a blind flaneur

In the 19th-century, free thinkers and radicals of every persuasion held Tom Paine birthday dinners on January 29 to celebrate the freedom of thought and expression championed so articulately by the political pamphleteer. Today we would know him as a blogger . Since beginning to re-read Eric Foner’s 1976 social history, Tom Paine and Revolutionary [...]

Steve Jobs must be wondering if Gutenberg faced this kind of brand irreverence when he invented moveable type. A day after Apple’s iPad hype, the wags at Mad TV talked on NPR about creating this viral video sensation after the gadget’s top-secret name was leaked on Twitter.

As one who has lost the ability to read printed books, I’m always searching for that richer context when the text itself is inaccessible to me. I thrive in the proliferation of book excerpts and videos, reviews and interviews available now on the Internet. I have more ways to learn about books than ever before. In the end, though, what I want is the book itself in an accessible format. Given Apple’s penchant for imperialistic control of devices and DRMs, I doubt that the latest tablet handed down from the mountain will reach me as a reader.

When I listened again to John Coltrane’s Alabama, I was moved by its prayerful tone. I heard the seeds of A Love Supreme in Coltrane’s soaring solo as well as Elvin Jones’ crashing cymbals. I hear the same life force in this live version of Naima, which the quartet performed on July 27, 2023 at the Antibes Jazz Festival. Miraculously, a fragment of A Love Supreme survives from the same gig. It makes me wonder if there are any complete live performances out there somewhere in the universe.

On a day when U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton gave a major policy speech about Internet Freedom,, it’s worth revisiting A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, a libertarian rant delivered at the 1996 World Economic Forum in Davos by John Perry Barlow. When I went looking for the full text, I came across this 2005 video mashup. The stereotypical computer voice is a little hokey, but I like what it adds to the artifact effect. I’d love to hear Barlow ranting it, if anyone knows of an open-source recording.

At the core of American music is a legacy of songs that yearn for freedom and redemption. This week’s American Routes presents a rich array of this music in its celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Here are two songs that convey the breath of that legacy, John Coltrane’s Alabama and Bob Marley’s Redemption Songs, sung here by the remarkable pairing of Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer.

I hadn’t heard of Ushahidi until the humanitarian crisis in Haiti began to unfold. Ushahidi means “testimony” in Swahili. As I learned more about the open-source citizen journalism platform, I added the link/button for Ushahidi’s Haiti page at the top of this site’s sidebar. When you follow the link you will find an amazing mashup [...]

The last CD to grace my stereo deck was Anne Sofie von Otter’s collection of Grieg Songs, which I return to like an Arctic tern when the snow is deep and the sun bright in a crystalline sky. I Tonight some kind of chthonic leap of faith made me switch von Oter’s Grieg for Patti Smith’s Horses tonight. Who’d think I could feel like I was 20 years old again and very punk? It started this morning when I heard a snippet of Gloria on NPR. Now I’m rummaging in the closet for the leather jacket with the ripped shoulder so I’ll look like I could walk into CBGB’s and not get rolled. Then all I’ll need is some Free Money.

Patti Smith met Robert Mapplethorpe on her first day in New York City in the summer of1967. They were both kids from stern religious backgrounds who yearned to be artists. Smith tells the story of their relationship in a new memoir titled  Just Kids. “Sometimes [people] seem to think I came out of the womb, [...]

When I heard an NPR story this morning about the closing of the one and only bookstore in Laredo, Texas, a city with a quarter million inhabitants, I was heartened anew by the fact that my humble village of 4,000 has three bookstores. And I can walk to any of them in less than five minutes. That’s the flaneur’s definition of a walkable, readable neighborhood.