Michael J. Kramer

Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag (Live at the Berkeley Community Theater, 4/25/1981) YouTube video by Country Joe McDonald - Topic

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Brilliant Mistake (2024 Remaster) YouTube video by Elvis Costello - Topic

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CC: @mgallope.bsky.social, Brigid Cohen

Hearing, Thinking: What Musicology Can Offer Intellectual History: Michael J. Kramer on Brigid Cohen’s *Musical Migration and Imperial New York: Early Cold War Scenes. New Material Histories of Music*... Over the last decades, musicologists faced a growing problem. The artistic and social significance of music beyond the walls of the conservatory and concert hall became obvious, but the field largely ...

New review essay: Hearing Thinking—What Musicology Can Offer Intellectual History, on Brigid Cohen’s *Musical Migration and Imperial New York* & Michael Gallope’s *The Musician as Philosopher,* @susih.bsky.social s-usih.org/2026/02/hear...

@sunybrockport.bsky.social Spring 2026 Public History Webinar Series.

sunybrockporthistorydept.net/sunyhistoryl...

Charlie Chaplin - Complete Globe Scene - The Great Dictator YouTube video by Charlie Chaplin

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Does anyone know the name of this Civil Rights activist who appears in the Eyes on the Prize documentary being interviewed by a reporter. "My freedom is very much entangled with the freedom of every other man. So, I’m fighting for my own freedom here," he remarks. But he is not named in transcripts.

This astounds me having seen many shows there and then leaving NYC in 1999. I mean I've been back many times since then and I know what has happened since then, but it still is shocking.

New #culturerover: The Play of Levels, hypothesizing cultural criticism in US intellectual history. www.michaeljkramer.net/the-play-of-...

Not the bots!

Why are there so few (none?) news stories about individual ICE agents themselves? Who they are, what motivates them, any moral dilemmas they face? Why aren’t protesters trying to get some to speak out?

New #culturerover: The Dissonance of Dissidence—Theater Apparatus, Václav Havel’s Protest @ MuCCC/Rochester Fringe Festival @rochesterfringe.bsky.social, 10 september 2025. www.michaeljkramer.net/the-dissonan...

New #culturerover: Outstretched—Commotion Dance reaches out in Opus @ MuCC/Rochester Fringe Festival @rochesterfringe.bsky.social, 9 September 2025. www.michaeljkramer.net/outstretched/

New #culturerover: Those Times of Revolution—In Los Lobos’s 1996 “Revolution,” the words say one thing, the music another. www.michaeljkramer.net/those-times

Revolution YouTube video by Los Lobos - Topic

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pearl jam with sleater-kinnney - fortunate son & rockin in the free world - halifax 2005 YouTube video by klehtun

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Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son (At The Royal Albert Hall) YouTube video by CCRVEVO

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This would be the role of a proper opposition party.

2. Every time something bad happens, domestically or internationally, the Democrats should be ready w/ alternate policy, what they stand for, how it would improve the situation, in simple, concise terms.

1. this is Trumpublican America. If you like it vote for them; if you don't like it vote for us.

I once again defer to experts, but shouldn't the Democrats message right now be twofold?

Maybe I’m totally wrong or off about all this, but remain puzzled nonetheless.

Shoot, I’ll probably complain it’s too weak tea in many cases, but first a Tea Party is needed.

To be sure, there will be lots of argument about that policy and platform, lots of disagreement. Some kind of coalition needs to emerge between center and left. Many will complain and disagree with what’s on offer.

Isn’t the actual policy and platform that’s needed pretty clear for the Democratic Party? Broadly centered on expanding liberty and freedom through more robust, smart use of government to shape democratic action in response to suffering, lack of freedom, lack of imagining a sustainable future?

Is it a self-deluding fantasy that Democratic leadership has some kind of power? A fantasy that bipartisanship & good faith are still extended by the opposing party. Even now?! Get over it. The task: to highlight differences. “You don’t like what’s happening, then don’t elect them. Elect us.”

Don’t get all the hand-wringing by Democratic leaders about upcoming potential government shutdown. Isn’t it simpler? “The other party currently holds power. We’re the opposition party. Let them solve the issue. If they can’t then elect us next time.” Make the distinction clearer.

Why is the phrase “the juice isn’t worth the squeeze” or variations of it suddenly ubiquitous? A few years ago everyone had “bucket lists,” now we are in an era of diminishing returns?

New #culturerover: Get Out the Way, Old Dan Tucker returns as ICE agent? www.michaeljkramer.net/get-out-the-...