Trump regime officials, sycophantic Republican members of Congress, and MAGA political operatives apparently don't feel shame, but they clearly feel, and mind, humiliation.

The insanity of the world summarised in two headlines on Canadian wildfires whose smoke is billowing across continent into the lungs of 100 million plus ppl: "Wildfires threaten Canadian oil sands" "Three major US cities top world’s worst air quality rankings" phenomenalworld.org/analysis/glo...

it’s sits ill with me to imagine Jonathan Franzen exulting in his triumph

More than a few DMs asking after Weiss' monumental novel. Too exhausted by a very busy workday to say much more about it, other than to direct you to this wide-ranging review essay:

Q: HEY whatcha reading...? A: This 3-vol, 1000+ pp. historical novel "about" 20th c. European antifascist resistance suggested by an artist friend. Reads like an exquisite corpse penned by Proust, Marx, Kafka & Walter Benjamin. 50 pp intro by F. Jameson took me 6 weeks; the actual text is easier.

Mount Pleasant already has a fabulous data centre and it’s called the freaking VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY and it’s incredible ( with a cafe on the ground floor ) If you want free access to book collections, free Wi-Fi, in a LEED-certified building get yourself a library card and check it out !

Zahed Taj-Eddin, The Sheep go to Lampedusa

It was weird watching England put on a Toronto Maple Leafs clinic in holding a lead in the playoffs.

Reminded, viz. these images, of my late artist/SF novelist/eco-activist friend Jim Willer's fine phrase: "Gaia's not for burning."

These photos of FNs community members fleeing their homes by boat are genuinely apocalyptic (Photo via Wayne Wastaken of Collins, Ontario, who says his “hometown is gone”) www.facebook.com/share/r/1ArN...

Why is CN Rail operating freight trains in the middle of areas with active wildfires? Are these trains transporting flammable or explosive cargo? “A spokesperson for [CN Rail] wrote back to confirm “that the crew was safely evacuated from the area,” but offered no other details”

Good light in the park

Another giant of comics has left us. From 1965 to 1990, Oliphant was THE dominant political cartoonist in the US (even though he was an Aussie). A generational talent. A complicated guy. Often problematic, often brilliant, always scathing and funny.

This photo is Commercial St (where our office is). It’s an amazing 2 block stretch. - mixed uses and building ages - small apartments and townhouses with some single fam - quiet side street So much of this has been made illegal by zoning restrictions. We shouldn’t have to just cling to remnants

This article about how owners of pervert glasses are reluctant to wear their pervert glasses in public is surprisingly generous and kind towards the tiny minority of pervert glasses owners who didn’t realize they were purchasing pervert glasses, and I think there’s a lesson in that for all of us.

Watering the garden in the good light

boom

show me a comic book page you love, no explanation needed

80s nostalgia day @ PFB

There certainly seems to be a generational split; between those who remember single detached homes being modest middle class housing, and those who have never had that experience, seeing detached homes only as an impossible luxury.

This is pretty well known, but the Australian flag Sam Neill wore on his uniform in Event Horizon was designed at his request to show the Union Jack replaced with the Aboriginal flag, because he hoped in the future this is how it would actually look. A proper fucken ally in every way, this bloke.

“Demographic crisis” language almost always implies a subject who is worried & an object who needs to change her behavior. The worried subject is coded male,national,&rational" @nilsgilman.bsky.social must read historical perspective on Modernization "theory" nilsgilman.substack.com/p/the-future...

A fun thing to do is assume this post is about BC’s upcoming civic elections

Tonight's soundtrack. Somehow missed this release last year. A sequel to one of my fave albums of all time (#1, 1997). Suede could have imploded multiple times but kept going. Some artists recover exhausted, & some get stronger & more complicated clean; Brett Anderson def in the latter camp.

Maxwell House Coffee illustrations by Moebius In 1989 Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) was hired by the Paris office of Young & Rubicam to create illustrations for Maxwell House. The French magazine ads promoted four flavors of instant coffee. #moebius #youngandrubicam #advertising #frenchart #illustration

Asking Mitch on the call: Are there closets down there?

Fredric Jameson knows the score

One of my favorite customers once said to me, "I am my own book club," & I still think this attitude is a useful corrective to the tyranny of the mid.

Freecouver: Lonely Planet contributor John Lee and Rebecca "Miss 604" Bollwitt join forces to create a handy guidebook for tourists and locals alike. #Bookshelf johnackermann.substack.com/p/freecouver...

met a large Medievalist tonight. when I asked if he was the largest, he said no, and suggested that they consume each other to gain dominance. thus the smaller Medievalists are vulnerable to predation

"how were people writing 10 page papers before AI???" we were smarter than you. you could've been smart, too. but you sold your brain for nothing

*I don't see how any Russian ship in the Sea of Azov can survive all these drone assaults. They seem every bit as trapped as a Russian tank column surrounded by RPGs *How do they hide, or defend themselves, from endless digitized flying lawnmowers with bombs *It's happening fast

Sudden craving for an old-school rootbeer popsicle. I'm old.

I'm reading an original paperback from 1974 right now.

Writers shouldn't be chasing the market & yet I see this more and more because they are being squeezed and forced off their own pages toward pages that appeal, that oblige, that do not respond at all formally to the active frustrations & insanity of the present time. Like I said, humans deserve AI.

Honestly I am beginning to think humans actually deserve AI rather than art. What exactly happened to upping your game? You don't understand something? How about YOU read closer, go & educate yourself, read wider to figure out what it's upto, you BE smarter rather than insist on the yawning obvious

People's lack of curiosity shouldn't ever determine the boundaries of fiction or art.

New CSA Space exhibition opens tomorrow night in Kits & above PFB: POM POM FIGURES Emily C. R. Hill Offsite Park Performance: July 9 | 6-6:30PM Gallery Reception: July 9 | 7-10PM CHEERLEADER is located at Connaught Park in Kitsilano, 2390 W 10th. CSA Space is located at 5-2414 Main Street

Imagine a cowboy, now imagine a cowboy dressed by an alien, now imagine a cowboy dressed by a drunk alien, now imagine an AI cowboy dressed by a drunk alien, now draw this with crayon and make it fascist

can't stop laughing at this Poilievre: "We will reinstill a warrior culture, not a woke culture."

Who vetted the guy? The NUMEROUS RED FLAGS were literally visible from orbit.

This is a photo I did not take of someone riding a folding bicycle down the middle of my street, grinning broadly and not pedalling at all while two large grey pitbulls happily pulled his bike along like a Roman chariot

Under this slogan, Beijing deliberately popped China’s $52 Trillion property bubble & argued that it caused -more inequality (affluent top 20% got wealth in houses, others suffered) -underinvestment in industry (crowding out effect) -decline in R&D (talent sucked out) -low growth (fewer babies)

RT Adam Tooze: Everyone is talking about the China shock 2.0 that is reverberating through Europe. What we aren't talking about is the financial repression that contains something far more spectacular. Check out the latest chartbook newsletter here: tinyurl.com/mrxfz9uy

Looking for summer reading ideas? For this month’s newsletter, I suggest Masashi Matsuie’s THE SUMMER HOUSE, trans. Margaret Mitsutani; Lisa Fishman’s WRITE BACK NOW!; and Lana Lin’s THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF H. LAN THAO LAM. 📚💙 You can read it here: www.marisagrizenko.com/campaigns/vi...

Giving generative ai to a society that couldn’t handle AM radio.