Taking a cue from Italy, each night at seven o’clock, we cheer for the nurses, doctors, grocers, and transit workers in New York City. It’s a small performance, but it’s something everyone can afford to do, the non-essential cheering for the essential, a rare act of communion in these days of isolation. Hopefully, this sentiment will continue long after this dark season ends and carry us into the streets to rebalance the scales and put on a more convincing show.

It’s a shared breath of life, this sudden clang and holler, the burst of animal noise from a wounded city. And there’s something unexpectedly moving about seeing my neighbors gathered at their windows at the same time, my brain finally mapping so many half-familiar faces to these buildings that I know like my name. There’s the guy I’ve always wondered about, the one across the street who leaves big chunks of bread on the fire escape for the pigeons. The one I’d thought was sad and lonely. He’s grinning and banging on a pan.

A Number of Names – Shari Vari

Capriccio Records, 1981 | Lyrics

Another landmark track in the Electrifying Mojo’s rotation. Created by a group of Detroit teenagers in 1981 to promote a party, this is the dot between Kraftwerk and techno.