-
I enjoyed V, for all that it showcased every single bad 80s trope. I wonder if it was supposed to be a send-up of all the alien invasion action movies that got in the hands of some better than average writers who did what they could with the script. Redone today, with some tweaks, it could be a timely commentary on Trump, DOGE and MAGA.
The series was redone in 2009 with the charismatic Morena Baccarin in the lead, but based on what I’m reading of the timing of its release, I doubt I’ll give it a watch.
-
Currently watching the original V miniseries. It’s like They Live, but less macho and somehow even more campy. 📽️🚀
-
Trump warns Walmart not to raise prices due to his tariffs | AP News
I one hundred percent, lifetime guarantee you that he would not accept those demands for any of his businesses. Well , the non-bankrupt ones.
-
Finishing Season 2 of Andor along with Heather Cox Richardson’s latest newsletter could not have coincided better.
Spoilers are ahead, consider yourself warned.
Richardson’s newsletter landed in my inbox this morning, and leads with a summary of an op-ed telling people that authoritarian leaders are usually elected. They don’t conquer with armies and mass movements.
“They maintain their power by using the power of the government–arrests, tax audits, defamation suits, politically targeted investigations, and so on–to punish and silence their opponents. They either buy or bully the media and civil society until opposing voices cave to their power.”
The episode of Andor that sticks with me is “Welcome to the Rebellion”, where Mon Mothma, as if building on Richardson’s words, stands amidst an increasingly hostile Senate chamber and condemns the Empire’s misinformation and gaslighting:
The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. … And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we’ve helped create, the monster who will come for all of us soon enough, is Emperor Palpatine.
What happens next is not a standing ovation. Mothma and Andor must fight their way out of the Senate building and run. One year later, the Empire is still using the power of the government to punish and silence their opponents. It is as if her warning was never heard, much less heeded. And it feels like our words and stands against the evils of fascism and oppression fare little better.
But we know better. We know Mothma’s words did have an effect, because the Empire is still having trouble quashing the Rebellion as Nemik’s manifesto finds its way into every ear. We know our words and deeds have an effect, because of the crowds that attend AOC and Bernie’s rallies, because of the outcry against Trump’s overt corruption, because of op-eds and books that instruct us on how to recognize and resist oppression.
Andor is expertly executed world class storytelling, and if you haven’t watched it, do yourself a favor and make the time. Every time it shows hope and resistance knocked down, it also shows the rebellion standing up, bloody and determined. Too, Richardson’s newsletter is patient, informed analysis that repeatedly stands against overwhelming misinformation so we can keep our perspective and our hopes up. So should we stand against our real world tyranny, determined and focused.
And may the Force be with you.
-
The magic of "might"
Reading this was like a reverie of childhood, when I’d consume all the techno-optimist magazines and shows and imagine the great new world everything was building towards. I’ve always loved world building, wether in fantasy or propaganda; I suspect it ties into my interest in cartography and organization systems, where not only does everything have a place, but every element relates to the other. Science booster journalism like Bray’s article feels a lot like that - here is how structural protein research, specifically around silk, might help create a world where syringes aren’t necessary and cancer can be treated with silk lenses. That “might”, the possibilities it encompasses? I’m always teetering on the edge of falling into its spell.
-
I am impressed by today’s troll on May the Fourth, and very annoyed that I:
- fell for it, and
- argued with the screen that it had to be correct. 🧩
-
Walked into Alewife Station, and someone has made the brilliant decision to play opera, filling the high ceilings and making this utilitarian, grimy station a refuge of beauty and peace.
-
I’m not exactly sure what happened in this photo, but I like it! 📷
-
I’m glad I got to see my friend Amy Lovera’s show at the Anderson Gallery! On top of being an active and passionate teacher and photographer, she makes artwork like this: dreamlike, whimsical, and with a story you can tease out. 🎨 📷
-
I gotta admit, this kind of branding does add to a clean public image! 📷 🧼
-
Flow (2024) 📽️🐈⬛
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I expected an academy award winner and a visual treat. I was blown away by the perfect editing, stunning music and cinematography, and the soft, gentle fable of dealing with one’s fears.
-
The little kid inside me is pleased! 🧩🎮
-
Two poems
I’m finding poetry everywhere, these days, like flowers poking up from corners of concrete and asphalt in parking lots, reminding me to look and pay attention. 💬📝
Two that have come up in just the past twenty four hours:
What War Is, Ostap Slyvynsky:
i know you’re afraid of blood so we’ll write it with water
the water the wounded man asked for when he could no longer swallow and just
looked at it
water that seeps through a shelled-out roof
water that can replace tears
Library, Alvy Carragher, from “What Remains the Same”:
Maybe all some people can give you is a way out. / Maybe forgiveness is understanding that’s enough.
(I can’t find Carragher’s poem or the wonderful Centre anywhere else but Facebook, but I promise you the piece is worth it!)
-
See on my errands while recovering from illness: 💬
“Why do you permit this autocrat to rob you of one sphere of your rights after another, little by little, both overtly and in secret? One day there will be nothing left, nothing at all, except for a mechanized national engine that has been commandeered by criminals and drunks.
Has your spirit been so devastated that you forget that it is not only your right, but your moral duty to put an end to this system?”
White Rose leaflet by Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell, 1942
-
They’ve found a new Robert Frost! “Nothing New” 📝
-
Fascism vs. liberalism
John Ganz, in his Unpopular Front post Gold and Brown, in a long but exceptionally well put quote (emphases mine):
[T]he fascist ego and the radical, “anarchist” libertarian ego are identical on a structural level, that is to say, they are the same form of subjectivity in different moments. That is not to say that every single fascist is a libertarian or vice versa, or that they exactly have the same psychological origin story. What they both share is a fundamental misrecognition of the Other: the other is just a thing, some material for exploitation or domination. As such, they cannot understand and fundamentally distrust anything that doesn’t openly declare a relation between self and others that is non-exploitative or based on non-domination. They both cannot recognize any universal interest, only the wars and temporary alliances of particular interests, be they individuals, nations, or races. … Libertarians like to say, “Well, we hate the state, while fascists worship the state.” But this is merely a semantic game. The state as fascists understand it is not the state as liberals and socialists understand it: as the sphere where pluralistic, particular interests are reconciled for the general good. They have no such ideal. They view the state instead as a crude vehicle or weapon for the movement or the race. And neither have any conception of “citizenship” as conventionally understood, a set of inalienable rights: citizenship is a mutable and revocable thing like employment, based on the notion of one’s productive contribution to the whole.
The next time someone asks me to explain why fascism is evil, and why some forms of libertarianism approach this evil, this is what I’m pointing them to. 💬
-
A little surprise joy left in a corner of my local bakery. I like to think it was accidentally left behind, and when the owner realized this, let it go with the wish that it would bring some whimsy to everyone’s life. 📸 🎨
-
Emily Jane White - Hole In The Middle
This song is echoing in my skull these days, in reaction to the fallout of Trump regaining power.
Everybody’s got a little hole in the middle Everybody does a little dance with the devil And you know I’m evil now, And you shout it loud and proud Singing born in the U.S.A
-
The entrance to the Revival Cafe in Somerville. 📸
-
Well, after weeks of artfully evading the holiday crud, it surprised and tackled me. Damnit.
-
It’s 2025!
I have no hopes for the new year. I’m trying to keep in mind Merton’s advice from Letters to a Young Activist:
[D]o not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on […], you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. And there too a great deal has to be gone through, as gradually you struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. The range tends to narrow down, but it gets much more real. In the end, as you yourself mention in passing, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything.
Merton was talking about sustaining one’s focus and resolve in the face of apathy towards the Vietnam War, not facing down what I will do in this new year. The advice rings true, all the same: “Do not depend on hope of results.” Whether or not I achieve my goals, I will wake up and try my best to live by my principles. The specific people I work for are my friends, my loved ones, and myself.
My only advice to you all this year is: plan your work, make your resolutions, but only devote yourself each day to doing your best by what you value. Good luck out there!
-
It’s the little details that make morning routines so pleasant. 🧩☕️
-
Currently reading: It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by Senator Bernie Sanders 📚
Our economic debates should not revolve around questions of resources. They should revolve around questions of intent, of will.
A-bloody-men.
-
Finally, 30 years later, watched The Crow. I can see why it’s a cult favorite and why my goth friends adore it. It certainly has pathos and a 90s sense of style. If this is the best in the series, though, I think I’m good stopping here. 🎬🐦⬛
-
My bluetooth keyboard died, and I don’t have any spare batteries in my house. Instead, I’m using a huge wired keyboard kept just for emergencies like this. It’s… annoying. ⌨️
subscribe via RSS