I spent my middle school years without a phone. I had an iPod. There’s not much difference but back then a phone and iPod seemed a world apart. (An iPod cannot use cellular data, so you can’t use it without wifi. iPods also can’t make phone calls.) I remember the biggest (most shaming) difference was that on the back of the iPod, iPod was engraved in large letters. Whenever I used my iPod around people I used my fingers to cover that humiliating logo.
Isiah Thomas, Smokey Robinson & Jesse Jackson at Aretha Franklin’s Homegoing Service
Sisters who sang at Aretha’s funeral are getting much respect, per the # of YouTube views, but there were men there who were worthy too…
Isiah Thomas’s moving eulogy comprehended Aretha’s messages to the grassroots (and to Detroit, capital of the 20th Century) even as he took in her universality.
Aretha (& “the blacks”)
Aretha’s “Tree of Life” (see below) has a new poignancy since her death. No need for me to break down her funky, Pan-African, pantheist promesse de bonne heure, just press play (please).
Aretha’s Tree of Life (“Sharing the sunshine for the last time…”)
“There ain’t gonna be no last time!!…”
Home Truths: David Ritz’s Essential Aretha Biography
Originally published in 2015…
No District is “Unwinnable” (Or, Democrats Matter Everywhere!)
Imagine that you are a Democrat or progressive living in a deeply Red district or state.
What Just Happened? (Kiarostami in Tokyo & Obama in Johannesburg)
The late Abbas Kiarostami’s Like Falling in Love (2012) was originally titled “The End,” which would’ve underscored the final scene’s go-to-smash upending of viewers’ presumptions. The film, set in Japan, works like a gently penetrative Ozu-y character study until it’s transformed utterly by a sudden act of violence in the last second(s).
Mexico’s Election & Cherán
The authors of The Nation‘s account of the Mexican election, Margaret Cerullo and JoAnn Wypijewski, tried to keep triumphalism in check. But their call and response still managed to seem a bit beamish. Their claim the election meant Mexicans had become “heroes of their own story” reminded your editor of this story about a place in the country where everyday people have been acting like heroes for years. I hope it doesn’t seem churlish to point out citizens of Cherán chose to abstain from the recent election…
A Response to “When Children Say They’re Trans”
Talk About “Abortion”
It is more crucial than ever to speak about “abortion rights,” not choice. The word “choice” is meaningless and always has been a running-scared retreat from the real matter of bodily sovereignty for females. Biological determinism is a social idea. Just like social Darwinism, capitalism, and religion.
A Fascist Fashion Statement?
Historical analyses of FLOTUS’s fashion statement, such as one below, are being shared on social media…
This sort of analysis prompted Ty Geltmaker–a student (and ex-Professor) of modern Italian History–to dig into his own archives. Geltmaker comments below…
A Crime Against Humanity
Have the majority of Americans reached their tipping point? The trials of so many of Trump’s accomplices have yet to get under way and it will be months before the final report by Robert Mueller and his investigators is published. (Does anyone have any idea how many lawsuits against Trump and his policies are working their way through state and federal courts? The cumulative fees will be staggering by the time the cases are decided.) Patience may be a foundational democratic virtue but what if we’re in the midst of a cold civil war? Maxine Waters seems right on. The time for civility-mongering is past.
Razzle Dazzle: Alison Stone’s New Poems
Alison Stone has been a vital voice in First of the Month‘s mixes for nearly 20 years. The following poems from her new collection, Dazzle, testify to her undimmed instinct for happiness inside the dailiness of life. Not that she’s Ms. Beamish. Stone often gives First first shot at her more engagé poems. One of them recently got up Facebook’s nose.
