The Counterpublic Papers vol. 1 no. 33

Last night, at about 11pm or so, one of my girls sent me a text message. “Tonight’s the last night at the Paradox. COME.”

The Paradox, is one of the last, perhaps the last old school largish, disco-house spot on the east coast. Doesn’t serve alcohol. Open to folks from 15-80 to almost everyone on the sexuality spectrum. Four dance floors (including one outside). House music all night long in at least one of those floors. I got my life there more than a few nights.

(also the first time i was sexually harassed…but that’s another story entirely.)

Anyway.

My younger children are with me this weekend and I was exhausted ripping and running for them…so I told my girl that I couldn’t pull it off.

Fast forward. Wake up at about 8am.

“Still here!”

The paradox is OLD school. Like Studio 54 old school. So at about 10:30am I texted her again to see if she was still getting it in.

She was.

Think I wasn’t on the road at 10:35am today when I was. Figured I’d be there from around 11am to noon, long enough to hear Wayne Davis play the last song.

….only to have to leave three and a half hours later. Missed the last song by about 3 minutes. Just my luck—I was pretty sure Wayne was toying with us, and there was no way in hell I was going to be in the Paradox from 11am to 8pm when I’ve stuff to do. 

It was hot though. And while change happens—there’s now a CVS in Baltimore where one of the oldest long-standing gay clubs used to be—it’ll be missed. 

Which brings me to this edition of the newsletter.

I’m not going to bore you with a couple of thousand words today. A few more comments on Angels in Detroit a few links worth checking out….then some of the pictures I took on the Paradox’ last day.

….

Angels in Detroit ended up being exactly what I thought it would be. With the exception of name dropping a couple of neighborhoods there wasn’t much of Detroit in the book. There’s pretty much nothing in Angels of Detroit that couldn’t have been in Angels of [INSERT RUSTBELT CITY HERE]. Just swap out the reference to Palmer Woods and replace it with something else. It’s like Elmore Leonard didn’t even exist. 

I wish I wasn’t quite so middle age that I realize that every hour I spend on a book like that isn’t spent doing some other valuable activity, but then again I wish the Detroit Lions would win a Super Bowl before the insurance companies kill the sport for good.

….

A couple of links. Adolph Reed wrote a good piece on why people should vote for Hillary—I still don’t plan on doing so, but he’s right. My colleague Jeanne-Marie Jackson wrote a review of Square Wave (a novel written by a philosopher) in N+1.  Both are a lot smarter than I am.

Oh. And we just found out that the Baltimore Police Department was given private money to buy surveillance cameras they actually used to spy on Baltimore citizens without their knowledge. When talking about the project, the BPD official claimed up and down it wasn’t a secret program, it was just that they didn’t tell anybody.

I know. The gift that keeps on giving.

…..

Was on the Marc Steiner show last week talking education and the alt-right. Will be on the Benjamin Dixon show tomorrow talking about policing and about neoliberalism. And I’ll be in Philly from Thursday-Sunday this week. If you’re around let me know. Will be in town for the annual American Political Science Association conference. Chairing a panel on Black Lives Matter Thursday morning, appearing on a race relations panel at around noon or so on Friday then the discussant on a panel on alternatives to the neoliberal city on Friday afternoon, talking on a author meets critics panel on Saturday, and on Sunday hitting a mini-conference before I take the train back….hopefully getting back to Baltimore in time to check out some of the Collective Minds House Music Picnic, held this year at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.    Oh. We're doing APSA Karaoke Friday night. Been doing it for...several years now. Two rules, based on Fight Club. If you come to APSA Karaoke you've got to perform. And we don't talk about APSA Karaoke.(I know. Don't judge.).......All night long. This is Lester Spence. You're reading The Counterpublic Papers. Until next Sunday.