♠️ Can the Counterculture Rise Again?

Hey,

I hope you’re doing well. It’s Sunday right now, and Canada lost to the United States in Milan, so my text messages are actually kinda exploding...! I haven’t watched the game as I’m still into the Open Conversation we shared together last Saturday! What an incredible moment, so rich and meaningful to us all. Many comments of yours are still resonating in my heart today! 

As shared during this latest Open Conversation, Alex’s personal theme for this year is “Affirmation”. Well, this past week has been nothing else than that on every possible level!!!

Here if you haven’t watched it yet: 

🎧 Music I’m listening to

Irreversible Entanglements - Vibrate Higher ft. MOTHERBOARD 

It was last Friday, and as I was looking through new releases of artists I love, that song came out, which I truly was really eager to listen to! The lyrics of that song were what got me the most into it from the get-go! Really aligned with what I’m aiming for these days! 

We only understand great vision
High frequency
High territory
High moral
The high road
We in

I added it to The Club playlist! 

Listen to the Playlist

📖 Reading highlight I’m pondering

Can The Counterculture Rise Again?
By Jonathan Taplin

As I was listening to those new releases last Friday night, I decided I would also use this time to read the February edition of Rolling Stone magazine. Since we’re all issued from some kind of counterculture somewhere, this title truly resonated with me, especially as it was written by the legendary, to say the least, Jonathan Taplin.

He shares about a Broadway play he went to see called Good Night, and Good Luck, and it goes like this:

There is a point midway through the play when Murrow (played by George Clooney) turns directly to the camera and says, “We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men/women. 

Not from men/women who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.… There is no way for a citizen to abdicate his responsibilities.” 

Clooney seems to be saying: “We did this before. We can do it again.”

I truly liked pretty much every word in this text, but that part really stayed with me...! 

🎙️ Podcast That Inspired Me

Disgraceland - The Clash: Guns on the Roof, Chased out of Kingston, and a Riot in Times Square 

Speaking of counterculture and creating proximity!!! 

The Clash were once described by their manager as a news organization first and entertainers second. They were, as their record label put it, “the only band that matters.” They were on the front lines at the dawn of punk rock but were adventurous enough to quickly branch out into reggae, dub, and hip-hop. 

They were arrested on suspicion of terrorism in London. Chased out of Jamaica by local drug lords armed to the teeth. Caused a near riot in Times Square when their week-long takeover of a disco was shut down by the city after night one. 

For Joe Strummer, one of the Clash’s two songwriters and the group’s political avatar, all this insanity came with the territory when you were disrupting the status quo. But the weight of it all, the importance of the only band that mattered, became too much to bear, and at the height of the band’s commercial success…their frontman went missing.

📸 My Picture Of The Week 

Alex shared parts of a new song! You can listen to it here. 

💬 Shared in the Long Shadows Chat this week

Have you seen Alex’s videos regarding his home in Virginia? If you haven’t, it clearly is a must before you read what I’m about to tell you...! Here’s the link.

Alex was still in Tangier when he learned he had to go to his home in Virginia in order to make the right decisions according to the next phase and steps of this saga, so I decided to go with him, knowing how shocking and really destabilizing going there would be to him. Once the week was over, I was even more shocked to learn Alex wanted to stay there to work on some vocal recording for the album we’ve been working on for several months already. 

My initial reaction was, of course, something between "What?!" and "Are you out of your mind?!" We have one of the nicest places to record in the world, and this is where you want to do this?! 

But in all honesty, between you and me, I wasn’t surprised at all, since this is typical Alex...! As he recently shared on his Substack, "Instead of hopelessly waiting for the changes I knew would never come due to the circumstances I kept blaming, I became the changes."

These words aren’t only words, since Alex decided to fill up our chat on a daily basis with a short video filmed at sunrise where we can hear him proclaim what he would want to see happening on this very day, even if he’s surrounded by destruction, demolition, death in some sense, dust, dust, dust, and more dust. 

He simply decided to turn frustration, bitterness, anger, rage, self-deprecation, surrender, indifference, fatalism, and resignation into emotional control, joy, serenity, tranquility, gratification, self-appreciation, persistence, determination, enthusiasm, engagement, passion, deep caring, and intentionally becoming with a heart full of empathy and compassion...! 

This is what our culture and the very foundations of this incredible community of truly rich-hearted people are all about! Truly inspiring, since to me, pushing your limitations is creating your own counterculture! 

Let’s be great to one another! 

Your friend and Chief Operator, 
Jeff 

Join Alex's Community on Substack