Stupid things, Skools, Bodies of Water, Covid Apps, Communists…and the First Amendment

How many of you would download a Covid-App that would track who’s infected and your proximity to it? Reason magazine quips that “It probably won’t be long before police use the logs to answer questions like ‘Who was within Bluetooth range of the bank teller during the robbery?’” How would this app impact race and ethnicity? If it’s true that Covid tends to impact more brown and black people, it’s going to seem a bit “odd” when, if Covid infected, people start moving away from black and brown bodies in galleries and art museums. Or not.

Please enjoy this interesting photo from my good friend, artist, and fellow bandmate, Melinda Shades. Taken somewhere in Central Texas.

Speaking of erasure, Georgia’s Mercer University recently destroyed a Black History mural. What does this mean? Lawyers and moral rights. Apparently, the mural depicted “Rosa Parks, black Civil War soldiers, 19th-century doctor Martin Delaney and Sam Oni, Mercer’s first black student.” The school refuses to comment. Axl was right, nothing lasts forever.

On the subject of personhood (or not), I promised I would point you to an answer as to how a body of water obtains personhood. Here it is. If you’re into dense, rigorous and worthwhile reading, here’s a great law review essay on property and personhood, by the formidable Janet Radin. On how corporations obtained personhood, here’s another phenomenal read I highly recommend, We the Corporations, by UCLA law prof, Adam Winkler.

How many of you are watching, or re-watching, The Walking Dead, and finding eerie similarities with our current condition? Do you also wonder where in the heck do they get toilet paper for so many people?

If you’re still thinking of donating a few bucks to an organization or venue in need, check out 2020Solidarity’s poster project. 2020Solidarity is a Between Bridges project aimed at helping cultural and music venues, community projects, independent spaces and publications that are existentially threatened by the current crisis. Over forty international artists come together to design one poster each, which can be offered on different crowdfunding sites as a reward for donations.

I leave you with Eddie Van Halen’s eruption. Cheers!

‘til next week,

-Sergio Munoz Sarmiento

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