The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
by Roberto Bolaño
by Roberto Bolaño
The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio De Maria
K-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher by Mark Fishersending chill thoughts to the PNW from one of Portland's finest sons, Monsieur Eluvium
if you've got an afternoon to kill, throw this double LP on and look into Operation Paperclip, the spider network, ratlines, and Fourth Reich in South America, which was the postwar Wild West and has been a theatre of struggle and domination for over a century now, especially if you throw Central America into the deal:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_Dignidad
https://theamericanscholar.org/the-torture-colony/
the kraut on the right is Wernher von Braun, Nazi rocket genius, NASA pioneer, personal friend of Walt Disney. alluded to in Lodge 49 season 2.
Barry Lyndon is as great as all the film nerds have always said.
Bury London...hmm...much to consider....
(smokes 200 cigarettes)
Ok, here goes, the City of London is a distinct, nigh-sovereign municipality within the 'city limits' of London but not 'of London'
(the Queen herself has to ask permission to enter, as it well predates her family's rule, predates the Battle of Hastings, in fact)
and it is there, in this financial Vatican that the rules of international capital are bent in the most incredible, nearly magical ways. Mathematics are purely theoretical, mutable, and the realms of speculative investment are stratospheric, the oxygen is quite thin, debts are issued a hundredfold beyond any reasonable ability to repay, and this is quite fine thank you very much, no sir, we do not accept your subpoenas, but maybe next time.
It truly is like something out of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell, wizards doing things a gentleman never would.
Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream by David McGowan
post-modernism was largely a psy-op, Abstract Expressionism (while often very cool, not disputing that!) was way upsold, promoted to limit the influence of social realism in Europe and Latin America; we have a rich fucking history, trust your gut, go with God.
Coming to Jakarta: A Poem about Terror by Peter Dale Scott
Dirty Truths by Michael Parenti
ever since the pandemic started I've been fighting the urge to smoke
watching JFK (director's cut) makes that urge skyrocket
man maybe we should stop researching arming viruses with buzzsaws lol idk tho
Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass by Lana Del Reyso sober and furious and stubbornly ready
coruscating
The Romantic Dogs by Roberto Bolaño
City of Bohane by Kevin Barrygrim and grimmer, a president tells the wage slaves to get back to work, a governor sends in the National Guard when some workers at old folks' homes ask for a raise, our ally sends our missiles at children, apartheid is just a facet of genocide, an easing in, a settlers' tactic, and those savvy Americans slyly stock up on beef and gasoline
we must shock this nation with the power of love
Democracy by Joan Didion
The reason the great heaviness comes from Seattle and Portland is that these kids know that *no matter* how sweet and empathetic your populace, how many canvas shopping bags and supportive yard signs they sport, these folks will lick boots and pay the pigs OT on OT, because there was a quiet coup a long time ago, and the death cult runs this country, you work for them and at their pleasure. their violence assures consent, their tanks will roll and they operate on pre-Hammurabi rules, the ziggurats were built while you weren't looking
we had a respite from authority while they mapped the earth, while they itemized every wrinkle of the surface and estimated if you add value or subtract, and how much clean-up you'll require, if the nü-bees will nest inside your skull
god bless the kids in Myanmar, the kids in Colombia getting killed in the streets, in 'clashes' where the cops always manage to walk away ok, where the sacrifices are executed, blood magic is the underwriting of the currency, the iron in the iron bank is from your sweet hemoglobin, washing with that of your allies, distilled down into glass capillaries that run through their walls, pulsing with stored power and menace, the threats on your life are singing from the CB radios, from dispatch desks, on frequencies that you legally can't monitor, lest you get wise and run
if you can't remember if you're in Latvia or Lithuania but either way you have to be in Estonia by dawn you better ipecac right quick and find a Frenchman that still drives stick
the feds collected baby teeth in St. Louis, for decades. radiation exposure tracking. marine biologists just found 25K DDT barrels on the ocean floor off LA.
if you can't identify your enemies, how the fuck are you going to identify your allies?
what if Guided by Voices had marrow of Sarah Records, of Scottish pocket anthems, life thin and strong beneath coats and sweaters
The Dark Tunnel by Ross Macdonald
Inland by Téa Obreht
fair play to the lad from Cork. a quieter, more precise effort than past records, less fun and rollicking, more wise and inquisitive. one to watch.
I just learned the film term 'bokeh' for the out-of-focus lights, for which I am a major sucker. I think it comes from growing up increasingly near-sighted (to the point now where I can't get certain corrective procedures because they're already too fucked) and it definitely sucks, but the one silver lining is that there is a tremendous amount of beauty in taking off the glasses and seeing the lights grow and pulse, the details of everything else reduced to a plainness contrasted with the extra space the light occupies. It is like my failing eyes have made everything an Impressionist painting. Sure, they're fuzzy, but they become warmed and softened, and it is incredibly comforting. It is kind of like looking at a person from enough distance that their flaws are insignificant and you see the just the lonely soul that is in them. Things like city streets at nights, skyscrapers and neon, become mysterious and lovely. And a Christmas tree is the most beautiful thing in the world. To my weakening eyes, it looks like a messenger or a portal to another world. Forgiveness and possibility the thinnest vapor apart.
De- and re-constructed the Moonlight Sonata to honor Beethoven's 250th birthday. Olivia plays a gorgeous piano and I suspose Enrico is responsible for the cool atmospherics and tones.
musique pour une nuit blanche
my man makes the most uplifting good morning Sunday morning jams, just full-hearted, wise and uplifting odes to a brief life lived well
Les anges reviendront, et quand vous verrez celui qui est censé vous aider, vous pleurerez de joie
Quand les anges
