…I would in my will, leave my skin a legacy to the government, desiring that it might be taken off & made into parchment, & then bind the constitution of glorious happy & free America. Let the skin of an slave, bind the charter of American Liberty" Life of William Grimes, the Runaways Slave (1825)

There are two Montpelier’s here actually, & the 2nd was home to the first enslaved man to take his freedom & write a book about it, William Grimes. Theres still no marker or acknowledgment of his time here. His words… “If it were not for the stripes on my back which were made while I was a slave…

Same county, Orange, 1745, this was the reality of this place leading up to the American “revolution”. People were drawn & quartered, their heads put on pikes, & enslaved people were burned alive to maintain the status quo. ☠️ 🇺🇸 1745: Eve, her smoke visible throughout the country | Executed Today

Looking at James Madisons Montpellier this weekend trying to whitewash & downplay the utter brutality of the 17, 18, & 19 centuries. The reality is they poisoned his daddy Ambrose Madison for being a planter bastard. He wasnt the only one…thats the real history Ambrose Madison (ca. 1696–1732)

Please acknowledge my discovery of being able to use our metal hand tools as antennas for the local bluegrass FM station. Works really good…

First katydid sounds I’ve heard this summer outside tonight.

New US national anthem gut string banjo, pedal steel and 808 drum machine.

I think the music I made is going to be to scary for people.

Just spent the last 6 days working to get the witness tree audio ready for final mixing…I dont know if theres another project that took this much out of me before. 2 years, over a 1000 miles on the road, idk how much time editing. Felt more like conjuring events than making music. Final stretch…

Just saw the video of the unarmed Clarksville TN man who died from his wounds after being attacked by a police dog…they just let the dog keep biting him. Sickening. I don’t even know what to say…this country is so fucking evil.

Day three of the heat dome has got me shaving my head with the #1 … how’s it feeling out there?

Just saw there is a Northrop Grumman booth at the state fair thing 😂☠️

The pay off most people accept, whether they articulate it or not, is that if you get to do an intellectually stimulating or emotionally rewarding career in some sense it pays less. Standing up for the humanities pisses people off because you dare ask for both.

Deeply feeling one…

Deaths in France surged 30% during hottest week of record June heatwave

Imo the only way to use these former plantation/manor homes is to turn each and every one into a site to educate people about the enslaved experience in America. If you can’t do that tear them down and use the repurposed materials in community projects.

When the outdoor wet bulb temperature (a combined measure of temperature and humidity) exceeds 35 C (95 F), sweat stops evaporating and human bodies can't cool themselves. 6 hours above 35 C wet bulb can kill even a young, healthy adult. Fossil-fueled climate change is raising wet bulb temperatures.

Absolutely incredible heat index of 120 in what looks to be around Tappahannock area, 122 in Richmond…unreal! 🌍 🔥

<slaps the roof of American culture > “this bad boy can fit so much Christian heresy in it, you would not believe …”

AI ad with rapping Ben Franklin/George Washington/Thomas Jefferson for “Young Washington” movie?…anyone else seen that?

on top of which ... smdh ... bsky.app/profile/bill...

Wonder if the US is going to count and publicize how many heat deaths occur during this 4th of July weekend. Many states stopped counting excess deaths for COVID years ago, no one cares, cant think this is any different.

Just went out to get some greens before the sun hits the garden and can’t believe how hot it is already.

Too hot to cook inside so frying the vegetable fritters outside. Not a bad vibe all things considered.

Our lettuce made it through the first day of the heat dome with this simple shade cloth. 🥬🔥

Per the observations at CHO airport we've reached 100° for the first time since July 16, 2024, though the official climate report around 5:30pm will confirm this for sure. Stay tuned. Regardless, heat indices are rough, be it by the observations or even just by stepping outside.

Just put a frozen towel on my head 😮‍💨 real feel is hovering around 115F/46C.

When are Virginia cities with formerly enslaved/historically disenfranchised communities like Charlottesville, Richmond, etc going to get on board with municipal reparations? Reparations Efforts “Sweeping the Country” Despite DOJ Attack on Evanston, IL Groundbreaking Program @democracynow.org

We try and sneak summer veg into every meal during the summer and this morning I invented the squashage egg and cheese breakfast sandwich.

Charlottesville's last 100° day? July 16, 2024 (100°). Heat indices across central Virginia on Wednesday afternoon could reach 105° or hotter.

In preparation for a Theodore Roosevelt Library in ND, Indigenous people weigh in about his racism and the future of the former American Museum of Natural History statue of Roosevelt on horseback, flanked by Native & Black people in subservient positions.  northdakotamonitor.com/2026/06/30/t...

I’ve been pulling all day workdays trying to get this audio done, and no matter how much music I work on I always want to unwind with more music…Alpha Boys School Radio from Kingston is hitting the spot tonight.

Growing up in Virginia I didnt hear much about Gabriel or the Frenchmen from Haiti living in Richmond who encouraged his rebellion. I also like how this one speaks to resentment enslaved people in VA held towards whites after the revolution when the planter class doubled down on their Slavocracy.

We mulched some plants, watered, made some mint tea, and I’m about to throw some hand towels in the freezer. That’s about as good as we’re going to get for the heat dome tomorrow. Looks like this one might be a record breaker…

Your Cherokee words for today. The top word is English followed by how it is written in the Cherokee language followed by how it is spelled in English then how to pronounce it phonetically. goo-yay-kwo-nee

Hot as hell out there…

Way to go on this one @fire-toolz.bsky.social !

I 100% believe that a major factor in the Revolution were the land speculators ready to jump on newly cleared Indigenous territories. This talk by Prof Glanville goes into the attitude wealthy colonists felt towards the “frontier”. Once free from the crown they could void any treaties they chose to.

Started final mixes this week…like working in a cave during this heat dome.

brought some of the books and zines found in the Prairieland exhibit files to sentence 8 people to a combined 450 years in federal prison to @us.theguardian.com's podcast, Stateside, in the longest interview I've done so far about the story

Bevis loves smelling every type of vegetable we bring in but still really only likes to try the corn.

The older I get the more and more I’m coming around to the nu-grass on the radio.

Good a time as ever to watch DC formally incarcerated filmmaker Karim Mowatt’s doc Lorton: Prison of Terror. IMO there are few examples as clear as Lorton (other than Angola) that show so clearly the path from southern plantation & forced enslavement to mass incarceration style work camps.

I heard some truly disturbing things about the conditions in these prisons/jails around Rocky Mount NC from an old neighbor friend…🔥

Virginia Medicaid said I was going to talk therapy too much (once a week to deal with childhood/adult trauma)…the sessions are only like 75$ without insurance, makes me wonder what other essential care they’re cutting for others out there.

Rare to see a heat dome like this show it’s worst conditions in the middle Appalachian region. 😮‍💨🔥

Ngl I am glad the days of getting the clamshell containers interior lid riddled in small burn holes from hot chicken grease are over. I’ll take petrochemicals out of all our food over the nostalgia factor.

“America, U.S.A.”: Eddie Glaude on the 250th Anniversary, Race & “The Madness at the Heart of the Country”

Don’t underestimate how public opinion can change seemingly overnight. Anthony Burns, from Stafford co VA. The extreme conditions of his brief imprisonment in Boston radicalized many city residents. “We waked up stark mad Abolitionists” Anthony Burns (1834–1862) - Encyclopedia Virginia

That WU essay is fantastic, the only thing I wish they had done was taken the history back into abolition & slave uprisings. Abolition was so unpopular that the public never believed it was possible. I believe witnessing mass domestic death/suffering from climate breakdown will be our Harpers Ferry.