"What's this life for?" I went to Wisconsin for @washingtonpost to see if there is any joy to be found in post-grunge nostalgia. wapo.st/4mzUHoT

Fuck Donald Trump, die in agony you fucking coward

Cory Booker’s action was in a way a perfect encapsulation of Democratic Party strategy: bloviate for hours on end when the stakes are non-existent for the sake of a hollow victory that ultimately won’t change people’s material conditions so they can claim to be “resisting”.

I’m so tired amazon.com/Donald-Turned-Pre…

The anti-Anora reaction since it won Best Picture shouldn’t be surprising. It’s a conservative, anti-art reaction. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like a piece of art. Over the last 10 years, culturally, something majorly shifted to where we can no longer tolerate differing viewpoints or how they are portrayed or who gets to portray them. I saw this first hand teaching in the academy where the students themselves want to know exactly what an art object means, what it argues for, why, why someone even has a right to make it—it’s basically all the questions the right was asking of art in the early 90s with the NEA Four. And if no art object or artist has the perfect equation: cancelled. Berated. “Problematic.” There is no room for flexibility. Doubt. Holding two opposing ideas in one’s head at one time. No real engagement. Well, shocker, no art object or artist ever has the perfect equation. It’s almost like certain leftists have started using and thinking of art as propaganda. It must espouse an ideology (their ideology) at all times. Anything else makes them nervous. Again, this smacks of the conservative right in the 90s, but now disguises itself as “progressive.” Art is, obviously, not here to make you feel better about yourself or your world view or to bring you certitude and moral clarity. The artist is also not your role model or moral example. It’s actually completely fine for the artist to be the most flawed of anyone, which really, we’re all flawed. The most depressing thing, teaching, has been seeing how obsessed with policing culture, cultural production, and themselves, people have become. I refuse and reject it. I don’t care who I make nervous and I certainly don’t give a fuck about the arbitrary cultural rules and norms being invented almost daily to stifle artistic expression, which really, is the human experience ugly as it is.

thinking of the whole @AWFULRECORDS crew… RIP Richposlim

This was a big one for me. Chatted with @ThatKevinSmith for @washingtonpost about dads, the “booby hatch” and the truth you can only find in the quiet dark of the movie theater. wapo.st/3EFZ6FK

fuck off, you ghouls

Palestine and Los Angeles are burning for the same reason: the prioritization of advancing capitalist and colonial interests over the lives and well-being of millions. We’re witnessing the brutal effects of capitalism and settler colonialism real time. This can’t continue.

albums 2024 Charli XCX, Brat Ekko Astral, Pink Balloons Reznor/Ross/Boys Noize, Challengers mix Knocked Loose, You Won’t Go… Erika de Casier, Still Doechii, Alligator Bites… Sabrina Carpenter, Short n Sweet Drug Church, Prude Mk.gee, Two Star Chappell Roan (late like everyone)

breaking my Twitter fast to save my EOY lists for posterity

"I found a way to get peace of mind for years and left the hell alone / Turn a deaf ear to the cellular phone / Send me a letter or better, we could see each other in real life" I'm off twitter. hit me on email (mrkelly at gmail) or, despite what Doom said, the cellular phone

shithole country and the other guy’s not even in charge yet

Going to the movies by myself because I’m just a chill guy who enjoys the magic of cinema