Alex Svensson

Within Dreams YouTube video

m.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

STATEMENT ON ICE SHOOTING OF ALEX PRETTI After another gruesome act of fatal violence by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis, all Americans must demand that the Trump Administration end its deadly, unlawful, and unconstitutional occupation of the Twin Cities. The ongoing invasion of our cities by a dangerous and out-of-control federal administration must be stopped. This week, the City of Boston led 44 cities around the country in supporting the federal lawsuit to end the illegal ICE surge in Minnesota. Our hearts are with Alex Pretti's loved ones and the people of Minnesota and we share their grief. While we mourn once again a tragic and needless death, we urge the court to take immediate action to stop the violence, end the occupation, and help local leaders in the Twin Cities restore peace to these communities under siege. MAYOR MICHELLE WU

The ongoing invasion of our cities by a dangerous and out-of-control federal administration must be stopped.

Here here! It’s been great to be able to contribute to Horror Lex in this way, and means a lot as a horror scholar!

(1/8) Welcome to the Horror Lex Year in Review! We have stats about what everyone was writing about in 2025, based on data from 500+ works of nonfiction about horror & horror-adjacent films. Follow them all with this: #HorrorLex2025

A “Malty,” if you will

I posted too soon! The class is officially SOLD OUT! Thanks to all that signed up! You can still purchase tickets to individual screenings open to the public, however.

Passage from Hofstadter’s Anti Intellectualism in America Life (1962/63): The kind of anti-intellectualism expressed in official circles during the 1950s was mainly the traditional businessman’s suspicion of experts working in any area outside his control, whether in scientific laboratories, universities, or diplomatic corps. Far more acute and sweeping was the hostility to intellectuals expressed on the far-right wing, a categorical folkish dislike of the educated classes and of any¬ thing respectable, established, pedigreed, or cultivated. The right-wing crusade of the 1950s was full of heated rhetoric about “Harvard professors, twisted-thinking intellectuals ... in the State Department”; those who are “burdened with Phi Beta Kappa keys and academic honors” but not “equally loaded with honesty and common sense”; “the American respectables, the socially pedigreed, the culturally acceptable, the certified gentlemen and scholars of the day, dripping with college degrees . . . the ‘best people who were for Alger Hiss”; “the pompous diplomat in striped pants with phony British accent”; those who try to fight Communism “with kid gloves in perfumed draw¬ ing rooms”; Easterners who “insult the people of the great Midwest and West, the heart of America”; those who can “trace their ancestry back to the eighteenth century—or even further” but whose loyalty is still not above suspicion; those who understand “the Groton vocabulary of the Hiss-Acheson group.”

This passage from Hofstadter’s book seems particularly relevant

Book cover for Richard Hofstadter’s Anti Intellectualism jn American Life

In prep I’ve been reading Hofstadter’s important work on American anti-intellectualism from the early 1960s; a must-read to help understand and contextualize the current political/ideological/cultural moment

ia802903.us.archive.org/6/items/rich...

Promo for January 6 screening of Idiocracy at the Coolidge Corner Theatre

The @thecoolidge.bsky.social PROJECTIONS screening series & the connected course I’m teaching at the cinema (“Dystopia Now?”) kicks off tonight w/ IDIOCRACY (apt for J6…)! Tickets still available here:

coolidge.org/events/proje...

Screenshot from VHS tape, video frame at 333 seconds.

Mud And Sand (1922) : 333s

Letterboxd year in review, featuring 71 films logged, 38 reviewed, and 119 hours watched for 2025, along with “Most Watched Actor” and Most Watched Director

My Letterboxd year in review is paltry, but we welcomed a baby girl into the world in 2025, so hardly time for new watches at home and especially at the cinema (I also never log rewatches, a habit I might break this year)! Love that Thomerson is my main guy from the TRANCERS marathon I snuck in…

YouTube video by Capillary - Topic Plainview

Friday evening sounds

youtu.be/vCuyuRCpg_A

Kelsey Grammer (Frasier Crane) pictured with chilled cans of his “Faith American Beer” brand

A lil something to help wash down that all-American burger?

Halfway through the decade! What are your favorite films each year so far?

2020: Palm Springs
2021: Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar
2022: Halloween Ends
2023: The Pope’s Exorcist
2024: Rap World
2025: The Phoenician Scheme

Neglected to link to actual film!

youtu.be/OxAzCyCY7Ms

A review of The Office Party (1970) cigarettes in a wine glass Did a bit of reading after because I’m fascinated by this short documentary, and found this interesting Adam Curtis write up on the film from 2010: www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/...

A few Mary Berry holiday specials on YouTube, and the algo brought me to this fascinating gem for late nite viewing

boxd.it/cnmuKv

YouTube video by Nonesuch Records Mary Halvorson - About Ghosts (Official Video)

Nighttime sounds, chilly New Year’s Day coming to a close

youtu.be/DwS6VhJaTyU

The Team-Building-Exercise-ification of marketing and PR needs to end!

It’s actually a gritty cinematic reimagining of the 50 Cent song “Candy Shop”

lol www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UvLHp5/

Agreed; perhaps its also that the terms of “individualism” shift in differing economic/cultural/mediated contexts (and also gets wedded in a US context to a kind of “exceptionalism” and “isolationism”)

“Death of cinema” arguments seem as old as the medium itself. Things do seem different now post-pandemic & amidst unchecked monopolization; Godfrey Cheshire’s words way back in 1999 for NY Press appear prophetic/doom-y, yet they are also a reminder of cinema’s fluidity & *exciting* instability

You wouldn’t watch Lawrence of Arabia in a cinema (meme based on You wouldn’t steal a car - Hollywood anti piracy ad)

Lol realized as soon as I made this and posted it that the industry is actively advocating for this very thing, so it should probably actually read:

You wouldn’t watch Lawrence of Arabia in a cinema (meme based on You wouldn’t steal a car - Hollywood anti piracy ad)

Lol realized as soon as I made this and posted it that the industry is actively advocating for this very thing, so it should probably actually read:

The new Planet Hollywood isn’t looking so hot!

A ★★★★★ review of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2006) Seen in 70mm at Coolidge Corner Theatre (Brookline, MA) The new cut + the glorious, rich print amplify and make more potent everything compelling about the original two-parter (which I hadn’t seen in ...

Last nite’s viewing at the @thecoolidge.bsky.social (a rare chance to get out to the cinema with an infant at home, I’m glad it was for this nearly 5-hour experience, which looked amazing in 70mm)

boxd.it/bXQwNx

Blue background with text that reads, "December 5, 2025. Statement in Response to CDC Advisory Committee's Hep B Vaccine Changes: "In Boston, we believe in scientific evidence and we advocate for what is in the best interest of our residents. We are committed to following the longstanding, evidence-based guidance that the first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine be given at birth and the full series completed within the first 18 months of life. Universal hepatitis B vaccine at birth is the most important tool that we have in the first 24 hours of a newborn’s life to protect them from lifelong, and even fatal, liver disease that is entirely preventable.” Part 1 of a quote from Bisola Ojikutu MD MPH FIDSA, Commissioner of Public Health for the City of Boston. The Boston Public Health Commission logo is at the bottom.

Blue background with text that reads, "December 5, 2025. Statement in Response to CDC Advisory Committee's Hep B Vaccine Changes: "According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, newborns infected with hepatitis B at birth and infants infected in the first year of life have a 90% chance of developing chronic hepatitis B, and 25% of those who develop chronic hepatitis B will die from the disease. When given at birth, the hepatitis B vaccine prevents exposure from parents and other caregivers who may be asymptomatic and unaware of their status. In the absence of trustworthy public health guidance from the federal government, we ask all families to consult with their health care provider about important medical decisions like hepatitis B vaccination.” Part 2 of a quote from Bisola Ojikutu MD MPH FIDSA, Commissioner of Public Health for the City of Boston. The Boston Public Health Commission logo is at the bottom.

A CDC Advisory Committee is now trying to rollback decades-long recommendations that have protected newborns and children from diseases and saved lives.

We believe in scientific evidence, and families with any concerns hepatitis B should discuss them with their health care provider. (1/2)