This week brought the revelation that, in my lifetime, political “Deep Throat” shocked the national consciousness. It was a Hawk Tua situation, 50 years prior—an instantly ubiquitous feature of water-cooler talk. But with higher stakes and more whispering; America had not yet had graphic vernacular in our political dialogue.
A political scandal drove the popularity of a commercial porn project.
Also since last newsletter, the lesser realization that—in this very same lifetime—jogger sightings were strange and exciting.
Of my mind finds, the most indelible contained Nazi imagery. “My Dinner with Adolph,” Larry David’s savage, beat-for-beat satire of Bill Maher’s report on a pathetic Trump capitulation meal. All David had to do was sub in “Hitler” for “Trump” and keep the HBO hack’s story beats.
Chef’s fuckin kiss.
‘Vancouver folks who live in Washington to avoid property taxes in Portland. They don't wanna pay for a bridge. Portlanders don't go to Vancouver. And for the most part, Vancouver folk hate coming to Portland unless they're shopping. They'll avoid Portland proper at almost all costs. So who pays?’
Then, the platform Tubi put in front of me “California Uber Alles,” the antifascist satire from legit San Francisco legends The Dead Kennedys. As glimpsed in The Dead Kennedys: The Early Years Live, the oft-covered track has bandleader Jello Biafra mocking Jerry Brown’s 1978 presidential campaign and the aggressive exportation of California cool.
Above all others.
Taken literally, Jello’s lyrics would have been absurd. Everyone understood that “Zen fascists” weren’t going to force Bay Area residents to keep a smile on their collective face and jog for the master race. But the first Dead Kennedys single is so vital, so piercingly insightful, it’s almost impossible to imagine on our current political landscape. A thousand likes on TikTok, max.
Dissatisfied 20th-century musicians globe wide—however—picked up Biafra’s intricate, critical, and extremely local storytelling. They immediately began covering the Dead Kennedys and haven’t stopped since.
Biafra’s local color always seemed a big draw.
Murderous council member Dan White, for example, narrates the DKs’ version of “I Fought the Law.” Jello made national news by running for SF mayor and pushing the election conversation left, to include class and housing. In a 2025 that largely defined by the localization of national politics and career-minded mouth-shutting, those artistic and political commitments stand historically tall.
Heads-up: In The Early Years Live, Jello Biafra deploys “nigger” in a dangerous manner that might unsettle those Black citizens who don’t think themselves five-thirds of a human. (I, of course, am fine and unfazed.) The DKs perform in a Grove Street living room. Jello performs elaborate mime. The crowd releases as much first-wave American punk energy as ever touched the atmosphere.
Today would benefit from eleventy-hundred Dead Kennedys, and that is not including RFK, Jr.
The Full Herb Caen
It’s not credible that all of these companies are experiencing longer-than-usual wait times at once…
If I have one wish for my upcoming trip north, it’s to catch Sinners on IMAX…
Don’t look now, but America could be heading for a backdoor explanation of why DEI is important, via the Whites House academic freedom overreach…
People who throw around “playbook” and would not recognize a playbook if they saw one should also tread lightly…
Pete Hegseth leaked information to friends and family. Using any other verb coming out of someone who opposes fascism is naked enabling…
Having said, Come at me, bro or bitch at least once—in front of witnesses—ought to count as much for new Democratic Party leadership applicants as an Ivy League degree did in the past…
For those who observe, Happy Independent Bookstore Day…
It’s time for 10, right? Or is it tea for two?
Whatever’s clever.
Bonus support of this work is enormously appreciated. Buy me a haircut or whatever. (Whatever is superior.)
10 Crud infestation reaches pop music
You know them, you retch at them on the DL: The biggest Creed tracks. Mumford & Sons at its most manipulative. Portentous songs that inflate themselves to appear deep, but only succeed at revealing their creators’ manipulative impulses.
Manipulative seeming to you, that is.
Looking for a culture trend that’s analogous to our new openly religious, transparently full-of-shit political torchbearers? Hear out some of these songs. Not all of the chart-topping new “hits” are country, but the need to affect rural or “working-class” pose is hella telling.
Popcast
“A through line with all of this music is that it’s vaguely Christian, or explicitly Christian,” says NY Times reporter Joe Coscarelli. “Even the songs that are aren’t use religious imagery.”
As with so many contemporary domestic troubles, this sickness could be snuffed out with a bit of media literacy. Many of these “hits” are astroturf product from TikTok.
Lil Hit
Not a moment too soon, there’s a David Lynch-themed bar at the Hollywood Theatre.
Willamette Week
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