Five Star Friday's 140th Edition Is Brought to You By Haruki Murakami

This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by a dance, a song, domestic abuse, a room, a trailer, birth, growing up, objectivity, the power of five little words, the R word, internet anonymity, a boat, acceptance, peyote, belief, and Haruki Murakami:

What we seek is some kind of compensation for what we put up with.

     — Haruki Murakami

Share links to your own good weblog writing in the comments and share the wealth.

Happy Friday!

"7" from Black Hockey Jesus:

Holding you, swaying there in the school cafeteria of red arrow pierced hearts, my self consciousness fell away and I was able to just hold you, swaying there, in circles. I began to hope the song would never end, for this moment to somehow stay —imagining that perhaps the secret of living inhered in an endless dance with you.

"The Downside of Internet Anonymity For Women" by Susana Polo at The Mary Sue

"Maiden Voyage" from Cry It Out

"A Bedroom and a Song" by Aimee at Indie Ink:

He knew. This boy from the wrong side of the tracks. With the sea-blue bedroom eyes. He knew exactly what he was doing. With his 'fuck me/love me' music, his 'I'm lost without you' posters, the magnetic sex of the black light. The heat. The sweat. The smell of fucking and hormones. The sheets sticking to the inside of our thighs made it impossible to keep our clothes on. And the cicadas knew it. If the whippoorwill was our secret-keeper, the cicadas were the orchestra of our theme song.

"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (Poetry by Wallace Stevens; Lyrics by Paul McCartney; Boring stuff by me.)" from Spynotes

"Surrender" from My Tornado Alley

"Freedom: Choice or Gift?" from VanderMeander:

there has been some freedom in my life because of that phrase. And it has felt like a choice, which I never realized was possible. I guess I always figured I’d run around with my usual head-spinning confusion and one day God would bestow upon me the thing that would stop the spinning. I big spike through the head comes to mind… Though that doesn’t really feel like freedom…

But instead I got five little words that make me look at the events of my life very differently.

And somehow they change things.

"Free" from Future4Fina

"I'll Have a Glass of Peyote Tea, Peyote Salad and a Side Order of Peyote Fries" by Marc Campbell at Dangerous Minds

"If You Asked People to Not Use the Word 'Retard'" from Love That Max:

For all the times you felt sick to your stomach to see a string of smiling faces jokingly calling people "retard," for all the nasty responses you got and for all the non-responses, you will know that even if you've changed a few people's minds, your efforts will have been worth it.

"The Last Room" from The Squashed Bologna

"Delta Delta Delta" from No Pasa Nada

"Goodbye to All That" from Roger Ebert's Journal:

When first coming to terms with the fact that I would never speak again, I filled my head with denial and coping strategies. I would use my computer voice, for example. And I do. But that is no way to participate in the flow of a conversation, and I realize so clearly now that conversations are all about the flow, the timing, the music. Now that IBM's Big Blue has beaten a grandmaster at chess and promises to win at Jeopardy, I have a challenge that will grind it to a halt: I challenge Big Blue to tell a joke in a voice that has the tone and the timing, the words and the music, just right.

"I Believe In God" from The Blog Fodder

"Stereotypes and Self-righteousness" from Blah Blah Blog

Please come back and share good writing with us over the coming week to be featured on the next Five Star Friday. If you have read a really good piece on someone else's weblog, submit it by Thursday at midnight CST to have it featured on Five Star Friday.

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Comments

[Varda (SquashedMom)]

So happy to be here, thanks.

Can't wait to click away and see who my mates are... much good reading lies ahead of me... kids, please entertain yourselves, no fighting, Mama's got some blogs to read.

Also? I love Haruki Murakami. Perfect.

[Dara]

Wow, I am honored to be here. Thanks.

[Ellen - Love That Max]

I am psyched to be in the famous Friday roundup...and proud to be in such excellent company.

[Harriet M. Welsch]

A am thrilled to be included. Thank you so much!

[Fina]

I am, honestly, speechless which is amazing considering how much I can talk. Thank you for including my post. I really, really appreciate it.