Big_Stacks

• You can't afford free speech

  Big_Stacks

  November 2015

  ketan said:

  Broken down well here: 
  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/15/political-correctness-free-speech-racism-misogyny-university-yale-missouri
  
  CORE at University of Washington are doing some great work to help transform that school.

  
  Hey,

  I'd say the missing element here in the debate about political correctness and free speech is empathy.  If we truly mean to encourage a civil society, then we as members of it need to exercise some empathy toward those who are disparaged.  I'm often aghast by people who claim to be 'open-minded', yet they seem incapable of perspective taking when it comes to people who are mistreated.  At a more basic level, to maintain healthy relationships, we need to be able to take the perspective of other individuals to show appropriate sensitivity to their concerns.  It's not about being right or wrong, but it's about showing humanity toward our fellow human beings.  Asking White college students, for instance, not to wear blackface is about showing empathy toward their Black classmates.  I'm shocked that people wish to defend the right to offend their fellow human beings by celebrating the vestiges of our horrific and shameful racial past in the U.S.  I'm equally shocked that individuals who are enrolled in institutions of higher learning, where I should (perhaps naively) expect some degree of greater 'enlightenment' than the general populace, can rationalize displaying such egregious behavior.  It speaks to a greater ill that institutions of higher learning have devolved into these 'credential mills' of sorts, where getting a college degree trumps intellectual development, cultural discovery, evolution to a higher level of consciousness, and broadening of the mind to appreciate varying streams of thought.  More importantly, the fact that political correctness and free speech are posed as a 'debate' is symptomatic of a society that devalues civility while celebrating hedonism and narcissism.  A 'win-at-all-cost' mentality has taken hold that is systematically eroding the very foundations of a truly civil, progressive, creative, and innovative society.  This mindset allows us to tolerate inequality, disparage the downtrodden, and justify our own advantages by blaming others who are less fortunate than we are.  It becomes a self-perpetuating rationalization of our own privileged position, and lets us turn a blind eye to the anomie around us.

  Peace,

  Big Stacks from Kakalak

  

• November Finds

  Big_Stacks

  November 2015
  Wow, Devoglam!!!  Have you been listening to my mixes? You've scooped a lot of joints I've dropped on mixes over the years (e.g., Paul Brett Sage, Lost Generation, South Side Movement, Donald Byrd & Booker Little, James Mason, etc.).  
  
  Peace,
  
  Big Stacks from Kakalak

  

• Whittling down the collection

  Big_Stacks

  October 2015
  Hey,
  
  I continue to hoard as I have traded stuff that I later regretted.  So, as long as I have space, I'll keep gripping more vinyl.  I have somewhere over 10,000 LPs and the stacks grow bigger.  I'm a hopeless record collecting addict.
  
  Peace,
  
  Big Stacks from Kakalak
  

  

• Post random /record culture stuff from your phone

  Big_Stacks

  October 2015
  Hey,

  Here you go:

  

  Me and Edan at the Good Records (NYC) WFMU party (2011)

  

  Trip to Bop Street Records in Ballard, WA (2013)

  
  

  Flipping through the stacks near my decks (a couple of months ago).

  Peace,

  Big Stacks from Kakalak

  

• Intros that melt

  Big_Stacks

  January 2011
  Hey,
  
  Here is one that still gives me the chills nearly 4 decades later.
  
  
  
  Peace,
  
  Big Stacks from Kakalak