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Josh Michtom

@rsgat.bsky.social

1.9K followers 750 following 6.8K posts

Dad, husband, lawyer for marginalized kids, former veteran public defender, Hartford City Councilman (one of six WFP-only electeds nationwide!), musician, artist, professor; opinions my own; "CT Dems aren't socialist enough for this clown."

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Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 7d

Don't talk to cops. I wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it? Here it goes:

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 2h

Yo, son. I had crazy visions.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 5h

Man. We really played two of our best sets ever today. What a joy.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 6h

The Hartford Hot Several Brass Band

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 10h

Serenaded these newlyweds.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 12h

Someone else with the same kind of weird horn as me.

A tall man and a short woman with flugabones.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 12h

Opening ceremony

A bunch of people in a park with horns and drums

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 13h

Warm-up

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 15h

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 15h

No.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 17h

Shout out to the homie Luís Cotto for beautiful pics.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 17h

An impromptu nighttime parade with friends and strangers.

A woman (Juliana) is standing at the left of the frame, looking at the camera and gesturing with her right hand, palm casually upturned, mouth open in song. In her left hand is a pair of drumsticks, and hanging at her waist is a snare drum. She stands on a narrow sidewalk beside a man (me), blowing into what looks like a large-belled trumpet (but is actually a valve trombone), arms bent at the elbows, hands perched on the horn and hidden behind the bell, eyes half closed in effort. He has a megaphone at his waist. They are bookended by a chain link fence on the left and a parked car on the right. Behind them, between their heads, the bell of a sousaphone and below it, a woman playing clarinet.

A band plays while walking on a sidewalk: a man with a slide trumpet, a woman with a saxophone, a woman with a sousaphone, a woman with a clarinet, a man with a valve trombone, an indistinct tumult of others behind them, in front of the wide plate glass windows of a restaurant called Orleans.

A pause in playing, but not in walking: Anne holds her saxophone near her lips; Meg looks down from the mouthpiece of her sousaphone; Josh holds his horn away from him, bell down, maybe emptying the spot valve; João carries a bari sax, mouthpiece tipped down and away from him, smiling. They are in a sidewalk by an indistinct business.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 19h

My band's tuba player said this over drinks.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

Honk! festival in Somerville.

Me, wearing a Puerto Rican Independence party t-shirt with the statue of Liberty with a blindfold on, holding my valve trombone. I have my arm around a much shorter woman dressed as the statue of liberty with a lit up crown, pointing at my t-shirt.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

"The people I know who studied in New Zealand in college became fluent in bar fights."

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

I, too, have once again been denied the Nobel Peace Prize, despite refraining from punching anyone for another year, in the face of considerable provocations from the local, state, and federal governments.

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 1d

Altoona, PA’s Sinclair-owned TV station with the perfect framing. Donald Trump is “once again denied the Nobel Prize.”

LOWTAJ
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Trump has once again been denied the Nobel Peace Prize. FULL STORY: https://www.wtaj.com... See more
NATIONAL NEWS
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White House responds after Trump misses out on Peace
Prize again: 'Politics over peace'
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104 comments 6 shares

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

So I'm reading that the lady who got the Peace Prize is kind of like the company union of Venezuelan opposition, which, if true, is a remarkably astute move by the Nobel folks to appear not to be caving to Trump's crazy demands for the prize while also doing something to pacify him. Gotta read more.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

I remember having a conversation with my aunt when it looked like some lasting progress was coming in the Clinton administration. She said, "I was born three years before Israel was created and I've been watching promising developments come down the pike since I can remember."

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

Even in his prime he had Giant Dad energy.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

Also, the fact that he appears to have borrowed his big brother's suit for this photo.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

It's the classic collective action problem.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

Right, but was McCarthyism this goofy? My sense is no, because "communism is bad" was a much more broadly endorsed position than "trans antifa vaccine agenda is bad" (or whatever), but I realize that I don't really know how sensible people were talking about the red scare among themselves.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

My grandparents always spoke of the red scare and McCarthy with contempt, which I expected because of their politics. But I didn't have the context to ask for broader context.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

My honest question, which I wish I'd asked my grandparents when they were living, is: did it feel this nakedly pretextual back then?

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

The Maureens are my favorite band.

Josh Michtom @rsgat.bsky.social · 1d

Later today, I'll be on the road with my band, headed to the Honk! festival of activist marching bands in Somerville, and by nightfall I will have commenced 48 hours of playing my face off in the midst of hundreds of other musicians I adore. Just have to get the kid on the bus and file some motions.