Just because someone took a shot at him, that doesn’t absolve him of his crimes, undo his previous actions or change the fact that he wants to completely upend our democracy. He’s still a deeply horrible, avaricious scumbag.
It’s unfortunate that someone tried to put a bullet in him (let alone someone who was a registered Republican with a legally purchased firearm), but that doesn’t make him a goddamn saint.
If you enjoy laughing to keep yourself from crying, Jon Stewart was absolutely ON FIRE last night ....
Personally speaking, did I think Biden did even a half-decent job last night? Absolutely fucking not. That said, I'd still support him over the alternative EVERY DAMN TIME.
Here’s an entry I’m relatively certain I’m going to regret posting. But first, a bit of background….
Over the course of a long, deathly quiet overnight shift at the TIME Magazine News Desk in the late July of 2005, a little under a month after I’d first launched this silly blog, I composed an epic-length post ruminating on an article for SPIN that Chuck Klosterman had penned that was later appended to a collection of his writings. The subject matter was his not-entirely-serious postulation that Kid A, the arguably confounding and divisive fourth album by arty British alternative band, Radiohead, had predicted the events of September 11, 2001. Should you be curious and willing to overlook some invariable typos and maybe a broken image or two, you can find that here:
Klosterman’s Theory: Did Radiohead’s Kid A Predict 9/11?
In the gradual wake of unwittingly posting that entry, it became one of the most frequently clicked pieces of this blog’s almost-19-year history, being frequently cited on any number of Radiohead fan forums and conspiracy-theory sites. It was linked to by legitimate outlets like Cracked and Noisey, with both repeatedly resurfacing those posts on social media, prompting me to post no fewer than five retorts, notably…
Klosterman’s Theory Redux: Kid A Gets Cracked (2010)
Radioheadache: The Scourge of Klosterman’s Theory (2016)
Radioheadcase: The Endurance of Klosterman’s Theory (2020)
You’ve Got to Be Kid A’ing Me (2020)
Kid Oy! (2022)
Each of these basically reiterated the same point, that being that I personally never really took the theory all that seriously nor, did I suspect, that Klosterman himself did, either.
But the clicks and links kept coming. Despite how many times I mentioned that I didn’t really care or that I thought it was all a bit in bad taste and that there were surely bigger fish to be fried, the interest in this bizarre theory hasn’t really waned or diminished.
To that end, I fielded a cryptic note today, almost nineteen years after that first post, from a reader named Paul. Paul wrote in, in all caps, “I AM GOING TO MAKE YOU CARE,” and included a link to a video. The accompanying text for that video is as follows:
SHARE THIS. SPREAD THIS.
Radiohead are the kings of 9/11 foreknowledge. They embedded *dozen and dozens* of visual and lyrical clues in three consecutive albums — OK Computer, Kid A, and Amnesiac. (Chuck Klosterman's half-assed writerly analysis of merely some lyrics in merely one album, Kid A, is a weak-sauce limited hangout.) Radiohead absolutely knew about 9/11 ahead of time, to an eerily specific extent, almost as if they were commissioned to perform a years-long artistic conjuring/welcoming ritual. I myself attended the Suffolk Downs show, and the vibes that night were off-the-charts spooky. Not just the ominous pre-show sunset, not just the panic-frequencies emitted by Thom Yorke all night, not just the planes from the adjacent Logan Airport flying around us all night. There was one moment I will never, ever forget. Just when the "Rain Down" section of Paranoid Android began and the music dramatically paused, a single plane roared directly over our heads, and the crowd erupted at the classic concert synchronicity. I don't know how anyone could have arranged it, that moment might have had a paranormal basis. Regardless: RADIOHEAD KNEW. Which is way, way more important than you probably think it is right now. They have been conspicuously omitted from all 9/11 Predictive Programming compilations, probably for a reason, and probably not a good reason. SPREAD THIS VIDEO. Copy the url, and text it to someone who will be interested, email it to your favorite conspiracy theorists, share it with any Radiohead fans, post it on social media, rip the video and post it on your own account, do whatever it takes to publicize this. DO NOT JUST READ THIS AND KEEP BROWSING. Do your part, please. Thank you.
Here is the video in question. Be warned -- there are some jarring passages herein, if you are triggered by this subject matter.
Please make of that what you will.
My only question to you, dear, patient readers, is this … where in New York City was the photo at the top taken? Weigh in, street-spotters.
I’d basically been a full-time part-timer at the LIFE Magazine News Desk at 1271 Sixth Avenue for about four years until I was laid off with a host of other folks in 1993. But through the auspices of a colleague always on the hunt for resilient young talent upstairs at TIME Magazine, I was plucked back out of the discard pile and given a series of short-term administrative and editorial assistant gigs until I finally landed a full-time position at the TIME Magazine News Desk … a more robust and round-the-clock operation than LIFE’s.
After a week or so of learning the ropes, I was assigned the dreaded Friday night vampire shift – I would man the News Desk basically on my own from 8pm Friday evening until 8am Saturday morning, while the magazine was essentially being “put to bed” in advance of hitting the newsstands the following Monday morning. If news happened to break during that shift, the organization was largely relying on me – gulp – to alert the proper reporters, correspondents, writers, and editors. That was the gig. When news broke, we fixed it.
On my very first Friday night shift, I arrived a bit early to get acclimated and go over some of the finer points of my duties with my colleagues who’d been there all day. But eventually, they all took off, one by one, leaving me by myself in a large office filled with several computers and a television playing CNN (usually with the sound off). I believe some folks even took off earlier, it being a warm, early-summer night in New York City. I sat down and started wondering how I was going to fill up the next twelve hours.
As if on cue, my phone suddenly rang, and it was my excellent colleague, Katie McNevin half-laughing incredulously down the phone: “Have you heard anything about O.J. Simpson killing his wife?”
I looked up at the screen which was showing a phalanx of Los Angeles police cars involved in a strangely slow-moving pursuit of a white SUV.
It was about to become a very long night.
I vividly remember the 2011 earthquake here in New York City. I was working, at the time, at the website for the TODAY show (not the greatest fit for me, to be honest, but hey … it was a gig). I worked on the third or fourth floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza with about 30 other people in a large, windowless room with garish orange walls (NBC did enjoy its petty tortures) and we had these hanging light fixtures above our bullpen of desks. I was busy typing up something inane, and suddenly noticed all those light fixtures suddenly … swaying, something we’d assuredly never seen them do before. It was a bit ominous, but that was pretty much the extent of it.
A couple of teeth-grinding years after that last seismic event, I managed to get protractedly “managed out” of my increasingly stressful job at TODAY, which was honestly the best for all parties concerned, although it certainly didn’t feel that way, at the time. After several months on the street, I finally landed the job I've held for the last eight years and six months. It has its issues, like any other gig, but overall, it’s great and I’m very happy to be there. My office is on the 31st floor of 7 World Trade Center.
Those of you playing along at home might remember the building that used to stand in the footprint of my current office building. On the morning of September 11, 2001, the former 7 World Trade Center had the ignominious distinction of being the building that completely collapsed despite not having actually been hit by any planes. Practically immediately after it was reduced to a smokey heap of rubble, conspiracy theories started to grow like kudzu about the reasons behind its collapse. Friggin’ books have been penned about it.
Anyway, despite the address's history and grim proximity to the 9/11 Memorial, it’s astonishing how one can put all that information to one side, so to speak, when simply concentrating on one’s job. I frankly don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the fact that I work on basically the same plot of real estate where 2,996 people died horribly.
I don’t think about that fact very often … until days like today.
I was in my office, this morning, by around 8:30 am, having already been tasked from the evening before with chasing down some far-flung bits of interview video from our extensive archives. I spent most of my morning compiling all those assets and typing up a detailed report about their contents, and was about to hit “send,” when I suddenly felt a pronounced disturbance.
From a distance, 7 WTC looks like 1 WTC’s younger sibling. It’s perched in front of what some folks still insist on calling “The Freedom Tower” like a stumpy little runt, compared to the sweeping height of 1 WTC’s 104 floors and cloud-piercing spire. But, at 54 floors of its own, 7 WTC is still one tall drink of water, when you’re standing right in front of it. Technically, it’s the 28th tallest building in New York, if that makes any difference.
As such, those of us who are regularly teeming in any out of the thing like busy little ants are used to feeling the building literally sway, at times, or hearing the elevator shafts periodically groan during windy days. This usually happens without any compromise to the building’s integrity, and as odd as it sounds, one does get used to it.
But the shaking the building experienced this morning assuredly was not that, and in very short order, had my undivided attention.
My first thought, was “holy crap, what has hit us?”
I spun in my chair and looked out the window, but nothing looked off. The view across Manhattan looked bright, clear and bereft of any sign of trouble.
I suddenly started fielding text messages from colleagues in Brooklyn and then New Jersey and then Long Island, and it all immediately made sense.
Earthquake.
In the grand scheme of things — or thus far, at least — it wasn’t that big a deal. No great damage has been reported, and no lives have been lost. I’m sure people in California and other quake-prone points on the map are chuckling at what pussies New Yorkers are being about this. Fair enough.
Having completed my major tasks of the morning, I decided to clear the fuck out to evade the possibility of getting stuck in the building (or worse). Probably against my better judgement, I took the elevator down and walked home.
In the hysterical hours since, I’ve seen the above meme being widely circulated over social media, and someone else posted a pic of t-shirts for sale saying “I SURVIVED THE 2024 EARTHQUAKE.” I get it, and I suppose we can all feel free to giggle about how much ado about nothing it evidently was, but I’m not really ready to get that cocky about it, myself.
You may consider yourself to be one slick captain of industry with your shit well put together, but all it really takes is one fleeting shudder of Mother Nature to remind you of how fucking insignificant you truly are.
Yes, this morning was ultimately just a minor blip, comparatively speaking, but a series of aftershocks could still be on the way. We may not be out of the woods. And was it indeed a blip… or just an amuse-bouche before a larger entree?
If you honestly believe New York City is genuinely prepared to effectively handle a major earthquake, I’ve got a big, pretty bridge to sell ya.
I mean, for fuck’s sake, have you met our mayor?
Is anyone experiencing trouble accessing their favorite social media sites, today?
Well, 2024 is off to a fierce and ferocious start.
Two elder members of my family are currently dealing with complications from contracting COVID, ... again ... on top of a lengthy laundry list of pre-existing, serious medical problems … but then, ANY medical problem is serious when you’re in your 80s. I’ve been running around town, procuring provisions for them to try to keep both of them alive without compromising my own health and losing my sanity … or what’s left of it … in the process.
I’m also doing battle with the dreaded FAFSA, after the IRS delayed it six months, and trying to chase down necessary documentation for that and then bundling my daughter back off to college this weekend.
As such, please be patient. I'll be back.
I snapped this shot, earlier this week, during a somewhat freakish bout of fog that enshrouded Quogue on Boxing Day. I love how the road just sort of dissolves into the mist, belying any indication of what lies beyond.
In actuality, this is a walk I regularly take when we're out there, and it's basically just a meandering loop around a portion of Quogue's upper reaches, north of Montauk Highway. While it looks opaque, there was really never a point wherein I didn't indeed know what was waiting behind that fog.
Not quite so with 2024, though. While certain trajectories are in place, with courses informed by realistic expectations, there are still lots of unknowables on the work front, the home front and beyond. Lots of changes seem poised to take effect, leading proceedings in new, uncharted directions. What sort of year will it be?
I don't expect to glean any answer to this question in the next few days. Currently, the household is consumed by a tenacious, communal cold (not COVID, mercifully), and even our remaining holiday plans seems poised to change, lending even further speculation as to what the future holds, both immediate and long term.
In the short term, please enjoy the rest of your holiday season. Flaming Pablum will be back in action in the New Year.
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