Clem Burke, 20 Lessons on Tyranny, Bread of Angels, etc.
In which we should be as courageous as we can.
🙏 Rest in Peace Clem Burke, the heartbeat of Blondie and one of the first people I interviewed during my brief tenure in music journalism.
🎤 Was fortunate enough to see Marc Maron this weekend in Grand Rapids, ahead of the taping of his next HBO taping next month. I still think of his candid, hilarious, heartbreaking interview with Robin Williams, which has since been inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
📖 “God whispers through a crease in the wallpaper.” Bread of Angels, a new memoir from Patti Smith, is due this November. “As Smith suffers profound losses, grief and gratitude are braided through years of caring for her children, rebuilding her life, and, finally, writing again—the one constant on a path driven by artistic freedom and the power of the imagination to transform the mundane into the beautiful, the commonplace into the magical, and pain into hope.”
🚪 Walt Goggin’s New York lodge is the closest thing to my dream house I think I’ve ever seen.
📽️ The trailer for The Phoenician Scheme is here, and it certainly looks like a Wes Anderson movie.
🐺 The dire wolf is back. No, really. The New Yorker on Colossal Biosciences, a genetics startup pioneering efforts to revive extinct species through advanced gene-editing technologies. Pretty sure this is chapter one of Jurassic Park.
🦖 Speaking of, saw this today, and I do not remember this scene in the movie.
🧟 I wanna play the new Evil Dead pinball machine like, yesterday.
🎧 Since I picked up The Replacements (along with Francoise Hardy) on Record Store Day…
(13/50) The Replacements, Tim: Watching their SNL performance (in rerun, admittedly) was life changing. Messy and deeply human; a raw, bittersweet transition from punk rebellion to alt-rock, the back half some of Westerberg’s best ballads and anthems.
🛡️ John Lithgow reads 20 lessons on Tyranny, penned by historian Timothy Snyder.
1. Do not obey in advance
2. Defend institutions
3. Beware the one-party state
4. Take responsibility for the face of the world
5. Remember professional ethics
6. Be wary of paramilitaries
7. Be reflective if you must be armed
8. Stand out
9. Be kind to our language
10. Believe in truth
11. Investigate
12. Make eye contact and small talk
13. Practice corporeal politics
14. Establish a private life
15. Contribute to good causes
16. Learn from peers in other countries
17. Listen for dangerous words
18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives
19. Be a patriot
20. Be as courageous as you can
✌️ 21. Keep the Hoping Machine running.
Love,
Luke
