Winter Show and Updates

Dear Friends + Subscribers, 

The Mutual Benefit world headquarters may have seemed quiet recently but it has, in fact, been emitting the low hum of subterranean activity. We have been writing, erasing, turning compost into song flowers and difficult feelings into song compost. New recordings are still a ways away but if you live in or near NYC I’ll be doing a small ensemble show of unrecorded material at Cassette joined by Adelyn Strei on clarinet and Gabriel Birnbaum on sax Feb 12th. The whole lineup is packed with inspiring/interesting Brooklyn musicians worth investigating.

Part of my resolution this year is to try to exist and contribute to digital spaces that feel more aligned with my values instead of social media sites that surveil, emotionally inflame, nudge into consumerist conformity and collective despair. My first experiment is a simple little tumblr-esque microblog where I talk about music, movies, books, articles every day two at www.jordanlee.life.

If you feel compelled, let me know if you’ve found ways of being online that feel collaborative and generative. I was really inspired reading about the Robida Collective in Are.na recently which hosts an artist residency, yearly magazine, and online radio station in a Italian border town of 25 people. I like how they combine the physical and digital in compelling ways.

If you are resisting cruel nihilism and joining others to make your community more livable and beautiful, THANK YOU <3

Some Recent Favorites

Album: Lisa O'Neill - All Of This Is Chance: (such great songwriting, it keeps making me cry)

Online Radio Station : Death is Not The End on NTS Radio (amazing deep dives on musical subcultures throughout the world)

Nonfiction Book: The Score by N. Thi. Nguyen (a look at the philosophy of scoring systems and data collection)

Article: MAGA as Fan Fiction by Gideon Jacobs: (totally nuts media theory look at the current effects of social media on politics)

Website: Are.na editorial: (this is a constant source of art inspiration for me)

Newsletter: Prisons, Prose, and Protest: (consistently thoughtful writing about prison abolition, forgotten histories, experiments in collective justice)

LOVE,

j+