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Solomon Northup Objects

From First Thoughts

It was very late, and I was very tired, when I received a facebook message from one “Solomon Northup”:“What you’re saying here praising John Ridley [winner of the Oscar this year for best screen adaptation, for Twelve Years A Slave] makes basic sense, but I need to lodge a . . . . Continue Reading »

An Enemy Will Bring Us Together

From First Thoughts

In song, at least, the ’60s Culture Revolution began rather beautifully, with a call to smile upon your brother. Your brother was assumed to be all of mankind. We might call that the “external program” of the Counter-Culture, circa 1965-1968, posed as an alternative to the way . . . . Continue Reading »

Why Rock Couldn't Stay at the Commune

From First Thoughts

It’s very cool, very punk-rock, folk-rock, and all the other rockin’ signifiers of hip radicalism, to be going to a commune. Or to hang-out at one for a season. But to actually stay for good is not what rock-tuned set wants.How do we know that? Well, tell me about a rock song that celebrates . . . . Continue Reading »

Brotherly Love Came to Woodstock

From First Thoughts

Ang Lee’s 2009 film Taking Woodstock records an important milestone in the culture revolution of the 1960s, the rock festival and “Aquarian Exposition” held in August of 1969. It does so from an angle that downplays the concert proper—to our surprise the camera never . . . . Continue Reading »

Jefferson Airplane’s Warning

From First Thoughts

Carl’s Rock Songbook is a series focusing on a particular rock song or issue connected to rock music. In the course of my learning the Gen-X alternative rock catechism, perhaps it was when I was reading an issue of Spin magazine sometime in the 80s, I was told that the release of The . . . . Continue Reading »

Carl’s Rock Songbook

From First Thoughts

Hello, First Thoughtsters! One of the things I’ll be carrying over from my blogging for Postmodern Conservative, now that it’s been incorporated into First Thoughts, is “Carl’s Rock Songbook.”What is the Rock Songbook?It is a series of posts, each of which focuses on a . . . . Continue Reading »