Feed for Zach Barocas / Brooklyn Diasporism
Analog I deeply appreciate stationery and its constituent processes, accoutrements, and instruments. I am a frequent user of these products and sell them for a living. I don’t, however, align myself with the use of the term “ analog” to describe these items. I assume it started with a need to distinguish these items from digital applications that came to substitute their own processes and use for…
There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Lake Where the Movies Come From
Jon and Megan Brooklyn, NY ☀ / 103 ℉
New Post for the New Month It’s heatwave summer in the city. There’s at least one song mashup to pursue in that statement but unless it offers reprieve from the current state of things, I can’t see how it’s worth the effort. As we near the 250 years milestone of our Declaration of Independence, it’s difficult to muster much enthusiasm for the festivities, such as they are. Here in New York there…
“ Sail On, Silver Girl”
Sail On, Silver Girl I’ve commenced my roughly quintennial reacquaintance with “ Bridge Over Troubled Water,” a song I believe to be irrefutably and uniquely powerful, but I can never get my head around the mix in the last section. I’m not sure where such a song is supposed to “ go” but near-incoherence doesn’t seem quite right. But then, there I am, at the end of this breathtaking song, awash in…
The Weird Soul of Placeless America I can’t remember how I found “ American Diner Gothic” but anything with a tagline like “ In the 2020s, the weird soul of placeless America is being born on Discord servers” will at least tickle my attention, and this piece, which folds alternately into anxious sociology and a kind of copped-out insider pov, turned out to be a wonderful read.
Guerrilla Girls in New York Review of Books I didn’t know there were active offshoots or versions of the Guerrilla Girls but the original efforts remain inspiring. This kind of protest seems mostly impossible to me in our current moment. Too much info flows through specialized scrolling for their type of production and interference to touch anyone who isn’t already looking for it.
Photo Site Update The photo site continues to be a work-in-progress. Which is to say, I continue to work on it and am making progress.
In Memoriam: Lieu I made a memorial page for our cat, Lieu , to whom we said goodbye yesterday. Dearly missed.
New Photos Section I’ve added a new photos section to the site. it functions independently from the main site in some ways, e.g. the main site’s search function does not extend to the photos subsite. Neither does the “ photography” tag search the subsite. The photos site also has its own RSS feed. I might learn to remedy these distinctions in the future but for now it’s like an attached garage for…
Another Blue Chair Brooklyn, NY
Blue Chair Brooklyn, NY
Harmony > Unison Fugitive Recording, Brooklyn, NY
Life Notebooks Assembly
Corporate Bonuses Rise Like Smoke A Semblance: Of Return by Asher Gamedze
Gowanus Canal Brooklyn, NY
The Way Things Are, It’s More Than Sin Ain’t no love by Al Brown & Skin Flesh and Bones
Court Street Last Sunday Night Brooklyn, NY
Catherine Norris Or Kathy Norris, 1 was a cellist here in New York for a few years in the mid- to late-1960s. She played on two of my favorite records, At Judson Hall by Noah Howard and Intents And Purposes by The Bill Dixon Orchestra. 2 She also appeared on a Dixon-produced record by The Robert F. Pozar Ensemble , whose namesake was also known as Cleve Pozar. I came across Cleve Pozar via this…
Noah Howard at Judson Hall At Judson Hall by Noah Howard
Favorite Spot Brooklyn, NY
Favorite Albums From 2025 You can find my favorite albums from 2025 at Album Whale. It was a year of considerable discovery for me, a year of both more and less obscure listening, of both familiar and surprising instrumentation and dynamics. Hopefully you’ll find something to enjoy there. Not altogether unrelated, I’ve started keeping a running list of notable listening and reading at an In…
However inclined one might be to consider Patti Smith simply a rock star who writes, a pass at the prelude of Bread of Angels should confirm that she is, rather, a poet who has made some records.
Jealous Guy, on the 45th Anniversary of John Lennon’s Death
Frank O’Hara, “ Why I Am Not a Painter” I am not a painter, I am a poet. Why? I think I would rather be a painter, but I am not. Well, for instance, Mike Goldberg is starting a painting. I drop in. “ Sit down and have a drink” he says. I drink; we drink. I look up. “ You have SARDINES in it.” “ Yes, it needed something there.” “ Oh.” I go and the days go by and I drop in again. The painting is…
Chevrolet Brooklyn, NY
The Librarians (via kottke.org )
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Liam Neesons
There are a million ways to live your life, but one choice is to do it with gratitude. Laura Dern Has the Spirit of Seventies Cinema | The New Yorker