Weekend self-care open thread: DISCO!!

As a son of New York City, I was there for the birth of disco.

Let me tell you what disco wasn't.

It wasn't, as so many white people said, the "death of music".

What it was was Black, Latino, and gay people seizing the gestalt of the times.

It was marginalized communities joining together in music and dance.

It was an underclass reveling in their culture and power, in the face of a dominant culture which saw it as subhuman.

Sure. The great and the good of elite white America went to Studio 54, did coke, and slummed it. But for the rest of us? Disco was a glorious moment where our voices were heard, and we dominated popular culture.

Disco was also the moment when the dominance of white America in the culture began to shatter. After disco, there was hip hop. So-called "white culture" never recovered from disco. It was shown to be an empty shell, bereft of any agency, of any potency. Even the most white of cultures, country music, now has multiple Black voices. And, of course, Latin culture is a vigorous substrate, holding its own in a country trying to figure out what it is.

This weekend we shall celebrate the wonderful music which is disco.

Share your faves in the comments. Let us make this weekend a weekend where we leave the cares of the world behind us.

As always, my dear friends, be ever kind, gentle, and joyful with yourselves and those around you.