Robin James

Ugh thought I was going to be able to remain blissfully unaware of what Geese actually sound like but I may have to say something about them in my IASPM-US paper :(

historically has been a great series tho I heard thru the grapevine that it is closing?

Looking for recs for light (as in little to no theory or philosophy, that’s the exact part of my brain I am trying to rest) nonfiction books to read over the holiday, bonus if food or music related

If only somebody wrote a forthcoming book about that idea lol

Interesting how this interview proves existential phenomenology to be correct: the thing that defines human existence is that we are meatbags stuck here on this rock TOGETHER, & that MUTUAL and SHARED EXPERIENCE is both what defines humanity and the foundation of our obligation to one another

I am so so sorry for your loss.

I have gotten a few cool artists thru TikTok. And also all the baby bats “dancing industrial” — kind of codifying a thing that was alike at best a bad stereotype before

Have not but will check them out!

Also possible that Tiktok taking over from Spotify for discovery mattered: latter privileges chill wallpaper, former wants bangers/quirky/interesting, and TS is clearly one of those and not the other

in the 19th c, ideals of the genius, the man who was abnormal in an exceptional rather than deficient way, re-masculinized the phenomena of refined taste/perception.

in the 21st c, to have taste let alone refined taste is feminizing bc it shows subordination to shared standards.

part of this shift to masculinity as virile mastery in the techbro world is an attempt to encounter the supposedly femme vibes attached to the technocratic subject of interests all their recommendation & surveillance algorithms assume us to be. Having refined tastes has always been feminizing.

TODAY

Cf The Use of Pleasure p. 82, “active freedom…was a way of being a man in respect to oneself”

kinda ironic philosophers spent the 80s & 90s critiquing the metaphysics part when now the structure is back, just with racial capitalism replacing truth/presence

All this 'masculine leadership' BS is just ancient Greek philosophy stripped of its metaphysics (ie the idea of metaphysical truth), which it replaces with racial capitalism (private property ownership).

To be a man is to be a master of oneself & others, both figured as property-in-person

Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.

Tomorrow from 5-7 Eastern on Inhailer.com I'm going to reflect a bit on @ericdharvey.com 's piece from earlier this year bc it's Spotify Wrapped week and TBH that mode of individualized listening has NOTHING on the kind of shared community & experience here

ericdharvey.substack.com/p/everything...

the continuum from neoliberal feminine resilience to neoreactionary masculine resilience evident yet again

somebody's written about how 2010s white liberal feminist concern-trolling about "toxic" Black feminists prefigures 2020s right-wing uses of "woke"?

The Sonic Episteme: Acoustic Resonance, Neoliberalism, and Biopolitics

may I suggest this critique of "resonance" as a metaphor for...anything? www.dukeupress.edu/the-sonic-ep...

a solid take!

I was thinking which younger artist would I want to open for this and I think it's...Charli

not gonna link to it but that new FdB post is just further evidence that in 2025 anti-poptimism is just manosphere misogyny and grievance dressed up in purportedly more erudite terms

Scholar friends, I’m going to be in DC the last week/end of February, Berkeley March 6-8, and Chicago for SCMS March 26-8. Would love to schedule some talks at nearby campuses about either the vibes book or alt rock/alt right stuff before any of those conferences.

not that I need another book to write (haha), but looking at the Duke spring catalog has me wondering if I really should pitch a "philosophizing" book to the practices series...

Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.

Sunday from 5-7pm Eastern hear me spin new and old indie on Inhailer.com, including the new song by the Swedish singer who spells her name the wrong way lol

You can also donate to Inhailer! Give your Spotify money to us instead.

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So the Spotify age wrapped thing is tacking age to decade of music release, seems kinda extremely basic data analytics rather than slicing and dicing a whole bunch categories

The political freedom of civil speech is so far out the window of this “let’s monetize every interpersonal difference” it’s a good index of how the old Enlightenment categories (which are obviously a mixed bag at best) are just toast

VIBES ECONOMY

My socials are full of 30something white women being told they are in their 80s based on their listening habits