This week at The Carryall: in the audio interview roundtable "Thinking Through the Black Panther Party," Joe Street discusses his book *Black Revolutionaries: A History of the Black Panther Party* with @randalljstephens.bsky.social and @julianchambliss.bsky.social. thecarryall.org/thinking-thr...

New #culturerover: Flipping—are federalism & localism reversing in the USA? www.michaeljkramer.net/flipping/

New #culturerover: Nothin’ On—does the Boss’s cable-tv era ennui still hold true? www.michaeljkramer.net/nothin-on/

We begin *The Carryall* Issue 02: Spring/Summer 2026 with Scott Saul (@scottsaul.bsky.social)'s essay "Learning From Jorge Drexler (@jorgedrexler.bsky.social)," which asks what Latin American humanism might offer US cultural and intellectual history. thecarryall.org/learning-fro...

The Carryall Issue 02: Spring/Summer 2026 begins. Editor's Note, Tortoise Defeats Hare, from @michaeljkramer.bsky.social. thecarryall.org/tortoise-def...

200 billion websites and nothin’ on.

Wait, did the Supreme Court schedule the birthright citizenship case on April Fool's Day on purpose?

"They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob." - FDR, 1936 millercenter.org/the-presiden...

Down with excellencies! Up with competencies!

Does anyone know more about the band Butter Swamp? Boise, Idaho to Medellin, Colombia?! h/t @saving-throw.bsky.social @thewiremagazine.bsky.social @resonancefm.bsky.social butterswamp69.bandcamp.com/track/the-at...

Hey fuzzy face! youtu.be/AGsKPE3dk4k?...

Will always remember Madeleine Grynsztejn walking by my cubicle at the @mcachicago.bsky.social publishing dept on the way to the elevator & I overheard her say to an older, male, white-haired donor, "Well you just have to give the museum $10 million!" Strong! www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/17/m...

New #culturerover: One Cartoon After Another, history gets untethered in One Battle After Another & we are left with the problems of caricature. www.michaeljkramer.net/one-cartoon-...

New #culturerover: The Flimsiest, the cynical faux-realism of The Brutalist. www.michaeljkramer.net/the-flimsiest/

New review essay: Hearing Thinking—What Musicology Can Offer Intellectual History, on Brigid Cohen’s *Musical Migration and Imperial New York* & Michael Gallope’s *The Musician as Philosopher,* @susih.bsky.social s-usih.org/2026/02/hear...

@sunybrockport.bsky.social Spring 2026 Public History Webinar Series. sunybrockporthistorydept.net/sunyhistoryl...

Does anyone know the name of this Civil Rights activist who appears in the Eyes on the Prize documentary being interviewed by a reporter. "My freedom is very much entangled with the freedom of every other man. So, I’m fighting for my own freedom here," he remarks. But he is not named in transcripts.

New #culturerover: The Play of Levels, hypothesizing cultural criticism in US intellectual history. www.michaeljkramer.net/the-play-of-...

Not the bots!

Why are there so few (none?) news stories about individual ICE agents themselves? Who they are, what motivates them, any moral dilemmas they face? Why aren’t protesters trying to get some to speak out?

New #culturerover: The Dissonance of Dissidence—Theater Apparatus, Václav Havel’s Protest @ MuCCC/Rochester Fringe Festival @rochesterfringe.bsky.social, 10 september 2025. www.michaeljkramer.net/the-dissonan...

New #culturerover: Outstretched—Commotion Dance reaches out in Opus @ MuCC/Rochester Fringe Festival @rochesterfringe.bsky.social, 9 September 2025. www.michaeljkramer.net/outstretched/

New #culturerover: Those Times of Revolution—In Los Lobos’s 1996 “Revolution,” the words say one thing, the music another. www.michaeljkramer.net/those-times

I once again defer to experts, but shouldn't the Democrats message right now be twofold?

Don’t get all the hand-wringing by Democratic leaders about upcoming potential government shutdown. Isn’t it simpler? “The other party currently holds power. We’re the opposition party. Let them solve the issue. If they can’t then elect us next time.” Make the distinction clearer.

Why is the phrase “the juice isn’t worth the squeeze” or variations of it suddenly ubiquitous? A few years ago everyone had “bucket lists,” now we are in an era of diminishing returns?

New #culturerover: Get Out the Way, Old Dan Tucker returns as ICE agent? www.michaeljkramer.net/get-out-the-...

Question for political operatives, activists, and historians. I keep wondering why the Democratic Party's message is not simpler and bolder: the Trumpublicans want to kill your grandma and your children; we want to keep them alive. Why are they not saying something like that these days?

Get out the way Old Dan Tucker. www.facebook.com/reel/4151252...

The closing of the BBC Sounds app is very sad. Way more restricted access to BBC Radio overseas now. Part of a larger closing down of public media (and global publics)?

Great conversation here between Paul Gulroy and Steve McQueen. youtu.be/YHW2HHaEl2g?...

Move over Zizek. Step aside Walter Benjamin. Take a bath Barthes. Best cultural criticism & analysis going today, in a format for contemporary times. youtube.com/@meditations...

Call for a ban on the word "impactful" unless you are planning to punch someone (preferably a Nazi).

Over at @newyorker.com, the always-sharp Vinson Cunningham has a nice piece on those super-weird Apple AI ads, www.newyorker.com/culture/crit..., something I was thinking a lot about too in the Culture Rover post Phonies, www.michaeljkramer.net/phonies/. #culturerover

Jasper Johns, Two Flags (Black) (crop), 1970-72. For more, see "We Carried You In Our Arms, on Independence Day—images & sounds for July 4th." www.michaeljkramer.net/we-carried-y...

New #culturerover: More Than a Face—the gaze & the visage. Unmasking masking in the 2020s. www.michaeljkramer.net/more-than-a-...

“Don’t hate the black, don’t hate the white. If you get bitten, just hate the bite.” youtu.be/u8r32Scvbds

New #culturerover: Brushing Against the Body, on The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970–2020, @mcachicago.bsky.social www.michaeljkramer.net/brushing-aga...

Clowns.

Joan Baez & Mike Seeger backstage at the 1964 Berkeley Folk Music Festival Jubilee Concert. From the Berkeley Folk Music Festival Collection, bfmf.net. #bfmf

Political strategists smarter than me, I don’t understand why Democrats aren’t saying everywhere, constantly: the ruling party right now cannot be trusted (they want to kill your grandma & your babies); they can’t get it done (not enough atc’s, no goods coming in at ports). Is there a reason not?

New #culturerover: X Musks the Spot—on Jill Lepore’s sci-fi history of Elon Musk. www.michaeljkramer.net/x-musks-the-...