Ron Hogan

Like, I’ve TRIED listening to Paloma Blanca, which was a huge hit in Europe, and it makes me wonder what they were high on that summer.

Accomplices rather than marks, I should think.

Ah, I see you were headed in this very direction!

A society that makes space for beauty knows comfort at the very least, and beyond that casts an eye toward permanence. If that society is not subservient to the State, as you say, its manifestations must be destroyed before they settle into place.

One line I didn’t use in the essay, because it felt like I was straying TOO far from Annie: “If this one song is a perfect imitation of Cocteau Twins, the rest of the album is a near-perfect imitation of China Crisis.”

I was radicalized by a kind elderly Presbyterian minister in a brightly colored cardigan who played with puppets and told me that people could like me exactly as I am and that everyone is different and that's great and we should like them exactly as THEY are.

Hell, I’m still astounded I saw Slavoj Zizek on cable news ONCE.

As somebody replying to Chris pointed out, this makes Mar-A-Lago a legit military target if anybody wants to attack the United States.

AGAIN.

Fun Fact: I’d never actually seen the Lover Speaks video until I started writing the essay!

No more buttered scones for me, mater, I’m off to farm the oysters!

Don’t forget the part where he accidentally repeated Protocols talking points without any prompting from any Nazi sympathizers, and said a small group of people run the world!

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

There is still time for you to read me on Annie Lennox and @awolfson.bsky.social on Neutral Milk Hotel and then vote on which song, or which essay, makes you sadder. Or which you like better. It’s kind of a flexible standard, the March Xness head-to-head.

The queers also invite a period of reflection!

Do I think “one of the finest political minds of our time” is “dumb”? Maybe, maybe not.

Did I see that Naomi Klein has gone on to say she was reacting to just one Platner interview, and had spoken out of ignorance of his background because “I’m not very online”? Yeah, I saw that. And THAT was dumb.

Somehow, Seth Green is Tom Holland’s sarcastic sidekick in my dream, even though I’m *pretty* sure Howard the Duck wasn’t in Endgame. He doesn’t know that Tom Holland has a secret mission, though, so he just cracks wise about how Tom is screwing up and missing the best parts of the junket.

Weirdly enough, I had a dream about Tom Holland last night. Marvel made a movie about ALL the stars of Avengers: Endgame doing a global junket, and it became clear Tom Holland was the film’s center of gravity, bumbling his way through Asia because nobody else knew he was trying to solve a mystery.

Once people let Mayor Pete’s stint at McKinsey slide, I think it was only a matter of time until we wound up with a Blackwater Democrat.

There's this idea in America that people always deserve a second chance. I have mixed feelings about that, but what I strongly believe is "Maybe your life shouldn't be ruined, but if you've fucked up severely you do not deserve to be in the highest halls of power".

Speaking of which, I vaguely recall this guy was supposed to be putting the campaigning on hold to go make babies in Norway?

Annie Lennox and Neutral Milk Hotel—the pairing you never knew you needed!

The most charitable interpretation of Platner still leaves us with someone plainly unfit for any elected office, much less the Senate. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say there are risks in putting into high office a person who keeps saying "whoops, another neo-Nazi association, I'm such a dummy."

Yeah, but the thing is, Graham Platner communicates his crypto-Nazi politics *extraordinarily* well. 😑

Is the leftist punditry class really THAT hard up for anyone to admire?

Beyond the visual evidence, the clincher is that the Blu-Ray comes with Czech subtitles. 🤣

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS is the kind of film that can restore your faith in cinema *and* make you laugh non-stop. Come for the costumed mascots, stay for the Karel Zeman aesthetic and Buster Keaton jokes.

You say the governor has become a de facto leader of the Democratic Party, but that’s not a picture of JB Pritzker. Is your photo editor confused? Did nobody stop to double check their work?

That’s adorable! Gonna have to track them down.

this old white lady from Massachusetts donated to his campaign

when people say “we could have had Conor Lamb,” fuck, we could have had Senator Malcolm Kenyatta if the segment of the Democratic Party that obsessively chases a white Daddy figure would get therapy instead of throwing elections

Now more than ever, you don't have to be cutting and pasting batshit posts that you have seen over on That Other Site and also, for fuck's sake, get off That Other Site, again, now more than ever

March Sadness 90s Edition A yearly March Madness-style tournament of essays about songs we love (and occasionally loathe)

The @awolfson.bsky.social essay on “King of Carrot Flowers” (and so much more besides) is fantastic, so if you end up voting for that instead of my little riff on “No More I Love Yous,” I won’t mind! But read us both!