Curtis Mayfield: Super Fly

curtis mayfield

Released on this day in 1972, Curtis Mayfield’s soundtrack made history as one of the few soundtracks to outgross the accompanying movie. See AllMusic:

A melange of deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and stinging brass, Super Fly ignited an entire genre of music . . .

Giving the Sickness a Name: Walker Percy and acedia

walker percy

Jeff Reimer in Commonweal Magazine.

The artist’s work, in other words, is not an autopsy but a diagnosis made in the hope of recovery—an attempt, he says, to “give the sickness a name, to render the unspeakable speakable.” Even when he is at his bleakest, Percy manages to counter despair with the possibility, however elusive, of hope.

Danny Frederick (1955-2021)

classical liberalism

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Danny. Danny was a star example of the gentleman philosopher, beholden to no-one, following an existential calling that he saw through with absolute integrity and dignity to the bitter end. For more about Danny’s life see his autobiographical notes here. See a mutual friend of ours’ Mark Friedman’s thoughts on Danny. See his book Freedom, Indeterminism, and Fallibilism, his essays commemorating the 25th year of Popper’s passing, and his coauthored paper The Liberal Defense of Immigration Control. We shared a deep concern with the Left’s now fashionable, Jew hatred and with the associated corrosion of liberal values in an age of mass undifferentiated migration. But perhaps our biggest shared bond was for the glory years of Black Sabbath (’70-’73) and the band Budgie. Below is a clip of Danny, in a great deal of pain, speaking from his bed.