126: July 2026
Hello, welcome to Border Crossing issue one hundred and twenty-six, a pinch and a punch, I hope you’re well, thank you for reading.
It’s just ‘gems’ this issue, though I have a couple of essays almost done (and my “favourite culture so far this year” is also up very soon).
Let’s get on it.
xx
I fucking hate him. I hate him because on my travels I stumble across his good works, wherever I go.
— Anthony Bourdain on Henry Kissinger, when both were still alive
gems
1
Joel Morris unearths a vintage essay by A.A. Milne, moaning about how people (especially the BBC) treat writers. In his introduction, Morris identifies Winnie-The-Pooh as generations of children’s ‘first sitcom’, which is a super take.
2
Right in my sweet spot: TV’s super specsy Alan Carr is getting rid of items he doesn’t want from the castle he just purchased, via a public auction, including Lot 145, a massive u.g.l.y. concrete giraffe that I now crave. Sadly, at six foot plus, it’s too big for my house.
3
Meet a new American political heroine, Darializa Avila Chevalier, insurgent leftist endorsed by Mamdani, who just unseated a five term incumbent in the Dem primary in NY-13, so she’ll almost certainly become a New York Congress member.
3b
This week, sainted ‘both sides’ country clubbers The New York Times came hard for Darializa hard (yuck) and then got in a spat with Mehdi Hasan about it, who of course obliterated their bullshit in thrilling fashion.
4
If you think the May and June heatwaves have felt intense… vivid BBC News ‘animated image and text’ explainer of the Super El Niño on its way in late 2026, which will likely combine with climate change to make 2027 (easily) the world’s hottest year on record, so far.
5
Butch Van Dyke uses a Threads thread (?) to retell the story of anti-Nazi activist Sophie Scholl and contextualise it, with the recent lengthy imprisonments of anti-ICE protesters.
6
Daniel Spicer appraises the life and legacy of Allen Ginsberg for The Quietus. Probably the best single overview I saw, during last month’s accounting of the great poet’s centenary.
7
Ta Nehisi Coates’ major essay for Vanity Fair on Kamala Harris as a future presidential candidate and in particular her (and the whole Democrat establishment’s) total inability to properly, humanely challenge Israel on Gaza. Coates also spoke to Chris Hayes on MS Now.
8
Happy fifth birthday to Simon Warner’s Rock And The Beat Generation newsletter.
9
Somehow I missed the 2025 remixed (post-BBC) version of Julian Simpson’s Mythos audio series starring Nicola Walker and the upcoming (crowdfunded) season five of The Lovecraft Investigations, it’s the biggie, The Call Of Cthulhu. Big thank you subscriber Nick Barnes for highlighting these over a pint, I don’t know how I’d fallen out of touch with Simpson’s brilliant audio work.
10
This is three months old, almost five thousand words long and it’s about Gaza, specifically the ‘built environment’ (architecture, infrastructure) aspect of mass destruction, rather than the direct killing of people. If you can cope with that, this is a simply extraordinary, very important perspective. Eyal Weizman’s long, expert essay, ‘All they will find is sand’ from London Review of Books.
potato gems
• The disappearance of the six foot Mr Potato Head in Derbyshire has been solved.
• At the start of the World Cup, the excellent Reuben Bard Rosenberg made this Google spreadsheet showing which teams to support, based on countries’ comparative potato consumption. Disappointingly, he’s failed to update it (yet) for the knockout stage. I think he’s on holiday. Which would be annoying and useless, however on the second sheet he included relative tonnage, which means you can do your own calculations for knockout matches, in order to (of course) support the team whose country eats the most potatoes per person. Actually Reuben’s data looks a little suss, with Scotland lower than England (wtaf) and Congo not there at all. Still, admirable commitment to potato theming.
•
get in touch
email me: chris@christt.com
Instagram: cjthorpetracey
always there
• Sort out your ‘art life balance’ with a conversation to help reset your creativity: check out my face-to-face sessions
• Double Chorus about songwriting and the music industry (irregular, casual)
• Refigure podcast, bitesize arts review show I make with Rifa
• I host The Old Market podcast, interviewing brilliant artists each month
• Two vintage Chris T-T LPs: London Is Sinking (2003) and 9 Red Songs (2005) for the first time on 12” vinyl, limited stocks still available
• A bunch more T-T albums on CD: Love Is Not Rescue (2010), The Bear (2013), 9 Green Songs (2016) and Best of Chris T-T (double CD, 2017) all available via Bandcamp
• My Pact Coffee discount code is CHRIS-A8UKQG. Sign up for beautiful coffee bean delivery, use this code, you get £5 off, and I get £5 off a bag too
Thanks again, please look after yourself and your people
all my love,
Chris
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