Mitch's Blog

She lasted 0.45 scaramucci.

What was life really like in Renaissance Florence? A podcast interview with the always fascinating historian Ada Palmer and journalist Adam Davidson. YouTube link. I listen to the audio podcast like a civilized person. Search “Beforecast” in your podcast app.

JWZ writes a an introductory playlist of classic Hammer horror movies:

You’ve seen the t-shirts even if you haven’t seen the movies. At the time these were considered low budget trash, just a hair shy of pornography, BUT / AND they are fantastic! They have a look that is so consistent and when someone in this modern world references it, you are immediately “guy pointing at TV meme”, it’s such a thing. There’s something so distinctive about their lighting and color. When you see that particular too-bright red blood on the lips of a bouffonted showgirl in a negligee, you know what you’re in for.⁠⁠

I’m not a horror fan and was not a fan of Hammer movies but I’m a jwz fan so here you go.

Is the world getting uglier? My childhood friend Debbie Millman talks with Ezra Klein.

Minnie seems to be doing very well today. Yesterday her eye got puffy and runny a couple of times but my AI research said that could be a normal “flareup.” Her eye looked clear and normal this morning. Also, today and yesterday she seemed to have extra energy, curiosity, appetite and cheerfulness.

We’re due to go to the vet tomorrow. I’m ready for another week of cone and eyedrops but hopeful that the vet says it’s all good and we can go back to coneless and no drops.

Minnie seems to have 100% adjusted to the cone. When it started the cone seemed to depress her but a work friend said that after a day or two she’ll just adjust and smash into things. It took more like a week or two but that seems to be what’s happening. I’ll be walking along with her behind me in the house and I’ll hear a BONK as the cone hits something and Minnie just keeps moving.

Still, we’ll all be glad when the cone is off — though Minnie enjoys the extra skritches she gets in the 10 minutes after she’s done eating but before it’s time to give her the second drop.

Temperatures in the low-mid 50s for our walk this morning. I had to wear a sweatshirt for the first time since spring. Pretty soon I’ll add a hat, puffy jacket and gloves.

ICE is planning a $100 million domestic spy program. The US is pumping up our unaccountable masked secret police force loyal to Donald Trump personally. This is fine.

About these photos.

Chuck Klosterman’s most recent book, “Rock*,” imagines an alternate history of 20th Century music where the Beatles fade into obscurity and Velvet Underground became the biggest mainstream rock band in history.

The Velvet Underground are “kind of ground zero” for the idea that there are, on the one hand, bands for critics and serious music fans and, on the other hand, commercial bands. And often the critics and superfans don’t take the megabands seriously. And over the last 20 years those two kinds of bands have converged.

Of course this conversation is about a lot more than pop music.

Klosterman talks with podcast host and fellow journalist Derek Thompson about fame and popularity, culture, contingency, why things become popular and the decline of reading.

It’s a fascinating conversation, like when you go into a bar and start talking with a stranger who has a million fascinating things to say about history, philosophy and pop culture, and you end up talking for hours and then you probably never see the guy again.