Various Authors
Are You Ready for the Country?
A conversation between Benj DeMott and Celeste Dupuy-Spencer about her painting of the Capitol riot, America’s politics of culture, Christianity and Country music…
Act of Imagination (& Larceny)
The groove in the Rolling Stones’ classic cover of “Just My Imagination” (1978) comes straight out of Waylon Jennings’ “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” (1975). No plaints here. Geniuses steal. Follow the echoes below…
Driving While Brown: Stories from the Struggle Against Sherriff Joe Arpaio
Journalists Terry Greene Sterling and Jude Joffe-Block spent years chronicling the human consequences of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s lawless approach to immigration enforcement in Maricopa County, Arizona. In Driving While Brown, they tell the tale of two opposing movements that redefined Arizona’s political landscape—the restrictionist cause embraced by Arpaio and the Latino-led resistance that rose up against it.
What follows is a Q&A with the authors of Driving While Brown.
Roller Skating Tuesday
Lana Del Rey is set to release a new CD in July. Last time around she didn’t seem intent on “making the next great American record.” The will to go pop (without compromising) that made her Norman Fucking Rockwell undeniable in 2019 was missing from Chem Trails over the Country Club, which she put out earlier this year. The absence of f-words on Chem Trails may be a sign LDR sensed someone like Olivia Rodrigo would render slack style sub-urban (and all sold-out), but it also hints LDR’s rock ‘n’ roll attitude was on hiatus. OTOH, Chem’s Trails‘ “White Dress” came through, with a little help from the video. That, in turn, sent me back to a roller-skating video posted here last summer. Compare and contrast, or just roll on…B.D.
Mayday at Sea (The Outlaw Ocean Project)
Ian Urbina, author of The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier and organizer of the Outlaw Ocean Project just collaborated with the Los Angeles Times on a video and piece explaining how the sea is a dystopian place: “Too big to police and under no clear international authority, immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation.” You can see the video after the jump here. What follows directly is another short video Urbina posted last summer…
Thionne Ballago Seck R.I.P.
Thionne Seck—perhaps the purist vocal talent in an extraordinary cohort of male Senegalese singers that includes Youssou N’Dour, Baaba Maal, Omar Pene and Ismael Lo—died on March 14th.
Biden on the Union Drive at Amazon
Click here to hear President Biden speak on the organizing drive at Amazon’s Alabama facility.
The Canadian News Service Elmoudjahweb has provided a useful explainer spelling out why Biden avoided mentioning Amazon in his statement. Per Professor Joseph A. McCartin, the Executive Director of Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor…
Insurrection to Inauguration: Reflections on Violence & Healing
By Thomas Beller, Kristi Coulter, Benj DeMott, Richard Goldstein, George Held, Bob Ingram, Vida Johnson, Charles Keil, Greil Marcus, Dennis Myers, Zuzu Myers, Nathan Osborne, David Quigley, Budd Shenkin, Laurie Stone, William Svelmoe, & Peter H. Wood.
The Caning of Charles Sumner in the U.S. Senate: White Supremacist Violence in Pen and Pixels
Peter H. Wood and Harlan J. Gradin place the attack on the Capitol in an American historical context…
Boston Massacre Energy (in Russia)
The kicker…
The Louisville Syndicate (Excerpts from William Klein’s Documentary on Muhammad Ali)
One Night in Miami sent your editor back to William Klein’s 1964 documentary, Cassius the Great (which Klein would go on to re-edit later with new footage as Muhammad Ali, The Greatest). The following bits from the movie are way less than a perfect compaction, but the opening scene, which limns the Louisville syndicate that once “owned” Ali, is for the Ages. B.D. (H/T Jeff Kreines)
Click Read More to see on a bigger screen.
On the Bus to A Promised Land (Riding with J. Charles Jones & the Sherrods)
At the website of the New Coummunities Inc., J. Charles Jones (one of SNCC’s founding members) and Charles & Shirley Sherrod talk about the success of the Southern Freedom Movement and the failure to hold on to what would’ve been the largest piece of land owned cooperatively by black Americans. This short ride down memory highway is full of information and inspiration. (Thanks to C. Liegh McInnes for his help with steering this post.)
The story of New Communities isn’t over. See the post below to learn more about how the Sherrods et al. have kept on moving…
“One Fast Move or I’m Gone”: Kerouac and Big Sur
Prose by Zalokar (AKA David Golding) (x2), Bob Levin, Richard Meltzer, Aram Saroyan, and Theodore Putala prompted by Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur and the documentary, One Fast Move or I’m Gone, about the stretch in Kerouac’s life chronicled in that novel. You can watch One Fast Move for free online here. (H/t Theodore Putala.)
Beggars Banquet (More Post-Election Reflections)
By Stacey Abrams, Michael Brod, Nick Bromell, Robert Chametzky, Kristi Coulter, Leslie Epstein, Bruce Jackson, Bob Levin, C. Liegh McIness, Zuzu Myers, Asha Sanaker, Aram Saroyan, Budd Shenkin, Tom Smucker, Scott Spencer, Alison Stone, Laurie Stone, Bill Svelmoe, and this walker in the city…
New York Minute
Click the link to watch Michael Rapaport (it may take a few seconds to access the video): IMG_0755 (10)
Choosy Beggars (Election 2020)
By Bernard Avishai, Paul Baicich, Russell Banks, Sue Bergeron, Michael Brod, Nick Bromell, Robert Chametzky, Kristi Coulter (x2), Benj DeMott, Chauncy DeVega, Mark Dudzic, Donna Gaines, Richard Goldstein, Karen Hornick, Bob Ingram, Bruce Jackson, Summer Lee, Bob Levin, Bob Liss, Leslie Lopez, C. Liegh McIness (2), Greil Marcus, Dennis Myers, Nathan Osborne, Ron Primeau, Lee Russell, Ruby Sales, Aram Saroyan, Budd Shenkin, Fredric Smoler, Tom Smucker, Laurie Stone, & Bill Svelmoe.
The Plot Against Democracy: Barton Gellman’s Scoop on Trump’s Electoral Strategy
Barton Gellman’s Atlantic piece about Trump’s plan to break America is online. You should read it soon.