Alexander Billet

Ritmos sobreviventes trecho de Abalar a cidade, por Alexander Billet

It’s still a bit weird to me that my book has a bigger readership in Brazil than in the English-speaking world. The good people at @sobinfluencia.bsky.social have done well in this regard. This is the second chapter of the Portuguese edition of Shake the City.

When I wrote this last week, the upcoming 80th anniversary of #Hiroshima was, oddly enough, not on my mind at all. History often makes your argument for you.

#filmsky #literaturesky

alexanderbillet.substack.com/p/it-will-be...

Opinion | You Are Contaminated

There's a plastic spoon in your skull.
A mountain of sandwich baggies at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
A bar-headed goose is flying near Everest.
It doesn't know what "exposome" is.
Or that its kidneys are failing.

#plasticsky #exposome #pollution

“We are not afraid!” screamed Frog and Toad at the same time.

Read more here: alexanderbillet.substack.com/p/it-will-be...

#filmsky #writingsky #literaturesky

It Will Begin Again On Gaza, mourning, and memory's impossibility.

I’ve been unsure what to write about what’s happening in Gaza. Anything? What can be said right now? What will we be able to say later? Ultimately I had to reach for more eloquent voices than mine.

We Need Public Broadcasting The Right has finally managed to gut public broadcasting. Our already anemic access to news, education, and culture has taken a massive blow.

The Right has finally managed to gut public broadcasting. Our already anemic access to news, education, and culture has taken a massive blow.

San Diego. Also a place. #vacation #summer #palmtrees #socal

We Need Public Broadcasting The Right has finally managed to gut public broadcasting. Our already anemic access to news, education, and culture has taken a massive blow.

"Public broadcasting isn’t usually seen as part of the safety net, but it should: a key component in any society that has the remotest concern for its inhabitants’ well-being" jacobin.com/2025/07/publ... via @ubupamplemousse.bsky.social #pubmedia

We Need Public Broadcasting The Right has finally managed to gut public broadcasting. Our already anemic access to news, education, and culture has taken a massive blow.

I'm in @jacobinmag.bsky.social on the new, devastating cuts to public broadcasting and the case for a radical democratic media. I frequently think about the already sorry state of public media in this country. It could be so much better. It’s about to get a lot worse.

jacobin.com/2025/07/publ...

I have no idea if this is significant, but evidently my blog is now number 42 in “rising” music Substacks. Good for me I guess? Anyway, you should subscribe. #writing

New Maps Zohran Mamdani, between “sewer socialism” and the right to the city.

Everyone seems to be writing about Zohran Mamdani lately. Who am I to diverge from a trend? NYC, the right to the city, Jameson, urban rebellion and a great deal more…

Cat and books. #booksky

That's Not Me Music and space in gothic capitalism.

New post up on the Substack, with the text from my remarks at the launch of Adam Turl’s book Gothic Capitalism: Art Evicted From Heaven and Earth.

Interesting…

YouTube video by Bob Vylan Bob Vylan - We Live Here

Apartheid kills children. Bob Vylan slaps.

#IndieMusic

Beach day. Weird when you can’t go in the water.

#summer #beach #LosAngeles #wildfires

Dear @netflix.com. Stop trying to make me watch Poop Cruise. I’m not going to watch Poop Cruise.

“The name is Mamdani, M, A, M, D, A, N, I. You should learn how to say it…”

Until the past couple weeks I had been thinking that the "age of left populism" and/or the "populist stage of the left" had shut tight with the November elections. Mamdani shows why I was wrong. I'm glad to be so.

Black lung surges. That this is the case says about everything that needs to be said about the Trump administration’s supposed support for the working class.

Owen Hatherley, Mislaid Plans — Sidecar On the Manic Street Preachers.

Fantastic #music writing here from Hatherley. Perfectly captures the quandary of being a Manics fan.

YouTube video by Sigur Rós Sigur Rós - Untitled #1 - Vaka (Official 4K Remastered Music Video)

Posting this because reasons.

In and Against the Dream Factory - Salvage This piece appears in print in Salvage 14: Shrouded in Darkness. Issue 14 is available to buy individually here. Our poetry, fiction and art remains exclusive to the print edition, and our subscribers...

Wrote something on the WGA/SAG strikes for the wonderful journal Salvage not long ago. It’s finally online. If you missed it, give it a read.

#literaturesky #labor #filmmaking #Hollywood

Pet Sounds (Full Album) - YouTube

Damn. Now Brian Wilson… RIP.

#music #surf #BrianWilson

There's a Riot Goin' On - YouTube

Rest in peace, Sly.

#soul #music #SlyStone

Now and fucking forever. LA strong…

At ‘CPAC of the Center,’ Democratic Moderates Beat Up on the Left

Any gathering where "Matthew Yglesias was greeted like a rock star" deserves to be pitied.

YouTube video by Pulp Pulp - Spike Island (Official Video)

With the new #Pulp album coming out tomorrow I finally took to the time to watch the vid for “Spike Island” and have finally found the only acceptable use for AI in a music video.

#musicsky #music #indie

Was happy to speak alongside Adam and Tish Turl for the launch of Adam's book Gothic Capitalism at Le Grande Transition in Montreal. Even if none of us were able to be there in person.

#booksky #literaturesky #art #music #Marxism