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 📚🇺🇸
hey, nice date today. 10/10, no notes
a frankly staggering number of songs from a lot of excellent artists, all proceeds to flood relief in western North Carolina: Cardinals at the Window. $10 (or more) 🎵
I found this entirely inspirational (and the brilliant slogan didn’t hurt): ‘Because secondhand is feckin’ grand’: how clothes swapping became huge in Ireland
his ability to say this kind of thing is just absolutely mind-blowing to me:
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country and they are the ones that are destroying the country – both from the inside and out,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
“These are people that want to destroy our country,” he added. “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”
best spice shop page I’ve ever read: Penzeys
From the environment, to racism, to health, to saving our democracy at home & growing it abroad, half the time Republicans are intentionally blocking the solution to the problems we face. The other half of the time they are the problem we face.
Ken Paxton, doing the nasty, anti-democratic thug work that Republicans feel they must do to maintain power: suing to stop voter registration drives
Friday Night Video: Howard Jones, Hide & Seek 🎵
I’d love The Guardian even if it weren’t, but sometimes its extreme Britishness just makes me happy
Baldwin added that [RJK Jr.’s] entire run “was a Hail Mary” – a phrase often used to describe a pass thrown in desperation but with little chance of success in the game of American football.
I finished the book Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. it was great! this book threw me in at the deep end, but was worth learning to swim in. gripping and fun 📚
I finished the movie Her. It was good. interesting sci-fi from a decade ago. it’s extra weird to me now that a real AI company would want to use that voice 🎬
a friend convinced me to subscribe to Peacock for the Olympics & it’s been great. we don’t have to settle for whatever NBC decides to show (or interrupt, or switch away from, etc.). we can put on, say, track & field replays, & off it goes 📺 (& hell yes I paid for commercial-free)
we’ve started posting weekly images of Mary’s artwork to her website. you can follow @maryg (on Micro.blog), or use RSS, or subscribe to get emails (also weekly). we want to share her work with everyone, so you’re invited regardless of whether or how well you knew her 🎨
Movement Voter Project puts up a call for help:
we need to invest at the same level we did in 2020… or at a higher level because everything costs more… while polling & enthusiasm is much worse
MVP builds local orgs for the long run, regardless of this year’s candidates. you can help 🇺🇸
new post: What International Football’s Like, in which a masterfully charming simile is deployed (by a professional English sportswriter, and then block-quoted by me) ⚽️
Heard this in the latest episode of The Guardian‘s Today in Focus podcast (which is consistently excellent, by the way) and loved it so much I transcribed it. Is it 2026 yet?
Hannah Moore (presenter):
Would you have expected [England] to have done better than that [in Group C]? Should they have been more exciting in the group stage?
Barney Ronay (The Guardian‘s chief sports writer):
Well, maybe? But international football’s often like that. I think we’re slightly spoiled by the club game where you see these intensely regulated teams, the amount of briefing and data that these players absorb, they understand every situation they find themselves in.
And international football’s not like that, it’s about feelings. It’s about the emotion of the occasion. It probably doesn’t translate well to television. I have to say, in the stadium, the games here have felt really exciting. They’ve been huge events.
Because international football is basically like Christmas, it’s this kind of disorderly meal, and probably isn’t cooked that well. But it has a great kind of pageantry around it. And you could probably pick it apart, and say: “this turkey’s really dry,” and, “why aren’t the potatoes crispier?” But, you know, someone’s singing a song, and Grandma’s got a hat on, and the dog’s just pushed over the tree. That’s what international football is, so it’s this emotional thing.
That’s from about 11 minutes and 30 seconds in to the episode Euro 2024: is it coming home?. A little rambling (see above), but in a good way.
new project from Molly White: Follow the Crypto; nice intro & explanation in her latest newsletter:
Did you know that the cryptocurrency industry has spent more on 2024 elections in the United States than the oil industry? More than the pharmaceutical industry?
happy first of the month, when we all switch our single AirPod usage from one ear to the other to keep the battery wear even. July is an odd-numbered month so as we all know that means it’s Left’s turn again
Saturday night video: Do It With a Rockstar, by Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra 🎵 🌈
I love this, from Wikipedia: Well he would, wouldn’t he?, “referred to as Mandy Rice-Davies Applies (MRDA)”
[asked during the trial] whether she was aware that Lord Astor had denied having an affair with her; Rice-Davies replied “Well he would, wouldn’t he?”
I really like this idea from Cal Newport that social media is ultra-processed content, analogous to ultra-processed food:
the users of social media platforms simulate something like the food scientist’s ability to break down corn and reconstitute it into hyper-palatable edible food-like substances
Mike Masnick argues that social media can’t be inherently harmful, saying, “The complaints here are with speech.” but while Doritos & Pepsi are (technically) food, that doesn’t mean they’re good for you
AI personified in 1986: Max Headroom in Paranoimia by The Art of Noise 🎵
Poetry, that’ll work
Come, sweet slumber
Enshroud me in thy purple cloak
Hmm, doesn’t even rhyme
another day of Euros, another Ukraine game bizarrely not being shown on any of Fox’s channels. I know it’s paranoid thinking, but I can’t help wondering whether that’s a coincidence from a broadcaster that’s shown perfect willingness to cozy up to the likes of Russia in 2018 & Qatar in 2022 ⚽️
new post: 600 Words About 1,000 Words, in which said writing stunt is found to have been worthwhile (and, thankfully, behind me) 📝