My writing, writing on writing, and thoughts on writing—and on music, culture popular and unpopular, etc.—can now be found on Substack. Check it out. michaelchabon.substack.com?r=oy2er&utm_...

Only an ignorant, draft-dodging, tinpot showboat weakling would ever consider bringing the military into this situation. www.cnn.com/2025/06/09/p...

If you’ve ever wondered what lives in spineless’s basement. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/u...

“Hegseth” is actually an old Norwegian word meaning “internalized homophobia.” www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

tinyurl.com/37kvth5u “But the essence of the Trump foreign policy is that this isn’t a special country, not really. We have no admirable values that lift us up, no particular principles, no desire to foment the spread of liberty. We are not trying to be a beacon to the world…”

Found this unexpectedly moving. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Perhaps, judging from the current state of things, we were the VHS to the Neanderthals’ Betamax. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Until recently I was totally unfamiliar with the splendidly-named Hyacinthe Jadin (1776-1800) and his (even more splendid) Sonatas for Piano with Violin. This is my favorite of the performances I’ve discovered so far. album.link/i/1733259207

An ad agency for McDonald’s France, calling it like they see it, is using graphics and design elements of a fictional meth-smuggling front company to sell “McDo”’s reformulated “McCrispy” fried chicken.

#unintimidated www.billboard.com/music/music-...

Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you/Forget the dead you’ve left, they will not follow you/The vagabond who’s rapping at your door/Is standing in the clothes that you once wore/Strike another match, go start anew www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/w...

UnitedHealth secretly pressured nurses to change patients' records to include DNRs (Do Not Resuscitate) without their consent, so those patients would die instead of being saved with medical interventions that could cost UnitedHealth money. This is murder. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Wait, Robert "Blank Generation Blue Mask Girlfriend" Quine was Willard "To Be Is To Be The Value Of A Bound Variable" Quine's nephew?

When your power depends on persuading the populace that everyone hates them and is their enemy, logic demands that you behave hatefully and make enemies of everyone. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

If you love indie-alt-Americana-country-rock-whatever, right now is a great time to be alive. #Wednesday open.spotify.com/track/1FZXwh...

Am I the only one who hears “I could drink a case of you/And I would still be on my feet” as more of a defiant put down than as sweet talk?

This is the leap into the abyss. Israel will have committed suicide by genocide. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Chipped in to help the great Nelson George make this film a reality. igg.me/at/AGREATDAY...

I was digging Kwame Anthony Appiah’s answer *before* I got to the shoutout! www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/m...

It can be hard to discern, at times, which of the amoral idiots presently in power is the most idiotic and amoral, but this depraved bonehead keeps bringing the clarity. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

My junk text life is so rich with poignant memories.

Truest NYT headline in 25 years. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/u...

Fascinating meditation by a philosopher of language. Bonus points for the “Darmok” discussion. aeon.co/essays/why-a... (h/t @johncoulthart.com)

There is no “quiet part.” It’s all out loud. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Disgraceful, disgusting, abominable, cowardly. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

Like any creation of the Cold War at its peak, RFE has a complicated history, and an ambiguous legacy (esp in Hungary)*, but damn, when I was 8 years old, this dude seemed like the coolest human imaginable. Best DJ talk-up ever. youtu.be/8hXg8XOITpM?... *See failed 1956 uprising

Today is International Surprisingly Versatile Humans Day! Repost with a favorite Surprisingly Versatile Human. Mine is UK illustrator Chris Foss (b. 1946), known both for his eye-popping 1970s sf paperback-cover starships AND the nitty-gritty pencil illustrations for the original THE JOY OF SEX.

So it turns out the whole “shithole countries” thing was *aspirational*.

Trump’s corruption is without limit. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Current fave music for writing: *Galactic Furnace*, Radio Music International, 2024. Sails effortlessly from Tangerine Dream to achingly lyrical Garcia guitar leads to the Eno-Jarrespace to modernesque electronic jams. Working great for the word count. cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/galact...

I have no intention of making light of what is clearly a serious matter, but I can’t be the only one worried about the fate of young Nigel. www.aol.co.uk/news/mps-rec...

Geoffrey O’Brien on the heyday of CinemaScope films? Yes, please. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Meant to post this yesterday, on his birthday—which now with appropriate Sondheimian bittersweetness will always coincide with the anniversary of the death of my dad, the first Massive Sondheim Fan I ever knew, directly responsible for creation of the second MSF I ever knew. shorturl.at/n4XbF

This hard-rocking 5:22-min opus, with its a capella opening, multipart structure, changing time signatures, and lyrics like “masquerading as a man with a reason/my charade is the event of the season” went to NUMBER 11 on the Hot 100 around this time in 1977. shorturl.at/qqBTP #whyimlikethis

Remembering my dad, Robert Chabon, today, the sixth anniversary of his death. Here’s a piece I wrote about the last night I spent with him, five days before his last. Sorry, it’s paywalled. www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

New playlist: Selected Stories. A musical anthology, if you wish, covering many literary genres. Also on 🟢 and 🍎 youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Great tune, credited to Gary Busey (!), not available on any album—in particular, not on the *Nashville* OST (1975). Keith Carradine, Cristina Raines, and Allan F. Nicholls as Bill, Mary & Tom (not necessarily in that order). youtu.be/NToTcTiX66g?...

Show-off. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Whether it's the Navajo code talkers helping to defeat the Nazis or it's Nazis removing all mention of the Navajo code talkers from the US military's website, the conflict between Nazis and Navajo code talkers has continued for over 80 years.

Love this, so much.

Heard “Lola” today & recalled 1st hearing it in 1971, when to shock me a friend played me his sister’s album. I was deeply shocked! Not by the reveal, or the singer’s charming shrug, but by the writing: a dark brown voice! “Wrong” but right, & tinged with the sweetness & fizz of that Coca-Cola.

Two things that are wonderful: 1) John Fahey’s *The Voice of the Turtle* 2) The cover of John Fahey’s *The Voice of the Turtle* (by Patrick Finnerty) youtube.com/playlist?lis...

“With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.” From the Pynchon-penned flap copy of *Against the Day*

Seeing my grandparents’ hi-fi rig on eBay and realizing that my (engineer) grandfather must have built it himself. #solderingironman

We may disagree on whether they represent Haman’s ears, hat, or pockets, but I think we can agree that @russanddaughters.bsky.social are perfection. (To answer your next question: poppy seed, always.)

Democratic leadership has had six weeks to conceive a coordinated approach to tonight. The SOTU is one of the only completely anticipatable events of the political year. And here we are, at "I'm not going, but some Dems are going, but ALL Republicans are going so it might LOOK very GOP but..." JFC.

Mao’s great leap forward killed 50 million people. But most experts think that Elon’s will kill many fewer.

Cool plan, bro