IMPROPER DOSE NO. 10
Finally, Spring!
-by Barbora Horská (Curator / Editor-in-chief of Improper Dose)
Whether you call it winter blues or seasonal affective disorder, the end of February brings a promise that it’s finally over. Unless you have the opposite pattern of SAD and spring brings you into a downward spiral after months of calm. In that case, just know that you’re going to pull through and the world turns grey again soon. But if your well-being is more “being” than “well” no matter what the weather looks like, know that you’re doing great too! And when your brain gets confused about creating serotonin again, let alone how to keep it running long enough for you to notice, reach out! If you’re in Austria, you can do so here, here or here, to select a few.
For the rest of us, though, Sun, yay!
What can I say? We are still living in “pandemic times” so one has to focus on something good. Especially now when more and more governments in the world are using the Covid-19 crisis to strengthen their totalitarian regimes or at least push human rights restricting laws through parliament with much more ease than it would otherwise be possible.
Take Slovakia’s Ministry of Health, who only just a few weeks ago recorded the highest increase in coronavirus deaths in the world, puts his main focus into banning abortions as much as possible. Or their Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family who recently opened up a discussion on his official facebook profile as to whether or not churches should reopen, arguing that social services homes reported better in cases where patients had “spiritual help” and continues by mentioning the “Miracle of Trnava” in 1710. True story. At least the part where the Minister in a secular country uses religious miracles to ease safety measures. The rest, however, I will leave to your personal beliefs.
Notoriously known examples of why fundamentalists of any kind shouldn’t run a country (or anything else for that matter) are Russia and Belarus where protests against the government continue despite the low temperatures and where risk of being imprisoned for such a thing is almost as high as getting the coronavirus. To learn more about the topic from the perspective of a contemporary artist, read our interview with Ksenia Yurkova, who once was a political journalist in St. Petersburg.
But for the good news now! Because yes, we also have more of thus…
We’ve grown bigger and are happy to announce that three amazing humans (slash geniuses for fellow Brooklyn 99 fans) accepted the invitation to join the monthly Dose on a regular basis!
Get ready for Pedro del Real’s “Very Personal History” in a form of monthly comics, sometimes erotic series of short texts from Lina Piskernik and a mixed-media column full of joy by Andrea Zapanta Scharf.
Talking about amazing people, another big thanks and lots of (improper) hugs go to Aaron Scherer and Ted Green for letting us use their natural beauty to promote our new merch, made in collaboration with studio Miyagi and 101.
Rest of the ingredients include interviews with Asta Cink and Erika Farina, Oscar Cueto and International Music.
So go take your vitamins now and see you in March!
(Also known as the month when we start crying out of seasonal allergies instead of seasonal depression, yay!)