Important Voices #0001

Who are yours?

Yesterday I had a conversation with several other Substackers.

I mean a real conversation, we talked, maybe six or seven of us, on a video call.

One thing that came up was a fellow Substacker explaining to us how the shockwave of recent events between Israel/IDF and Palestine/Hamas had impacted and slowed his workflow. Although I did not comment at the time, I totally understood. I feel something similar. For me it is the impact of the angry divisiveness that now surrounds us all — centralised progressive WOKE collectivist groupthink Vs. decentralised conservative rational individualist common sense.

A least in part this is why I had recently decided to start this second substack channel — Unleashed & Unlimited¹ — so as to somehow separate my personal interests, ideas and opinions (and rants) away from my more creative musical endeavours, thoughts and experiences — which sometimes seem trivial when compared to what is now happening in Ukraine, the Middle East and around us all. However, I’m not entirely sure this ‘separation’ is indeed possible. All these elements — the personal, the day-to-day experience, and the creative — are all part of the same totality. They are deeply interwoven. So, let’s see.

What to read on Substack?

Another topic that came up was what to read on Substack (not even to mention all the other social media posts). All of us on the video call are ‘subscribed’ to multiple Substacks, some to as many as two hundred plus.

How is it possible to keep up-to-date? How is it possible to find the time to read all of this content?

The simple truth is — it’s not possible. Another simple truth, as our friend Paul Macko from

Deplatformable Newsletter

points out, is that “Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t.”

I thought about all of this, and also about my own reading habits.

My technique is very simple.

Personally, I skim (a lot, maybe just the first paragraph) until something catches me. If I find myself reading the last line of the last paragraph without noticing how much time I just spent, and wishing there was more, well then I know I’ve found something worth reading, something with an important voice.

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Important Voices

Here are, for me at least, six recent (I could name several more) important voices, not only from Substack.

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Eve Barlow

Anything from

Eve Barlow

of

Blacklisted

— try this, which includes her open letter to ‘White Feminists’: Rape is not resistance.

Rape is not resistance

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Tomar Peretz

Watch this video of a presentation by an LA-based Jewish IDF veteran and artist named Tomer Peretz. He volunteered with ZAKA in Israel in the days after Black Saturday. I found this in Eve Barlow’s post entitled History unfolding (she also mentions him in this piece: Pain).

There is also a fuller interview with Tomer on YouTube.

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Andrew Sullivan

Anything from

Andrew Sullivan

of

The Weekly Dish

— his most recent ‘Dish’ Uh-Oh. Here We Go Again totally and perfectly sums up how I (also an expatriated Brit) feel a/ about post-Brexit-Britain, and b/ the bittersweet mixed feelings I experience whenever I go back there.

Uh-Oh. Here We Go Again.

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Patti Smith

Here’s

Patti Smith

‘s piece about her late friend, Sam Shepard.

My Buddy

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Rimon Kirsht

Sometimes actions speak louder than words.

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Asra Nomani

Asra is an Indian-born pro-Israeli Muslim woman. She is a journalist and professor. Here she is interviewed briefly at a recent anti-Israel, anti-Jew protest in Washington DC (source).

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Who are your recent important voices? Let me know.

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Please note: I have another infotainment channel on substack, called The Song's the Thing! where I post podcasts, articles and content related to songwriting, guitaring, and music.🖋🎸🎵🎥🎙

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1. My other substack is The Song's the Thing! — podcasts, articles and content related to songwriting, guitaring, and music.🖋🎸🎵🎥🎙