hi hat

Cra 80s Remake w/Starship for Theme Song youtube.com/watch?v=3wxyN3…

2026 #KentuckyDerby Payouts usatoday.com/story/sports/h…

William Deresiewicz argues that we are in the midst of an epochal transformation within art. Whereas the nineteenth century considered artists to be craftsmen and the twentieth century treated them as professionals, artists today are uniquely dependent upon themselves.

The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech (2020) @WDeresiewicz @HenryHolt

When an artist realizes that irony/camp is no longer a choice but a mandatory cage, the only way to survive is to break out.

If there's anything fresh to be found, it isn't on Broadway or in the mainstream. It could live in reactionary pockets where creators might succeed at pivoting away from the exhausted ironic-to-camp wink; for them, it's sheer personal creative survival.

Critics are often reluctant to call camp humor cheap or disposable for fear of sounding out of touch with "the people," even though "the people" are exactly who would benefit from knowing a show is about as entertaining as yesterday’s newspaper.

Camp's biggest enemy isn't the "serious" critic; it's boredom. Once the "ordinary" audience finds the performative irony more exhausting than entertaining, the market for it will collapse.

Hollywood Baffled By Success Of Movie Made To Entertain People buff.ly/ozwuSUz

@bighealer_sarah @walterkirn Brings to mind "The New Soviet Man." It was once a thing, rapidly satirized as "Homo Sovieticus."

I have been thinking about the problem this way: humans are naturally tribal. We group up and evaluate other tribes based on a ratio of useful/dangerous. Trade and other forms of cooperation push the numerator higher, and then we find ways to get along. The Enlightenment project as it manifest in Progressivism told us being tribal was backwards and primitive so we were supposed to evolve beyond it or admit to being neanderthals. But we didn’t, we just started faking it. So now everyone is trying to find ways to justify their tribalism while still denying it; instead of “my tribe good,” it’s “what tribe? We unified, you saboteurs and troglodytes!” This, of course, prevents us from being honest with ourselves and each other and just being tribal while trying to be useful enough to other tribes to cooperate instead of kill each other. Which gives us more warring under an endless self-licking ice cream cone of pretense towards unification. Obama was the king in this regard; not the only, but a true avatar of it.

Instead of these counterproductive calls for unity that have been failing consistently all my life, someone should call for even more division in politics. So much division that there are 129 sides of every issue. Then we might finally have to form coalitions & try to get along.

@walterkirn In a sunny adversarial democracy, boilerplate calls for unity are to be generally taken as suspect if not patently bogus.

VICTORY FOR GOLDEN TEMPO IN THE 152ND KENTUCKY DERBY! 🐎🌹 📺: The 152nd Kentucky Derby on NBC and Peacock

Golden Tempo found another gear and OWNED the moment! 🏆 📺: The 152nd Kentucky Derby on NBC and Peacock

RT @wave3news: Golden Tempo comes out on top at Kentucky Derby 152! #WaveAtDerby #KentuckyDerby152

Slowed loading time

Great White has been scratched at the gate from the Kentucky Derby.

@walterkirn If not for the apparent feeble security perimeter.

Can I have one free shot at the craziest unfounded theory of the week? Ok, here goes: The almost inexplicable gathering of all the major administration figures from the president on down at the WHCD was a security version of a honeypot operation. The unprecedented roster of targets presented an irresistible temptation for hostile interests and was meant to smoke out disloyalty and corruption in the inner circle and the guardian class. And it may have worked. Insane novelist thinking, I know.

Ridiculously accurate

International Dark Sky Week is hailed as a global celebration of the night and a call for less light pollution. In some cities internationally, local governments are trying to find a solution to lighting the night that can better serve wildlife ecosystems and humans alike. @MalcolmBrabant reports from Denmark.

On the new episode of American Gambler Book Club, @KitChellel and I discuss "The Gambling Animal," which takes an interesting look at how humans (and elephants) have thrived through an ability to understand probability and risk. We also discuss his new book "Lucky Devils." Links: