September 2017

Down the Breitbart Hole

This is a current in American life we’ve not yet fully processed, but history will record a preponderance of today’s right-wing leaders who emerged in the toniest quarters of the nation’s bluest states. Apart from the obvious examples of Andrew Breitbart and Steve Bannon, annealed in Hollywood, you can think of Julia Hahn, who attended Alex’s high school and is now working with Bannon in the White House, and Ben Shapiro,… See more →

Undaunted by the decades that’ve passed since I last heard it, Mario Paint’s composer demo song is in my head today. youtube.com/watch?v=jJ3ckc…

Hüsker Dü’s “Whatever” covered by @OHMOURN: mournct.bandcamp.com/track/whatever

Harry Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talkin’” covered by @WeyesBlood weyesblood.bandcamp.com/track/everybod…

Hey, here are two good, recently-released cover songs for your Wednesday:

I wrote 73 mini film reviews last weekend. You don’t have to read them, but I recommend skimming for the highlights. Your 👀 will thank you. twitter.com/robweychert/st…

Animation fans: Here are my notes on nearly every film in competition at @OIAF_Animation, & videos of my favorites. v6.robweychert.com/blog/2017/09/o…

Contemplating the anatomy of a racially-charged fistfight on the C train on an unseasonably warm day.

I’ve just returned from my ninth Ottawa International Animation Festival since 1998, and my first since 2010. I only got a weekend pass this time, rather than doing the full five days, but I still managed to cram in 10 screenings. This is also the first time I’ve attended the fest by myself, which enabled me to document it in greater detail than I have in the past. What follows are my notes on nearly… See more →

I have found the bar in Ottawa that plays Peter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks” over and over again, and I wish I hadn’t.

My new Beats earbuds have arrived and I finally have the earwax necklace I’ve always wanted.

Steven C. Stewart, a man with severe cerebral palsy, made himself the antihero in a self-penned screenplay for an erotic revenge thriller, and Crispin Glover went pretty far out of his way to commit Stewart’s catharsis to film, co-directing and funding the sexually explicit project with his own money. It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine is unforgettable; I commend the effort, and welcome the challenge to broaden the range of unfiltered perspectives we accept from… See more →

Been watching Peter Gunn lately.
👮🏻 Jacoby: This crime boss is too slippery.
🕵🏻 Gunn: I’ll make this one stick.
🎺 Mancini: BWWAAAHHHH-daaahh

“Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal?” thenib.com/the-epa-used-t…

Looking forward to computering with the people of @indiewebcamp in NYC 9/30–10/01! 2017.indieweb.org/nyc

“All politics are identity politics—except the politics of white people, the politics of the bloody heirloom.” twitter.com/theatlantic/st…

There goes Grant Hart. Goddammit. Time for some Zen Arcade. RIP. mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/art…

Imagine the crew nervously looking over their shoulders while shooting one of the small handful of scenes that aren’t dominated by the clown crawling all over the screen, knowing that at any moment, a producer will storm onto the set demanding to know why the fuck this scene has no clown.

i like how the chocolate syrup bottle is so brown it’s like “guess what’s in me” and you’re like “hydrogen peroxide” and it’s like “wtf”

Okay NYC, the polls close at 9. If you haven’t already, get on it. project.wnyc.org/nyc-primary-20…

Currently powering through that thing where you launch a new site and kind of wish no one would look at it. twitter.com/robweychert/st…

I did that thing where you redesign your personal website and then write about it. v6.robweychert.com/blog/2017/09/v…

Twenty years ago, techno-utopians rightly recognized that the internet in general and the web in particular would democratize the distribution of self-expression in a revolutionary way. Over the next decade, the number of blogs sharing art and recipes and poetry and personal stories grew seemingly exponentially, and their proliferation in the wake of the dot-com crash was a testament to the noncommercial, grassroots nature of the movement. As hand-coded sites gave way to hosted blogging… See more →

In my 20 years of hyper-Catholicism and all the time since, I’ve never been able to make any sense of that “Jesus died for your sins” thing.

A very engrossing, unromantic portrait of NYC in the twilight of punk’s first wave, a palpably grimy dystopia populated almost entirely by down-and-out scammers of various stripes. Susan Berman is extraordinary as Wren, a deeply unlikeable opportunist who nevertheless inspires empathy. Her desperate energy propels the film, whose plot is essentially a catalog of her bad decisions. Pair with Midnight Cowboy for the consummate feel-bad double feature.

“‘But who,’ ventured Simone, ‘is here to interrupt us?’ The girls looked around. It was true: there was no one.” newyorker.com/humor/daily-sh…

I get pretty nerdy about typography, but this exhaustive takedown of a typographic myth is some next-level nerding. heracliteanriver.com/?p=324

It’s hard to imagine what the web would be without ALA. All people who make the web are encouraged to participate and/or become a member. twitter.com/alistapart/sta…

Butterfly emerges from chrysalis, tentatively flaps its new wings. 1000 miles away, Apple TV remote feels the breeze, cues up Full House.

Regarding our commander-in-chief’s military priorities. thenib.com/trans-troops-a…

A nice roundup of noteworthy female and non-binary musicians making below-the-radar rock music. nytimes.com/interactive/20…