Ray Simon
@raymondpsimon.bsky.social
Bore. Curmudgeon. Dyspeptic editor. Free jazz fan. Hack writer. Late adopter. Refugee from that odious social media “platform.” Slow reader; slower learner.
“I don’t play no rock ’n’ roll stuff, but my records made it on the rock stations because the background just had some kind of a beat to it that just got everybody to moving.” — Jimmy Reed
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...
Overlooked No More: Jimmy Reed, the Bluesman Everyone Covered, Then Forgot
www.nytimes.com
January 31, 2026 at 7:00 PM
“I don’t play no rock ’n’ roll stuff, but my records made it on the rock stations because the background just had some kind of a beat to it that just got everybody to moving.” — Jimmy Reed
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/o...
Reposted by Ray Simon
As a side note, it’s funny to see so many of these emails with thirsty academics repeatedly enact Marx’s bit in the 1844 Manuscripts about the power of money. “Oh Mr Epstein, your house in New York is enormous and, unrelatedly, your questions at dinner were so intelligent, so insightful, so deep.”
![That which is for me through the medium of money - that for which I can pay (i.e., which money can buy) - that am I myself, the possessor of the money. The extent of the power of money is the extent of my power. Money's properties are my - the possessor's - properties and essential powers. Thus, what I am and am capable of is by no means determined by my individuality. I am ugly, but I can buy for myself the most beautiful of women.
Therefore I am not ugly, for the effect of ugliness - its deterrent power - is nullified by money. I, according to my individual characteristics, am lame, but money furnishes me with twenty-four feet.
Therefore I am not lame. I am bad, dishonest, unscrupulous, stupid; but money is honoured, and hence its possessor. Money is the supreme good, therefore its possessor is good. Money, besides, saves me the trouble of being dishonest: I am therefore presumed honest. I am brainless, but money is the real brain of all things and how then should its possessor be brainless? Besides, he can buy clever people for himself, and is he who has [In the manuscript: is. - Ed.] power over the clever not more clever than the clever? Do not I, who thanks to money am capable of all that the human heart longs for, possess all human capacities? Does not my money, therefore, transform all my incapacities into their contrary?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:myqic77tkmdhmaufgkvj43hr/bafkreidpuxbx764xh7vobavcnvs3v2lo5fnfi6dukfrmk3ygxmseznkyxi@jpeg)
January 31, 2026 at 4:05 PM
As a side note, it’s funny to see so many of these emails with thirsty academics repeatedly enact Marx’s bit in the 1844 Manuscripts about the power of money. “Oh Mr Epstein, your house in New York is enormous and, unrelatedly, your questions at dinner were so intelligent, so insightful, so deep.”
Reposted by Ray Simon
Advocacy/tolerance for political violence is a very bright line that divides democracies from democracies that are backsliding into authoritarianism. Democracies in which one of two major parties openly endorses political violence, or at least is winkingly tolerant of it; are democracies in trouble.
January 31, 2026 at 4:33 PM
Advocacy/tolerance for political violence is a very bright line that divides democracies from democracies that are backsliding into authoritarianism. Democracies in which one of two major parties openly endorses political violence, or at least is winkingly tolerant of it; are democracies in trouble.
“I write my poems for the Irish people, but I am damned if I will have them at my funeral.” — William Butler Yeats www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colm Tóibín · Yeats, Auden, Eliot: 1939, 1940, 1941
Who was English; who was American? If Auden was English, was T.S. Eliot American? Or was it the other way around?...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 31, 2026 at 4:12 PM
“I write my poems for the Irish people, but I am damned if I will have them at my funeral.” — William Butler Yeats www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Ray Simon
Numerous MAGA media figures are urging Trump to *escalate* his paramilitary warfare on American cities. Let's be clear: What they really want is race war, with their side backed by state violence and terror.
Me and @jenrubin.bsky.social on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Me and @jenrubin.bsky.social on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
January 30, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Numerous MAGA media figures are urging Trump to *escalate* his paramilitary warfare on American cities. Let's be clear: What they really want is race war, with their side backed by state violence and terror.
Me and @jenrubin.bsky.social on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
Me and @jenrubin.bsky.social on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2059...
“We do ‘Backstreets,’ and Bruce wrote that when he was like, 22, about a teenage heartbreak. When I got my heart broken as a teenager, I ate a lot of ice cream and learned how to drink whiskey…” — Hank Azaria
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/a...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/a...
When Bruce Springsteen (Hank Azaria) Met Michael Stipe (Michael Shannon)
www.nytimes.com
January 29, 2026 at 7:53 PM
“We do ‘Backstreets,’ and Bruce wrote that when he was like, 22, about a teenage heartbreak. When I got my heart broken as a teenager, I ate a lot of ice cream and learned how to drink whiskey…” — Hank Azaria
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/a...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/a...
“You get the feeling that if they could charge the dead with crimes, they’d do so, with glee.” — David French
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...
Opinion | What MAGA Sees in the Minnesota Mirror
www.nytimes.com
January 29, 2026 at 7:10 PM
“You get the feeling that if they could charge the dead with crimes, they’d do so, with glee.” — David French
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...
“The undelivered though widely circulated second Philippic is the Cicero one remembers and returns to. Hyperbolic to the point of absurdity, not quite pornographic in its catalogue of Antonian depravity, it exemplifies the Roman mastery of invective.” — M. Kulikowski www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Michael Kulikowski · New Man on the Make: Cicero’s Gambles
Trying to psychoanalyse historical figures is rarely productive, but Cicero was a type we can all recognise. He had a...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 28, 2026 at 11:38 PM
“The undelivered though widely circulated second Philippic is the Cicero one remembers and returns to. Hyperbolic to the point of absurdity, not quite pornographic in its catalogue of Antonian depravity, it exemplifies the Roman mastery of invective.” — M. Kulikowski www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
“But it’s funny, I remember when I started to get attention as Peaches, my dad said to me, ‘Oh, I know what you got inspired by. I used to play you Donna Summer.’ Which is true.” — Peaches
thequietus.com/interviews/b...
thequietus.com/interviews/b...
The Reaches of Peaches: Peaches' Favourite Albums | Page 9 of 14 | The Quietus
My dad had this album and I loved it. I mean, disco was at the height of everything when I was 12. I was into Kate Bush, but I was also listening to early hip hop and listening to so much disco, which...
thequietus.com
January 28, 2026 at 10:58 PM
“But it’s funny, I remember when I started to get attention as Peaches, my dad said to me, ‘Oh, I know what you got inspired by. I used to play you Donna Summer.’ Which is true.” — Peaches
thequietus.com/interviews/b...
thequietus.com/interviews/b...
“What Sonny omits or glosses over creates tension and uneasiness in the story, an overriding existential nausea. He’s excessively candid about some specifics and too aloof about others; we accumulate too many scenes and not enough narrative…” — Harmony Holiday 4columns.org/holiday-harm...
Sonny Simmons
4columns.org
January 28, 2026 at 7:32 PM
“What Sonny omits or glosses over creates tension and uneasiness in the story, an overriding existential nausea. He’s excessively candid about some specifics and too aloof about others; we accumulate too many scenes and not enough narrative…” — Harmony Holiday 4columns.org/holiday-harm...
“Thanks for being receptive to my complaining.” — Lucinda Williams
www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...
www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...
Lucinda Williams review – Americana legend brilliantly rails against a world out of balance
At 73, the lodestar of Americana still writes with urgency, as the patient force of her band sends the music grooving skywards
www.theguardian.com
January 28, 2026 at 7:18 PM
“Thanks for being receptive to my complaining.” — Lucinda Williams
www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...
www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...
What a weasel! Way to take responsibility!
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
Miller Suggests Federal Agents May Have Diverted From ‘Protocol’ Before Pretti Shooting
www.nytimes.com
January 28, 2026 at 6:04 PM
What a weasel! Way to take responsibility!
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/u...
“A hoagie tray is a meaningful unit of generosity.” — Zac Beaver, programming & libraries manager for the Delaware County Historical Society
www.inquirer.com/columnists/o...
www.inquirer.com/columnists/o...
Delaware County, N.Y., can’t take Delco away from Delco
Never in a million Wawa Hoagiefests did I expect there to be another Delco.
www.inquirer.com
January 28, 2026 at 4:41 PM
“A hoagie tray is a meaningful unit of generosity.” — Zac Beaver, programming & libraries manager for the Delaware County Historical Society
www.inquirer.com/columnists/o...
www.inquirer.com/columnists/o...
“This release is the perfect slab of grindcore fury to keep you warm through the next snowstorm and potential New England football resurgence.” — Gene Meyer www.decibelmagazine.com/2026/01/27/b...
Blast Worship: Convulsions - Decibel Magazine
Spanish grindforce Convulsions will shake you to your foundation.
www.decibelmagazine.com
January 28, 2026 at 2:32 AM
“This release is the perfect slab of grindcore fury to keep you warm through the next snowstorm and potential New England football resurgence.” — Gene Meyer www.decibelmagazine.com/2026/01/27/b...
“This is a militia that kills... of course they’re not welcome in Milan.” — Milan Mayor Beppe Sala
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
US to send ICE agents to Winter Olympics, prompting Italian anger
The US federal agency says it will not play an immigration role at February's event in Milan-Cortina.
www.bbc.com
January 28, 2026 at 2:29 AM
“This is a militia that kills... of course they’re not welcome in Milan.” — Milan Mayor Beppe Sala
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Ray Simon
Here's how to identify some crowd control munitions, canisters of which federal agents have left on the ground after deploying them against people in Minnesota. bit.ly/3YWp1jE
Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune
Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 26, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Here's how to identify some crowd control munitions, canisters of which federal agents have left on the ground after deploying them against people in Minnesota. bit.ly/3YWp1jE
Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune
Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune
“I remain unhealthily, persistently pessimistic.” — Marc Shaiman
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/t...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/t...
The Plotzes and Zetzes of a Life in the Musical Trenches
www.nytimes.com
January 25, 2026 at 6:46 PM
“I remain unhealthily, persistently pessimistic.” — Marc Shaiman
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/t...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/t...
Reposted by Ray Simon
It's time for a truly massive general strike. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-thought-enough
January 25, 2026 at 3:12 PM
It's time for a truly massive general strike. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-thought-enough
Reposted by Ray Simon
Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 25, 2026
January 24, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Tomorrow's front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 25, 2026
“A piece of perfection composed of loss, light, clarity and good nature – a book so trim that it fits easily in the pocket of a jacket yet contains much of everything in life that really matters.” — Ali Smith on “The Summer Book,” by Tove Jansson
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
Ali Smith: ‘Henry James had me running down the garden path shouting out loud’
The Scottish author on a masterclass from Toni Morrison, the brilliance of Simone de Beauvoir and the trim novel by Tove Jansson containing everything that really matters
www.theguardian.com
January 24, 2026 at 4:26 PM
“A piece of perfection composed of loss, light, clarity and good nature – a book so trim that it fits easily in the pocket of a jacket yet contains much of everything in life that really matters.” — Ali Smith on “The Summer Book,” by Tove Jansson
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
Reposted by Ray Simon
*King Missile voice*
Bisexual Forecast
Bisexual Forecast
January 24, 2026 at 1:54 PM
*King Missile voice*
Bisexual Forecast
Bisexual Forecast
“Buckley, who admired Franco’s authoritarian Catholicism, failed to mention that the war the general helped launch against a democratic government caused half a million deaths and sent several hundred thousand people into exile…” — Dan Kaufman
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
‘We’ve Got to Kill and Kill and Kill’ | Dan Kaufman
As Francisco Franco’s reputation grows on the far right, a new history of his regime reminds us of its unrelenting violence toward Jews.
www.nybooks.com
January 24, 2026 at 2:18 PM
“Buckley, who admired Franco’s authoritarian Catholicism, failed to mention that the war the general helped launch against a democratic government caused half a million deaths and sent several hundred thousand people into exile…” — Dan Kaufman
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
“We used to say every issue was like an album.” — James Bernard www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/a...
James Bernard, a Founding Editor of a Hip-Hop ‘Bible,’ Dies at 58
www.nytimes.com
January 24, 2026 at 1:14 AM
“We used to say every issue was like an album.” — James Bernard www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/a...
“The press showed little sympathy, reporting on her meltdown not as a mental health crisis so much as a petulant squandering of looks and talent: as though she’d decided to abandon the American dream and reverted to being white trash.” — Chal Ravens
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Chal Ravens · It’s. Not. Real.: Britney fights back
Britney’s career began with the plausible deniability of her schoolgirl sex appeal and stalled with the refusal of her...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 23, 2026 at 1:14 PM
“The press showed little sympathy, reporting on her meltdown not as a mental health crisis so much as a petulant squandering of looks and talent: as though she’d decided to abandon the American dream and reverted to being white trash.” — Chal Ravens
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Ray Simon
no matter how hard Greg Bovino tries to exude rugged masculinity he always comes off like Don Knotts in a Portlandia sketch
January 23, 2026 at 2:41 AM
no matter how hard Greg Bovino tries to exude rugged masculinity he always comes off like Don Knotts in a Portlandia sketch