Michael J. Kramer

Get out the way Old Dan Tucker. www.facebook.com/share/r/15ws...

The closing of the BBC Sounds app is very sad. Way more restricted access to BBC Radio overseas now. Part of a larger closing down of public media (and global publics)?

YouTube video by CUNY Graduate Center A Conversation with Steve McQueen and Paul Gilroy

Great conversation here between Paul Gulroy and Steve McQueen. youtu.be/YHW2HHaEl2g?...

Meditations for the anxious mind For biz: meditationsfortheanxiousmind@gmail.com

Move over Zizek. Step aside Walter Benjamin. Take a bath Barthes. Best cultural criticism & analysis going today, in a format for contemporary times. youtube.com/@meditations...

Call for a ban on the word "impactful" unless you are planning to punch someone (preferably a Nazi).

What Do Commercials About A.I. Really Promise? If human workers don’t have to read, write, or even think, it’s unclear what’s left for them to do.

Over at @newyorker.com, the always-sharp Vinson Cunningham has a nice piece on those super-weird Apple AI ads, www.newyorker.com/culture/crit..., something I was thinking a lot about too in the Culture Rover post Phonies, www.michaeljkramer.net/phonies/. #culturerover

Jasper Johns, Two Flags (Black) (crop), 1970-72. For more, see "We Carried You In Our Arms, on Independence Day—images & sounds for July 4th." www.michaeljkramer.net/we-carried-y...

First as tragedy, then as farce, then as...more tragedy.

YouTube video by More Sleater-Kinney Sleater-Kinney - Fortunate Son [Live in London, 2000]

youtu.be/DOVI4llAQBM?...

New #culturerover: More Than a Face—the gaze & the visage. Unmasking masking in the 2020s. www.michaeljkramer.net/more-than-a-...

I thought Gabe Winant’s Dissent piece on the 2024 national convention spoke to this issue in terms of domestic US politics. Possibly could fit?

YouTube video by The Ed Sullivan Show Sly & The Family Stone "Everyday People & Dance To The Music" on The Ed Sullivan Show

“Don’t hate the black, don’t hate the white. If you get bitten, just hate the bite.” youtu.be/u8r32Scvbds

New #culturerover: Brushing Against the Body, on
The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970–2020, @mcachicago.bsky.social www.michaeljkramer.net/brushing-aga...

Clowns.

Yes good point! It’s not that this discounts your excellent analysis. Just maybe another layer.

A more psychopolitical reading? Sometimes I wonder if the obsession with Biden’s personal health decline is a really proxy for the nation’s feelings about aging baby boomer generation.

Shouldn't everyone just resubmit their suspended grants again? Why not? What's to lose? Or use AI to send in millions of grants for these? Why not? The new admin used AI to send out their "termination" letters, so that's the model now?

Joan Baez & Mike Seeger backstage at the 1964 Berkeley Folk Music Festival Jubilee Concert. From the Berkeley Folk Music Festival Collection, bfmf.net. #bfmf

Political strategists smarter than me, I don’t understand why Democrats aren’t saying everywhere, constantly: the ruling party right now cannot be trusted (they want to kill your grandma & your babies); they can’t get it done (not enough atc’s, no goods coming in at ports). Is there a reason not?

New #culturerover: X Musks the Spot—on Jill Lepore’s sci-fi history of Elon Musk. www.michaeljkramer.net/x-musks-the-...

For the Monday morning crowd: a 🧵on how to appeal your NEH grant termination. Please share with NEH grantees.

I also summarized in a shareable google doc, available here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

New #culturerover: Sam Shepard Returns—In two recent productions, Sam Shepard’s plays remind us that family traumas have long afterlives. www.michaeljkramer.net/sam-shepard-...

Very interesting. Made me think about how the asset culture of US (housing especially) in US perhaps asks us to ponder the Inclusion aspect of ill-fated DEI when most focus has been, politically, on the D & E aspects. Thanks.

Opinion | If You’re a Voter Reading This, This Essay Is Not About You Opt-out voters don’t buy what we’re selling — and even if they did, we’d have a hard time reaching them.

Culture is back, apparently, according to @robflaherty.bsky.social in a fascinating op-ed (www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/o...). But what is culture exactly? Beyond binaries of opt-in, info, "educated," snooty vs. opt-out, vibes, irrational, infantile, perhaps other configurations await.

Dems could use donor funds to hire all furloughed & fired government workers temporarily. Create a kind of gov’t-in-exile. “We put people to work. And we will do it for you too. The opposition wants to fire you, we put people to work making your country stronger.” Something like that.

Had a dream fiery Dem candidate speech said of Repubs: “evidence suggests you can’t trust them. From what they are doing, they seem to want to kill your grandma & babies, make your things more expensive, & take your job.”

New #culturerover: Shades Drawn, Icarus had feathers & wax, but he didn’t have a smartphone, www.michaeljkramer.net/shades-drawn/.

Possible to flood this with so many applications (including all the ones that were likely illegally terminated) and crash the website? I can think of many many good statue designs : ).

Is there any news about any institution litigating or challenging these terminations of NEH grants? I have only heard radio silence on that.