Mike Barthel

@mikebarthel.bsky.social

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Writer, critic, researcher. Writing a book for DUP “Singles” about “Party in the USA” (and also a speculative novel). Fiction in Fatal Flaw, The Offing, JAKE, Tower. Ex-Pew, Awl, blogs. I did the “Hallelujah” charts and the newspaper numbers.

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a real snapshot of a moment in time, nixon’s enemies list but for sonic youth fans

SPIN readers' poll, October 1989.

As I was trying to get the twins to go to sleep one said to the other “I play with you in my dreams!!” and the other one said “yeah I see you there!!” and then they went to sleep and I am dead, I am dead

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If you’re now a JD Vance beat journalist, you should read this book for background on the neoreactionary / neomonarchist things he believes (and so do the tech billionaires like Thiel and Andreessen) amzn.to/3zSojue

Neoreaction a Basilisk: Essays on and Around the Alt-Right: Sandifer, Elizabeth, Graham, Jack: 9781986913997: Amazon.com: Booksamzn.to Neoreaction a Basilisk: Essays on and Around the Alt-Right [Sandifer, Elizabeth, Graham, Jack] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Neoreaction a Basilisk: Essays on and Around the Alt-Right

The Bouie banishing is what’s always happened in online communities with a niche user base. More visible members will inevitably fail a purity test, get harassed by power posters, and leave because they have other viable options. This is what BlueSky chose to be.

Remi Wolf inarguably had the best series of EP titles in history

starting to come around to some of the *water flies up off of the snare drum* rockier moments on this too now but also, just some of the best songs of the year on this thing open.spotify.com/album/7HQOEM...

Big Ideasopen.spotify.com Remi Wolf · Album · 2024 · 13 songs.

3yo: what this song Me: “Let’s Have a Kiki” 3yo: what a kiki Me: I believe Ms. Matronic is about to tell you. 3yo: … 3yo: what a kiki Me: It’s when you and your best besties get together and say what’s what. 3yo: and go hunting Me: …what

Every centrist pundit who praised Vance’s book should probably donate $1000 to planned parenthood tonight

3yo looked me dead in the eye and said “I don’t belong in this city. I have house in California.” How is this already happening

I wrote about the album for Stereogum! www.stereogum.com/2270960/fier...

I got my start as a music critic with a track-by-track breakdown of the Fiery Furnaces’ “Blueberry Boat.” As a series of Blogspot posts, it’s not really accessible in 2024, so with the 20th anniversary coming up, I republished it for fun and reference: www.mikebarthelauthor.com/blueberry-bo...

Blueberry Boat (Clap Clap blog, 2004)www.mikebarthelauthor.com Back in 2004, I was a 25-year-old finance and legal assistant at a record label, and instead of entering 200 individual paper invoices for shipping 2 promo CDs of Sugarcult from Nashville to Albuquerq...

Gina Gershon’s “Personal life” section on Wikipedia is honestly kind of a flex

If you’re wondering why Americans are the way they are, there’s a live, three-hour weekly show, watched by millions of people, I hi where they just have cameras in 50 cop cars and cut to wherever something dramatic is happening

Every an app I’m begrudgingly using because they’ve driven everyone else out of the market asks me to write my Congressional rep on their behalf, it’s like…oh honey, you misunderstand the nature of our relationship

I am using the internet archive for research a lot and let me just say that I love it and it’s precious but also it’s a backup and it would be great if the originals weren’t deleted so that I could see things like images and audio and links

Heard my wife say “what’s UPT?” and I yelled back “I dunno T, what’s up with you???” and it turned out she was on a work call with like 12 other people

She rain on my Spain till it stays mainly on my plain

“Conservative intellectualism” has to be understood as a ritual, almost magical practice. By doing academic-esque things over and over again, an intellectual basis for the activities becomes plausible. “Look at all our institutes! Surely there’s a very smart reason for our blood and soil talk.”

The things it’s driving me nuts to see memory-holed rn are 1) Biden basically agreeing to be a one term president during the 2020 campaign and 2) Les Moonves saying, in 2016, that Trump “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS”

They made over 5 thousand episodes of Hollywood Squares. One episode could be a panel discussion about poststructuralism’s political nihilism. One could be a 22-minute interpretive dance about the legacy of the Suez crisis. Mae West could’ve killed and eaten Paul Lynde

Running for mayor of a small town in Texas so I can force them to play Explosions in the Sky during the 4th of July fireworks

Accidentally called them “Hootie and His Blowfish” and that seems like a very different band

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I watch a lot of reactor youtube (mainly movie reactions), but the algorithm thinks I'm into ANY type of reaction and I've seen the thumbnails get immeasurably worse in recent months now that all the covid lockdown viewers have moved on and channels are struggling. To wit:

Thanks to Magic 102 for reminding me of Common’s “The Light,” a perfect summer song youtu.be/OjHX7jf-znA?...

Common - The Light (Official Music Video)youtu.be REMASTERED IN HD! Music video by Common performing The Light. (C) 2000 Geffen Records #Common #TheLight #Remastered #RandB #VevoOfficial http://vevo.ly/c4A7qd

I believe you know my answer

You have to pick a new national anthem for the US, but it has to be a song that plays at least once a week on your city's equivalent of Jack-FM (a sort of all-purpose "top 40 from 1970 to 2010" station, skewing rock but not averse to pop/R&B/etc.).

I found a fun thing

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degrassi seasons 10 and 11 have a total of 89 episodes. you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum etc etc

Hilarious that SCOTUS refused to out-and-out save Trump. Enough delay to shut the prosecution down if he wins, but no immunity if he loses. Incredible that movement conservatives still think they’re geniuses using Trump as a useful idiot, not enabling an autocrat who’d happily close the Court.

A point in a survey is not a change and debates don’t move polling anymore www.axios.com/2024/06/27/p...

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Best toilet 2024 Best toilet for enthusiast Enthusiast grade toilet for men Movie star toilet Best toilet mark wahlberg

I know political journalists are addicted to game frames. But if an authoritarian is about to take power, the important story isn’t “who is failing to stop him?” It’s that an authoritarian is about to take power

The fact that you can nowadays generally be 100% sure what the lyrics of a song are is an under-appreciated change in how people consume music! (Yes, I am listening to Nirvana with a lyrics tracker.)