Rebecca Bodenheimer
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rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
Rebecca Bodenheimer
@rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
2.6K followers 1.3K following 5.7K posts
Freelance writer & cultural critic with a PhD in ethnomusicology
Host of The Clave Chronicles, a Cuban music podcast
she/her, bilingüe, fat, 🏳️‍🌈 , Oaktown
Hire me: rmbodenheimer@gmail.com
https://rmbodenheimer.com
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rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
How a Venezuela invasion would affect Cuba
via @cubastudygroup.bsky.social

preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webvi...
The economic implications for Cuba would be immediate and profound. The island needs roughly 125,000 barrels of crude per day and produces only a fraction of that; the 32,000 barrels still arriving from PDVSA are, as historian Óscar Grandío notes, the difference between widespread blackouts and a barely functioning electrical grid. Yoani Sánchez describes the consequences in daily terms: every Venezuelan tanker that fails to arrive means more hours without electricity, fewer buses on the streets, and deeper hardship. If that flow were to stop abruptly, Havana would be forced to buy fuel from more expensive suppliers—Mexico, Russia, or the open market—accelerating inflation, shortages, and public discontent in a country already suffering 15–18-hour power cuts, dengue outbreaks, and an unprecedented migratory exodus. Still, an energy and fiscal crisis of this scale would not automatically precipitate regime collapse. The experience of the Special Period reflects the resilience of Cuban authoritarianism, anchored in three pillars that remain firmly in place: an efficient and repressive security apparatus, mass emigration as a pressure valve, and the absence of organized political alternatives on the island.
December 1, 2025 at 10:08 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
Last year, for which I apparently did no prep video or photo!
November 27, 2025 at 1:33 AM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
Can’t upload videos, which I pivoted to in 2020 during turkey prep so I have some after shots and screenshots of videos here!
November 27, 2025 at 1:31 AM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
November 27, 2025 at 1:20 AM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
A 🧵 of my kids helping me prepare the thanksgiving turkey, 2014-2024
You’re welcome ☺️
November 27, 2025 at 1:20 AM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
In case you're wondering what I thought about the portrayal of academia in After the Hunt: WOOF

Guadagnino didn't write it, but these quotes from the screenwriter make it clear she didn't know much about academia & didn't bother to research about tenure & the diff between a lecturer & asst prof
There’s not as clear of a moral framework or HR structure as when you’re working in corporate America,” Garrett notes. “I wanted the film to take place in a world in which these power structures feel so real to the people involved in them, but you zoom out, even a little bit, and most people don’t care about tenure.” For Alma, the protagonist, the conflict is between her outward persona as a lecturer and a hidden, private shame which she must ultimately confront and resolve.
November 26, 2025 at 5:46 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
See, this is the part that is so enraging. It has been crystal clear for 2 years that X was no longer a trustworthy platform - Elon ruined it by hollowing out the logic of blue checks.
So WHY have editors and journalists continued to treat X as a reliable source??
X is still a place where many journalists and editors in newsrooms across America share and consume political news. Political influencers, media personalities, and even politicians will take posts from supposed ordinary accounts and hold them up as examples of their ideological opponents’ dysfunction, corruption, or depravity.
November 24, 2025 at 8:50 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
Oh and another thing: Claudia is sharing photos of the people they are helping - all on FB. It’s all very transparent.
November 16, 2025 at 7:14 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
People can donate directly here
November 15, 2025 at 5:35 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
This really is absurd @safety.bsky.app
“The reason I do not think my suspension is about a reference to a Johnny Cash lyric—beyond the obvious fact that getting suspended for defending the honor of Johnny Cash is ridiculous, and beyond the fact that the post is over a month old and caused no outcry—is because they could have removed that one post instead of deleting my entire account,” Kendzior said.
November 13, 2025 at 12:03 AM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
Another campaign I'm spreading the word about is taking donations via Paypal to a network of Cubans currently assessing people's needs in places hit hard in eastern Cuba. They'll be using the $$ to buy food and household appliances for ppl who have lost everything. They share receipts on donations.
October 31, 2025 at 5:56 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
🚨 Mutual aid for Cuba 🚨
(see screenshots for original FB post in Spanish)

Donation drive in Miami - primarily looking for non-perishable food, medications, diapers, medical supplies. They are able to send a large, 20-ft container to Cuba for free. They just have to fill it up with our donations! 🧵
(flyer in spanish about donation drive for eastern Cuba) (Spanish text) Queridos todos: En medio del nuevo escenario de desastres naturales y desidia estatal nos han ofrecido pagar la transportación y el envío de un contenedor de insumos médicos, medicinas y alimentos a la isla. ¡Solo nos toca llenarlo! Esta iniciativa tendrá como destino las provincias del oriente del país. Tenemos la posibilidad de enviar comida no perecible, insumos médicos y medicinas. Lo único que deberás hacer es llegar a: 7372 NW 12 ST, Miami, FL 33126 United States Recibiremos los donativos en la fecha y horarios siguientes: A partir del Lunes, 3 de noviembre. Lunes a Viernes: 5-8 pm Sábado y Domingo: 12-3 pm (Spanish text) Aceptamos: Sillas de ruedas Andadores Tazas de baño portátiles Culeros para niños y adultos Pañales para cubrir las camas (pads) Sondas urinarias Jeringuillas Agujas Y todo tipo de insumos médicos en sus bolsas esterilizadas. Sobre los Medicamentos: TODOS los de venta libre y también de receta son bienvenidos; pero… NO MEDICAMENTOS restringidos. Significa lo anterior: Nada relacionado con tratamientos para el sistema nervioso. Ninguna de aquellas pastillas a las que popularmente llamamos “de nervios”. (Spanish text) Dada la naturaleza de este envío (un contenedor de 20 pies), PRIORIZAMOS: Donaciones por cajas o un número elevado de alimentos, medicamentos, vitaminas, insumos o accesorios médicos. ¡Miami, vamos! Personas en otros estados que quieran donar lo arriba mencionado, contacte y le pasamos la dirección para que hagan su envío. ¡Gracias! ¡Es un contenedor! ¡Gratis! ¡Llénemoslo con el mismo entusiasmo que llenamos Facebook de deseos de una Cuba mejor, más próspera y más justa!
October 31, 2025 at 5:50 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
You know where the US is not sending aid?? Cuba.

Please stay tuned for mutual aid campaigns I’ll be posting soon. The devastation in eastern Cuba is widespread and it’s compounding the economic, energy and public health crises already going on.

abcnews.go.com/amp/US/wireS...
They are expected to arrive in the next 24 to 48 hours and join up with local staff in Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic, where they will be based to offer help in neighboring Haiti, according to the officials, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because the teams were not yet on the ground.
October 30, 2025 at 4:43 AM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
La reina cumple 100 años hoy!

The most beloved Cuban musician of all time was born on this day 100 years ago.
Check out the latest episode of my podcast for a tribute to one of the most iconic musicians of the 20th century.

What's your favorite Celia song??

www.buzzsprout.com/2158804/epis...
October 21, 2025 at 4:53 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
NO KINGS San Francisco
October 18, 2025 at 11:12 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
My daughter’s message to our would be-dictator
All the things that you did are not helping other people like you Donald Trump because you are the worst
October 18, 2025 at 9:02 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
Voodoo opens with a short clip of drumming (prob from a Haitian Vodou or Cuban Santeria ceremony). This photo was in the liner notes (those are Santeria beads)
We know a lot about D’Angelo's Black Pentecostal background but it's clear he delved into other types of African-derived spirituality too.
October 14, 2025 at 8:55 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
Also thought these two excerpts were interesting. Angie Stone on how she wasn't hot (or thin) enough to be seen with D'Angelo.
And how the "Untitled" video really did a number on him.
Sounds similar to what so many female artists go through - the double-edged sword of self-objectification
As D'Angelo caught fire in the mid-'90s, the star-making machinery worked overtime to mold him into a bankable headliner. Stone remembers an event in Manhattan in September 1996 that was billed as Giorgio Armani's tribute to D'Angelo. Stone—thirteen years older than D—was three months pregnant with their son. They headed to the event together in a limo, but as they neared the venue where D was going to perform, it suddenly pulled over. "He was asked to get into another car, where he would be escorted by Vivica Fox," Stone says, her voice breaking slightly. The lissome Fox had just appeared with Will Smith in the blockbuster Independence Day. "It was a Hollywood moment. They wanted a trophy girl. I had to walk in behind them to flashing cameras. It started the wheels turning of what was yet to come." D'Angelo felt tortured, Questlove says, by the pressure to give the audience what it wanted. Worried that he didn't look as cut as he did in the video, he'd delay shows to do stomach crunches. He'd often give in, peeling off his shirt, but he resented being reduced to that. Wasn't he an artist? Couldn't the audience hear the power of his music and value him for that? He would explode, Questlove recalls, and throw things. Sometimes he'd have to be coad not to cancel shows altogether.
October 14, 2025 at 7:29 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
I dug up this GQ profile from Dec 2014, after the release of D'Angelo's long-awaited 3rd album, Black Messiah.
It's like he sensed he would be one of the Black artists who would die too young.

www.gq.com/story/dangel...
What finally made him see, he says, was the passing of J Dilla, the revered hip-hop producer, on February 10, 2006. They'd just talked on the phone, D'Angelo says, when suddenly, J Dilla was gone at 32 after a long battle with lupus. It was like a blinding light had been switched on. Why did so many black artists die so young? He'd been haunted by this thought for years. Marvin. Jimi. Biggie. "I felt like I was going to be next. I ain't bullshitting. I was scared then," he says, recalling how shame engulfed him, preventing him from attending the funeral. "I was so fucked-up, I couldn't go."
October 14, 2025 at 7:27 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
Wow, now this is new information to me. Christian evangelicals appropriating Jewish rituals.
Some Christian Zionists aspire to be more than just an ATM for Israel and pro­Israel causes, even adopting Jewish rituals and culture. At the church services and prayer rallies I have attended, appropriation is omnipresent. Attendees wear Jewish prayer shawls and Stars of David. They blow shofars, the rams’ horns that ancient Israelites used to alert the community to threats and are now used ceremonially during the High Holy Days. Some bow back and forth, as though they are engaged in the Jewish prayer practice of davening. At one event, I watched a group of Christian teenagers dance the hora. Many evangelical churches now host Passover Seders; some celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. A book by the late Charlie Kirk about why he celebrates the Jewish Sabbath will be published posthumously at the end of this year; two months ago, he hosted Eckstein on his show.
October 11, 2025 at 5:28 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
Feel free to copy any of the language I used several weeks ago to respond to UC Berkeley's administration "naming names"
Dear President Milliken, As a Cal alum who received my PhD in Music in 2010 and a Jewish woman, I'm writing to express my anger and disappointment at your decision to hand over the names of 160 students, faculty and staff to the federal government for alleged instances of antisemitism. I don't know how many of those names belong to Jewish people, but I do know that one of them is Judith Butler, one of our country's preeminent scholars in gender studies. The simple fact that non-Jewish people are allowed to determine whether certain Jews are antisemitic or not is in itself absurd. More importantly, your capitulation to an authoritarian administration is shameful, and betrays the bedrock principles of American higher education: freedom of speech and academic freedom. This is a particular betrayal of UC Berkeley's own history, as the place where students like Mario Savo founded the Free Speech Movement. The Trump administration's extortion of universities using the facade of "antisemitism" is extremely transparent, and is being used to punish students and faculty protesting Israel's destruction and starvation of Gaza. I know many of these protesters to be Jewish. Beyond the fact that their protests are constitutionally protected, and that punishing them is thus a violation of the First Amendment, critiquing Israel does not equal being antisemitic. Higher education is under a huge threat of censorship right now, as faculty self-censor in order to avoid being identified (often falsely) as "antisemitic." Just this week, a professor at Texas A&M was fired for teaching what right-wing thinkers call "gender ideology." That is the opposite of academic freedom. As a Cal alum I urge you to stop collaborating with an authoritarian administration that seeks to destroy American higher education. They will not stop at asking you to "name names." They will continue extorting universities unless you stand up to them and refuse. Rebecca Bodenheimer, PhD
October 10, 2025 at 5:35 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
Now Amazon is in the terminal stage. We’re all still stuck to the platform, but we get less and less value out of it. And because we’re all still there, buying Prime and starting (and ending) our purchase planning with Amazon’s enshittified search results, the merchants who rely on selling to us are stuck there, too, earning less and less from every sale. The platform has turned into a pile of shit, and we’re at the bottom of it.
October 7, 2025 at 5:46 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
For Cubans, the historical resonance is unmistakable. At the end of the nineteenth century, as Cuba fought for independence from Spain, the colonial government interned thousands of suspected rebels in facilities known as reconcentrados—concentration camps. The settings were brutal, thick with insects that spread disease. For Trump, the dangers of his new prison’s location were thrilling. “The snakes are fast, but the alligators are faster,” he told reporters. “We’re going to teach them”—the detainees—“how to run away from an alligator. Don’t run in a straight line, nope—like this.” He made zigzag motions with his hands. “And you know what? Your chances are about one per cent.”
October 1, 2025 at 6:31 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
There are so many bangers in Tressie's latest column but I think the most insightful parts are about the weaponization of debate by the right.
Also such a clever response to her fellow NYT opinion writer - basically "you should know better"
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...
Debate is a luxury of norms and institutional safety, two things that Trump’s second administration has systematically destroyed. So many Americans love the idea that debate solves tough political problems because we love the idea of American exceptionalism. Forget the bloody wars of independence, secession and expansion and remember the epistolaries. We flatter ourselves. There was never a time when rank-and-file Americans perfected the ideas of the Republic without violence or oppression. Debates among founding fathers were games among similarly classed white male property owners. Women, enslaved people, Indigenous nations, disabled people, poor people, some immigrants — they were all excluded from the civic sphere we valorize now as the height of American civility. The weaponization of debate is so well known that it is a meme: a guy with a table and a sign that says “Change my mind.” On the day he was killed, Kirk was sitting in a tent with a similar label, “Prove me wrong.” Sounds harmless enough in theory, but performative debate metastasizes. Whether in the form of abortion opponents who show up to “debate” women about why bodily autonomy is a sin or scientific racists who show up to “debate” Black and Indigenous thinkers about the rational arguments of their human depravity, the aim isn’t debate but debasement.
October 1, 2025 at 4:41 PM
rmbodenheimer.bsky.social
PSA/REMINDER 🚨

"The American Psychological Association recommends that mass media deny shooters the fame they desire by not sharing so many details about them and instead direct their attention to the victims and their stories."

This also goes for ppl on here - don't focus on shooter ideology
The American Psychological Association recommends that mass media deny shooters the fame they desire by not sharing so many details about them and instead direct their attention to the victims and their stories. Campaigns like Don’t Name Them (a campaign of the FBI and Texas State University) and No Notoriety (created by a couple in honor of their son who died in the Colorado movie theater shooting) urge the media to cover tragic incidents without naming the shooters or describing their lives or motivations. By reducing the fame and attention that mass shooters receive, there will be fewer obsessive fans that become copycat shooters. This strategy has already been shown to be effective regarding teen suicides: Less media coverage has resulted in fewer copycats.
September 29, 2025 at 6:47 PM