.

At some point we gotta cut these ghosts down from the trees. Can't let them hang there forever. They were 17, 18 in the year 2000 in New Canaan, Ohio. Watched everything fall apart in real time.

The wheel turns. Birth to death, death to rebirth. Always pain. From midwives' bloody hands to gravediggers' long faces. Toward earth or fire. No escape from the cycle.

Like all Tibetans, he didn't know the tragedy of death. Just a brief passage from one form of life to another. Not some final plunge into mystery. China, 1968. Cultural Revolution in full swing.

All I want is to rid the world of witches so we can live in God's peace. And if war is the way, so be it. Vardø Island, far north Norway, 17th century. Witch hunts and survival.