Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2020 did have a lot of great songs as a soundtrack. Here are my top 10 favorite songs of the year.
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Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
It’s not a hot take to say that 2020 was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. Globally, nationally, regionally, for many personally. There are some slivers of hope – the vaccines, the US election – but also some signs that things won’t simply improve in 2021 – current transmissions rates in Europe, current …
Lindau in November 2020
I need a break from the real worldI will live in social media nowUntil I am a word of myself!Away you fly from such a brow! People are just as badThey’ve known the world along that wayBut rent is cheaperSince your own life is a day. A poem inspired byEmily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Sara …
Frank Turner and Jon Snodgrass: The Fleas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TimJrA5ekI0 So here we arefinally on our kneeswaiting for the world to shake us offlike a bad case of the fleas With “The Fleas”, Frank Turner & Jon Snodgrass released a new song for the apocalypse. The song is from “Buddies II: Still Buddies”, a lovely, conversational record made by friends. It’s out now on …
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What White People Don’t Want to Hear (But Should Know) About Racism
“Doch die sogenannten Rassismuserfahrungen weißer Menschen sind nicht die gleichen, die ich mache. Wer zuvor gut aufgepasst hat, weiß, dass sich weiße Menschen selbst zu einer überlegenen Rasse erklärten. Diese Theorie trugen sie während der Kolonialisierung in fast jeden Winkel der Welt. Es stimmt also, dass weiße Menschen in diesen Momenten die Auswirkungen von Rassismus …
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When Everything’s Made to Be Broken
Last week, on election day, Phoebe Bridgers promised to cover Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls if Trump lost. He lost (even if he doesn’t agree yet and Trumpists are busy smashing into the guardrails of democracy) and Phoebe Bridgers made good on her promise. She recorded the cover together with Maggie Rogers, and the …
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
“So I just think about all the children who have been separated from their parents, and there’s a lot of us, past and present, and some under more traumatic circumstances than other – like those who are in internment camps right now – and I just imagine us as an army of mutants. We’ve been …
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September by Lydia Loveless
Lydia Loveless released a tremendous new record, Daughter, last Friday. It’s sad, twangy, rootsy and near perfect. Her voice is the beautiful match to her songwriting. There are many great songs on the album, including the singles Love is Not Enough, Wringer, and the album closer Don’t Bother Mountain. The stand-out track for me is …
Thirteen
Thirteen by Bedouine, Waxahatchee and Hurray for the Riff Raff is a bittersweet cover of the Big Start song, the perfect soundtrack for loevely late summer weather and an antidote to the news. Find the single on bandcamp.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020)
“Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.” …