THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
Today is the start of The National Day of Unplugging…beginning at sundown tonight and ending at sundown tomorrow. The idea: spend 24 hours unplugged from technology. Deviceless. The organization I oversee, REBOOT, started the National Day Of Unplugging over a decade ago, using the ancient weekly Jewish holiday of Shabbat as the guide towards making space to understand the relationship (enslavement) of cell phones/ipads/laptops to our lives. Try disconnecting for 24 hours. It is tough.
Within a decade, the idea of unplugging that Reboot was the first organization to focus on became a huge movement.
When I became CEO of Reboot one of the first things I was able to do was fiscally sponsor a fledgling organization called The Center For Humane Technology, founded by Silicon Valley veteran Tristan Harris. For a little over a year, I had a catbird seat into the addictive world created by the giant technology companies. How their devices and discoveries were built to addict us and how their quest for financial success put all of us users in the unfortunate place of being looked on as nothing but marketable, sellable addicts. And finally…and most tragically…how their quest for success compromised our safety and world.
And while in these past months of Covid we have unwittingly become even more reliant on the triumphs of zoom and amazon and all of the innovations designed to keep us plugged in while we are secluded and quarantined…it has also been a time where more attention has been focused on understanding the issues that the technological goodness also brings; akin to Bilbo’s ring, wearing technology can help us, but can also turn us into Golems…and we need to be aware of all the implications.
So I invite you to to celebrate the National Day Of Unplugging…take the challenge of throwing your device into a sleeping bag for 24 hours…throw on a record, watch a great film, go outside…sip an elixir…read a great poem. Unplug and take in a deep, revolutionary breath.
A great way to start the National Day Of Unplugging is to understand the issue at hand…and The Center For Humane Technology help produce and incredible…and completely scary…documentary of where we are as a society in regards to technology and how we got there. If you didn’t know it was a documentary, you might think it is the biggest dystopian film of the year.
New Compilation Of Old Tunes Is 'An Alternate History Of The World's Music'
ANOTHER great way to spend an unplugged weekend….a deep dive into an international look at recordings done in the 20s and 30s called Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World's Music. The recordings here sound so otherworldly while listening to them now…almost 100 years after they were recorded. Dust to Digital did an amazing job compiling this compilation…as they always do…and the design is just impeccable (all transparency: my wife was the designer…and objectively: she is amazing).
We Only Protect What We Love::Michael Soule On The Vanishing Wilderness
A great weekend read. I keep all of my Sun Magazines and stumbled upon this one recently. Soule is just…an amazing soul…and the commentary here is so worth reading…now more than ever as we strive to save this planet.
WEEKEND LISTEN: MASON LINDAHL – KISSING ROSY IN THE RAIN
I had never heard of Mason Lindahl until my friend and label owner Josh Rosenthal introduced me to his newest record, Kissing Rosy In The Rain. And since then, I have not stopped listening to it. Lindahl is a guitarist with a cinematic vision for his work and the resultant record is breathtakingly beautiful. Sometimes reminding me of The Third Man soundtrack…sometimes carrying the darkness of early Greg Ashely recordings..this instrumental record tells incredible stories with mood and style. And since it happens to be bandcamp Friday….go visit the Tompkins Square page to learn more. Unplug and dig into this sweet sweet record.
TREES
I am looking at trees
they may be one of the things I will miss
most from the earth
though many of the ones I have seen
already I cannot remember
and though I seldom embrace the ones I see
and have never been able to speak
with one
I listen to them tenderly
their names have never touched them
they have stood round my sleep
and when it was forbidden to climb them
they have carried me in their branches
PLACE
By W. S. Merwin
On the last day of the world
I would want to plant a tree
what for
not for the fruit
the tree that bears the fruit
is not the one that was planted
I want the tree that stands
in the earth for the first time
with the sun already
going down
and the water
touching its roots
in the earth full of the dead
and the clouds passing
one by one
over its leaves
