“Almost everything of interest in New York City lies in some degree of proximity to music,” Luc Sante declares in the opening line of his autobiographical essay about the city’s culture in the 1970s, before launching into a frenetic first-person tour of the local zeitgeist that lurches from record stores to punk venues to underground newspapers to radio fragments emanating from boomboxes and “hazy orally transmitted lore of dubious provenance”—the downtown cross-pollination of punk, reggae, disco, hip hop, the demise of the ‘60s, and the palpable sense of an emerging Now that was strikingly different from what had preceded it.
I also clicked on the paywalled link, and I've already forgiven you.
I've overindulged on substacks and now hopelessly behind here, but just wanted to say I'm never disappointed with Kneeling Bus. If it's not a "huh" that makes me think about something differently, there's an "aha!" that reminds me of something helpful or true.
This time, it was the importance of loose ties, that "quasi-community" that creates a sense of belonging when so many people are fixated on building tight-knit communities (I'm thinking especially of the "intentional communities" so beloved in evangelical circles). Thanks for the good read.
Thank you Matt! I'm a huge fan of loose ties as you probably sense from reading this newsletter for a while. They definitely seem to be underrated.
I've actually gained a much stronger appreciation for them in the past few years - being effectively trapped in my neighborhood during the pandemic made the hyperlocal loose ties more valuable than ever. Robust physical communities and institutions seem to be the main way to develop and maintain them, which is part of why I'm always looking for those.
I also clicked on the paywalled link, and I've already forgiven you.
I've overindulged on substacks and now hopelessly behind here, but just wanted to say I'm never disappointed with Kneeling Bus. If it's not a "huh" that makes me think about something differently, there's an "aha!" that reminds me of something helpful or true.
This time, it was the importance of loose ties, that "quasi-community" that creates a sense of belonging when so many people are fixated on building tight-knit communities (I'm thinking especially of the "intentional communities" so beloved in evangelical circles). Thanks for the good read.
Thank you Matt! I'm a huge fan of loose ties as you probably sense from reading this newsletter for a while. They definitely seem to be underrated.
I've actually gained a much stronger appreciation for them in the past few years - being effectively trapped in my neighborhood during the pandemic made the hyperlocal loose ties more valuable than ever. Robust physical communities and institutions seem to be the main way to develop and maintain them, which is part of why I'm always looking for those.
One suggestion: if possible, say if a article is behind a paywall. I think is a nice gesture.
Thanks for the suggestion - I'll consider that next time!