Calaveras Pics
On the last full day of our California trip, we left Yosemite and went to see the sequoias in the south grove of Calaveras Big Trees State Park, California.
Katie Gavin, Inconsolable, live on WFUV
Katie Gavin, Inconsolable, live on WFUV
I finished the book On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed. short read (started this morning); really good 📚
happy Juneteenth! celebrating the anniversary of both the announced end of slavery in Texas (160 years ago) and my dad’s birth (100 years ago)
In America, we don’t do kings
They’ve defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services. The corruption has gone too. far. No thrones. No crowns. No kings.
Sat., June 14, pretty much everywhere: NoKings.org
excellent new (!) official video for Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer 🎵
Although my initial question has escaped an answer, the interest of the period itself-a violent, tormented, bewildered, suffering and disintegrating age, a time, as many thought, of Satan triumphant-was compelling and, as it seemed to me, consoling in a period of similar disarray. If our last decade or two of collapsing assumptions has been a period of unusual discomfort, it is reassuring to know that the human species has lived through worse before.
Curiously, the "phenomenal parallels" have been applied by another historian to earlier years of this century. Comparing the aftermaths of the Black Death and of World War I, James Westfall Thompson found all the same complaints: economic chaos, social unrest, high prices, profiteering, depraved morals, lack of production, industrial indolence, frenetic gaiety, wild expenditure, luxury, debauchery, social and religious hysteria, greed, avarice, maladministration, decay of manners.
– Barbara W. Tuchman, in the introduction of A Distant Mirror. A book about the 14th century, it was written in 1978.
great to have the chance to see Los Campesinos! again last night 🎵
On the last full day of our California trip, we left Yosemite and went to see the sequoias in the south grove of Calaveras Big Trees State Park, California.
A few more pictures from our second (& last) day in Yosemite National Park.
A few pictures from our first day in Yosemite National Park.
blurry shot zoomed into from the cheap seats, but a great show by Lucy Dacus (and opener Katie Gavin) last night. my first concert at Moody Amphitheater; pretty nice! 🎵
Dessa, 5 Out of 6 (live) 🎵
[youtu.be/RCp19f6Vn...](https://youtu.be/RCp19f6VntE?si=8kqmyDk5VV2kwa6z)
ouch. The Onion - Revised National Parks Webpage Describes Harriet Tubman As Human Trafficker (vs. the actual & true story)
new Lucy Dacus: Ankles 🎵 cleverest new music video I’ve seen in a while
I finished the book Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. it was great! read it over 28 days (as intended), and I fucking loved it. do yourself a favor 📚
I finished the book Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (tr. Christine Donougher). it was good: lots of in-depth historical & cultural essays mixed in (kind of like Moby Dick), but a beautiful narrative with plenty of great moments 📚
caught up on the falling out between @manton & the omg.lol guy. I understand the zero-tolerance feelings of the latter, but it’s too easy to go too far in pursuit of perfect purity, and it’s a misdirection of energy regardless. I’ve only met Manton a couple of times in person, but once was when he happened to canvass my house for Beto O’Rourke. he’s a good guy who lives his values, & I respect the way he conducts himself
new (to me) band, via The Guardian: Lambrini Girls. 🎵from their Bandcamp page:
Imagine your nan is in the boot of your car with a croissant in her mouth and hears bikini kill for the first time. That could be you. It will never be us as we are not bikini kill and we are not your nan. We are Lambrini Girls. Bon appetite xoxox
The Jesus and Mary Chain, Darklands (brought to you, some years ago, by some librarian at the Huber Heights, Ohio public library who stocked this LP) 🎵
birthday cheers, big brother 🍻
a stray line from a George Packer essay in the latest Atlantic (on Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain) perfectly sums up how I think of what happened on Nov. 5 (emphasis mine):
We live in an age of human self-contempt. We're hardly surprised when our leaders debase themselves with vile behavior and lies… when free people humiliate themselves under the spell of a megalomaniacal fraud.
the exodus (X-odus?) continues: Why the Guardian is no longer posting on X
we will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X (formerly Twitter). We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives … The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.
to America: congratu-fucking-lations, you dumb sons of bitches to the world: sorry; a lot of us did what we could
our neighbor’s sign, blown down by natural forces and facedown in the dirt - just as I hope that campaign ends up a week from now 🇺🇸🗳️🙏
via the latest newsletter from author Elif Batuman (this edition provocatively titled, “On Being Butthurt”), announcement of a Harris-Walz fundraising Zoom featuring a pretty darn impressive array of authors 📚🇺🇸