Robin James
@robinjames.bsky.social
editor & scholar. Pop music, gender, philosophy. Books: GOOD VIBES ONLY; THE FUTURE OF ROCK & ROLL; THE SONIC EPISTEME; RESILIENCE & MELANCHOLY. Writing a 33 1/3 on The Breeders. Bylines all over, views could only be mine lol. its-her-factory.com
NOW
Sunday from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com I’ll spin some indie tunes and chat about some subjects of great musical disagreement among indie fans to give you something to debate at the Thanksgiving table that’s not politics! It’s the indie version of “is a hot dog a sandwich”
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:03 PM
NOW
I could have never done the weird discipline-defying research I do if I was at a “prestigious” institution bc it wasn’t considered real research at the time I was doing it (eg feminist philosophy in the 90s)
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
One of the bragging rights that the US ed system had in the 20th century is that we didn't have education tracks. Essentially, any kid could go to a CC or state school & major in whatever they wanted to (obviously an oversimplification). I fear this aspect of the American dream is dying.
November 23, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I could have never done the weird discipline-defying research I do if I was at a “prestigious” institution bc it wasn’t considered real research at the time I was doing it (eg feminist philosophy in the 90s)
TODAY! What are your favorite musical debates in the broad world of modern rock/indie?
Sunday from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com I’ll spin some indie tunes and chat about some subjects of great musical disagreement among indie fans to give you something to debate at the Thanksgiving table that’s not politics! It’s the indie version of “is a hot dog a sandwich”
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
TODAY! What are your favorite musical debates in the broad world of modern rock/indie?
Reposted by Robin James
Episode 6 with @robinjames.bsky.social is out now for your holiday week! We cover the second edition of Resilience and Melancholy, what's happening at the top of the charts, why men left pop music for podcasts, and m o r e e e e
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
6 | Resilient Pop and Alt (Right) Rock with Dr. Robin James
Something's going on with men!!
dandipiero.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Episode 6 with @robinjames.bsky.social is out now for your holiday week! We cover the second edition of Resilience and Melancholy, what's happening at the top of the charts, why men left pop music for podcasts, and m o r e e e e
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
dandipiero.substack.com/p/6-resilien...
"Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretiert; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern" (Marx, 1845)
Critical theory is no longer enough. It is time for critical practice.
November 23, 2025 at 3:15 AM
"Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretiert; es kommt aber darauf an, sie zu verändern" (Marx, 1845)
Tomorrow!
Sunday from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com I’ll spin some indie tunes and chat about some subjects of great musical disagreement among indie fans to give you something to debate at the Thanksgiving table that’s not politics! It’s the indie version of “is a hot dog a sandwich”
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Tomorrow!
Thought I wanted to be a conductor. The philosophy dept at my undergrad was less misogynist than the music department and I liked thinking more than the kind of musicking available to me. Got a PhD in philosophy, kind of ended up a musicologist? Taught for a while now do publishing instead.
November 22, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Thought I wanted to be a conductor. The philosophy dept at my undergrad was less misogynist than the music department and I liked thinking more than the kind of musicking available to me. Got a PhD in philosophy, kind of ended up a musicologist? Taught for a while now do publishing instead.
If you are at NCA come hear @rhetoricpj.bsky.social and I talk about crypto and masculine necropolitics today at 9:30. I’ll talk about neoreactionary masculine resilience and the politics of personal injury.
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
November 22, 2025 at 1:42 PM
If you are at NCA come hear @rhetoricpj.bsky.social and I talk about crypto and masculine necropolitics today at 9:30. I’ll talk about neoreactionary masculine resilience and the politics of personal injury.
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
(Interestingly comm people know the resilience book more than philosophers do?)
Kind of wonder if this is the other beat to the alt-rock-to-alt-right project…
“We have been injured by poptimism” is an apparently more learned way of saying “we have been injured by women/feminism”
That NYT piece Eric links is the cultural version of “did women ruin the workforce?”
That NYT piece Eric links is the cultural version of “did women ruin the workforce?”
November 21, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Kind of wonder if this is the other beat to the alt-rock-to-alt-right project…
Yeah Clear Channel’s Randy Michaels had more to do with the rise of right wing perspectives in media than poptimism ever did.
In fact screeds against poptimism in 2025 are little more than manosphere misogyny dressed up in apparently more erudite terms.
In fact screeds against poptimism in 2025 are little more than manosphere misogyny dressed up in apparently more erudite terms.
November 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Yeah Clear Channel’s Randy Michaels had more to do with the rise of right wing perspectives in media than poptimism ever did.
In fact screeds against poptimism in 2025 are little more than manosphere misogyny dressed up in apparently more erudite terms.
In fact screeds against poptimism in 2025 are little more than manosphere misogyny dressed up in apparently more erudite terms.
Relatedly, Al Jourgensen got his “Uncle Al” nickname bc he’s like your cranky (and tbh probably drunk) uncle who likes to provoke. If it gets bad at Thanksgiving you could imagine what would happen if that sort of Uncle Al was at your table lol.
Sunday from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com I’ll spin some indie tunes and chat about some subjects of great musical disagreement among indie fans to give you something to debate at the Thanksgiving table that’s not politics! It’s the indie version of “is a hot dog a sandwich”
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Relatedly, Al Jourgensen got his “Uncle Al” nickname bc he’s like your cranky (and tbh probably drunk) uncle who likes to provoke. If it gets bad at Thanksgiving you could imagine what would happen if that sort of Uncle Al was at your table lol.
Sunday from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com I’ll spin some indie tunes and chat about some subjects of great musical disagreement among indie fans to give you something to debate at the Thanksgiving table that’s not politics! It’s the indie version of “is a hot dog a sandwich”
Inhailer Radio | Cincinnati | Independent Radio | Indie Music
Inhailer Radio is Cincinnati independent radio. Founded in 2017 to fill the void left by beloved radio station WNKU.
Inhailer.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Sunday from 5-7p Eastern on Inhailer.com I’ll spin some indie tunes and chat about some subjects of great musical disagreement among indie fans to give you something to debate at the Thanksgiving table that’s not politics! It’s the indie version of “is a hot dog a sandwich”
There’s a scholarly book someone could write on Sisley & Ebert + Sound Opinions (and media institutions and men) and Chicago as a site of media criticism
50 years ago this week, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert made the first pilot for their TV show. In honor of this huge anniversary, I created my definitive “Best of Siskel & Ebert” article - 50 of their best reviews from across their entire career. 👍🏻👍🏻
The 50 Best Siskel & Ebert Reviews
screencrush.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:23 AM
There’s a scholarly book someone could write on Sisley & Ebert + Sound Opinions (and media institutions and men) and Chicago as a site of media criticism
I say more or less this in the vibes book: insofar as LLM-math is a model of fuzzy indeterminacy, poetics can create other kinds of fuzzy indeterminacy that models don’t yet know how to predict/enclose/domesticate.
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 20, 2025 at 7:33 PM
I say more or less this in the vibes book: insofar as LLM-math is a model of fuzzy indeterminacy, poetics can create other kinds of fuzzy indeterminacy that models don’t yet know how to predict/enclose/domesticate.
This is another way AI is being used to extract value from speculative/counterfactual realities (bc we’ve maxed out extraction from like real material reality). It continues vectors/trajectories/vibes in speculative directions, which we accept bc they generate wealth.
Art-pop innovator Sophie and country cult hero Blaze Foley both had suspiciously AI-sounding new material posted to their pages recently—odd choices of artists to target for a scam, considering that Sophie died in 2021 and Foley in 1989
Why Is It So Easy to Flood Streaming With AI Slop?
And what the hell is Operation Clown Dump?
www.hearingthings.co
November 20, 2025 at 1:29 PM
This is another way AI is being used to extract value from speculative/counterfactual realities (bc we’ve maxed out extraction from like real material reality). It continues vectors/trajectories/vibes in speculative directions, which we accept bc they generate wealth.
TBH this sounds like an SNL parody of “oops, I did it again”, ON is trying to copy the vocal timbre BS used on the song, which she explicitly modeled on Marc Almond in “Tainted Love”
Someone found an mp3 of the creepy "Jailbait" song Olivia Nuzzi released when she was 16 🫣
November 20, 2025 at 1:45 AM
TBH this sounds like an SNL parody of “oops, I did it again”, ON is trying to copy the vocal timbre BS used on the song, which she explicitly modeled on Marc Almond in “Tainted Love”
There is an arcade in the NCA book exhibit and tbh the constant playing of the famous two-note JAWS riff is already driving me bonkers 🦈 🫠
November 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM
There is an arcade in the NCA book exhibit and tbh the constant playing of the famous two-note JAWS riff is already driving me bonkers 🦈 🫠
Notifications for SCMS haven’t gone out yet, have they?
November 19, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Notifications for SCMS haven’t gone out yet, have they?
I am a secular person but I think my Christmas show for Inhailer is going to use The Blue Brothers as a jumping off point…
What's from Chicago, hates Illinois Nazis, and is holy as fuck?
It's the Pope in 1982.
It's the Pope in 1982.
November 19, 2025 at 3:23 AM
I am a secular person but I think my Christmas show for Inhailer is going to use The Blue Brothers as a jumping off point…
TBH both of my girl dogs know quite well how to use a tool, i.e., me, to get what they want. They don’t need an implement, they know socially to ask the manager. I am their tool lol.
Nyx often appeals to me, Juno’s manager, when she wants an exception to something Juno would object to.
Nyx often appeals to me, Juno’s manager, when she wants an exception to something Juno would object to.
A female wolf has been doing something unusual on the Central Coast of British Columbia. She's learned to pull crab traps up from the water, yanking on a rope to bring it to the surface. But is it tool use? Very fun story from @phiejacobs.bsky.social for @science.org
Have wild wolves learned to use tools?
Video captures a lone female pulling crab traps out of the water, but does it count as tool use?
www.science.org
November 19, 2025 at 2:56 AM
TBH both of my girl dogs know quite well how to use a tool, i.e., me, to get what they want. They don’t need an implement, they know socially to ask the manager. I am their tool lol.
Nyx often appeals to me, Juno’s manager, when she wants an exception to something Juno would object to.
Nyx often appeals to me, Juno’s manager, when she wants an exception to something Juno would object to.
There are 4 types of guys online. No exceptions.
November 19, 2025 at 2:49 AM
There are 4 types of guys online. No exceptions.
So I am finally getting around to Immediacy & I have to agree w Dan that the theory doesn’t and can’t extend to music…Dan says it’s bc music is inherently temporal, but I’d say it’s bc music is inherently abstract.
dandipiero.substack.com/p/too-late-c...
dandipiero.substack.com/p/too-late-c...
Too Late Capitalism and the Vibes Economy: On Immediacy and Music
A re-post and a follow-up
dandipiero.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:59 PM
So I am finally getting around to Immediacy & I have to agree w Dan that the theory doesn’t and can’t extend to music…Dan says it’s bc music is inherently temporal, but I’d say it’s bc music is inherently abstract.
dandipiero.substack.com/p/too-late-c...
dandipiero.substack.com/p/too-late-c...
Plato has Socrates complain about this in the Meno, people who are experts in one thing thinking they are this masters of all knowledge.
have we come up with a name for the phenomenon of people who are genuine experts in one particular field insisting that this makes them experts in all other fields? is this a specific corollary to dunning-kruger or something else entirely?
November 18, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Plato has Socrates complain about this in the Meno, people who are experts in one thing thinking they are this masters of all knowledge.
Reposted by Robin James
If you're going to NCA this week, check out me and @robinjames.bsky.social talking at 9:30 this Saturday on the relationship between masculinity, death, and crypto
November 18, 2025 at 3:21 PM
If you're going to NCA this week, check out me and @robinjames.bsky.social talking at 9:30 this Saturday on the relationship between masculinity, death, and crypto
What's a good tool/platform to build a collaborative playlist that's NOT Spotify? Should be available broadly internationally.
November 17, 2025 at 8:44 PM
What's a good tool/platform to build a collaborative playlist that's NOT Spotify? Should be available broadly internationally.