1.
Next Friday I will be participating in an art opening organized by Tucson Vibe’s Robin Hunn. She has gathered a group of us folks who strike polyethylene terephthalate (and sometimes Mylar) stretched over a cylinder, and also make art stuff. She’s calling it Drummers Are Your Darlings! Featured artists include (in alpha order by their first name): Dimitri Manos, Gary Mackender, Maggie Rickard, Pete Connolly, and Todd Getzelman. The show is dedicated to Charlie Watts. Music by the Griffin Law Trio (their Tucson debut!). It all happens at Revel Wine Bar, 416 E 9th St, on Friday Feb. 11 from 6-8.
I’ll be displaying five of my Lost Sibling Series, four of which are pictured below. Hope to see you there!
2.
We all know about Neil and Joni yanking their music off Spotify in protest of Joe Rogan’s podcast, which makes the company millions. Also leaving are notables Nils Lofgren, CrosbyStillsNash, Brené Brown, and Mary Trump…what?
One interesting take on the blowup comes from Roxane Gay, a contributing Opinion writer for The New York Times, and author of the books “Ayiti, An Untamed State,” “Bad Feminist,” “Difficult Women” and “Hunger,” among others. She writes a newsletter, “The Audacity,” and she hosts the podcast “The Roxane Gay Agenda.”
In her opinion piece yesterday in the Times, she spoke about the difference between censorship and curation; I would never support censorship. And because I am a writer, I know that language matters. There’s a difference between censorship and curation. When we are not free to express ourselves, when we can be thrown in jail or even lose our lives for speaking freely, that is censorship. When we say, as a society, that bigotry and misinformation are unacceptable, and that people who espouse those ideas don’t deserve access to significant platforms, that’s curation. We are expressing our taste and moral discernment, and saying what we find acceptable and what we do not.
Taking my music off Spotify would be like dropping a grain of rice in the municipal swimming pool. The rippling repercussions! Also, I’m less concerned about Joe Rogan than I am about the people who listen to bullshit and eat it up with a large spoon. Check out this article from the Guardian which leads with the paragraph Compulsive liars shouldn’t frighten you. They can harm no one, if no one listens to them. Compulsive believers, on the other hand: they should terrify you. Believers are the liars’ enablers. Their votes give the demagogue his power. Their trust turns the charlatan into the president. Their credulity ensures that the propaganda of half-calculating and half-mad fanatics has the power to change the world.
3.
I’ll say it here and now that I don’t know much about British politics. But if you’re dying to know more about why four of Boris’ aides have left him, and the revelations of boozy gatherings, suitcases of alcohol, and jokes by staff about how to present such parties to reporters, you can read about it here. I will say his metaphors run deep: “There is absolutely no one, apart from yourself, who can prevent you, in the middle of the night, from sneaking down to tidy up the edges of that hunk of cheese at the back of the fridge.”
4.
Mmmmm, Kansas City Barbecue. And yes, there’s a Barbecue Hall of Fame where, this Saturday, Ollie Gates and Arthur Bryant will be inducted. When I lived in Lawrence, the Gates chain used to be Gates and Sons, now known as just Gates BBQ. The Gates sauce, which you can find on any grocery shelf in the midwest, was my favorite in the day. I don’t even own an outdoor grill anymore so when we want a taste of KC barbecue, we go to Smokey Mo on 1st Avenue here in Tucson.
5.
Quote of the week by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL 16th District): I hate to be so personal, but Hawley is one of the worst human beings, and a [self-aggrandizing] con artist. When Trump goes down I certainly hope this evil will be [laid] in the open for all to see, and be ashamed of. To be fair, the Washington Post actually agrees with Hawley in the opposition to Ukraine joining NATO. Methinks Kinzinger is right in general, however, as Hawley thought it perfectly fine to raise his fist in support of a crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump gathered outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
6.
One last thing…did Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi really detonate a bomb to kill his own family as U.S. officials have claimed? I dunno…maybe. He did seem like someone who needed slapped around a bit as, according to the Guardian, He played a lead role in the genocide of the Yazidis, which led to the killing of thousands of men and the enslavement of women and girls. He was deeply involved in the overthrow of Mosul in mid-2014, the success of which paralysed (sic) a region and the armies of two nation states. And he orchestrated mass killings of Shia civilians and members of the security forces. But I’m always disturbed when we are involved in the killing of civilian men, women, and children. Perhaps flying some of the Minneapolis police force over for a no-knock raid might’ve produced a cleaner result.
And now…