March 30
improvised and experimental, without pre-existent theories of any kind
An international regime being lowered into the ground, or rising anew like Lazarus? Perry Anderson (previously) ponders what happens next with neoliberalism.
Richard Chamberlain of ‘Dr. Kildare,’ ‘Shogun’ dies
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson, Barney Kessel, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen: "Boogie Blues Study", Ronnie Scott's, London, 1974
Ceasefire groundhog day
Hamas agrees to a ceasefire proposal from Egypt and Qatar, and Israel provides a counter-proposal with full backing from the US. Meanwhile Israel continues to attack Gaza north to south as Palestinians mark Eid-al-Fitr. As of 3/29, Israel killed 24 people in Gaza, medical sources say. Israel admits to firing at ambulances after Palestinians say rescuers missing in Rafah. DropSiteNews reports that six rescuers went to help the wounded went missing and the team leader's body was found, and their vehicles destroyed. An Israeli soldier admits to CBS News he was ordered to use Palestinians as human shields in Gaza. [more inside]
“What you see is based on your own expectations and biases.”
I can’t precisely date this memory, but I was somewhere around the age of 13 when I became unable to tolerate the sound of other people’s mouths. In a world in which everyone eats, my day to day became an obstacle course. I learned to contract the tensor tympani muscle in my middle ear to dampen sounds. In moments of silence, I was sensitive enough that even the subtle parting of lips could trigger in me the urge to flee. There wasn’t logic to what I felt. I knew that. It changed nothing. In my worst moments I started fights, especially with my family, among whom the condition, whatever it was, felt orders of magnitude more severe. from The Unbearable Loudness of Chewing [Asterisk]
March 29
Hello Mister Chips
Giant sunfish washes up on WA's southern coast
Giant sunfish washes up on WA's southern coast. Rarely found in the Southern Ocean, a 2.5-metre sunfish washed up on Western Australia's Lowlands Beach between Denmark and Albany could be a sign of a warm current moving south, a marine ecologist says.
Auroral Sounds
There is folklore about the sounds of auroras, but auroras occur about 80-100km above the surface of the earth, too high for any sound to reach the ground. Finnish Aalto University Professor Unto K. Laine has determined that there are auroral sounds, but their source is only 70m above the ground. His paper: Sound producing mechanism in the temperature inversion layer and its sensitivity to geomagnetic activity. [more inside]
Requeering Oscar Wilde
Ellmann saw Wilde’s shift from female to male lovers as a ‘reorientation’. I would argue that a more accurate term to describe Wilde’s sexuality was that he was bisexual. Interviewed in Marjorie Garber’s Vice Versa (1995), the academic Jonathan Dollimore reflected similarly: ‘My feeling about Oscar Wilde is that he was certainly bisexual, and there is a sense in which I do deplore that representation of Wilde as living entirely in bad faith in relation to his wife.’ However, gay theorists have resisted this more complex and nuanced examination of Wilde’s sexuality. Take these words from the queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, interviewed in Outweek magazine in 1991: ‘I’m not sure that because there are people who identify as bisexual there is a bisexual identity …’ The interviewer goes on to summarise that: ‘In questioning whether bisexuality is a potent identity, Sedgwick points to historical figures the gay and lesbian community claims as lesbian and gay (Cole Porter, Eleanor Roosevelt, Virginia Woolf, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde) – who would actually be classified as bisexual,’ to which Sedgwick concludes: ‘But the gay and lesbian movement isn’t interested in drawing that line.’
It happens one night. Sooner than you imagined it would.
“Is there another part of the bar I don’t know about—a V.I.P. section?” you ask, hearing your sadly engrained millennial thirst for hierarchy and ostracism.
“Oh, yes,” he replies. “Your party is right this way.” from The Millennial Exit [The New Yorker; ungated] by Laura Steinel
Wes Montgomery
"Blues drenched and rhythmically compelling, Wes Montgomery’s approach has attracted me ever since I first heard The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery in 1960. Using his right thumb rather than a pick, he generated a unique sound and almost always employed octaves in his solos. He also incorporated harmonic modifications that beautifully complemented his conception." - Noal Cohen [more inside]
making room to talk about antisemitism
[Original post removed at poster's request. Topic was: https://forward.com/culture/707599/bintel-brief-advice-antisemitism-gaza-war-israel/Advice column "A Bintel Brief" responds to a Jewish student worried about antisemitism and anti-Zionism on campus] [more inside]
Least I Have You, CocoRosie!
CocoRosie have released their 8th studio album, Little Death Wishes Comprised of sisters Sierra Rose "Rosie" and Bianca Leilani "Coco" Casady, their music is a heady mix of lo-fi avant-pop, freak folk and hip-hop with an often strident political, radical feminist messaging. [more inside]
Joan Didion, unsurprisingly, took a lot of notes
This extraordinary little looseleaf binder — undated, though one page makes reference to 1965 — may be among the the most revealing items in the collection. It’s a (seemingly but not really) random collection of quotes, thoughts, observations, and other bits of prose, mostly likely just Didion’s “I might want to use this” file. (They’re mostly typewritten, though one bears the handwritten addition “what am I saying here.”) Mann remarked to me that it’s a lot like the “commonplace books” that many 19th- and early 20th-century authors kept. from A First Look Into the Joan Didion Archives [Vulture; ungated]
March 28
The Encampments
The trailer for the Encampments - a documentary produced by Watermelon Pictures and Breakthrough News, following student organizers at elite universities as they take a historic stand against their institutions' investments in the Gaza genocide. The documentary features currently detained activist Mahmoud Khalil, who is currently facing deportation. Hip hop star Macklemore is executive producer, and he explains to Democracy Now! why he got involved. They also spoke with Atalla; Sueda Polat, a Columbia graduate student and fellow campus negotiator with Khalil; and Grant Miner, a former Columbia graduate student and president of the student workers' union who was expelled from the school over his participation in the protests. [more inside]
Sharks recorded making sounds underwater
"Like electric sparks": Sharks recorded making sounds underwater. Sharks were thought to be silent, but scientists have recorded a New Zealand species making a clicking noise.
Werner Herzog's "God's Angry Man"
God's Angry Man is a 1981 documentary film directed by Werner Herzog about Gene Scott, a U.S. pastor and Stanford PhD who served for almost fifty years as an ordained minister and religious broadcaster in Los Angeles.*
tv.garden
What radio.garden did for radio, tv.garden is doing for... yes, tv. That is: Freely stream live tv stations from around the world!
The First Female Anglo-Saxonist
"Elizabeth Elstob left behind no family and few mourners, just some rooms full of ‘books and dirtiness’, as one visitor described them. Yet Elizabeth was a pioneer of medieval studies in England". Article by Yvonne Seale in History Today about Elizabeth Elstob (1683-1756).
Joni and James Taylor on the Beeb
Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, on stage, October 1970, London (audio only). Recorded either at the Paris Theater or the Royal Albert Hall. Playlist and a little more info at Beehive Candy. Also available, split into two MP3 files and zipped at the Internet Archive (but their playlist is wrong). [more inside]
If the giant lobster is inedible, it doesn't count
Sarah Anne Stubbs (Nighttide, 03/28/2025), "Creatures From The Kitchen: Gastro Creature Features": "Since Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, we have been gifted ... with a variety of sentient foods ... When I wrote my essay for Creepy Bitches [Essays On Horror From Women In Horror] ... I didn’t realize how many more Gastro Creature Features were out there and how many more would be made." Stubbs's Gastro Horror: A Guide gathers up food-related horror resources, including her podcast Final Girls Feast and her Letterboxd lists (e.g. Pizza in Horror, Don't Look Behind the Refrigerator Door!, or Vineyards in Horror). Stubbs also administers the 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days challenge.
“The new definition of antisemitism serve[s] Christian nationalism”
[Original post removed at poster's request. Topic was: The Guardian: The new definition of antisemitism is transforming America – and serving a Christian nationalist plan]
"I just love music and I love this music and I love this band"
“I mean, basically what we’re doing is glorified karaoke,” Shannon says, “and karaoke is, you know, on the one hand kind of an embarrassing ridiculous thing. But on the other hand, it’s an extraordinarily beautiful, moving thing that allows anybody, literally anybody, to go up on stage and sing a song that they love and sing it with as much passion or however the hell they want to sing it.” from Michael Shannon Loves Music Like We Love Music [Bitter Southerner]
Honey, it’s Friday, let’s go out to eat tonight. Screw the budget!!!
There are 173 Michelin rated restaurants in Canada. There are 74 restaurants included in the guide for British Columbia and of course they’re all in the Vancouver area. There are 99 in Ontario and they’re all in the Golden Horseshoe. There are none in Montreal - whaaaat? [more inside]
Folding paper
One page to a booklet, no tools needed, maybe everybody already knows this. More ways of folding up paper to make a booklet, a zine, a letter, a trinket, something that's all of these: [more inside]
The movement will need more disruptive forms of pressure
Wear what you want
"I Don't Trust Anyone."
The Rush to Archive America’s Diversity Programs: A small group of queer Southern archivists are racing to preserve the records of academic DEI programs and LBGTQ-related research as the Trump administration moves to destroy them. [more inside]
inside the mind of your ai pal
'The AI firm Anthropic has developed a way to peer inside a large language model and watch what it does as it comes up with a response, revealing key new insights into how the technology works. The takeaway: LLMs are even stranger than we thought. The Anthropic team was surprised by some of the counterintuitive workarounds that large language models appear to use to complete sentences, solve simple math problems, suppress hallucinations, and more.' Anthropic can now track the bizarre inner workings of a large language model (MIT Review). [more inside]
There's a reason they only let us see him speaking in German
Read, Memory
For years, William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience has sat on my bookshelf reproaching me for my laziness and ignorance. It was one of a handful of “great books” in my modest library that I hadn’t yet got around to reading. Few people dispute the notion that Varieties is a hugely significant book, by one of America’s greatest thinkers, on a vitally important subject. No more excuses, then. The time had come to enlighten myself. So, a few weeks ago, I pulled out my copy, blew off the dust, opened it, and was met with the horrifying sight of my own handwriting. At the end of each chapter, I had scribbled detailed, hideously pedantic notes summarizing James’s arguments. In fact, I had read The Varieties of Religious Experience. And hadn’t remembered a word of it. from The Patron Saint of Forgetting [The Hedgehog Review]
March 27
Bill Evans - Sunday at the Village Vanguard
"Sunday at the Village Vanguard is a live album by jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans and his Trio consisting of Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Paul Motian. Released in 1961, the album is routinely ranked as one of the best live jazz recordings of all time." * [more inside]
Post-Modern Conservatism
AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism The right loves AI-generated imagery. In a short time, a full half of the political spectrum has collectively fallen for the glossy, disturbing visuals created by generative AI. Despite its proponents having little love, or talent, for any form of artistic expression, right wing visual culture once ranged from memorable election-year posters to ‘terrorwave’. Today it is slop, almost totally. Why? To understand it, we must consider the right’s hatred of working people, its (more than) mutual embrace of the tech industry and, primarily, its profound rejection of Enlightenment humanism. The last might seem like a stretch, but bear with me...
Fall armyworm was unstoppable. Then it came to Australia
Fall armyworm was unstoppable. Then it came to Australia. The insect said to threaten the food security of 600 million people globally may have met its match in the form of several native Australian fungi and bacteria. New biological control methods targeting fall armyworm have been found by Queensland's DPI and the CSIRO after years of research. The naturally-occurring biocontrols act better than insecticides with some killing the pest within 24 hours.
Max the Vax
Jitsuvax gives the 11 main psychological reasons (so-called attitude roots) why people believe in misinformation about vaccination. It guides you on what to say when confronted with misconceptions. You will find examples of responses to over 60 misinformation themes.
Back to the Vax is a website started by two former anti-vax moms. Their free information booklet. [more inside]
Trans Life In Trump's America.
Survey shows trans adults fear losing health care, concerned about being too open about their gender-identity. Which, considering current federal policies, is probably a rational fear. [more inside]
Siren call
' “It’s a monster from folklore!” The voice from the forest that calls out for help, or that sings a song that’s seductive and sweet? But don’t you go there… Yes, if sparrows could talk, the shrike would be their Dracula, their Grendel. ' [more inside]
Weeping at bees
The wildness also made me sentimental. Or: in need of something, and it showed. I didn’t know the drink the person in front me had at the Café Allegro. A new astringent concoction, espresso, seltzer, ice, tinctures, cream. I felt a surge of wild gratitude, to be alive in this year, after everything, to have survived to see this. I think she understood. “You have to try it, it’s addicting,” she said. from “A Field of Telephones” by Zach Savich [Cleveland Review of Books]
Nirvanna The Band The Show (The Movie?) The Post
Start here, because everyone knows about the Wii Shopping Channel, and everyone loves to shop on it every Wednesday. [more inside]
Another Student Abducted
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University PhD student and Fulbright Scholar, was taken by ICE agents Tuesday and transferred out of state to an ICE Processing Center in the town of Basile, LA. Thousands turned out last night to protest her abduction. [more inside]
Lectio bible design blog
You like design blogs? You like the word of God? (Allegedly.) Have I got something for you.
Ibogaine: The Last Trip?
Spooky
Spooky the OG.
Spooky is originally an instrumental song performed by saxophonist Mike Sharpe (Shapiro), written by Shapiro and Harry Middlebrooks Jr, which first charted in 1967 hitting No. 57 on the US pop charts and No. 55 on the Canadian charts. Its best-known version was created by James Cobb and producer Buddy Buie for the group Classics IV when they added lyrics about a "spooky little girl". [more inside]
Not rose tinted
In 17th century Mughal India a unique set of spectacles were crafted from an approximately 200 carat diamond. Named the Halqeh-e Nur, or Halo of Light, the now 25 carat lenses are flat and set in a frame that is set with multiple rose cut diamonds. Another set of spectacles, Astaneh-e ferdaws, meaning "Gate of Paradise", was made with slices of an emerald instead of diamonds. With an estimated value of about $2 million to $3.4 million per pair the spectacles are currently in a private collection.
Life on Mars
Because much of this book hinges on the idea that there is no urgent need to settle space, here we'll try to convince you that most of the pro-settlement arguments are wrong. [more inside]
“I contrast. It's cool.”
Kylie Minogue announces “I am a typeface” in a 1997 song she made with producer Towa Tei. As this lyric suggests, the techno-pop track in question, “GBI (German Bold Italic)”, is delivered from the perspective of a font. Minogue’s breathy, almost robotic vocals bring the absurdist premise to life, reciting declarations of design compatibility over a minimalist reverb-drenched beat. from Whitney Mallett on When Kylie Minogue Was a Font [Dinamo]
March 26
New Volcanic Eruption at Kilauea, Hawaii
Live view of the eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu, from the northwest rim of the caldera, looking east [V1cam] [more inside]
Well sometimes I go out by myself
Alone and against the odds, one dachshund survives 16 months in the wild. Valerie, a miniature dachshund weighing in under 4kg slipped the leash to go rogue on Kangaroo Island. Now she survives as a force of nature, a maverick, possibly an eater of other animal's poo.
The prehistory of QWERTY and that myth debunked
Most of us have heard how the QWERTY keyboard layout was devised to slow down typists so that early typewriters didn't jam if the typist was too fast. A Japanese paper exploring the evolution of the modern keyboard argues that this was not the case. The original use was in telegraphy and is nonsensical that a Morse receiver should be slowed down so as to be less able to keep up with the sender. [more inside]