Dave Mandl
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dmandl.bsky.social
Dave Mandl
@dmandl.bsky.social
WFMU DJ, writer (The Wire, Los Angeles Review of Books, etc.), bassist, photographer, amateur linguist. Founder, Brooklyn Psychogeographical Association.
Web: dmandl.tumblr.com
Instagram: @dmandl
Playlists from my radio show: https://wfmu.org/playlists/GX
Tune in to WFMU tonight at 7:00 to hear this week's installment of my radio show, "It's Complicated" (an hour of prog and prog-adjacent music)! Listen at 91.1 FM in and around NYC, on the web at wfmu.org, or via the incomparable @wfmu.bsky.social app.
November 10, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Seen in Red Hook. I don't know how old this place is, but there was a time when loads of bagel places in Brooklyn were just called "Hot Bagels"—or at least that's all it said on the sign.
November 10, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Dave Mandl
Found the tweet that Joyce Carol Oates bodied Elon Musk with and it's so beautiful in its eloquent, simple take down. So much so he's crashing out trying to prove he reads books now. Put this in the Louvre.
November 10, 2025 at 8:26 PM
The calendar app I use (Fantastical) has "AI" features that it uses to make assumptions about events I create in my calendar. Literally every one of those assumptions is wrong. I have to deliberately misspell things in my calendar entries to avoid triggering those stupid features.
November 10, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Interesting convo with a friend who owns a hip NYC record shop about a sudden renewed interest in CDs, which were a negligible part of his business till recently.
November 10, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Maria Bartiromo remains one of the worst products Brooklyn has ever produced.
November 10, 2025 at 5:39 PM
I will go to my grave believing that that sound on the Zombies' "Time of the Season" is a splash cymbal, not someone saying "Ahhh," as everyone else seems to believe. A splash is a tiny cymbal with very little sustain.
November 10, 2025 at 3:22 PM
I feel the same way about this as I do about Christian music. Forms of music/dress that were prohibited as godless a few years ago are fine now, as long as they stay a few steps more conservative than mainstream culture. You'd think these religions have absolute rules, but they have relative rules.
Some church members are over the moon about the new sleeveless LDS garments. Ex-Mormons are skeptical: ‘The freedom they’re celebrating is still conditional, with someone else’s permission slip.’
Mormon Women Are Going Sleeveless
Some church members are over the moon about the new sleeveless LDS garments. Ex-Mormons are skeptical: ‘The freedom they’re celebrating is still conditional, with someone else’s permission slip.’
www.thecut.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Why do people take the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame seriously?
In his Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction speech, Jack White shouted out over 30 acts that inspired the White Stripes – none of whom have been inducted

www.stereogum.com/2329132/whit...
November 9, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Chester St.
November 9, 2025 at 8:16 PM
East Flatbush.
November 9, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Really great vibe yesterday at the FMU Record Fair, which was incredibly well attended. The fair continues for one more day.
The WFMU Record Fair continues (and ends) today, at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan! Records! CDs! WFMU swag! Live music! Films! Food! Alcoholic beverages! $10 gets you in all day.
November 9, 2025 at 2:20 PM
The Steve Keene table at the @wfmu.bsky.social fair was a nice surprise. Boxes full of Keene paintings, all $2. There was a Mary Hopkin one I wanted, but I only had $10 bills. I went to another table to get change, went back five minutes later, and someone had bought it.😕
November 9, 2025 at 12:49 PM
if you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.
November 8, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Naming a business based in Red Hook "Low Tide" is real gallows humor. This neighborhood was (for example) devastated by Hurricane Sandy. A friend of mine who had his stuff in a storage space here lost everything.
November 8, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Come to the WFMU Record Fair! (I'll be at the FMU merch table from 3:30 today if you want to say hello.)
The WFMU Record Fair runs all day today and tomorrow, at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan! Hundreds of record dealers, live music, films, fun and games!
November 8, 2025 at 3:53 PM
I've seen "new lease in life," "new lease on life," and "new lease of life." Which is it? (Merriam-Webster says "on.") #copyediting
November 8, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Ongoing mainstream-media enabling of Trumpism (NYT in this case): How can anyone watch the hundreds of videos of what's happening around the country and describe it as a "federal immigration crackdown"?
November 8, 2025 at 1:50 PM
This agenda is being driven by Stephen Miller, a hardcore white supremacist and maybe neo-nazi, who has among other things planted Hitlerian 88s and 14s in official govt communications. "The agency is sending messages that feel exclusionary" is not the way to describe this.
The Labor Department launched a social media campaign with illustrations that appear to be AI-generated and that almost exclusively feature White men — part of an effort to promote the hiring of American citizens over foreign workers.
Labor Department social media campaign depicts a White male workforce
The campaign has drawn scrutiny, with critics saying it is not realistically portraying the country’s diversity and is sending messages that feel exclusionary.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Dave Mandl
"The evils uncovered here represent a disturbing and accelerating trend in the wrong direction." @dmandl.bsky.social on Cory Doctorow’s roadmap to (and, hopefully, from) “enshittification.” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/giant-platforms-of-shit/
Giant Platforms of Shit | Los Angeles Review of Books
Dave Mandl catches a whiff of Cory Doctorow’s anatomy of platform “enshittification.”
lareviewofbooks.org
November 7, 2025 at 6:03 PM
The WFMU Record Fair, which takes place once a year, is a truly spectacular event.
The WFMU Record Fair runs all weekend, Nov. 8 and 9, at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan! Hundreds of record dealers, live music, films, and more!
November 7, 2025 at 4:28 PM
What the hell is this?
November 7, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Love Love Love, Sheepshead Bay.
November 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM
E. 98 St. Mobile Tire Shop, Brownsville.
November 7, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Seen in the wild (Gerritsen Beach): 1964 Thunderbird.
November 6, 2025 at 8:50 PM