The Fundamental Rule of Karaoke (and Also Maybe of Life) On Vulnerability and Giving It Your All

New post on karaoke and djing and being vulnerable in aesthetic community.

photo of a hard taco from taco bell with a shell made from doritos. the shell-shaped wrapper says "Taco Bell: TACO on the inside. Doritos on the outside."

of COURSE there's a technology the left is excited about

Say goodbye to seeing your life as a big narrative and embrace the wisdom of thinking of life as a bunch of experimental eras!

Absolutely loved this piece.

The Eras Tour Through Life Embrace the Asteroid

Calling all Swiftie philosophers and also everyone else: here is a little essay on using personal 'eras' to structure our lives. No need for grand life narratives or pernicious identity labels--just adopt an era and then move on. (h/t to @floresophize.bsky.social)

open.substack.com/pub/nickrigg...

Mom & I Cover Creep By Radiohead (she is a classical Indian singer 🕉️) YouTube video by Avie Sheck

This duet cover of Radiohead's "Creep", between a son and his Shastriya Sangeet classically trained mother, is the mash-up I didn't know how much I needed in my life. Totally spontaneous sobbing may have taken place.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZoH...

photo of Pam Bondi testifying in the foreground as a group of 7 women and 1 men raise their hands

Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground

Punjustified On Puns and Hope

PUNJUSTIFIED -- A meditation on puns and punners.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

The Dudette abides.

Dear Author Martin Riker Whose Novel I Loved and No I Am Not Fishing for a Reply A sort of review of the excellent novel The Guest Lecture (Grove, 2022) by Martin Riker

I loved Martin Riker’s novel The Guest Lecture. There are a few novels that make you feel utterly stuck in someone’s head—perhaps the best is Fosse’s epic Septology—and Riker’s novel nails the claustrophobic feeling, laced with a too-familiar academic anxiety. Here's a sort-of review at GET SOME.

Glad to see this out!!

Frozen 2 > Frozen 1 fight me

philpapers.org/archive/RIGA...

Are you swimming in year-end lists? Are you inundated with rankings of books, albums, movies, and all sorts of aesthetic goods? Are you grumpy about it or unsure how you should feel? Do you maybe feel a little urge to issue your *own* ranking? Fear not friend. I have just the paper for you! [link ↓]

Can't Kill the Vibe: Against Hope in Aesthetic Discourse Abstract. In a recent paper, Nat Hansen and Zed Adams argue for an aesthetic discourse-governing principle they call Hope of Convergence. Inspired by the w

Another life goal achieved: getting the word “party-pooping” published in a 150-year-old philosophy journal. "Can't Kill the Vibe: Against Hope in Aesthetic Discourse" is now published online. doi.org/10.1093/mind...

My paper “Aesthetic Value and the Practice of Aesthetic Valuing” won the 2026 Arthur Danto Prize, and there will be a symposium on the paper at the upcoming Eastern APA with @rkubala.bsky.social and @kennywalden.bsky.social. I hope my fellow conferencefolk will join us!

Seems right 😎

New paper of mine—I’ve been a huge fan of Rob Hopkins’s paper “How to Be a Pessimist about Aesthetic Testimony” (J. Phil 2011) since it came out. This is my attempt to slightly tweak and polish his “Unuseability Pessimism” to harness its full power.

That shirt isn’t exactly giving ‘left wing nut’.

Can I vote?

Just wanted to share this wonderful news: The Lebowitz Prize went to aesthetics for the first time in its history. Congratulations to @domlopes.bsky.social and Samantha! I can't wait to see what they do together!

www.pbk.org/2025-lebowit...

I can swim like a grasfl dolphin can you? by my daughter Kate at age six

The Awesomeness of Bad Art

I love bad art.

Gather some friends and create some bad music. Cruise in a car covered with graffiti doodles. Hand a five-year-old crayons and free time and see what weirdness emerges.

Something worth celebrating happens. Although the art is "bad" in one sense -- 1/

You’re reading so many great books!!

I'm lucky to have them as philosophy-buds, even though they're wrong. And there's more work to do!

A highlight of last year was getting to talk with them about these issues, once in NYC and again in Sweden. I have learned a lot from them and our discussions have been, for me, ideal philosophy: fun, challenging, friendly, respectful, insightful, and productive.

Nick Riggle, Can’t Kill the Vibe: Against Hope in Aesthetic Discourse - PhilPapers In a recent paper, Nat Hansen and Zed Adams argue for an aesthetic discourse governing principle they call Hope. Inspired by the work of Stanley Cavell, they argue that when we ...

New paper forthcoming in Mind--my response to Nat Hansen @nathansen.bsky.social and Zed Adams's paper on aesthetic discourse (“The Hope of Agreement: Against Vibing Accounts of Aesthetic Judgment," Mind, 2023).

philpapers.org/rec/RIGCKT?f...

I support this message!

Also I got to meet Karen Stohr and Will Fleisher! You’re lucky to have such great philosophers as colleagues!!

It was great. Sympathetic and thoughtful comments from Jonathan Fine and Jamie Ryerson and a really fun discussion. Afterward, we went out to lunch with Ryerson and he told us more about Sydney Morgenbesser than I knew was possible.

Hats off to Alex for organizing an excellent conference!!