Exiting April, the Cruelest Month.
This is the last day of April.
This is the last newsletter.
• lots of good stuff, so save it for future revisits •
The phrase "April is the cruelest month" comes from T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land", where it's used to describe a paradoxical view of spring — not only as a time of rebirth — but as a reminder of loss and a cycle of renewal that can feel meaningless.
[In April 2005 I compiled a mixtape CD from this perspective. “Another Spring”. Have a listen HERE to the dazzling opening song by Nina Simone.]
Worn weary by scheming online algorithms, the business sensibility of analytics that leaks into the personal, and sadly the lack of interaction and response within the personal — it all adds up to a sense of squandering the precious limited time left.
I am considering going old school — trying to create a small email newsletter, more direct and personal, to a very small group of individuals.
If you are reading this, and have any interest in being included, please respond and let me know.
“Loneliness is the fundamental condition of life — we are born by another, but born alone; die around others (if we are lucky and loved), but die alone; we spend our lives islanded in our one and only human experience — in these particular bodies and minds and circumstances drawn from the cosmic lottery — amid the immense ocean of time and chance teeming with all possible experience. Everything of beauty and substance that we make — every poem, every painting, every friendship — is an outstretched hand reaching out from one loneliness to another, reaching into the mute mouth of forever for the vowels of a common language to howl our requiem for the evanescent now.” — Maria Popova
Politics. Always a concern.
I am leaving below a list of links to some voices outside the proscribed official narratives presented by corporate media.
Most of these are links to YouTube and Substack, but these scholars, journalists and reporters can be found on various other media.
Check them out while you still can, and bookmark them for future use when propaganda dressed as news overwhelms.
The Humanist Report – Mike Figueredo
Glenn Greenwald
Indi.ca
Sabrina Salvati
Briahnna Joy Gray
Democracy Now
Breaking Points
Katie Halper
Chris Hedges
Ken Klippenstein
John Mearsheimer
Seymour Hersh
The Greyzone
Status Coup News
Consortium News
The New Atlas
Empire Files
Due Dissidence
HasanAbi
Zeteo – Medhi Hasan
Adam Something
Thunderf00t
Caitlin Johnstone
JENerational Change
Black Liberation Media
The Dusty Show
and
Jeffrey Sachs — economist and public policy analyst who is a professor at Columbia University — remains one of the most informed and articulate voices around.
Google him.
Here is his great conversation, from the summer of 2024, with political scientist and international relations scholar, John Mearsheimer.
Bonus.
Here’s a video of Dusty
delightfully ranting my opinion on the military, patriotism, and all that garbage.
We need more of this in the world. Cheers.
AleXander Hirka @ your fingertips!
If you want to see the work I am creating or just want to keep in touch you can find me in one of these many places . . .
https://linktr.ee/AleXanderHirka
MUSICAL PARTING THOUGHTS
“Skibidi” — Little Big
“That Leaving Feeling”
(Stuart Staples duet w/ Lhasa De Sala)
[Stuart Staples]
I get that leaving feeling / This time it's here to stay
I've been weighing up the pulling / And pushing me away . . .
[Lhasa de Sela]
We all have dreams of leaving / We all wanna make a new start
Go and pack a little suitcase / With the pieces of our hearts
All those worries and those sorrows / We can just toss them away
Buy a coffee and a paper / And go step on to a train.
Donations: HirkArt™© PayPal
(With great big ♥ thanks ♥
to those who have in the past!)
