As long as it is 2018 we will have protest songs (let’s not speak for 2019 yet but the outlook seems good), and Andrew Bird has one for the books in Bloodless. His folk-pop toggles masterfully between talky narrative verses; uneasy, cinematic strings; and a downright catchy chorus about “an uncivil war” in which “the poets they explode like bombs,” Bird being one such poet himself. Pretty meta, right? Get ready for more. In its protest, the song manages to reflect on reams of others, including the Spanish civil war, in effect establishing a bird’s-eye view of Bird’s own medium.
And it’s all grounded in the present by a video that pans across a tech-obsessed LA, depicting noses stuck in phones in every neighborhood. And the visual-sonic juxtaposition of phones and protest draws a throughline between our convenience-first, tailored-to-you tech culture and the disastrous polarity of our national politics. It’s a thesis that’s maybe too big to tackle through words, Bird has done it through art instead. In case you needed a reminder that your soft-science degree was worth something.
This isn’t the newest news, but I want to make sure we’ve all heard it. PETA, ever the punchline, is on a new crusade to take back figures of speech that invoke animal harm, suggesting instead that we “feed two birds with one scone” and “feed a fed horse” (guess we’re saving the animal obesity campaign for later).
Questions: is a campaign like this more effective than backing things like plant-based eating initiatives? Do we care more about offending animals than we do about, say, workplace harassment or climate change? Maybe we worry about the semantics of bringing home the bacon once all our human citizens are able to do that in equal force. PETA, now is not the time.
Maybe it’s just holiday time overtaking me but everywhere I look, I think, “I have nipples, Greg. Can you milk me?” In a world of everything-as-milk, a new product is perhaps just a drop in the bucket, but nevertheless I feel compelled to announce the birth of Sesame milk, dropping on Amazon in January. On that note, a free idea for PETA’s next campaign: a cow holding a sign that reads, “DRINK MORE NUTZ.”
Food52’s vegan cookbook has been out for 3 years now, and maybe it’s time you took note. It’s gotten some great reviews, some of which even include the word “vibrant,” which seems encouraging. Eat more vegetables, buy less meat, and feel slightly less bad about your personal contribution to our next natural disaster.
(that wasn’t so hard, was it?)
