cryptonaut-in-exile

Keep it Real Spooky

2026-07-09T17:41:15.270-04:00

Beyond Folk Marxism: Mind, Metaphysics, and Spooky Materialism | Salva☭e

China Miéville’s prose is a specific kind of joy: dense, academic, fascinating, and incredibly enriching. But if you're not in the mood for it and -- like me -- need to be willing to do some look-ups while reading, I can see it being off-putting. No shame ... I found myself looking up tout court, au fond, au fait as I was reading -- not to mention the actual philosophical terms. (Could he have just used the word "simply" instead of tout court? Maybe. Probably? But some measure of richness and nuance would've been lost.)

So, if you aren't eager to read Miéville's prose to begin with, why read his essay and the responses to it at all? What are the stakes here? I'm not convinced they're as high as all involved seem to think, but I was intrigued enough to do the reading anyways.

The concluding paragraphs read:

[O]ne thing is undeniable. Once you’ve argued your way out of an ontologically materialist universe, of the many varieties of metaphysical idealism on offer, theism is probably not the most unlikely.
Of course, it also raises its own manifold problems, not least that of theodicy – evil. But of all Richard’s ‘alarming things’ perhaps the most so is that theism also, in fact, solves an awful lot of problems ...

are you going to figure if that's where all this is going, why bother? Because theism is a dead-end and no amount of poking at materialist, dualist, and idealist answers to questions about what consciousness even is are going lead us to appeal to the divine. Asserted undeniability of theism's greater than least unlikeliness notwithstanding.

My hot take: Miéville isn't trying to sneak spirituality or a "ghost in the machine" back into left-wing thought -- but I do think he's being a bit of a provocateur and deliberately inviting speculation that this feint towards theism is a precursor to a reactionary turn. What I haven't got a bead on is how that move advances his diagnosing of a profound theoretical failure that directly leads to deep political frustrations.

I was looking for Miéville while dismantling the watery weak emergence metaphor as sufficient basis for understanding consciousness to theorize some kind Weird Emergence strong enough give Marxists an actionable understanding of consciousness. Not a project I'm capable of taking on. Just a blogger here who took some 100s and 200s level philosophy classes decades ago. Fluss and Frim have an informed, thoughtful response that advances the discussion in ways I'm not equipped to, so I recommend taking in both sides of the exchange of ideas as well as Breht and Alyson's discussion on Rev Left / Red Menace. (Finding the youtube link for this post and letting it start playing, I realize what I called "my hot take," may actually have been implanted by Alyson in her prefatory remarks when I first listened and decided to check out the essay. Ah well, everything's a remix anyways.)

Doctorow's Nuremberg Caucus Makes Sense to Me

2026-06-29T14:40:15.687-04:00

Pluralistic: The Nuremberg Caucus

The Nuremberg Caucus could vow to repurpose ICE's $75b budget to pursue Trump's crimes, from corruption to civil rights violations to labor violations to environmental violations. It could announce its intent to fully fund the FTC and DoJ Antitrust Division to undertake scrutiny of all mergers approved under Trump, and put corporations on notice that they should expect lengthy, probing inquiries into any mergers they undertake between now and the fall of Trumpism. Who knows, perhaps some shareholders will demand that management hold off on mergers in anticipation of this lookback scrutiny, and if not, perhaps they will sue executives after the FTC and DoJ go to work.
While they're at it, the Nuremberg Caucus could publish a plan to hire thousands of IRS agents (paid for by taxing billionaires and zeroing out ICE's budget) who will focus exclusively on the ultra-wealthy and especially any supernormal wealth gains coinciding with the second Trump presidency.
Money talks. ICE agents are signing up with the promise of $50k hiring bonuses and $60k in student debt cancellation. That's peanuts. The Nuremberg Caucus could announce a Crimestoppers-style program with $1m bounties for any ICE officer who a) is themselves innocent of any human rights violations, and; b) provides evidence leading to the conviction of another ICE officer for committing human rights violations.

Who will be the first elected Democrat to even acknowledge Mr. Doctorow's proposal?

Back to the Wilderness

2026-06-15T14:10:47.120-04:00

About five years ago, I expressed my reservations about RTD returning to run DW.

There were moments I really enjoyed in RTD's second run, and every so often I saw reason to hope the show might find its footing, but those moments were far too few. The moments where I cringed and groaned far outnumbered them. So much wasted talent and potential there.

When it comes back -- and I trust it will someday -- I hope the trans-inclusion, and all the wokeness the reactionary faction of fandom railed against comes back with it. There was a wholesomeness to the series that I truly loved. And yet, if you ever say to me, "there's a twist at the end" of something I may faint dead away. I blame RTD for the structural mess, the misuse of old baddies, the dead-ends and thudding disappointments, and I think my instinct that this would not end well was well-founded.

And five years later, I see that JMS is still lobbying for a crack at it. I feel like I did five years ago about that, only more so. I want to see someone new take the show in a new direction. Could JMS do that? Maybe? It would definitely mollify some faction of fandom, and I think at least in terms of crafting a story JMS could not make as much of a hash of it as RTD did, but I don't know that I could muster up any excitement to see what he brings to the Whoniverse. As much as I loved the Moffat era, I don't want more of that either. I've seen JMS make great TV and write brilliantly. But -- I've already seen it. Paradoxically, I don't want something I've already seen, though I'm about to argue I actually do; I want to see the show go somewhere new that reminds me why I loved the classic series, and why I loved the new series, too, without getting bogged down in the past.

TV has changed so much, I'm just not sure what I want is something there's any real market for. I miss the old pre-return format. Give me twenty episodes in a season, low-budget scrappiness, and a Doctor who walks in eternity -- while Sarah Jane clowns him. (But, don't make the old mistakes either, keep the recent eras' big-hearted inclusiveness and don't make me twist myself into terrible contortions to try to find a way to make "Talons" acceptable.)

But, just as with RTD himself, I fear there's no going back, only finding a new way forward. I want stories about a character who seeks to remedy injustices, to help the oppressed, and -- with the help of companions who are learning as they go -- works with the people who were already trying to do the right thing find the levers to pull that will win over those who seek to dominate. I want a Doctor who can help find those levers based on a long history of helping others, understanding that Marx was as important to understanding the world and our place in it as Darwin, careful study and observation, and the strength of right convictions which gives them distinctive insight.

Charlie Jane Anders has written thoughtfully about what the show should look like when it comes back and I reckon she's pretty much nailed it.

I'd say I'm sorry to see Doctor Who end again, but I don't know that I was very sorry to see it end the first time around either. Then, as now, it had become almost unwatchable, incompetently produced television that needed a shut down and restart to clear the cache.

Doomscrolling

2022-05-03T10:06:00.003-04:00

Alito's majority opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade leaks

As we’ve warned, SCOTUS isn’t just coming for abortion - they’re coming for the right to privacy Roe rests on, which includes gay marriage + civil rights.

Manchin is blocking Congress codifying Roe. House has seemingly forgotten about Clarence Thomas. These 2 points must change https://t.co/5Isec0osV0
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 3, 2022

The scenario that opens Ministry for the Future inches closer to reality

Watching vote suppression intersect with the inception of a proto-Gestapo

All the ways the media salts the earth to facilitate the roll out of even more repressive state apparatus

For people casually consuming "the news," here is a thread asking some basic questions about how reporters, editors, and news outlets determine which stories to tell and which stories to ignore. Those decisions shape what society treats as urgent. https://t.co/5VGRHIje82
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) April 28, 2022

Rest in Power Mark

2022-04-11T16:36:00.001-04:00

Mark Desrosiers Obituary | Star Tribune

He was "very kind, compassionate, and he cared deeply for equality for all," said one U of M Libraries co-worker. Others described him as a "great advocate for students," and someone who "knew how to use his voice for things that mattered." Said another: "I will miss his sense of humor and the care and concern he had for everyone. He was a huge advocate and not afraid to fight the good fight, even if it caused a bit of conflict."

" ... [E]ven if it caused a bit of conflict." I chuckled through tears at that bit. Mark could get under your skin, for sure. My experience though was that when he caused conflict, when he made us gnash our teeth and take umbrage, if we sat with it for minute, it was because he was right and the brutal self-examination required to see that he was right hurt. And, if we blamed him for that hurt, he was big-hearted enough to take the blame and love us anyways. (Look, I'm not saying it was necessarily always that way, but even once was enough to make it so that when a position he took on something came with arguments like cutting barbs, even if it wasn't readily apparent, one grudgingly gave him the benefit of the doubt expecting he might be right in a way we just weren't ready to see yet.)

Mark was hard to keep up with. Not the least when trying to go shot-for-shot with him. Know some history? I don't know if there was a single topic I wouldn't have had to read, and re-read, volumes on to be prepared to argue with him about. He wasn't merely one of these trivia memorizers with a trove of names, dates, and data points filed away to no purpose other than the ability to put someone else in their place, though he certainly had that sort of knowledge, but it was all in service of a defiant worldview encompassing a fierce insistence on justice for the downtrodden.

Know your music and pop culture pretty well? There's a better than fair chance Mark knew more by and about your favorite band than you ever did and could place their music in a context that, by introducing you to the work of other artists that presaged it, or contemporaneously exceeded it, blow your mind open. For me, it's The Fall -- the manifestation of Mark E. Smith's demons -- that he taught me to appreciate; breaking through the relatively narrow band of musical styles I could take in and groove on before my head was expanded.

Think you know about the Supreme Court? Well, let me tell you Mark could school you about the biographies of the justices and critique their jurisprudence as well as -- or even more effectively than -- a professor of the philosophy of law could, in my experience.

There's a litany of topics I could plug into the, "You think you know about x? Well, let me tell you Mark would ..." format and we'd still not have talked about how his dancing would make you laugh and also want to dance shamelessly yourself. That may not be the most important thing ... but it was a thing ... and perhaps weirdly it mattered a lot to me.

We grew up in different neighborhoods, didn't meet until high school, didn't become close friends until college, but there the fact we were both bookish, nerdy, obsessives cynical about the world in general in a way probably common to kids raised, if not poor, then close to it, in a certain type of family common to unspectacular suburbs of lesser cities in the hardscrabble 1970s probably made our friendship all but inevitable, despite some incompatibilities and points of contention. We were shaped in different ways by our parents' experience of the 1960s culture wars and our own coming of age during the Reagan years, the way everyone's experience is different and plays out on different bundle of neuroses and insecurities, I reckon. For both better and worse those experiences helped us bond once on campus, then off-campus, and for many years of being housemates after college.

Frankly, I doubt I helped sharpen Mark's analytical framework the way he helped me dodge any number ideological holes I might have fallen down, nor that I was able to help him find those almost spiritual experiences of art he helped me discover. (I think he respected my appreciation of Yo La Tengo more than he shared it, and was happy to let me go on about Kim Stanley Robinson novels and stories so he didn't have to pay them as much mind.) But we went to a bunch of great shows, did a lot of drinking and talking and talking and drinking, and while we went down some negative spirals together I'm sure I'm better for all of it in the end.

It breaks my heart that I let so much time pass since the last time time we talked. I can't believe he's gone so soon and that we'll never have another drink together, work on a mixtape, discuss what we're reading, or just reminisce. But we were Hornets, Highflowns, and Cryptonauts once upon a time and that'll have to be enough.

Yo La Tengo - Hanukkah 2021

2021-12-07T19:33:00.000-05:00

While I don't have a formal "bucket list," if I did, attending the annual run of Yo La Tengo Hanukkah shows would certainly have been near the top of it. That box is ticked! It was amazing. (A bit of an endurance test for this old, tender-footed man ... but well worth the barking dogs.)

Consciously decided to not try to over-document the experience, so just one video snip from Night Two captured and no photos (apart from one of the last night's poster) but there are ones probably better than any I would've taken in the BrooklynVegan and jambands posts I'll be linking below.

First Night:

Whatever trepidation I felt about having to navigate the subway to get to the venue dissipated as the whole process of getting from JFK to my lodgings, to Neilalien HQ, then to the Bowery Ballroom, and finally making way back to the room went as smooth as could be hoped. Walking for miles during the day to take in the atmosphere of Brooklyn was not my smartest idea though.

This was my first time in a very crowded setting since the pandemic started and, as Ira acknowledged from the stage, it was both exciting and somewhat terrifying to be in that milieu. Over the course of the week we'd be hearing more and more about the Omicron variant emerging so the crowd's almost universal compliance with the plea to wear a mask was comforting. As was the vaccination card check at the door.

Opening night was a terrific start to the week. Enjoyed Amy Rigby well enough (in retrospect, my reaction when describing her set the next day was more along the lines of, "Meh"), David Sedaris was funny, and Yo La Tengo delivered an outstanding set. I wasn't familiar with Steve Gunn but came away a fan of his jamming with Ira.

Jambands write-up

BrooklynVegan write-up

SETLIST: Yo La Tengo @ Bowery Ballroom 11/28/2021 (Hanukkah Night 1)

Back in the New York Groove (KISS) (sung “Back With the New York Jews”)

Today Is The Day (fast)

For You Too

Let’s Do It Wrong (acoustic)

Serpentine

Shadows (with CJ Camerieri on French horn & trumpet)

Beanbag Chair (with CJC)

Eight Candles (Sam Elwitt) (with CJC & Kevin Micka on drums)

Walking Away From You (with CJC)

1-2-3 (Len Barry) (with CJC)

Before We Run (with CJC)

Sudden Organ

Artificial Heart

Decora

I Heard You Looking (with Steve Gunn on guitar)

*(encore)*

At the Well (Last Roundup) (with CJC & Amy Rigby on guitar/vocals)

She’s My Best Friend (Velvet Underground)

It’s All Right (The Way That You Live) (Velvet Underground)

I Heard Her Call My Name (Velvet Underground)

Always and Forever (Heatwave) (with DJ Time Traveler on vocals)

[If reposting, kindly credit Frank & Earthy: http://www.jessejarnow.com/category/ylt / @bourgwick ]

Second Night:

I don't recall what my shortest turnaround between attending Yo La Tengo shows was prior to this week, but it was definitely a heck of a lot longer than 24 hours. Was delighted to find upon arriving that Sun Ra would be opening. Hadn't seen them since a Central Park summer series concert some time in the 90s. Still wild. And you know "Nuclear War" is going to get played at some point in the night so there's that to look forward to.

BrooklynVegan write-up

SETLIST: Yo La Tengo @ Bowery Ballroom 11/29/2021 (Hanukkah Night 2)

Stupid Things

Ashes

Awhileaway

Tiny Birds

Madeline

Paul Is Dead

I Was the Fool Beside You For Too Long

86-Second Blowout

Here You Are

My Heart’s Reflection (with Sun Ra Arkestra horns)

Dreaming (Sun Ra) (with Arkestra horns)

Principal Punishes Students With Bad Impressions (Jad Fair) (with Arkestra horns)

Emulsified (Rex Garvin & the Mighty Cravers) (with Arkestra horns)

More Stars Than There Are In Heaven (boogie version) (with Arkestra horns)

Nuclear War (Sun Ra) (with Arkestra horns)

*(encore)*

This Ain’t the Summer of Love (Blue Oyster Cult) (with Todd Barry on drums)

Can’t Make It On Time (The Ramones)

TV Set (The Cramps)

Heaven Only Knows (Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich)

[If reposting, kindly credit Frank & Earthy: http://www.jessejarnow.com/category/ylt / @bourgwick ]

Third Night:

Third and Fourth Night enjoyment factor dipped a bit first half of each set as they went a little slower a little longer than I was in the mood for, but more than enough highlights to keep my spirits up. Wasn't a fan of the opening act's set, although they were great support while playing with Yo La Tengo.

Jambands write-up

Setlist: Yo La Tengo @ Bowery Ballroom 11/30/2021 (Hanukkah Night 3)

You Are Here

The Fireside

Damage

The Point Of It

Love Minus Zero/No Limit

The Ballad of Red Buckets

Shades of Blue

Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)

Satellite

Tears Are In Your Eyes (instrumental)

Shaker

She Cracked

Double Dare

Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind

Blues Stay Away From Me Entire set with Marisa Anderson and William TylerE:

The Kid With the Replaceable Head (w/ Ivan Julian on guitar/vocals)

Going, Going, Gone (w/ Ivan Julian on guitar/vocals)

Blank Generation (w/ Ivan Julian on guitar/vocals)

[If reposting, kindly credit Frank & Earthy: http://www.jessejarnow.com/category/ylt / @bourgwick ]

Fourth Night:

I was late to this one, missed the opening act and comedian but caught all of YLT.

BrooklynVegan write-up

SETLIST: YO LA TENGO @ BOWERY BALLROOM 12/1/2021

Out of the Pool

Little Eyes

One PM Again (without YH)

Can’t Forget (without YH)

Lewis (without YH)

Tears Are In Your Eyes

The Race Is On Again (without YH)

Above the Sound

I Found A Reason w/ John Cameron Mitchell(Velvet Underground)

Waves of Fear w/ John Cameron Mitchell (Lou Reed)

Clumsy Grandmother Serves Delicious Desert By Mistake (Jad Fair)

Out the Window

Styles of the Times

Tom Courtenay

Little Honda (The Hondells)

*(encore)*

Wasn’t Born To Follow (Carole King/Gerry Goffin)

Cool Metro (David Johanson/Syl Sylvain)

Hanky Panky Nohow (John Cale) (without YH & NC)

[If reposting, kindly credit Frank & Earthy: http://www.jessejarnow.com/category/ylt / @bourgwick ]

Fifth Night:

Well, all I can say is I was trying to do pain management, I knew I couldn't do another full night on my feet so arrived during Low's set and sat out Fred Armisen downstairs just listening.

BrooklynVegan write-up

SETLIST: YO LA TENGO @ BOWERY BALLROOM 12/2/2021 (HANUKKAH NIGHT 5)

Surfin’ With the Shah (The Urinals)

Five-Cornered Drone (Crispy Duck)

Forever

Detouring America With Horns

Center of Gravity

Black Flowers

Fog Over Frisco

Don’t Have To Be So Sad

Nowhere Near

Baby Strange (T-Rex)

I Should Have Known Better

Big Day Coming (fast version)

Sugarcube

Ohm

The Story of Yo La Tango

*(encore)*

Sorrow (The McCoys)

Orange Song (Antietam) (with Tara Key on guitar/vocals)

(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais (The Clash) (FA on guitar/vocals, Joe Puleo on harmonica)

I Am, I Said (Neil Diamond) (with Alan Sparhawk & Mimi Parker of Low on guitar/vocals)

Keep It Warm (Flo & Eddie) (with AS & MP)

[If reposting, kindly credit Frank & Earthy: http://www.jessejarnow.com/category/ylt / @bourgwick ]

Sixth Night:

Best night to this point thanks to context of hot pot dinner with friends at 99 Favor and having one of them join me for the first time in the run. My buddy and I struggled with the opening act but, mercifully, they were more enjoyable when they played with YLT during the main set. This was the night I splurged on merch grabbing the soup can t-shirt and Ira's mix tape.

BrooklynVegan write-up

SETLIST: Yo La Tengo @ Bowery Ballroom 12/3/2021 (Hanukkah Night 6)

Cherry Chapstick

Nothing To Hide

She May, She Might

Ack Ack Ack Ack (The Urinals)

She May, She Might

Pablo and Andrea

Have You Seen My Baby (Randy Newman)

Tired Hippo

I’m On My Way

I’ll Be Around

As the Hour Grows Late (with Jaimie Branch/trumpet, Jason Ajemian/bass, Lester St. Louis/cello)

Let’s Be Still (with JB/JA/LSL)

The Summer (with JB/JA/LSL)

Moby Octopad (with JB/JA/LSL)

Right Side of My Mind (Angry Samoans)

From A Motel 6

Mushroom Cloud of Hiss

*(encore)* with the Dream Syndicate

Definitely Clean (Dream Syndicate)

Too Little, Too Late (Dream Syndicate) (without Ira & James)

Hero Takes A Fall (The Bangles)

Some Kinda Itch (Dream Syndicate)

Tell Me When It’s Over (Dream Syndicate)

[If reposting, kindly credit Frank & Earthy: http://www.jessejarnow.com/category/ylt / @bourgwick ]

Seventh Night:

Natural Information Society were punishing. Show was great once done with them. Figures this was the night I had a group of friends with me and wanted them to have the best experience possible. Oh well, rest of the show was great at least. Jon Langford and Sally Timms were the rumored possible guests I was most hoping to see; even in my debilitated barely able to stand condition I hopped up and down and hooted when they came out. One could quibble with Ira about setlist & doubling down on Dan Dare – Out of Space (It’s A Really Nice Place) rather than hitting some other Mekons or Timms classic but that's just nitpicking, I suppose.

SETLIST: Yo La Tengo @ Bowery Ballroom 12/4/2021 (Hanukkah Night 7)

Green Arrow (with Natural Information Society)

I Can’t Stand It (Velvet Underground)

Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House

Mr. Tough

Did I Tell You

Is That Enough

Swing For Life (with Natural Information Society)

The Last Days of Disco (with Natural Information Society)

The Room Got Heavy (with Natural Information Society)

False Alarm

Too Animalistic (Angry Samoans) (with Dutch Worthington)

Drug Test

Upside Down

We’re An American Band

Blue Ling Swinger

*(encore)*

I Threw It All Away (Bob Dylan)

I Don’t Care (The Ramones) (with Jon Langford & Sally Timms)

Dan Dare – Out of Space (It’s A Really Nice Place) (The Mekons) (with JL & ST)

Keep on Hoppin’ (The Mekons) (with JL & ST)

Dan Dare – Out of Space (It’s A Really Nice Place) (The Mekons) [take 2] (with JL & ST)

[If reposting, kindly credit Frank & Earthy: http://www.jessejarnow.com/category/ylt / @bourgwick ]

Eighth Night:

Final night. Eleventh Dream Day opened and Joe Pera was hilarious. (Started checking out his show on Adult Swim after getting home. It's not exactly what I expected based on this act but it's growing on me.) This may have been the strongest YLT set of the run? I don't want to get in the business of ranking them, and the night with Sugar Cube and Ohm might have been the pinnacle, but I was riding so high and had such a great time, the fact it was coming to an end had me trying to really soak it in as much as possible.

BrooklynVegan write-up

SETLIST: Yo La Tengo @ Bowery Ballroom 12/5/2021 (Hanukkah Night 8)

From Me To You (The Beatles, sung as “From Me to Jews”)

Today Is The Day (slow version) (with Janet Beveridge Bean/drums, Mark Greenberg/keyboards, James Elkington/guitar, Doug McCombs/bass)

Stockholm Sydrome (with Rick Rizzo/guitar, JBB, MG, DM)

The Crying of Lot G (with JE, DM, JBB, MG)

Avalon or Someone Similar (with RR, JBB, MG, DM)

Season of the Shark (with JE, JBB)

Two Trains (with JE, JBB, DM)

When It’s Dark (with JE, JBB, DM, MG)

Goin’ Back (Carole King & Gerry Goffin) (with JE, RR, JBB, MG)

Group Grope (The Fugs) (with JE, RR, JBB, MG, DM)

Some Kinda Fatigue (with RR, JB)

Autumn Sweater

Deeper Into Movies (with JB)

Sister Ray (with MG, RR, JB, DM)

Our Way To Fall

*(encore)*

The Whole of the Law (The Only Ones)

Dum Dum (Bush Tetras) (with Cynthia Sley and Pat Place)

Run Run Run (Velvet Underground (with CS & PP)

Too Many Creeps (Bush Tetras) (with CS & PP)

Here Comes My Baby (Cat Stevens) (with Marilyn Kaplan/vocals & Mark Luecke/whistling)

My Little Corner of the World (Bob Hilliard, Lee Pockriss) (with MK)

[If reposting, kindly credit Frank & Earthy: http://www.jessejarnow.com/category/ylt / @bourgwick ]

Wish I'd been able to start going to these Hanukkah shows years ago. Great time, great band. So glad I finally got to see what I'd only had clips and downloads of from past years. Yo La Tengo fans, it was Mecca ... you should do it once in your life if you're able.

RTD Redux

2021-09-24T19:14:00.001-04:00

Legit confused and not sure how I feel about RTD returning to Who.

Never stopped watching even though the weird pro-Amazon episode basically killed my will to keep writing about it. Jodie is great but Chibnall has been an almost entirely unmitigated disaster.

This news doesn't change the fact I was going to keep watching every new episode anyways. However, if I were going to go back and re-write my early reviews of his first run there's no avoiding the fact he ran a show where two recurring cast members were allowed to create a toxic environment that, in retrospect, probably explain why Chris Eccleston left and never looked back.

I guess the JMS campaign never really had a shot, and may not have been that great an idea anyways, but I'm curious if the BBC considered any showrunners who could've come in with a new approach -- without any baggage.

This Jobs Guarantee Policy Debate Got Me Thinking

2020-11-05T08:43:00.000-05:00

Compare and contrast with the presidential debates this past cycle. Now, imagine Biden and Trump even trying to participate in this particular debate with anything like even one useful idea.

That's blog post; what follows is a super high-level pie-in-the-sky daydreaming I don't have time right now to flesh out with supporting links or anything to tether the dream to an actionable program.

It looks, as I write this, that Biden will win the election and Trump's legal challenges are baseless, so the threat to the outcome is primarily the fascist mobs trying to prevent the counting of ballots. Assuming our broken society can follow the process we can indulge ourselves by starting to look ahead to what a Biden administration will actually do when it owns the pandemic response and economic crisis.

Knowing that the Biden response will be a disaster, I'd like to think about what I would do in his shoes. The immediate, pressing need is to stop the bleeding and address our economic woes and so the debate between Matt and Mark that heads this post, I think, is a useful starting point for deciding what big, bold policy we could be starting with straightaway. A robust unemployment benefits program is where I would start. Matt's proposal makes the most sense to me, though I appreciate some of Mark's points and may be suffering from some lingering Protestant work ethic brainwashing.

Universal basic housing, basic income, M4A, and food/water security is where I'd go from there. Free public education should be expanded from K-12 to pre-K - 16. A massive infrastructure program to phase out the fossil fuel industry and replace our energy grid with a Green alternative (Green New Deal, but better) would essentially fill the role of the JG, without being a JG, and would go hand-in-hand with a program to nationalize the utilities and the banks.

Further, a set of initiatives to modernize and democratize our government by undoing Citizens United, addressing the EC, fixing our antiquated election system, and packing the SCOTUS to make it possible to start the larger process of undoing the damage done by the GOP over the last decades also have to start immediately. Much of what needs to be done involves amending the Constitution, but a piecemeal process of patching fixing seems inadequate, so we're talking about the laying the groundwork for a new Constitutional Convention to wholesale repeal and replace.

Now these aren't goals that could be accomplished by a president alone, nor could they be done to completion in a single term. But, these are the needful things, as I see it, and every action I'd take as president would be to make progress on those fronts as the first priorities. (It goes without saying, I hope, that there's much more to be done, not the least of which is ending our wars, but also a complete overhaul of our foreign policy and addressing the legacies of American imperialism from Puerto Rico to Guam, and beyond, and reparations for slavery and the genocide of the First Nations ... )

Remain in Love

2020-08-01T10:02:00.000-04:00

Chris Frantz on Sound Opinions

Haven't listened to the Talking Heads much last several years but only because they are sort of like Squeeze, for me, in that I listened to them so much when young, I didn't really have to listen to them to hear them any longer. But listening to this episode brought back memories of borrowing and wearing out my library's VHS copy of Demme's Stop Making Sense.

Related: Remain in Love

The Final ... Frontier?

2020-07-31T10:09:00.001-04:00

OOAC on Indigenous Futurism

"Did we really say that?"

We sure did, and do. Sometimes it just takes hearing someone point something out and you realize, again, how growing up in a settler colonial state bakes in some messed up shit.

The connection this episode made for me was with Stan Robinson's Aurora, where the dark side of Roddenberry's vision of the space exploration, and how closely we need to scrutinize how that vision informs our collective ideas about, and implementation of, the space program.

The Battle of Blair Mountain

2020-07-29T09:30:00.000-04:00

cryptonaut-in-exile: History we can ill afford to forget: The Battle of Blair Mountain

Still disheartened that I learned about the Battle of Blair Mountain about 10 years ago. Not in high school, not in college. There's a new podcast on Rev Left that prompted be circle back to the post above and to accelerate re-blogging it ahead of the "ten years later" string of re-blogs I periodically engage in.

Have a mind to eventually build this post out to a page but, for now, it's a bit of a link dump to more about the largest armed insurrection in America since the Civil War.

Thunder in the Mountains

Matewan

Funny how we hear more about protecting Confederate statues than we ever did about the struggle to preserve the site of the Battle of Blair Mountain.

The Mine Wars on PBS

Things Can Get Better

2020-02-18T20:34:00.000-05:00

"Dystopias Now" by Kim Stanley Robinson | Commune

It’s crucial to keep imagining that things could get better, and furthermore to imagine how they might get better. Here no doubt one has to avoid Berlant’s “cruel optimism,” which is perhaps thinking and saying that things will get better without doing the work of imagining how. In avoiding that, it may be best to recall the Romain Rolland quote so often attributed to Gramsci, “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” Or maybe we should just give up entirely on optimism or pessimism—we have to do this work no matter how we feel about it. So by force of will or the sheer default of emergency we make ourselves have utopian thoughts and ideas. This is the necessary next step following the dystopian moment, without which dystopia is stuck at a level of political quietism that can make it just another tool of control and of things-as-they-are. The situation is bad, yes, okay, enough of that; we know that already. Dystopia has done its job, it’s old news now, perhaps it’s self-indulgence to stay stuck in that place any more. Next thought: utopia. Realistic or not, and perhaps especially if not.

I'll be surprised if I haven't linked this previously, but hearing Hilary and Matt discuss it today in their preface to taking up Aurora brought it back to mind.

Ideological State Apparatuses

2020-02-18T20:15:00.000-05:00

One way of understanding how the groundwork for the current Republican party and Administration was laid: Faith, Family and America's Future

Burn the Democratic Party to the Ground FCOL

2020-02-04T14:47:00.000-05:00

It’s not a “conspiracy theory” to be mildly curious about why the Iowa caucuses failed to produce results for the 1st time ever due to an app from a company whose CEO is a Pete supporter and whose board is packed with Dem establishment figures, after which Pete declared victory
— David Klion🔥 (@DavidKlion) February 4, 2020

Look, by the standards we employ for the rest of the world, the 2020 Iowa caucus should have triggered a CIA-backed coup.

Or, *dramatic chipmunk* is that what we are witnessing?

I kid. But, c'mon.

Enjoy This Picture of River Song (the Chihuahua) Until Posting Resumes

2019-12-26T10:22:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays, y'all.

River Song, Xmas 2019

Do 60 Next

2019-03-19T20:50:00.001-04:00

The 40 Best Yo La Tengo Songs :: Music :: Lists :: Yo La Tengo :: Paste

Not bad as lists go. No "The Evil That Men Do (Pablo's Version)" though? Listen closer.

Only "Detouring America With Horns" off May I Sing With Me felt wrong, I was struck by the absence of "Upside-Down," but maybe the problem was trying to pick only 40 songs ...

KSR on The Antifada Podcast

2019-02-28T15:22:00.001-05:00

Currently listening ... Antifada ft. Will Menaker: Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism w/ Kim Stanley Robinson

The Politics of Health Care, or M4A Now!

2019-02-27T11:08:00.001-05:00

RIP Carrie Ann Lucas

Put simply, our expensive and failing health care and health insurance systems are not amenable to incremental reforms. Radical changes are needed, and needed now. So-called moderate, centrist tweaks that don't fundamentally change our approach to health care amount to little more than whistling past the graveyard.

It's past time we recognized as a society that politics are not a horse race, a low-consequence game where we cheer for Team Blue or Team Red. Politics are a life and death struggle to meet the material needs of an entire population. We're battling for basic human rights against capital. And, we're losing. The bodies continue to pile up while we tolerate mendacious politicians betraying their constituencies, betraying us all.

Carrie Ann Lucas deserved better. Every person getting priced out of their insulin deserves better. Kids shouldn't be dying because their families can't afford inhalers.

Ten Years Later: "All-Star Day Daydreaming"

2018-07-17T16:36:00.000-04:00

cryptonaut-in-exile: All-Star Day Daydreaming

I'd like nothing more than for Blake and Amelia's first big league game to be at Fenway one summer between 2011 and 2013 ... that first site of a ballpark in the sunshine after coming out of a dark tunnel, while holding their dad's hand -- that's a feeling I can't wait to give them.

Haven't done one of these Ten Years Later posts in a while, so flipped back to July, 2008 and it turns out I only posted once that month and it was about baseball and fatherhood, two things still very much on my mind. The latter all the time, the former reaching a fever pitch here at the All Star break with the Sox looking like they're going to battle the Yankees down to wire, with both built to make deep playoff runs this year.

We didn't make it to Fenway with the kids until this summer, about six years behind schedule, but it was worth the wait. We saw a terrific game -- the Sox won 6-0 behind homers by J.D. Martinez and Bogaerts -- and had the added bonus of being able to go with my brother's family.

This may be the last photo taken where I'm still taller than my son :P

The kids got to go with their aunt, uncle, and cousins to their first game at Fenway.

Baseball-wise, it's been a heck of a summer. The Red Sox are raking and have a 4.5 game lead at the All Star break. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez have been electric, and I've seen more grand slams this year than I can remember seeing in a while. Mookie and Bogaerts in the week leading up to the break, no less. I always have an excuse why I'm behind on my Doctor Who blogging and my reading; for a while it's been the fact I run pretty much everyday, and that's a big chunk of my free time, but we've also got the MLB season pass so I only miss the Sox games when they play Baltimore and Washington due to the ludicrous blackout situation here in North Carolina, a state without a big league team.

Speaking of the DW blogging, I've got a bunch of skeleton posts for classic and new series stories in my drafts folder that'll get another pass and get published eventually, but it's likely the next to go live will be a reaction post when the new series starts up in the fall.

2018 Keep RLGH Independent 4 Miler

2018-07-12T14:49:00.000-04:00

2018 Keep RLGH Independent 4 Miler

Too slow. Your man is too slow and needs to pick up the pace. These Runologie races are much more competitive than the ones I'd been running, so instead of being in or near the top 3 for my age group, I'm now the back of the middle of the pack. As the competition is getting stiffer, my mins/km needs to be getting better. I feel like I should be running under 5 minutes per km, at least in these 5Ks and 4-milers. I can do 15K averaging 5:20/km in the heat, and I've done a 5K under 25 mins. once when it was cool, so it's a matter of being able to do it when it's hot and humid.

I've started working jump-ups and hill repeats into my routine and have about a month and a half before the Labor Day 8K to shave some seconds off. If I can push the pace and the heat backs off a bit, here's hoping I can be a bit braggadocious after race 13.

Race 1 - "Decem-burrrrr Dash" - 12/3/16 - 29:10
Race 2 - "SPCA Hot Chocolate Run" - 1/15/17 - 28:25
Race 3 - "I Heart 5K" - 2/11/17 - 26:58
Race 4 - "Running Over Cancer 5K" [official results] - 3/12/2017 - 25:32
Race 5 - "Racing for Rescues" - 5/7/2017 - 25:03 [official results]
Race 6 - "Run the Quay" - 6/3/2017 - 25:11 [official results]
Race 7 - "Decem-burrrr Dash" - 12/2/17 - 24:43 [official results]
Race 8 - "SPCA Mutts & Marshmallows Hot Chocolate Run" - 1/13/18 - 26:27 [official results]
Race 9 - "Cary Greenways 10K" - 4/24/18 - 55:48 [official results]
Race 10 - "Racing for Rescues" - 5/6/2018 - 26:19 [official results]
Race 11 - "Raleigh Beach 5k" - 5/27/2018 - 26:49 [official results]
Race 12 - "Keep RLGH Independent 4 Miler" - 7/4/2018 - 36:42 [official results]

Raleigh Beach 5k – 2018

2018-05-29T13:23:00.001-04:00

Raleigh Beach 5k – Runologie

This was at Dorothea Dix, same park as last race, but a different course through the park. Middle of the pack for dudes of my age group but I don't feel too bad. The times of the top finishers were under 23 minutes -- faster, I think, than the other races I've run. This Runologie series looks like it's a cut above the races I've done up 'til now, competiveness-wise.

I felt like I ran well for me, considering the weather (hot) and course (bit on the hilly side). Still, I had a goal of getting at least one kilometer under 5 minutes, and my best was 5:12. I made an effort to watch my heart rate during this one to see if staying around 165-170 bpm made a difference. (Going to want to start monitoring earlier next time and try to get to 170 faster. Based on average bpm for the race, I must have kept a lower rate for the first few klicks.)

Posting just the participation medal, the post-race selfie was a horrorshow.

Next race is a 4-miler, first of that distance, at same park Fourth of July weekend.

Race 1 - "Decem-burrrrr Dash" - 12/3/16 - 29:10
Race 2 - "SPCA Hot Chocolate Run" - 1/15/17 - 28:25
Race 3 - "I Heart 5K" - 2/11/17 - 26:58
Race 4 - "Running Over Cancer 5K" [official results] - 3/12/2017 - 25:32
Race 5 - "Racing for Rescues" - 5/7/2017 - 25:03 [official results]
Race 6 - "Run the Quay" - 6/3/2017 - 25:11 [official results]
Race 7 - "Decem-burrrr Dash" - 12/2/17 - 24:43 [official results]
Race 8 - "SPCA Mutts & Marshmallows Hot Chocolate Run" - 1/13/18 - 26:27 [official results]
Race 9 - "Cary Greenways 10K" - 4/24/18 - 55:48 [official results]
Race 10 - "Racing for Rescues" - 5/6/2018 - 26:19 [official results]
Race 11 - "Raleigh Beach 5k" - 5/27/2018 - 26:49 [official results]

What's The Craic? The Blindboy Podcast

2018-05-11T11:04:00.002-04:00

The Blindboy Podcast on acast

Podcasts are all the rage but, though I've tried a few, I've not been able to make time to follow any on the regular ... save one: Blindboy's podcast.

Blindboy, as you may know, is one half of the the Rubberbandits. He's a self-described gas cunt with a bag on his head who may, or may not, get one out of every three facts wrong; however, he's the only podcaster who's engaged me. For all the faults with the medium ... why these fuckers can't just write it down is beyond me ... Blindboy's got it down, pretty much out of the gate with episode one, which I've linked above. The thing's evolved a bit, for the better, but I think you'll get the gist of it and some benefit from starting at the beginning.

For me, part of the pleasure is listening to the Limerick accent, it's the icing that gives the cake that extra bit of appeal. An accent isn't content in and of itself; content carries the weight, but there's something about listening to his Limerick vocalization over soft jazz tinkling that's very relaxing. Most podcasts, I'm five minutes in wishing the fuckers had just typed up their thoughts, or transcribed and edited their session, on account of their vocal tics irritate me or it's just taking too long to get to an interesting point and I could've scanned in a matter of seconds instead of sinking minutes into determining if anyone's going to say anything interesting or not. Now, there are folks on twitter as brilliant as they come, and I appreciate their insights, but I'm just not able to make it through hour long podcasts of even my online favorites discussing something fascinating. They're fantastic bloggers and twitterati, but podcasting is, sorry to say, not their strength.

Blindboy does interviews, reads short stories, engages in a bit of foolery, and shotguns hot takes pretty consistently. The main thing though is he's a compassionate, vulnerable lad with an inquisitive mind, an interest in language and history, a passion for art, and a gift for the gab.

Stream "Horse Outside," see if your local library or bookstore has a copy of The Gospel According to Blindboy to check out, and give Blindboy a chance by telling your smart speaker to play the Blindboy podcast, or whatever you have to do to queue one up. Let me know if you do, and if you like it, or not. I'm also open to suggestions if there are other podcasters who are out there getting it right.

Racing for Rescues 5K 2018

2018-05-08T10:03:00.000-04:00

Sigh. Slower than last year. I'd be less aggravated if the finish line photos looked OK, but instead of an athletic runner crossing the line of a race in triumph, I look more like a knock-kneed smuggler trying to sneak a sack of potatoes under his shirt through a border crossing.

Don't think I can blame the new course for this year's race, if anything I thought the hills at Dorothea Dix park were a little less daunting than the ones at the Cary Soccer complex. I think I slow up a bit in the last kilometer to gather steam for a final push, but I wait too long to actually go all out to the finish. Next race I'm to try to do a brief bit of steadying at the end of the 4th klick and start the 5th with more pace and basically go all out the last 200 meters or so to ensure the tank is empty when I cross the line. Resting up to push hard the last 100 meters isn't working.

Race 1 - "Decem-burrrrr Dash" - 12/3/16 - 29:10
Race 2 - "SPCA Hot Chocolate Run" - 1/15/17 - 28:25
Race 3 - "I Heart 5K" - 2/11/17 - 26:58
Race 4 - "Running Over Cancer 5K" [official results] - 3/12/2017 - 25:32
Race 5 - "Racing for Rescues" - 5/7/2017 - 25:03 [official results]
Race 6 - "Run the Quay" - 6/3/2017 - 25:11 [official results]
Race 7 - "Decem-burrrr Dash" - 12/2/17 - 24:43 [official results]
Race 8 - "SPCA Mutts & Marshmallows Hot Chocolate Run" - 1/13/18 - 26:27 [official results]
Race 9 - "Cary Greenways 10K" - 4/24/18 - 55:48 [official results]
Race 10 - "Racing for Rescues" - 5/6/2018 - 26:19 [official results]

The Casablanca Critique I Did Not See Coming

2018-04-26T14:42:00.000-04:00

Amazon.com: Nazi Dreams: Films About Fascism eBook: Noah Berlatsky: Kindle Store

Excerpt from Nazi Dreams: Films About Fascism by Noah Berlatsky

I went to an anniversary screening of Casablanca a couple years back and was stirred, moreso for being in crowd that was also keen for it, by the "La Marseillaise" scene. Utterly, I confess, blind to its hypocrisy. It was anti-Nazi, so the subtext Berlatsky highlights remained below my threshold of recognition. Likewise, Rick's contempt for Ugarte and his paternalistic attitude towards Sam seemed like relatively tame bits of period racism. The obvious fact Laszlo was the proper hero, and the Rick-Ilsa romance is a slap in the face to not only the character, but what the character (ought to have) stood for, was obscured by Henreid's dutifully dull characterization of Laszlo and Bergman's luminescent screen presence. Yes, Laszlo gets the girl in the end and so is rewarded for his heroics, but the film does not recognize Laszlo is a better man than Rick. Rick's sacrifice is the real act of heroism in the cinematic world where the problems of three (but especially two) white people clearly amount to more than a hill of ethnic types.

Berlatsky's critique is much-needed eyewash. Compare the excerpt I screencapped above with this passage from Ebert's five star review:

What is intriguing is that none of the major characters is bad. Some are cynical, some lie, some kill, but all are redeemed. If you think it was easy for Rick to renounce his love for Ilsa--to place a higher value on Laszlo's fight against Nazism--remember Forster's famous comment, “If I were forced to choose between my country and my friend, I hope I would be brave enough to choose my friend.”

His analysis is literate, thoughtful, and insightful in its way but Ebert is blind to the film's moral failings.

I'll never look at Casablanca the same way again, and there's a feeling of loss that comes with that, because I, like most (I suspect), love to be stirred by anti-Nazi resistance; I get the appeal of sympathizing with the noble sacrifice of the martyr for love. But even at this late date, I recognize that I need to keep growing up and not holding on to my old favorites simply because they are my old favorites. We'll all be better off if we appreciate Casablanca for what it is, not for what the kid who first watched it wanted it to say about him.

"Why are you promoting a trashing of Casablanca? Why read so much into a love story set amidst the battle against Nazism? The Nazis are bad guys, the French Resistance are good guys: this is enough to know or care about ... nobody watches a romantic drama for insights into the North African colonial experience," is a reaction I sort of expect I'd get if anyone were to actually read this post. It's a reaction I sympathize with to an extent. But, if that's your gut reaction, my simple ask is that you interrogate it just a little. Why are you invested in defending Casablanca against leftist criticisms? Why not imagine what kind of movie it might have been had it treated Sam like a complex, authentically human character? If you knew a Capt. Renault in real life, would you befriend him, or would you think his corruption and exploitation of vulnerable women was just a rakish fun? If you wouldn't, what does that say about Rick? If you would, um, what does it say about you? Maybe also consider how French patriotism in light of its opposition to Nazism is a backdoor whitewashing of French colonialism -- erasing the history, and humanity, of the people who lived in Casablanca before the imperialists rolled in and set up shop. It's great that the film's sentiments anti-Nazi, I'm not suggesting we lose sight of that, only that we deal honestly with what the French ideal of freedom actually looked like? You might not know much, or care much, about French imperialism, but what you think about it in this movie might inform how you watch later movies like The Quiet American, or maybe even the whole genre of Vietnam War movies.

I'm not saying it's time to hate Casablanca, only that it's well past time to temper the reverence we have for it with a consideration for what anti-racist, feminist, and other leftist perspectives bring to bear. Like it or not, praising Casablanca is a political act, in addition to being commentary on the art of filmmaking. How we praise it, what we identify as its virtues and its flaws, matters because we don't appreciate it in a vacuum.

First 10K

2018-04-24T11:22:00.003-04:00

So, not only did I gear up for maximum dorkiness, I stumbled from getting my chip into the starting box and took off without warming up, got off to a miserably slow start, and got stuck at a crosswalk for what seemed like an eternity in the first half of the race.

Despite all those impediments, I managed to come in 2nd in my age group and 27th overall. For my first 10K, I guess I'll take it.

How dorky, you ask? So. Effin. Dork.

Race 1 - "Decem-burrrrr Dash" - 12/3/16 - 29:10
Race 2 - "SPCA Hot Chocolate Run" - 1/15/17 - 28:25
Race 3 - "I Heart 5K" - 2/11/17 - 26:58
Race 4 - "Running Over Cancer 5K" [official results] - 3/12/2017 - 25:32
Race 5 - "Racing for Rescues" - 5/7/2017 - 25:03 [official results]
Race 6 - "Run the Quay" - 6/3/2017 - 25:11 [official results]
Race 7 - "Decem-burrrr Dash" - 12/2/17 - 24:43 [official results]
Race 8 - "SPCA Mutts & Marshmallows Hot Chocolate Run" - 1/13/18 - 26:27 [official results]
Race 9 - "Cary Greenways 10K" - 4/24/18 - 55:48 [official results]