Michael K. Bourdaghs

My goodness.

Peripheral Linguistic Brutality: Metal Languaging in the Asia Pacific Peripheral Linguistic Brutality is a sociolinguistic investigation into the production of “metalness” through language in the Asia Pacific. Concentrating on the ways local music scenes adopt, rejec…

New 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...

In the Shadow of Empire A pioneering look at an immensely creative period in Japanese art that developed amid the Cold War.   Alicia Volk brings to light a significant body of postwar Japanese art, exploring how it accommoda...

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.

Made it to the bottom of the 11th inning before bedtime arrived here in Chicago....What a game that was!

Veteran 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

An 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

Mladen 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 violation—given that unwritten laws form the very fabric of society and its ethical foundation."

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No 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.”

The Hyde Park Jazz Festival defies federal defunding to shine brighter than ever - Chicago Reader Photos from the Hyde Park Jazz Festival's 19th year overflow with joy and community that give the lie to Trump’s ugly vision of the world.

Michael 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.

“Terrible 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.”

Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

UIP October 2025 free e-book

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...

Literary and Artistic Japan behind the Iron Curtain | Irina Holca, Geo This book examines the public perception, scholarly reception, and critical analysis of Japan through translations of its literature and artistic endeavors

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 山下洋輔 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 青木達幸on bass and Tomatsu Takahiro 戸松美貴博 on "body movement."

Visa Chaos: A Graphic Narrative (opinion) A graphic narrative written and drawn by Rivi Handler-Spitz.

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...

Those Gilmore Girls Sure Do Know A Lot About Music TV’s greatest fast-talking mother and daughter created a discerning but feminine cultural canon, gilded with la-la-las.

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...

Grumps Blame It for Everything From the Rise of Taylor to the Fall of Pitchfork. They Don’t Even Understand It. Criticism’s most abused straw man.

Carl Wilson with a great piece for Slate on the history and stakes of the poptimism/rockism wars: "Criticism’s 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...

Japanese musician Haru Nemuri blends pop, rap, EDM and so much more In her third full-length release, “Ekkolaptómenos,” political and philosophical questions are explored through the English language and heavy synths.

Mark Jenkins reviews the new Haru Nemuri album “Ekkolaptómenos" for the Washington Post. We learn, among other things, that she's a big fan of Fugazi. wapo.st/4gCbfL4

Emily

Sonia'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.

🙃

Reading books is becoming an act of resistance.

What Trump's Secret Police did today.

Eventually you have to accept that no matter how many different notebooks you buy, they won’t make you a better writer. For that, you need to spend a lot of money on the right pen.

2025/9/30 仲介する日本 シャオルー・マー/秋草... [単行本] - 新刊.net - 書籍やCD、DVD、ゲームの新刊発売日を自動チェック 2025年9月30日 火曜日 発売 仲介する日本 シャオルー・マー/秋草俊一郎/今井亮一/高橋知之 文学通信 単行本

2025年9月30日 『仲介する日本』 シャオルー・マー/秋草俊一郎/今井亮一/高橋知之 (文学通信) [Book] https://sinkan.net/?ean=9784867660966&action_item=true #新刊情報 #sinkan

Haruomi Hosono: Tropical Dandy Read Joshua Minsoo Kim’s review of the album.

Joshua 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 he’s available.