Dispatches from BACK EAST
2022, or What's like even going on 'n sh*t??
Hello again!
It’s true, everything they told you: we’re BACK EAST, as the saying goes, and none the wiser. Here at the ever-shifting Dispatches HQ, we’ve been on a kind of Hibernatory Hiatus in the nation’s capital, recalibrating, regrouping, and reintegrating — from the road to rent, night to day, the West to rest.
At least, that’s what they’ll have you think, but there’s a gleam in the eye and a certain impalpable swing in the step…1
Yes, during hibernation we’ve had time to hatch a few schemes and generally reorient and wrap our collective editorial mind around some WICKED NEW CONTENT that’s soon to be circulating in your very own inbox. What’s more, things seem to generally be looking up: the days grow longer, the biting (haha, NOT) D.C. cold fades, Covid seems to wane, Fat Tuesday is upon us, and… wait… hold on… really?
Never mind, Christ. Just when we thought we were OUT, the Roaring Twenties 2.0 pulls us back IN, this time with the ghosts of blitzkriegy, egomaniacal authoritarians of the last century who we thought were, well, ghosts.
But they ain’t ghosts, they’re Putin, and it’s not us who’s being pulled in, but Ukraine. Here’s a LEGIT dispatch from a friend of ours in Ukraine. We’ll let him speak for himself:
So it’s war and swords in Ukraine, and BACK EAST everyone’s telling everyone else what to do about it (or making memes). But at Dispatches we’re not in the business of prescription (or levity). Our thoughts and prayers are with the sufferers. Best we can do is tell you to arm yourself with love and knowledge, demand your constant vigilance and attention, and relate a little quip from Marl Karx:
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. (The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte)
What to expect from “Dispatches from BACK EAST”
So what’re these schemes we speak of? You may recall that it was…
full circle 95 South and hot sparkly tarmac asphalt on the double two-lane gash that runs up and down the east, pine and oak dark green, limiting views, everywhere thick with life, thick grass thick trees thick heat, the sky smaller because the trees are closer (it’s still a brilliant clear blue)… Down home into the “Christ-haunted”, “death-haunted” belly of the land…
Indeed, that’s what we’re workin’ with, but also with the Yankees and the tweeners and so on and so forth. BACK EAST, relative to OUT WEST, things are utterly different, but then you get used to it, and they’re not. Then it doesn’t feel like you’re living in a hive of likeminded people in a hegemonic system promoting all the same values and aspirations.
Needless to say, though, BACK EAST things get pretty historical (and pretty legal (and pretty medical)) pretty fast. So with Dispatches it’s going to be on to new topics and beyond — with all the same thematic concerns. You can expect Dispatches from:
Behind the veil of The Law (🤔)
Culture and politics (🤨)
The streets (😲)
History (🤯)
Underground (🤭)
~ AND MORE ~
We’re also introducing a new feature (first series below) called WHAT WE BEEN GROKKING. To give you a sense, here’s the opposite:
What We Been Grokking
In the (hiber)nation’s capital, we at HQ have been consuming all sorts of interesting if otherworldly content. If yer hankering to take a peak ‘neath the hood or are a fellow seeker yerself, we found the below to be deeply titillating:
Book: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Essential reading for everyone, especially if you’re a person. As NIKE meant to say: Just Read It. One of the most important books of the last century, and central to understanding race in America, i.e., America, i.e., the modern world. He tells it like it is, right up through his transformative pilgrimage to Mecca and his assassination in 1965.
Some quotes:
Youth, i.e. “Detroit Red”: “Shorty would take me to groovy, frantic scenes in different chicks’ and cats’ pads, where with the lights and juke down mellow, everybody blew gage and juiced back and jumped. I met chicks who were fine as May wine, and cats who were hip to all happenings.”2
Prison: “Any person who claims to have deep feeling for other human beings should think a long, long time before he votes to have other men kept behind bars—caged.”
Adulthood, i.e. “Malcolm X”: “Raw, naked truth exchanged between the black man and the white man is what a whole lot more of is needed in this country—to clear the air of the racial mirages, cliches, and lies that this country’s very atmosphere has been filled with for four hundred years.”
Movie: Breathless
On the cusp of the French New Wave, this 1960 Godard feature-length debut, widely regarded as a 🐐, will have you finely attuned to all the subtle irrationalities of our lovely species.
“I knew it. I just talked about me and you talked about you. I should’ve talked about you and you about me.”
“Between grief and nothing, Faulkner chose grief.”
“I’d choose nothing. It’s all or nothing for me, no compromise.”
Another Substack: Letters of Note
A lovely Substack that sifts through letters of yore to find little GEMS left behind by some of our greatest minds. Here’s one on “sign-offs” and another on reactions to ULYSSES — and a sample from each, respectively.
Am Red beans and ricely yours, Louis Armstrong Louis Armstrong Letter to Betty Jane Holder 9th February 1952
Never did I read such tosh [as Ulysses]. As for the first 2 chapters we will let them pass, but the 3rd 4th 5th 6th—merely the scratching of pimples on the body of the bootboy at Claridges. Virginia Woolf Letter to Lytton Strachey, 24 Aug 1922 The Complete Collection
Music: Huun-Huur-Tu
Huun-Huur-Tu are “a music group from Tuva, a Russian federative republic situated on the Mongolia–Russia border” (Wiki). Their THROAT SINGING, in which they can hit as many as three notes at once, is somehow both sorrowful and ecstatic. It’s also good listening any time of day.
Visual Art: Floyd, Esq.
Prominent litigator, screenwriter, and song-and-dance man gifted us this masterpiece of introspection:
Thanks for reading and see you next time with some special reporting from Mardi Gras at the mouth of the Mississippi...
Stay tuned,
DVD
Land Acknowledgment: We want to acknowledge the land from which we are sending this into the ether, Washington, D.C., as the traditional and ancestral homeland of the Piscataway and Anacostan peoples, as well as over a dozen other tribal nations who have served as stewards of the region for generations. We gratefully acknowledge the Indigenous peoples on whose ancestral homelands we gather, as well as the diverse and vibrant Indigenous communities who make their home here today. We are committed to supporting the Indigenous members of our community, and we celebrate the resilience, strength, and enduring presence demonstrated by Indigenous peoples around the world. (Adapted from The Civil Rights and Social Justice Section of the American Bar Association’s land acknowledgement.)
Curious about the history of your land? Peep this here map.
See Dispatches from the Road, Pt. 13, but also, obligatory quote: “I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough” (BD)
Clearly, the Beats drew heavily from “hip” Black culture
The movie "Breathless" sounds intriguing. Will add it to the queue! This is good advice for having conversations: “I knew it. I just talked about me and you talked about you. I should’ve talked about you and you about me.”
Good stuff!