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Good morning all, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

It is very Monday. I entered my password at Dreamwidth three times before realising that it was rejecting me because I had entered my login as "cpoperbadge".

Ways to Give:

eandh99 let me know about Goodbye, My Sarah Jane, a JustGiving page to raise funds to support cancer research, in honour of Lis Sladen.

snufflesdbear asked me about the Austin fires of this past week, and also about victims of the tornadoes in North Carolina. I couldn't find any sites specifically dedicated to aid for the Austin fires, but at least one of them was started in a homeless camp, leading Austin PD to initiate an outreach program to local homeless. So I'm taking the opportunity to suggest that it's not hard to find organisations like ECHO in Austin, and that local communities often have homeless outreach programs that can always use help.

As regards the North Carolina tornadoes, giving to the Red Cross is always a good way to help in a very centralised way (and let me send a shout out to Wells Fargo, which donated a hundred grand to the effort).

Jen has let me know about Tami, a fan who is living on disability and has been unable to afford her gas bill for the past few months due to medical procedures. The gas company, to whom she owes $141, has threatened to turn her gas off -- no heat, no hot water, no cooking fuel. She has petitioned the United Way for assistance, but their paperwork takes 10 days to go through, with no guarantee of assistance after it's done. The payment due date is today; she's looking for assistance in the Grand Rapids area but also if you can toss a few bucks her way via paypal at mayphoenix3@gmail.com, it would be appreciated.

Fans helpin' Fans:

bloodrebel333 is living in an increasingly unsafe situation with a landlord who is sexually harassing her (she's had to call the police on him). But she can't afford to move, and can't apparently get aid (there's more info at the post). She's looking for advice, assistance, or tips on cheap housing in the Den Bosch area of the Netherlands.

windlion is looking for roommates right here in Chicago!

waldo is selling awesome stuff to raise money for special chow for her elderly ferret. It's awesome stuff! And inexpensive too.

NorthofNormal's cousin has to give up his cat, due to his girlfriend's allergies. Captain, in Chicago, is a friendly well-behaved kitty, and if you're interested in more details you can get in touch at northofnormal@gmail.com.

News to Know:

lavenderspark linked me to a news article about Amazon's attempted move to South Carolina and the local ads being run against it.

amara1783 has posted an account of her experiences with Aslan Leather, who use metal fittings plated with nickel (one of the most common metal allergens) and apparently don't care. (It's way more complicated than that but I'll let Amara tell the story.)

If you were interested in the Abuse Survivors Passover Seder that I mentioned last week, there's some video of it up here. (CALANY kindly thanked me for the link and let me know about the video.)

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can always post items for my attention in comments here (or on any post) or email me at copperbadge at gmail dot com. If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help. Remember, non-embedded links are love.

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I mentioned the other day that I've been reading The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss, a novel which is reasonably easy on the eyes and brain. I don't know that it really warrants a thoughtful in-depth analysis; there's not much to say beyond "I liked it" and "Gatiss is very readable" which, well, I already know I like his work in general, so his prose being fun isn't much of a surprise.

We all know the attraction of secret tunnels. When I was a boy, there was nothing in the world I wanted to discover more. It's quite rewarding finally to have one at the office. --p. 12

The book is set in the early 20th century and narrated by Lucifer Box, an artist and special agent for the Crown. It has a whiff of satire about it, but only a whiff; there's a sort of endearing earnestness, really, about the adventures he narrates.

It does seem to stumble in spots, a little. At first I felt like there were SO MANY SUBPLOTS OMG and then suddenly they all resolved in what seemed like far too simple a fashion. But I kind of don't care, the book is so much fun to read. And while I didn't think anyone could be more entertaining in conjunction with Lucifer Box than his colleague Christopher Miracle, I agree that MOAR CHARLIE JACKPOT is necessary.

Charlie got to his feet. "I can't help you," he said to Lee. "This fella's a painter. He'll as like bite your ear off unless you tell him what he wants to know." --p. 170

Anyway, I'll be actively seeking out the sequel, which is pretty high praise from me.

"And what does that make you! The feted artist, the dashing dandy. But by night -- philanderer, sodomite, and assassin!"
As a thumbnail sketch of me it wasn't half bad. --p. 228

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I seem to be risking life and limb for Andy Warhol a lot, lately. I hope he appreciates it.

This past weekend, the Arts Club of Chicago opened an exhibition of 54 panels from Andy Warhol's Shadows, which consists in total of 102 panels painted with a variety of colours and then silkscreened over with one of two "shadow" patterns. The Arts Club was reasonably nearby, so I thought I'd swing past it after work today and have a look.

It's not the most elegant presentation in the world -- the panels basically just line two walls of the entrance room and wrap around into a rectangular gallery beyond -- but someone with some artistic sense arranged them in an interesting fashion in terms of colour and contrast, and when you turn the corner into the long gallery it does definitely make an impact. The linoleum floor's a bit slippery on wet days like this, but I managed to keep my feet while I wandered around.

(My first encounter with Andy Warhol was at a museum when I was about twenty. I didn't know they had any Warhols there; I unsuspectingly rounded a corner into a gallery and came face to face with a dozen renditions of Chairman Mao glaring down at me. If you're not expecting this, it's quite a shock.)

Anyway, given that it's free it's worth the price of admission, but there's not much else to see. So I made tracks for Trader Joe's, picked up some naan and sourdough and cookies, and came home. In all, I call that a successful evening.

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I have been remiss in my origami lately, but the "box with hearts" I made on Friday was kind of sad.

So I saved it until I had something awesome to post with it. AND NOW I DO. Because today's origami calendar entry was the highly awesome letter fold.

I saw it and forthwith produced a copy of The Doc File Of J Alfred Prufrock, which I folded up into a little square suitable for, if not mailing, then at least presenting with fanfare to someone you want to impress.

It's neat enough when the writing is on the inside, but much more fun when it's on the outside.

HELL YEAH LETTER FOLD. Clearly I need to engage in more dead-tree correspondence.