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Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

MRR callout ads and MRR apologies makes me realize how little changes besides the medium.

IN THE OCTOBER ’88 issue of MRR, I placed a classified ad stating that numerous people owed me money. Amongst the names included was The Accused. I was wrong in including their name, because they do not owe me money. I wish to express my apologies and point out to the public that The Accused helped Subcore get its start and thus I am forever indebted to the band. I wish to point out to the Accused that I am still a loyal fan of yours, wish you the best of luck in the future and ask that you accept my apologies. Sorry guys I was mis¬ taken- Dave Subcore.

November 25, 2025 at 9:59 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

I knew crunchy/conservative women who lost kids unnecessarily to home births & to take away even the basic guardrails from THAT process to whatever this is truly gives me chills. Maybe if we weren't such an expensive country to have kids in, this wouldn't be as much of a thing people turn to.

November 22, 2025 at 9:34 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

a friend from my old church posted this article and it is BANANAS.

The sudden success of an AI-generated artist on the Christian charts has sparked an online conversation about the ethics and theology of computer-generated art. After Solomon Ray’s EP took the No. 1 spot on the iTunes chart, Forrest Frank (who also released a Christmas single last week) weighed in on social media.

“At minimum, AI does not have the Holy Spirit inside of it,” Frank said. “So I think that it’s really weird to be opening up your spirit to something that has no spirit.”

The real person behind the character of Solomon Ray is Christopher “Topher” Town, a conservative hip-hop artist involved with Veterans for Trump, who performed at a rally that coincided with the January 6 storming of the Capitol in 2021. Following the event, Town’s song, “The Patriot,” was removed from Spotify, and Instagram banned him from going live on the platform.

In a video posted to Instagram on November 19, Town called himself “the man behind the machine.” He disagreed with Frank’s claim that Solomon Ray’s music has “no spirit,” saying, “This is an extension of my creativity, so therefore to me it’s art. It’s definitely inspired by a Christian. It may not be performed by one, but I don’t know why that really matters in the end.”

Town said that God can use any vehicle to reach people, even AI, and accused Frank of doing “more gatekeeping” than “uplifting.”

The real Solomon Ray chimed in on Frank’s video. “Should Forrest and I reclaim Christmas from the robots?” he asked.

November 21, 2025 at 4:35 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

apparently the same guy's been running a page with AI-generated Holocaust victims and it's very bad and weird!

November 18, 2025 at 4:58 AM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

I'm legit mad about this bullshit and everyone reposting this going "what a badass lady environmentalist, we need people like her today" when Betty Klaric exists.

November 18, 2025 at 4:24 AM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

this was like back when we were in high school (not sure if someone found a Catholic mailing list or what).

Apparently they've still continued to be weird.

November 14, 2025 at 2:03 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

a college friend of my mom's gave her this book sometime in the 1980s and I'm not sure if she ever read it but I came across it on the bookshelf and it continues to resonate for me over and over again, especially in these past few years. I've given copies away countless times.

"Ah but your land is beautifuL" by Alan Paton

November 12, 2025 at 12:28 AM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

I had one of my students put together a display for it this past week for the 50th anniversary and I'm pretty stoked with how it turned out (we have a lot of Great Lakes maritime history stuff here).

November 10, 2025 at 2:05 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

It's probably me spending most of my life in evangelical spaces but it's not lost on me that the parish that made me come back is a social one before and after.

Also this building looks cool.

November 4, 2025 at 4:48 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

Reading parish reviews of churches in Detroit and this guy would hate my church for having the nerve to be one where people actually know each other and act like it.

November 4, 2025 at 4:33 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

Wallace: I wanted to get away from liberal writing about the idea of persuasion and mind change, the idea of civil discourse, though these are valid tactics and approaches for a variety of things. I wanted to focus on the radical potential of creating spaces where unlearning is ongoing. People on the liberal side of the spectrum believe that it’s just those Trump people over there who are problematic, but we know that there’s a lot of racism, a lot of homophobia, a lot of Zionism, and anti-Palestinian sentiment on the liberal side of the political spectrum in the United States.

I wanted to set up an invitation for everyone who might read the book to start by thinking about unlearning in terms of ourselves. What do I need to unlearn? What am I working through? Then, that becomes a tool of compassion for others whose unlearning you want to support. Because you’re not saying, “I have it all figured out and I’m going to show you.” You’re actually saying, “I don’t have it all figured out, and I can really empathize with someone else who doesn’t have it all figured out; we can be in this together.” That kind of humility and curiosity is essential to movement work.

November 3, 2025 at 4:58 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

It's in the background here:

October 29, 2025 at 1:50 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

went to a liquidation at a record store / junk store in Eastlake today and brought this home among other things. I've never seen this Corita Kent art anywhere else and had no idea this existed.

Corita Kent protest poster with dove of peace and the caption "El Salvador is all of us" from a March on the Pentagon in 1981

October 26, 2025 at 3:31 AM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

I still think about this random election sign that popped up at every polling place in Cleveland 2 mayor election cycles ago.

October 21, 2025 at 4:33 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

If you loved my radio show or someone else's on WCSB, please leave an online comment here! (there are now many more than two, but since this is being framed as just a few people in a bubble, it'd be nice to get a diverse show of people who care).

www.clevelandcitycouncil.org/resources/pu...

October 20, 2025 at 12:49 AM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

This Croatian Cultural Club looks amazing. (photo from instagram by @atjart who's doing an amazing job documenting the Ohio/PA/WV panhandle region.

It's apparently open to anyone and still pretty active. They used to have an ethnic show on WWVA.
www.google.com/maps/place/C...

Croatian Cultural Club in Benwood West Virginia. A brick, castle-like building that hosts football watch parties and cultural events. Photo by Alan Taylor Jeffries

October 20, 2025 at 12:36 AM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

Pretty sure I saw @clebsaints.bsky.social out in the wild today while walking back from the grocery store on my lunch break.

October 17, 2025 at 5:55 PM

Hester Pangs

@hesterpangs.bsky.social

Working with a researcher in Poland on coverage of the Holodomor and reading old newspapers where there are western opinion-havers blowing all this off is feeling way too familiar.