seen in an upcoming estate sale listing, I predict straight edge fisticuffs

Tonight I determined that BLUE VELVET, which I loved in 1986, was tired of in 2006 and love again in 2026, is less logical than ERASERHEAD

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An amazing fluke hit, coded as young new wave in the moment, from an already veteran showbiz figure, known primarily for her dancing and choreography, reworking/retitling a 1979 album cut by Racey written by the Chinnichap team, then adding the cheerleader chant herself. Absolute gold, then and now.

This week in City Lights @wcp.bsky.social I picked two rep films: THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS at AFI and DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST at the Freer washingtoncitypaper.com/article/7866...

After This - Fields (1986) [UK, New Wave/Synth Pop] https://redd.it/n3v0wk https://youtu.be/14LIv5aTqro

Frantz Casseus - Lullaby [Haiti, Classical, Folk] (1954) https://redd.it/f476fa https://youtu.be/Gt21sHvlsac

One of the most beautiful songs in the English language, and one that improbably leaves me in tears

Playing White Light/White Heat in the yearbook office so a bratty Filipino can claim it sounds like his band?

Achievement unlocked

RIP Sonny Rollins, he could make magic at any age youtu.be/0UMnEw4ubLM?...

My short-term goal is to be the only person to finish both The Power Broker and the new Velvet Underground book this month

Hello velvet underground footage I had never heard of before the new Richie Unterberger book youtu.be/lMcpIHjuYQk?...

10 films I have seen theatrically more than once Beyond the Valley of the Dolls Choose Me Stop Making Sense One from the Heart Play Time Rosemary’s Baby Absolute Beginners Chungking Express WR: Mysteries of the Organism The Girl Can’t Help It

Coverage of Prince George’s corruption has largely been relegated to socials and substacks. Good to see The Banner on the case.

Helmut Smashburger

thinking of bringing my Sister Ray game over to Truth Social, that oughta go over real well

chatting about breakfast cereal on the other place, trying to keep it real

used “skimpy” in two different side-hustle related emails, I need to diversify

<AI prompt<40-minute Sister Ray with a calypso beat</AI prompt>

today's Velvet bootleg observation: I think Moe Tucker would have improved In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida

look at this matter in other lights; weigh it in all sorts of scales

A Sister Ray a day keeps Taylor Swift away

where is the Macaulay Culkin project combining Joy Division and hot dogs

In Robert Quine's VU tapes you can hear him say "dig it!" near the end of "Femme Fatale" on 11/8/69

inside me are two wolves

Not convinced to spend hard cash on the 2-lp boot, but gee this sounds like A Love Supreme and/or A Rainbow In Curved Air more often than it sounds like Sister Ray www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFaO...

Continuing THE POWER BROKER and wondering if anyone wrote a horror novel about riding the LIRR in 1965

CHARADE (1963, Dir. Stanley Donen). ***/*****. Are there any other movies where Audrey Hepburn wastes perfectly good ice cream in a world capital? I’d like to complete the set. boxd.it/Uo2Fo

live music hooray: Hotline TNT and Dry Cleaning, who vaguely strike me as the Smiths sans camp

today in headlines I did not expect especially at that dot com

RIP my old Allmusic friend Jerry Young—a lot of that generation of 90s music listserv regulars are gone

Night music

Rotten Tomatoes has tabulated my current review count, which will be 894 after I link my DEGENERATES piece. Time to pick up my pace in the run for 1K!

How good can a lost Andy Milligan film be? Maybe a definitive entry into his intensely totrtured world. I wrote about THE DEGENERATES @spectrumculture.bsky.social spectrumculture.com/2026/05/04/r...

Also Heidi Klum getting out of costume

Rolling into the Met Gala

There’s little I hate more than someone trying too hard, by gee wow golly gum drops

Night tapes. The Passions is unfortunately wonky, but Green is fine

Um...so I accidentally stumbled onto the UVA law library's collection of 6,000 drawings by courtroom sketch reporter Ida Libby Dengrove, who worked in NYC mostly in the '70s & '80s, & they're kind of...amazing..?? This one is tagged "Clown Attack" (thread) archives.law.virginia.edu/resources/18...

Juan De La Cruz Band - Love Of A Woman [Philippines, Pinoy Rock/Psych] (1971) https://redd.it/823x5q https://youtu.be/PnQL4REeyHA

Heather Stebbins and Janel Leppin at Moonage Daydream, a NE row house that’s DC’s first solar-powered music venue

more to come; but this rediscovered Milligan is so good, and so full of pain—and, for Milligan, remarkably controlled

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This week in City Lights @wcp.bsky.social I picked a Chinese American silent film program at the Freer washingtoncitypaper.com/article/7850...

Randomly walked past the same 10-gallon tourist and his entourage twice on my lunchtime stroll around the Hill, is this Mulhollond Drive?

this morning’s indie pop tapes

Today's six-word short story at the far end of the life cycle comes courtesy of my neighborhood listserv: Free Men's Incontinence Briefs