Up In the Sky

"My mother thinks I am the best. And I was raised to always believe what my mother tells me." -Diego Maradona, Rest In Peace

Dreamers With Empty Hands

Linking Hearts An’ Heads

"You’re asking, ‘What is Socialism, and what it really means?’ It’s equal rights for every man, regardless of his strength... Socialism is love." -Max Romeo

Download The Message: Socialist Sounds From Jamdown — 27 tracks of conscious reggae, from the ska-era up to the early dancehall days.

Compiled by Mr. Lee (Going In Style Sound System)

They Better Confess

My memories of life on the street are short. It was a long time ago, and a very different city.

I do recall having an irrational fear of being bitten by a rat in the basement, to the point that I fabricated a story of it actually happening, which I bragged about in school. I am not sure why I did it, though perhaps it was my hunger for attention as I felt like an outsider from as early an age as I can remember. I didn’t feel liked. I can perfectly recall when I had my first "girlfriend" and overhearing two popular, starched-collar preppy girls in my class sneer, "Why would she want to be with himmmm?"

It wasn’t until I met other kids like me that I started to like myself. I loved hanging out with the fuck-ups, hoodlums, punks, graffiti writers, and burn-outs. Those who wanted to just live for the day, with little regard for their own well-being, all in the name of a good time. Those were my people.

Before I myself became a fuck-up, I was thought of as one. My all black clothes, unpopular taste in music, permanent frown, and big sloppy mop of hair on my head painted an unintended picture. Being yourself in those days wasn't cool — it was isolating.

Fortunately I had one friend on the street, and at a young age he was already creative, living for adventure. Our favorite pastime was turning off the lights in his second floor bedroom and throwing water balloons at the hard-rocks trooping to the housing projects a few blocks away. These cats would swagger down our street, rocking the fashion of the day: sheepskin coats dyed either dark blue or burgundy. They didn’t really do the best job gussying up their coats, so when the balloon would smash into them, the dye would run. Their reaction was one of total fury, which amused me and my pal to no end. Especially when dudes would pull out out a gun.

We were reckless little shits having the time of our life. For the first time in my short existence, I didn't have to force a smile, and the future didn't look so bleak.

Words by Lee Greenfeld © 2020

A Gallery Of Cool, Take Twenty Two

The Impressions with Prince Buster

Christopher Hitchens in Romania, 1989

Georgie Fame

The Heptones

Spiritualized 

LSD-OM, 1974

True cool is timeless.

Dig: A Gallery Of Cool, Take Twenty One

See The Sky

"The battleground of human transformation is really, more than any other thing, the struggle within the human consciousness to believe and accept what is true. Thus to truly revolutionize our society, we must first revolutionize ourselves. We must be the change we seek if we are to effectively demand transformation from others."

Photograph by Lee Greenfeld © 2020 • Words by John Lewis, 2012

Give You Nothing

The results so far show that not only is Trumpism alive and well, but it's grown like a cancer. My fellow countrymen and women made it clear that racism, sexism, lies, and mass death are not issues to them. They don't believe in science, care about history, or want to understand anyone who is different than themselves. They worship at the altar of capitalism without even a basic understanding of economics. They hunger for isolationism and pariah state status. They rejoice in cruelty and embrace the Ugly American stereotype

I have never felt more ashamed of my country.

Day Of Decision

Artwork by John Yates (Stealworks)

Living In A Film

Walking home this evening and seeing all the banks and chain stores boarding up their windows in preparation for tomorrow made it feel even more like The Purge than it has for the last eight months.