Introducing My Spiffy New YouTube Channel: Charlotte Issyvoo!

Well, I've done it. I've created a slick, new, youtube channel named, simply enough, Charlotte Issyvoo.

As you may or may not know, my husband is a somewhat famous youtuber with nearly 2,000,000 followers. He really liked my videos, but felt that I'd get more viewers if the videos about "serious" topics had their very own channel, instead of being all jumbled up with my videos about "lighter" topics. So he helped me put the plan into action ...

... and it looks pretty fancy, if I do say so myself.

If you like my blog, you will like my videos. They're very similar, as I do deep dives into some heavy topics, like what Trump did to put him on Epstein's list, and how everybody knew about it way back in 2016...

... how Jimmy Carter supported the pedophile, Peter Yarrow...

... how racism affects people's ideas about who traffics children ...

... and whether the Gilgo Beach killer was the inspiration for the novel, The Change.

I also look at a lot of Jewish topics, like why you should never assume you know a person's stance on Israel and Palestine just because he or she is Jewish...

... how to do your (Ashkenazi) Jewish genealogy...

... reassuring you that yes, it really can be done...

... how the traumas of Jewish history may have impacted Paul Simon's song, The Sound of Silence...

... the role of New York's, Jewish Lower East Side in the rom-com movie, Crossing Delancey...

... and the big question of just what an Ashkenazi Jew is in the first place.

You'll notice that style doesn't play as important a role in my Youtube channel as it did in my blog.

Well, yes and no.

First of all, I do still look at fashion when it's relevant...

... like as we watch Izzy emerge into a better sense of herself in Crossing Delancey...

... or in how inappropriately the supposedly teen victim is made to dress in the television series, The Jetty.

I also dress to match my videos in some way, like how I dressed to match the lesbian pulp novel, The Other Side of Desire, as I reviewed it...

... how I dressed in an allusion to my 13 year old self to remind everyone what a 13 year old trafficking victim really looks like as I talked about Trump and Epstein's pedophilia...

... or how I dressed like a "hag" to create a fairy tale allegory about child sex trafficking.

I also have some fun outfits coming up in future videos, like this one for a video about the classic...

... "hard boiled detective" in the 1950s radio series, Broadway Is My Beat.

But no, fashion doesn't play as big a role in my videos as it did in my blog, mostly because the need for ongoing Covid safety completely killed my ability to dress up and go out.

But don't worry, I am making videos about style...

... and vintage jewelry, just on my other channel: Sublime Mercies.


My husband and I are also starting a fun little channel called, Backyard Birds and Beasts, featuring all the wonderful creatures...

... who are drawn to the dream backyard we've created for the house we bought three years ago.

Crows feature very prominently, of course.

After all, we all need a little levity in these difficult times.

But the world is a pretty rough place these days, as I'm sure you know, and I've felt the need to talk about that even more than I did before.

I think we all need to try to be the change we want to see in the world. I did that with my blog the best I could.

Now I'm trying to do it just a little bit more than that.

So hop on over to Charlotte Issyvoo and see what you think.

Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence and the Jewish American Experience

 

Ever since I started doing my own Jewish genealogy, I hear Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence very differently. I've finally put my thoughts into a video. I'll be interested to hear what others think.

I've looked into Paul Simon's genealogy and, no surprise, it shares a great deal in common with my own, from the horrors of the pogroms... 

... and the general deprivation and systemic oppression of Jews in Lithuania and the larger Pale of Settlement in Eastern Europe...

... that led so many Jews to leave Europe as refugees and try their luck in New York...

... to the overcrowded...

... impoverished, "tenement halls" of the Lower East Side of Manhattan (ie the Jewish ghetto) that Simon sings about in the song...

... to the "words of the prophets" written on the "subway walls"...

... to the "neon lights that split the night"...

... to the peaceful but difficult silence of the very Jewish, Forest Hills, Queens ... 

... to Forest Hills High School...

... which Simon and Garfunkel attended...

... with my father...

... to the silence both my family and Paul Simon's kept to protect the youngsters from the pain of knowing their family's past and present suffering...

... and the alienation and anger about that silence that led my father, and Simon and Garfunkel to distance themselves from that silence... without knowing its cause. 

Yes, Paul Simon's family story and my own share a great deal in common.

And so I felt I might be a bit qualified to take second look at The Sound of Silence, a song we all know and think we understand... a second look that takes the Jewish American experience as the song's starting place, even if its fresh faced writer didn't even know it. 

Let me know what you think. 

1965 Lesbian Pulp Book Review: The Other Side of Desire by Paula Christian

Lesbian sex!

A typical lesbian pulp cover 

Okay, now that I've got your attention... Let me introduce you to the first in what I hope will become a series of book review videos.

For the record, I actually do have some cred when it comes to doing book reviews. My Bachelor's degree is in Communications, English, and Women's Studies, and my Master's degree is in English literature and language. I taught college English courses for many years, until my disability became too severe and I was forced to retire. I also wrote many book reviews and interviewed many authors when I was a journalist. 

Me at 19

I even have extra cred when it comes to doing a review of a lesbian pulp novel: I came out in 1989 at 18 years old, I wrote for gay and lesbian newspapers through the 90s and early 2000s, and I focused a lot on lesbian history in both my undergraduate and graduate degrees.

But mostly I just thought it would be fun to talk about the books I'm reading these days. Because: books! 

I even wore a 60s inspired outfit to review ...

... the 1965, lesbian pulp novel, The Other Side of Desire, by Paula Christian.

What was lesbian pulp? Where could people get it? Who read it? Was any of it any good? What was it like to be a lesbian in the mid 1960s? Why does lesbian pulp have such loopy covers? Is there as much sex in lesbian pulp novels as their covers would suggest? What was a New York city gay bar like in 1965?

Whatever happened to the author, Paula Christian, herself? 

And, most importantly, is The Other Side of Desire worth reading? 

The answer to these and many other questions can be found in my hot off the presses book review on my handy dandy Youtube channel, Charlotte Issyvoo's Sublime Mercies. So come on over, and see what's new. It's where all the cool kids are these days.