"The irony that an empire so noisily advertised as an empire of free Britons should depend on the most brutal coercion of enslaved Africans is not just an academic paradox. It was the condition of the empire's success, its original sin: a stain that no amount of righteous self-congratulation at its eventual abolition can altogether wash away."
On the turntable: Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis, "Two Men With The Blues"
"Prosperity is identical with culture. Here were people absolutely prosperous, not of great means nor yet of very small ones but having sufficient education to expand those means frugally and so as to obtain the greatest amount of rational pleasure out of life. That is the chief function of education. A society, a coterie, a nation, a civilization so equipped is bound to outlast nations or classes within a nation whose idea of prosperity—nay of culture itself—is that of material hegemony of the world."
On the turntable: Django Reinhardt, "Integrale Django Reinhardt Vol. 5"
"Sometimes it's enough to just be where your feet are."
On the turntable: Three Dog Night, "Joy to the World"
The worst of modern life is when it weakens the powers of deep thought; in the insane haste of a town like New York man cannot sit down to remember that the inner life is being paralysed; he can only remember that he is in a hurry. Nature, however, is in no hurry—she took many million years to make this puny figure hurrying down Broadway—and she can well await the coming of that time when, with a calmer life and quieter activity, he will emerge from self-inflicted disaster and agonies to gaze into the deep well of divine thought which was buried beneath the noisy surface of himself and his environment.
On the turntable: Tomoyasu Hotei, "New Beginnings"
"Liberties are not given, they are taken."
On the turntable: Yes, "Drama"
"What if we reframed 'living with uncertainty' to 'navigating mystery'? "
On the turntable: Toots and the Maytals, "The Pressure Drop"
"Nothing good happens in the world by being happy and cozy."
On the turntable: Thunderclap Newman, "Hollywood Dream"
"I rarely visit cities, so for me they are somewhat similar to safari parks... the chance to see exotic, possibly dangerous, creatures in their natural habitat."
On the turntable: Ohio Players, "Funk on Fire, The Mercury Years"
"Travel never makes one cheerful. But it makes one thoughtful. It washes one's eyes and clears away the dust."
On the turntable: TSOL, "Beneath the Shadows"
"In my experience, those relying on God's intervention, soon find themselves joining him."
On the turntable: The Thompson Twins, "Here's to Future Days"
'Luck is when opportunity meets preparation."
On the turntable: Todd Rundgren, "The Complete Bearsville Album Collection"
"Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth."
On the turntable: The Ramones, "Too Tough to Die"
"I respect kindness in human beings first of all, and kindness to animals. I don't respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer."
On the turntable: Jefferson Starship, "Dragon Fly"
"Note that our age marks the end of ideologies. The atom bomb prohibits ideologies."
On the turntable: Desparacidos, "Anonymous/Left is Right"
"I feel like most travel writing and promotion in 2024 has one flavor – “Hey, visit here, it’s great”. Influencer culture has narrowed the scope of storytelling, minimizing meaningful reflections and stories in favor of nicely packaged Instagram posts, snappily edited TikToks, and SEO-optimized blogs that are more about appealing to every possible Google search."
On the turntable: Phish, "1994-12-01, Salem Armory"
"Memory is a kind of accomplishment."
On the turntable: Neil Young, "Journey to the Past"
"In America, the individual is nothing. He is made into an abstract object of worship; by persuading him of his individual value. One stifles the awakening of a collective spirit in him. But reduced to himself in this way, he is robbed of any concrete power. Without collective hope or personal audacity, what can the individual do? Submit or, if by some rare chance this submission is too odious, leave the country."
On the turntable: Neil Young, "Mixed Pages of Storytone"
"The consequent invasion has taken its toll and, sadly but incontrovertibly, many of our most cherished heritages have suffered the fate of becoming tourist attractions. And you don't have to be madly misanthropic to recognize that the presence of people means pollution. When commercialism comes barging in through the front door, romance and beauty tiptoe hand-in-hand out at the back."
On the turntable: Spoon, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"
"Human beings participate in history both as actors and narrators"
On the turntable: Santana, "Santana III"
"Life has improved immeasurably since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously."
On the turntable: The Smashing Pumpkins, "Pisces Iscariot"
