Hester Pangs
@hesterpangs.bsky.social
Clevelander.
Relapsed Catholic.
Into good music, good books, works of mercy.
Currently enjoying punk rock semi-retirement.
Relapsed Catholic.
Into good music, good books, works of mercy.
Currently enjoying punk rock semi-retirement.
Pinned
Hester Pangs
@hesterpangs.bsky.social
· Dec 3
I've been "exploring" random cities on Google Maps instead of doomscrolling and am finding all sorts of amazing things (ongoing thread)
Jaws Corner, Zanzibar:
www.google.com/maps/place/J...
Jaws Corner, Zanzibar:
www.google.com/maps/place/J...
Me and my friends in college buying punk records for $3-5 apiece when everyone dumped their vinyl collections as soon as they could rip them for their iPods. Now I'm back on CDs because I can buy like 15 of them for the price of one new LP.
the reason I bought LPs in the 1990s wasn't for that amazing analog sound, but because the amazing used prices: three or more LPs for the cost of one used CD.
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 9:27 PM
Me and my friends in college buying punk records for $3-5 apiece when everyone dumped their vinyl collections as soon as they could rip them for their iPods. Now I'm back on CDs because I can buy like 15 of them for the price of one new LP.
somehow I missed this Chotiner interview the first time around and holy cow.
archive.is/RgnmJ#select...
archive.is/RgnmJ#select...
November 10, 2025 at 8:32 PM
somehow I missed this Chotiner interview the first time around and holy cow.
archive.is/RgnmJ#select...
archive.is/RgnmJ#select...
Reposted by Hester Pangs
I’ve been back on the CD tip since getting our car, and it’s a LOT like what buying vinyl was like in the ‘90s right now: steals to be had on rad old stuff (if you can find a place selling them), but cool new stuff is being pressed in tiny runs and needs to be snapped up ASAP.
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 8:00 PM
I’ve been back on the CD tip since getting our car, and it’s a LOT like what buying vinyl was like in the ‘90s right now: steals to be had on rad old stuff (if you can find a place selling them), but cool new stuff is being pressed in tiny runs and needs to be snapped up ASAP.
suddenly reminded of when Mussolini tried to get rid of pasta.
November 10, 2025 at 8:00 PM
suddenly reminded of when Mussolini tried to get rid of pasta.
Reposted by Hester Pangs
50 years of ZUMA. Just like everyday, it's a good day to listen to one of the best albums ever.
November 10, 2025 at 3:56 PM
50 years of ZUMA. Just like everyday, it's a good day to listen to one of the best albums ever.
I sent this to all my student workers and we've been cackling about "LAKE MINDSET" all afternoon.
A fine day to remember Jim Harbaugh's unique relationship with "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" and the remarkable interpretive work that his and other football brains have done on this important text. (This is a gift link; I believe this news must be shared widely.) defector.com/the-edmund-f...
The Edmund Fitzgerald Is Inspiring Jim Harbaugh And Michigan Football To Achieve "Lake Mindset" | Defector
The popular culture of the 1970s is almost impossible to parse in retrospect. The people making the movies and music and television of the era were horny and ambitious and earnest, they were ingesting...
defector.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:44 PM
I sent this to all my student workers and we've been cackling about "LAKE MINDSET" all afternoon.
Thanks algorithm for giving me one of my favorite Tragically Hip songs immediately afterwards and I love how half the comments are "I love this song and I'm from Buffalo."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Fi...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Fi...
November 10, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Thanks algorithm for giving me one of my favorite Tragically Hip songs immediately afterwards and I love how half the comments are "I love this song and I'm from Buffalo."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Fi...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Fi...
I've been listening to every other version of this song this morning and this is maybe the best one that isn't the original.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8LB...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8LB...
November 10, 2025 at 2:19 PM
I've been listening to every other version of this song this morning and this is maybe the best one that isn't the original.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8LB...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8LB...
Can't argue with most of these and I like Jack White but I could also see this all caps list being someone's facebook comment on a ClevelandDotCom news story.
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...
www.stereogum.com/2329132/whit...
November 10, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Can't argue with most of these and I like Jack White but I could also see this all caps list being someone's facebook comment on a ClevelandDotCom news story.
Reposted by Hester Pangs
This Clase gambling thing is bad/stupid but I can't stop laughing at Andy Pages screwing up a bet fixing scheme by being Andy Pages.
This is one of the pitches that was supposed to be a ball, but Andy Pages swung anyways.
November 9, 2025 at 7:09 PM
This Clase gambling thing is bad/stupid but I can't stop laughing at Andy Pages screwing up a bet fixing scheme by being Andy Pages.
My dad was a truck driver, my mom tutored kids, and they picked up a daily paper route early in the mornings for extra income. We did a lot with hand-me-downs and cutting corners but the thing where we differ is that there's increasingly less corners to cut now.
People wildly overestimate the economic security experienced by past generations. There's no period in American history where significant numbers of young people were just handed high paying jobs. Nostalgia for a time that never existed is a huge problem.
Why Nikki Haley’s son went radical: His generation inherited insecurity.
I profile Nalin Haley, a fascinating young man, who I believe will likely play an important role in conservative politics in years to come.
unherd.com/2025/11/why-...
I profile Nalin Haley, a fascinating young man, who I believe will likely play an important role in conservative politics in years to come.
unherd.com/2025/11/why-...
November 9, 2025 at 1:29 PM
My dad was a truck driver, my mom tutored kids, and they picked up a daily paper route early in the mornings for extra income. We did a lot with hand-me-downs and cutting corners but the thing where we differ is that there's increasingly less corners to cut now.
Reposted by Hester Pangs
We had our first college reunion Friendsgiving dinner in 6 years tonight and it was wonderful but we were all tired by 8pm because we're middle-aged now.
November 9, 2025 at 1:43 AM
We had our first college reunion Friendsgiving dinner in 6 years tonight and it was wonderful but we were all tired by 8pm because we're middle-aged now.
Reposted by Hester Pangs
If yoire reading Patti Smith’s new memoir, BREAD OF ANGELS, & want to learn more about her life may I recommmend WHY PATTI SMITH MATTERS, currently on sale (as all all UTP books!) for 40% off with the code UTXGIFTS utpress.utexas.edu/9781477320112/
Why Patti Smith Matters
Patti Smith arrived in New York City at the end of the Age of Aquarius in search of work and purpose. What she found—what she fostered—was a cultural rev...
utpress.utexas.edu
November 6, 2025 at 9:34 PM
If yoire reading Patti Smith’s new memoir, BREAD OF ANGELS, & want to learn more about her life may I recommmend WHY PATTI SMITH MATTERS, currently on sale (as all all UTP books!) for 40% off with the code UTXGIFTS utpress.utexas.edu/9781477320112/
Picked this up at the thrift store this past week and so far it's extremely good.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
The End Commands the Means: Victor Serge’s Memoirs of a Revolutionary | Los Angeles Review of Books
lareviewofbooks.org
November 7, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Picked this up at the thrift store this past week and so far it's extremely good.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
Reposted by Hester Pangs
Access to the sacraments is the tip of the iceberg. They won't allow clergy access bc they aren't running a proper detention facility. The scandal that religious protests are highlighting is not that the detainees' religious rights are being violated, but that ALL their rights are being violated.
He said that the agents would throw food at them to eat. The agents threatened to withhold food for a week and to beat him up if he didn't sign deportation papers. He said he saw others refuse and get beaten/receive no food. He signed because he was afraid.
November 7, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Access to the sacraments is the tip of the iceberg. They won't allow clergy access bc they aren't running a proper detention facility. The scandal that religious protests are highlighting is not that the detainees' religious rights are being violated, but that ALL their rights are being violated.
If we're honest, November is very much Cancon season as well as Edmund Fitzgerald season. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lpV...
The Tragically Hip - Gift Shop
YouTube video by GordonYYZ
www.youtube.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:28 PM
If we're honest, November is very much Cancon season as well as Edmund Fitzgerald season. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lpV...
I was pretty sure I would be annoying when I met Ian Mackaye but thankfully I was working the door at that show and didn't have the chance to embarrass myself or get too weird (I did get a photo at the end of the night and he gave me & my friend very nice non-creepy hugs).
I asked this before over at The Old Place and the answers delighted me. So again:
Who is an artist you admire who you suspect would not like you if they met you personally?
I think Peter Dinklage is fantastic. I would absolutely get on his last nerve. He'd be looking for the door while we spoke.
Who is an artist you admire who you suspect would not like you if they met you personally?
I think Peter Dinklage is fantastic. I would absolutely get on his last nerve. He'd be looking for the door while we spoke.
November 6, 2025 at 8:34 PM
I was pretty sure I would be annoying when I met Ian Mackaye but thankfully I was working the door at that show and didn't have the chance to embarrass myself or get too weird (I did get a photo at the end of the night and he gave me & my friend very nice non-creepy hugs).
My bff loves millennial pink and jokes about how she has to wikipedia all my favorite bands but she is all in on keeping all the families safe.
I gotta say, I’m seeing the most Live Laugh Love women I went to all girls high school with in Ohio posting anti-ICE Instagram reels and demanding people pay attention to the threat of fascism
November 6, 2025 at 6:49 PM
My bff loves millennial pink and jokes about how she has to wikipedia all my favorite bands but she is all in on keeping all the families safe.
Reposted by Hester Pangs
Always loved this one, dream of seeing it happen in real life
November 6, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Always loved this one, dream of seeing it happen in real life
this has really been an era for people who headed up legacy institutions that were somewhat well-regarded really set all goodwill on fire for pretty much nothing.
November 5, 2025 at 8:18 PM
this has really been an era for people who headed up legacy institutions that were somewhat well-regarded really set all goodwill on fire for pretty much nothing.
Reposted by Hester Pangs
We need to romanticize the shitty day job! Phillip Glass drove taxicabs!
This is so, so true. There are vanishingly few people making a living off their art full time, and many (maybe the majority) of us who do also have a spouse with their own income. Don't ever think you're somehow less of an artist because you have to do other shit to pay the bills.
Reminder (for myself as much as anyone): having to work a day job has no bearing on whether or not you’re a “real artist”.
November 5, 2025 at 4:16 PM
We need to romanticize the shitty day job! Phillip Glass drove taxicabs!
I got a text last night that a record number of 89 households came through yesterday at the one I volunteer at and we're fully expecting to exceed that tonight.
Ohio food pantries reported a sharp increase in demand Monday as federal food assistance was cut by the Trump administration. One said strained resources might not last and made an appeal for donations. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/11/05/o...
Ohio pantries scramble as food assistance is disrupted • Ohio Capital Journal
Ohio hunger fighters said food banks are slammed as the Trump administration disrupted food assistance to 1.45 million in the state.
ohiocapitaljournal.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:47 PM
I got a text last night that a record number of 89 households came through yesterday at the one I volunteer at and we're fully expecting to exceed that tonight.
Reposted by Hester Pangs
Thomas Pynchon's first novel V. (1963) features an AI named SHROUD who immediately starts talking about death and suicide. Gotta say Pynchon called that one!
October 21, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Thomas Pynchon's first novel V. (1963) features an AI named SHROUD who immediately starts talking about death and suicide. Gotta say Pynchon called that one!
Reposted by Hester Pangs
I may be taking the wrong lesson from Mamdani's win, but I'm going to say it anyway. And it's that in some cases, the best strategy is to go AROUND the establishment to win.
Seems like an outstanding strategy for places where the Dem establishment is blindingly incompetent...like OHIO...
Seems like an outstanding strategy for places where the Dem establishment is blindingly incompetent...like OHIO...
November 5, 2025 at 2:00 PM
I may be taking the wrong lesson from Mamdani's win, but I'm going to say it anyway. And it's that in some cases, the best strategy is to go AROUND the establishment to win.
Seems like an outstanding strategy for places where the Dem establishment is blindingly incompetent...like OHIO...
Seems like an outstanding strategy for places where the Dem establishment is blindingly incompetent...like OHIO...