Bryan Thomas
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munkiman.bsky.social
Bryan Thomas
@munkiman.bsky.social
2.4K followers 1.7K following 7.8K posts
Here for posts on: Music. Films. TV Shows. Writing. Fiction/Poetry. Art. History. Science. Humor. Progressive Politics. Photography. Nature. Ecology. Hippies. Navel-Gazing Existentialism. Baseball. Not even sure if I'm in the right place, tbh. We'll see.
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munkiman.bsky.social
I was having a difficult time financially awhile back (still difficult) and set up a GoFundMe page to help get me through my "rough patch." One of the former writers I'd worked with posted the link to my campaign, writing that I'd helped him find his voice as a writer. That meant the world to me.
The writer's name is Mike Vanderbilt.
November 26, 2025 at 9:50 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
R.I.P. Udo Kier.

What a career!

Thinking of you, @kimmorgan.bsky.social.
Udo Kier
November 24, 2025 at 12:02 AM
munkiman.bsky.social
One year on Bluesky, as of today, November 13th.
2400+ followers, following 1660+. 7,800+ posts.

I've been taking a break from Bluesky posts for a myriad of reasons, but I'll be back again.

Thanks to @marccampbell.bsky.social for telling me about this place last year. Glad I followed you here.
I've been consumed with other things lately. Had a bad fall last week (Thursday, Nov. 6) and I've been recuperating from that. I've been working on a novel that I started a few years back, trying to just finish the damn thing and block out all distractions, which isn't easy to do sitting in my dusty L.A. hermitage. And there's been other stuff in my personal life to deal with too.... But, like I said, I'll be back again on Bluesky.
November 13, 2025 at 2:49 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
#OneAlbumADay; This album blends avant-garde composition, jazz soloing, and African & Middle Eastern rhythmic forms, w/ producer Brian Eno adding reversed echo and otherworldly, ghostly production touches. Thanks to @aquariumdrunkard.com for reminding me of this influential LP today. More: alt text
Pitchfork's Aaron Leitko (in 2014) writes: The composer, improviser, and trumpet player Jon Hassell, now 77, created 'Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics' in 1980 in collaboration with producer Brian Eno. Melding minimalism, jazz, and ambient sounds, it is eerie, dreamlike, and otherworldly music. The title 'Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics' has a brainy and academic ring to it, but according to Jon Hassell, the record is at least 50% body music. "The basic metaphor is that of the north and south of a person is a projection of the north and south of the globe," the composer, improviser, and trumpet player, now 77, explained in an interview earlier this year. "A mind formatted by language and located in the head, compared with the area of wildness and sensuality below the waist where dance and music and procreation reigns." However, the first time through, Possible Musics—which Hassell created in 1980 in collaboration with producer Brian Eno—you might find that "wildness" and "sensuality" are not the first adjectives that come to mind. It is eerie, dreamlike, and otherworldly music. Throughout the record, Hassell’s trumpet is processed using a harmonizer effect, producing alien tonalities that seem to slide between the notes of a traditional Western scale. Often, his melody lines sound more like a human voice than a brass instrument. The rhythm tracks—made up of hand percussion and electric bass—are highly repetitive, but also wobbly and destabilized. The result is a sound that melds minimalism, jazz, and ambient sounds, but doesn’t fit comfortably into any of those genres. More: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19984-brian-eno-jon-hassel-fourth-world-vol-1-possible-musics/
November 7, 2025 at 1:37 AM
munkiman.bsky.social
A very cool babysitter took my little brother and I to see the Monkees' film HEAD -- which had premiered in NYC on November 6, 1968 -- on a Saturday matinee double-bill with the Beatles' Yellow Submarine at the Brookhurst Theater in Anaheim. My little kid brain was pretty much blown.
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On November 6, 1968, HEAD -- "the most extraordinary adventure, western, comedy, love story, mystery, drama, musical, documentary satire ever made…" -- had its gala premiere at the Columbia Pictures Studio on West 54th Street in Manhattan. The band were at a crossroads at the time, and probably a little uncertain about their future. Earlier in the year, in March, they’d released their last Top Ten single, “Valleri,” and completed the second season of their prime-time NBC TV show, “The Monkees,” but they weren’t happy with the show and everyone involved decided that they were going down the wrong track. They met with network execs in an attempt to convince them to let them change the show from a zany sitcom to a variety program. NBC wasn’t convinced, however, and with that, “The Monkees” was cancelled, and dropped from the network’s fall schedule; in September, “I Dream Of Jeannie” would inherit their former time-slot (Monday nights, 7:30 ET). At the time, the band were busy working on their film debut anyway (they were more than a month into the production of HEAD, which originally had the working title Changes, no doubt a reflection of what exactly the band were going through at the time). The origin of the screenplay had originally been started during a weekend at an Ojai, California, golf resort. Joining all four four members of the band — Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork — were producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, who also brought along their friend who they had tasked to direct the film, a then-struggling B-movie actor named Jack Nicholson, not exactly a household name in 1968. Apparently, it was quite a wild weekend, and everyone present is said to have smoked copious amounts of marijuana and possibly done other recreational drugs, randomly spewing their ideas in a kind of rambling collective stream of consciousness rant about what a Monkees film should be. And so what is HEAD? Well, it’s not easy to sum up, but let’s say that it’s certainly an acidic social commentary about the band’s own commercial superficiality, presented while the band takes a kind of unimaginably weird trip of rapidly-edited series sequences in the kinds of genre-movies that you might have seen on late night TV at the time: there are war scenes, adventure scenes, horror scenes, comedy scenes, drama scenes, western scenes, sci-fi scenes, romance scenes, and on and on. Except, in HEAD‘s filmic reality, as this is a poke at the band’s fake image, this all turns out to be happening primarily (if not exclusively) on a studio backlot, essentially letting us know that all entertainment is, in some way, fake. But HEAD is even more than that — it’s also a social commentary on just about everything the counterculture was concerned with at the time: things like corporations taking over the manufacture of nearly everything, police brutality, the invasion of privacy and personal space, drug use, the use of war and death and tragedy for TV ratings, and especially big media’s manipulation of the truth and its net result: deception. In one of the film’s memorable sequence in the desert, a large Coca-Cola vending machine materializes in the desert like one of Stanley Kubrick’s monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey (released on April 3, 1968, while HEAD was still in production). Few probably knew that this was meant to be a symbolic nod to French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, who once called the youth generation of the sixties “the children of Marx and Coca Cola,” and when Micky Dolenz blows it up after it has taken his last coin, it’s supposed to be about mindless consumerism. The Coca-Cola Company reportedly wasn’t amused at the fact that the Monkees’ used an uncooperative soda machine to make this point, and apparently tried to get an injunction against the movie, but since the film disappeared rather quickly after its release, they probably dropped the idea (and certainly after HEAD started showing on cable and home video in 1986, when Columbia Pictures was owned by Coca-Cola, the scene no longer meant what it had originally). Nicholson later took these tapes of the band’s Ojai writing session and the producers riffing while higher than kites and, according to Rafelson, then structured them into a screenplay while under the influence of LSD. At least twenty-five different of these story ideas were interwoven together, which can possibly be summed up with the recollection of one of the film’s great tossed-off lines: "The tragedy of your times, my young friends, is that you may get exactly what you want."
November 7, 2025 at 12:31 AM
munkiman.bsky.social
Post something random for the collective amusement.
Screw up at the sign factory, apparently
November 6, 2025 at 11:40 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
One man (hero) and a sandwich (maybe a hero, definitely a Subway sub), making a difference. Fascists can be defeated with a good arm and a little mustard and onions.
Sean Dunn is a former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) staffer who gained national attention in August 2025 after a video of him throwing a Subway sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent in Washington, D.C., went viral. The incident occurred on August 10, 2025, along the U Street corridor in Washington, D.C., outside a nightclub where federal agents were present as part of a law enforcement surge ordered by the Trump administration. Dunn approached a group of CBP agents, shouting profanities and calling them "fascists" and "racists" in protest of their presence in the city. After a several-minute verbal confrontation, Dunn threw a footlong sub sandwich, which struck CBP Agent Gregory Lairmore in the chest. The agent testified the sandwich "exploded" on his ballistic vest and that he could smell the onions and mustard. Dunn fled the scene but was apprehended shortly after. Following his arrest, he was fired from his job as an international affairs specialist in the DOJ's criminal division. The White House and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi posted about his firing on social media, with Bondi calling him an "example of the Deep State." He was then charged with a federal misdemeanor count of assaulting a federal officer. Dunn's defense attorneys argued the act was a "harmless gesture" and an "exclamation point" to his political speech, protected by the First Amendment, and that the prosecution was vindictive and selective. Prosecutors maintained that regardless of the object, an assault occurred and Dunn had crossed a line by physically striking an officer. Body camera footage showed Dunn admitting, "I did it. I threw a sandwich. I did it to draw them away from where they were. I succeeded." On November 6, 2025, a jury found Sean Dunn not guilty of the misdemeanor assault charge.
November 6, 2025 at 8:01 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Sean Dunn, aka Sandwich Guy, was found NOT GUILTY of misdemeanor assault by a jury in federal court in DC today, November 6, 2025. Dunn threw a sandwich at a federal officer at 14th and U streets in August, shouting, "Fuck you! You fucking fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!"
Never forget that a hungry Sean Dunn sacrificed his Subway sandwich to make a statement, and that statement was basically "Fuck you, get out of my city." Today: Sean Dunn, who will forever be known as Sandwich Guy, was found not guilty of misdemeanor assault by a jury in federal court in DC Thursday. It was never in doubt that Dunn threw a sandwich at a federal officer at 14th and U streets in August, shouting, “Fuck you! You fucking fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” according to a federal indictment. It’s also undeniable that Dunn’s airborne-footlong protest, video of which went viral, became an unlikely symbol of local resistance to the Trump administration during its crackdown on DC this summer, precisely because of the disconnect between the seriousness of the incident and the government’s response. Despite Dunn’s offer to surrender, the administration sent armed troops to his apartment and filmed his arrest. The office of US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro charged him with felony assault;he lost his job as a paralegal at the Department of Justice, with US Attorney General Pam Bondi calling him “an example of the Deep State.” Meanwhile, stylized, Bansky-style images of a man preparing to wing a hoagie appeared all over DC. Words: https://washingtonian.com/2025/11/06/sandwich-guy-not-guilty/
November 6, 2025 at 7:46 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Remembering Texas Country and folk singer, musician, songwriter, recording artist, and performer Guy Clark, born on November 6, 1941, in Monahans, Texas — he died on May 17, 2016. Fave songs: "The Randall Knife," "Boats to Build," "Stuff That Works," and "She Ain't Goin' Nowhere."
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Guy Clark released more than twenty albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists including Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, and Rodney Crowell. Guy Clark won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album: My Favorite Picture Of You. Clark eventually settled in Nashville, where he helped create the progressive country and outlaw country genres. His songs "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting for a Train" that helped launch his career were covered by numerous performers. He was an accomplished luthier and often plays his own guitars. He achieved success as a songwriter with Jerry Jeff Walker's recordings of "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting for a Train." Clark has been a mentor to such other singers as Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell. He organized Earle's first job as a writer in Nashville. In the 1970s, the Clarks' home in Nashville was an open house for songwriters and musicians and it features in the video Heartworn Highways, an evocation of the songwriter scene in Nashville at that time. He was married to songwriter and artist, Susanna Clark from 1972 through her death from cancer on June 27, 2012. Fave songs: "The Randall Knife" (from Dublin Blues, 1995): This deeply personal song about his father is a standout. Critics note how its very specific details create universal emotional resonance for listeners who connect the story to their own family heirlooms and memories. "Boats to Build" (from Boats to Build, 1992): A beautifully literary and self-reflective tune about a change of pace and simple construction, praised for its sure-fingered guitar picking and wise phrasing. "She Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (from Old No. 1, 1975): Full of mystery and delicate prose, this narrative-driven song is an early gem from his debut that critics enjoy for its cliffhanger quality.
November 6, 2025 at 6:54 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
This was a really entertaining podcast!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...
Will Harris (interviewer for the AV Club (200+ "Random Roles"), Decider, Vanity Fair, Variety, Vulture, and many other outlets not starting with "V") talks with his first guest, Robbie Rist. Robbie is known for live-action roles such as "Cousin Oliver" on "The Brady Bunch," and "David" on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and a prolific voice actor, notably as "Michelangelo" in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film trilogy, and "Stuffy" in "Doc McStuffins." Rist is a talented musician who plays guitar, bass, and drums. He has been part of several rock and pop-punk bands, including the current The Wrong Dots, and has produced albums for other artists. He also provided music for the Sharknado film series. He has produced a movie, written commercials, and hosts a podcast.
November 6, 2025 at 5:12 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Hope Dershowitz lets us know which channel will be broadcasting this.
November 6, 2025 at 12:00 AM
munkiman.bsky.social
#OneAlbumADay; Elton John's 4th studio LP, 'Madman Across the Water,' was released on November 5, 1971. While 'Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player' (1973) was my first EJ LP, this one is my favorite, especially the title track and "Razor Face" (Rick Wakeman plays on both tracks) More: alt text
'Madman' is now seen as a transitional work. It marks the last appearance of Elton John's band's lead guitarist Caleb Quaye and drummer Roger Pope (who would return in 1975), while it introduces his live touring band -- guitarist Davey Johnstone, drummer Nigel Olssen, and bassist Dee Murray -- who had not been playing on his albums, due to producer Gus Dudgeon's lack of faith in the group for studio recordings. Instead, most of the tracks were backed by studio players and string arrangements put together by Paul Buckmaster. Johnstone's band Magna Carta had previously worked with Dudgeon. The album's title song was initially going to be released on John's previous album 'Tumbleweed Connection,' featuring guitarist Mick Ronson on lead guitar; however, it was set aside and was re-recorded for this album with Johnstone playing the guitar parts. One of the highlights was the opening track, “Tiny Dancer,” with lyrics by Bernie Taupin, whose first wife, Maxine Feibelmann, was indeed a “seamstress for the band.” Taupin, in interviews, has said he was trying to capture the vibe of what he saw when he and his wife came to Southern California in the fall of 1970. "It seemed like sunshine just radiated from the populace,” Taupin told Rolling Stone. “I guess I was trying to capture the spirit of that time, encapsulated by the women we met, especially at the clothes stores and restaurants and bars all up and down the Sunset Strip. They were these free spirits, sexy, all hip-huggers and lacy blouses, very ethereal the way they moved.” “They were just so different from what I’d been used to in England,” Taupin continued. “They had this thing about embroidering your clothes. They wanted to sew patches on your jeans. They mothered you and slept with you. It was the perfect Oedipal complex.” (more at Wikipedia)
November 5, 2025 at 11:09 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Just watched the delightful interview Stephen Colbert did w/ Robert Plant, during which Colbert quoted from "Tom Bombadil's Song" by J.R.R. Tolkien, published in the Oxford Magazine in 1934, long before The Lord of the Rings was written. Colbert is a Tolkien fanatic, and Plant is too. More: alt text
Colbert quoted this part: O slender as a willow-wand! O clearer than clear water! O reed by the living pool! Fair river-daughter! O spring-time and summer-time, and spring again after! O wind on the waterfall, and the leaves' laughter! "Tom Bombadil's Song" is not a single, specific poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, but rather a number of songs and verses sung by the character Tom Bombadil (and later by Frodo, at his instruction) within the narrative of The Lord of the Rings. These verses are characterized by their playful rhythm, simple language, and recurring refrains like "Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!" The character of Tom Bombadil and his associated songs first appeared in the standalone poem "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil," published in the Oxford Magazine in 1934, long before The Lord of the Rings was written. This earlier work was later published as part of a collection of 16 poems in a book also titled The Adventures of Tom Bombadil in 1962. Plant and Colbert expressed a mutual, enthusiastic love for J.R.R. Tolkien's works, effectively "nerding out" over the topic and almost ignoring the rest of the show's agenda. Colbert noted that Plant's home in the West Midlands of the UK was the same area where Tolkien lived from a young age. This shared landscape was a major point of connection, with Plant explaining that the mystical environment influenced him and resonated with Tolkien's writing. Plant joked that he used to meet with "The Inklings," the famous literary group that included Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, in a pub in Oxford, to which Colbert enthusiastically responded, mentioning the actual pub, "The Eagle and Child" (or "The Bird and Baby"). Plant discussed how he wove Tolkien references into Led Zeppelin lyrics for songs like "Ramble On" and "The Battle of Evermore," adding that his bandmates were largely unaware of the source material at the time.
November 5, 2025 at 5:22 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Everything I saw on this neo-noirish/black comedy FX show itched that part of my brain that loves to watch TV & read novels. It hit all the right spots, mentioning writers I love & history (especially Tulsa, OK) blended w/ heartfelt and occasionally absurd Coen Bros-esque characters. More: alt text
Critics loved the first season of the new FX series "The Lowdown" for a variety of reasons, highlighting its unique blend of genres and strong creative vision: Ethan Hawke's portrayal of "Lee Raybon," the "truthstorian" and bookstore owner, was widely praised as magnetic, authentic, and one of his best roles in years. The show successfully balanced dark, moody neo-noir elements with heartfelt character moments and dark, absurd humor, reminiscent of the Coen Brothers' work. Created by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs), the series offers an affectionate yet clear-eyed love letter to Tulsa, Oklahoma, utilizing its culturally rich and complex history as a vivid backdrop rather than a generic setting. Beyond Hawke, the show featured a terrific cast of characters played by a stellar line-up of actors including Peter Dinklage (whose appearance in later episodes is a major highlight), Keith David, and Kyle MacLachlan, who all have great chemistry. The series used its noir mystery plot to build deep character relationships and allow its people time to talk, creating an immersive and "ridiculously entertaining" world that lingers with viewers.
November 5, 2025 at 3:44 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
The "I Love You California" bear flag was designed by Danny Sullivan, who created it in January 2025 as a personal project combining the official state flag with the iconic "hugging bear" image associated with the state song. The “I Love You California” flag The original California state flag, upon which Sullivan's design is based, has a history involving two main figures: William L. Todd designed the first "Bear Flag" in 1846, which was raised during the Bear Flag Revolt. Donald Graeme Kelley standardized the bear image for the official state flag in 1953, basing it on an 1855 watercolor by artist Charles Christian Nahl. The "hugging bear" image that Sullivan incorporated into his design has also become a popular symbol of the state, often used on various merchandise.
November 5, 2025 at 4:38 AM
munkiman.bsky.social
Congratulations, NYC! You've made the right choice. I wish now the rest of the country would follow your example.

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Zohran Mamdani is the Mayor-elect of New York City and is set to take office on January 1, 2026. A democratic socialist and current State Assemblymember, he won the November 2025 mayoral election with a campaign focused on making NYC more affordable for working-class New Yorkers. His key plans for New York City include: Housing: Implementing an immediate rent freeze for the city's one million rent-stabilized apartments by appointing a favorable Rent Guidelines Board. He also plans to build 200,000 new, permanently affordable housing units over a decade, primarily funded by the city rather than private developers. Transportation: Making all city buses free to ride and improving bus speeds by expanding dedicated bus lanes. Childcare: Creating a universal, free childcare program for all New York City children aged six weeks to five years old. Minimum Wage: Raising the New York City minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030. Food Access: Establishing a network of city-owned grocery stores to offer low-priced goods and combat food deserts. Public Safety: Creating a new Department of Community Safety to handle mental health calls and other non-violent crises, rather than relying solely on the NYPD. He has indicated he would keep the current Police Commissioner, Jessica Tisch. Funding: Funding these programs through tax increases on New York City residents earning more than $1 million annually and raising the corporate tax rate. These tax changes would require approval from the New York State Legislature and the Governor. Mamdani's platform has garnered significant grassroots support, particularly among young and progressive voters, by concentrating on the city's high cost of living. He is set to make history as New York City's first Muslim mayor, first South Asian mayor, and the youngest in over a century.
November 5, 2025 at 3:07 AM
munkiman.bsky.social
An interesting fact about Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary is that it was originally published as a series of weekly entries in newspapers and magazines over a period of three decades, starting in 1881. It was later compiled into a book, first under the title The Cynic's Word Book in 1906, before finally being reissued with Bierce's preferred, more famous title, The Devil's Dictionary, in 1911. This piecemeal, long-term creation process highlights how central this project was to Bierce's lifelong work of social and political satire. As for "November," Bierce's definition is a perfect example of his cynical, aphoristic style: NOVEMBER, n. The eleventh twelfth of a weariness. This definition uses a fraction to humorously and succinctly express the dreariness and impatience people often feel as the year drags to a close in the late autumn, before the winter holidays begin. It's a clever, biting take on a simple word, characteristic of the entire dictionary.
November 4, 2025 at 10:37 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
#OneAlbumADay; My Bloody Valentine’s second studio LP, 'Loveless,' was released on November 4, 1991 (Creation in the UK, Sire in the U.S.). The cost of recording the album, which took place at 19 recording studios with multiple audio engineers over 4 years, nearly bankrupted Creation.
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'Loveless' was given to me first on a cassette by a girl I was madly in love with, although she didn't know it at the time. She was a co-worker at a bookstore where I worked, and we saw each other only occasionally (she worked part-time). After a particularly inspiring conversation in the back of the store about our favorite music, she taped me two of her favorite albums "as a kind of test" (I passed!). On one side was the Smashing Pumpkins' 'Gish' album, which I liked, at least back then, but on the other side was MBV's 'Loveless,' which I played as loud as our stereo (the one I shared with a couple of housemates in '89-'93) could handle, usually when no one else was home. I played it so loud that I eventually had to go to a doctor due to my temporary hearing loss (true story). I wouldn't be surprised if this was the album that kickstarted my tinnitus problems and hearing loss that I deal with every day. On tracks like "Only Shallow," Shields turns his guitar's tremolo bar into an art form, calling the strumming technique "glide guitar." Released as a single, it is the first MBV song to break through on the U.S. charts, landing at #27 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks. 'Loveless' pretty much defined the shoegazing genre and simultaneously drove guitarist Kevin Shields to the brink of insanity, or so I've read. Even the cover photograph by Angus Cameron is beautiful if you stare at it while you're listening to the album, that pink and red guitar will burn right into your retinas. 'Loveless' failed to find a mainstream audience in the U.S., peaking at #7 in the UK. MBV would not release another album for almost 12 years. If you wanna read about this album, I recommend Mike McGonigal's book Loveless, published in 2007 by The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc as part of their celebrated 33 1/3 series.
November 4, 2025 at 10:01 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
'I could smell the onions and the mustard'
In Smokey & The Bandit (1977), Jackie Gleason as "Sheriff Buford T. Justice," the sweaty, spluttering good ol’ boy enforcer of the law, orders a Diablo sandwich and a Dr. Pepper while Burt Reynolds ("Smokey") looks on. A Diablo is basically minced pork doused in Texas Pete hot sauce. "Let me have a Diablo Sandwich and a Dr. Pepper and make it fast, I’m in a got-damn hurry." The scene was filmed at an Old Hickory House, a onetime Southern-cooking restaurant empire, in Forest Park, Georgia.
November 4, 2025 at 6:15 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
"We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, a secretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody’s nobody." (Rust Cohle)

Happy Birthday to Matthew McConaughey, born on November 4, 1969, in Uvalde, Texas!
Full quote from Season One of HBO's "True Detective" (Ep. 1 "The Long Bright Dark"): "I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in human evolution. We became too self aware; nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law. We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, a secretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody’s nobody. I think the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction, one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal." Cohle's viewpoint is expressed during a car ride and later during an interrogation. In one instance, he elaborates on his perspective, suggesting that humanity's self-awareness was an evolutionary error, creating beings that exist separately from nature and advocating for voluntary extinction as an honorable course of action. I can't recall there ever being a character I identified with more in a film or a TV series.
November 4, 2025 at 5:47 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Great to see my friend Greg Boaz (aka "Smog Vomit" - IYKYK) on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" last night, playing bass (as he has for quite a while now) in Mavis Staples' band. Greg has also played with other artists, such as Tex & the Horseheads, Dave Alvin, and John Mayall.
Don't look behind you, Mavis, unless you wanna see Smog Vomit!
November 4, 2025 at 4:25 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
David Bowie's third studio LP, 'The Man Who Sold the World,' was released by Mercury Records in the U.S. on November 4, 1970 (UK: April 10, 1971). Guitarist Mick Ronson & drummer Mick Woodmansey make their first appearance here as Bowie's backing band (later: the Spiders from Mars). More: alt text
Following the largely acoustic and folk rock sound of Bowie's previous 1969 self-titled album, 'The Man Who Sold the World,' produced by Tony Visconti and recorded at Trident and Advision Studios in London during April and May 1970, and featuring the first appearances of guitarist Mick Ronson and drummer Mick Woodmansey on a Bowie record (they later became famous as members of the Spiders from Mars), marked a shift toward hard rock, with elements of blues rock. The album was initially titled 'Metrobolist,' a reference to the film Metropolis. His U.S. label, Mercury Records, changed the title to 'The Man Who Sold the World' without consulting Bowie. The original title was later used for a 50th-anniversary reissue. Although Bowie is credited with writing all the songs, producer Tony Visconti has indicated that the tracks were developed through band jam sessions, with Bowie often writing lyrics just before recording. While the title track wasn't a hit for Bowie initially, it gained popularity through covers, including a UK hit by Lulu in 1974 and a notable version by Nirvana on their 'MTV Unplugged' album in 1993, which introduced the song to a new audience. Bowie humorously noted that younger fans sometimes thought it was a Nirvana song. The album featured different covers in the U.S. and UK. The original U.S. release had a cartoon-like drawing of a cowboy in front of Cane Hill asylum in Coulsdon, Surrey, where Bowie's half-brother, Terry, had been a patient. The UK cover featured a photo of Bowie in a dress, highlighting his androgynous image. Mercury Records had rejected the original UK cover because they feared it would not be accepted by the American market. The cartoon was drawn by Michael J. Weller and based on an image of actor John Wayne. Bowie was unenthusiastic about the cover, so he enlisted Keith MacMillan to shoot an alternate cover. In 1972, he said Weller's design was "horrible" but reappraised it in 1999, saying he "actually thought the cartoon cover was really cool." Bowie was still grieving for his father at the time of recording this LP (he'd died a few months earlier at the age of 56). His management contract with Ken Pitt had soured to the point where he wanted out. There was also the delicate matter of his aforementioned schizophrenic half-brother Terry, who’d been living with his parents. After Bowie’s dad passed away, his mother, unable to cope with Terry, committed him to Cane Hill Asylum. Bowie visited him regularly, but felt increasingly guilty over not being able to do more to help. Many critics and fans believe this album marks the true beginning of Bowie's artistic growth, with many also agreeing that it was his first album where he began to find his sound. The lyrics on this one are also darker than his previous LP releases, exploring themes of insanity, religion, technology and war. The opening track, "The Width of a Circle," references the Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran and in the song's second half, the narrator has a sexual encounter with God in the devil's lair. "All the Madmen"'s lyrics were inspired by Bowie's half-brother Terry Burns and reflect the theme of institutionalized madness. "After All" is musically different than the rest of 'The Man Who Sold the World,' being more akin to folk rock than hard rock. Featuring an "oh, by jingo" chant that is reminiscent of music hall numbers, the lyrics follow a group of innocent children who have not experienced the corruptions of adulthood. "Running Gun Blues" discuss gun-toting assassins and Vietnam War commentary, specifically the Mỹ Lai massacre of 1968, while the album's title track is said to have been inspired by numerous poems, including "Antigonish" (1899) by William Hughes Mearns. The narrator has an encounter with a kind of doppelgänger, as suggested in the second chorus where "I never lost control" is replaced with "We never lost control." It was described by Bowie in 1973 as a "period piece", and later "pre-fascist." None of the songs from the album were released as official singles, although some tracks appeared as B-sides of singles between 1970 and 1973. This album was a favorite album of a girlfriend of mine -- she had the black-and-white photograph cover -- and we listened to it quite a bit as I recall so I have all kinds of special feelings about this one. In support of the album, Bowie did a brief tour of US college radio stations, showing up in his Mr. Fish dress, confounding and charming DJs. But since Olav Wyper, his champion at the label, had departed, Mercury did little to promote the record. By early 1971, Tony Defries was already busy engineering Bowie’s move to RCA Victor. The pushy manager’s increasingly hands-on presence in Bowie’s life ended up forcing Visconti out of the picture and on towards his fruitful partnership with Marc Bolan and T.Rex.
November 4, 2025 at 3:53 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Robert Redford as "Bill McKay," candidate for California Senator in The Candidate (1972)
November 4, 2025 at 1:51 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Bloviating gasbag and perpetual war criminal Dick Cheney has died. He was 84. He was responsible for some of the problems we still have today, like expanding the power of the presidency and making sure America was always in a state of perpetual war. Fuck off, Cheney, I hope it hurt. More: alt text
Cheney was a key architect and vocal proponent of the idea that the U.S. could not rely solely on Cold War strategies of containment and deterrence against "rogue states" or terrorist networks. His policies were the product of his belief that America should be in a state of "perpetual war" around the world. He believed the U.S. needed to take pre-emptive military action to neutralize potential threats, most notably in the case of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He consistently described the fight against terrorism as a "global conflict" that would be a "struggle of years" and require a sustained, long-term commitment, not a one-off campaign. Cheney was a primary advocate for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, asserting the Saddam Hussein regime possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and had ties to Al-Qaeda. These claims were later found to be based on faulty intelligence, and no WMDs were ever found, leading to widespread anger over the war's justification and the resulting instability and casualties. Critics argue Cheney systematically worked to increase the power of the presidency, often at the expense of Congress and judicial oversight. This included his refusal to publicly disclose the details of his energy task force meetings, even when requested by Congress. In the "war on terror," Cheney strongly defended the use of harsh "enhanced" interrogation tactics, including waterboarding, which many considered torture and a violation of international law and human rights. He also supported warrantless domestic surveillance by the NSA. His prior role as CEO of Halliburton raised ethical concerns and accusations of a conflict of interest when the company was awarded significant, no-bid government contracts for work in Iraq during the war. Earlier in his career as a congressman, his deeply conservative stances angered liberals, including votes against the Equal Rights Amendment, re-funding the Clean Water Act, and sanctions against apartheid in South Africa.
November 4, 2025 at 1:06 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger & sound designer, soundtrack composer & college professor Joseph Byrd -- leader of The United States of America, and who, in 1968, recorded 'The American Metaphysical Circus,' credited to Joe Byrd & the Field Hippies -- has died at 87. More: alt text
Richie Unterberger writes: Rock groups are supposed to be hatched in garages and inner-city lofts, not the upper reaches of academia. That wasn't going to stop Joseph Byrd, experimental composer and ethnomusicologist from the UCLA New Music Workshop, from devising a plan in 1967 to approach rock'n'roll from the opposite direction. Byrd, who had frequented avant-garde circles since hanging around with Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, and Virgil Thomson in the early '60s, used the United States of America to bring cutting-edge electronics, Indian music, and "serious" composition into psychedelic rock and roll. The group's sole, self-titled album in 1968 was a tour de force (though not without its flaws) of experimental rock that blended surprisingly melodic sensibilities with unnerving blasts of primitive synthesizers and lyrics that could range from misty romanticism to hard-edged irony. For the relatively few who heard it, the record was a signpost to the future with its collision of rock and classical elements, although the material crackled with a tension that reflected the United States of America itself in the late '60s. More: By mid-1968, the grand experiment was over. Conflicting egos, a drug bust, and commercial pressures all contributed to a rapid split. The United States of America may have had their roots in the halls of higher learning, but ultimately they were prey to the same kind of mundane tensions that broke the spirit of many a band that lived and died on the streets. From the time Byrd founded the band in Los Angeles with colleague Michael Agnello, says singer Dorothy Moskowitz, "group dynamics were never a strong point in the USA." Moskowitz, Byrd's ex-girlfriend, had a background in writing and performing for musical theater. She moved from New York to California to join the group and, as she puts it, provide "the requisite schmaltz." Bassist Stu Brotman, once of the stunningly eclectic L.A. psychedelic group Kaleidoscope, was also an early member. But he and Agnello were gone by the time the group began recording for Columbia. Agnello, a radical sort, was arguing with Byrd over leadership of the band, and not sure the act should even be signing to a record label in the first place. "When you ask why the group broke up, well, why did the group even record after it broke it up?" points out Moskowitz. More: Yet the lineup that cohered for the album brought impressive credentials to the table. Electric violinist Gordon Marron expanded the instrument's parameters with a divider that could raiser or lower it an octave, as well as tape echo units and ring modulators. Rand Forbes played an unfretted electric bass, and drummer Craig Woodson would tinker with his sound in unusual ways, attaching contact microphones to his set and suspending slinkies from cymbals to get a musique-concrete effect. Ed Bogas added organ, piano, and calliope. Most of the material was penned by Byrd and Moskowitz, the latter of whose alto delivered the lyrics -- which are alternately evocative and foreboding -- with a cool precision reminiscent of an icier Grace Slick. Byrd was chiefly responsible for the electronic textures that would provide the album with its most distinguishing characteristics. This was 1968, remember, when synthesizers had rarely been employed on rock records. What Byrd crafted were not simulations of strings and horns, but exhilarating, frightening swoops and bleeps that lent a fierce crunch to the faster numbers, and a beguiling serenity to the ballads. Byrd had crucial help in his endeavors from Richard Durrett, who designed the Durrett electronic music synthesizer used by the band, and from Tom Oberheim, who pioneered the use of the ring modulator employed by the USA. Nico, Moskowitz has recalled, tried unsuccessfully to join the band, after leaving the Velvet Underground. More: Add to this mix a fascination with modal playing and Indian music. Byrd and Moskowitz were serious students of North and South Indian music, and had already made little-known contributions to a Folkways LP of Indian music by Gayathri Rajapur and Harihar Rao, recorded in 1965. Country Joe & the Fish, the Doors, and others were opening the gates for modal playing in rock and roll, and the USA were one of the first ones through; Frank Zappa had also opened the possibilities for incorporating ideas from contemporary composition into a rock format. And then there was Byrd's application of concepts from Charles Ives, which simulated marching bands moving from opposite sides of the stereo spectrum... Was it all too much to fit into one album? "As a whole, the album does not have a coherent, unified vision," declares Moskowitz, who now lives near Oakland, California, where she composes music for both adult and children's theatrical events in the San Francisco Bay area. "Joe had vision, but by hiring all these interesting people, it had to be diluted. Everybody had to have their say. I'm told that someone took the album to Apple Records. The Beatles listened to it and asked, 'Which is the band?' If you listen to each song, it's almost like a variety show. "Today you would say, it's a cultural blending of avant-garde music, of elements of Indian music. If you asked me back then, I'm not sure what we were doing. That might have been the basic charm of the group. We were charting territory for which their were no names."
November 4, 2025 at 1:05 AM