fascinating to compare how Wall Street reacts to the possibility that a socialist might have some power somewhere versus how it reacts to the concrete reality of a literal madman tearing down the American-led post-WWII global order

subway Gershwin, I think he’d like it

This is a really important story, and one that explains the place of the Hmong community in the Twin Cities and why this entire occupation is really just ethnic cleansing (my words). Also, props to Marisa for doing the work to get this story right when so many out-of-town journalists have failed.

The City of Minneapolis has designs for signs and stickers that you can download.

seems worth mentioning that Dylan went to one of the top musical theatre schools in the country

From the beginning of the civil rights era until the day he died, MLK reserved one speech almost exclusively for Black audiences. It was literally about staying "woke."

This is the shit that happens when every production cuts Fortinbras.

I want to remind that things people say “can’t be done” could have been done if Dems broke the relationship with rich donors. 1944 top tax rate: 94%. There would be no Elon Musk fucking over the country. Imagine if the country had to fund its wars from taxes instead of debt.

donald trump experienced a level of what was, for him, humiliation equivalent to death when obama lightly mocked him back in 2011 and we all are going to pay for it

Taking some thought about what happens if that douchebag does invade, NATO gets mobilised and I become technically an enemy national in the UK I have ILtR, as do many. Tourist visas probably disappear, but what happens to students? Or people on work visas?

Martin Luther King Jr comes to Newcastle Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an annual holiday in the United States on the third Monday of January. He is fondly remembered in Newcastle northeastbylines.co.uk/culture/hist...

A David Lynch quote for every creative person who may need it today. It resonated with me when I came across it reading it in Lynch on Lynch.

A fistbump across the centuries to this one monk writing a stroppy text about his boss.

I directed this! A fun little fairytale comedy-with-music, published 1595.

Running Nazis out of town and then whimsical cardboard sleds at Powderhorn - you just have to love Minneapolis.

"we don't want people thinking Democrats are for open borders" I am! who gives a shit!!! my life has been immeasurably improved by the presence of immigrants in my community, regardless of their status, there is literally no downside there! why would I give a shit!!!!

For more context, ICE has arrested and continued to hold tribal members who cannot possibly be illegal immigrants, and is refusing to tell tribal leadership where they are.

News from Washington National Opera (ex-Kennedy Center): their productions of Treemonisha and The Crucible will be performed in March at Lisner Auditorium washnatopera.org/calendar

This is a delightful and educational lecture about time keeping before accurate time pieces. (And also, it explains *why* accurate clocks for ships had so much impact.)

It is 17th January (Gregorian), so it is Old Twelvey and therefore time to Wassail. Somerset (1979) as interpreted by the news... Morris Dancing is an unrelated thing but, as per usual, open a keg or barrel of anything and a troupe will suddenly appear. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHUl...

Small joys: at a certain time of the morning when the sun catches the light fixture just right, it throws rainbows everywhere.

block immediately everyone

The scribe emerges in the margin from the line-filler to write the text. Bodleian Library MS. Douce 6; Psalter; c.1320 CE-1330 CE; Flanders (Ghent) f.61r @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Caution: breakdancing

In April 2024, Spotify implemented a new scheme: songs with less than 1k streams per year would no longer receive royalties. The data for 2025 was just released via Luminate, and 88% of songs have been demonetized. Read it again: 88% of songs on Spotify have been demonetized.

The internal battle here between an editorial team broadly determined to jam their thumb on the scale in favour of the regime and the people trying to maintain some semblance of the actual journalism that the NYT was once better known for probably warrants an entire memoir to itself.

your periodic reminder that one of the most popular comic poems in early 17th England--constantly copied in manuscript, expanded, revised, and passed along--is called THE PARLIAMENT FART. And it is a poem about Henry Ludlow loudly farting in Parliament.

I'm working on an edition of Abraham Cowley's play Love's Riddle. Looking for a pithy term to describe the trope in pastoral comedies where women fall in love with male-disguised women but praise the beauty of this "man" they are falling for in stereotypically feminine terms (white skin, ruby lips)

The more I see Ryan Coogler, the more I realize he really understands the filmmaking process and is a rather gifted storyteller. Even in this criminally small interview he did with Colbert, you could sense his artistry and understanding of the medium. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY4k...

People in London - last few tickets left for 'Sounds Like Home' at Hoxton Hall tonight, raising funds for the vital work of Medical Aid for Palestinians. It's rainy and grim outside, but I'd rather be together with good people than despairing at home alone. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sounds-lik...

The Department of Homeland Security is refusing to release information on 3 detained Oglala Lakota tribal members who are being held at Fort Snelling, a former concentration camp for Native people, unless the tribe enters into an immigration agreement with ICE.

15 January is #NationalHatDay, so here are the words to a #17thCentury song about different sorts of hats, The Ballad Of the Caps. From An Antidote Against Melancholy, 1669 This is just one of many #earlymodern songs about clothing that we plan to record as part of the #GreensleevesProject #otd

Fresh new pots available on my website now! www.roseschmits.com international shipping available

The spelling of 'musicians' is wildly various in this ms, even by early modern standards: Musicions Musitions Musizions Musissians And my favourite so far Musytiones

Anyone up for sending a Londoner some Thin Mints and Samoas??

I want to write an extremely niche article on how the cover designs for books on the history of medieval England rarely feature works of art produced *in* England bc surviving works of art are rarely sufficiently naturalistic to illustrate the books' claims the way a book cover is expected to do.

This but also comics!

I’m gonna treat myself to lunch from the excellent Lower Marsh food stall run by two Somali ladies They’ve always got a great assortment of dishes, so I usually just ask for a bit of everything vegetarian over rice Lower Marsh, just behind Waterloo Station. Highly recommended!

Still walking uphill. Malvern is an Escher picture. Ah another sign. {reads sign} That's good, persuasive, marketing. But I need caffeine. Moving on...

6. fascism is beige and soulless. the ability to love with an open heart is all on our side. the good art is on our side. so is free expression of gender. solidarity. empathy. rock music. food with seasoning. kindness. "Heated Rivalry." they have the guns and the money; we have EVERYTHING else

"Western culture" bros about to learn a thing or two from Napoleon Bonaparte

Cybermen. It's always Cybermen.

I absolutely judge London churches by their names Tonight, I am off to St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. Just say it to yourself. St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. Does it not produce a small leap of joy in the soul?

On a more positive note, many of the creators from Hiveworks came together to create the Chimera Comics Collective - a place where we could maintain the 'webring' aspect of Hiveworks and continue supporting each other. Please follow us here! 🦁🐐🐍 @chimeracomics.bsky.social

This is going to sound more flip than I mean it, but when I was a kid I watched the Blues Brothers running Illinois Nazis off a bridge and the Nazis on Hogan's Heroes being pathetic dimwits every damn day, and I do feel like we need to get back to constant, vicious cultural ridicule of open racists.

I will reiterate that if you are an independent journo/hobbyist I will happily set up your ghost install and host it for a few quid above cost price. You set up your own stripe and mailgun accounts, and you get to keep ALL your revenue. And post migration from wordpress/substack is pretty easy.

that’s how you thread the affordability + ICE needle

I'm not sure most people have any idea how often the answer to "why can't I get the municipal service I want" is "because the police union sends their heavies to budget meetings" I heard WILD stories from a friend who was the arts rep to a midsized town's council. the cops basically had veto power!