Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Cumbia and Descarga Sound Of Colombia (1962–72)

Compilation from Soundway Records has cowbell, very Latin American brass and reed doubled melodies, shuk-shuk-a-shuk, cumbia, salsa, and maybe some other genres that I don’t know the name of. I should have noted the names of the songs, but instead just decided to let it wash all over me. When I visited in 2018, Colombians told me their country was the land of over a thousand musical styles.

Guinga: Canção da Impermanência (2017)

Part of a genre of Brazilian music that I would describe as ‘beyond genre’. Dripping guitar tones and mostly language-less, this sonic voyage uses traditional voice-leading to create unnameable harmonies. Why are most of my deepest connections with albums under 45 minutes?

Let's talk about baby bonds and generational wealth....

[Americans always do the right thing, after they've tried everything else.]

[When the moral argument fails, appeal to economics: it's generally cheaper to be a good person.]

Positive Sum Worlds: Remaking Public Goods

Greater scale should mean greater good as valued by an increasingly wider set of people: the creation of positive externalities.

[Poor countries are not underdeveloped but overexploited.]

pay it forward

[The coolest thing to say when receiving gratitude is not 'you're welcome' but 'pass it on'.]

being smart vs being kind

[Nourishment leads to more growth than coddling.]

[Like babies, challenge ideas not when they are fragile but when they have grown legs.]

Michael, Dwight and Andy: the Three Aesthetics of the Creative Class

[Upper class proles project 'I am winning'; Middles project 'I am serious'; Upper middles project 'I am at ease'.]

[Upper class proles show they are 'winning' by talking about daytrading, fantasy sports, and other publicly abailable information that is really about them. This is in place of ticket stubs and receipts that in the past would have been whipped out of their wallet to prove something.]

[The middles show they are 'correct' by discussin talking points and everything that's wrong with the world as an obvious contrast to themselves.]

[The upper middles show they are at ease by not pretending, as the middles do, but by gossiping hints about the secret context that no one else knows.]

[When the conversation turns yo real estate, the upper proles talk about prices, the middles talk about demographic and social issues, and the upper middles talk about renovation.]

['How does this person fit my ideal?' versus 'Here's a unique person.']

Rich Brown: Nguyên

Live from a solo bass concert in 2012, has a celestial atmosphere with melodic vocal inflections. I dream of having this kind of expression when I play guitar.

Hamza el Din: Ud

From Eclipse (1978). Sounds like a voice with similar inflections.

Mother Nature and BoatHouse: HANDZOFF

From SZNZ (2021). The self-professed ‘most dynamic hip-hop duo of all time’. I feel like the verses fill so much space that the breathing is dramatic. Massive sound, blast.