As usual at this time of the semester, I’ve been preoccupied with teaching responsibilities, which overloads my ability and desire to blog, much less write anything extended (typed as I recall I have two essays to write that I completely forgot about). Excuses, excuses, right? Let’s be content with a wee update and I’ll spare you the dramatic story of my office building being occupied by protesting students yesterday, the impending 32% fee hike that will make a Berkeley education out of reach for many of my current students (and the similar fee hikes throughout the Cal State and community college systems), the sign on said building’s elevator reading “repairs delayed due to budget cuts”, the wonder about how disabled students are supposed to get to upper floor classes, and so on. I believe the word for the place I work right now would be “clusterf*ck”, but I am proud to be a part of the solidarity between students, faculty and staff that’s unfolding across the UC system.

However, there are bright points in any dark time, and I’m pleased to report that Slanted and Enchanted has a few kicks left in it even at the sixth month old mark. I did an interview with Tim O’Shea about the book, which you can read here, and there’s an interesting entry over at Carrie Brownstein’s NPR Monitor Mix blog about how people define the word indie (with some thoughtful contributions by people I interviewed for the book).As I prepare to put a period on my years of talking about indie and move on to an entirely different topic and project, I’m heartened that people are still out there fighting the good fight and DIYing the good DIY. Props.

Since birth, I’ve been lucky to be able to surround myself with women who are smart. So when it came time to get together a panel of people involved in independent media, arts, and business for the Moe’s event this past week, it was happily quite easy to reach out to some of them, in this case, Liz Lisle of Watchword Press and Shotgun Players, Nicole Neditch of Object D’Art and BayVAN, and Noelle Teele of Issues. And it was a bonus that Emilie Raguso, a blogger for this excellent new site OaklandLocal, came to the panel, took photos, and wrote up a thorough report (so much blogging is sloppy journalism that it’s nice when someone actually takes notes, and accurate ones at that!). Many thanks again to Owen Hill of Moe’s and to all the friends, family, and strangers who attended. I’d hoped that these panels would inspire people to do take the same plunge these women and I took years ago and get involved in this weird, blurry thing we call indie. Or independent, as the book’s subtitle originally read. And now that my wild streak of events has come to an end, extra thanks to everyone who pitched in and helped out this year. That was fun. Now I’m crawling under a blanket.