Ned Raggett
@nedraggett.bsky.social
Hi! I write about music at various spots (@thequietus.com, @thewiremagazine.bsky.social, Shfl and my Patreon, also in the past @allmusic.com, @pitchfork.com, @bandcamp.com etc. etc.). Plus podcasting about #Tolkien with friends at @bythebywater.bsky.social
Pinned
Ned Raggett
@nedraggett.bsky.social
· Nov 14
Given the very specific circumstances, I'd either check to see if I'm on drugs or if the baby is on drugs and if the latter find out where I could get some because clearly those are some gooooood drugs.
Well, it's time for some honest to god Bluesky lore.
A year ago, the site was still invite only, and one morning I posted something random and didn't think much about it beyond my own amusement.
This is the story about the #ChristianSkydivingBaby and how it completely took over @bsky.app (1/x)
A year ago, the site was still invite only, and one morning I posted something random and didn't think much about it beyond my own amusement.
This is the story about the #ChristianSkydivingBaby and how it completely took over @bsky.app (1/x)
Reposted by Ned Raggett
A new law going into effect Jan. 1, 2026 prevents cities from penalizing outreach workers who provide services such as legal aid or hand out blankets at encampments. bit.ly/4qA2QLY
📸 Larry Valenzuela
📸 Larry Valenzuela
January 2, 2026 at 2:00 AM
A new law going into effect Jan. 1, 2026 prevents cities from penalizing outreach workers who provide services such as legal aid or hand out blankets at encampments. bit.ly/4qA2QLY
📸 Larry Valenzuela
📸 Larry Valenzuela
Reposted by Ned Raggett
“Spiritually Dubai” is a phenomenal coinage and describes so many places in NYC these days: some chopped, some not. I keep thinking about a cafe I wandered into on 14th St: “wellness” in its branding, looked like an Apple store, food/service so bad it was like an AI hallucination of hospitality.
January 2, 2026 at 5:32 AM
“Spiritually Dubai” is a phenomenal coinage and describes so many places in NYC these days: some chopped, some not. I keep thinking about a cafe I wandered into on 14th St: “wellness” in its branding, looked like an Apple store, food/service so bad it was like an AI hallucination of hospitality.
Reposted by Ned Raggett
I bet the producers of “This Old House” on PBS are pissed! They wanted “Purple Rain” for their series finale!
January 2, 2026 at 5:44 AM
I bet the producers of “This Old House” on PBS are pissed! They wanted “Purple Rain” for their series finale!
Reposted by Ned Raggett
In the unlikely event I ever have a massive hit TV show, I hope I have the guts to make the final episode a weird as fuck trippy freak show that makes the final episode of The Prisoner look like the Home Shopping Channel by comparison.
Viewer's brains melting right and left. Go the full gonzo.
Viewer's brains melting right and left. Go the full gonzo.
January 2, 2026 at 5:00 AM
In the unlikely event I ever have a massive hit TV show, I hope I have the guts to make the final episode a weird as fuck trippy freak show that makes the final episode of The Prisoner look like the Home Shopping Channel by comparison.
Viewer's brains melting right and left. Go the full gonzo.
Viewer's brains melting right and left. Go the full gonzo.
Reposted by Ned Raggett
A judge has tossed the racketeering charges filed by the Georgia attorney general against activists who protested against Atlanta's Cop City facility.
Fulton judge dismisses RICO charges against training center protesters
In his order issued Tuesday, the judge said Attorney General Chris Carr did not have the authority to bring RICO charges.
www.ajc.com
January 1, 2026 at 7:00 PM
A judge has tossed the racketeering charges filed by the Georgia attorney general against activists who protested against Atlanta's Cop City facility.
Reposted by Ned Raggett
Reposted by Ned Raggett
congratulations to the anti-porn and anti-sex work groups for helping create an internet where independent adult sex workers have been exploited, ripped off, and then run off and are now being replaced by on-demand CSAM
January 2, 2026 at 3:22 AM
congratulations to the anti-porn and anti-sex work groups for helping create an internet where independent adult sex workers have been exploited, ripped off, and then run off and are now being replaced by on-demand CSAM
Reposted by Ned Raggett
people keep voluntarily impaling themselves on the "you should all stop being mean to AI because it is BIG and STRONG and my FRIEND" stake, and I'm politely asking them to stop because it's embarrassing
January 2, 2026 at 3:38 AM
people keep voluntarily impaling themselves on the "you should all stop being mean to AI because it is BIG and STRONG and my FRIEND" stake, and I'm politely asking them to stop because it's embarrassing
Reposted by Ned Raggett
To be clear, this risk is so high on X because the platform is owned by a person who does not see CSAM as disqualifying behavior on the platform, let alone objectionable. He will try to profit from this. bsky.app/profile/lora...
more on the nightmarish situation on X where users are apparently generating non consenting pirnographic imagery & sexual images of minors (csam) using xAI’s Grok. Musk merged xAI and X (fka twitter) last year.
January 2, 2026 at 3:28 AM
To be clear, this risk is so high on X because the platform is owned by a person who does not see CSAM as disqualifying behavior on the platform, let alone objectionable. He will try to profit from this. bsky.app/profile/lora...
A fine thread addendum to Sean's legendary 2019 project. (If you don't know, go: seantcollins.com/category/roa... )
January 2, 2026 at 3:18 AM
A fine thread addendum to Sean's legendary 2019 project. (If you don't know, go: seantcollins.com/category/roa... )
Reposted by Ned Raggett
That I would totally watch
January 2, 2026 at 2:33 AM
That I would totally watch
Reposted by Ned Raggett
Now I want Guy Maddin’s Drag Race
January 2, 2026 at 2:31 AM
Now I want Guy Maddin’s Drag Race
Reposted by Ned Raggett
on the one hand the Order of Canada is basically bullshit but on the other hand if we're going to have it at all you're goddamn right they should give it to Nardwuar the Human Serviette
January 2, 2026 at 2:08 AM
on the one hand the Order of Canada is basically bullshit but on the other hand if we're going to have it at all you're goddamn right they should give it to Nardwuar the Human Serviette
Reposted by Ned Raggett
I've never compiled a list of today's birthday artist Angela Winbush. A rarity: a female singer-songwriter-producer-instrumentalist. She deserves a biography. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/01/02/i...
I love you more: The best of Angela Winbush
The Sam Cookes, Marvin Gayes, Stevie Wonders, Smokey Robinsons, Rick James, Princes, and D’Angelos are common enough in R&B: the triple-threat male auteur. Where are the women? Teena Mari…
humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com
January 2, 2026 at 1:46 AM
I've never compiled a list of today's birthday artist Angela Winbush. A rarity: a female singer-songwriter-producer-instrumentalist. She deserves a biography. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/01/02/i...
Reposted by Ned Raggett
New Years missive from Camuzooky.
January 2, 2026 at 1:36 AM
New Years missive from Camuzooky.
It's a good read for sure, lucky enough to have a copy. Wonder if it's back in print?
I read ‘Go Tell The Mountain’ - the memoirs of the Gun Club’s Jeffrey Lee Pierce - it’s some really heavy sh*t. To paraphrase Dylan, “he looked like a sh*t kicker, but had the wisdom of a sage” - not only did I learn about his life - he shared a few helpful tips on various things.
January 2, 2026 at 1:37 AM
It's a good read for sure, lucky enough to have a copy. Wonder if it's back in print?
I started a certain notorious thread for a reason! (Check the pinned post on my feed.)
January 2, 2026 at 1:36 AM
I started a certain notorious thread for a reason! (Check the pinned post on my feed.)
Reposted by Ned Raggett
If you don't understand that New York City politics are unfathomably strange, please treat yourselves to this altogether amazing interview with erstwhile GOP mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa. Come for the pure Cuomo hatred and the savvy take on Mamdani, stay for...cats. And owls. Oh, and pigeons.
January 2, 2026 at 12:27 AM
If you don't understand that New York City politics are unfathomably strange, please treat yourselves to this altogether amazing interview with erstwhile GOP mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa. Come for the pure Cuomo hatred and the savvy take on Mamdani, stay for...cats. And owls. Oh, and pigeons.
Reposted by Ned Raggett
Say what you want about Scott Adams (for example, that he’s a huge shitbag), but he’ll leave a great legacy behind.
Unfortunately for him, that great legacy is Kaleb Horton’s, but he should be happy to know he contributed in some small way.
kalebhorton.ghost.io/the-d-lbert-...
Unfortunately for him, that great legacy is Kaleb Horton’s, but he should be happy to know he contributed in some small way.
kalebhorton.ghost.io/the-d-lbert-...
January 1, 2026 at 10:54 PM
Say what you want about Scott Adams (for example, that he’s a huge shitbag), but he’ll leave a great legacy behind.
Unfortunately for him, that great legacy is Kaleb Horton’s, but he should be happy to know he contributed in some small way.
kalebhorton.ghost.io/the-d-lbert-...
Unfortunately for him, that great legacy is Kaleb Horton’s, but he should be happy to know he contributed in some small way.
kalebhorton.ghost.io/the-d-lbert-...
Reposted by Ned Raggett
TODAY: MOBY DICK WEEK continues! With @kimkelly.bsky.social in the high Arctic. “I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts, but more importantly, I was going to see a whale.” flaminghydra.com/r/e3e10391?m...
Rich legacy / Hidden knowledge
Today: Kim Kelly, author of FIGHT LIKE HELL: The Untold History of American Labor, and editor of the metal newsletter Salvo; and Amy Chu, artist and publisher of Camoot.Journal.
Issue No. 473
The B...
flaminghydra.com
January 2, 2026 at 12:46 AM
TODAY: MOBY DICK WEEK continues! With @kimkelly.bsky.social in the high Arctic. “I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts, but more importantly, I was going to see a whale.” flaminghydra.com/r/e3e10391?m...
Just alerting @catbus.phd that the new year is starting right in that there's a new Luster track.
Don't Need You, by Luster
track by Luster
lusterla.bandcamp.com
January 2, 2026 at 12:48 AM
Just alerting @catbus.phd that the new year is starting right in that there's a new Luster track.
Reposted by Ned Raggett
ALL Tanith Lee's "Tales from the Flat Earth" books
Book recommendations! I want to read more in the new year. Does anybody have any books I should check out.
Looking for books written in an especially interesting way. I'm less interested in topic than execution (ex. House of Leaves, which I still need to read).
Current or old is fine. Just gimme.
Looking for books written in an especially interesting way. I'm less interested in topic than execution (ex. House of Leaves, which I still need to read).
Current or old is fine. Just gimme.
January 1, 2026 at 10:34 PM
ALL Tanith Lee's "Tales from the Flat Earth" books
Reposted by Ned Raggett
It's worth reading the whole interview in full. It basically verifies that the NYT has spent the past decade-plus doubling down on top-down narratives for coverage, getting more intense over time.
Sulzberg personally picked & chose whom the news apparatus would target and whom it would kiss up to.
Sulzberg personally picked & chose whom the news apparatus would target and whom it would kiss up to.
In this in-depth interview Billie Jean Sweeney — a former editor at The New York Times — details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, why this was directed from the very top, how some staff pushed back and the immense damage done by the NYT legitimizing bigotry.
'A directive from above': Former NYT editor lays out how the paper pushes anti-trans bigotry
In this in-depth interview, former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, how some staff tried to stop it, how it's directe...
transnews.network
January 1, 2026 at 7:30 PM
It's worth reading the whole interview in full. It basically verifies that the NYT has spent the past decade-plus doubling down on top-down narratives for coverage, getting more intense over time.
Sulzberg personally picked & chose whom the news apparatus would target and whom it would kiss up to.
Sulzberg personally picked & chose whom the news apparatus would target and whom it would kiss up to.