Peter C. Baker
LightNews LightNews
banner
apcbapcb.bsky.social
Peter C. Baker
@apcbapcb.bsky.social
680 followers 220 following 910 posts
writing novels and occasional magazine etc. http://PeterCBaker.Substack.Com for all that.

write and edit essays about songs at https://TracksOnTracks.Substack.Com


Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
apcbapcb.bsky.social
Peter C. Baker @apcbapcb.bsky.social · Nov 18
Hi BlueSky. Rumor is we can post links here?

In May I launched TRACKS ON TRACKS. Most installments features one writer - sometimes me, sometimes a guest - exploring 1 song and its place in their life. It's been fun, and I'm looking forward to sharing the pieces here...

tracksontracks.substack.com
Tracks on Tracks | Peter C. Baker | Substack
Essays where one writer explores one song and its place in their life. Plus occasional bonus stuff. Made by Peter C. Baker and friends. Click to read Tracks on Tracks, by Peter C. Baker, a Substack pu...
tracksontracks.substack.com
apcbapcb.bsky.social
If you insist ...

I wrote a novel about extraordinary rendition, marriage, being a parent, having parents, small-town North Carolina, Rome, school board politics, cats, and more -- and it's available in stocking-friendly paperback.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/676700...
December 2, 2025 at 3:11 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
My intermittent blog/stack/media empire TRACKS ON TRACKS -- where writers explore their relationships to individual songs - is back for a holiday season run.

First up, Deborah Shapiro on listening to Caroline Polachek in the car with her 14-year-old son after soccer practice...
The Noise of Desire
Caroline Polachek: 'Welcome to My Island' + Suburban Soccer Pickup + Waiting + Wanting + Crying at Costco
tracksontracks.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:07 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
It's toasted
paulhaine.bsky.social Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 1d
HBOMax has started showing a 'remastered' 4K Mad Men and they’ve messed things up so during Roger’s oyster vomit scene you can now see the crew men with the vomit hose on the right
December 2, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Peter C. Baker
paulhaine.bsky.social
HBOMax has started showing a 'remastered' 4K Mad Men and they’ve messed things up so during Roger’s oyster vomit scene you can now see the crew men with the vomit hose on the right
December 2, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Peter C. Baker
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
Has this been posted yet
2+7= _ I caNnot aNswer this qwestion, as it is agaiNst My reLigious principles. ٠١٨٨ IT'S WORTH A SHOT. aMI, 7 january 1986 NAITION
December 1, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Reposted by Peter C. Baker
holz-bau.bsky.social
'Through early 1920s, major cities used stringent building codes to [prohibit multifamily]. During this era housing experts played a leading role in nurturing the ideology that multifamily housing was an evil.'

wow.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
The National Movement to Halt the Spread of Multifamily Housing, 1890-1926
Efforts to prohibit apartments, rather than merely regulate their construction and condition, began in the 1890s. Through the early 1920s, major cities used stringent building codes to achieve this...
www.tandfonline.com
November 29, 2025 at 4:47 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
Deeply deeply Northwestern move tbh
mattheweadie.bsky.social Matthew Eadie @mattheweadie.bsky.social · 4d
BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university

Full statement from NU below:
November 29, 2025 at 2:22 AM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
I've got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome
And a wristwatch that's a
Pocket knife and a megaphone
November 23, 2025 at 12:58 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
I'm old enough to remember when 'the big Ryan Lizza news' was that he was leaving The New Republic
November 22, 2025 at 2:04 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
W. Gass: "I write because I hate. A lot...I wish to make my hatred acceptable because my hatred is much of me, if not the best part. Writing is a way of making the writer acceptable to the world—every cheap, dumb, nasty thought, every despicable desire, every noble sentiment, every expensive taste."
dan-sinnamon.bsky.social Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 12d
David Bartholomae: writing "is an act of aggression disguised as an act of charity"
November 21, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Peter C. Baker
equatormag.bsky.social
Hisham Matar revisits the notorious photographs of torture from Abu Ghraib, to ask what they might reveal about the nature – and limits – of American power www.equator.org/articles/pit...
November 21, 2025 at 2:01 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
Evanston awaits with open arms
regimecpa.bsky.social Regime Accountant, CPA ☠️🎢 @regimecpa.bsky.social · 12d
Chicago is expensive because it's desirable place to live. We shouldn't build any more housing because it's so desirable to live here. My property taxes should also never go up.
November 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
Cloudfare Has a Cold
November 18, 2025 at 1:39 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
It appears that Olivia Nuzzi made a horrible mistake*.

(*Reading Don DeLillo's LIBRA while writing her book about dating RFK.)
michaelcaley.bsky.social Michael Caley @michaelcaley.bsky.social · 16d
I regret to inform you that Olivia Nuzzi's book appears to be Perfect

insane, stupid, comically overwritten, dishy, politically indefensible I cannot wait to get my hands on it I must accept this is who I am as a person at some deep level whether I like it or not www.vanityfair.com/news/story/o...
"I would take a bullet for you,” the Politician said. He always said that. “Please don’t say that,” I said. I always said that. From his mouth the bullet theoretical launched the bullet possible. I did not like to think about it. About the armed man at his speech. Or the armed man who broke into his home. Or the armed men he paid to guard him from armed men who sought to harm him while the federal government denied his pleas for protection from the security agency whose modern protocols were carved by the same bullets that cut boughs from his family tree and cut the track of the American experiment.
November 17, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Peter C. Baker
olivia.science
Love to see community action against this AI nonsense! neighborhoodview.org/2025/11/13/d...
As one Massachusetts school administrator recently said; this moment with AI is remarkably like the moment when we were introduced to asbestos. Yes, it had some remarkably promising characteristics – fireproofing! – and had some real utility in science, research, and industrial applications. But a profit-driven industry bullied us into inserting it everywhere; into our homes and schools and public spaces, before we really understood the risks. This resulted in decades, if not centuries, of illness, injuries, deaths, and the astronomical financial burden of trying to remove the stuff. As you, the leaders and policymakers in our schools, craft an AI policy for our district, we the undersigned call on you to: 1. Ban AI tools into the classroom, protect our students and teachers from de-skilling and allow them the space and time to engage in assignments themselves. 2. Resist any direct financial relationship or contracts with AI providers, as well as the “training” they might offer. 3. Provide a digital literacy curriculum to help students navigate the current digital landscape, and promote critical engagement with technology. 4. Guarantee that anywhere generative AI has already entered our classrooms or curriculum, an opt-out will allow students and teachers to refuse the use of these products at no risk to their grades, progress or employment.
November 14, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Peter C. Baker
paulgp.com
For folks (and journalists) who want to search the Oversight Committee email texts, I made a database for searching the 20k text files:

splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app
Epstein Document Search
splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app
November 13, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by Peter C. Baker
annieabrams.bsky.social
I don't know how to get people to read this article, but I really think many more should.
November 11, 2025 at 1:53 AM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
Kinda shocking how far you can get on Marx + (Late) Freud
November 11, 2025 at 11:34 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
My Internet boyfriend makes a good point!
colsonwhitehead.com Colson Whitehead @colsonwhitehead.com · 22d
There’s another wave of author impersonators offering consultations/mentoring for a price. (I got one from “Claire Keegan” telling me I’m very promising!) I’m sure you are great, but I didn’t email to tell you how swell you are. Here’s info on book scams: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/prh-fraud/
November 11, 2025 at 4:48 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
Someone had been telling lies about James B.
November 11, 2025 at 3:00 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
guys -- Durbin's voicemail box has been full for ~15 years.
acabcalloway.bsky.social DSAUSA.ORG/JOIN , MSW (NOT A MAN) @acabcalloway.bsky.social · 23d
Durbin's Illinois office isn't taking any live calls, but you can definitely scream into his voicemail at this number: 312-353-4952
November 10, 2025 at 4:44 PM
apcbapcb.bsky.social
Sadly, it has been full for like 15 years
jersette.bsky.social Jersette @jersette.bsky.social · 23d
Durbin’s voicemail appears to be full. Good.
November 10, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Reposted by Peter C. Baker
heathercherone.bsky.social
NEW: @govpritzker.illinois.gov's office says 3 masked ICE agents stopped & questioned an IL Department of Transportation employee working in Park Ridge about his immigration status & whether he had traveled to New York and his awareness of NYC Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social before leaving.
November 8, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Peter C. Baker
mskellymhayes.bsky.social
Chicago: ICE heavily active in West Ridge and Edgewater. Landscapers heavily targeted. Put on your whistles and patrol if you can.
November 5, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Reposted by Peter C. Baker
annakornbluh.bsky.social
tomorrow, free our caregivers
11am Protest at Broadview
November 6, 2025 at 1:16 AM