Back in the early ‘80s, I was quite a fan of a musiczine called OP — and apparently even wrote a few reviews for them. Eventually the periodical halfway evolved into Option, which had some semblance of business sense. OP, in contrast, just haphazardly threw darts at the wall. Which was way better.

It's insane that "I recognize you from porn!" is somehow supposed to be something the performer should be ashamed of.

Out of curiosity I entered this prompt into ChatGPT and of the five reasons it gave me, two were that Seattle has the 1 seed. Same take twice. Great stuff.

Rumiko Takahashi - creator of Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, and many more - visited the "Art of Manga" exhibit in San Francisco and left behind a memento!

Watching Sailor Moon S while working, and the animation improved a LOT.

Listening to the album Sea Shanties by High Tide and ahhhh late 60s/early 70s prog/psych/metal might be the coolest music ever made

Condé Nast should just sell Pitchfork already, it's embarrassing.

Love staying up all night thinking about how much I hate my job

I did this interview a few months back, before I finished watching the Black Clover anime or starting my Patreon account, but everything we talk about (anime fan and industry-wise alike) is still relevant! Check it out here: youtu.be/b1ZvKFF6ojI

"Waiting For Britney Spears" was included in this smart and damning Chal Ravens essay about the '00s tabloid era in the LRB. Honored to be the catalyzing force for Britney and K-Fed's reality show tour de force to receive the proper critical reassessment it deserves. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Are we?

As the kids say, some news: www.thelastcriticfilm.com

As someone who grew up with a father who’s passion is reading, and always encouraged me to read: it never stops, there will always be words you’ve never fucking heard and don’t understand and that’s a good thing, learning what they mean and how they sound is good

A day late but who cares - best thing she (and Narada for that matter) ever did. Also pretty much defines "girlpop pre-chorus".

RIP John Forte. "Every step tango'd, your beef don't concern me/I'm eating mangoes in Trinidad with attorneys" is a perfect couplet. Rappers gotta stop dying in their 50s.

Aneurysm

Pauline Kael legitimately has terrible taste in movies! She was just a much better writer than pretty much all of her (male) peers. She violently hates almost all universally acclaimed movies and then will praise just absolute dogshit. Which, like, "same girl."

1993

The almost perfect magazine for Bluesky

I love looking at ten thousand porno pictures in a row of women who don't exist giving Jacob's Ladder face.

Bob Weir, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and co-founder of the Grateful Dead who for decades was one of the driving forces behind the revered band and their legacy, has died at age 78. Story: www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

avengers doomsday (supposedly) having a longer running time than the irishman is so funny

Rest in power, James Bernard - the foundational hip hop critic, journalist and editor and a longtime member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s nominating committee

Béla Tarr visiting a store in Peru selling pirated DVDs and posing with the owner and bootlegs of his own work, one of the realest ones, RIP

Whew, 2026 was quite a year.

Well what else are you going to call an album of Duane Eddy covering songs from the Jazz Age?

Maybe the best sentence writer who ever lived. Unparalleled in so many aspects.

Drake Accused of Funding Fake Spotify Streams in Latest Gambling Lawsuit

Listening to Plasmatics and thinking about how sick they were and how they should be way more well known and respected as crazy weirdos of punk and metal. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuGX...

Half-convinced that MTV itself is spreading all these fake "MTV ends its music channels" to drive back interest in their existing music channels

Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you - one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews , just paintings. 1. Johannes Vermeer, 1666-1668, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna

one of the things I griped about a couple days ago was how much the mythos of punk hinged on the idea that rock needed to be saved in the mid '70s because surly teens presumably couldn't get drunk and start trouble while listening to Elton John or ELO

Happy New Year to them 🎊

fav songs/albums, 2025

Today is the last day that you can repost this image

RIP

Here's my list as it stands on the last day of 2025. Great year for Chicago bands!

My 10 favorite songs of 2025. This was difficult! But when I pare down a list I pick songs I’ll want to hear years from now. It’s not about contemporary impact… it’s about longevity. These are 2025 songs that will follow me into the future. Including Mariah Carey, Baxter Dury and Addison Rae.

Donna Summer would've celebrated a birthday: a polymath who could belt disco, scream like a rock queen, and write a country #1. wp.me/pzXeC-gAT

Happy new year! My alphabetical top tens and a list of singles up on the blog: danthecritic.weebly.com

the dawn of british folk horror

"In the years after her husband John’s death, the harpist discovered a sound all her own, a jazz rooted in acts of spirit and will." The Visions of Alice Coltrane:

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

It's from Odetta Sings Dylan, from March 1965, where she absolutely kills it on a dozen Dylan songs - and her version of "Tambourine Man" came out a month before Dylan's own.