As a longtime reader of Paul Krugman’s columns, I can say without hesitation that this is his best Substack conversation yet about AI and its ramifications. Thanks to Paul Kedrosky‘s clarity, I understand a helluva lot more of what is going on than I did until now.
Krugman and Kedrosky
DOGE Has Evolved from Chainsaw to Ticks
Today’s headline at WIRED is a reminder of “Billboard Proposal #2,” which was posted seven months ago. And now that Elon Musk’s chainsaw has evolved, this is not so much an I-told-you-so as confirmation of his so-far inescapable assault. Let us also not forget “Billboard Proposal #1.”
Stoppard Never Got the Nobel Prize for Literature
Which is remarkable, except that neither did many writers of the highest esteem. Was he considered for it? You’d certainly think so, given his record of achievement.
A Straightup Thanksgiving — It’s a Tradition
Our Thanksgiving team of William S. Burroughs and Norman O. Mustill has been a happy pairing since 2012. It still is. So here they are again, sweetened by Heathcote Williams’s words in a narration-cum-montage by Alan Cox. It’s all so delish.
Fragments of an Unfinished Revolution
After watching all six episodes of ‘The American Revolution,’ Ken Burns’s new, much-heralded documentary, I had mixed feelings.
The Vanity and Narcissism of an ‘Irreplaceable’ Leader
The comparison to the 47th American president is overworked but necessary. Here’s an excerpt from “Hitler’s People” by the British historian Richard J. Evans.
Don’t Know What I Did to Deserve It
Steff Signer / Cabinet Music XII — Twelve More Bars to Go
A Great One Died Eight Years Ago
![Heathcote Williams [Photo: JH, 2013]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/heathcote-williams-photo-copy-200x200.png)
‘He was the Shelley of his age and more.’ — Gerard Bellaart
In Berlin
A ‘Pandora’s Box’ of Life’s Struggles and Wonders
In several media — photography, video, poetry and live performance — Signe Mähler and William Cody Maher will introduce a world in which the personal and the universal intersect and mirror one another. The pair will explore how the story of a married couple can echo both global events and private memories — using the past as a lens to see and understand the present.
Steff Signer: Cabinet Music XI
Concept & Music: Steff Signer * Photography: Mario Baronchelli *
Acrostic Poetry: Florian Vetsch * Cornet Introduction: Markus Breuss *
Poetry Recitation: Jaswant Hanspal
Remembering Janine Pommy Vega
She’ll get a street named for her in New Jersey, where she was from. The last time I saw Janine was on the Lower East Side at the Bowery Ball Room in Manhattan, for a reading to celebrate a book of poems by migrant farmworkers, “Estamos Aquí,” which she had translated. One of her last messages to me, dated 6/19/2007, arrived not long after. It could have been written yesterday.
William Wyler, an Old Favorite, Speaks About Film
Well, of course he’s a favorite. See “A Talent for Trouble.”
This Was My Song — It Is Ours Now More Than Ever
Long, long ago — in 1970 to be precise — the Berkeley radio station KPFA borrowed a collage of mine for the cover of its guide. I had titled it “This Is My Song,” thinking of it as an obituary for the 1960s.
‘After Words’ at The Grolier Club Tells of a Revolution
If anybody had said to me that the shaggy “mimeo revolution” of little magazines begun in the 1960s would be the subject of an exhibition as elegant as this one, and in as venerable a setting, I wouldn’t have believed it. During that period I played a small part in what was happening as the editor of a little mag myself. I thought we were participants in a rebellion more than a revolution.
That Gaze Is a Gaze of Suspicion
And what does she suspect?
Yes, you guessed it.
Skulduggery of course.
Musk and His Chainsaw Are Still Coming for You
You think DOGE is gone? He’s still here! And so is his chainsaw!
Proposal for a Billboard
The tag team of Elon Musk and Donald Trump were cheered ringside by MAGA Republicans during el presidente’s speech to the joint session of Congress.