Caught Bruce Springsteen's homecoming show in Newark last night, part of a tour designed as a musical cavalcade of protest against the rise of American authoritarianism. I have to say that as a brash and sincere act of dissent, it was one of the most genuinely patriotic things I've witnessed.
God dammit
a picture of my five-year-old son sitting in a patch of bluebells.
where does the time go
A street sign declaring that I am indeed on Fountain Avenue
"Take Fountain" is still the best way to get somewhere in Hollywood all these decades later, thank you Bette Davis for your eternal wisdom
As a Democrat, I now feel cleaner; vaguely ineffectual and in constant argument with every other Democrat, sure, but definitely cleaner.
The Harpercollins cover for Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff's 'Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.'
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff's *Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed* seeks to describe the ideology that gave rise to Elon Musk, the social forces that gave rise to that ideology, and the terrible future that ideology seeks to bring about:
www.harpercollins.com/products/mus...
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The Harpercollins cover for Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff's 'Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.'
Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff's "Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed"; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2025/04/21/t...
#Pluralistic
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Grave of Ezra pound. His 2 line poem --In the station 0f the Metro-- "The apparition of these faces in the crowd: / Petals on a wet, black bough".
"Beef stew" boiled until everything tastes quite vaguely of salt. Boiled spinach, again vaguely tasting of salt. Boiled root vegetables, again etc. Boiled everything.
God bless my mom, she changed after I left home and did things differently & better.
Ah! And the Torment Nexus takes on a deeper meaning.
Remember, "torment" also means "an engine of war worked by torsion, for hurling stones, darts, or other missiles."
Just in case you don't have any ideas for how to torment him.
The books of John Muir — born #onthisday 1838 — are known for their scientific acumen as well as their rhapsodic flights. Terry Gifford explores Muir’s engagement with what he called “God’s big show” — publicdomainreview.tumblr.com/post/8145139...
Lyrics from Godspeed You! Black Emperor's The Dead Flag Blues 1997
kiss me, you're beautiful - these are truly the last days
*Also, unlike in the older "Holy Fire" novel, the life-extension technology wouldn't actually work well. Instead, it would have a frantic antivax feeling to it, mostly demagogic smoke-and-mirrors
*There would be some ground-wars in the book. Machines killing young, drafted guys by the hecatomb
Oh, hey, how cool is this: When the Moon Hits Your Eye is the winner of the inaugural Astra Book Award in the category of Best Science Fiction Novel! Congratulations to all the other winners as well!
whatever.scalzi.com/2026/04/21/w...
*Y'know, I haven't posted this on XTwitter (which is where Jailbroken Criminal Grok actually lives), because I'm aware that the XTwitter user-base will pounce on this with sharp cries of glee
*They'd be dropshipping quarts of hand-made kitchen explosives in maybe a week
*The current atmosphere is always a blip, but I never do the "optimism" and "pessimism" thing. It's like some historian being "optimistic" or "pessimistic" about the year 1847. It's an unnecessary attitude that gets in the way of understanding
*In the tech world you always see guys moaning in the "Trough of Disillusionment" because they had this Babbit-esque booster notion that they had to be full of "pep" and "optimism"
*You get "disillusioned" when you choose to embrace illusion. It's a foolish choice, like worshipping Tarot cards
*Speaking of life-extension, I just had a complete physical here at age 72 and it turns out I'm in remarkably good health. I wouldn't say that I'm "optimistic" about that, but maybe I'll choke it back with the incessant skeeting and actually do something laborious
*Ever check these schemes out in technical detail? Peter Thiel is the Rasputin of the Trump regime, but he didn't make up the idea of living a long time
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuse...
*A remarkable guy, William F. Jenkins. He used to invent special-FX machines
*Also he wrote "Smart Set" stories for H. L. Mencken, which was kinda the epitome of "smart" for that era
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_...
*No, that's something Aubrey de Grey would do. Aubrey de Grey is a fully-committed, intensely focused British scientist-eccentric. He's plenty weird, but he's not some conniving Trumpist oligarch bread-head
*He wouldn't be one even if he lived 300 years
*Yeah, sure <nods>
*You wanna live a long time: stop breathing cigarettes and fossil fuel fumes, and get some vaccinations
*I'm starting to fret about becoming 95 or 100. That might be an actual, practical prospect. What the hell will I do with myself
*That was in the pre-Reagan-Thatcher era when "society" existed
*I can remember "society," and I can remember that my attitude toward it was a very strong bohemian urge to drop out of it
*I imagined that I would take up *reading.* "When I'm old, I'll sit and ponder those famous literary classics"
*Turns out they're mostly written by *kids.*. Thirty-somethings, forty-somethings. Mere children
Yeah, this is going to be a narrative.
Reading the back-and-forth on Olly Robbins's testimony and I have thoughts.
I'm alternating bits of overdue admin and household chores with brief bursts of BG3 and honestly it gets me through but I would so much rather be having lunch and thinking about my next book... bah humbug
The cover of a pamphlet or book with the title refugees Hitler's loss our game along the side of the cover is a man in Australian army uniform and then along the bottom of it is a line of much smaller figures who are dressed in a variety of styles there's a man and woman both in overalls looking like they're working in a factory abandon a white coat with a stethoscope a couple of men in army uniforms one guy who is shirtless and wearing shorts (already assimilating to Australian culture?)
REFUGEES: Hitler's Loss, Our Gain — Jewish Council to Combat Fascism and Antisemitism, Melbourne, Australia, 1944
