Halloween
The Dream Syndicate – “Halloween”
There is a place you might wanna go
It’s right up my street
You might look and see the light shining
Someone you might like to meet
He said “let’s go for a ride”
Says it all the time
You know you got a lot to live for
And you’re gonna be mine
You shouldn’t believe the things you read in papers
They can’t come true
I don’t believe the things that you see on TV
They’ll never happen to you
2 steps forward
Don’t say I didn’t warn you
2 steps forward
I didn’t warn you.
Hard Crackers
I’ve just added the Hard Crackers site to my blog role, and you should sign up for mailings from the site. Subtitled “Chronicles of Everyday Life”, it’s a fascinating site with both large and small P politics. Below is the “About” section from the site.
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“American society is a time-bomb where the impending explosion, whatever its form might be, is endlessly hinted at by the more or less horrifying “little” degradations of daily rape, murder, stupid violence of different varieties (perhaps most notably urban gang violence), episodic mass killings (with or without apparent motive), drug and alcohol-induced stupors, drug overdoses, callous health care and classroom teaching, apparently crazy people talking on subway platforms, and so forth. We “see” these kinds of events in different ways—sometimes up close and personal, other times by reading the local newspapers or the online media or watching cable TV.
Attentiveness to daily lives is absolutely essential for those who would like to imagine how to act purposefully to change the world. During the 1940’s and 1950’s The New Yorker ran a series of profiles by Joseph Mitchell of characters around New York. Mitchell wrote, “The people in a number of the stories are of the kind that many writers have recently got in the habit of referring to as ‘the little people.’ I regard this phrase as patronizing and repulsive. There are no little people in this book. They are as big as you are, whoever you are.” The profiles are collected in Up in the Old Hotel. A reader will find there hardly a single “political” reference, yet there is no doubt that Mitchell and many of the people he wrote about would have happily adapted to life in an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.
Hard Crackers focuses on people like the ones Mitchell profiled. It does not seek to compete with publications that analyze world developments, nor with groups formed on the basis of things their members oppose and advocate; still less does it consider itself a substitute for political activity. It is guided by one principle: that in the ordinary people of this country (and the world) there resides the capacity to escape from the mess we are in, and a commitment to documenting and examining their strivings to do so.
“Hard Crackers” was a song popular among Union soldiers during the Civil War, a takeoff on Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times.” The Civil War and Reconstruction, viewed as a single event, was a revolution as great as any in human history, transforming property into strikers, soldiers, citizens, voters and legislators—a sequence unparalleled elsewhere. To get an idea of its radicalism, consider the following from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
Has any statement ever captured more succinctly the meaning of revolution? The Lincoln who spoke those words was not the moderate who came to office four years earlier seeking to maintain the Union at almost any cost. Revolution is a process, not a single event, and millions, including Lincoln, were changed by it. Although the leaders of that revolution undoubtedly made mistakes and did not realize all their hopes, neither did they disgrace with their own deeds the cause for which they had fought, or leave a stench in the nostrils of later generations, as did many of the revolutionaries of the next century. Hard Crackers identifies with that history, and especially with the experience “on the ground” of those who made it.”
Ballads against Work
With apologies to Kamunist Kranti…
When I first became involved with the, for want of a better term, ultra-left milieu, the idea of the revolt against work was a key idea of interest. In particular, Michael Seidman’s book Workers against Work and Kamunist Kranti’s A Ballad Against Work (something I read while I was supposed to be working in a temp job) were fascinating.).
The term “work” is a much debated one. Under capitalism, work is wage-slavery, and the one who performs it, falls to the level of a cog within a vast capitalist machine (I feel a need to rewatch Modern Times) . And of course, under the former Soviet “workers states” (in reality simply state-capitalism with particularly awful bosses), work retained the same function as under western capitalism. In a non-capitalist future, would work be retained? Freed from the drive to valorize, to make a profit, to exploit, who knows, who can say what forms it would take.
Due to Covid, I worked from home from March 2020 until September of this year. I’m now back in my workplace, but with a schedule only a bureaucrat could devise: One week where I am worked off of my feet, a brief never uninterrupted lunch and tasks which follow me home requiring work until late into the evening; a weekend that seems divided between trying to forget the previous week, and not thinking about the next; and a second week, which, if easier, is never easy, as it is spent still working as well as trying to catch up from week up, and get ahead for the next.
And in these times I am considered fortunate as neither my employment nor my income was threatened by Covid. This is the choice capitalism offers us: To be crushed by work or to be denied it.
I noticed on my “easier” how much more I can achieve. Time to read, to think, to take care of the everyday things, to care for friends and family, to be creative. At my workplace, on my easier week, I’ve suggested colleagues create a kind of mutual aid of random acts of kindness, of baking, of Spotify playlists (you know I like music) , etc. In these moments, we struggle to retain, to create our humanity, we struggle, even on a small scale against work.
PS. It almost goes without saying that despite my goal to be more active here, the busy week doesn’t leave a lot of time for this blog.
Striketober
It’s got a nice ring to it.
Striketober in Full Swing as nearly 100,000 workers authorize work stoppages across U.S.
Music Notes September 2021(A little late…)
September’s Music Notes. Written in late September, but somehow didn’t get published.
1 The Beat – I Just Can’t Stop It
Typically on my drive to work, I catch Indie 88’s Josie Dye show, but after the 30 Second Song Challenge, I often switch to a CD. The Beat’s debut always puts me in a good mood (I can listen to “Sister Ray” in its entirety if I skip Josie, but then I’m unfit for work)
2 The Style Council – Long Hot Summer:The Story of the Style Council
A double CD set from a couple of years ago is a nice introduction to the band. All the hits and some choice cuts. I actually prefer listening to the albums rather than the singles as the mood and versatility of Weller’s vision really emerges. Not always successful, but never boring.
3 M(h)aol – Gender Studies EP
While the EP doesn’t drop until the end of October, the title track from Gender Studies is out now. Great feminist critique over a chugging riff. Sometimes deliberately political songs fail as politics and art – this works as both.
4 Jennifer Otter Bickerdike – Nico: You are Beautiful and You are Alone
Brilliant biography of Nico. If you are even a casual fan of her world or of the Warhol/Velvets scene and beyond, you’ll want to get this book.
5 Green Day – American Idiot
Oddly enough, I had never listened to the entire thing until a few weeks back.Two decades after its release, the album has aged very well. Punk, ballads and a few things that don’t quite fit into either group. Well done lads.
6 The Chap
I’ve had a subscription to this magazine for a couple of years and it’s always worth it. The new issue has an extensive interview with Ron and Russell Mael (AKA Sparks), a piece on the ye-ye girls movement, and a tribute to the sartorial elegance of Charlie Watts.
7 Marina Topley-Bird – Forever I Wait
Topley-Bird will likely always be known for her work with Tricky and Massive Attack. While not to understate the brilliance of that work, her solo work is equally impressive. The final cut of this album, “Rain” underscored by a simple string back is achingly beautiful. A great record.
8 The Felice Brothers – “To Do List”
A whimsical ode to the glory of the to-do list. Would that we could achieve it all.
9 Best Coast – Crazy For You
Put on this one the other day. Such a sweet summertime album, it always made me forget that we didn’t really have a summer this year either.
10 Various artists – I’ll Be Your Mirror
I know I plugged this last month, but the whole album is put now, and if you’re a Velvets fan, you’ll want to hear this. Some interesting takes (the St. Vincent and Michael Stipe cuts), and some as you’d expect (the Thurston Moore/Bobby Gillespie track), but all worth a listen. Currently digging King Princess’ version of “There She Goes Now”
Till next month.
Mac Intosh – a Tribute by Internationalist Perspective
Internationalist Perspective has published a moving tribute to Mac Intosh who passed away in August. It includes his political biography as well as recounting the enormous contributions he made. I’m still shaken by his passing, and the loss it has meant. Please read this appreciation.
Notes from Underground 