Jesse Raub
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jesseraub.bsky.social
Jesse Raub
@jesseraub.bsky.social
17K followers 1.2K following 6.2K posts
writer and coffee professional, formerly at Serious Eats, stuff in Bon Appetit, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Vulture, HAD, Polygon, and other places.

I also have a newsletter: https://linktr.ee/jesseraub
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jesseraub.bsky.social
once you think it you can't do anything until you make it
Disney's Moana poster, but it's "Mona" and it has Mona and Tony from Who's the Boss' faces over the character. it's a very sloppy and bad photoshop.
November 17, 2025 at 5:41 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
when i say too many, i mean here’s the sidecar
the above salad with a small bowl containing only bacon and croutons
November 14, 2025 at 2:21 AM
jesseraub.bsky.social
baby gems, marinated tomato vinaigrette, too many croutons, too much bacon, shaved parm
the above described salad piled high in a white bowl on a wooden cutting board
November 14, 2025 at 2:19 AM
jesseraub.bsky.social
He said: "The last time we saw Cole, he was blown to smithereens – how will they get past the fact he is dead with a capital D? I think that was a mistake, because Cole is a legend. He belongs to everybody, he is eternal – except in that film.”
shea whigham as Cole in Kong: Skull Island holding up two grenades moment before he’s tail whipped into the side of a mountain and explodes
November 11, 2025 at 2:08 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
bond emerging form the sea in casino royale
November 11, 2025 at 1:55 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
bacon and spinach rigatoni with pecorino
the above dish in a green bowl on a wood table
November 11, 2025 at 2:29 AM
jesseraub.bsky.social
right in the sweet spot
November 10, 2025 at 11:43 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
31°F
espresso cup in the sunlight on a bamboo table i found in the garbage on the forbes porch
November 10, 2025 at 4:50 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
the framing on both of these shots
November 10, 2025 at 2:59 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
why Civil War and Eddington are not
Civil War, in particular, is a blank slate open to anyone’s political interpolation. Set against an authoritarian federal government under siege by secessionist state alliances, Civil War is mainly a story about a group of journalists putting the scoop above everything else. By refusing to define the opposing ideologies in Civil War, Alex Garland refuses to engage with the real world audiences live in. He doesn’t depict the people in political struggle. The end result is a movie that has more questions about the role of journalism during war than questions about how modern politics created the conflict in the first place. Because of this, the war in Civil War exists in a vacuum. The America it shows is as real as any fantasy realm: The conflict on screen could be any conflict anywhere. It’s story of ethics in war journalism plays the same in the US as it would in Middle Earth—though there are arguments to be made that even Middle Earth has clearer political mapping to America’s current state than Civil War does. Similarly, Eddington’s main focus is on Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and his fears of being cuckolded, even as the politicized world around him starts to collapse. As the early events of the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests break out in his small New Mexico town, Joe can’t stop fretting about his wife running away with a handsome and charismatic far-right cult leader. Ari Aster’s vision for the movie lacks political conviction—just like his characters in the film. Racial justice protestors are treated as misguided youths, the liberal mayor is a hypocrite, the far-right are grifters, and Sheriff Joe’s center-right politics are formed entirely through personal grievances. Though Eddington is the most blatant reflection of the landscape of 2020 we might have on screen, Aster is seemingly unconcerned with discussing the weight those events had on the larger population. Instead, they serve as catalysts for Joe’s descent into madness. Because of this, Joe’s struggles could very well have been any version of civil unrest at any time in American history. It’s hard to imagine how Eddington would be any different if it were set against the astroturfed Tea Party movement of 2010 or the swine flu pandemic of 2009. In short, Eddington is a political film, but it is not a film made politically. It’s difficult to imagine crowds leaving the theater being inspired to examine their relationship with the systems of governance that drive their daily lives. It’s easier to imagine them worried about their spouse’s close work friend, instead.
November 10, 2025 at 2:22 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
why Parasite is so effective
In 2019, the world of Parasite is a world in which those wealth signifiers are not just common but are necessary for life. At the start of the movie, the Kim family loses access to the free Wi-Fi they’ve been siphoning, dramatically threatening their only source of revenue: a one-time gig folding pizza boxes. The mother of the family, Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin), must be able to receive a WhatsApp message on her smartphone to coordinate the work. Later, when son Ki-woo (Choi Woo-sik) is given the chance by his wealthy friend to take up a tutoring gig, his sister Ki-jung (Park So-dam) needs computer access (provided at a gaming café) so she can forge an education certificate for him. As Ki-taek prepares to take over as driver for the Park family, he bluffs his way through multiple dealership test drives with Ki-woo to ensure he’s up to date on car technologies. In Godard’s world, lack of access to these modern necessities would frame the Kim family as the true proletariat, ready to take up arms with their comrade in revolution. But Parasite director Bong Joon-ho has a different approach. Yes, the Kim family lives in absolute poverty, but the signifiers of wealth feel achievable if they can just scheme their way into a higher status. In short, the Kim family doesn’t long for revolution: they long for class ascendancy—so much so that they’re willing to fight their fellow workers for it. Godard’s prescriptions for how to “make films politically” are rooted in the power of fiction. America saw the immense power of Uncle Tom’s Cabin shifting views on slavery when it was released in 1852 (though the book has been rightly criticized for generating racial stereotypes in the ensuing 150 years or so). By pursuing relative truth, the novelist, playwright, or filmmaker is able to clearly state their perspective through their work rather than concern themselves with adherence to fact. That is to say, any message the artist wants to pass along is more powerful as an allegory. In Parasite, the fictional Kim family elicits more sympathy than a real-world Kim family would. Fictional murder is a point of consideration; real-life murder is nothing but tragedy. The Kim family’s actions in getting the Park family’s driver and housekeeper fired are framed initially as a lark. Viewers celebrate their schemes to assume all open service positions (the Jessica Jingle becoming a popular meme online, as evidence) because Bong shoots these scenes to highlight the cleverness of Ki-woo and Ki-jung. Framed like a fun heist movie, the Kim family delicately shaves peach fuzz into vials to trigger the allergies of housekeeper Moon-gwang (Lee Jung-eun), captures her in an emergency room selfie, and plants a hot-sauce-stained napkin in the trash to frame her as a tuberculosis disease vector. When the Park family leaves for a camping trip, the Kim family indulges in the luxuries of the house: they sample expensive liquor, feast on the pantry, take lengthy baths in the jacuzzi tub, and read books on the sunny lawn. They even fantasize about becoming part of the Park extended family if Ki-woo’s budding romance with Park daughter Da-hye (Jung Ji-so) leads to marriage.
November 10, 2025 at 2:21 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
and extrapolate it for a modern age
The essay was written just a year after Godard released his avant-garde documentary British Sounds in theaters, which mostly overlays readings from The Communist Manifesto over images of car factory workers, a naked woman walking around a house, and student protestors before ending with images of fists punching through the Union Jack. Originally, Godard and co-director Jean-Henri Roger wanted British Sounds to be shown on TV in Britain. It's not hard to imagine the filmmakers betting the film would foment direct action and change if only it were to be viewed by the common man. In 2025, it's hard to ignore that British Sounds is easily streamable and has only 5,851 views since it was uploaded in 2019. 14. To carry out 1 is to make BRITISH SOUNDS. 15. To carry out 2 is to struggle for the showing of BRITISH SOUNDS on English television. Godard might have missed the mark himself with British Sounds, but there is some wisdom in how he categorizes both types of films. "Political films" rarely inspire discourse in their audience, while films made politically push viewers to ask themselves difficult and revelatory questions. They might not bring revolution as Godard hoped for in its concrete definition, but films made politically have a stronger tendency to challenge audiences and their preconceived ideas about the world. In America, as we noticed in 2024's campaign shift to influencer podcasts, one's media diet can have an outsized influence on their political motivation. It might be silly to say that watching a movie can change the world, but as the US shifts further into a realm of low-information voters, it's hard to argue that any media consumption is an entirely passive enterprise. That is to say, films made politically, as a steady part of one's media consumption, do exert influence in a society built on electoral politics. Godard's avant-garde documentary didn't spark revolution, but the wrong movie at the wrong time might change someone's vote.
November 10, 2025 at 2:02 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
let’s start with some theory
In his 1970 essay What Is to Be Done?, Godard lays out two fundamentals: 1. We must make political films. 2. We must make films politically. A political manifesto, the essay is laid out into numbered points, with the crux of What Is to Be Done? is highlighted in points 10 and 11: 10. To carry out 1 is to remain a being of the bourgeois class. 11. To carry out 2 is to take up a proletarian class position. The framing for Godard is simple, but the piece captures a snapshot of a previous conception of the world. Rife with Maoist doctrine, What Is to Be Done? suggests a world that is still susceptible to revolution. It imagines that the gulf between the Marx-defined bourgeoisie and proletariat would steadily increase until the pressure becomes intolerable. It does not, however, predict a world in which the material signifiers of wealth (cars, computers, smartphones) become attainable enough for the average worker that the borders of the middle class blur beyond recognition. That is to say: who needs revolution when there's food on the table and Godard films streaming at home?
November 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
when the tajik spot used to be a taco bell
a bunch of plates including lamp chops, pita, mezze platter cool clay wall with holes cut out for decoration
November 9, 2025 at 8:18 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
the M is flying upside down… mushroom kingdom has fallen…
a red flag that looks like mario’s M insignia is being flown upside down. it’s. probably a UW victory flag
November 9, 2025 at 4:05 AM
jesseraub.bsky.social
Ich sehe keine Lügen
November 9, 2025 at 1:03 AM
jesseraub.bsky.social
what’s a painting to a pig in a field?
We like to think that art is forever, that a painting on the wall of a museum that's been there for four hundred years will continue to exist for four hundred more, but in reality, the art doesn't exist if you're not existing with it. When I wandered through the Uffizi Galleries last week trying to stumble my way to the Carvaggio room, I casually brushed past statues chiseled out a thousand years ago. A thousand. And in that time, some were buried, locked in old chambers, covered up in collections. The carved marble figure of a man can both exist in a space and not exist, to us, which brings about odd questions of consciousness and what we experience and how we can experience it if we're not there to bear witness. Will Earth exist when humans are gone? What does that say of the consciousness of trees and rabbits? What's a painting to a pig in a field?
November 6, 2025 at 8:17 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
I have a process: I pick a book (like, say, Exhibit by R.O. Kwon, which I finished this morning), and then I walk into my office and peel off a fresh slip of receipt paper to mark my progress between the pages. When I finish a book, I leave the paper. It's a record that I have, indeed, been present in the life of the book, specifically this book, the one I am holding, and that the next book I read will have its own life and own marker. If I was smarter or more sentimental, maybe I would write my name and when I read the book. I could mark time this way in my life, month by month, by how long it took me to finish everything I read and how long between books I spent time floundering around on the couch, unsure of how to live in art. Maybe it's just that I can't read the receipt paper so l'm not sure which part should get the date and which part should get my name.
November 6, 2025 at 8:16 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
luse, as a bookmark, a slip of old-fashioned Japanese receipt paper. It's a reminder that, no matter where I am and what l'm reading, a bigger world still exists. That everything is placed in a context of when and where, and that the power and pain of an imaginary world has its limits. I know exactly when and where I bought that receipt paper. It came in a booklet, a simple dark blue cloth binding along the top edge, that I picked up at a stationary store in Tokyo. The store is located in the Spiral building in Aoyama, just a few floors above a tea shop I always visit when I go. The tea shop wasn't able to seat us, but agreed that we could come back in 30 minutes if we wanted to wait. While waiting, we went upstairs to the stationary store. While at the stationary store, I picked up this small booklet. Its pages are a blueish teal. Its binding, like I mentioned, is a bonded blue cloth along the top edge, forming a spine holding each slip in with a small strip of adhesive.
November 6, 2025 at 8:16 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
starter was weak after too long in the fridge. still, nice even crumb (even if the loaf is small and dense)
cross section of a loaf of sourdough bread showcasing an even and open crumb
November 6, 2025 at 3:24 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 10:33 AM
jesseraub.bsky.social
well, the dog has ascended to a being of pure light. wonder how that’s gonna affect walks
small dog on a bed shrouded in pure sunlight that makes him glow
November 5, 2025 at 7:19 PM
jesseraub.bsky.social
baby gem steak caesar with red onion, avocado, and sourdough croutons
the above dish described
November 5, 2025 at 2:23 AM
jesseraub.bsky.social
zohran as stanley bear wearing a mask with naomi wolf going no! no!!
November 5, 2025 at 12:35 AM
jesseraub.bsky.social
the photo really must be seen
grimes and some guy on the bad houseboat they built
November 2, 2025 at 6:18 PM