James O'Brien
@jamesobriennyc.bsky.social
Writer. Editor. Musician. Filmmaker. Cook.
Feeling grateful today. It’s been a year of big growth.
If you’ve been following along, you’re absolutely the reason for nice things like the snapshots below. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. New stuff comin' at ya in 2026.
Listen to the new album ‘America’:
open.spotify.com/artist/3LN4q...
If you’ve been following along, you’re absolutely the reason for nice things like the snapshots below. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. New stuff comin' at ya in 2026.
Listen to the new album ‘America’:
open.spotify.com/artist/3LN4q...
December 10, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Feeling grateful today. It’s been a year of big growth.
If you’ve been following along, you’re absolutely the reason for nice things like the snapshots below. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. New stuff comin' at ya in 2026.
Listen to the new album ‘America’:
open.spotify.com/artist/3LN4q...
If you’ve been following along, you’re absolutely the reason for nice things like the snapshots below. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. New stuff comin' at ya in 2026.
Listen to the new album ‘America’:
open.spotify.com/artist/3LN4q...
The lesson of Mỹ Lai was supposed to be that there is no such thing as a “kill them all” order that stands above the law. That lesson is being drowned in a tsunami of Trump’s and Hegseth’s obscene bloodlust. The topic is massacres. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Massacres
Absent morals and historical learning, Hegseth and Trump are running the kill-them-all playbook that Americans used at Mỹ Lai
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 4:43 PM
The lesson of Mỹ Lai was supposed to be that there is no such thing as a “kill them all” order that stands above the law. That lesson is being drowned in a tsunami of Trump’s and Hegseth’s obscene bloodlust. The topic is massacres. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Nobody’s packing a vinyl copy of ‘America’ with greater love and care than the faithful team (ahem) at Life Underwater Music. Wash ‘em, sign ‘em, number ‘em, dress ‘em up a little. That’s the way.
Get a copy of ‘America’ on vinyl at jamesobrien.bandcamp.com/album/america
Get a copy of ‘America’ on vinyl at jamesobrien.bandcamp.com/album/america
December 8, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Nobody’s packing a vinyl copy of ‘America’ with greater love and care than the faithful team (ahem) at Life Underwater Music. Wash ‘em, sign ‘em, number ‘em, dress ‘em up a little. That’s the way.
Get a copy of ‘America’ on vinyl at jamesobrien.bandcamp.com/album/america
Get a copy of ‘America’ on vinyl at jamesobrien.bandcamp.com/album/america
It took me 24 years to finish this story, which happened this morning. It was published once, long ago, in a different form. But the story was not finished. At long last, read “Dancer at the Jump” in this week’s Everything Is Useless And Nothing Is Solved.
open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
Dancer at the Jump
Rorschach of a Manhattan suicide, eighty-first-floor angels, history’s changes
open.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 5:30 PM
It took me 24 years to finish this story, which happened this morning. It was published once, long ago, in a different form. But the story was not finished. At long last, read “Dancer at the Jump” in this week’s Everything Is Useless And Nothing Is Solved.
open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
Destroying global AIDS relief by defunding PEPFAR is a racist, anti-human policy, part of Project 2025’s goal to withdraw the U.S. from any project that treats poor, queer, Black, or brown lives as worth saving. The topic is PEPFAR. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
PEPFAR
Project 2025 is destroying the world’s most vital AIDS relief program, and counting on Americans not to care
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Destroying global AIDS relief by defunding PEPFAR is a racist, anti-human policy, part of Project 2025’s goal to withdraw the U.S. from any project that treats poor, queer, Black, or brown lives as worth saving. The topic is PEPFAR. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
A new single every eight weeks. Access to the subscriber-only back catalog. First listens to all the new music, general and exclusive subscriber-only.
Wavelengths is the new single series subscription at Bandcamp. Here’s a bit of the November single. Next new track in January. Link in comments.
Wavelengths is the new single series subscription at Bandcamp. Here’s a bit of the November single. Next new track in January. Link in comments.
December 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
A new single every eight weeks. Access to the subscriber-only back catalog. First listens to all the new music, general and exclusive subscriber-only.
Wavelengths is the new single series subscription at Bandcamp. Here’s a bit of the November single. Next new track in January. Link in comments.
Wavelengths is the new single series subscription at Bandcamp. Here’s a bit of the November single. Next new track in January. Link in comments.
Trump's Honduras election interference, plus the Hernández pardon, amount to a test run of a foreign policy in which grievances, authoritarians, and fantasies of a hemispheric crusade all line up.
The topic is Honduras. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
The topic is Honduras. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Honduras
As he pardons a true narco-president, Trump is leaning on Honduras’s election to export a full-blown bullshit wag-the-dog war on reality
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Trump's Honduras election interference, plus the Hernández pardon, amount to a test run of a foreign policy in which grievances, authoritarians, and fantasies of a hemispheric crusade all line up.
The topic is Honduras. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
The topic is Honduras. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Transcripts of a haunting, used without permission and presented without commentary. Read this week’s EUNS.
open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
Coffin Door
Transcripts of a haunting, used without permission and presented without commentary
open.substack.com
November 30, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Transcripts of a haunting, used without permission and presented without commentary. Read this week’s EUNS.
open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
One thing is sure: the librarians fighting book bans in 2025 have settled their accounts with the American story. No fines for them, for in the final tally, they’ve had our backs, and they are among our better angels.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Librarians
America’s guardians of knowledge and culture, wisdom and diversity—librarians and their advocates deserve the nation’s thanks today
open.substack.com
November 29, 2025 at 2:59 PM
One thing is sure: the librarians fighting book bans in 2025 have settled their accounts with the American story. No fines for them, for in the final tally, they’ve had our backs, and they are among our better angels.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
The quiet menace of an unfamiliar caperberry. We all know the feeling. Read and subscribe to Everything Is Useless And Nothing Is Solved. Clicky the link and all will be in motion.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
November 28, 2025 at 3:43 PM
The quiet menace of an unfamiliar caperberry. We all know the feeling. Read and subscribe to Everything Is Useless And Nothing Is Solved. Clicky the link and all will be in motion.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Today’s book bans are increasingly statewide, top-down, and wired into Trump’s executive orders. And there’s one group of Americans holding the line. To them, let’s give some recognition and thanks. The topic is librarians. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Librarians
America’s guardians of knowledge and culture, wisdom and diversity—librarians and their advocates deserve the nation’s thanks today
open.substack.com
November 27, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Today’s book bans are increasingly statewide, top-down, and wired into Trump’s executive orders. And there’s one group of Americans holding the line. To them, let’s give some recognition and thanks. The topic is librarians. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
What’s yer plan for the vinyl collectors on your list?
The gift idea I’m laying down here is ‘America’ — a signed, numbered platter full of songs for our times. Holiday orders of ‘America’ on vinyl ship until December 1. Buy ‘America’ on vinyl at Bandcamp: jamesobrien.bandcamp.com/album/america
The gift idea I’m laying down here is ‘America’ — a signed, numbered platter full of songs for our times. Holiday orders of ‘America’ on vinyl ship until December 1. Buy ‘America’ on vinyl at Bandcamp: jamesobrien.bandcamp.com/album/america
November 26, 2025 at 2:26 PM
What’s yer plan for the vinyl collectors on your list?
The gift idea I’m laying down here is ‘America’ — a signed, numbered platter full of songs for our times. Holiday orders of ‘America’ on vinyl ship until December 1. Buy ‘America’ on vinyl at Bandcamp: jamesobrien.bandcamp.com/album/america
The gift idea I’m laying down here is ‘America’ — a signed, numbered platter full of songs for our times. Holiday orders of ‘America’ on vinyl ship until December 1. Buy ‘America’ on vinyl at Bandcamp: jamesobrien.bandcamp.com/album/america
America specializes in rewriting recent history to mitigate its present state of collapse. Submitted: the media contortions to recast Marjorie Taylor Greene as some kind of rehab story.
The topic is insiders. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
The topic is insiders. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Insiders
Stop the rehab: MTG’s legacy is conspiracy, cruelty, and tariff-timed trades—proof Congress needs a real ban on stock trading
open.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:53 PM
America specializes in rewriting recent history to mitigate its present state of collapse. Submitted: the media contortions to recast Marjorie Taylor Greene as some kind of rehab story.
The topic is insiders. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
The topic is insiders. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Six more days! Get ‘America’ on vinyl plus a year’s subscription to the brand new Wavelengths single series for a cool $35 until November 30 (or until the last coupla’ copies of ‘America’ are gone). Link in comments.
November 24, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Six more days! Get ‘America’ on vinyl plus a year’s subscription to the brand new Wavelengths single series for a cool $35 until November 30 (or until the last coupla’ copies of ‘America’ are gone). Link in comments.
Venice on film and in fever, street shoots and ER catastrophes, a lost Woody Allen fragment, oysters and caperberries, and a toast to Anthony Burgess. Read and subscribe to Everything Is Useless And Nothing Is Solved: open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
Do You Like Anthony Burgess?
Filming in Venice, more lost Woody Allen, sepsis in Venice, caperberries
open.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Venice on film and in fever, street shoots and ER catastrophes, a lost Woody Allen fragment, oysters and caperberries, and a toast to Anthony Burgess. Read and subscribe to Everything Is Useless And Nothing Is Solved: open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
What is the point of a primary in U.S. politics if the process has been thoroughly weaponized to gatekeep and choke out independent voices?
This week, All Your Days unpacks a better alternative to the broken American primary. Read and subscribe for free: open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
This week, All Your Days unpacks a better alternative to the broken American primary. Read and subscribe for free: open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Primaries
It’s time for America to end faction-driven primaries and replace them with open all-candidate preliminaries plus ranked-choice generals
open.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
What is the point of a primary in U.S. politics if the process has been thoroughly weaponized to gatekeep and choke out independent voices?
This week, All Your Days unpacks a better alternative to the broken American primary. Read and subscribe for free: open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
This week, All Your Days unpacks a better alternative to the broken American primary. Read and subscribe for free: open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
If the nation wants to survive Trump’s second term with anything resembling self-government intact, it must stop letting a tiny slice of the electorate decide who gets to rule the rest of the nation’s voters. The topic is primaries. The newsletter is All Your Days. open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Primaries
It’s time for America to end faction-driven primaries and replace them with open all-candidate preliminaries plus ranked-choice generals
open.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:51 PM
If the nation wants to survive Trump’s second term with anything resembling self-government intact, it must stop letting a tiny slice of the electorate decide who gets to rule the rest of the nation’s voters. The topic is primaries. The newsletter is All Your Days. open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Until 12/1, every ‘America’ copy on vinyl comes with a complementary 1-year subscription to the Wavelengths single series on Bandcamp. First single, remixing an 'America' track, playing below. Big songs for troubled times. Vinyl orders by 12/1 will ship in time for the holidays.
Link in comments.
Link in comments.
November 19, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Until 12/1, every ‘America’ copy on vinyl comes with a complementary 1-year subscription to the Wavelengths single series on Bandcamp. First single, remixing an 'America' track, playing below. Big songs for troubled times. Vinyl orders by 12/1 will ship in time for the holidays.
Link in comments.
Link in comments.
As alcohol sales plummet, perhaps it’s no surprise that the bourbon state’s boy, Mitch McConnell, packed a THC ban into the resolution that reopened the federal government shutdown last week. The topic is the federal THC ban. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Banned
In the wake of the federal shutdown, Mitch McConnell’s new federal THC ban is law, and the nascent cannabis industry has one year to live
open.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:03 PM
As alcohol sales plummet, perhaps it’s no surprise that the bourbon state’s boy, Mitch McConnell, packed a THC ban into the resolution that reopened the federal government shutdown last week. The topic is the federal THC ban. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
The new single — Monument (Wavelengths Version)” — is streaming, friends. Subscribers to the new single series at Bandcamp get an exclusive new cut every eight weeks. The pre-amp tubes are hummin’. Subscribe to the Wavelengths single series at Bandcamp today. Link’s in the comments.
November 17, 2025 at 3:59 PM
The new single — Monument (Wavelengths Version)” — is streaming, friends. Subscribers to the new single series at Bandcamp get an exclusive new cut every eight weeks. The pre-amp tubes are hummin’. Subscribe to the Wavelengths single series at Bandcamp today. Link’s in the comments.
If you’re down with a bit of surrealism on any given Sunday … well, from Florence Avenue to dreamfields of war, this haunting meditation on America, guilt, and rebirth might just scratch your Dali-fingered itch.
Everything Is Useless And Nothing Is Solved: open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
Everything Is Useless And Nothing Is Solved: open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
Florence Avenue Dreams
Reginald Denny, green lawns and prisons, frontlines and the knife’s edge, white roses from the dead
open.substack.com
November 16, 2025 at 6:33 PM
If you’re down with a bit of surrealism on any given Sunday … well, from Florence Avenue to dreamfields of war, this haunting meditation on America, guilt, and rebirth might just scratch your Dali-fingered itch.
Everything Is Useless And Nothing Is Solved: open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
Everything Is Useless And Nothing Is Solved: open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
There are three things legislators can do about the Epstein files. One of them is underway. If the president can compel the DOJ, Congress can also send up investigation referrals. And then there’s the seven-member rule.
The newsletter is All Your Days.
jamesobriennyc.substack.com/p/evidence?r...
The newsletter is All Your Days.
jamesobriennyc.substack.com/p/evidence?r...
Evidence
America stands at the pedophile’s crossroads: how will it respond to the new evidence about Donald J. Trump, as detailed in dead Jeffrey Epstein’s files?
jamesobriennyc.substack.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:50 PM
There are three things legislators can do about the Epstein files. One of them is underway. If the president can compel the DOJ, Congress can also send up investigation referrals. And then there’s the seven-member rule.
The newsletter is All Your Days.
jamesobriennyc.substack.com/p/evidence?r...
The newsletter is All Your Days.
jamesobriennyc.substack.com/p/evidence?r...
The bartender runs his gums at girls, who perch at the far end from me, fingering piles of Parmesan-crusted fries.
—
The bartender comes back over. Miraculously, I am drowning Jack’s sense of contemporary bubbles bursting.
—
Get the whole glass at EUNS: open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
—
The bartender comes back over. Miraculously, I am drowning Jack’s sense of contemporary bubbles bursting.
—
Get the whole glass at EUNS: open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
One Martini, Half A Scotch And Water
Chuck Palahniuk can’t write; Ira Glass passed the test; Bergman beat ‘Fight Club’ to the punch; Amelia Gray’s marketing plan
open.substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:52 PM
The bartender runs his gums at girls, who perch at the far end from me, fingering piles of Parmesan-crusted fries.
—
The bartender comes back over. Miraculously, I am drowning Jack’s sense of contemporary bubbles bursting.
—
Get the whole glass at EUNS: open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
—
The bartender comes back over. Miraculously, I am drowning Jack’s sense of contemporary bubbles bursting.
—
Get the whole glass at EUNS: open.substack.com/pub/uselessu...
Epstein’s newly released emails link Donald J. Trump to the sexual abuse of minors. America must now choose: investigate and act on the new data, or accept evil as the face of our national character. The topic is evidence. The newsletter is All Your Days.
jamesobriennyc.substack.com/p/evidence?r...
jamesobriennyc.substack.com/p/evidence?r...
Evidence
America stands at the pedophile’s crossroads: how will it respond to the new evidence about Donald J. Trump, as detailed in dead Jeffrey Epstein’s files?
jamesobriennyc.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Epstein’s newly released emails link Donald J. Trump to the sexual abuse of minors. America must now choose: investigate and act on the new data, or accept evil as the face of our national character. The topic is evidence. The newsletter is All Your Days.
jamesobriennyc.substack.com/p/evidence?r...
jamesobriennyc.substack.com/p/evidence?r...
The Democrats’ shutdown gambit has backfired—empowering Trump’s regime and proving yet again that old-guard tactics can’t win America’s fight for democracy in 2025. The topic is blowback. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
Blowback
As the idiotically conceived force-a-federal-shutdown playbook disintegrates, it’s actually worse than ‘I told you so’ for U.S. defenders of democracy
open.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 5:39 PM
The Democrats’ shutdown gambit has backfired—empowering Trump’s regime and proving yet again that old-guard tactics can’t win America’s fight for democracy in 2025. The topic is blowback. The newsletter is All Your Days.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...
open.substack.com/pub/jamesobr...