Straight As The Bat Flies

Documents from the time of Covid-19 and beyond. Readings, discussions, field recordings and music from hosts Jason P. Grisell and William G. Lockwood reporting from New York City and San Francisco Bay Area. Episode 007 To Carve Out Dials observes the liminal spaces carved out by the year of pandemia, politics, and resulting hauntologies and lost futures.

Straight As The Bat Flies. Documents from the time of Covid-19 and beyond. Readings, discussions, field recordings, and music from hosts Jason P. Grisell and William G. Lockwood reporting from New York City and San Francisco Bay Area. Episode 006 In The Ghost Strata is an informal conversation about employment, unemployment, and re-employment in the time of Covid-19, Yasujirō Ozu, and readings of fragments from writers Mike Davis, Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, and Benjamin H. Bratton.

Straight As The Bat Flies. Documents from the time of Covid-19 and beyond. Readings, discussions, field recordings, and music from hosts Jason P. Grisell and William G. Lockwood reporting from New York City and San Francisco Bay Area. Episode 005 Dust Bowl is a space of reflection in a time of social upheaval and plague. Sound environments and discussion from NYC, Oakland, Mt. Shasta, rural Oregon, Montana, and Michigan- with readings of Roque Dalton, Vivienne-Haigh-Wood Eliot, Reza Negarestani, and Byung-Chul Han. Music by William G. Lockwood.

Documents from the time of Covid-19 and beyond. Readings, discussions, field recordings, and music from hosts Jason P. Grisell and William G. Lockwood reporting from New York City and San Francisco Bay Area. Episode 004 The Long Haul is a  space of reflection in a time of social upheaval and plague. Sound environments and music from NYC and Oakland, California- with a nod to Cage, Fuller, and McLuhan.

As a political condition, anarchy normally means the absence or rejection of government and institutions. For Cage, this is too simplistic: he openly disliked government and institutions, and was convinced of their limitations and potential for harm. Yet his breed of anarchism allowed for both to exist so long as they grew from and supported individual freedom. In this way Cage's anarchism was influenced by Thoreau; a key touchstone was Thoreau's famous contention in his 'Essay on the Duty of Civil Disobedience' (1849), 'That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.' Cage believed, much like Fuller and McLuhan, that governments should not enforce laws to restrict freedom or create false hierarchies and national antagonisms. Instead they should simply provide 'utilities', the basics needed for human life, but also communications technologies. He wanted a utopia with 'general use and availability of utilities' where individuals could organize themselves into organic social groupings, be creative and 'enjoy life'. Technology, used properly, enables this by breaking down social divisions and allowing the free circulation of 'intelligence'. Cage's utopia was not a perfect society; it would 'have its horrors...but they [would] be the result of individual acts rather than organized group actions'. Cage did not express his anarchism through any direct political action, but rather made it intrinsic to his personal philosophy, writing and artistic practice.

Lauren A. Wright, from 'Everyday Is A Good Day- The Visual Art of John Cage'

Documents from the time of Covid-19 and beyond. Readings, discussions, field recordings and music from hosts Jason P. Grisell and William G. Lockwood reporting from New York City and San Francisco Bay Area. Episode 003 At The End Of Daybreak focuses on the civil unrest, outrage, and protests in New York City and Oakland, California following the brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Readings this episode of Aimé Césaire, Tomas Transtromer, and Tongo Eisen-Martin.

Episode 002 of Straight As The Bat Flies- Second Wind Under Fluorescent Tubes. Documents from the time of Covid-19 and beyond. Readings, discussions, field recordings and music from hosts Jason P. Grisell and William G. Lockwood reporting from New York City and the Oakland. Readings this episode of Antoine Volodine and Lina Meruane. In dedication to the city hospitals of New York City.

Episode 001 of Straight As The Bat Flies with Jason P Grisell and William G. Lockwood. Discussions, field recordings, and readings of fragments of Philip K. Dick, Cixin Liu, Nick Land, and Daniel Defoe. Music by William G Lockwood.