Few Chicago DJs have garnered the kind of mythical status of Lee Collins, who issued few recordings of his own but whose skills behind the turntables earned him international praise. I talked to eight different people about his life and legacy for the Reader.

my latest is expanding on the observation that your view of the politics of opposition to the administration depend largely on your view of the election (gift link)

It's becoming difficult to hide that a major purpose of the Trump administration is siphoning tax revenues from Blue states and redirecting them into subsidies for Red states. At what point does this become intolerable?

love this old cover for frankenstein featuring the creature hitting his best come hither pose

I also have to go to the doctor for antibiotics because my stye won't heal and I also burned my eyelid from my eye mask being too hot 💆🏽

My new fancy laundry detergent arrived which means I get to wash all my sheets, towels, and clothes today to try it out 🥳

this is the third time Donald Trump has shut down the government while his party controls both houses of Congress

The 2025 experience

The GOP controls the whole Federal government. They have to fund it. If they don't, it's their fault. [see how easy that is].

the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!

We're unlikely to see much of an exodus from YouTube even among the part of the artist community that finds this deeply problematic on free speech grounds. That's because YouTube makes it deeply difficult to get your music off the platform; it's much more challenging than with Spotify.

A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

SCOOP / UPDATE — Disney saw more than 1.7 million total paid streaming cancelations during the period 9/17-9/23, a Disney source confirms to me. The total includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN.

"In some places, French postal workers now pick up prescriptions, return library books, and deliver flowers. Last year, only twenty eight per cent of La Poste’s revenue came from sending mail." Services can evolve in positive ways to meet new and growing needs.

Tariffs on name-brand medications are going to be catastrophic for so many people. Many of those medications are already obscenely expensive with no generic version available, or if there are generic ones, they may not be compatible with people.

Press coverage of this has, so far, been bad — a bunch of outlets seem to have googled "what is a generic medication" and then wrote their piece. Yes, most Rx filled in the US = generics, but the ~10% that aren't? A signficant portion of those are life-saving meds with no substitutes.

Too many video games coming out right now I simply cannot choose what to get into next

Forgot I took the lid off my container of yogurt and stuck my hand into the goop

it's just a fact. you can't have a global hegemon who every few years is at risk of electing a lunatic government that will undo treaties, start murdering people in international waters on a whim, stop aid programs, and slap wanton tariffs on the world capriciously. we have no credibility anymore

Fall is here which means playing The Field's discography nonstop for the next few months 🧖🏽

Survived back-to-back wedding weekends in Portland and Los Angeles and I absolutely do not want to get on a flight for the next month

It's a basic point, but one that needs to be repeated: If right-wingers and their views were popular, they would not be so desperate to control mass media & social media nor to use government power to silence everyone else, and they wouldn't need oligarchs pumping billions into amplifying them.

barely legal olive oil

One of the key ways you refuse to comply with fascism is by becoming even louder and more fearless in supporting vulnerable people. You SHOW that you are unwilling to throw the "undesirables" under the bus if only for self-preservation because under fascism you will also become undesirable one day.

i don’t think people on bluesky understand the severity of this situation. i woke up to literally hundreds of texts from friends and family thinking about either moving back home to india or applying to other countries for jobs. this includes me.

The widely accepted narrative that Trump "chickened out" on Chicago is completely incorrect. ICE's incursions are getting worse here every day.

Let's respond to hate with love. Let's respond to love with big love. To those who are anti-transgender, Chiitan isn't asking you to understand transgender people. I ask that you quietly watch over us. Transgender people just want to be happy with the people they love🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

Trump’s Department of Education says it will partner with right-wing think tanks and organizations such as Turning Point USA to develop a new curriculum for “patriotic education” in American classrooms.

Every day I ????????????

Are you kidding me right now???????

A 520k fanfic has had my heart and soul for the last 7 years and when I managed to get one of my friends to read and love it too 🥹 LIFE CHANGING

Walked past two ⚪ women having a conversation about ranch dressing and not wanting generic bottles or something while I boarded my flight. I wish I could make this shit up.

In the 2010s, this country's elites were thrown onto social platforms with everyone else and could finally read what we all think about them and it caused them so much psychic damage that they decided to destroy both the internet and democracy to make sure nothing like it ever happened again.

People complaining that the Coachella lineup is rough for 2026 and it's like, of course it is? Look at the political climate right now! It's significantly more expensive for artists to enter the US due to visa changes so they can't bring their full crew/teams with them! It's not worth coming here!!

Factory resetting my laptop so I can take advantage of my buildings semi-annual e-recylcing and finally be rid of this monstrosity once and for all

*checks the news* Jfc

The Free Speech President has now pulled two of the three major late night hosts off the air through threats and intimidation because of their jokes. Obviously I’m behind Jimmy Kimmel 100% in the face of this fascist garbage. Speech against this admin isn’t just being chilled, they’re freezing it.

generally speaking, and with the glaring exception of november 2024, the more directly democratic an institution has been, the better it has checked Trump (eg grand and petit juries); the more elite and insular, the less effective (the Senate, the Supreme Court, big business)

Packing two outfits for a wedding because I cannot decide which fit looks better also it will be 90°F and I am no longer mentally available for that hot of weather

"They're politicians, what are they supposed to do? Literally fight in the streets?" Unashamed to say this made me cry.

The Department of Justice has removed a study showing that white supremacist and far-right violence “continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism” in the United States. 🔗 www.404media.co/doj-deletes-...

A friend reposted this by @zellieimani.bsky.social from 2020 and it remains apt: “For the oppressed, peace is the absence of oppression. But for the oppressor, peace is the absence of resistance."

a thing about fascism is that grievance-driven mediocre losers who could not function in literally any other setting are capable of dominating governmental apparatuses, and that certainly seems to be what is happening here

Today Raven Geary of @unraveledpress.com reports on the spate of kidnappings and violence against immigrants in the Chicago area over the past week or so including a man who was shot to death by ICE on Friday. www.welcometohellworld.com/theyre-kidna...

🫠 fuck off forever, data brokers

My Portland wedding friends asked me to be one of their witnesses to which I said yes and then yelled at them for making me cry 🥹😭