Things from Somewhere Else: The 1950s Creature Feature and the Anxiety It Was Selling
Enlargement, rubber suits, mediocre plots, the creatures and SciFi schlock delights, and creates angst that aligned with public concerns of the era
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May 9, 2026 - Week in Review
Front matter: As I have begun to post on most days, I have noticed that I am getting pretty consistent subscriber fatigue as indicated by the number of people unsubscribing from the main newsletter. I get that, email fatigue is real, and what was once 1 or 2 posts a
PART TWO: No Offramp
Biden tried the restoration thesis. Here's what it taught us.
Music: Strange Kind of Women
Eliana Cargnelutti and Strange Kind of Women are back, and kicking arse.
PART ONE: The Table Was Always Crooked
The infrastructure of distrust was assembled over decades. Some of it was earned. The rest was sold to us.
One True Church: The Republican Party and the Logic of Rome
If the Democrats are like the messy Protestant universe, the Republicans are pure Catholic hierarchy.
The Protestant Party: Why Democratic Dysfunction Is Actually a Feature
Next up: How the Democratic party eerily mimics the Protestants in America. Some powerful analogs to explore
God's Precinct: Why American Politics Is Actually a Denominational Dispute
Our politics look an awful lot like the messiness of the main branches of religion in this country, are there solid parallels? Start of a series
You Loved to Hate It Until You Needed It (Spirit Air)
The Spirit Airlines obituary nobody earned the right to write
Sunday Grab Bag: Riot Women, Star Wars, & Patrick Boyle
A mixed bag of topics, something lighter for the weekend.
The Man Who Made Everything: Roger Corman and American International Pictures
More on the trash cinema ecosystem: The man that is the epicenter of the phenomena and the AIP studio that defined the genre
The Bait and Switch (TFG Pt 3)
The third and final episode of this trainwreck: I look at what this passel of chucklefucks is doing to smaller writers as they shred any fidelity remaining to their original mission statement. It's all about the bucks.
Politics
The Comforting Fiction of Clean Money
If only it were so easy as to just reject the mega dollars from corporate villians, alas, there are plenty of other factors that sully that dream
Tech
The Algorithm Is the Policy (Or: Nazis, Then Tate, Then Whatever's Next) (TFG pt 2)
Part 2 of the TFG Trilogy: the algorithm makes the shittiness endemic, and the progression of nazi -> Andy Tate -> (who the fuck knows what is next, but it ain't gon' be good) Yay, capitalism.
Newsletter
The Other Country: How the Obscenely Wealthy Live in a Different Physics
The wealthy are different from us. Most people don't realize how different. Let's dive into this topic, and try to understand people like Musk, Ellison, Zuckerberg, and even Trump are. It's a ride, strap in!
Newsletter
These Fucking Guys: Substack and the Original Sin (pt 1)
My history with Substack, fleshed out, and the realization that the founders are really pieces of human filth. The first of three posts (three founders) on these fucking guys, and how a noble idea gets ratfucked in Silicon Valley.
Newsletter
Glorious Garbage: A Defense of the Films Nobody Was Supposed to Take Seriously
There's a genre of film that arose in the early 1950's and evolved into several threads, but it has some common themes: Cheap to produce, frough edges, and more than a little sleaze. Delightful.
Politics
The Democrats Didn't Lose Their Brand. They Sold It for a Song
And the bill of sale was signed in 1971, long before most of us were paying attention.
Politics
This Fucking Guy: Alex Karp (Reprise)
The Broligarchy's Court Philosopher drops a manifesto, and the discourse loses its entire mind
Politics
No Undo, Part 2: The World Has Moved On Without Us
The allies are rapidly building a post-America order. The nuclear world is getting more crowded. And the progressive left is gearing up to do what it does best: snatch defeat from the jaws of opportunity. What a time to be alive!
Politics
No Undo, Part 1: The Honest Assessment of What We've Lost
Before anyone sells you a recovery plan, you need to understand what's actually broken. Spoiler: it's a lot, and some of it isn't coming back.
Music
Music: Nothing Else Matters how you've never heard it before
It's been a while, but the incomparable Anneke van Giersbergen is a true treasure, inspired by a cover of Nothing Else Matters by Ms. van Giersbergen and the Dutch National Orchestra, this is a hat tip to Anneke
Politics
This Fucking Guy: Shayne Coplan
The biggest fucking douchebag you probably don't know, but goddamn, Shayne Coplan is the most punchable billionaire fucker on the planet, and that is saying something.
Tech
The Grubby Fingerprints They Won't Talk About
The fourth and final installment of my analysis of the Never Trump movement and what its effect was and may be in the future. It is both welcome, but not as beneficial as they seem to think.