Charlie Bertsch
@cbertsch.bsky.social
Culture Editor for The Battleground EU, specializing in popular music and film.
I teach when I can and even when I can’t.
I also love cooking, photography, and tennis. And especially cats and reptiles.
I teach when I can and even when I can’t.
I also love cooking, photography, and tennis. And especially cats and reptiles.
Pinned
Charlie Bertsch
@cbertsch.bsky.social
· Jan 1
Charlie Bertsch's Writing for The Battleground Magazine in 2024
MY BOOK: https://thebattleground.eu/book/end-of-story-european/ MY PIECES FOR THE BATTLEGROUND 1-3-24 Robert Bresson (film director), Mouchette https://thebattleground.eu/2024/01/03/class-and...
docs.google.com
This was my most productive year as a writer in terms of total output. I published 47 pieces in TheBattleground.eu -- addiing up to over 56K words -- as well as a book collection of film pieces I've written for the magazine. Clickable links in the Google Doc I'm sharing here.
I have a new piece up @battlegroundeu.bsky.social on Ruinenkampf ("Battle in the Ruins"), the new album by German musician Toben Piel's solo project Das Kinn. If you love Deutsch Amerikanische Freunschaft, you will surely dig this. Please subscribe to our Substack! thebattleground.eu/2025/05/14/s...
Sounds for a Dark Age
Ruinenkampf by Das Kinn
thebattleground.eu
May 15, 2025 at 2:47 AM
I have a new piece up @battlegroundeu.bsky.social on Ruinenkampf ("Battle in the Ruins"), the new album by German musician Toben Piel's solo project Das Kinn. If you love Deutsch Amerikanische Freunschaft, you will surely dig this. Please subscribe to our Substack! thebattleground.eu/2025/05/14/s...
My colleague Ari Paul at @battlegroundeu.bsky.social has a piece on a disturbing trend in the American Chabad movement attacks on critics of Israel’s reactionary government.
Israel in America
The Radicalisation of Chabad
thebattleground.eu
May 2, 2025 at 6:53 PM
My colleague Ari Paul at @battlegroundeu.bsky.social has a piece on a disturbing trend in the American Chabad movement attacks on critics of Israel’s reactionary government.
This week, I wrote about Anika's album Abyss for The Battleground (@battlegroundeu.bsky.social). It's so good that I ordered it on CD—yes, I'm one of those people—as an early birthday present for myself.
Finding Another Gear
Anika’s Abyss
thebattleground.eu
May 1, 2025 at 9:53 PM
This week, I wrote about Anika's album Abyss for The Battleground (@battlegroundeu.bsky.social). It's so good that I ordered it on CD—yes, I'm one of those people—as an early birthday present for myself.
I have a new piece up today at The Battleground on Jesse Welles, whose incisive folk songs have made him a viral sensation.
A Populist for Progressives
Jesse Welles Finds New Life in Folk Songs
thebattleground.eu
April 4, 2025 at 12:42 AM
I have a new piece up today at The Battleground on Jesse Welles, whose incisive folk songs have made him a viral sensation.
I have a new piece up at TheBattleground.eu on Guillermo del Toro's 2006 film Pan's Labyrinth. I call the film "a particularly apt allegory for our own dark times," in which the war on "woke" culture mobilizes public sentiment against its neopagan underpinnings."
Warning From the Franco Era
Pan’s Labyrinth, Directed by Guillermo del Toro
thebattleground.eu
March 27, 2025 at 1:19 AM
I have a new piece up at TheBattleground.eu on Guillermo del Toro's 2006 film Pan's Labyrinth. I call the film "a particularly apt allegory for our own dark times," in which the war on "woke" culture mobilizes public sentiment against its neopagan underpinnings."
A good rock is not hard to find.
March 26, 2025 at 5:28 PM
A good rock is not hard to find.
I have a new piece on the case of British alternative rock band Placebo's frontman Brian Molko, whose on-stage rant against Far Right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni led to him being charged under the country's unusual defamation laws, which permit both civil and criminal penalties.
Silencing the Opposition
Giorgia Meloni vs. Placebo
thebattleground.eu
March 21, 2025 at 7:41 PM
I have a new piece on the case of British alternative rock band Placebo's frontman Brian Molko, whose on-stage rant against Far Right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni led to him being charged under the country's unusual defamation laws, which permit both civil and criminal penalties.
Today is the sixth anniversary of my daughter and her mother having to be rescued from nearby Pima Canyon in the middle of the night. But I arrived before the rescuers did, navigating three miles up the canyon by starlight — I was saving my battery — to bring them food, medicine, and warm clothes.
Precarity in Pima Canyon
Meditations on the Risk Society
souciant.media
March 20, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Today is the sixth anniversary of my daughter and her mother having to be rescued from nearby Pima Canyon in the middle of the night. But I arrived before the rescuers did, navigating three miles up the canyon by starlight — I was saving my battery — to bring them food, medicine, and warm clothes.
Truly a case in which a picture is worth a thousand words. This one is from before the pandemic:
jonmcnaughton.com
jonmcnaughton.com
March 20, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Truly a case in which a picture is worth a thousand words. This one is from before the pandemic:
jonmcnaughton.com
jonmcnaughton.com
The worst thing about further messing up my knee at the end of 2023 was that made hiking impossible. I eventually got back on the trail. But today was the first time I was able to climb back up to my favorite rock. I missed the view enormously.
March 18, 2025 at 4:15 AM
The worst thing about further messing up my knee at the end of 2023 was that made hiking impossible. I eventually got back on the trail. But today was the first time I was able to climb back up to my favorite rock. I missed the view enormously.
This should be the flag of the Faeroe Islands.
March 14, 2025 at 5:21 AM
This should be the flag of the Faeroe Islands.
I‘m taking solace in my home.
March 13, 2025 at 4:38 AM
I‘m taking solace in my home.
I love how the lyrics go this one hit hardest when they are most oblique.
I Ain’t Got None of My Friends Left
YouTube video by Jesse Welles
youtu.be
March 9, 2025 at 11:50 PM
I love how the lyrics go this one hit hardest when they are most oblique.
My idols are dead and my enemies are in power. So I made a saffron carbonara with shiitake mushrooms and a splash of Sicilian lemon-infused olive oil.
March 1, 2025 at 5:53 AM
My idols are dead and my enemies are in power. So I made a saffron carbonara with shiitake mushrooms and a splash of Sicilian lemon-infused olive oil.
I have a new piece up at The Battleground on Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, which chronicles the Manchester independent music scene from the late 1970s through the early 1990s, with television newscaster, label head, and club owner Tony Wilson as a fun unreliable narrator.
Drugs Will Tear Us Apart
24 Hour Party People, Directed by Michael Winterbottom
thebattleground.eu
February 28, 2025 at 8:43 PM
I have a new piece up at The Battleground on Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, which chronicles the Manchester independent music scene from the late 1970s through the early 1990s, with television newscaster, label head, and club owner Tony Wilson as a fun unreliable narrator.
I have a piece up at TheBattleground.eu on the legacy of 90s trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack. Immersing myself in their music for a week did a lot to keep me focused on taking positive steps. Give it a try!
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/19/p...
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/19/p...
Postcolonial Heavy Lifting
The Massive Attack Legacy
thebattleground.eu
February 25, 2025 at 9:32 PM
I have a piece up at TheBattleground.eu on the legacy of 90s trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack. Immersing myself in their music for a week did a lot to keep me focused on taking positive steps. Give it a try!
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/19/p...
thebattleground.eu/2025/02/19/p...
If you look for long enough, the stars will pierce the clouds.
February 18, 2025 at 1:38 PM
If you look for long enough, the stars will pierce the clouds.
Late-breaking!
Solo Traveler Who Booked 7-Week Trip to Europe ‘Can’t Stop Crying,' Says Cities ‘All Feel Identical’ and She Isn’t Leaving Until March — People
A 24-year-old woman planned to spend a 7-week getaway in Europe by herself. 17 days in, she’s wondering if she should just
apple.news
February 17, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Late-breaking!
I was finally able to get out on the trail again and stand under my favorite cactus.
February 13, 2025 at 3:28 AM
I was finally able to get out on the trail again and stand under my favorite cactus.
I have a new piece up at @battlegroundeu.bsky.social on exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof's film The Seed of the Sacred Fig, one of the finalists for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards.
Father Knows Best
The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof
thebattleground.eu
February 12, 2025 at 11:20 PM
I have a new piece up at @battlegroundeu.bsky.social on exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof's film The Seed of the Sacred Fig, one of the finalists for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards.
I have started playing OTB blitz with my chess-mad daughter, who is vastly more talented than I am. But today I achieved a meaningful advantage with two minutes up on the clock, only to be undone yet again by my dyslexia. I was too mad at myself to speak!
February 7, 2025 at 2:03 AM
I have started playing OTB blitz with my chess-mad daughter, who is vastly more talented than I am. But today I achieved a meaningful advantage with two minutes up on the clock, only to be undone yet again by my dyslexia. I was too mad at myself to speak!
I have a new piece up at TheBattleground.eu on the new album by Natalie Beridze, which uses field recordings of recent anti-government protests in her native Georgia as building blocks for disquieting ambient compositions.
Protest in Code
Natalie Beridze’s Street Life
thebattleground.eu
February 6, 2025 at 11:11 PM
I have a new piece up at TheBattleground.eu on the new album by Natalie Beridze, which uses field recordings of recent anti-government protests in her native Georgia as building blocks for disquieting ambient compositions.
The Social Network‘s portrayal now seems positively hagiographic compared to what Mister I-Like-Being-Thumped-By-Other-Boys-At-The-Dojo has become. Here‘s hoping that his competitors abroad make him 20 billion dollars poorer during the Year of the Snake.
January 30, 2025 at 9:01 AM
The Social Network‘s portrayal now seems positively hagiographic compared to what Mister I-Like-Being-Thumped-By-Other-Boys-At-The-Dojo has become. Here‘s hoping that his competitors abroad make him 20 billion dollars poorer during the Year of the Snake.