78: April 2024
Hello. Welcome to Border Crossing issue #78.
I hope you’re well today.
I’m finishing editing this with the sound of Brighton Marathon in the background, as thousands of people leg it past the end of my road. The main noise is a constant, distant thrum of cheering, which is lovely. They’ve got a beautiful morning for it. But the best thing (for me) about marathon day is, we get zero traffic down our road for a few precious hours. It’s meditative bliss. Then you really notice the noise when the cars are allowed back down the road and normality returns. Within minutes it’ll be a jammed up Spring Sunday mess. Each year, I wish they’d stop traffic for a full day, instead of the minimum allotted time to enable the event to take place.
Anyway, for now, people run, people cheer, cars are elsewhere.
ten gems
1
Chal Ravens’ essay ‘Too Big to Shut Down’ for London Review of Books discusses the rise of acid house and the UK rave scene, as documented in Ed Gillett’s book Party Lines (due out in August). Ravens also talks about this essay on the new episode of The LRB Podcast ‘The Acid House Revolution’.
I’m greatly enjoying the LRB Podcast output at the moment. Two issues ago I flagged up Pankaj Mishra’s extraordinary essay The Shoah After Gaza. Well, the following week Mishra was interviewed on the LRB Podcast about the many issues arising from his piece. He was as measured, compassionate and unwavering in discussion as he had been in prose, leading to a deeply insightful conversation.
To add to that…
1(b)
The LRB has also just launched a separate podcast history investigation series called The Belgrano Diary about the Falklands War and, more specifically, the British sinking of the Belgrano, and the resurgent Thatcher government’s attempt to cover up what turned out to be a war crime. So far, two (very compelling) episodes are up for free — it’s published weekly — but you can buy the whole series at once for £5.
2
If you live in my part of the world, East Sussex Psychedelic Film Club is a fabulous new monthly night over in Lewes for, well, what it says on the tin. Tonight we’re going to their screening of Nobuhiku Obayashi’s HOUSE, then next month (1st May) they’re showing Berberian Sound Studio with Peter Strickland doing a Q&A. These sell out in advance.
3
After decades as one of the world’s most vital thinkers on feminism, queer and gender theory (and having published many academic books, on many topics beyond that) the great Judith Butler has published their first non-academic book, Who’s Afraid Of Gender. This is a piercing, headily progressive analysis of today’s political battles, and manufactured culture wars, around that topic.
Two introductions to Butler’s thinking, the book and its arguments:
Here’s Judith Butler speaking at the University of Cambridge’s Q+ program from last April, laying out what would become some of the book’s core ideas.
Also, this week the film critic Dana Stevens has written an excellent profile for Slate (it’s a personal reflection really) on Butler, who was Stevens’ dissertation advisor at the University of California, in the late 1990s.
4
If you can access BBCiPlayer, Daniel Barenboim ‘In His Own Words’ lets the legendary conductor and pianist tell his own story.
5
Ronan Farrow profiles RuPaul for New Yorker. I’m not especially a fan of either, but it’s an interesting piece. RuPaul gives off a darker, more troubled (post-trauma) energy in real life than his Drag Race Matriarch persona.
6
Twitter thread by All The Right Movies about the making of Christopher Nolan’s breakthrough film Memento. Thanks @RachOfTheNorth for spotting this one.
7
An absolutely blistering hour of Charli XCX hard party electro via the youtubes… ahead of her new record, as her second bonkers single in a row ‘Club Classics’ drops, Charli grabs a bunch of mates (AG Cook, Finn ‘easyfun’ Keane, Julia Fox and George Daniel all onboard) for an intense Boiler Room DJ set from New York. Glorious chaos. When you’re in the mood, Charli is more fun than all the other pop stars put together.
8
9
Ryan Feldman (@EMPoisonPharmD) writes a fascinating USA-based Twitter thread on the complicated urgent logistics of trying to identify and access the best antidote, if someone gets bitten by an exotic snake.
10
Finally, Mae Martin’s sublimely disgusting (you’ve been warned) bad date gross-out story as told on Bad Dates with Jameela Jamil.
Too much music is sneaking into the gems, especially when there’s a whole nother newsletter to deal with that shizzle. I’ll work on it.
potato gems
There’s been a controversy in the USA this past couple of weeks, after reports emerged that the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health & Human Services (HHS) were considering re-classifying potatoes as a ‘grain’ instead of a ‘vegetable’, on health education grounds. A whole bunch of senators have written to the heads of both organisations, as well as publicly lobbying, to fiercely argue against the change and defend the potato’s official ‘vegetable’ status. Here’s a piece from Potato News Today.
The other key story of the past week came from the world of video gaming: Minecraft’s high profile announcement of the Poisonous Potato Update, on 1st April. Your guess is as good as mine.
•
get in touch
email: chris@christt.com
Instagram: @cjthorpetracey @doublechorus
Bluesky: @christt
Twitter/X: @christt | @doublechorus
always there
Try my music newsletter The Double Chorus
My annotated lyrics book Buried in the English Earth is still (just about) available via the Border Crossing shop.
Jim Bob UK tour 2024: Margate, Norwich, Southampton, Sunderland, Birmingham, Cambridge, Glasgow, Manchester and Bearded Theory.
My Pact Coffee discount code is CHRIS-A8UKQG. Sign up for coffee bean delivery, use this code, you get £5 off and I get £5 off a bag too.
Look after yourself and your people.
All my love. Have a beautiful week.
Christopher
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