One year ago. Today’s headlines report many Angelenos (particularly on the east side) still unable to return home or rebuild. The land is too toxic, soaked with lead and asbestos. Another instance where longing for “everything to return to normal” feels like being mocked by our own psyches.

I see Greenland is back in the news...

New post. Trying to bring together the events in Venezuela, the current shape of the spectacle, one of my favorite albums from the 1990s, how little has changed since its release, and the torpor of history. I’d say enjoy but that'd be ghoulish.

Socialism of the spectacle...

Leone's birthday today.

And here it is...

Back from break. What did I miss?

Let's fucking gooooooo...

Haven't been on socials lately for many reasons: travel, applying to PhD programs, exciting personal news, the holidays… and, honestly, the need for a much-earned break. I'll more consistent in the coming year. In the meantime, here’s James Ensor’s The Bad Doctors (1892).

"Krukowski zooms in on everyday life to such a minute degree that we can almost separate the various shapes and sounds that make it up." @ubupamplemousse.bsky.social on Damon Krukowski’s “Why Sound Matters.” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/sound-epistemology/

My review of Damon Krukowski's excellent book Why Sound Matters is up at @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social.

Last night I gave a short presentation at DSA-LA Hollywood Labor's showing of Dawn of the Dead. Some remarks on zombies, late capitalism, early capitalism, and, of course, malls.

Two, three, many Kent States...

Shameless plug for my presentation at the upcoming @histmat.bsky.social conference in London. Talking art, (post?)modernism, and a useful methodology for radicals.

They’ve arrested a suspect for starting the most destructive fires in Los Angeles history, and I’m not sure it’s anything other than completely futile. (Also includes a bit of a preview for an upcoming piece on the wildfires in Salvage.)

My own personal memory of Jane Goodall: she spoke at the commencement for the graduating class ahead of me at university. My class got Billy Joel, who, as he duly reminded us, didn’t graduate high school. If I had an academic inferiority complex well before, this didn’t help. RIP

This poem by Assata Shakur has been getting shared round a lot since her passing a few days ago. For good reason. It's quite lovely. #RIP

With Eric Adams out of the race, I'm resharing the piece I wrote about Mamdani and the forces that must be organized for “socialist governance” to be successful. Paywall removed, but if you want to subscribe and chuck me a few monthly dollars, I won’t argue.

What I wrote about Kneecap for Locust Review as the charges against Mo Chara -- now dismissed, just this morning -- were brought. #Kneecap #Tiocfaidhárlá #rap

Fucking yes.

“It is only for those without hope that hope is given.” ― Walter Benjamin, who committed suicide 85 years ago today. #WalterBenjamin #criticaltheory

It's been a year since Fredric Jameson died. This is what I wrote after hearing the news. I'd say it's held up well. #CriticalTheory #literaturesky

No matter how bad things get in my life, at least I won't be traveling to the UK until well AFTER the Oasis reunion.

Dropped today. Fantastic album.

Most days, the mud that rests between Ross Douthat's ears would be the subject of gleeful derision. Not today, given the circumstances. Much as he may "disagree with the vice president's framing," he's clearly giving credence to it.

Same…

Scene from a weekend.

Drive. #LosAngeles #freeway #traffic

It won't stop Trump or the right from attacking the left, but the more we find out about the suspect arrested for shooting Kirk, the harder it gets to mark him as leftist. At best it seems he has the same kind of contradictory mishmash in his head we saw with Luigi. Writing on bullets and all.

Because there was no way I was going to be able to get on with things unless I wrote about it. Because it’s likely they’ll use Kirk’s death to declare a war on anything faintly ringing of a life lived with dignity. #writing #AmericanViolence

Many condemn political violence as an attack on the foundations of a democratic society. But we also have to ask why we have political violence in the first place. Surely it is an expression of our social alienation, weak social bonds, and lack of democracy itself. It is as much a symptom as cause.

The industry has found a lucrative niche in overplaying Lennon and Yoko's far-left phase for a while now. This piece does a really good job showing how deeply conservative this image is, despite appearances. Though honestly, it's pretty hard to say anything that costs this much can be "radical."

Something something America's Years of Lead something something...

I recently watched a stage production of Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" here in LA. Marshall Berman's take on the Faust story, how he related it to the promises and deceptions of modernity, was at the front of my thoughts the whole time. Always a revelation to read.

If the protests defending Bolsonaro are indeed larger than those against him (take that with a grain of salt), then it reflects how his imprisonment will be far from the last word in all this. Particularly with the last of the Latin American "pink tide" receding.

Gladwell's always been a dundering ballbag, ready to write things that seem insightful and daring but are in fact just the same warmed over tripe as every other middle of the road columnist. This latest pivot is part of it. He’ll probably get a $2 million book advance for it.

We should expect more stories like this as millennials start to inherit their parents' wealth. Not most of them of course, but enough that we notice. Class vs. generation, all that. In any event, always look past the skinny jeans and stick-and-poke tattoos. Particularly when they're on your boss.

Cathartic.

Trying something new here. It’s bizarre enough, not to mention more than a bit grim. The first notes toward what will hopefully result in a novel. #LiteratureSky #BookSky

Skyline. Downtown LA. Late summer.

Been trying to figure out what I have to say about Pulp’s More all damn summer. This gets pretty close.

I’m 43 today. If you want to get me something you can subscribe to my Substack (trying to build up my paying subscribers as they seem to have plateaued lately).

Regarding what I wrote for @jacobinmag.bsky.social in defense of public broadcasting, consider this. An interview with Herbert Marcuse, patiently and frankly discussing #philosophy, Marxism, and revolution. This is a public right. Anyone who denies this does not believe in a democratic culture.

It’s still a bit weird to me that my book has a bigger readership in Brazil than in the English-speaking world. The good people at @sobinfluencia.bsky.social have done well in this regard. This is the second chapter of the Portuguese edition of Shake the City.

When I wrote this last week, the upcoming 80th anniversary of #Hiroshima was, oddly enough, not on my mind at all. History often makes your argument for you. #filmsky #literaturesky alexanderbillet.substack.com/p/it-will-be...

There's a plastic spoon in your skull. A mountain of sandwich baggies at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. A bar-headed goose is flying near Everest. It doesn't know what "exposome" is. Or that its kidneys are failing. #plasticsky #exposome #pollution