Guthrie, Grandma, & No Mention of Gaza
Here's what you missed yesterday, and a tease of what you'll get today...
Good morning, fellow prisoners and wardens of late stage capitalism! Today’s the big day! Black Friday, if you didn’t know, is the glue that holds our nation’s glut for consumption together; a non-denominational polycule marriage between the subtle nationalist jingoism of Thanksgiving, the ever-fortified religious defense of Christmas and “the holidays,” and the insatiable maw of capitalistic overconsumption. Tis the season!
That unholy trinity has been undefeated for over a century (longer, when you consider this model mirrors, wildly, the shape of a monarchy…the church, the state, and the purse, all rolled into one concept). Ever since the robber barons retreated to their smoky back rooms in the early 20th century, the American experience has been dominated by this idea: We must shop until we drop.
It’s only 10am though and I haven’t had coffee yet, so I’m going to put a pin in this idea and return to it throughout the day. Hope you’re ready to dismantle some capitalism!
For now though, because we all innately love ourselves a Black Friday deal and I too need to exist in this capitalist hell, Down the Pipes is offering free paid subscription for 3 months if you subscribe before Monday. You have a nationalistic obligation to support the arts, or if you’re more motivated by the religious messaging of the season, gift subscriptions are available for loved ones at a discount too.
This is in addition to my standing offer of lifetime comped subscriptions for people I actually know and interact with, to claim that just sign up for the free tier and wait for me to comp ya.
Anyway, if you missed yesterday’s post(s), I’m doing a thing this weekend…namely blogging all day, everyday, like an overworked weekend blogger in 2009. Haven’t done this in a minute, kinda rusty! You’ll get daily digests (like this one) tomorrow and Sunday of everything you missed from the prior day, and if you’d like to stay up on the haps in real time, you can keep checking downthepipes.co throughout the day, or keep an eye on my Instagram Story.
Oh yeah, the digest. Here’s what you missed:
And Now, Alice's Restaurant Masacree
The song is idiotic. Rambling. A mostly true story of a bumbling, ass of a man who learns his town dump is closed on Thanksgiving, litters, and then gets arrested the next day. The titular Alice’s Restaurant has very little to do with the story, only adding to the absurdism of the whole thing. It was folk music reminiscent of the depression era, but written about a fuddy couple of days beating around in the Berkshires and not the starvation and despair of the dust bowl.
97 Years: What A Nerve
I can’t spend too long on this one, just got to my folks’ house upstate and the family is starting to roll in one by one. While being anti-social on my computer is kind of a holiday staple around here, my 97 year old grandmother Beverly is ambling in as I type this, and every moment I am on my computer is a moment she will find reasons to guilt me...
Late Night Scene at The Del Hotel
How was Thanksgiving? We do the thing? How many of you managed to fully avoid any mention of geopolitical issues? Honestly, I am lucky to be surrounded by incredibly smart family members each year, and this year not a single one of us brainiacs mentioned anything about what’s happening out there.
More soon, until then!