A Real Mixed Bag
I hope you will permit me the option to be all over the place. I imagine you are all over the place too. So I’m just going to hit some paragraphs on things I have paragraphs about.
ICE REENACTMENTS
I am already thinking about how this moment we are living through and fighting back at will be positioned in history. First, I am an optimist, but I want to be clear, I cannot comfortably envision the side that supports the Constitution, the rule of law, the rights of ALL HUMANS inside of the United States not winning. It might be that I lack the imagination or endurance to imagine a loss that severe and paralyzing. I hope the reason that I can’t imagine the side that recognizes masked police officers asking people for their papers is because it is not going to happen here. This is not because of any particular direction that I believe the moral arc of the universe is bending towards a long timeline sense. I no longer have faith in things generally moving in the right direction. But in this instance there are more of us. And there are people who have been aligned with Donald Trump and the Republican Party who are repulsed by what is happening in Minnesota. Proximity has a lot to do this. If you have seen what is happening it is almost compulsory to say, at a bare minimum, that this is not being done the right way.
More than most moments of wrong-doing by law enforcement officers in our country, the bad apple analogy just will not play. AND IT HAS BARELY PLAYED IN THE PAST. Three sworn police officers watched Derek Chauvin murder George Floyd. They all failed humanity and the professed values of their profession. Shameful, depraved, soulless shit. Many thought police couldn’t be reformed. I thought the Minneapolis Police Department couldn’t be reformed. Many thought otherwise.
So can we just briefly play out a moment a handful of years from now when ICE is done, dismantled, renamed, repurposed? Maybe DHS is done too. But for, imagine ICE is done. Our Immigration Enforcement officers are part of INS as they were before 2003. Are the agents who worked for ICE blacklisted? Are they inside of the government? Are they a failed insurgency? Did they fail but they’re revered by 50% of the country? Will there be ICE re-enactors? Will the unjustified killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti be reenacted? Will there be a Minneapolis 2026 historical site, with reenactors and a miniature Phillips, a miniature Powwow Grounds, a Whipple Building. Will this moment be a museum? What will the thesis be?
I have always thought positively of educational sites that feature characters from past time periods. I know they are difficult to execute, but as a child I benefited greatly from historical reenactors. BUT, I am quite suddenly thinking negatively about reenactments. People voluntarily reenact the military maneuvers of a side that defended chattel slavery over country. The sight of a Confederate Flag reminds me that the dispute of the Civil War is not resolved. Shameful, depraved soulless shit.
So in some 100 years will there be people who muse about the lost cause of ICE? Will people pretend that ICE was actually about immigration enforcement when it already seems clear to me it’s about mustering a secret masked police force to manipulate the public in general and elections in particular.
If you, like me, had diluted yourself into thinking that there will not be large contingency of our country that is ready to give up on democracy, on the Constitution, on the ideals that are supposed to differentiate America from autocracies and dictatorships, you’re as dumb as I am. WE AREN’T HONESTLY UNANIMOUS ON SLAVERY. Are there going to be January 6 reenactments? Is there some potential future where January 6 becomes observed as a holiday? Is there some potential future where my great grandchildren regret my position and align with the spirit of ICE?
There might be ICE re-enactors in our future. Better than ICE I suppose, but so terrible, too terrible, to imagine.
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MY RETIREMENT DESIRES
I’m 44 and I’m already thinking about my retirement which is at a minimum 20 years away and realistically bound to change and be mediated by many different circumstances in that time period. But, I can’t get it out of my brain so I’d like to share what is important to me. Sort of in order.
I don’t want to be a snowbird. I want to be a bird. I love Minnesota, but I want to retire to a place that is warmish year round. Like a place where you shovel snow less than five times a year.
Water. I want to be by water. If I had my choice I would be by fresh water.
Neighbors or Best Friends. I love my neighbors. I love my brother. I love Martin. I love Chuck. I want to retire right near some of these people.
Busses/Metro Transit. As I envision my retirement at this point I’ll be enjoying a cocktail before 4pm 5-6 days a week. I’ll also be consuming marijuana. I also already drive slow. I would like to live in a place where I can get to a grocery store, coffee shop and fun bar with a walk or a single bus ride.
Jewish. Rachel wants to be in a pretty Jewish place. Saint Paul is Jewish enough for her. When I briefly wanted to move to Durham, NC for a grad school I did not get into she was not into that. So we need a place more Jewish than Durham and at least as Jewish as Saint Paul.
That’s really the top tier shit. It seems like a lot. But I think it’s doable. If you have some thoughts about what places would fit the bill please do let me know. sean@triviamafia.com
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DO I HAVE RADIOHEAD ALL WRONG?
So I like Radiohead fine. And I think when you like Radiohead just fine you still hold them in high esteem. And there’s plenty of moments where I’ve listened to Radiohead and I thought it was absolutely incredible. But I never became a huge listener. I bet they’ve never been in my top ten most listened to bands in a calendar year. I like Radiohead, I think they are elite. But, we are playing the song “All I Need” from “In Rainbows” and it’s brilliant. So subtly brilliant and also just clearly one of the great collaborations between Greenwood and Yorke. It feels like one of those bands that just does exactly what they want. Places things in the right places. They are actually what Wilco kind of says they are. They are terminally better than Wilco. I think I would fight about that in the right environment. They are not Stevie Wonder. I would fight about that too. The Beatles are better. The Band are better. I think they might be better than Pink Floyd. This is spicy.
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GREAT CDs TO HOLD AND ENJOY ARTWORK
How bout Combustication from Medeski, Martin and Wood? This is a record that has had a huge impact on what I think good instrumental music is. And frankly it feels so good to hold a digipak CD in your hand especially when there is some sort of layered cut out paper letter situation. It just feels great. The interesting thing about the record is that most of it is pretty understated. I think it has less ambition than most MMW records and that’s sort of to it’s credit.
SOME FAST UPDATES ABOUT SOME WORK I’VE DONE RECENTLY
I interviewed the great poet/activist Tish Jones and we had an excellent conversation.
A lot of folks want to give mutual aid and might struggle to know someone they directly can support. I trust Andrew Broder deeply and he is getting money out to families in need for rent in the north metro. His venmo is @andrewbroder and his appeal is here. I sent some money. I recommend you do too if you can.
I am also impressed with Neighbors Helping Neighbors. I’m involved with helping and I’ve donated. I donated here.
I recently had a conversation with Saint Paul Mayor Kaoly Her and it’s worth a listen
I would like to underline in general that I think the work that the team I’m on from City Cast Twin Cities is featuring valuable perspectives from this moment and you should consider reading our newsletter, following us on social and listening to our podcast
I personally hit a bit of a rut with the Trivia Mafia podcast. I wasn’t happy with the questions I was writing and I wasn’t jiving with Chuck the way I wanted to. But I snapped out and the last couple ones have been awesome. We just had Keith Harris on and it’s super fun. Check it out right here!
Chuck Terhark, Keith Harris, Sean McPherson
Big Trouble recently put together a fundraiser at the White Squirrel and while we were there we did a rendition of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s Ohio and it turned out awesome. Here’s that link.
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LAURIE PRITCHETT
I think it’s a colossal mistake that the first city the Feds tried something remotely this big in was the Twin Cities. That one might end up being discussed for generations as a tactical mistakes. The networks existed here. The networks largely existed here because of Black activists. That networks exists here because terrible things have already happened here. But this isn’t the first time the city has had to soul search while also building alternative modes of communication and gathering. We aren’t about backing down. It is not going well for Trump in the Twin Cities. His chosen leaders look incompetent because they are incompetent. His infantrymen look incompetent because they are incompetent. The federal government has unlimited money to wage an unjust war against these great cities, but his goodwill is running out faster than his budget. Ultimately, the techniques are working.
The attached-to-ICE-at-the-hip group of patrollers is proving to be something ICE can’t solve for. They can’t continue their work under filmed, observed circumstances. And the checkmate move of these Constitutional observations reminds me of Laurie Pritchett. To let the MLK Jr. biographers like Taylor Branch describe it, Pritchett was the only Southern police chief who tactically succeeded in quieting King’s impact. King had damning criticism for Chief Pritchett, faulting him for using “the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral ends of racial injustice.” I also disagree with Pritchett’s position, but his tactics were light-years ahead of his fellow police chiefs.
When King came to Albany, Georgia, King had a plan to do what he’d been doing. Bring enough people that they can’t all be arrested. The police would have to make different and often terrible decisions when arresting people wasn’t an option. Pritchett talked it out with all the prisons in 50 miles radius. He simply wouldn’t run out cells. You couldn’t get in the paper if everyone was locked up efficiently and with proper accommodations.
Pritchett had read King’s writings. He had even read Gandhi’s book to check out the principles even deeper. That means Pritchett was ready for it. He knew the techniques and the pressure points and he met the moment. When King refused to pay a fine and instead elected to go to jail, Pritchett would tacitly organize a group of business people to pay the bond. There isn’t a photo op when King is released on bail. Pritchett was on the wrong side of history, but this is an example of how you can study your enemy. The people of the Twin Cities know how ICE operates. I don’t think the agents of ICE will figure out how the people of the Twin Cities operate fast enough to have it matter.
Did the quiet organizers, the leaderless cells, the unified messaging and distinct communications position a grassroots counter-insurgency to neuter a well-funded arm of the federal government? There is a level of humble study that the protestors and resisters against Operation Metro Surge have given to ICE. Knowing how they handle plates. Knowing how they handle stops. So it’s there. Know your enemy. We are learning our enemy and we are keeping us safe.
My All Time Bests
Remember when I told you that this would be all over the place! Don’t worry it’s still all mostly masturbatory! At the same Big Trouble gig where we raised money for the Immigrant Law Center we also played my brother’s tune “Tiger Tiger”. And you know what? I think this recording is the best I’ve ever sounded on a recording ever. I’m super happy with my playing, my feel and my groove with the spectacular drummer Peter Leggett. If I gotta tell someone I’m an awesome bass player I’m playing them this performance. Check it out.
That had me thinking about my best performances in different categories. Maybe it’s just the Olympics talk that has me thinking that way. Let’s run it down!
BEST SONG I EVER WROTE ALL ON MY OWN: Achilles by Our Weird Thirties. I came into run trivia at the 331 Club and Chuck told me that one of his good friends was getting a divorce. The dude getting a divorce came up to me and said “man, hug your wife and tell her you love her and treat her right, cause I didn’t do that enough and now it’s all the way over.” This was probably the first semi-close friend divorce. I went home and wrote this song and dammit I think it’s very good.
BEST SONG I HELPED SIGNIFICANTLY AS AN ARRANGER/BASSIST: I Don’t Know If It’s Helping by Ela. I am/was a member of Ela and sometimes that just means playing the root note while Bill sings amazing music and Peter plays the hell out of his drums. But I had a big part in making this song work and boy howdy does it work.
My Best Writing - I wrote this one thing when I was at a nadir of parenting and on a family trip to Denver in 2024. I wrote a piece called Dispatch Denver that I am still very proud of. Sharing a vulnerable moment from parenting is really difficult and I think I caught something that I might not even be in touch with now that my kid’s are older but holy shit it felt real then.
My Best Promo Move - I’ve tried a lot of different stuff to promote my work in the Twin Cities and beyond but when I locked it down with Pizza Luce to have a Heiruspecs sampler delivered with every Pizza Luce pizza delivery that went out from Saint Paul or Uptown was the highlight. That was back in 2008 and the end result of all that work was Heiruspecs selling out the First Ave Mainroom in December of that year. Sonia from First Ave wrote me an email after that said “maybe you should be teaching the classes about how to promote your band” and it made me really proud. That was a wild era and it was a great show. But that promo move was elite.
The Prettiest Music Moment I Curated - I struggle with joining pre-existing projects in meaningful ways. My heroes in the world can add so much in with their subtle touches. I do a broad brushstrokes and am often on the ground floor of the things I’ve worked on. I’m not as useful on the third floor based on my specialties. But I definitely came in on the third floor of the Dessa tune “Sound the Bells” and added some solid shit on the third floor. Like a balcony and a little ballroom. This ended up being the foundation of a pretty damn epic outro in Dessa’s discography.
My Strongest Interview - I’m thankful for my time at Jazz88. I got to do a bunch of interviews and the grand majority of them I also conceived of, scheduled and edited. It was a whirlwind and a joy and a lot of them blend together. But, I mean, I got to interview Ron Carter. Ron Carter is quite possibly the greatest bass player of all time. He’s up there. And he was a total gentleman.
That’s what I’m sharing at the moment. I hope you have a beautiful week, I hope we all keep fighting for the things we believe in.