‘President Trump has been right about everything.” — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. (This is old news by now, but the staff felt an obligation to memorialize it.)
Baghdad Bob in Drag
Reboot Your Eyeballs
It’s food for the retina.
Unmasked
It’s Banksy’s World . . . But Not Officially
The museum in Lisbon, Portugal, showcases 100 reproductions of Banksy’s artwork through video, installations, graffiti, canvases, projections, and murals.
Visual Culture Taking a Break
Buster Keaton has an idea about that..
Bernie Sanders Has an AI Proposal
He’s been called a luddite. But he rejects that and says he is calling for a moratorium on building new AI data centers because he is concerned about an existential threat to humankind.
Looking Back at NYC with Nostalgia and Dismay
In a newly recorded video, three noted writers look back at their experience of New York City with nostalgic affection — and, it must be said, with considerable dismay — from their vantage points in Switzerland and Germany.
Swiss Composer-Musician-Videographer Takes a Bow
They’re celebrating Steff Signer’s 75th birthday at the Palace tonight in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
THE BLACK SCHOONER
Amistad Slave Rebellion Retold in New Graphic Novel
Before Black History Month runs out, let’s note that David Lester has a new graphic novel in the works: THE BLACK SCHOONER. “It tells the true story of the 1839 uprising aboard the Amistad,” Lester says, and is one of a “growing number of titles depicting history from below.”
AI Is Working on It
Do you remember January 6?
About Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Apostasy . . .
This is a curiosity.
‘Don’t Forget My Old Soul’
When I saw this eye-popping video for the first time, it bowled me over. I’ve rewatched it several times and am still marveling at it. But is this work a piece of AI-slop? Is it “kind of meaningless in [its] calculated reality,” as Doug McLennan has written of the genre? Or is it more than that?
Cut Paste Print
A History of Political Photomontage in the 20th Century
This blogpost cannot adequately display the exhaustive content and brilliant design of “Couper, Coller, Imprimer,” the richly illustrated catalogue of an extraordinary photomontage exhibition at La Contemporaine in Nantes, France (running through March 14). Even so, it is hoped that this limited attempt evokes the broad historical spirit of the exhibition while offering an edited summary of the subject by the curators, Max Bonhomme and Aline Théret, in their own words.
Krugman and Kedrosky
A Most Enlightening Conversation About AI & Its Future
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.
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.