The Digital Dispatch

From NOEBIE.net

Brian K. Noe

every other day

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not connected
connected
and connected
but specific of meaning
events meaning
combinations is acausal
expected inconceivable. on causal chance
closer
readily are inconceivable
closer
examine their reflection
impossible connection to all
it’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards
polished difficulty
telling gently impressive
retort resistance. strange.
into the against beetle,
into hope broke I
what together – so together together…
that everyone
they
(that means everyone)
touched religion
go on

Ain’t there one damn song that can make me break down and cry?

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bowie-young-americansYoung Americans came on the radio on the drive back from dropping my daughter off at school this morning. When this album was released in 1975, I was a DJ in my hometown’s first disco, The Hideaway. This song, along with Fame from the same album, were my favorites in the stacks that autumn. They had an authentic, organic sound grounded in Philly Soul, and thoughtful lyrics that went way beyond most of the rest of what we played, which I found to be repetitious and trite.*

I’d heard lots of Bowie before, of course, and couldn’t resist the hooks in songs like Space Oddity or Suffragette City or Rebel Rebel, but his persona put me off and frightened me. I was under 18 and living in a conservative Evangelical Christian home. David Bowie and people like him were threatening and dangerous – worldly, seductive, transgressional. In the case of Bowie, that was obviously his intention.

The Young Americans album changed me. It began to change my view of the world. It wasn’t the only influence in this regard, but it helped to make me more questioning of conformity, more interested in things under the surface and more accepting of others. It prompted me to recognize and confront my own homophobia for the very first time. Allowing myself to enjoy the music pushed me to consider how silly it was to feel frightened by another human being merely because they weren’t quite the same as me. Aren’t we all different?

By the time Patti Smith’s Horses came out later that year, I was ready to listen .

* …if sometimes plenty of fun. Remember That’s The Way (Uh Huh, Uh Huh)?

Tithi Bhattacharya on Muslim Heterogeneity

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Yahya_ibn_Mahmud_alWasiti

Tithi Bhattacharya dispels the myth of a Muslim monolith.

…while ISIS can quote the hadith as it executes other Muslims, and Trump can inveigh against the “Muslims,” we need to continue to look to the multiethnic neighborhoods of Istanbul, Paris and Beirut as lived histories of our times of mutual human coexistence. And it is such lived experiences of multifaith communities that need to be both defended and extended.

Source: Adventures in Islam: The Myths and Legends of Muslim Homogeneity | Tithi Bhattacharya

Roger Waters Interview

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Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene interviews Roger Waters, who weighs on in his current projects and surveys the worldwide political scene.

I think people are just beginning, as they sleepwalk their way through imperial capitalism, to realize the law is being eroded and the military are taking over commerce and the corporations are taking over government and that we the people no longer have a voice. To some extent, The Wall is asking the question, “Do you want a voice? And if you do, you better bloody well go out and get it because it’s not going to be handed to you on a plate.”

Source: Roger Waters on ‘The Wall,’ Socialism, His Next Concept LP | Rolling Stone

Our Story Starts Now

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As people worldwide are taking stock, looking backwards to 2015 and forward to 2016, “A Resolution” shows that amidst growing catastrophe, the only real future is the one we’ll make.

This video was produced by Woodbine, an experimental hub in Ridgewood, Queens for developing the skills, practices, and tools for building autonomy in the Anthropocene.