#driftglass

[pop-art-sixties-seventies]

Bob Pepper, Driftglass, 1971.

[70sscifiart]

Bob Pepper’s 1971 cover art to Driftglass, by Samuel R. Delany

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[driftglass :: Jim Warren]

* * * *

“Driftglass," I said. "You know all the Coca-Cola bottles and cut-crystal punch bowls and industrial silicon slag that goes into the sea?"

I know the Coca-Cola bottles."

They break, and the tide pulls the pieces back and forth over the sandy bottom, wearing the edges, changing their shape. Sometimes chemicals in the glass react with chemicals in the ocean to change the color. Sometimes veins work their way through in patterns like snowflakes, regular and geometric; others, irregular and angled like coral. When the pieces dry, they're milky. Put them in water and they become transparent again.” ― Samuel R. Delany, Driftglass

[manyworldspress]

Bob Pepper, cover illustration for Driftglass, by Samuel R. Delany (Signet / New American Library, November 1971).

__________________________________________________ Our shop: https://bookshop.org/shop/manyworldspress

[corporationsarepeople]

The Bonfire of the Sanities

Warning:  This post is very long.  Much longer than anything else I have ever done on this blog, clocking in at just over 16,000 words.

So the Republican Party has finally reached the place towards which they have been marching with single-minded fervor for forty long and awful years, and everywhere the smoke from their Bonfire of the Sanities makes the day into a choking twilight, while the flames make the night a lurid hellscape as Trump and his wingnut mob put one civic institution to the torch after another.

The Liberal fire-brigade is out there too, as we have always been, passing buckets from hand-to-hand, frankly pissed off and exhausted from forty years of warning this day was coming and being slandered and ignored for our trouble. Saying "Fuck these fucking fuckers!" as the wingnut mob capers from building to building, spreading the conflagration, while we try to focus on the immediate crisis -- saving what we can from the ravenous, racist malignancy of the Right -- and at the same time not lose sight of the long-term need to rebuild our civic institutions once the Trumpfire is brought under control.

And from the United States Constitution to the cemetery at Normandy to the steps of the Lincoln memorial, the leader of the mob -- the Arsonist-in-Chief -- goes right on lobbing incendiaries in every direction to the delight of the Republican Party.

The Trumpfire is even licking at the walled enclave of the American punditocracy. There is no personal danger to any of the pundits therein, of course -- the ivory tower atop which their offices are located may be a little scorched and smoke damaged around the base, but it's a mile high and has been continuously upgraded with the latest fire-suppression technology -- but there is no longer any doubt that there really is a fire and it really does run from horizon to horizon.

Which brings us to the matter of Mr. Michael Gerson: former George W. Bush chief speechwriter, senior Republican policy adviser and reliable Beltway Republican stalactite who now exists in a perpetual state of shock that his Republican Party is full of Republicans.

But since Mr. Gerson is a member of the Can-Never-Be-Fired-No-Matter-How-Fucking-Wrong-They-Are Pundit Guild, amid the voracious flames and suffocating smoke of the Republican's Bonfire of the Sanities, he still feels perfectly at ease writing the umpteenth banal variation of one of his favorite columns: lecturing the Left and the Right, both alike, for their lack of civility (emphasis added.)

[gottahavesoul]

SEED Ensemble - The Dream Keeper (feat. Cherise Adams-Burnett)

released February 8, 2019                

PERSONNEL Cassie Kinoshi – Alto Saxophone & Composer Miguel Gorodi - Trumpet Sheila Maurice – Grey – Trumpet Chelsea Carmichael – Tenor Saxophone & Flute Joe Bristow – Trombone Theon Cross – Tuba Joe Armon-Jones – Piano & Rhodes Shirley Tetteh – Guitar Rio Kai – Double Bass Patrick Boyle – Drums

Lyrics by Langston Hughes

https://seedensemble.bandcamp.com/

[burlveneer-music]

SEED Ensemble - Driftglass - another new LP from the burgeoning UK jazz scene

jazz re:freshed are proud to present the long-awaited debut album from emerging London-based collective SEED Ensemble. Formed in 2016, SEED Ensemble is a ten-piece project led by composer, arranger and alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi. Already a giant on the UK jazz scene, she is known for her work with all-female jazz septet, Nerija, and afrobeat jazz group, Kokoroko. Combining jazz with inner-city London, West African and Caribbean influenced groove, Cassie Kinoshi’s SEED Ensemble explores a blend of genres through both original compositions and arrangements. “SEED Ensemble is my way of celebrating the vibrant and distinctive diversity that has significantly influenced what British culture has become over the centuries.” Across ‘Driftglass’, Kinoshi embraces styles both past and present to create something that we can call modern. Band members cut across race and gender with original compositions inspired by the social issues of our times. PERSONNEL Cassie Kinoshi – Alto Saxophone & Composer Miguel Gorodi - Trumpet Sheila Maurice – Grey – Trumpet Chelsea Carmichael – Tenor Saxophone & Flute Joe Bristow – Trombone Theon Cross – Tuba Joe Armon-Jones – Piano & Rhodes (WAKE (For Grenfell), Stargaze #1: KATIN, The Dreamkeeper, Interplanetary Migration) Sarah Tandy – Piano & Rhodes (Stargaze #2: LAU, The Darkies, Mirrors, Afronaut) Shirley Tetteh – Guitar Rio Kai – Double Bass Patrick Boyle – Drums Lyrics by Langston Hughes (The Dreamkeeper, W A K E (for Grenfell) Stargaze #1: LAU arr. of Eric Lau’s Earthing Out Additional Vocals (W A K E (for Grenfell): Jason Yarde GUESTS XANA – poetry/spoken-word Mr. Ekow – poetry/spoken word Cherise Adams-Burnett – vocals ARTWORK Sophie Bass

[politics-always-matters]

Today In Both Sides Do It: @Vox

The truly astonishing sums of money that Vox Media has been able to raise (from Wiki) -- In December 2014, Vox Media raised a $46.5 mi...

Notice how the statements, motives, and perspectives attributed to the Left and the Right seem similar. At a glance, it might be tough to see the difference between them. Of course, that’s because volume level and tone don’t equal level of factual accuracy.

As one of the comments says, the difference is one set is using items ranging from ‘probably true’ to ‘incontrovertible’. i.e., “Clinton won the popular vote.” And the other side is using pure, raw lies or things that have already been proven factually wrong. i.e., “Obama wasn’t born here.”

Trying to pretend that truth and lies are equivalent is a splendid way to encourage the latter.

It’s certainly splendid, because it’s worked so well.

And now, because our media absolutely runs on Both Sides, they’re completely defenseless to try and meet the challenges of our current national crises. Because right now, in this moment of history (and for decades now, really), it simply hasn’t been an equivalent problem on both sides.

One side is causing a massive, overwhelming chunk of our issues and disorders; the Right.

If your instinct is to say ‘but surely, reason can be found in the middle, the left must have tons of issues, too,’ then I’ll ask. Where’s the equivalent to Trump on the Left? In power, prominence, carelessness, etc. Where’s the Left Trump? The media isn’t scared because the country is on fire and we’re losing attitude. They’re scared because it’s growing more impossible by the day to even try and pretend Both Sides are even close to the same now.