Hal Espen

music.apple.com/us/playlist/...

Love him so much !

My biophiliac conservationist niece representing on behalf of migratory birds 🪿 youtu.be/CHsV0sczVIE?...

This Nathan Heller profile of bookselling tycoon James Daunt is an absolute banger — an instant classic. Just read it. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

“Much of the country is still primed to burn.”

After a 71-day protest, the last of the 100-plus-year-old trees was cut down southeast of Tucson. buff.ly/85IBUDu

( > It never produces facts which are not plagiarized, copied, regurgitated. outputs are random, of course. So let's say it *almost* never produces facts which are not plagiarized, copied, regurgitated. But this distinction is not very important. You get the idea. )

Hoboes and their history — www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

The hysterical hyperbolic self-medicating ecstasy expressed in this era of New York Time cooking display copy — “My Wife Is Actually Crying Right Now Because This Cake Is So Good” — might not be so weird without the pervasive lack of affect or anything radical in other regions of the house style.

Hey it's @robertsuits.bsky.social and THE HOBO in the NYRB! Hooray! www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Twas ever thus— Like My Jesus Sweatshirt? How Christianity Went Consumerist. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/b...

Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible

The NYT ran an article in April raising questions about Trump’s mental status, quoting people calling him “clearly insane,” “an extremely sick person,” “unhinged,” “out of control,” “batshit crazy,” and “a genocidal lunatic.” Then they never mentioned it again. presswatchers.org/2026/04/new-...

New one today for @defector.com: in the wake of the most recent declaration of reading's demise, I was curious what booksellers, almost always ignored by the post-literate prognosticators, made of such claims. Here's what they told me:

randomly giving out genuine compliments is such an easy way to make the world a little nicer, i'm always surprised more people haven't figured that out and have a ton of respect for those who have

The best investigative reporting in the New York Times often dissipates and fades without crusading follow-through. Meanwhile there are the bizarre crusades the paper does prosecute — But Her Emails, Mamdani Threat Alerts, etc. And relentlessly, Reefer Madness. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/o...

The leader of Canada just gave a speech where he said the US "attacked" his nation, and we are now "at war." There are VERY few Americans who support this crap, but Washington DC is so busted no one will stop Trump. If you voted for this: Go straight to hell. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/w...

Full text of Mark Carney’s speech yesterday. Here’s a line that few are reporting but that seems crucial: because the US no longer can make—or wants to make—credible commitments, it’s kneecapped its own ability to reach agreements. www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/spee...

AUGUST 23, 1982 ARTIST: Saul Steinberg ADVERTISEMENT: Oneida | | | | | | #newyorkercovers #newyorker #newyorkermag #saulsteinberg #steinberg #illustration #1982 #dogtricks #violin #recital #sheetmusic #vintageads #oneida #silver #icecream

ICE fascists brutally swept up patients, parents, and children at La Familia, a Santa Fe community health clinic just across the river from our house. mailchi.mp/searchlightn...

U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) said officials told her during her inspection of an Estancia detention facility that ICE agents detained eight people in Santa Fe on Wednesday. sourcenm.com/2026/08/20/n...

As the Frijoles Fire continues to burn in the Pecos Wilderness near Cundiyó, U.S. Forest Service officials have issued a temporary closure for a central chunk of the Santa Fe National Forest. sfnm.co/4qnVrAj

Just spent an hour liking hundreds of Reacher kitten takes and they say social media is bad.

NEW: The Frijoles Fire grew to 6,200 acres overnight as the blaze continued to expand amid dry and hot conditions in the Santa Fe National Forest, raising concerns across Northern New Mexico Tuesday morning. A smoke advisory has been issued. sfnm.co/4fUfxPi

Frijoles Fire, northeast Santa Fe County, New Mexico, August 8, 1,000 acres

The Spokesman is doing incredible reporting on this story. Follow them for critical info. @alexdugganreports.bsky.social www.spokesman.com/stories/2026...

Colson Whitehead's three favorite reads of the past five years: Hernan Diaz, Patrick Radden Keefe, and Caroline Fraser's MURDERLAND — about the possible causes of the serial killer epidemic in the '60s through '80s.

AI is, in fact escapable. I'm escaping it right now. I'll never not escape it. The sinister trope promising/threatening that inundation by AI is ineluctable and involuntary is *definitely* inescapable, though — repeated endlessly to manufacture consent and make resistance seem Luddite and futile.

NM is making waves! This year, helping to cover Medical School to keep doctors & healthcare professionals at home! So proud of our #NMLeg & Governor Lujan Grisham for making this investment in our healthcare system. And proud to have helped kick this program off years ago with Speaker Martinez!

Field Notes from a July visit to SpaceX’s South Texas Starbase, where the launch gantries tower over one of our wildest coastal wildernesses, and the alligators bellow back when the rockets fire: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/rocket-sum...

Pure poison and darkness to read a seemingly heartfelt *bylined* blog tribute to a late writer whose work I revere, offering an account of his career and distinctive contributions, and this is how the remembrance ends: [this lightly edited profile was created by Claude, 9/6/25]

The New Mexico Supreme Court this week struck down a Republican bid to reverse the rules underpinning New Mexico’s growing universal childcare program. www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_n...

in a lot of ways the current republican government is just the worst, extractive red state governance taken national. total hostility to public goods, total indifference to long-term investment, and a monomaniacal interest in using the state to enrich private benefactors

Monday *makeup test for Tyrone Power for #FilmNoir Nightmare Alley (1947)

My daughter just dumped some pics from The Colorado Trail #mountains #forest #wildlife #CT

i don't want infinite music. i want finite music. i want a collection i can comprehend and fall in love with. i want a range of choices, not every record every recorded. i get serious choice paralysis. just let me curate my own collection. i hate the future.

It’s very difficult to imagine the vile Meta/Facebook Borg tolerating Ken White/Popehat’s transgressive bite the hand that hosts you tendencies (positive) indefinitely.

Fireworks shows have a Clean Air Act carve out that was added by Jim Inhofe in 2005 to SAFETEA-LU, bipartisan legislation that passed overwhelmingly.

As you were, America. youtu.be/eKlL5X0iuEI?...

18 months ago I would have believed that America’s 250th would be a fascistic spectacle: ghastly but impressive. The farcical incompetence of it tells you a lot about what’s happened to the Trump presidency. The sun is going down

Alex Ross writing on music is not only some of the best criticism going, it’s a tonic in these dark times.

"Emissions reductions plus habitat restoration and wildlife protection should not be treated as separate conversations. Healthy ecosystems are more resilient. Resilient ecosystems are better able to store carbon, support biodiversity, and keep functioning as conditions change."

I’ll stop the world and melt with you.

classic bowl sign, canton, ohio, 1988

Bill McKibben's framing of the grueling heat waves in the UK, Europe, and elsewhere in the context of the current reactionary political turn against green energy and climate science is a clarifying call for common sense, and for fighting back. open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...