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disruption, may 1 2024
a funny coincidence, im reading Labor's Untold Story by Richard O. Boyer and Herbet M. Morais and just so happened to read the chapters on the Haymarket Affair (page 84-104) today, May 1st. it really had an impact on me. sidenote: this book is really good, if you are intereseted in the struggles of labor in the US, written from the prespective of laborers (not the owning class), i highly recommend it.
its May Day, international workers day, this celebration of the stuggle of the working class was chosen to commemorate the legacy of the 1886 Haymarket Affair. a city-wide general strike took hold of Chicago, Illinois industry- with local and state police hiding in the shadows looking for a martyr. on the first of may the some 80,000 stikers peacefully paraded thru the streets of chicago in an attempt to win an 8 hour workday with labor leaders Albert Parsons and August Spies at the front of it all. to the chagrin of the state militias and police, the day ended peacefully, the striking continued for three more days and on May 4th as police came in to disrupt the striking workers, an unknown hand threw a stick of dynamite. the bomb went off and police started firing into the crowd indiscriminately, many were injured, others killed, and a hundred were arrested. the blame placed on the labor leaders, Parsons, Spies and others. a rigged trial was held and these workingmen were sentenced to death by hanging. before the incident occurred either on or before may 1st an article in the publication Mail read:
"There are two dangerous ruffians at large in this city; two sculking cowards who are trying to create trouble. One of them is named Parsons; the other is named Spies...
"Mark them for today. Keep them in view. Hold them personally responsible for any trouble that occurs.Make an example of them if trouble does occur."
i side with Parsons opinion that the bomb was thrown, not by a worker, but an agent hired by some industrialist or state official in an attempt the quell the swelling labor movement.
as a sign of international solidarity with the Haymarket Martyrs, socialist and workers organizations worldwide began to celebrate May 1st as an International Workers Day to strive for the adoption of an 8 hour work day. But now the United States celebrates labor day in Septemeber, I dont think its a secret that this was adopted as a way to divorce the concept from the Haymarket Affair and the miscarriage of justice that occured. this change also serves to isolate the US labor movement from the international labor movement. in the mind of a capitalist, if you can divide the power of the working class, you have less to worry about.
"We mean to make things over
We're tired of toil for nought
But bare enough to live on; never
An hour for thought.
We want to feel the sunshine; we
Want to smell the flowers
We're sure that God has willed it
And we mean to have eight hours.
We're summoning our forces from
Shipyard, shop, and mill
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest
Eight hours for what we will!"
Labor's Untold Story pg 88
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alien territory, april 9 2024
for the past couple of days most of what ive been listening to is acid house, particularly the work of the legendary Ceephax Acid Crew(or just Ceephax). i discovered his 2013 release Cro Magnox when i was 16? cant quite remember... but i stumbled upon it searching thru tags on bandcamp. listening now it reminds me of such a paricular time in my life. coming home from school, strapping on my rollerblades and weaving through the winding subdevelopments that shelter the outside world from the pristinely manicured golf courses. making my way to the top of the county courthouse's parking garage skating around and around in the warm breeze. listening to this same album over and over as i sat five stories up in the deserted parking lot as dark strom clouds roll over the horizon. i can look back now and remember this time so fondly, even if then i was a terrible mess.
after all this time, 10 years i think the album still holds up. i could imagine many of the tracks being part of a science fiction movie soundtrack. it seriously sounds like how those 1960s mass market sci-fi book covers look. incredilby alien and desolate but humming with electricty. its very melodic and often changes rapidly from upbeat to haunting. like youre walking thru a city passing by a lively club, a mellow diner, an abandoned lot, an electrical substation, and then you hop on the metro and are able to take in the cityscape as a whole rapidly.
the instrumentation is just incredible, the synths really make the album. please give it a listen via the link above, even if you dont like elecctronic music or acid house i hope you will be pleasantly surprised.
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malaise, march 30 2024
ive been feeling so sick and in such a terrible mood, both restless and unable to bring myself to do much. at least the sun is out. despite my wretched condition ive compiled most of the tracks for the next cassette compilation yet still have to carefully organize them. i do not want to say the general theme of the project as i want to keep it a secret but i am excited about the subjects. in creating this particular cassette i forsee myself doing alot of historical research so i can present it how i intend to... i will try my best to make it perfect. so vague.. yes but this is just the beginning
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coming of age, march 27 2024
today marks the 33rd birthday of Spiderland by Louisville, KY band Slint. one of my all time favorites, laced with so much mystery and absolutely drowning in atomsphere. theres so much that can and has been said about this strange record, but i wanted to mention two parts of the album that i particuarly love.
i love the screeching guitar riff on Nosferatu Man that is reminescent of a train screeching to a halt on its tracks, totally synergystic- "...Until I heard that old train. Rolling down the line." Its the first super recognizable part in the song and coupled with the drums that chug along and the heavy bassline, it makes the listener feel like something is coming and its foreboarding and tense and uncanny. makes me think of the film concept 'non-diagetic sound'.
secondly, ive always heard the last track, Good Morning Captain, as kind of a call and response. with the lyrics being the story, an onlooker telling the captains story and the guitar being the captains voice. not truly "responding" to the narrator but bubbling up from beneath the dark depths and trying to break through the story. some sort of "vox humana". specifically only the lower pitched guitar riff starting at 2:03 and later interspersed throughout. i doubt that this is in any way an "accurate" reading of the song but since i heard it its stuck with me. maybe i felt that the captain needed to be heard.
anyway its such a good album and if youve never listened i highly reccommend giving it a shot. i also dont really have a favorite track, as its one of those albums that you just gotta listen to all the way thru. i also love their 1989 album Tweez the instrumentation on the intro track is just to die for.
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remembering, march 25 2024
the 113th commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is today. a preventable event that lead to the needless deaths of 146 garment workers in NYC, of which the majority were immigrants and women (some as young as 14 years old). while there can be a positive spin put upon this tragic event- factory saftey standards were increased and more women than ever began to join the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU)- its also a testament to the corruption of the owning class and the abhorrent lengths they will go to in order to extract as much from us as possible. its so sad that workers had to chose between burning alive or jumping 8-10 stories to their deaths because the factory owners kept the doors locked to increase productivity.
some believe this employer negligence is a thing of the past but it stills happens in factories in the us today, skirting saftey standards to increase profits. especially here with undocumented farmworkers, some of the most exploited workers in the country. and in the global south garment factories (who fulfill contracts for giant western corporations) are neglected to the point of collapse (see Rana Plaza in 2013). as a garment worker its such a sad day and its important to remember all those lost who were just trying to make a living wage and to remember who has the blood on their hands. farewell to all- may every worker slain by their employers negligence rest easy.
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misaligned, march 20 2024
awoke this morning to an overcast sky and a throat on fire- as the day progressed became more and more clouded and queasy. i thought itd be nice to write about one of my favorite albums to hopefully focus my mind: Meditations on the Self and the Other by Precipitation. i came across this album in 2016, i was in college and spending most of my time in the radio station listening to music (my grades suffered terribly). it instantly drew me in with the fuzzy synth lines that are reminiscent of a book on tape childrens fantasy story. so warm and yet dreary, like waking up from a mid-day nap to a summer thunderstorm. transitioning into Alan Watts' reading of the Tao Te Ching the words are slow and deliberate. chapters repeat for emphasis and then they fade in and out of an ever increasing drone. dust settles and we are met with a sparkling melody punctuated by bouncy drums. hollow oscillations emerge setting the scene for a beautiful meld of clean flowing keys that twinkle as they dissolve, low punchy kicks, and an acid-drenched synthline- reaching the albums climatic peak, the sound turns reflective. a drone that mutates as it lingers, the synths are almost wailing out. rising and falling...
'The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.' [Tao Te Ching chapter 16]
to this day i think about this album often. it captures a part of me that i find to be indescribable. thoughout my life i keep running into themes of longing and reflection, Meditations... seems to be a good companion piece to those sentiments. it will stay with me forever.
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exalted, march 19 2024
looking back
[redacted]
(sorry i dont know the source of the image, i found it in 2019 and have since lost its trail. think its from a south florida new station skycam.)
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fuzzy, march 17 2024
a memory
[redacted]
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test, march 17 2024
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