Late-Feb Notes
Thoughts on Soundtrack to a Coup D'Etat, long-form content, literature as "content" Barbara Foley, X.com online socialist drama, and upcoming things I am working on !
An aside:
I decided that instead of my previous format addressing what I've been reading, thinking, watching, etc...instead I am just going to list a series of ten thoughts dealing with similar topics. I may return to the other format but this feels right at the moment.
I watched the documentary Soundtrack to a Coup D'Etat which is about how Congo has been and is currently exploited. It explores the role of the United States and international powers in executing Lumumba. The film is beautiful. The music is great. Cried at the end. I have notes but I honestly don't know if sharing my critique on the internet is useful. All I know is that progressives, leftists, radicals and whoever else is on our team ostensibly need to be developing a better critique of technology. I'll try to explore that set of topics more within this blog. I do think the film tried to do a lot and I don't know if that worked completely all of the time but you know what they say aim for the moon, you'll land amongst the stars.
great movie! I cried.
Long form digital content is mostly enjoyed by men at least created by men. Podcasts themselves have a real masculinity associated with them. Like remember the whole “don't do a podcast if you're a man” jokes. Well, I suppose the folks making them may be feeling a way considering Trump is in office off the strength of Joe Rogan. There's a variety of reasons for this trend of masculinity in podcasting and long form content. I think it is an interesting dynamic. New media from the podcast form is particularly interesting. I have also been thinking about the rise of right wing new media figures such as Candace Owens, Amir Odom, Amala Ekpunobi and to a lesser extent Brett Cooper (she’s white and hip so less relevant to me). I suppose I am just fascinated with the current brand of Black conservative who was formerly a “liberal” and then became conservative. Candace and the other two fit this bill. Amala is especially interesting as she started off in the Nonprofit industrial complex in Florida. I think there's real reasons why figure like this with the subjectivities that they have emerge. Part of it is that they are all obviously c**ns who love white people but there's something else going on too. I don't see these sorts of figures as too dissimilar from many of the progressive Black people I've met with a deep affinity for whiteness if I can keep it real. I'll save that thought for another day though. There's a good article on the new Right wing media landscape that I'll link.
Zora Neale Hurston writes incredible short stories. Her dialogue is especially exceptional. She does what Mark Twain tried to do when he wrote dialogue how common people spoke it. Fortunately, Zora writes these characters without the racism. I want to read her novels and the play that she wrote with Langston as well. I like her short story Eatonville Anthology, the form is particularly dope to me.
On the of the texts that I've been engaged with over the past month or two has been a text by Marxist literary critic Barbara Foley. The book is called Wrestling with the Left: The Making of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. The book traces the evolution of Ralph Ellison's eponymous novel from a leftist book into something with deep anti-communist sympathies. So far, it has narrated Ellison's intellectual journey which has been fascinating to read especially as I see myself often in parallel with him despite the fact that culturally things are so less rich now. I have been engaged with a lot of Marxist literary criticism these days. I have been reading Terry Eagleton's Marxism and Literary Criticism, a wonderful small little book. I wrote an essay applying Eagleton's analysis to music of Jensen McRae's so it's definitely been influencing how I think about art as a whole. Eagleton describes how Engels has a critique of “partisan” literature. This critique is similar to my own about why so much of leftist or progressive art/music/culture falls flat for me because it fails to capture the political reality in which we exist within. Instead much of that art just seeks for meaningless symbology that is plucked from history but useless in our current moment. Thus much of the neo-liberal literature and music is better because at least it is rooted -in the now. It is not 1961. I suppose that was some of my concern about the documentary I mentioned in the first point is that the film at times relies upon nostalgia for the anti-colonial period. And honestly, who can blame them? Malcolm X and Lumumba were alive at the same moment. I can't have imagined what it was like. But we aren't then and the art must reflect those present realities. But so many of the musicians, poets and writers are fucking hacks
check this one out!
The new MIKE record is fire. Favorite track is probably What U Bouta Do/A Star was Born ft 454. I like the tracks Lost Scribe and man in the mirror a lot too. Bro is so consistently good, it's wonderful.
I've been watching this T.V. show called Yellowjackets. It's kinda like Lord of the Flies but with teenage girls in the Canadian wilderness. The cool part is that it picks back up twenty five years later with some of the characters so you see two story-lines with different actors unfold. The music of the show is really great, too. I've been listening to a lot of Liz Phair as a result. Just like my man Dijon.
I was scrolling in my lurker account on X.com and what did I see? NYC-DSA getting trolled and publicly embarrassed for doing an event called Thots and Trots. While I try to keep my political thoughts off of this platform, I think this was a funny moment. While I do not think that serious political organizations should be used as a way to date, the Left really still struggles to understand that building social spaces is a critical part of organizing. Back in the day, socialists had summer camps, baseball teams, hiking groups and other types of things. Speed dating is perfectly fine and normal especially if you want to meet people who you share values with. Like ya'll are wild for being against shit like that. There was another set of discourse about socialists or leftists or whoever prioritizing exercise as “ableist”. It’s a very bizarre take. While we should acknowledge people’s differing physical abilities, historically especially for Black radical movements, our physical and martial ability was always prioritized. The Panthers used to teach martial arts classes. Who don’t want to be a part of a socialist run club? It’d probably be a better time than most of what amounts to being a part of the American Left these days. It’d probably also attract some people who aren’t academics, professional types or bohemian-types like myself. Unfortunately, the negative reaction points to more reasons that political discourse must leave the digital space as it becomes increasingly disconnected from reality. Most people (who are not hyper online) love dating events or free exercise groups especially in this economy. For those of you feeling dispassionate or concerned politically, read Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBois and a history of the gilded age. All of this shit has happened before, there's just memes, AI, TikTok and climate change now. History don't repeat, it freestyles and calls back in rhythm. We can look to the past to understand what we gotta do now. Grasping history means we can grasp our reality.
I'm awaiting responses from MFA applications. They are probably coming in March and April. I think this will be a good text if I'm able to sell myself to institutions. I haven't really had to do it since I was eighteen if I'm being real. I haven't really even had a real professional class job so I'll get to see if I'm good at selling myself. If not, I'm back to trying to make a milli off t-shirt sales, spotify streams, and college gigs.
Maurice and I saw Ta-Nehisi Coates speak. I was left inspired. I also felt sad because we’d have so many more brothas like Coates if they weren’t all getting locked up by the system.
On February 7th, I walked down Baltimore Avenue and heard a woman singing. To be alive is to hear sorrowful R&B accompanied by a single electric guitar that hums warmly as you walk in the mist through West Philly on an winter night.
I’ve been reflecting upon content versus literature. In a literary market driven by how good someone is at writing substack posts or short form tweets or making instagram reels or TikTok reviews of Sally Rooney…it makes sense that the quality of literature has degraded. There’s numerous examples of this I could talk specifically about but I won’t. At the end of the day, so many of the books being written now are just content bound in the page. While I am not wholly dismissive of digital or alt-lit, I think the logical conclusion is increasingly strange content about reading as an identity rather than a culture of organic intellectualism. And yet, here I am writing a Substack post. I don’t have a clear vision or thought about this but expect a fuller essay on this in march.
I'd really like to fall in love again this year. I have missed being in love. While I've enjoyed being single(ish) for the past year or so, I really want to fall in love again.
painting by Jordan Davis. I saw it at the Philly Art Museum at their Black potraiture exhibit. Super great art. He was probably my favorite one I saw. Sorry this is a shitty image of it.
another one I saw at the same exhibit. I been really happy I’ve been able to see a lot of great art. I feel like I would’ve met this girl in California.