Culturewatch
Still Bill
Damn near everything you want to know about the late singer/songwriter Bill Withers’ music is in the following line from his bio: he was born July 4th, 1938 in Slabfork, West Virginia.
A Life in Struggle: Felicitas Magdaleno R.I.P.
It is with deep sadness and pain in our hearts that Movement for Justice in El Barrio mourns the passing of our beloved long-time member leader, Felicitas Magdaleno.
First Day Out (A Blue Sky Day Turns Grey)
Like a lot of New Yorkers, I’m missing the outside.
Alter Cocker
Even after this crisis is over, I will never stop feeling old. That’s what I’ve learned from the coronavirus. Old is not wise. Not just archaic. It is susceptible, assailable, penetrable—vulnerable.
The Pharisee and the Coronavirus
I’ve been thinking about the Old Testament prophets lately. I distrust end-is-nigh-ism; that “end” is often just the destruction of some solipsistic fantasy. Life goes on in whatever seemingly hobbled form. The fundamentalists I grew up with understood those OT doom-sayers quite literally. The surreal omens promised a real-world destruction always five minutes from a moment exactly like now. But that now never comes.
Virus-Apocalypse
More notes on now from the author’s Facebook page…
America Hunkers Down
Hands scrubbed till they bleed.
School replaced with videos.
Carts crammed with toilet paper and guns.
Interview with Michael Rumaker
The following interview with Michael Rumaker, conducted by Ammiel Alcalay and Megan Paslawski, appeared in the City Lights Books edition of Rumaker’s Robert Duncan in San Francisco. Appended to the interview is a note Alcalay wrote for Rumaker’s Memorial service last year.
