Homage to Spanish Anarchism
Stephen Schwartz, co-author of Spanish Marxism versus Soviet Communism: A History of the P.O.U.M. in the Spanish Civil War, has linked a number of his associates to the film below (which is available on Youtube). Your editor, in turn, passed the link on to another distinguished author of a recent book on the Spanish Civil War, Adam Hochschild, who was wowed: “Amazing. I’ve seen lots of still photos from this time—which must have been in the first month or two after the beginning of Franco’s coup—but didn’t know there was film.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVv6ampdPeY
Rip it Up (W.T. Lhamon Jr. on Little Richard)
What follows is an excerpt from W.T. Lhamon Jr.’s Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s (1990). Thanks to the author for giving First permission to reprint his revelatory writing on the lore of Little Richard.
Long and Winin’ Road: Jelly Roll Morton and Little Richard
Jelly Roll Morton’s “Winin’ Boy Blues” from the famous Alan Lomax Library of Congress sessions seems to belong somewhere in the rootsy back story that W.T. Lhamon dug up above. In his account of Little Richards’ rise, Lhamon notes Richard was shy about singing gay sexy lines in his original version of “Tutti Frutti” to the lady lyricist who helped him clean them up (a tad). The history behind that shyness is hinted at in Jelly Roll Morton’s recitation before singing “Winin’ Boy Blues” which, as Morton explained, was part of a campaign intended to forestall any doubts about his own sexuality: “Of course, when a man played piano, the stamp was on him for life–the femininity stamp. And I didn’t want that on, so, of course, when I did start to playing, the songs were kinda smutty a bit. Not so smutty, but something like this.” (I should add that Jelly’s rough and rowdy ways co-existed with a genteel side; he asked Lomax to have the lady stenographer who was transcribing his words leave the room before he did his dirty work of genius and lust.)
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.
He Gotta Go Now
Per Bob Dylan: “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree… If I had to pick one song of his, it might be ‘Lake Marie.’” (There’s a great live version here.)
Morbid Symptons (Anti-Semitism & Amity Road)
Who else is going to love someone like you that’s marked for death
Lessons from the 3rd Sunday of Easter, and the 17th Sunday of Coronavirus
I was as frozen as a deer in a headlight when she called me a killer.
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.
Broadway by Light
Watch the classic short film from 1958 by William Klein (with help from Alain Resnais and Chris Marker). Click on “Read more” for a bigger screen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2x144mSwtM&t=2s
First Day Out (A Blue Sky Day Turns Grey)
Like a lot of New Yorkers, I’m missing the outside.
Inequality & Two Cheers for Capitalism
In these days of pandemic isolation, as the world reels from one gut punch to the next, the future looks anything but rosy. While the monied float on their yachts and in their two million dollar isolation rentals in the Hampton’s, the rest of us live in fear and anxiety.
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.