I saw this video of a Vietnam vet in the fur coat yelling at ICE and thought to myself, "this is missing something," before I realized, "Ah, of course, the Ether instrumental. It's so obvious."

Rep. @AOC: I understand that Vance believes shooting a young mother of three in the face three times is an acceptable America that he wants to live in, and I do not. That is a fundamental difference between Vance and I. I do not believe that the American people should be assassinated in the street.

NEW: Jonathan Ross is former National Guard and Border Patrol and has been part of ICE's SWAT equivalent, a team leader overseeing FBI, ATF, and IRS agents, and a firearms instructor, according to testimony obtained by WIRED. This is from @hudsongiles.bsky.social and me:

his name is Jonathan Ross and he shouldn't get a good night's sleep for the rest of his life www.startribune.com/ice-agent-wh...

If you're looking for some Bowie mixes to celebrate his birthday this afternoon, I've got you covered: figgsrock2.substack.com/p/happy-birt...

lol a new day has dawned and these feckless losers are letting me down again

Wrote about ★

At the center of it all, and at the end. "Blackstar": bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2026/01/08/b...

If officials can’t bring themselves to arrest someone who is captured on camera from multiple angles killing someone in cold blood, they should just step aside so someone with a backbone can lead

Arrest the murderer and arrest Bovino. Not complicated.

This show is great and I concur with all of Alan's points.

The Minnesota police should arrest the shooter and force a confrontation with the feds. Enough. Enough.

Lol how can you tell this administration is lying to you? Because oil hasn't been shipped in actual barrels in over a century www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/b...

I was very honored to be a guest DJ on EastVillageRadio.com on Saturday playing some poppier prog rock on No Pussyfooting with Margaret the Prog Lady. Check it out on Mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/EastVillageR...

Schumer is so profoundly unfit for the moment that it’s impossible to overstate.

How NYT describes lawless Nazi pedophiles kidnapping a head of state:

The New York Times and Washington Post learned of the impending commission of a major crime and did nothing

Another massive playlist, and I'm guest hosting a radio show on East Village Radio tomorrow from noon until 2pm! Details within: open.substack.com/pub/figgsroc...

WHAT IS HAPPENING? MTV did not go anywhere!? MTV is still showing videos on its music video channels (Taylor Swift is on two of them, right now, and Bush is on the other)

Ex mayor Eric Adams ✌🏻

Zohran Mamdani Refuses To Share Plan For Making Rich Richer https://theonion.com/zohran-mamdani-refuses-to-share-plan-for-making-rich-richer/

Welcome to <checks notes> Monday. The end of the year to me means going through all the songs I Shazam'ed over the previous 362 days and writing about it: figgsrock2.substack.com/p/the-best-s...

Apparently I needed a refresher in the “don’t read the comments” rule because hot damn, people in the world of Facebook do not know when there’s a jokey and sarcastic post in front of their face.

"Brick" isn't the only must listen to song on December 26th. Read (and listen) about it here! figgsrock2.substack.com/p/another-lo...?

Murders down 20% in a year where all the losing candidates in the mayoral race took up "the city is so unsafe" as a talking point. We really need to start framing such talk as "people are trying to make money off of lying to you about this"

My favorite album of 2025 was by @superchunk.bsky.social. Check out a mix featuring songs from my Top 10 LPs and reissues here: figgsrock2.substack.com/p/2025s-top-...

Zohran Mamdani scares the ADL more than these guys and I think it's fair to ask why

This happens every day with a collective shrug from most in NYC - particularly the cops and elected officials - while every single crime that happens in the subway is put under a microscope.

Brooklynites looking for a fun free NYE out—join me at Hinterlands at 739 Church Ave in Kensington starting at 9pm that night. I’ll be DJing and playing requests all night. www.instagram.com/reel/DSatLWB...

Four helicopters showing up between 6 and 6:03 am to hover around a three alarm fire 3 1/2 blocks from your house is not a good sign for the rest of Wednesday.

instead of reposting that horrible screenshot of that horrible man's post, consider sharing the incredible stories about what sweet, thoughtful man Rob Reiner was and flooding the feed with them

Just to get ahead of this: Print the post out and bring it to the next Mike Johnson presser. You already know what his move will be. There’s no excuse to not be prepared for it.

Maybe you could use a couple of gooofy playlist after this horrible weekend? If so, I am here to provide them: open.substack.com/pub/figgsroc...

The PBS Dick Van Dyke documentary is absolutely chock full of rare clips. And *everything* is in its proper aspect ratio, not stretched, which is absolutely VITAL in any documentary about film or TV history. This is smart, well-researched, thoroughly reported, and absolutely engaging. Watch it!

I was at the Rock Hall induction when Prince did this solo that's on the #xpncountdown, and his guitar was louder than EVERYTHING else. The released version tones it down in the mix, which is a shame.

H/T to @anildash.com for sharing this yesterday, which I had no idea existed online. Been a huge fan of the studio version from her 1980 album, but this might even be better. I've had to watch it three times today! youtu.be/F4JeT0zpgCo?...

This video had me doubled over laughing.

Any Philly people that can help out?

This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.

I write a lot of advance obits for the day job, and I felt a of wave a sadness when I had to prep one for Raul Malo in September. And having to upload it today brought another wave of sadness. F cancer.

The thing about the average New Yorker’s objection to open gangway cars - that they’ll make the subway less safe because “bad people” can move between the cars - is that people already go between the cars all the time anyway. I’m tired of being held hostage in the city by people who are afraid of it

If you enjoy my probably much too long playlists, I'd suggest subscribing to my free Substack this month as I've got ones lined up for every week through the end of the year. figgsrock2.substack.com

I didn't know this Carly Simon Bob Marley cover...and I wish I still didn't. #xpncountdown

@kallao.bsky.social Oh man, that Two Nice Girls cover was played a whole lot in the mid 90s "City Folk" days of a certain public radio station I will no longer mention by name since they laid off one of my closest friends this year. Hearing it gave me flashbacks to that time.

@kallao.bsky.social So where you worked previously never played the “rock mix” of that Shinedown? That’s the version I’m more used to.

This goes so incredibly hard.

it's all I get, now, a dozen or more Medicare scam calls a day. Democrats could have made this a priority & stolen millions of annoyed voters because it's an actual, tangible thing they can relate to as an improvement in their lives but it's not a "kitchen table issue"

This came to me in a dream

This is obviously total thuggery, but, in my limited capacity as a short-lived former letter carrier for USPS: it is also a completely empty bluff. Fucking good luck to Amazon doing last mile delivery to every address in the US.