PicoBlog

I recently found myself in an East Village bar discussing the merits of “Sex and the City” with a drunk stranger (stay with me here). In a sudden moment of lucidity, he proclaimed, “I liked Carrie. She had flaws, but she was trying her best. Ya know?” I slammed my palm down on the bar. “Yes!” I do know! As we await the “SATC” reboot, it’s in vogue (pun intended) to hate the show’s leading anti-heroine.

Hello Friends in the Computer, I recently saw a social media post that said something like “I’m so tired of hearing people repeat ‘people, process, technology’ instead of just diving in and using new tools” and I was like “well I’m tired of people getting on Al Gore’s Internet and saying ridiculous things, so I guess we’re both gonna be unhappy.” Let me set the stage (in a series of paragraphs that look suspiciously like a tweet thread…)

I had another piece to publish today, a new piece I’ve been working on for a moment, but world events ruined my timing. It was a piece about anarchist ethics and violence, but it might fit the context of the repression of the people of Palestine poorly. Both sides of any conflict are capable of committing atrocities (and usually do), and it’s important to not cheerlead any atrocities, but it'’s also important to recognize that in this particular struggle, there is an oppressor—the state of Israel—and there is an oppressed, the people of Palestine.

A year ago today, Lorde released her third studio album, “Solar Power,” and for one day on the internet, everybody who listened to the album seemingly had an opinion on it. The words “flop,” “drab,” and “music for a pharmaceutical commercial” were tossed around by listeners and Great Value brand critics (tweeters) alike. When it arrived, I listened to the album a few times (it came out right before my 22nd birthday, so the line “I thought I was a genius, but now I’m 22” was a lyrical treat for me in September) before eventually discarding it, as if the album was a crossed-off list of to-do’s on a piece of paper I kept on my desk for a few weeks too long.

Last week I read Prudentialist’s article Everywhere at the End of the West, where he makes an extended analogy of the West’s degeneration to that of an Alzheimer’s patient, progressively forgetting all memory, becoming a creature of the moment, eventually losing touch with time itself. I also read the critical response by poet Arthur Powell—whom we will welcome as the newest Imperium Press author in a few weeks—and found much to agree with there too.

Hello! Today’s guest is the John Ganz, author of the Unpopular Front substack and the upcoming book “When The Clock Broke.” We talk about the now years-long debate about whether what’s happening among the right wing in American should be called “fascism” and how such definitions should and should not be used in a political manner. We also talk about normie/resistance liberals and the concept of a popular front that needs to exist to defeat all that Trump might bring with him into office.

Within my first few months of living in Dallas, I saw a car with a bumper sticker on it that read, “Keep Dallas Boring.” At first, I thought it was a jab at the city for its reputation as a cultureless, corporate purgatory, in contrast to Austin, where the unofficial city motto is, “Keep Austin Weird.” But I decided I would take the bumper sticker at its word. I took the car’s owner to be saying that the boringness of Dallas is the best thing about it.

As viewers wend their way through the sixth and last season of The Crown, they are being reintroduced to Henry George Reginald Molyneux Herbert, the 7th Earl of Carnarvon, who turned up in the first three seasons.  In each of those instances, the series implied that the Queen and her longtime friend— nicknamed “Porchey” after the Lord Porchester title he held until he inherited the earldom in 1987—were having an affair.

My favorite classic Arabic song of all time was preformed by the great Syrian singer Sabah Fakhri, who died today in Damascus at the age of 88. Fakhri recited spiritual tunes and folk songs known as Qudud Halabiyah, after the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. His work made him one of the most popular singers in the Arabic-speaking world. The poem of Fakhri’s song chosen here is said to have been composed by a certain Medieval Muhammad al-Manbiji, of the northern Syrian city of Manbij, whose name means spring in Aramaic (the Arabic cognate word is Manbi').