Dear Friends,
Facebook originated, we thought, so that we could check in on our friends and build or strengthen communities. Twitter and Instagram promised similar benefits, but with the emphasis on the succinct and the visual.
I enjoyed Facebook especially in the early years. Today I appreciate it as a means to share with people the joys of Poetry in Davis and Events in Davis, two groups I founded on Facebook more than a decade ago. Both are going strong.
Today on Facebook and the other social media we get ads, many of them particularly appealing, as if someone has been paying close attention to everything we’ve clicked upon since beginning our social media journeys. As the marketing truism says, if you are not paying for a product, you are the product. Algorithms follow our eyeballs and expertly trigger our desires.
For these negative reasons, and for many positive ones, I have been enjoying Substack. On this platform, we expect more from our contacts, and we get more, typically in the form of essays. We also get to sample depth, rewarded attention, slowness, and human voices. Substack restores what social media promised: thoughtful community through sustained human writing.
As I read essays for a living (well, one of my “livings”), you would think that I would pursue other forms of entertainment. Having given up television for long walks in nature, and alcohol for more time connecting with my family and a few groups of friends, I have room in my life to review the writing of people I adore.
Consider the Substack Cinemulatto by Maria Breaux, the sister of the late compassion hero and stand-up Davisite, David Breaux. Maria concludes the piece published today this way:
“We could use a lot more ‘together’ these days, a lot more ‘us.’ Compassion is unconditional love, according to David’s final definition of the word. David, in that sense, is all of us, in every choice we make to slow down, simplify, humanize, and care.”
My friend the novelist and writing professor Eve Imagine always impresses me with her revelations, her discoveries, and her insights, such as with these insights that she shared this week on teaching in the age of AI:
“Prior to a month ago, I only used AI as an answer engine, a hyped up Google. I barely interacted with it. I listened to podcasts, read articles, and used my new knowledge to inform my teaching strategies, but I didn’t understand AI to be the assistant I needed, especially because it’s not usable, at least not for my needs, in Canvas (our teaching/learning platform).
What I never expected was that AI is not just an assistant. I don’t need a teaching assistant. However, what I have learned is that AI is an amazing accessibility tool, my version of a screen reader (a tool visually impaired people use for their computering).
I’m there. I’ve completed my course transformation, and I never could have accomplished so much in so little time without having this assist.”
I will also draw your attention to my most influential high school teacher, Will Layman, who is also one of America’s foremost jazz critics. Check out how he starts the review he published today of the late jazz drummer Al Foster’s Live at Smoke:
“Among the brightest, swingingest moments on Live at Smoke is a version of “Pent-Up House,” composed by Sonny Rollins and originally recorded in 1956 by Rollins with the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet (though the date, ostensibly led by Rollins, was credited as “Sonny Rollins + 4”). When I first heard that track as a young jazz fan, my head spun around. The theme is ingenious: a rising line followed by six sharp descending intervals that just about define the sound of mid-century hard bop. But then the improvisations begin, each more tuneful and masterful than the last.”
This is the kind of writing Substack encourages: serious, generous, expert, and unhurried attention. I love jazz, and I love writing, but it would take much more time with each art form for me to write about jazz like that.
I try to publish an essay a week on Substack, an essay (such as this one) that will be familiar to you if you subscribe to my content there or elsewhere. I’m grateful for the people who follow me there, and for all the thoughtful and eloquent friends I encounter on Substack who offer a welcome respite from algorithmically-precise advertisements.
Please check out the writers I feature above, and please follow Eager Mondays!
As my wife and two of our kids are on a plane to Chicago as I write this, Dan will be our substitute quizmaster at Sudwerk this evening. The quiz might be a bit easier than usual, so no hints. I hope you enjoy this event in Davis!
Dr. Andy
Three questions from last week:
- California Cities. Despite cold and rain, thousands flocked to 137th Rose Parade this year. Name the city.
- Science. John Napier discovered logarithms in the same decade that Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter. Name the century.
- Books and Authors. The authors Johnny Cash, John Grisham, and Douglas MacArthur were all born in the same state whose name starts with the letter A. Name this state that was also an important setting for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.