Category: History
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Secrets of the Temple.2: Double Dutch
(This is a follow up to the post Secrets of the Temple.1: More Than a Doorstop, dated 1/13/13.) As I wrote in my first post on William Greider’s history of the Federal Reserve board, one of the aims of “Secrets of the Temple” is to question whether Ronald Reagan really was the primary source of…
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Secrets of the Temple.1: More Than A Doorstop
The operations of the Federal Reserve board are notoriously shrouded in mystery. Technocratic decisions on monetary policy that supposedly need to be protected from the fickle pressures of politics are carried out by an appointed board of governors who like to operate behind closed doors. William Grieder set out to demystify this institution in the…
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Other John Davises.3: The 1946 Newark Eagles
In this third in a series of posts on notable folks who have been housed under my ubiquitous name, I hereby pay tribute to a star of the 1946 Newark Eagles, who were one of the great all time teams of the Negro Leagues that existed in the apartheid days of Major League Baseball. They…
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Ill Communication
It’s easy while thinking critically about trends in US history to fall into two traps – romanticizing a period in the past when things were supposedly better, or telling the story of past oppressions in ways that make it sound like no one spoke or acted out against it at the time. The recent book…
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The Interpretation of Dreams
I don’t usually watch the Olympics much. Not because I don’t enjoy the events, but because NBC usually feels compelled to shovel forklifts of “human interest” stories down your throat with brief breaks taken for cursory athletic performances. So I wasn’t surprised when I checked in on the Olympics briefly this summer and didn’t see…
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R.I.P., MCA.1
I’d like to express my respect for the late MCA’s work by sharing some thoughts his passing brought to mind about an aspect of his life that many of referred to but few focus on at length, which is his interest in and practice of Buddhist teachings. I didn’t learn about Buddhism from MCA, and…
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Wanna read Wainaina? You should!
I’ve decided many of my posts are too long, so I’m gonna keep this short: I just started reading One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina this morning and it’s awesome. Check it out!
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Top 40 Over 40.7: Egypt by Youssou N’Dour
This album was one of a few that made me want to try putting strings on my next record. I don’t like how strings are often used in western pop as a soft bed of sound in the background. I do like how they carry the lead parts on much of this album. The Egyptian…
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Debt.4: What’s good for General Motors and what’s good for America
Sometimes the mark of a good book is how it crops back up in your mind a few months or years or even many years after you first read it. I wrote 3 posts about the book Debt by David Graeber back in February & March. There have been several occasions since then when the…
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Other John Davises.1: My life as an 18th century batsman
It can be a bit strange having a ubiquitous name. But it can also be kinda fun. This post is the first in a series of characters I found on the net that have the same name as me. If you believe in previous lifetimes, you may even believe I could have lived some of…
johnhdavis / inundation records 