THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
You cannot hide from danger. Death floats on the air, creeps through the window, comes with the handshake of a stranger.If we stop living because we fear death then we have already died.-Margaret Weis
I realize today is St Patrick’s day…and HAPPY ST PATTY’S to ya’ all…definitely a good and right day to listen to the Pogues (I just read Shane is getting stronger from his latest fall), pinch the loved ones who didn’t wear green, and have a few cocktails….with the same people you have been with since LAST St Pats day (I wonder if the fraternity kids who scoffed at the virus last year….to horrible results…will think twice this year).
But right now I am thinking about what happened on this date in 1992, when white South African leaders approved a referendum to give legal equality to black South Africans.
Even the referendum was a total racist moment…with white legislators being the only ones who were allowed to vote on it. For months before and following, many white leaders of South Africa expressed fear that a black-led South Africa would be disastrous, which really translated to fear of being powerless, out of work, with legacies framed by years of unjust acts. But with Nelson Mandela free and powerful and strategic…and with the world’s popular opinion seeing the end of apartheid as a necessary thing…the tide was turning. It took until April 24, 1994 for Apartheid to be truly dismantled and there were violent protests in between…the kind of protests we see in America now…but for anyone living during the early 90s, it was a powerful, sometimes heartbreaking, finally triumphant story to follow.
And on a day when raising glasses is the thing to do, it is a good time to raise them knowing that change can happen and there are moments when the world can be partially healed.
Interview: Richard Thompson: 'I had to put the pen down, take a deep breath, have a little cry'
This one goes out to Daniel Sokatch, the biggest Richard Thompson fan I know. I know it’s a shanda, but my favorite Richard Thompson performance is not on a Richard Thompson record…but on the opening track to Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left: Time Has Told Me (it’s briefly discussed in the article). His guitar is soooo sweet on that one.
Celebrating His Mad Fold-Ins on Al Jaffee's 100th Birthday
When I was growing up, and my brothers got Mad Magazine…I thought it was the ultimate in underground treachery and I would look at (read, when I learned how) every page. Spy VS Spy was a favorite…mainly because my super-young illiterate stuff could understand it…and then came the final page…the fold-in…already folded by my brothers before I could get hold of it. I would fold it and marvel at the image created. Then I would unfold it and try and figure out how Jaffe did it before I folded it again. Happy 100th Al!
Why Is This Intertesting: The WandaVision Edition
My friend Todd Krieger wrote a really interesting piece on WandaVision this morning.
Messy Nessy Presents: 13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DXLVI)
This Messy Nessy person does a great job curating incredible images and strange things from the web. Most everything she points out is pretty damn cool…
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
…and a happy birthday to the Birdman.