It’s getting late here, and I’m heading for bed. Yesterday – that is, Sunday, November 9 – was Father’s Day in Norway. It’s not something I’ve ever really celebrated, but this time it’s the first Father’s Day since my father died. It is a different world now that he’s no longer in it…

The evening and night November 9-10, 1938, the Kristallnacht took place. 256 synagogues were burned down and more damaged, over 7000 Jewish businesses destroyed, and at least 91 – most likely more – Jews were murdered. Here is John Zorn’s album Kristallnacht (recorded November 9 and 10, 1992).

My evening music is Rotary Connection's 1969 album Songs - Minnie Riperton (born on this day back in 1947) on vocals.

Today it is 55 years since the recording of Alice Coltrane's album Journey in Satchidananda (except for the track "Isis and Osiris," which was recorded July 4, 1970).

"“He promised things that Europeans take for granted, but Americans are told are impossible,” said the Dutch environmentalist and former government adviser Alexander Verbeek in the wake of Tuesday’s election."

"All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham."

My contribution to zombie-studies today was re-reading Alan Lomax’s 1938 piece "Haitian Journey." There is still so much work to do…

"Aside from her album Translinear Light (2004), released three years before her death, the only recordings she made in her last three decades were of bhajans, Hindu devotional chants sung mostly in Sanskrit and distributed among her followers on self-produced cassette tapes."

"In the past week, Scott has donated $172 million to three Historically Black Colleges and Universities — Howard University ($80 million), Virginia State University ($50 million) and Alcorn State University ($42 million)."

"Howard University announced today a transformative $80 million in unrestricted giving from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, marking one of the largest single contributions in the University’s history."

Copenhagen: Bilal is playing in DR Studie 2 on November 11. I think it will be good and will be there. I think you should consider too. (and no, I’m not paid by DR to say so!).

Had my first lecture on "Beyoncé - The Queen of America" tonight. Approximately 30 in the audience, and they seemed to enjoy themselves. It was so much fun. #iLoveMyJob

Hah, hah!

Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979-1981 - released November 3, 2017.

I loved Georgi Gospodinov's Death and the Gardener.

"November always seemed to me the Norway of the year." (Emily Dickinson)

Formerly known as prince...

Tonight we watched It Was Just an Accident (2025, Jafar Panahi), winner of this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes. It was good; you should watch it.

Job alert! "The Department of Music at Hunter College of the City University of New York invites applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor of Musicology with a specialization in African American music."

"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Matthew 22:39, KJV).

Fantastic article in which actual experts on AI and higher education cut through the nonsense surrounding the infinite garbage engines and expose a system captured by the techbro sales pitch. "A general ban is necessary, but nobody dares to say so."

Knausgård on The Brothers Karamazov.

On why the AI industry is trying to turn words into numbers.

Canvas, the course management platform used by my university (and many others), has been down all day due to the AWS outage. It has prompted some good discussions about how much critical infrastructure is now outsourced to a few companies.

I am saying good night with esperanza spalding doing "If I Was Your Girlfriend" - live at BET Awards 2010. Yes, enjoy. Good night.

It’s Saturday, and not only am I on sabbatical, I’m also official on vacation. So what did I do today? I read about Black Hebrew Israelites… Luckily there is quite a bit of literature out there. And yes, you guessed it, I’m not very good at taking time off from work…

It’s Surya Botofasina’s birthday and my evening music is his 2024 album Ashram Sun.

I’ve finally come around to listen to Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble’s album Groove in the Face of Adversity. It is a great album!

Good night!

Yesterday I submitted an article that – surprisingly to me – turned out to become a kind of an Afropessimistic reading of Meshell Ndegeocello’s "Four Women" (a cover, obviously, of Nina Simone’s song).

Peter Thiel on the Antichrist in the newest episode of South Park.

"Against a backdrop of red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway apologised for the discrimination and harm it had inflicted."

Untitled

This chapter I'm writing about sexbots is unending

Sam Altman went from “AI will cure cancer" to "ChatGPT porn" in less than a month

D'Angelo, 1974-2025. R.I.P. This is so very sad.

Good night! - and yes, I love this!

"Krasznahorkai is clearly fascinated by apocalypse, by broken revelation, indecipherable messages. To be always “on the threshold of some decisive perception” is as natural to a Krasznahorkai character as thinking about God is to a Dostoyevsky character;"

"For this reason, he is, as a storyteller, fascinated by extremes, by the possibility of apocalypse." (Colm Tóibín on László Krasznahorkai)

I like how Justin St. Clair in this review of Thomas Pynchon ‘s new novel Shadow Ticket, suggests that we should read Pynchon chronologically in when the novels are set, and that Shadow Ticket thus takes place so-to-speak between Against the Day (2006) and Gravity’s Rainbow (1973).

Klaus Theweleit sagt 50 Jahre nach dem Erscheinen von „Männerphantasien“: „Ich hätte damals nicht gedacht, dass wir uns nochmal derart konkret mit Faschismus und Männerpanzer befassen müssen.“ Interessantes Gespräch mit @camlinger.bsky.social und @onachtwey.bsky.social @unibas.ch.

"... those academics and elites sitting in Norway..."

Good night!

Sandsynligvis har journalisten aldrig endog hørt om John Cage.

Good night - and I'm sending good thoughts Dolly Parton's way.

Well worth reading. My colleague @mikkelkfrantzen.bsky.social on the financial thriller in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social

Today Bjøro Håland is 82. Here is his 1982 album Bjøro Håland.

I am finally reading Stephen Graham Jones's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. It is awesome! @sgj.bsky.social

I am finally reading Stephen Graham Jones's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. It is awesome!

My current reading: • H U Gumbrecht, Lives of the Voice (2025) • S G Jones, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (2025) • T W Laqueur, The Work of the Dead (2015) • B Roeck, The World at First Light (2025) • R Sennett, The Performer (2024) • A Walden, Den vinduerliga ordningen (2024)