Drinking the Kool-Aid
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwich Heat Wave Special: In Praise of Cold Soup
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the series where I drag my long-suffering editor David Swanson through the bizarro, shifting sands of Wikipedia’s List of...
A Note From Your Temporary Substitute Internet Dad
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwiches #100: Kaisers Jagdproviant
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the series where I drag my long-suffering editor David Swanson through the bizarro, shifting sands of Wikipedia’s List of...
On Cults, Part 2: Follow the Leader
Jim Jones preaching at the Peoples Temple What’s the loneliest you’ve ever felt? The most scared? The most despairing? Was it a period of depression, or...
Hollywood: The Oral Histories
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwiches #99: Kabuli Burger
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the series where I drag my long-suffering editor David Swanson through the bizarro, shifting sands of Wikipedia’s List of...
On Cults: Let's Talk About Sects
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwiches #98: Katsu Sando
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the series where I drag my long-suffering editor David Swanson through the bizarro, shifting sands of Wikipedia’s List of...
On Cults, Part 1
This week, Donald Trump led a rally in my city. In the South Bronx, to be precise—it was a frenzied affair, the crowd reflecting a diversity that, if not...
TLDS May Culture Klatch
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwiches #97: Jucy Lucy
By David Swanson Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where Talia and I stumble our way through the strange and mutable document that is...
Supreme Injustices
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwiches #96: Jibarito
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I and my longsuffering editor David Swanson stumble our way through the strange and mutable document...
Small Vices
I’m lucky enough to have a tiny garden in the middle of New York City, where space is at a premium and outdoor space even more so. It’s a patch of concrete...
Tales of the Fantastic
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwich Tribute to Steve Albini
By David Swanson Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where Talia and I stumble our way through the strange and mutable document that is...
The Tempest: Stormy Daniels Revisited
Inspired by the testimony of Stormy Daniels in court today, we’re re-publishing a pair of stories that Talia wrote for the Village Voice six years ago, when...
Culture Club: Grab Bag
Welcome back my own most beautiful darlings! I want to thank you for being paid subscribers—you’re helping me keep the lights on and keep doing what I love...
Notable Sandwiches #95: Jesuita
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I and my longsuffering editor David Swanson stumble our way through the strange and mutable document...
History Repeats Itself at Columbia
By David Swanson Columbia’s Low Memorial Library in 1968, and in 2024 Last night, as a group of activists took over Hamilton Hall just hours after Columbia...
TLDS Culture Klatch
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwiches Passover Edition: The Hillel
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where we trip merrily through the bizarre and mutable document that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable...
Ten Poems for April
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwiches #94: Jambon-Beurre
By David Swanson Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where we trip merrily through the bizarre and mutable document that is Wikipedia’s List of...
Announcing my new book, WILD FAITH!
Howdy y’all, I want to personally thank every subscriber to this newsletter (picture me giving you a very light kiss on the cheek in the European fashion)...
Time is a Flat Circle: True Detective, 10 Years Later
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwiches #93: Jam
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where David and I stumble our way through the bizarre and mutable document that is Wikipedia’s List of...
Once Upon a Time in Los Angeles: A History of Hollywood in 30 Films
BY DAVID SWANSON Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwiches #92: Italian
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, alongside my long-suffering editor David Swanson, trek through the enormous and unwieldy document...
A Messiah Anointed with Snake Oil
It’s 2024, and we are all living in a world created by dead televangelists. Those big men with their waxen faces, made up for klieg lights—the Jerry...
100 Years in Babylon: An Archival History of Los Angeles
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwich #91: Italian Beef
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, alongside my long-suffering editor David Swanson, trek through the enormous and unwieldy document...
Full Windsor
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwiches #90: Indian Taco
By Sara Calvosa Olson Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, alongside my charming and long-suffering editor David Swanson, trip merrily...
The Return of Paul Manafort, Thug Whisperer
The return of Paul Manafort, as reported this week by the Washington Post, marks a stunning turnaround for one of the most shamelessly corrupt figures in...
The Soothing Hands of Craftsmen
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or playing....
Notable Sandwiches #89: Hot Dog
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, alongside my charming and long-suffering editor David Swanson, trip merrily through the befuddling...
Robert Oppenheimer, Destroyer of Worlds
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Voices at a Revolution
By David Swanson A Village Voice staff meeting in the late seventies "We didn't want to be seen as a left-wing newspaper particularly," said Village Voice...
The Village Voice's Freak Scene
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where Talia and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwiches #88: Hot Brown
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, alongside my long-suffering editor David Swanson, wend my way through the ever-shifting document...
The Eternal Return of the Border Wars
“Lady Fortune and her Wheel” by Jean Pichore, c. 1510 Nietzsche had a theory of eternal return—drawn from Indian thought and his own fizzing and eloquent...
How to Live in a Female Body
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwiches #87: The Horseshoe
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, alongside my long-suffering editor David Swanson, wend my way through the ever-shifting document...
Magneto Was Right, Bub
Welcome back to Culture Club, the weekly feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading, watching or...
Notable Sandwiches #86: Har Cheong Gai Burger
By David Swanson Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where Talia and I trip merrily through the baffling and mercurial document that is...
Turning Away from Disaster
An illustration from Ovid's Metamorphoses, by Virgil Solis, 1569 It started, as great art often does, with a metamorphosis. Or Metamorphoses—specifically,...
A Super Bowl Sunday Syllabus
By David Swanson Welcome back to Culture Club, the recurring feature where David and I discuss our preoccupations—what we’ve been thinking about, reading,...
Notable Sandwiches #85: The Handwich
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, alongside my editor David Swanson, trip merrily through the baffling and mercurial document that is...