My goodness.
02.11.2025 03:40 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0@mbourdaghs.bsky.social
Scholar and translator, modern Japanese literature and culture; I also write fiction, music criticism, and sundry other things. Plus the occasional sumo and baseball post. Faculty at University of Chicago. www.bourdaghs.com
My goodness.
02.11.2025 03:40 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0New book: Jess Kruk and Wesley C. Robertson, "Peripheral Linguistic Brutality: Metal Languaging in the Asia Pacific" (University of Hawai'i Press).
uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/periph...
New book: Alice Volk, "In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan" (University of Chicago Press).
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Coming up next month in Chicago: former AKB48 member Iwata Karen in a solo performance with songs and stories.
30.10.2025 15:21 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Made it to the bottom of the 11th inning before bedtime arrived here in Chicago....What a game that was!
28.10.2025 11:27 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Veteran holds sign
World War 2 veterans, the original antifa, took part in the nationwide protests against the fascist Trump regime. #3E #NoKings #50501Movement #indivisible #wearetheflood
19.10.2025 00:50 โ ๐ 5627 ๐ 1481 ๐ฌ 85 ๐ 64An astonishingly large crowd!
Chicago
Tomorrow (10/18/2025) is "Arts and Humanities Day" at UChicago. Speakers include such luminaries as Amitav Ghosh, Roxanne Gay, Nick Offerman, Gary Shteyngart--and yours truly (in agate font at the bottom of the bill), speaking on Japanese popular music. humanitiesday.uchicago.edu/presentations
17.10.2025 13:03 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Mladen Dolar on an early encounter between Freud and the rising new force of populism, "a politics that would violate a long series of unwritten laws and rules and succeed precisely on the basis of that violationโgiven that unwritten laws form the very fabric of society and its ethical foundation."
14.10.2025 12:43 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 1Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: โNo one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.โ
11.10.2025 21:10 โ ๐ 16327 ๐ 4995 ๐ฌ 284 ๐ 724Michael Jackson reviews last week's Hyde Park Jazz Festival for "Chicago Reader", with tons of photos that give a good feel for what the event was like.
chicagoreader.com/music/music-...
Great story. Can't overstate the desperation in creative industries right now. Nearly every person I know who previously had a viable, or even lucrative, career in media/entertainment is in a financial panic, leaving longtime apartments, desperately taking any work they can find. It is really bad.
04.10.2025 13:00 โ ๐ 604 ๐ 214 ๐ฌ 10 ๐ 7โTerrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.โ
Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943
The volume "Social Voices: The Cultural Politics of Singers Around the Globe," ed. Levi. S. Gibbs (University of Illinois Press) is available as a free download this month. It includes my essay on singer Teresa Teng's career in Japan and much other great scholarship.
mailchi.mp/illinois/pf0...
New book: "Literary and Artistic Japan behind the Iron Curtain," edited by Irina Holca and George T. Sipos (Routledge).
www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...
Legendary pianist Yamashita Yosuke ๅฑฑไธๆด่ผ opened today's first day of the 2025 Hyde Park Jazz Festival here in Chicago. A striking set by "Nikutai Mondo," also featuring Aoki Tatsu ้ๆจ้ๅนธon bass and Tomatsu Takahiro ๆธๆพ็พ่ฒดๅ on "body movement."
28.09.2025 03:01 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0 Rivi Handler-Spitz (of my alma mater, Macalester College) for Inside Higher Education: "Visa Chaos: What 6 Chinese Students Say."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
Jill Mapes at "Hearing Things" on the music of the Gilmore Girls: "Those Gilmore Girls Sure Do Know A Lot About Music."
www.hearingthings.co/those-gilmor...
Carl Wilson with a great piece for Slate on the history and stakes of the poptimism/rockism wars: "Criticismโs Biggest Straw Man."
slate.com/culture/2025...
Lecture next week at UChicago: TAKAHASHI Akinori on "Tsukinami as a Keyword in Japanese Culture" (in Japanese). Oct. 3, 2025 at 2:00 p.m.
To attend IN-PERSON: www.eventbrite.com/e/takahashi-...
To attend VIRTUALLY: uchicagogroup.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Mark Jenkins reviews the new Haru Nemuri album โEkkolaptรณmenos" for the Washington Post. We learn, among other things, that she's a big fan of Fugazi. wapo.st/4gCbfL4
22.09.2025 20:52 โ ๐ 4 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Sonia's debut single, "Emily" is out today and available on all platforms (see the links below). Give it a listen!
open.spotify.com/album/2IOWjB...
tidal.com/browse/track...
amazon.com/music/player...
music.apple.com/us/album/emi...
CNN Article 1) Tesla proposes Elon musk pay package that would make him the first trillionaire. CNN Article 2) YouTube sisters share $1 meals to help families survive soaring food prices. RIP Marx you would have loved this.
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10.09.2025 01:38 โ ๐ 18 ๐ 6 ๐ฌ 2 ๐ 0Reading books is becoming an act of resistance.
06.09.2025 20:12 โ ๐ 356 ๐ 59 ๐ฌ 15 ๐ 18What Trump's Secret Police did today.
08.09.2025 01:30 โ ๐ 1636 ๐ 625 ๐ฌ 121 ๐ 110Eventually you have to accept that no matter how many different notebooks you buy, they wonโt make you a better writer. For that, you need to spend a lot of money on the right pen.
20.11.2024 17:56 โ ๐ 1532 ๐ 384 ๐ฌ 31 ๐ 272025ๅนด9ๆ30ๆฅ ใไปฒไปใใๆฅๆฌใ ใทใฃใชใซใผใปใใผ/็ง่ไฟไธ้/ไปไบไบฎไธ/้ซๆฉ็ฅไน (ๆๅญฆ้ไฟก) [Book] https://sinkan.net/?ean=9784867660966&action_item=true #ๆฐๅๆ ๅ ฑ #sinkan
03.09.2025 09:05 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 2 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0Joshua Minsoo Kim devotes Pitchfork's "The Sunday Review" for classic albums to Hosono Haruomi's 1975 LP "Tropical Dandy."
pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...
Larry Graham is still alive and slapping. See if heโs available.
31.08.2025 01:57 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0