.
I disagreed with the producers’ throughout the production process. I disagreed with the producers’ often reiterated belief that the audience will not understand unless everything is spelled out. This impulse quashes the very power of what art brings to the expression. Art is in the multiplicity of reading. I am aware of my marginalized cultural perspective in relation to the vast majority of Canadian broadcast media I have consumed. My hypothesis in all contexts is: in the face of confusion, articulated questions can create meaning. Consensus about and agreement on meaning does not equate creation of knowledge. Consensus does not reflect a new way of seeing – which is my priority. Consensus reflects a whittling down of ideas.
– Dana Inkster, Blackness in the Atmosphere
.
August 28, 2020
August 22, 2020
Authenticity Was A Feeling: A conversation between Claudia La Rocco and Jacob Wren
.
Authenticity Was A Feeling:
A conversation between Claudia La Rocco and Jacob Wren
Monday August 24th, 8:30 Berlin Time
Online at Tanz im August
And you can of course still order the book Authenticity is a Feeling: My Life in PME-ART here.
Authenticity Was A Feeling:
A conversation between Claudia La Rocco and Jacob Wren
Monday August 24th, 8:30 Berlin Time
Online at Tanz im August
And you can of course still order the book Authenticity is a Feeling: My Life in PME-ART here.
.
July 17, 2020
Richard Beck Quote
.
The great historian Ellen Meiksins Wood has described America’s odd investment in what she calls “surplus” imperialism, the belief among America’s foreign policy establishment that it is not enough for America to be the most powerful country in the world — it must be the most powerful country by such a disproportionate margin that the very idea of anyone else overtaking it is unthinkable. In the words of Colin Powell in 1992, the US needs to be powerful enough “to deter any challenger from ever dreaming of challenging us on the world stage” (emphasis added). Or, in the words of George W. Bush’s 2002 National Security Strategy, “strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military buildup in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States” (again, emphasis added).
This may sound like the mindset of a comic-book villain, but America’s investment in surplus imperialism has a concrete, material basis. Since the end of World War II, the United States has been not only the world’s most powerful capitalist nation but the global custodian of capitalism itself. (That task had previously fallen to the system of European colonialism, which at its height occupied some 80 percent of the world.) In exchange for the privilege of enjoying the highest rates of consumption on earth, the United States also invests more than any other country in the direction, supervision, and maintenance of global capital flows. These investments take many forms, including the spearheading of free-trade agreements, the establishment of financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), support for governments that adhere to the capitalist consensus and the undermining of those that don’t, and the use of military force to pry open markets in cases where diplomacy and economic pressure aren’t enough. The “surplus” aspect of America’s imperialism is crucial, because capitalism requires stability and predictability through time in order to function smoothly. Investments need months, years, or decades to produce their returns, and people are only willing to invest their capital if they feel confident that the future is going to unfold in the way they expect. You don’t start producing almonds until you’re confident that almond milk isn’t just a passing fad, and you don’t move one of your factories to a new country if there’s a chance a leftist government will come to power and expropriate the factory. Financial markets move every day in response to changes in these ephemeral moods, and the financial press has names for them: uncertainty, consumer confidence, business expectations.
Surplus imperialism is an effort to keep uncertainty to a minimum. It’s good to be strong enough to defeat a country that attempts a military land grab against one of its neighbors (as with Saddam Hussein and Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War). But from the perspective of capital markets, it’s much better for the US to be so strong that nobody even thinks about attempting the land grab in the first place. And in a sense, the surplus imperialist mindset isn’t only or even primarily aimed at America’s enemies. Countries like Venezuela and North Korea are already perfectly aware that they have no hope of equaling American power. Rather, the psychological force of surplus imperialism is aimed squarely at America’s friends — countries on the make, like Turkey, India, and Brazil, which are discouraged from getting any big ideas about creative new alliances even as the brute facts of America’s declining power unfold in full view, year after year — and frenemies like Russia and China, regional powers with whom a full-scale military confrontation remains unimaginable, but only so long as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping agree there’s no upside to imagining it.
American imperialism is not a recent development, and neither are American military interventions in pursuit of imperialist goals. But the kind of surplus imperialism to which the US is now committed, accounting for nearly 40 percent of global military spending on its own, is new. It dates roughly from the end of the cold war, and it has produced a doctrine under which the US can take military action anywhere in the world whenever it wants, with no explanation required. The tradition of “just war,” which previously dominated political rhetoric about military action, was flexible to the point of near incoherence, but at the very least it demanded that war be declared with a specific goal in mind, that it be declared by an appropriate authority, and that the destruction inflicted be proportionate to the aims one hoped to achieve. All of that went out the door with George W. Bush and the global war on terror. The country’s new rationale for military action became a part of American law when Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force in September 2001. As Wood puts it, “military action now requires no specific aim at all.”
- Richard Beck, We Used to Run This Country
.
The great historian Ellen Meiksins Wood has described America’s odd investment in what she calls “surplus” imperialism, the belief among America’s foreign policy establishment that it is not enough for America to be the most powerful country in the world — it must be the most powerful country by such a disproportionate margin that the very idea of anyone else overtaking it is unthinkable. In the words of Colin Powell in 1992, the US needs to be powerful enough “to deter any challenger from ever dreaming of challenging us on the world stage” (emphasis added). Or, in the words of George W. Bush’s 2002 National Security Strategy, “strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military buildup in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States” (again, emphasis added).
This may sound like the mindset of a comic-book villain, but America’s investment in surplus imperialism has a concrete, material basis. Since the end of World War II, the United States has been not only the world’s most powerful capitalist nation but the global custodian of capitalism itself. (That task had previously fallen to the system of European colonialism, which at its height occupied some 80 percent of the world.) In exchange for the privilege of enjoying the highest rates of consumption on earth, the United States also invests more than any other country in the direction, supervision, and maintenance of global capital flows. These investments take many forms, including the spearheading of free-trade agreements, the establishment of financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), support for governments that adhere to the capitalist consensus and the undermining of those that don’t, and the use of military force to pry open markets in cases where diplomacy and economic pressure aren’t enough. The “surplus” aspect of America’s imperialism is crucial, because capitalism requires stability and predictability through time in order to function smoothly. Investments need months, years, or decades to produce their returns, and people are only willing to invest their capital if they feel confident that the future is going to unfold in the way they expect. You don’t start producing almonds until you’re confident that almond milk isn’t just a passing fad, and you don’t move one of your factories to a new country if there’s a chance a leftist government will come to power and expropriate the factory. Financial markets move every day in response to changes in these ephemeral moods, and the financial press has names for them: uncertainty, consumer confidence, business expectations.
Surplus imperialism is an effort to keep uncertainty to a minimum. It’s good to be strong enough to defeat a country that attempts a military land grab against one of its neighbors (as with Saddam Hussein and Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War). But from the perspective of capital markets, it’s much better for the US to be so strong that nobody even thinks about attempting the land grab in the first place. And in a sense, the surplus imperialist mindset isn’t only or even primarily aimed at America’s enemies. Countries like Venezuela and North Korea are already perfectly aware that they have no hope of equaling American power. Rather, the psychological force of surplus imperialism is aimed squarely at America’s friends — countries on the make, like Turkey, India, and Brazil, which are discouraged from getting any big ideas about creative new alliances even as the brute facts of America’s declining power unfold in full view, year after year — and frenemies like Russia and China, regional powers with whom a full-scale military confrontation remains unimaginable, but only so long as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping agree there’s no upside to imagining it.
American imperialism is not a recent development, and neither are American military interventions in pursuit of imperialist goals. But the kind of surplus imperialism to which the US is now committed, accounting for nearly 40 percent of global military spending on its own, is new. It dates roughly from the end of the cold war, and it has produced a doctrine under which the US can take military action anywhere in the world whenever it wants, with no explanation required. The tradition of “just war,” which previously dominated political rhetoric about military action, was flexible to the point of near incoherence, but at the very least it demanded that war be declared with a specific goal in mind, that it be declared by an appropriate authority, and that the destruction inflicted be proportionate to the aims one hoped to achieve. All of that went out the door with George W. Bush and the global war on terror. The country’s new rationale for military action became a part of American law when Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force in September 2001. As Wood puts it, “military action now requires no specific aim at all.”
- Richard Beck, We Used to Run This Country
.
July 1, 2020
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Quote
.
We can’t win with the idea that only black people can fight for black people, white people should fight for working class white people, Latinos should only fight for themselves. We can’t win that way. And we have a lifetime of experience over the previous century that is proof of that. And I like to think of myself as an Afro optimist. I think that the black struggle in this country has been a source of inspiration for people around the world, because this is the most exploitative, the most oppressive country, just simply because it has the resources to be different. You know, this is not a struggling republic that has no money and resorts to brute force in order to eke out an existence. This is the richest country in the history of the world, where its ruling class deliberately sets poor and working class people in opposition to each other, to maintain wealth at the top of our society. And we acquiesce to that politically by reinforcing the lines of division that they have drawn in the first place. And so we have to think about solidarity as not an exercise in finding the least contentious issue around which to organise, so that’s not what we’re arguing for. We’re arguing for an informed solidarity based on an understanding of the oppression of black people and a rejection of it, an understanding of the oppression and exploitation of immigrant labour in the United States and a rejection of it. And that’s hard. It is hard. But there’s no other way. There’s no shortcut. There’s no way to circumvent the need for what Combahee talked about as coalition-building and the need for what is actually playing out in the streets right now, which is a multiracial rebellion against capitalism and the excesses of it. And so people want to be in a movement. People want to be a part of an effort to transform this country. And no one should be told that you can’t be a part of it, you know? And so to me, that’s part of what it means to democratise our movements, to open them up and to struggle. You know, we have to struggle with each other. And we can’t have this kind of sacrosanct approach to politics where you don’t get to say the wrong thing. You don’t get to make a mistake. And if you do, then you’re banished from organising. Because the reality is if that is the standard that we are creating, then we’ll never have a mass movement of ordinary people who’d make those mistakes and say those things all the time. And so if it’s you and your 12 friends who had your American studies seminar and your women’s studies seminar, and you figured out what all the language is, then that’s great, and good luck. But if we’re actually going to build a movement of the masses who are affected by this, then we have to have some grace, then we have to listen to people. We have to understand what their struggles are. And we have to find a way to knit ourselves together into a force that can actually fight for the world that we want. And that’s hard. And it’s much harder than just saying ‘you people go to the back because you haven’t experienced what it’s like to be called the N word’. We’re not going to get anywhere with that. And we have to have a different vision of politics to fight for the kind of world that we want.
- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, from the interview How do you change things?
.
We can’t win with the idea that only black people can fight for black people, white people should fight for working class white people, Latinos should only fight for themselves. We can’t win that way. And we have a lifetime of experience over the previous century that is proof of that. And I like to think of myself as an Afro optimist. I think that the black struggle in this country has been a source of inspiration for people around the world, because this is the most exploitative, the most oppressive country, just simply because it has the resources to be different. You know, this is not a struggling republic that has no money and resorts to brute force in order to eke out an existence. This is the richest country in the history of the world, where its ruling class deliberately sets poor and working class people in opposition to each other, to maintain wealth at the top of our society. And we acquiesce to that politically by reinforcing the lines of division that they have drawn in the first place. And so we have to think about solidarity as not an exercise in finding the least contentious issue around which to organise, so that’s not what we’re arguing for. We’re arguing for an informed solidarity based on an understanding of the oppression of black people and a rejection of it, an understanding of the oppression and exploitation of immigrant labour in the United States and a rejection of it. And that’s hard. It is hard. But there’s no other way. There’s no shortcut. There’s no way to circumvent the need for what Combahee talked about as coalition-building and the need for what is actually playing out in the streets right now, which is a multiracial rebellion against capitalism and the excesses of it. And so people want to be in a movement. People want to be a part of an effort to transform this country. And no one should be told that you can’t be a part of it, you know? And so to me, that’s part of what it means to democratise our movements, to open them up and to struggle. You know, we have to struggle with each other. And we can’t have this kind of sacrosanct approach to politics where you don’t get to say the wrong thing. You don’t get to make a mistake. And if you do, then you’re banished from organising. Because the reality is if that is the standard that we are creating, then we’ll never have a mass movement of ordinary people who’d make those mistakes and say those things all the time. And so if it’s you and your 12 friends who had your American studies seminar and your women’s studies seminar, and you figured out what all the language is, then that’s great, and good luck. But if we’re actually going to build a movement of the masses who are affected by this, then we have to have some grace, then we have to listen to people. We have to understand what their struggles are. And we have to find a way to knit ourselves together into a force that can actually fight for the world that we want. And that’s hard. And it’s much harder than just saying ‘you people go to the back because you haven’t experienced what it’s like to be called the N word’. We’re not going to get anywhere with that. And we have to have a different vision of politics to fight for the kind of world that we want.
- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, from the interview How do you change things?
.
June 18, 2020
Enters performing at Suoni Per Il Popolo
Enters [Alexei Perry Cox · Jacob Wren · Radwan Ghazi Moumneh] live at Montréal's Hotel2Tango on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 as part of the Suoni Per Il Popolo.
.
May 20, 2020
Vulnerable Paradoxes / May 27-31
.
We've been working on Vulnerable Paradoxes for so long and now it's finally going to happen. When we started it was a live event. And now, for obvious reasons, it will be online. So curious what everyone will say and do. So grateful that so many remarkable artists are participating: Aisha Sasha John + Dana Michel + Dayna Danger + Elena Stoodley + Kama La Mackerel + Kamissa Ma Koïta + Lara Kramer + Mai t̶h̶i Bach Ngoc Nguyen + Malik Nashad Sharpe + Milton Lim + nènè myriam konaté + Po B. K. Lomami + Sonia Hughes
You can find all the details here.
.
We've been working on Vulnerable Paradoxes for so long and now it's finally going to happen. When we started it was a live event. And now, for obvious reasons, it will be online. So curious what everyone will say and do. So grateful that so many remarkable artists are participating: Aisha Sasha John + Dana Michel + Dayna Danger + Elena Stoodley + Kama La Mackerel + Kamissa Ma Koïta + Lara Kramer + Mai t̶h̶i Bach Ngoc Nguyen + Malik Nashad Sharpe + Milton Lim + nènè myriam konaté + Po B. K. Lomami + Sonia Hughes
You can find all the details here.
.
May 10, 2020
A pushing into the mainstream of something that wasn't quite there before.
.
Over the last week or two I've been listening to a lot of John Prine, Tony Allen, Kraftwerk and Little Richard. I'm not sure there's any other circumstances in which I'd find myself thinking of these artists together. But I find myself starting to think that they do all have something in common. A certain stubbornness and panache. A pushing into the mainstream of something that wasn't quite there before. There is also something along the lines of Prine being framed as a "songwriter's songwriter." (Which reminds me of this quote from Prine: "In my songs, I try to look through someone else’s eyes, and I want to give the audience a feeling more than a message.") These are all artists who have influenced and inspired so many other artists. I was especially struck by both Dylan and Jagger speaking about how much Little Richard has meant to them (which echoes the extent to which rock 'n' roll is just white artists ripping off black music.) And I can't think of Kraftwerk without also thinking of Afrika Bambaataa. Hip Hop is of course filled with Tony Allen samples and Allen was respected and admired by drummers of every stripe. I've never quite formulated this before, but maybe that's something I should consider more with artists. When they're admired by other artists it really seems to mean something about the breadth and depth of the work, the ways their influences radiate out in every direction.
.
Over the last week or two I've been listening to a lot of John Prine, Tony Allen, Kraftwerk and Little Richard. I'm not sure there's any other circumstances in which I'd find myself thinking of these artists together. But I find myself starting to think that they do all have something in common. A certain stubbornness and panache. A pushing into the mainstream of something that wasn't quite there before. There is also something along the lines of Prine being framed as a "songwriter's songwriter." (Which reminds me of this quote from Prine: "In my songs, I try to look through someone else’s eyes, and I want to give the audience a feeling more than a message.") These are all artists who have influenced and inspired so many other artists. I was especially struck by both Dylan and Jagger speaking about how much Little Richard has meant to them (which echoes the extent to which rock 'n' roll is just white artists ripping off black music.) And I can't think of Kraftwerk without also thinking of Afrika Bambaataa. Hip Hop is of course filled with Tony Allen samples and Allen was respected and admired by drummers of every stripe. I've never quite formulated this before, but maybe that's something I should consider more with artists. When they're admired by other artists it really seems to mean something about the breadth and depth of the work, the ways their influences radiate out in every direction.
.
May 8, 2020
Ama Ata Aidoo Quote
.
Do I think it must always be so? Certainly not. It can be changed. It can be better. Life on earth need not always be some humans being gods and others being sacrificial animals. Indeed, that can be changed. But it would take so much. No, not time. There has always been enough time for anything anyone ever really wanted to do. What it would take is a lot of thinking and a good deal of doing. But one wonders whether we are prepared to tire our minds and our bodies that much. Are we human beings even prepared to try?
– Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes
.
Do I think it must always be so? Certainly not. It can be changed. It can be better. Life on earth need not always be some humans being gods and others being sacrificial animals. Indeed, that can be changed. But it would take so much. No, not time. There has always been enough time for anything anyone ever really wanted to do. What it would take is a lot of thinking and a good deal of doing. But one wonders whether we are prepared to tire our minds and our bodies that much. Are we human beings even prepared to try?
– Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes
.
May 4, 2020
the joy of using less
.
I've been trying to come up with an environmental slogan along the lines of: the joy of using less. About how when we consume less resources, and instead focus on what's most important, our lives have the potential to become better rather than worse. I'm also searching for the anti-capitalist edge to it, since capitalism relies on so much overconsumption and waste. Something about how using less becomes joyous when it's a collective effort toward meaningful survival. But I don't feel I'm quite on the right track.
.
I've been trying to come up with an environmental slogan along the lines of: the joy of using less. About how when we consume less resources, and instead focus on what's most important, our lives have the potential to become better rather than worse. I'm also searching for the anti-capitalist edge to it, since capitalism relies on so much overconsumption and waste. Something about how using less becomes joyous when it's a collective effort toward meaningful survival. But I don't feel I'm quite on the right track.
.
May 1, 2020
Some Bandcamp Suggestions
.
[As you may already know, today (May 1), as well as on June 5, and July 3 (the first Friday of each month), Bandcamp is waiving their revenue share for all sales on Bandcamp, from midnight to midnight PDT on each day in order to help artists and labels impacted by the pandemic. Since, as I frequently mention, I really love lists, I thought I would take this moment to share a few of my Bandcamp suggestions as follows.]
Spellling – Mazy Fly
SACRED//PAWS - Run Around The Sun
Tony Allen - Black Voices
Tony Allen - HomeCooking
Tony Allen - NEPA
The Lijadu Sisters - Sunshine
The Lijadu Sisters - Horizon Unlimited
Paradis Artificiel - Paradis Artificiel
Richard Dawson - 2020
Hélène Barbier - Have You Met Elliott?
Witch Prophet - DNA ACTIVATION
Farai - Rebirth
Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You?
Moor Mother - CLEPSYDRA
700 Bliss - Spa 700
dj haram - Grace
Mohamed Lamouri & Groupe Mostla - Underground Raï Love
Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari - Grounation
Nappy Nina - Dumb Doubt
Nappy Nina - 30 Bag
Wilma Vritra - Burd
Meara O'Reilly - Hockets for Two Voices (EP)
Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids - Rhapsody in Berlin Pt. 1 & 2
Angel Bat Dawid - The Oracle
Angel Bat Dawid - Transition East
Ben Reed - Station Masters
Davis - Green Parakeet Suite
Fatima - And Yet It's All Love
Joe Maneri, Udi Hrant and Friends - The Cleopatra Record
KeiyaA - Forever- Ya Girl
Locate S-1 - Healing Contest
Malphino - Visit Malphino
Mourning [A] BLKstar - Reckoning
Mourning [A] BLKstar - The Cycle
NSRD - The Workshop For The Restoration Of Unfelt Feelings
Outro Tempo: Electronic And Contemporary Music From Brazil 1978-1992
Outro Tempo II
Good God! Apocryphal Hymns
Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal
Good God! Born Again Funk
Uneven Paths: Deviant Pop From Europe 1980-1991
Nextlife
Richenel - Perfect Stranger
その他の短編ズ / sonotanotanpenz - 31
Ivy Sole - Overgrown
Mammane Sani et son Orgue - La Musique Electronique du Niger
Nadah El Shazly - Ahwar
RP Boo - I'll Tell You What!
Sweet As Broken Dates Lost - Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa
The Sorority - Pledge
Zatua - Sin Existencia
Mega Bog - Gone Banana
Mega Bog - Happy Together
Mega Bog - Dolphine
Edwyn Collins - Understated
Robert Forster - Inferno
Peter Perrett - How The West Was Won
serpentwithfeet - blisters
Eucalyptus - Fascination In Sound
TOOLS YOU CAN TRUST - Working And Shopping
Marion Cousin & Kaumwald - Tu rabo par'abanico
Deena Abdelwahed - Dhakar
Main Attrakionz - 808s & Dark Grapes II
Sandro Perri - Soft Landing
Nicholas Krgovich - IN AN OPEN FIELD
Elysia Crampton - Elysia Crampton
Frank and His Sisters - Frank and His Sisters
The Mauskovic Dance Band - The Mauskovic Dance Band
Kelan Philip Cohran & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
MIKE - tears of joy
MIKE - War in my Pen
Ric Wilson, Terrace Martin - They Call Me Disco
Klein - ONLY
Klein - Tommy
Klein - Lifetime
Klein - Frozen
Lolina - Live in Paris
Lolina - The Smoke
Nyege Nyege Tapes - Sounds of Sisso
DJ Rashad - Double Cup
Tirzah - Devotion
Okkyung Lee - Yeo-Neun
Nancy Dupree - Ghetto Reality
.
[As you may already know, today (May 1), as well as on June 5, and July 3 (the first Friday of each month), Bandcamp is waiving their revenue share for all sales on Bandcamp, from midnight to midnight PDT on each day in order to help artists and labels impacted by the pandemic. Since, as I frequently mention, I really love lists, I thought I would take this moment to share a few of my Bandcamp suggestions as follows.]
Spellling – Mazy Fly
SACRED//PAWS - Run Around The Sun
Tony Allen - Black Voices
Tony Allen - HomeCooking
Tony Allen - NEPA
The Lijadu Sisters - Sunshine
The Lijadu Sisters - Horizon Unlimited
Paradis Artificiel - Paradis Artificiel
Richard Dawson - 2020
Hélène Barbier - Have You Met Elliott?
Witch Prophet - DNA ACTIVATION
Farai - Rebirth
Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You?
Moor Mother - CLEPSYDRA
700 Bliss - Spa 700
dj haram - Grace
Mohamed Lamouri & Groupe Mostla - Underground Raï Love
Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari - Grounation
Nappy Nina - Dumb Doubt
Nappy Nina - 30 Bag
Wilma Vritra - Burd
Meara O'Reilly - Hockets for Two Voices (EP)
Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids - Rhapsody in Berlin Pt. 1 & 2
Angel Bat Dawid - The Oracle
Angel Bat Dawid - Transition East
Ben Reed - Station Masters
Davis - Green Parakeet Suite
Fatima - And Yet It's All Love
Joe Maneri, Udi Hrant and Friends - The Cleopatra Record
KeiyaA - Forever- Ya Girl
Locate S-1 - Healing Contest
Malphino - Visit Malphino
Mourning [A] BLKstar - Reckoning
Mourning [A] BLKstar - The Cycle
NSRD - The Workshop For The Restoration Of Unfelt Feelings
Outro Tempo: Electronic And Contemporary Music From Brazil 1978-1992
Outro Tempo II
Good God! Apocryphal Hymns
Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal
Good God! Born Again Funk
Uneven Paths: Deviant Pop From Europe 1980-1991
Nextlife
Richenel - Perfect Stranger
その他の短編ズ / sonotanotanpenz - 31
Ivy Sole - Overgrown
Mammane Sani et son Orgue - La Musique Electronique du Niger
Nadah El Shazly - Ahwar
RP Boo - I'll Tell You What!
Sweet As Broken Dates Lost - Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa
The Sorority - Pledge
Zatua - Sin Existencia
Mega Bog - Gone Banana
Mega Bog - Happy Together
Mega Bog - Dolphine
Edwyn Collins - Understated
Robert Forster - Inferno
Peter Perrett - How The West Was Won
serpentwithfeet - blisters
Eucalyptus - Fascination In Sound
TOOLS YOU CAN TRUST - Working And Shopping
Marion Cousin & Kaumwald - Tu rabo par'abanico
Deena Abdelwahed - Dhakar
Main Attrakionz - 808s & Dark Grapes II
Sandro Perri - Soft Landing
Nicholas Krgovich - IN AN OPEN FIELD
Elysia Crampton - Elysia Crampton
Frank and His Sisters - Frank and His Sisters
The Mauskovic Dance Band - The Mauskovic Dance Band
Kelan Philip Cohran & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
MIKE - tears of joy
MIKE - War in my Pen
Ric Wilson, Terrace Martin - They Call Me Disco
Klein - ONLY
Klein - Tommy
Klein - Lifetime
Klein - Frozen
Lolina - Live in Paris
Lolina - The Smoke
Nyege Nyege Tapes - Sounds of Sisso
DJ Rashad - Double Cup
Tirzah - Devotion
Okkyung Lee - Yeo-Neun
Nancy Dupree - Ghetto Reality
.
April 23, 2020
"so fierce that the phrase buggy-whip maker became a business simile for loser"
.
I've been thinking about this quote regularly since I first read it in 2015:
"In 1915, as the American economy boomed, the huge supply chain that supported horse-drawn transport—harnesses and horseshoes, wagons and buggies makers (13,000 of them), farriers and blacksmiths, hay balers and feedmills—looked like a robust and vital segment for deploying capital. 1920 was the year of “Peak Horse” in the U.S.. By 1940 it was gone. This was not “low-cost”, incremental progress. It was an economic disruption so fierce that the phrase “buggy-whip maker” became a business simile for loser."
And I thought of it again the other day when I read the headline:
The day oil was worth less than $0 — and nobody wanted it
And then, a few days later, this headline:
Big Banks Pull Financing, Prepare To Seize Assets From Collapsing Oil and Gas Industry
If environmentalists, meaning (I believe or at least hope) the majority of us, find as many ways as possible to seize the moment, I don't see why this couldn't be the beginning of the end for the fossil fuel industry.
[The first quote is from Carl Pope's 2015 article Get Ready for Ugly as "Free Markets" Begin to Deal With Climate Crisis.]
.
I've been thinking about this quote regularly since I first read it in 2015:
"In 1915, as the American economy boomed, the huge supply chain that supported horse-drawn transport—harnesses and horseshoes, wagons and buggies makers (13,000 of them), farriers and blacksmiths, hay balers and feedmills—looked like a robust and vital segment for deploying capital. 1920 was the year of “Peak Horse” in the U.S.. By 1940 it was gone. This was not “low-cost”, incremental progress. It was an economic disruption so fierce that the phrase “buggy-whip maker” became a business simile for loser."
And I thought of it again the other day when I read the headline:
The day oil was worth less than $0 — and nobody wanted it
And then, a few days later, this headline:
Big Banks Pull Financing, Prepare To Seize Assets From Collapsing Oil and Gas Industry
If environmentalists, meaning (I believe or at least hope) the majority of us, find as many ways as possible to seize the moment, I don't see why this couldn't be the beginning of the end for the fossil fuel industry.
[The first quote is from Carl Pope's 2015 article Get Ready for Ugly as "Free Markets" Begin to Deal With Climate Crisis.]
.
April 19, 2020
"Those are really my people."
.
"I often say I don’t necessarily relate to people who make art, performance, or literature, but I do relate to people who make art, performance, and literature who think of quitting every fifteen seconds. Those are really my people. I call us the boy-who-cried wolf set, since we always announce we’re quitting but never do, and therefore no one believes us anymore. It seems to me that anyone who works in the arts today and doesn’t have serious, ongoing doubts as to the validity or efficacy of the situation is not facing all of the current, inherent problems and questions with open eyes."
- an excerpt from Authenticity is a Feeling: My Life in PME-ART
.
"I often say I don’t necessarily relate to people who make art, performance, or literature, but I do relate to people who make art, performance, and literature who think of quitting every fifteen seconds. Those are really my people. I call us the boy-who-cried wolf set, since we always announce we’re quitting but never do, and therefore no one believes us anymore. It seems to me that anyone who works in the arts today and doesn’t have serious, ongoing doubts as to the validity or efficacy of the situation is not facing all of the current, inherent problems and questions with open eyes."
- an excerpt from Authenticity is a Feeling: My Life in PME-ART
.
April 13, 2020
And it's the exact same virus.
.
There's something I've been thinking about a lot. In Germany the fatality rate is estimated to be around 1%. And in Italy the fatality rate is somewhere over 10%. And it's the exact same virus.
The virus is one thing, but political factors surrounding it - the ways governments and societies handle the situation - really seem to have a rather large role.
I might have known this before but I never quite understood it in such a visceral way.
.
There's something I've been thinking about a lot. In Germany the fatality rate is estimated to be around 1%. And in Italy the fatality rate is somewhere over 10%. And it's the exact same virus.
The virus is one thing, but political factors surrounding it - the ways governments and societies handle the situation - really seem to have a rather large role.
I might have known this before but I never quite understood it in such a visceral way.
.
April 9, 2020
Last night I couldn't sleep...
.
Last night I couldn't sleep. And I started thinking about how, in the early months of 2020, before the lockdown, I went to a series of cultural events that, each in their own way, completely blew me away. It felt like I was on a roll. There were four amazing Drawn & Quarterly book launches: Lisa Robertson, Kai Cheng Thom, Desmond Cole and Kaie Kellough. Each of these events was completely packed, almost too packed, and each of these writers said so many things, almost too many things, I found so thought-provoking and moving. And then there was Le Short & Sweet recyclé XXL, which also was an almost never-ending stream of artists and moments where it continuously felt like something was really happening. Then the last event I went to, the bilingual reading Épiques Voices, that also just had so much striking and performative work in both languages. And since then I have not been in a single over-crowded room. Already it all seems so long ago.
.
Last night I couldn't sleep. And I started thinking about how, in the early months of 2020, before the lockdown, I went to a series of cultural events that, each in their own way, completely blew me away. It felt like I was on a roll. There were four amazing Drawn & Quarterly book launches: Lisa Robertson, Kai Cheng Thom, Desmond Cole and Kaie Kellough. Each of these events was completely packed, almost too packed, and each of these writers said so many things, almost too many things, I found so thought-provoking and moving. And then there was Le Short & Sweet recyclé XXL, which also was an almost never-ending stream of artists and moments where it continuously felt like something was really happening. Then the last event I went to, the bilingual reading Épiques Voices, that also just had so much striking and performative work in both languages. And since then I have not been in a single over-crowded room. Already it all seems so long ago.
.
March 23, 2020
March 21, 2020
Ideas for Pandemic Short Stories
.
A large number of healthy young people volunteer to contract the virus and live together in a luxury quarantine hotel in order to, over time, boost herd immunity.
In the early days of the pandemic, before many people know what it is, a young man contracts the virus and immediately decides to pay a visit to the now elderly priest who abused him as a child.
In a misguided suicide attempt, an elderly man tries, and fails, to contract the virus.
Waiting in line to get tested for the virus, two strangers meet and fall in love. When they receive their test results one of them has tested positive and the other negative.
People sit alone in their apartments wondering how long this will last.
A young, would-be dictator considers the possibility that “voluntary social distancing” might be the key to his future success.
For the first time in history a socialist is about to be elected president. And then the pandemic hits.
An activist group devises a means of protest in which every protester stands exactly six feet away from ever other protester.
A meeting at which everyone arrives, washes their hands, sits six feet away from each other, and talks.
A politician, having been told the pandemic is completely under control, takes a wrong turn and ends up in one of the poorest neighbourhoods, where he learns things aren’t under control at all.
A new couple meet and fall in love just as the pandemic strikes and spend three months locked in their apartment having sex in every possible way.
The virus rapidly spreads through the police force.
At the factory where they assemble the virus tests, the poorly paid workers contract the virus and spread it through the tests.
As he lies in bed dying of the virus, an elderly right-wing billionaire – who spent his entire life fighting against public services (especially against public healthcare) – reflects on the fact that if there had been more effective healthcare the virus might not have spread so rapidly and therefore he might not be dying now.
A mutual aid group acquire a ventilator and teach themselves how to use it by watching YouTube tutorials.
During a rent strike, the landlord comes over to meet the tenants as a group and, for the first time, they end up having a real discussion about all of their lives.
A vaccine is developed and the world rejoices. But soon scientists discover it is only effective in fifty percent of the population and no one can figure out why.
A woman recounts the life story of her parents, who tragically both passed away at the exact same time.
Two science aficionados are arguing on Twitter over whether the actual fatality rate is 1% or 0.8%, when one of them receives a text message that his childhood best friend has died.
The author recounts reading two different online articles about the virus, as each one presents a set of facts that are basically opposite to the other.
An anti-vaxxer has a deep crisis of faith.
A Hollywood screenwriter pitches a superhero film in which all the superheroes catch the virus. The pitch does not go well.
.
A large number of healthy young people volunteer to contract the virus and live together in a luxury quarantine hotel in order to, over time, boost herd immunity.
In the early days of the pandemic, before many people know what it is, a young man contracts the virus and immediately decides to pay a visit to the now elderly priest who abused him as a child.
In a misguided suicide attempt, an elderly man tries, and fails, to contract the virus.
Waiting in line to get tested for the virus, two strangers meet and fall in love. When they receive their test results one of them has tested positive and the other negative.
People sit alone in their apartments wondering how long this will last.
A young, would-be dictator considers the possibility that “voluntary social distancing” might be the key to his future success.
For the first time in history a socialist is about to be elected president. And then the pandemic hits.
An activist group devises a means of protest in which every protester stands exactly six feet away from ever other protester.
A meeting at which everyone arrives, washes their hands, sits six feet away from each other, and talks.
A politician, having been told the pandemic is completely under control, takes a wrong turn and ends up in one of the poorest neighbourhoods, where he learns things aren’t under control at all.
A new couple meet and fall in love just as the pandemic strikes and spend three months locked in their apartment having sex in every possible way.
The virus rapidly spreads through the police force.
At the factory where they assemble the virus tests, the poorly paid workers contract the virus and spread it through the tests.
As he lies in bed dying of the virus, an elderly right-wing billionaire – who spent his entire life fighting against public services (especially against public healthcare) – reflects on the fact that if there had been more effective healthcare the virus might not have spread so rapidly and therefore he might not be dying now.
A mutual aid group acquire a ventilator and teach themselves how to use it by watching YouTube tutorials.
During a rent strike, the landlord comes over to meet the tenants as a group and, for the first time, they end up having a real discussion about all of their lives.
A vaccine is developed and the world rejoices. But soon scientists discover it is only effective in fifty percent of the population and no one can figure out why.
A woman recounts the life story of her parents, who tragically both passed away at the exact same time.
Two science aficionados are arguing on Twitter over whether the actual fatality rate is 1% or 0.8%, when one of them receives a text message that his childhood best friend has died.
The author recounts reading two different online articles about the virus, as each one presents a set of facts that are basically opposite to the other.
An anti-vaxxer has a deep crisis of faith.
A Hollywood screenwriter pitches a superhero film in which all the superheroes catch the virus. The pitch does not go well.
.
March 20, 2020
Rob Horning Quote
.
When Gene Simmons insists that he wants to “rock and roll all night and party everyday,” we should understand that as an admission that not only does he fail to do those things, but he is in dire need of convincing himself that he actually wants to.
- Rob Horning
.
When Gene Simmons insists that he wants to “rock and roll all night and party everyday,” we should understand that as an admission that not only does he fail to do those things, but he is in dire need of convincing himself that he actually wants to.
- Rob Horning
.
March 18, 2020
Bernadette Mayer Quote
.
Something shifts and as Wittgenstein would say, and anybody else not normal, to take some pleasure in being obsessively careful, to quietly comb out the baby’s hair and take one’s time, to decorate the children with ribbons and whisper to them, to prepare special foods, secret inducements, to linger conversing about the dreams in bed, to encourage the counting of peanuts, these are the methods of the usual, inducements to the ordinary, to pass the time, to adduce pleasure, to encounter danger, to see silver spots before the eyes without fear, the safest form with which to take risks, the advertisement of the days of misery if I can still look up and see the man with the glove and a chance image of the accumulation of objects, the storehouse of pictures which will not work out in memory, there’s only one time when you can’t be doing this or that kind of work and have something like a drink make it easier than it is, and that’s when you’re giving birth to a baby but there’s nothing new about that.
– Bernadette Mayer, from The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters
.
Something shifts and as Wittgenstein would say, and anybody else not normal, to take some pleasure in being obsessively careful, to quietly comb out the baby’s hair and take one’s time, to decorate the children with ribbons and whisper to them, to prepare special foods, secret inducements, to linger conversing about the dreams in bed, to encourage the counting of peanuts, these are the methods of the usual, inducements to the ordinary, to pass the time, to adduce pleasure, to encounter danger, to see silver spots before the eyes without fear, the safest form with which to take risks, the advertisement of the days of misery if I can still look up and see the man with the glove and a chance image of the accumulation of objects, the storehouse of pictures which will not work out in memory, there’s only one time when you can’t be doing this or that kind of work and have something like a drink make it easier than it is, and that’s when you’re giving birth to a baby but there’s nothing new about that.
– Bernadette Mayer, from The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters
.
March 17, 2020
One of my first thoughts in the early days of the pandemic...
.
One of my first thoughts in the early days of the pandemic was: social distancing and closing borders, those are things dictators like.
I knew I had to be careful how I said such things. These were also scientifically proven strategies to reduce exponentiality, contain the situation and reduce harm. Any hint of denying the science couldn’t help but remind me of climate change deniers, people only making the situation worse. Nonetheless, how science is interpreted is always political and metaphors of contagion have most often been used in politically heinous ways.
I have to admit, from a political standpoint, and from most other standpoints as well, nothing about it felt good. (But, of course, a pandemic isn’t supposed to “feel good.”) Already, for my entire lifetime, people were so isolated and alienated. Working together and solidarity were already so difficult to achieve and I couldn’t see many ways in which social distancing might make any of it easier. And obviously so many on the far right want nothing else but to close as many borders as they can find. Pandemic or not, closing borders seemed like little more than a band-aid solution and it felt extremely dangerous to think of it positively.
And yet, or so I told myself, as I always try to tell myself, in any situation there must be certain possibilities for emancipatory change. Beyond distancing and closing, there was some way for all of this to shine a brighter light on what is missing. To clarify the many ways we must continue to care for each other. To lead to greater openness in the long run. But I am extremely worried this will not be the case.
.
One of my first thoughts in the early days of the pandemic was: social distancing and closing borders, those are things dictators like.
I knew I had to be careful how I said such things. These were also scientifically proven strategies to reduce exponentiality, contain the situation and reduce harm. Any hint of denying the science couldn’t help but remind me of climate change deniers, people only making the situation worse. Nonetheless, how science is interpreted is always political and metaphors of contagion have most often been used in politically heinous ways.
I have to admit, from a political standpoint, and from most other standpoints as well, nothing about it felt good. (But, of course, a pandemic isn’t supposed to “feel good.”) Already, for my entire lifetime, people were so isolated and alienated. Working together and solidarity were already so difficult to achieve and I couldn’t see many ways in which social distancing might make any of it easier. And obviously so many on the far right want nothing else but to close as many borders as they can find. Pandemic or not, closing borders seemed like little more than a band-aid solution and it felt extremely dangerous to think of it positively.
And yet, or so I told myself, as I always try to tell myself, in any situation there must be certain possibilities for emancipatory change. Beyond distancing and closing, there was some way for all of this to shine a brighter light on what is missing. To clarify the many ways we must continue to care for each other. To lead to greater openness in the long run. But I am extremely worried this will not be the case.
.
March 16, 2020
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
