dear reader, I’m switching things up a little. in the interest of putting something in your inbox more consistently, and of being more conscientious about the media I engage with, I’ll be sending out updates reviewing whatever I managed to absorb in the previous week. I’m also toying with maybe producing some kind of audio material, but god forbid I become primarily a podcaster, so I’m not sure yet what that will look like. (Esoteric studies? Parapolitics? Literary history? Drop me a line if you have any input).
but anyway, here’s what I put in me this week:
croissant, Arsicault Bakery San Francisco maybe the best croissant I’ve ever had, but hard to imagine regularly waiting in line for 20 minutes just to get a pricey croissant.
Black No More, by George S. Schuyler: Pitch black satire skewering everyone on all sides of America’s Race Problem circa 1930, written with such a sharp eye that the jokes might as well be about America’s Race Problem circa 2023. Schuyler’s such a contrarian hater that it’s difficult to understand what exactly he wants from people, but who cares when the result is this riotously funny? One thing that’s clear is that Schuyler believed we’d all be much better off if we dropped any pretense to “purity,” be it moral, political or racial.
“The Octopus,” Ghost Stories for the End of the World: I’ll be real with you, reader, this podcast is a big reason why producing some kind of audio material is appealing to me. I’ve wanted to make spoken-word-and-ambient-music type things for a while, but when I saw the bibliography for this show’s 13-part series detailing the Inslaw Affair and the tentacles of the Octopus, my thought was, “Damn, badass.” What’s appealing about producing something like that myself is in being much more rigorous with my knowledge and having an artifact to refer back to when I need to retrieve that information. Plus I enjoy audio engineering and music production. There are lots of “parapolitics” podcasts out there, but I like this one (right now anyway) because it avoids TrueAnon’s sometimes-irritating irreverence without submitting to Death Is Just Around the Corner’s suffocating dreariness. If you don’t know what the Inslaw Affair is, it connects Iran-Contra, Robert Maxwell, the Cabazon Indian Reservation, UFOs, the Mafia, and the 11th of September, 2001. Pour one out for Danny Casolaro.
Rave Warning EP, Ethan Glass: Bandcamp has this tagged as “slimepunk”? Genre labels are out of control. Listened to this because I first heard “Smare” in the backseat of some townie’s car while driving between bars back in 2019 and I’m writing something inspired by that time in my life.
The Doom Generation, dir. Gregg Araki (1995): Apocalyptically silly. Maybe the most Gen X thing I’ve ever encountered—in case you were wondering, yes of course Parker Posey shows up for five minutes. Many times did I roll my eyes at the supposedly nihilistic provocation (we get it, everything they purchase ends up costing $6.66). On Letterboxd I described it as Y Tu Mama También directed by Gay Raymond Pettibon. Maybe John Waters meets Godard is more appropriate. Either way, if you like gleefully tasteless erotic crime romps, celebrate Pride month with this “Heterosexual Movie” by Gregg Araki.
Rum & Coke at a dive bar in Ojai: Terrible, exactly how I hoped.
chorizo breakfast burrito, La Fuente in Ojai: To subdue the hangover caused, in part, by the rum & Coke. Delicious.
“The Red Book by Carl Jung | Structure, Influences, & Themes,” The Truth w/ Carlos Farias: Not that interesting if you already have a sense of what’s up with The Red Book. I want to read The Red Book but finding a used copy is difficult.
croissant, Butter & Fold Ventura: In contrast to Arsicault’s, this was a thoroughly “mid” croissant, overcooked, from a new bakery in town. It would be great to have a good local bakery but I’m not sure this will be it.
“Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress,” from A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn: I had been casting about too much for a thicc history book to read and landed on A People’s History because I have a nice hardback copy and it felt appropriate to get a longview history of the US before I get into something more detailed. Later chapters I’m sure will be more enlightening but this first one is basically common knowledge nowadays slash it sets out Zinn’s project of trying to overturn the myths of American history.
Got lots of projects simmerin and perculatin at the moment, so it’s nice to have something light and easy to share with all my beloved fans. You can also of course keep up with whatever the hell I’m doing over at my blog, or feel free to shoot me an email at palmtreesonfire at protonmail dot com. Someone sent me an email there with kind words and a generous offer that I’m grateful for, so please don’t be shy smileyface.