Attention, conspiracy theorists, truthers, skeptics of the mainstream, doubters of the official narrative—i.e., all thinking people! The textual focus of the latest episode of Texting is . . . Amiri Baraka’s “Somebody Blew Up America.” After a brief introduction to the life and work of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka—who, as you may recall, was mentioned in S3E1—Tomek and I react in real time to a reading performance of the poet’s “anti-epic” with saxophone accompaniment (play YouTube link above to listen/watch without interruption). As you might have guessed from the elongated interrogative which is the title of this post, the imagery of the owl is central to our interpretation of “Somebody Blew Up America,” but we also highlight, among other things, the brilliant wordplay and satirical elements of Baraka’s controversial work. Have a listen to the full breakdown and let us know what you think!
Show Notes
As mentioned just before the 29-minute mark, the saxophone accompaniment is based on Thelonious Monk’s “Misterioso”:
The Hubert Selby Jr. documentary narrated by Robert Downey Jr. is indeed called It/ll Be Better Tomorrow:
Baraka’s reference to “Bilbo” remains obscure. Does he mean “Balbo”—that is, the fascist politician Italo Balbo, Governor-General of Italian Libya?
Here’s that “devil’s face” in the smoke of the Twin Towers on 9/11:
The video version of this episode is already up on my YouTube channel:
The Next Text
Tomek has chosen “Your Teenage Friend Group” as the topic of S3E4. If you would like to contribute to this episode, please email me (by replying to this email or directly at mark.will.write@gmail.com) a 2-4 minute audio clip addressing one of the following prompts:
character profile of one or two of your best friends (at that time, not now)
how you and your friends expressed your connection
what friendship meant for you at that time
compare friendship then to friendship now (in your life)
how you think teenage life has changed since you were that age
what you and your teenage friends did together
one crazy anecdote of an experience you had with friends in your teens
how you and your friends communicated (slang, notes, phone, etc.)
what your relationship with your teenage friends’ parents/families were like
Thanks in advance!
MW
Whooooooooooooooooooooo?