It’s hard to be popular. But I think a good way to do it is to say a lot of things that aren’t true and see if it excites people. You tell them that you’re […]
Consumerism - Culture - Labor
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Area Consumer Thinks About Brick and Mortar
Today I went into Staples to buy a ream of paper. I immediately noticed that the store layout was identical to that of every other Staples I’d been in: the red panels and white lettering, […]
Class - Culture - Literature - Politics
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Reflections on the Narrative of Frederick Douglass
Years ago, I heard a passage from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass on Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast. It was in episode 68, “Human Resources.” What impressed me was not only its power […]
Politics
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Who’s the Cooler Dictator?
The other day Trump staged a hang sesh with Salvadorian president Bukele. He got the party rolling by saying that Bukele “is a friend of mine and we went through this together and got along […]
Art - Culture - Literature - Poetry
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My Poetry Divorce
Near the end of my 25-year marriage to poetry, a friend jokingly called my books “stocking stuffers.” That was when I stopped questioning what I could do to make poetry more relevant and entertaining and […]
Consumerism - Labor - Politics - Technology
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Burn the Tesla Brand and Ignore the Guilt Trip
It’s all over the news. Musk trying to blame democrats for the attacks on Tesla. And republicans are humpin’ the mic, too, trying to reverse the blame, as former Wisconsin senator David Craig does in […]
Art - Culture - Media
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Nothing New and Nowhere to Play
Duke Ellington emerged from the Harlem Renaissance, Charlie Parker from the Memphis jazz clubs, Coltrane from the Philadelphia jazz clubs, Chester Burnett from the clubs of West Memphis, before moving to Chicago in the early […]
Politics
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The Dictator’s Mask of Efficiency
Throughout history, efficiency has been touted as one of the benefits of a dictatorship. The trope “German efficiency” derives from the organized and deliberate manner in which the Nazis came to power. Hitler’s oratorical style […]
Culture - Media - Technology
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Reverse-Engineering the Nerd Oligarchy
The other day I was watching Bill Maher’s Club Random, and the guest was tech millionaire and anti-aging geek Bryan Johnson. Part of the conversation was about the apparatus that Johnson wears on his penis […]
Class - Culture - Politics
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Where Are the “Goddamned Liberals” Now?
In 2015, I met a retired lieutenant commander in the United States Navy who had purchased a small townhouse about a block down the road from mine. He was often in the yard doing renovations […]