BTBaum
@btbaum.bsky.social
Author, freelance reporter, dog-lover, recovering editor; bylines in San Francisco Mag, LA Times, NYT, Cal Academy Science Today, Catamaran Literary Mag. Remember when generalists armed w/ curiosity made for good journalism?
Proud to make my first appearance in the pages of the Santa Monica Review.
My essay, “Days of Future Past: Catching Up with Author Norman M. Klein,” explores the work of one of the great urban historians of our time. Norman has many unusual insights on how, why, & when our Great Unraveling began.
My essay, “Days of Future Past: Catching Up with Author Norman M. Klein,” explores the work of one of the great urban historians of our time. Norman has many unusual insights on how, why, & when our Great Unraveling began.
October 12, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Proud to make my first appearance in the pages of the Santa Monica Review.
My essay, “Days of Future Past: Catching Up with Author Norman M. Klein,” explores the work of one of the great urban historians of our time. Norman has many unusual insights on how, why, & when our Great Unraveling began.
My essay, “Days of Future Past: Catching Up with Author Norman M. Klein,” explores the work of one of the great urban historians of our time. Norman has many unusual insights on how, why, & when our Great Unraveling began.
Strange time to be traveling. In Bologna for the annual #CinemaRitrovato film festival of restored gems of world cinema. So, we are time-traveling as well. Thinking abt what has been lost, deliberately left behind, or worth saving. Plus, #KatherineHeburn gems curated by author/critic #MollyHaskell!
June 23, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Strange time to be traveling. In Bologna for the annual #CinemaRitrovato film festival of restored gems of world cinema. So, we are time-traveling as well. Thinking abt what has been lost, deliberately left behind, or worth saving. Plus, #KatherineHeburn gems curated by author/critic #MollyHaskell!
Norman Klein is a visionary whose work starts in Los Angeles then expands beyond traditional boundaries. He's our very own Fernando Pessoa writing books of disquiet about recent history and the elements pulling us towards collective amnesia. A little clip of books mentioned in above article.
May 24, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Norman Klein is a visionary whose work starts in Los Angeles then expands beyond traditional boundaries. He's our very own Fernando Pessoa writing books of disquiet about recent history and the elements pulling us towards collective amnesia. A little clip of books mentioned in above article.
Chumley’s you say — Chumley’s?! Well, I can’t put my hands on the photo of their mascot bulldog but I’d like to share this ephemera of my visit there in the mid-90s. See what I did there? Jumping ahead by four or so numbers?
May 17, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Chumley’s you say — Chumley’s?! Well, I can’t put my hands on the photo of their mascot bulldog but I’d like to share this ephemera of my visit there in the mid-90s. See what I did there? Jumping ahead by four or so numbers?
What are you wearing to the Bluesky gala?
May 7, 2025 at 3:16 AM
What are you wearing to the Bluesky gala?
If you see this
post your getaway vehicle
post your getaway vehicle
May 3, 2025 at 4:24 AM
If you see this
post your getaway vehicle
post your getaway vehicle
Darth! This is Hatchi, our friend’s new Siberian Husky. I hope you agree she looks great from any angle!
March 26, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Darth! This is Hatchi, our friend’s new Siberian Husky. I hope you agree she looks great from any angle!
I already bought more books than I can carry home and #AWP25 hasn’t even officially started.
On the other hand, my friend took me to North Figueroa Bookstore - what was I supposed to do? Wait till we went to Skylight Books? The Last Bookstore? AWP’s mammoth Bookfair?
C’mon. Be real.
#booksky
On the other hand, my friend took me to North Figueroa Bookstore - what was I supposed to do? Wait till we went to Skylight Books? The Last Bookstore? AWP’s mammoth Bookfair?
C’mon. Be real.
#booksky
March 24, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Heading to Los Angeles for #AWP25 and listening to the audio version of Didion & Babitz about women, literature, and the storied LA scene of the 60s and 70s. It’s narrated by the author Lili Anolik, who voices this memoir/deeply researched hybrid. An era this hometown girl always finds fascinating.
March 24, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Heading to Los Angeles for #AWP25 and listening to the audio version of Didion & Babitz about women, literature, and the storied LA scene of the 60s and 70s. It’s narrated by the author Lili Anolik, who voices this memoir/deeply researched hybrid. An era this hometown girl always finds fascinating.
Took my first class from "Five Things I Learned" w/ poet Matthew Zapruder. Channeling imagination --> production is always a stretch. But now? Much harder.
Grateful that M.Z. shared ways to "touch your novel (poem, etc) every day & keep our creative lights on."
myfivethings.com/class/metthe...
Grateful that M.Z. shared ways to "touch your novel (poem, etc) every day & keep our creative lights on."
myfivethings.com/class/metthe...
March 20, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Took my first class from "Five Things I Learned" w/ poet Matthew Zapruder. Channeling imagination --> production is always a stretch. But now? Much harder.
Grateful that M.Z. shared ways to "touch your novel (poem, etc) every day & keep our creative lights on."
myfivethings.com/class/metthe...
Grateful that M.Z. shared ways to "touch your novel (poem, etc) every day & keep our creative lights on."
myfivethings.com/class/metthe...
Thanks, @tomandlorenzo.bsky.social! I've much to say about dogs, music, theater, books, history. I'll start with this pandemic-era photo of YOUR BOOK. It was a Xmas present to fellow board members of Rainbow Honor Walk. We all loved your seriously rich scholarship wrapped in a package of fabulous.
March 20, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Thanks, @tomandlorenzo.bsky.social! I've much to say about dogs, music, theater, books, history. I'll start with this pandemic-era photo of YOUR BOOK. It was a Xmas present to fellow board members of Rainbow Honor Walk. We all loved your seriously rich scholarship wrapped in a package of fabulous.
I heard an interview with this author (Yanis Varoufakas, Greece’s former minister of finance during the austerity crisis) and this updated version of feudalism should be part of the discussion! TLDR: how l/why the tech oligarchs took Project 2025 and bent it towards their own bloated vision.
March 9, 2025 at 4:42 AM
I heard an interview with this author (Yanis Varoufakas, Greece’s former minister of finance during the austerity crisis) and this updated version of feudalism should be part of the discussion! TLDR: how l/why the tech oligarchs took Project 2025 and bent it towards their own bloated vision.
Only now do I realize you wrote “pear” tree and not “peach.” Even so, here are some pink blossoms from the top of our peach tree. The promise of stone fruit in July and August arises on a sunny morning across the bay!
March 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Only now do I realize you wrote “pear” tree and not “peach.” Even so, here are some pink blossoms from the top of our peach tree. The promise of stone fruit in July and August arises on a sunny morning across the bay!
@golikehellmachine.com - seriously, and depending on what rabbit hole one explores, if tabulations were altered in 2024 at the level of local voting precincts (quote the Muskrat: “they’ll never know”) how can we trust election integrity going forward?
February 18, 2025 at 8:48 PM
@golikehellmachine.com - seriously, and depending on what rabbit hole one explores, if tabulations were altered in 2024 at the level of local voting precincts (quote the Muskrat: “they’ll never know”) how can we trust election integrity going forward?
Saw @hughryan.bsky.social's photos of today's demo at Stonewall/NPS Historic Site in NYC. I was there June '24 for Pride Month. Thought I'd re-up some photos. Don't mess with historians. This material, like us L-G-B-T-Q people, is EVERYWHERE. No one can erase our history. More details in alt text.
February 14, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Saw @hughryan.bsky.social's photos of today's demo at Stonewall/NPS Historic Site in NYC. I was there June '24 for Pride Month. Thought I'd re-up some photos. Don't mess with historians. This material, like us L-G-B-T-Q people, is EVERYWHERE. No one can erase our history. More details in alt text.
Appreciate your posts! For me, it was Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of our Discontents” that revealed the connection between Jim Crow and Hitler’s racist/fascist drive to create and destroy “the other.”
January 31, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Appreciate your posts! For me, it was Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of our Discontents” that revealed the connection between Jim Crow and Hitler’s racist/fascist drive to create and destroy “the other.”
Everything he filmed in this place. Every frame he put on celluloid.
January 21, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Everything he filmed in this place. Every frame he put on celluloid.
He was also a very well-read dog. Always knew which independent bookstore had treats and where to find them.
January 2, 2025 at 4:45 AM
He was also a very well-read dog. Always knew which independent bookstore had treats and where to find them.
#InMemorium Tripper, the handsomest dog in the world; our well-traveled protector, and beloved boy. People literally gasped at his beauty. Even at 13 and 1/2, he was gone too soon.
January 2, 2025 at 4:38 AM
#InMemorium Tripper, the handsomest dog in the world; our well-traveled protector, and beloved boy. People literally gasped at his beauty. Even at 13 and 1/2, he was gone too soon.
Jimmy Carter’s lost second term in 1980 put us firmly on the bad road leading to the recent election — and so many other awful policy decisions made by the Reagan and Bush I and II administrations.
See also: www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/caps...
See also: www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/caps...
December 29, 2024 at 9:53 PM
Jimmy Carter’s lost second term in 1980 put us firmly on the bad road leading to the recent election — and so many other awful policy decisions made by the Reagan and Bush I and II administrations.
See also: www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/caps...
See also: www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/caps...
It is confusing! I was confused, too, and required clarification from my sister.
Please enjoy this photo of homemade Bouche de Noel cookies from a NYT recipe that took far too long to prepare and, tbh, look like Rugalah (an ecumenical plus) but tastes like…meh.
Please enjoy this photo of homemade Bouche de Noel cookies from a NYT recipe that took far too long to prepare and, tbh, look like Rugalah (an ecumenical plus) but tastes like…meh.
December 25, 2024 at 6:09 AM
It is confusing! I was confused, too, and required clarification from my sister.
Please enjoy this photo of homemade Bouche de Noel cookies from a NYT recipe that took far too long to prepare and, tbh, look like Rugalah (an ecumenical plus) but tastes like…meh.
Please enjoy this photo of homemade Bouche de Noel cookies from a NYT recipe that took far too long to prepare and, tbh, look like Rugalah (an ecumenical plus) but tastes like…meh.
As John Lennon sang, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. This week we’ve been in Ventura/Ojai to support a family member in the hospital. Good news is that he is moving onwards to rehab tomorrow! Nighttime is ours for exploring. It’s an interesting town.
December 10, 2024 at 5:14 AM
As John Lennon sang, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. This week we’ve been in Ventura/Ojai to support a family member in the hospital. Good news is that he is moving onwards to rehab tomorrow! Nighttime is ours for exploring. It’s an interesting town.