Week 21

Absolutely fantastic writing from one of my favorite thinkers. There are tons of things going on in her prepared talk, but the musical trend observations alone are worth savoring:

Next, a great post from Isiah Medina on pseudo-intellectualism masquerading as its opposite, and how that plays out aesthetically + politically.

This one's not an endorsement: MarketWatch considers the ailing US economy and its stressful impact on kids and families. They are largely right in their structural orientation, but their enthusiastic assent to the economic status quo under study is just bizarre. I found this article through Malcolm Harris, who wryly noted that it covered the same topic as his own book and decided that, more or less, everything's fine as is.

Some fun reflections from the Sugarhill Gang on hip-hop's 40th birthday.

No one will miss cars when they're gone, and I'm breathlessly awaiting that day. Car culture is a death cult I don't want to be killed by.

Digging into Rivette's film criticism. I need a lot more context than I have right now, but I was intrigued by the characterization of the Cahiers critics as being indifferent/hostile to material-based experimental cinema. I guess this is where more Bazin might help! Still, it's definitely an avenue worth walking down at some point.