Natalia Antonova

Dear Elizabeth Wurtzel – you’re OK, really

I read this recent piece by Elizabeth Wurtzel with a mixture of recognition, sympathy, fear and frustration. Wurtzel is constantly derided as a pointless narcissist, but she has a lot of texture. Yeah, she’s absorbed in herself, but she submerges beautifully. She gives us something to marvel at in the process. There’s a nakedness toContinue reading “Dear Elizabeth Wurtzel – you’re OK, really”

Sexual Harassment: taking one for the team on Facebook

I’m friending back the strange men who add me on Facebook via the Jordan network, then having protracted conversations with them as to why they’re adding me, what they’re hoping to accomplish, etc. What immediately struck me is that they don’t try to make me interested in them – they assume I am interested rightContinue reading “Sexual Harassment: taking one for the team on Facebook”

You know, I’d say that this entire Derek Walcott thing has left a bad taste in my mouth

…But then, some pervert might interpret it as a come-on. *haw haw* As evil_fizz recently pointed out – most people are aware of Walcott’s reputation as, well, someone who doesn’t respect certain boundaries with women. As most of the recent defenses of Walcott attest, it isn’t that anyone is denying that improprities have occurred –Continue reading “You know, I’d say that this entire Derek Walcott thing has left a bad taste in my mouth”

Monday Music: the Yaroslava Edition

I’ve been reading the excellent Phonogram. Thinking about music as a kind of amber that can preserve both the beautiful and the bloody. In Kiev last week, I toook a break from Phonogramming away and met a friend for drinks comparatively late one night, then caught one of the newer marshrutkas home. Now this particular death-on-wheelsContinue reading “Monday Music: the Yaroslava Edition”

Being nearly 25, unmarried, female and from Kyiv

Being thus is a flashing green light for anyone who is dying to quote out loud that awesome thing they read this morning on the metro in a women’s magazine. Being thus is that pause in conversation. Being thus is the following phrase: “Get married, you can always have affairs later!” Being thus is rememberingContinue reading “Being nearly 25, unmarried, female and from Kyiv”