eliashiebert

[eliashiebert]

Wait what do you mean *over* half?

Pregnancy runs in my family. Over half of my ancestors had it at some point.

[eliashiebert]

Moving Back

Tumblr's not the place for this anymore. I've gone back to blogspot. Mixtape commentary is here. Other stuff might eventually be here.

[eliashiebert]

Instrumental Soul is too

[eliashiebert]

GO-ROUND

is now logged. 

[eliashiebert]

Instrumental Soul

Rolled by: Me For: A., J., D. and the rest Late Summer 2018 TRT: 1h19m21s

There are a few instrumentals I’ve been putting on evry tape for years…Bar-Kays’ “Knucklehead”, Kool & The Gang’s “Street Corner Symphony” and Ike Turner’s “Funky Mule”.  For awhile I’ve been thinking about a mixtape of all instrumentals.  Normally I like making tapes that go off in all directions.  I don’t usually do themes, altho I think of a lot of them.  I have almost never done a tape of tunes from mostly just one genre.  I like this one a lot tho.  Maybe I’ll do more.  Settle down a bit, stop childishly trying to impress you with my hard lefts & flying leaps. 

Once I finally started, this tape came together super-quick.  It wasnt hard to find another hour of funky jazzy soul-ey instrumental toons.  I assumed, as you might, confronted with a mix calld Instrumental Soul, I’d eventually get around to some Booker T. and the M.G.’s.  Somehow, tho, they are not here…but their influence is defnilly present. 

I usually try to make my mixes fit on an old-school 74-minute ceedee…you know, just like the 9th Symphony.  I like to use the most restrictive definition, even tho I’ll ultimately be dumping it onto an 80-minute CDR.  Or, these days I’d as soon keep it as file, but my friends they all still like getting the “physical” disk, don’t ask me why.  Anyway, this is all to say I broke that rule this time around.  I already weeded out a bunch of stuff I wanted to put in to get it under the 80 minute mark (yes I’m already planning a Part 2), and I didnt want to lose any more. 

Another thing I did different with this one is give the songs some room to breathe with a couple seconds of silence between each one instead of running them all together like I usually do. 

Here we go…. 

Roger & the Gypsies “Pass The Hatchet Pt. 1” Seven B 7001 (1966)

Happy hypnotic groover from New Orleans funkmaster Eddie Bo, a dude with really excellent hair.  Like a lot of what’s on here, he came to my attention originally thru Funky16Corners.  The original 45 costs mad cheddar but it’s on lotsa collections…various little indie N.O. funk comps and even the Desperado soundtrack.  I took it from Mojo’s “Southern Soul” disc.  I don’t think it’s on any of the main Eddie Bo collections, Funky Delicacies’ Funky Funky New Orleans or Vampisoul’s In The Pocket with Eddie Bo or etc.  It’d be nice if there were something truly comprehensive out there, but ya know. 

The J.B.’s “Pass The Peas” From Food For Thought (People 1972)

Maybe part of the reason the JB’s have been looped so often is that they sound like a loop to begin with.  No one can lock like they could.  Long solo from leader Fred Wesley…I love a good trombone solo, but the player has to have a fabulous tone and mad technique, both which of course the legendary Fred Wesley has by the bucketful.  What he doesnt have is the vocabulary of a jazz player—it’s pure funksoul; it stays inside its box.  You might find that a little repetitious after some 36 bars but I don’t care I don’t care.  Some organ in the background from the Creator himself.  I playfully referred to the instrument as the “pipes,” as in, “Is that James Brown on the pipes?” and Jen would not have it.  “It’s a Hammond organ!” she yelled, “There’s no pipes!!” 

Some of my sources for this tape are vintage elpees and some, like this one, are slightly suspect vinyl re-issues.  They look good but questions like Are they properly licensed? and Were they mastered from the original tapes or some inferior copy? are anyone’s guess.  I don’t know, it sounds good to me.  That’s how a lot of this type of material is available these days.  Many of these albums never got any official re-issues, digital or analog.  You can’t be too picky unless you want to lay out for first pressings. 

Dizzy Gillespie “Matrix” From The Real Thing (Perception 1970)

The jazz legend (is legend a strong enuf word?) ’s soul-flavord The Real Thing album gets my highest recommendation.  A heat rock if ever there was one.  You wanna hear Dizzy Gillespie and his fine collaborators blow over hard beats from a funky rhythm section?  Yes you do. 

Eddie Harris “Listen Here” From The Electrifying Eddie Harris (Atlantic 1968)

Some cool elevator jazz from the electric saxophonist once referenced in a Beastie Boys hit.  Is it fair to call it elevator music?  Does that term even mean anything other than an offhand dis?  When I say it, I’m talking about something specific, at least in my own head.  Elevator music, like disco, is something I wasnt supposed to like but which I now have a growing appreciation for.  Maybe I shud make a tape of all elevator music, like the stuff I used to hear at Kohl’s when I was a kid.  Maybe I’ll make it for my friend J. who likes to listen to the smooth jazz station when he’s hungover. 

This tune evokes a train moving underground, and it might inject some joy in yer commute if you put it in your headphones. 

J. C. Davis “A New Day (Is Here At Last)” New Day 1373 (1969), remixed and re-issued on A New Day! The Complete Mus-I-Col Recordings Of J. C. Davis (Cali-Tex 2005)

My brother A. put me on to this dude.  The saxophonist and bandleader (not to be confused with the other J. C. Davis who played guitar with Hank Ballard and the Midnighters) backed James Brown in the early 60s and around ’69 released a few singles on his own label.  Around ’05, Josh Davis AKA DJ Shadow went back to the studio in Columbus, Ohio, where those records were made and he remixed them “on the original mix board” because he’s the king of the nerds.  That irresistible smooth, slightly edgy sax sound crooning over haaard mutherfuckin drums begging to be sampled—and they have been!—with that cool 60s chickenwing funk guitar & organ. 

Tom Scott and the L.A. Express “Sneakin’ In The Back” Originally from their self-titled album (Ode/Epic 1974), later appearing on volume whatever of the Ultimate Breaks ’n’ beats (Street Beat 1990)

A little misterioso now.  This smoothie I got from my bootleg version of Lenny Roberts & Lou Flores’ collection of evry essential breakbeat ever.  No doubt Tom Scott & the L.A. Express would find their way to my elevator music tape too. 

Willie Bobo and the Bo-Gents “Do What You Want to Do” From Do What You Want To Do… (Sussex 1971)

Of course it was Larry who first introduced me to this album.  Try to be unhappy listnin to this sawng.  Try.  Classic example of that East Side salsa n soul I love. 

Freddie Hubbard “Backlash” From Backlash (Atlantic 1967)

Again, a great jazz artist doin’ a record in a funksoul-influenced style.  Freddie Hubbard is one of my favorite trumpet players, and this tune scorches. 

Bar-Kays “Knucklehead” The flip side of “Soul Finger”, Volt 168 (1967)

I bought the Soul Finger album (yet another suspect re-issue) becuz the title track is essential, but this hard hitter is my faverit tune on it.  The B side wins again! 

Dizzy Gillespie “Soul Kiss” From The Real Thing (Perception 1970)

Another tune from The Real Thing, a more frantic one, with kissy noises from the trumpet.  By the way, if you sound like this when you kiss, I’m pretty sure you arnt doing it right. 

The Mohawks “The Champ” Pama PM 719 (1968)

It’s called “Champ” but it sounds more like “tramp” a la Carla Thomas.  The band is doin’ the Booker T., and that screamin organ riff by Alan Hawkshaw (sampled many, many times of course) over top of it is un dee nigh uh bull. 

Zap-Pow “Soul Revival” Jaywax 45 (1974?). Also on the album Revolutionary (Roosevelt 1976?), but most likely to be found on the compilation Funky Kingston: Reggae Dance Floor Grooves 1968–74 (Trojan 2002)

Another gem brought to my attn by Funky16Corners.  Heard it on the blog and had to run out right away and buy the comp just for one song.  Probably the tightest record on here next to the JB’s.  Usually filed as reggae due to its place of origin, but this is str8 funksoul. 

Kool & The Gang “Street Corner Symphony” From Light Of Worlds (De-Lite 1974)

I love it when Kool & The Gang does their fake jazz thing.  Got soul-jazz from both sides of the fence on here.  At the end the sax quotes “My Favorite Things” (a nod to Trane I assume) which always cracks me up. 

Ike Turner & the Kings Of Rhythm “Funky Mule” From A Black Man’s Soul (Pompeii 1969)

Ike & Tina Turner made a lot of really cool records and a lot of mediocre ones (and I wish I knew which was which), and these days they are scattered across a hundred seedy bargain compilation ceedees.  The act has never been anthologized properly, maybe due to Ike’s reputation (which I’m sure is well-deserved…recent attempts to rehabilitate him kind of piss me off…tho also irritating is the popular image of him as a cartoonish monster, mostly due to the movie, which even Tina said didnt happen like that.  Evrybody does good and bad things in their life.  The good things don’t take away the bad things and vice versa, and you can dig music with eyes open to the fact that some of the ones who made it were not cool people).  I pickt up one such random comp choosing it mostly for the title: I Smell Trouble!!! (yes with three exclamation points !).  It included this hard funk instrumental that cracked my head open wit a axe.  It’s one of those songs where they just crammd in evry badass riff they could think of.  Again, hard, hard muthafuckin drums, driving horns growling and belching smoke, funkee geetar, a busy bassline dancing underneath it all.  Wish I knew who the players were but no credits given. 

Dr. Octagon “Bear Witness” From Dr. Octagonecologyst (Bulk 1996)

Dr Octagonecologyst is a goofball boom-bap classic.  I remember hearing Blue Flowers on AMP.  For a while that was the best or one of the only good things on MTV, and it turnd me on to a lot of cool stuff.  This instrumental showcases DJ Q-Bert’s scratching and a bevy of funky breaks.  The sampled battlecry, “Creating rap music ’cause I never dug disco” sure sounds like Chuck D (thanks to some processing) but it’s actually an obsure MC from the 80s called 4-Ever Fresh.  Automator and a supercrew of DJ/producers including Prince Paul & Shadow would revisit this track a few years later on Handsome Boy Modeling School’s equally classic first album. 

James Brown “Spinning Wheel” From Sex Machine (King 1970)

James Brown’s mellow organ version of Blood, Sweat & Tears’ Spinnin Wheel is an unsung classic. 

Bill Doggett “Honky Tonk Pt. 2” King 4950 (1956)

Long ago, my former coworker K. turnd me on to Bill Doggett and this much-coverd happy, handclapping, sax-driven early rocknroll hit.  I took it from this comp. 

Doc Bagby “Crazy Chemistry” Okeh 4-7098 (1958)

My good, good friend M. once gave me, for my birthday maybe, when I was like 20, a big stack of 45s from his own collection.  I still prize them to this day.  This was one.  Demented carnival music with Wurlitzer organ and bouncy guitar. 

The 45 King “Get Funky” On The Lost Breakbeats Volume 1 & 2 (The Yellow Album) (45 King Records 1983)

Super duper beat maker the 45 King.  Lotsa gems on this collection, which I got on bootleg download. 

Hugh Masekela “Grazing In The Grass” From The Promise of a Future (Universal City 1968)

It’s a gas.  The original, instrumental version by South African trumpet player Hugh Masekela.  Only 2 anna half minutes.  Supposedly recorded just to fill time on the album.  Huge hit.  Gotta have more cowbell, more overdriven brass, more POP! 

The Meters “Sophisticated Cissy” Josie 1001 (1968), the band’s first single I think. Also on The Meters

Aww, such a badass slow groove, makes you say “UH!”  KRS-One and Scott LaRock sampled this on “Essays On BDP-ism”, a very cool record made just before Scott LaRock’s death in 1987 and unreleased until 2000.  I’m surpised it hasnt been sampled more.  Great way to come in for the close. 

Ray Charles “Doodlin’” From The Great Ray Charles

Ray Charles and his associates do a sweet version of the Horace Silver tune, with a muted trumpet by John Hunt and tenor sax David Newman.  I was first introduced to Ray Charles’s jazz material and this tune in particular via a tape in my brother’s car he was way into around, oh, twenty years ago.  A tape he got from his friend G. probably.  Ray Charles made a couplefew jazz albums.  Highlights from them appear on this odd artifact, with its yellow cover and monochrome portrait that looks like a zeerox.  With a title like The Best of Ray Charles, you might expect material like “What’d I Say” and “Georgia” rather than 6 instrumental jazz tunes.  Nevertheless it is highly recommended. 

Boom! 

[eliashiebert]

Matt Seneca:

Maybe the biggest part of what makes superhero comics so unpalatable to the uninitiated (and vice versa) is how referential they are, how enamored every panel is not just with contributing to a larger construction, but with its consciousness of doing that. Part of this is simply good salesmanship, but I think it's more due to the fact that guys who make superhero comics really really love superhero comics. Like stoned stoners talking about getting stoned, they just can't resist bringing up that other time when, and the people who were there, and how much, and why.

[eliashiebert]

Put This On:

Never a follower of trends, but always updated on his look, Kramer also occasionally sported the collar-over-lapel thing that seems to have come back. Except, where some boldly and recklessly flip out both collar points, Kramer exercised a bit more moderation by flipping out just one. This, my friends, is the difference between fashion and style.

[eliashiebert]

RIP to a great illustrator who thought shoplifters should be murdered.

Perfect comment below TCJ's Steve Ditko obit. 

[eliashiebert]

Sumerian Proverbs

Via @drhingram via @JaredParker, Oxford University’s “Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature” has a trove of proverbs:

You should not cut the throat of that which has already had its throat cut.

"Though I still have bread left over, I will eat your bread!" Will this endear a man to the household of his friend?

You don't speak of that which you have found. You talk only about what you have lost.

Whatever it is that hurts you, don't talk to anyone about it.

Wealth is far away, poverty is close at hand.

He who possesses many things is constantly on guard.

Possessions make trust of crucial importance.

Barley flour, in the fields, is meat fat.

The lives of the poor do not survive their deaths.

In the city where there are no dogs, the fox is boss.

He who eats too much cannot sleep.

An unfaithful penis matches an unfaithful vagina.

To be sick is acceptable; to be pregnant is painful; but to be pregnant and sick is just too much.

Tell a lie and then tell the truth: it will be considered a lie.

May you find the response to an insult hurled at you in a dispute.

Putting unwashed hands to one's mouth is disgusting.

A heart which does not know accounting -- is that a wise heart?

In respect of both expenditures and capital goods, the anus is well supplied.

The dog understands "Take it!", but it does not understand "Put it down!"

What will the dog do about what the fox is doing?

Strength cannot keep pace with intelligence.

He who insults is insulted. He who sneers is sneered at.

He is fearful, like a man unacquainted with beer.

A fettered dog is quarrelsome.

A fox urinated into the Tigris. "I am causing the spring flood to rise," he said.

He who shaves his head gets more hair. And he who gathers the barley gains more and more grain.

The horse, after throwing off his rider, said: "Were my load to be like this forever, how weak I would become!"

A dog which is played with turns into a puppy.

Like a hyena, he will not eat it unless it stinks.

To be wealthy and demand more is an abomination to one's god.

A child without sin was never born by his mother. The idea was never conceived that there was anyone who was not a sinner. Such a situation never existed.

Earth is greater than heaven. Who can destroy it?

By following craftiness, one learns how to be crafty. By following wisdom, one learns how to be wise.

[eliashiebert]

Andy Capp vs Love & Rockets

[eliashiebert]

GO-ROUND

Divided into two roughly equal “sides,” which I pretentiously call Program A and Program B. 

Rolled by: me Feb. ’18 TRT: 1h13m45s

Michael Jackson “Working Day And Night” From Off The Wall (1979)

Best song on Off The Wall, overshadowed by the other hits (“Rock With You”, “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough”).  Off The Wall is a total disco album full of dance songs about dancing, and that’s what makes it greater than its successor Thriller.  By 82 disco was as dead as disco and rock was king.  As a result Thriller is full of wack guitar riffs and laughable tough-guy posturing it would have been better off without.  If only Thiller had been the disco album it was meant to be, free of the trappings of rock.  Like, imagine “P.Y.T.” without that shitty guitar break in the middle.  I mean, I like rock.  But Michael Jackson is no rock artist and shouldn’t pretend to be. 

The “special edition” of Off The Wall contains a very charming demo version of “Working Day And Night” featuring Randy and Janet (“Michael! Turn down my earphones, man!!”).  I took the beginning and end of the demo and wrapped them around the album version of the tune. 

Marvin Gaye “Got To Give It Up” From Live at the London Palladium (1977)

Marvin Gaye and Art Stewart’s disco classic.  The full 12-or-whatever-minute album version.  (Using a song this long always feels like cheating but whatever.)  I was gonna use just the “part 1” from the single version, but I couldnt deny the sax solo and all the other awesome bull shit in part 2. 

Common “Funky For You” feat. Bilal & Jill Scott From Like Water For Chocolate (2000)

Cooling things down a little bit with this smoothie. 

This album still sounds good even tho—said thru the back of my hand—these days I’m waiting for Common to just go away.  At the time I would have reckoned him as one of the best, but the fact that I never really could get as excited about any of his other work goes to show that maybe Like Water For Chocolate isnt so much a great Common album as a great Soulquarians album. 

Björk “Who Is It (Carry My Joy On The Left, Carry My Pain On The Right)” From Medúlla (2004)

Björk wails over the fade out of Funky For You and soon heats things up again.  “They’re go-o-ing a-round” 

Jungle Brothers “Straight Out The Jungle” From Straight Out The Jungle (1988)

This album opener is my faverit faverit cut on an elpee full of faverit cuts.  “In the J-U-N G-L E!”

According to Afrika Baby Bam, this whole album is basicly a pause mix, albeit using a pro tape machine not a boombox.  No loops (looping samples, pioneered by the likes of Ultramagnetic’s Ced-Gee, still being relatively new to Hip Hop in 1988): using a single copy of each record they manually laid the breaks to tape and spun it back over and over and over and over again.  (I can’t find a source for this but Baby Bam’s quote is on the Discogs release page, and at several other auction sites who probably cut-and-pasted it from Discogs.)  The resulting lofi sound was described by Rob’t Christgau as “drumbeats so offhand I’d half swear they were live.”

The start-and-stop drum hits at the very beginning blend easily with the beat of Who Is It. 

Also, this record samples Manu Dibango (“Weya”) whose “Soul Makossa” opens Program B. 

Allen Toussaint “Night People” From Motion (1978)

Disco classic.  First recorded by Lee Dorsey I think but Toussaint’s own version wins over the (still good of course) Dorsey version and the whole gang of covers. 

Denise Lasalle “Breaking Up Somebody’s Home” From On The Loose (1972)

I might like this even better than Ann Peebles’s original, but both are classic Seventies soul.  This might sound a little off but it reminds me of Ry & Chaka’s “Don’t You Mess Up A Good Thing”, a staple of my weird childhood. 

Thirty seconds of silence to separate the two sides. 

Manu Dibango “Soul Makossa” US version: Atlantic 45-2971 (1973)

Some sweetass Cameroonian funk to open the second side, which is a little mellower and a little weirder than the first.  This song is mostly famous for being ripped off by Michael Jackson, and later Rihanna. 

Took this from the Atlantic 45 which was (I believe) the first time this record was issued in the United States.  The tune had become a hit, at least an underground hit, before it was widely available here; thus the scores of cover versions in attempt to cash in on the gap in the market.  Which is why this disc bears the words “(THE ORIGINAL VERSION)” beneath the title. 

Makossa means dance. 

ScHolly-D “Put Your Filas On” From ScHolly-D (1985)

Goofball, vulgar, old school (truly old school!) party rap.  Everything on the label and sleeve of this album is hand written, and the music feels hand written too.  There is an infections not-givin-a-fuckness to Scholly’s casual, almost not quite on beat flow.  It’s a lot of fun to imitate. 

I wish I had this disc for real but this comes from a file off th dam internet.  (It’s kind of expensive.) 

Otha Turner & the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band “Shimmy She Wobble” From "For the Time Beyond!" (1997)

You know I like genre-crossing transitions.  If one thing ties Shimmy She Wobble to Put Your Filas On, it is their homemade-ness.  These four songs—this one and the last, Filas, Shimmy She Wobble, and the next two, Peace Ahki and Albee Square—are four different beats that kind of flow one to the next like 4 movements, 4 metamorphoses.  Maybe. 

Thanx to the Delta Doktor for this tape, probably bought at one of Othar Turner’s own picnics. 

Jungle Brothers “Peace Ahki” (ca. 1992)

A short instrumental from the unreleased Crazy Wisdom Masters album. 

Biz Markie “Albee Square Mall” From Goin’ Off (1988)

Speaking of goofball old-school rap, Biz Markie is the champion of goofball old-shool rap; and how much goofier does it get than a love song to yr faverit shopping mall??!  This is one of those songs I’ve just been waiting to put on a mix tape.  Can’t help singing along to this hook either. 

Bob James “Mardi Gras” From Two (1975)

Going in for the close…. 

You recognize those bells as the break from “Peter Piper” (and numerous others) but the whole thing is pretty damn funky. 

Like disco, smooth jazz is a genre for which my former disdain slowly gave way to sincere appreciation.  At one time I would have dismissed this album as elevator music and moved on, but rite now I love evry note of it, and the surrealist cover, and evrything else.  My copy smells like a cool, musty attic record store.  Probably one that sells books too, rows of sff paperbacks by Michael Moorcock and Poul Anderson…. 

Hugh Masekela “Bajabule Bonke” From The Promise of a Future (1968)

Beautiful, mellow tune from the late Hugh Masekela.  Flip side to “Grazing in the Grass”. 

Aimee Mann “Ballantines” From @#%&*! Smilers (2007)

And a sing-along to round it out. 

57 seconds of silence. 

fine

[eliashiebert]

Side B Rev 2

Manu Dibango “Soul Makossa”

Scholly D “Put Your Filas On”

Othar Turner & the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band “Shimmy She Wobble’

Jungle Brothers “Peace Ahki”

Biz Markie “Albee Square Mall”

Bob James “Mardi Gras”

Hugh Masekela “Bajabule Bonke”

Aimee Mann “Ballantines”

I didnt really like Book Of Rhyme Pages in the spot between Filas and Albee Square but I never really liked Filas and Albee Square right next to each other, so instead I stuck in a couple beat metamorphoses leading from one to the other. 

Side B Rev 1

Side B

Side A

[eliashiebert]

I stuck the Jungle Brothers’ Book Of Rhyme Pages in between Put Your Filas On and Albee Square Mall, and right now it times out perfectly.  I have some more editing to do so we’ll see how the timing winds up. 

Side B

Side A

[eliashiebert]

Side B

This is what I’m thinking for part B…

Manu Dibango “Soul Makossa”

Scholly D “Put Your Filas On”

Biz Markie “Albee Square Mall”

Bob James “Mardi Gras”

Hugh Masekela “Bajabule Bonke”

Aimee Mann “Ballantines”

Comes out to about 34 minutes, but I may have to edit down Put Your Filas On for content depending on who’s listning to this.  I could use one more song.  Could go between Filas and Albee Square, could go between Bajabule Bonke and Ballantines or it could go at the very end if it’s a very-end kind of number. 

Side A

[eliashiebert]

Side A

I put together the first half of an as yet unnamed mixtape.  I think it’s perfect but I’ve no idea what to do with the second half. 

Michael Jackson “Working Day And Night” album version framed by demo version (With Randy & Janet) from Off The Wall special edition

Marvin Gaye “Got To Give It Up” full 12-or-whatever-minute album version  …I wanted to use part 1 only, but I couldnt deny the sax solo and all the other awesome bull shit in part 2

Common “Funky For You” Feat. Bilal & Jill Scott

Björk “Who Is It (Carry My Joy On The Left, Carry My Pain On The Right)”

Jungle Brothers “Straight Out The Jungle”

Allen Toussaint “Night People”

Denise Lasalle “Breaking Up Somebody’s Home”

Comes out to around 37 minutes, half a 74-minute ceedee. 

[eliashiebert]

Caleb Luna:

I am tired of fighting my friends. I am tired of trying to convince them that I matter as much as their romantic interests and partners. In many ways, who we choose to love is also a decision of who we invest in, and who we distribute the resources necessary to keep one another alive—including care. I am tired of trying to get people who love me to see that I am worthy of love, care, investment and attention as much as their romantic partners. I am tired of trying to make those who love me see that I am worthy of care, time and attention as much as the whiteness and thinness they invest in through their partners. I am sick of reminding them of the simple fact that who we choose to love and, by extension, invest in is political.

Investing in people is also investing bodies and this does not exist outside out of historical priorities and possibilities. We can stop politicizing desire when we stop distributing our love and care based on it. When we stop using our desire as a rubric for who we are keeping alive—or at least making efforts to.

[ . . . ]

There have been various moments in my life when it is structured such that there will be no great upset in anyone’s life if I am not there. Some people would not have someone to text occasionally, but there do not appear to be gaps that couldn’t and wouldn’t be filled by others. No one’s daily, material life would be changed by my absence. This is to say: no one has invested in incorporating me into their life, in distributing their care, in any meaningful way such that my absence will create a gulf.

This construction of love actually terrifies me. While, as a subject who is both personally and culturally historically disregarded and uncared for, I have a desire to be cared for and prioritized, the expectation to do this to another horrifies me. Not in a sense of a restriction of love, but I do not want to feel obligated to reserve the love and care I have for a single person, because this not just loving and caring for one person, but doing so at the expense of loving and caring for everyone else. I do not believe that this is what love and romance has to be, but it feels apparent this is the way it is practiced–if not unintentionally or subconsciously. It feels difficult to not consider this a product of capitalist individualism that works to divide and conquer.

(Strongination in original; biggination mine.) 

[eliashiebert]

Danielle McGuire:

By the early 1950s, then, a history of sexual assaults on black women and of the use of the boycott as a powerful weapon for justice had laid the groundwork for what was to come. Given that history, it made sense that city buses served as the flashpoint for mass protest. Other than police officers, few were as guilty of committing acts of racist violence and sexual harassment of black women as Montgomery’s bus operators, who bullied and brutalized black passengers daily. Worse, bus drivers had police power. They carried blackjacks and guns, and they assaulted and sometimes even killed African Americans who refused to abide by the racial order of Jim Crow.

[ . . . ]

Rooted in the struggle to protect and defend black womanhood from racial and sexual violence, the Montgomery Bus Boycott is impossible to understand and situate in its proper historical context without understanding the stories and saying the names of Gertrude Perkins, Flossie Hardman, Recy Taylor, and all the black women who were mistreated in Montgomery.