Charlie Bertsch

Sounds for a Dark Age Ruinenkampf by Das Kinn

I have a new piece up @battlegroundeu.bsky.social on Ruinenkampf ("Battle in the Ruins"), the new album by German musician Toben Piel's solo project Das Kinn. If you love Deutsch Amerikanische Freunschaft, you will surely dig this. Please subscribe to our Substack! thebattleground.eu/2025/05/14/s...

Israel in America The Radicalisation of Chabad

My colleague Ari Paul at @battlegroundeu.bsky.social has a piece on a disturbing trend in the American Chabad movement attacks on critics of Israel’s reactionary government.

Finding Another Gear Anika’s Abyss

This week, I wrote about Anika's album Abyss for The Battleground (@battlegroundeu.bsky.social). It's so good that I ordered it on CD—yes, I'm one of those people—as an early birthday present for myself.

A Populist for Progressives Jesse Welles Finds New Life in Folk Songs

I have a new piece up today at The Battleground on Jesse Welles, whose incisive folk songs have made him a viral sensation.

Warning From the Franco Era Pan’s Labyrinth, Directed by Guillermo del Toro

I have a new piece up at TheBattleground.eu on Guillermo del Toro's 2006 film Pan's Labyrinth. I call the film "a particularly apt allegory for our own dark times," in which the war on "woke" culture mobilizes public sentiment against its neopagan underpinnings."

A good rock is not hard to find.

Silencing the Opposition Giorgia Meloni vs. Placebo

I have a new piece on the case of British alternative rock band Placebo's frontman Brian Molko, whose on-stage rant against Far Right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni led to him being charged under the country's unusual defamation laws, which permit both civil and criminal penalties.

Precarity in Pima Canyon Meditations on the Risk Society

Today is the sixth anniversary of my daughter and her mother having to be rescued from nearby Pima Canyon in the middle of the night. But I arrived before the rescuers did, navigating three miles up the canyon by starlight — I was saving my battery — to bring them food, medicine, and warm clothes.

Anti-Socialist Realism Jon McNaughton's National Emergency

Here‘s the piece I wrote about conservative painter John McNaughton for Souciant back in 2019:

souciant.media/2019/03/anti...

Truly a case in which a picture is worth a thousand words. This one is from before the pandemic:

jonmcnaughton.com

The worst thing about further messing up my knee at the end of 2023 was that made hiking impossible. I eventually got back on the trail. But today was the first time I was able to climb back up to my favorite rock. I missed the view enormously.

This should be the flag of the Faeroe Islands.

I love your photography and am deeply grateful to be reconnected here.

Totally.

I've known him for over three decades. I cannot imagine a more intellectually generous scholar or a more reliable friend.

I‘m taking solace in my home.

YouTube video by Jesse Welles I Ain’t Got None of My Friends Left

I love how the lyrics go this one hit hardest when they are most oblique.

My idols are dead and my enemies are in power. So I made a saffron carbonara with shiitake mushrooms and a splash of Sicilian lemon-infused olive oil.

Drugs Will Tear Us Apart 24 Hour Party People, Directed by Michael Winterbottom

I have a new piece up at The Battleground on Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, which chronicles the Manchester independent music scene from the late 1970s through the early 1990s, with television newscaster, label head, and club owner Tony Wilson as a fun unreliable narrator.

Thank you! I wish I had seen them. I did See Tricky, at least.

Postcolonial Heavy Lifting The Massive Attack Legacy

I have a piece up at TheBattleground.eu on the legacy of 90s trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack. Immersing myself in their music for a week did a lot to keep me focused on taking positive steps. Give it a try!

thebattleground.eu/2025/02/19/p...

If you look for long enough, the stars will pierce the clouds.

Nope.

Solo Traveler Who Booked 7-Week Trip to Europe ‘Can’t Stop Crying,' Says Cities ‘All Feel Identical’ and She Isn’t Leaving Until March — People A 24-year-old woman planned to spend a 7-week getaway in Europe by herself. 17 days in, she’s wondering if she should just

Late-breaking!

I was finally able to get out on the trail again and stand under my favorite cactus.

Father Knows Best The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

I have a new piece up at @battlegroundeu.bsky.social on exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof's film The Seed of the Sacred Fig, one of the finalists for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards.

I have started playing OTB blitz with my chess-mad daughter, who is vastly more talented than I am. But today I achieved a meaningful advantage with two minutes up on the clock, only to be undone yet again by my dyslexia. I was too mad at myself to speak!

Protest in Code Natalie Beridze’s Street Life

I have a new piece up at TheBattleground.eu on the new album by Natalie Beridze, which uses field recordings of recent anti-government protests in her native Georgia as building blocks for disquieting ambient compositions.