Listen: Prosthetic Boombox by Cola Boyy
Don’t you love getting your politics and your art in one package? Your new bud Cola Boyy, who’s something of an activist icon in his hometown of Oxnard, California, infuses his dreamy disco-pop with slick advocacy for racial and immigrant justice, community empowerment, and disability rights. Born with spina bifida, scoliosis, and a club foot, he calls himself a “disabled disco innovator,” and his laid-back, forward-thinking inventions are just what you’ll want in your ears at this moment.
“Kid Born In Space” is a hazy jam about growing up on the other end of people’s stares. The more upbeat “Don’t Forget Your Neighborhood,” produced in collaboration with the Avalanches, is about advocating for the place you’re from (Cola Boyy is working to fight displacement and racism in Oxnard). Find both of these on Prosthetic Boombox, an album that spins activism into infectious joy.
Your lifestyle subsidy is ending
Perhaps in the last couple of months you’ve noticed that things like Uber and Handy are charging you what their services actually cost— and, surprise, it’s a lot. See, investors are pushing these companies to become “profitable,” a state whereby a business is actually making money, not hemorrhaging funds to inflate their user numbers and raise so much outside capital that they have no choice but to dominate the world at all costs.
We’ll miss the $2 Uber Pools and all, but in the words of Kevin Roose, “Hiring a private driver to shuttle you across Los Angeles during rush hour should cost more than $16, if everyone in that transaction is being fairly compensated. Getting someone to clean your house, do your laundry or deliver your dinner should be a luxury, if there’s no exploitation involved.” Lol how did this narrative take so long.
PPPrurient
You know who else is asking, “how did this take so long?” The strip club owners who’ve been sticking it out without PPP loans through the entire pandemic. When the paycheck relief program rolled out last April, it said it would fund pretty much any qualifying small business, except for those “of prurient sexual nature” (why does America hate sex). But 42 strip clubs in Michigan just sued the SBA and won, meaning they and only they can now apply for the loans— just in time for the program to close.