Been gone for a bit. Here's what I've been diggin':
Rant by Faustbot. Anticapitalist new wave, somewhere between B-52s and Choking Victim. The rapid-fire lyrics can be a bit much, especially when they don't leave room for the excellent instrumentals to breathe, but they work really well on "Killing a Billionaire" and "A Plea." An artist I'll be keeping an eye on.
Genom Records. I'm trying to stop listening to podcasts and youtube videos so often when drawing and I've been finding that listening to vaporwave and its derivative genres have really been helping me focus. As a result, I've finally become enmeshed in the Haircuts for Men universe. In particular I recommend Diminishing Shine, Songs For the Mute and ナンシウェーブ vol 01
F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! by Skrillex. I guess when I get into electronic music I only get into the most obnoxious stuff you can imagine but if you want nonstop high energy you've got it here.
I finally finished Vladislav Zubok's Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union after reading it on-and-off since Spring of last year (and taking a long break over the summer to read East of Eden. Dense, emotional, and at times tragically comical, it's a compelling read for an interested layman like myself. Zubok presents a nuanced analysis of the debilitating internal issues of the USSR without overlooking external meddling and while also laying out intriguing counterfactuals of how the Soviet state might have conceivably held itself together. The book is peppered throughout with hints at subterranean intrigue that could likely lead the interested researcher down entirely separate rabbit holes such as the 1990 ANT Scandal and a rash of mysterious and convenient "suicides" of Party members in the last months of 1991.
The Very Slow Time Machine by Ian Watson. A collection that feels simltaneously ahead of its time and inextricably of it. At its best it uses all the tools of experimental 70s sci-fi to spin tales of proto-cyberpunk heists, ecological breakdown, and the apocalyptic exploitation of the Global South. At its worst, the anthology is culturally and sexually voyeruistic in a deeply uncomfortable manner. I recommend the stories "Sitting on a Starwood Stool" and "The Roentgen Refugees," with the caveat that they contain some pretty gross Orientalism.
Galápagos might be my new favorite Vonnegut novel. I don't know many other authors that could so starkly depict humanity's absolute worst impulses without also coming across as deeply misanthropic. I cried, I laughed.
When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey by William Gallagher. Surely a dated work, but one that contains a wealth of fascinating information about New Jersey's place in the history of paleontology. It will probably only be of interest to New Jersey residents but as a lifelong citizen of the Garden State, considering the Deep Time of NJ was a compelling exercise.
"It Was Raining in the Data Center" by Everest Pipkin. A gripping exploration of the military-industrial roots of the infrastrucutre of the internet. Also check out Pipkin's website for more essays on the internet, computing, videogames, and art.
Check out Sajan Rai's Sasquatch Diaries!
I've been really digging The Dustlight Archives podcast. The first series of episodes is a paranoid look at the Columbine massacre, a subject about which I knew very little, including the fact that it even had its own truther community. I reccommend it for the fact that it highlights discrepancies in the official narrative while also being very cautious about laying out a concrete alternative.
Peace,
Logan