In a 2021 Guardian article, Robert P. Baird explores the "invention of whiteness."
Thursday, March 07, 2024
"We Presume We Understand It as Long as We're Not Asked to Explain It, but It Becomes Inexplicable as Soon as We're Put to the Test"
In a 2021 Guardian article, Robert P. Baird explores the "invention of whiteness."
Thursday, February 29, 2024
February 2024 Acquisitions
Movies:
Music:
Wednesday, February 07, 2024
You Are So Good and They Are So Stupid
Noah Berlatsky at CNN notes the fiftieth anniversary of Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles.
Monday, February 05, 2024
"Class Not as a Thing but as a Relationship"
"Thompson's empathy with those forced to struggle on an inhospitable social terrain has lessons for us, too. Today, the issue is the enormous condescension not of posterity but of the present: the contempt for working-class people, the hostility to benefit 'scroungers', the derision of those forced to use food banks, the indifference to injustice. It is visible also in the scorn for the supposed bigotry and conservatism of the working class or in the disdain of those who voted the wrong way or have become disillusioned with the left. Thompson's insistence that 'their aspirations were valid in terms of their own experiences' is as necessary to acknowledge now as it was then."
Kenan Malik at The Guardian marks E.P. Thompson's 100th birthday.
Friday, February 02, 2024
"He Showed the Way to the Modern World"
"Wilson championed—and came to symbolize—progressive reform at home and liberal internationalism abroad. So long as those causes commanded wide support, Wilson's name resonated with the greats of American history. In our time, however, the American left has subordinated the causes of reform and internationalism to the politics of identity, while the American right has rejected reform and internationalism altogether. Wilson's standing has been crushed in between."
David Frum at The Atlantic calls to "Uncancel Woodrow Wilson."
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
January 2024 Acquisitions
Movies:
Music:
"Dark Counterprogramming to the American Story"
David Klepper of the Associated Press writes that "Even Before The Revolution, America Was A Nation Of Conspiracy Theorists."
Sunday, January 28, 2024
"Our Values Tend to Cluster Around Certain Poles, Described as 'Intrinsic' and 'Extrinsic'"
Saturday, January 13, 2024
"Let the People Rule"?
"'The whole Trump phenomenon isn't because of our reforms,' he says. 'It's not just our fault, I think.' GOP gerrymandering and changes to state primaries happened on their own, he notes. He also points to many other new factors involved, including social media, generational change and Covid. He adds that in the years since Trump has entered politics, the former president has succeeded in co-opting the GOP establishment: 'If the Republican Party had superdelegates today, they would be on his side.'"
Michael Hirsh at Politico asks, "Did a Young Democratic Activist in 1968 Pave the Way for Donald Trump?"
"The President Has Got to Do Something That's Very, Very Hard"
"'He should be proud of his accomplishments, but he's also got to say that he understands that there is a housing crisis, that people can't afford healthcare or prescription drugs or childcare–that he's trying, but he hasn't yet succeeded.'"
At The Guardian, Ed Pilkington interviews Bernie Sanders about the 2024 election.
Sunday, December 31, 2023
2023 Favorites
The Late Adopter selects...
Albums:
Durand Jones--Wait Til I Get Over (Dead Oceans)
Tom Meighan--The Reckoning (Destruct)
Jenny Lewis--Joy'All (Blue Note)
Death Valley Girls--Islands in the Sky (Suicide Squeeze)
Rain Parade--Last Rays of a Dying Sun (Flat Iron)
Clientele--I Am Not There Anymore (Merge)
Hives--The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons (Disques Hives)
Marty Stuart--Altitude (Snakefarm)
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds--Council Skies (Sour Mash)
Blind Boys of Alabama--Echoes of the South (Single Lock)
Songs:
Durand Jones--'Lord Have Mercy'
Tom Meighan--'Rise'
Coi Leray--'Players'
Rain Parade--'Angel Sister'
Johnny Marr--'Somewhere'
Jenny Lewis--'Psychos'
Fifty Fifty--'Cupid (Twin Version)'
Lathums--'Struggle'
Marty Stuart--'Sitting Alone'
Boo Radleys--'How Was I to Know?'
December 2023 Acquisitions
Books:
Connor, Blondie: Against the Odds, .
Julius, The Art of Big Hero 6, .
Judy Katschke and Maike Plenzke, The Beatles: A Little Golden Book Biography, 2023.
Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, .
Enrico Marini, Noir Burlesque, 2023.
Thurston Moore, Sonic Life: A Memoir, 2023.
Eddie Muller, The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the Classic Era of Film Noir, 2014.
Robert Smigel et al, X-Presidents, 2000.
Szabo, The Rebel's Wardrobe, 2023.
Tyler, Batman: The Detective, .
Tynion, Batman: Secret Files, .
Hal Leonard Gospel Hymns, .
The Psychology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained, 2017.
Music:
Primal Scream, Demodelica, 2021.
Primal Scream, Reverberations Travelling in Time, 2023.
Various, Come Together: Adventures On The Indie Dancefloor 1989-1992, 2023.
Various, A Very Special Christmas, 1987.
Friday, December 15, 2023
"As a Result, Students Need to Pay (and Borrow) More"
"The past decades have seen huge increases in costs at public institutions of higher education. Measured in constant dollars, in the 1963–1964 academic year, tuition, room and board at four-year public institutions was $8,491. By 2021–2022 that figure was $21,878—almost three times as high. Declining state support is a major contributor to rising fees—and not just in 'red' states. At the University of California, San Diego—where I taught for many years—the share of revenues that came from state support declined from 32 percent in 2002 to 15 percent in 2020; similar patterns can be found broadly. According to the National Education Association, 'across the U.S., 32 states spent less on public colleges and universities in 2020 than in 2008, with an average decline of nearly $1,500 per student.'"
Naomi Oreskes at Scientific American writes that "[t]he net effects of decreased public funding are an increased burden on students and, except for the very wealthy, diminished educational opportunities."
Monday, December 04, 2023
"So It Goes"
"At the very least, we can learn from Kissinger, who unhesitatingly supported Gulf War One and Gulf War Two, and every war between and since, that the two defining concepts of United States foreign policy—realism and idealism—aren't necessarily opposing values; rather, they reinforce each other. Idealism gets us into the quagmire of the moment; realism keeps us there while promising to get us out; and then idealism returns anew both to justify the realism and to overcome it in the next round."
Greg Grandin at The Nation provides "A People's Obituary of Henry Kissinger."
Thursday, November 30, 2023
November 2023 Acquisitions
Books:
Thomas Byrom, Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha, 1993.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ, 2007.
Herman Hesse, Siddhartha, 1981.
Tini Howard et al, Catwoman Vol. 3: Duchess of Gotham, 2023.
Evie Nagy, Devo's Freedom of Choice, 2015.
William Novak and Moshe Waldoks, The Big Book of Jewish Humor, 2006.
Stanley Tucci, Taste: My Life Through Food, 2021.
Lynd Ward, God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts, 2004.
Joshua Williamson et al, Dark Ride, Vol. 2, 2023.
The EC Archives: Shock Suspenstories Volume 1, 2017.
Movies:
Bring It On, 2000.
LA 92, 2017.
Music:
Beatles, "Now and Then," 2023.
Black Pumas, Chronicle of a Diamond, 2023.
Boo Radleys, Eight, 2023.
Chemical Brothers, For That Beautiful Feeling, 2023.
Chemical Brothers, Loops of Fury, 1996.
Clientele, I Am Not There Anymore, 2023.
Johnny Marr, Spirit Power, 2023.
Nada Surf, Lucky, 2008.
Supertramp, The Very Best of Supertramp, 1990.
Waves, Shock Horror, .
Various, The Disco Years Vol. 1, .
Saturday, November 25, 2023
"In the Early '70s, No One Could Have Predicted That a Combination of Social Upheaval, Economic Crisis, and Political Talent Was About to Usher in a Brand-New Economic Era"
"Three main theories have emerged, each with its own account of how we got here and what it might take to change course. One theory holds that the story is fundamentally about the white backlash to civil-rights legislation. Another pins more blame on the Democratic Party's cultural elitism. And the third focuses on the role of global crises beyond any political party's control. Each theory is incomplete on its own. Taken together, they go a long way toward making sense of the political and economic uncertainty we're living through."
Rogé Karma at The Atlantic asks, "Why did America abandon the New Deal so decisively? And why did so many voters and politicians embrace the free-market consensus that replaced it?"
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
October 2023 Acquisitions
Books:
Scott Beatty et al, Batgirl: Year One, 2023.
Paul Duncan, The Star Wars Archive 1977-1983, 2020.
Jack Hamilton, Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination, 2016.
Geoff Johns, Batman: Three Jokers, 2023.
Daniel Kothenschulte, The Walt Disney Film Archives: The Animated Movies 1921-1968, 2020.
Yascha Mounk, The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, 2023.
Movies:
Barbie, 2023.
Walt Disney Treasures: Disneyland, USA, 2001.
Music:
Allah-Lahs, Zuma 85, 2023.
Blind Boys of Alabama, Echoes of the South, 2023.
Chemical Brothers, Singles 93-03, .
Gene Clark, White Light/Roadmaster, 2023.
Digible Planets, Reachin', .
Gaslight Anthem, History Books, 2023.
Herbie Hancock, Empyrean, .
Richard Hawley, Now Then, 2023.
Hives, Death of Randy Fitzsimmons, 2023.
Lathams, From Nothing, 2023.
Long Ryders, September November, 2023.
Kendra Smith, Five Ways of Disappearing, .
Marty Stuart, Altitude, 2023.
Various, High Fidelity soundtrack, .