I'm far enough out in Queens that raccoons are a problem here.
Dave Mandl
@dmandl.bsky.social
WFMU DJ, writer (The Wire, Los Angeles Review of Books, etc.), bassist, photographer, amateur linguist. Founder, Brooklyn Psychogeographical Association. Web: davidmandl.com Instagram: @dmandl Playlists from my radio show: https://wfmu.org/playlists/GX
No sympathy for cars, especially illegally parked ones, but the individualist in me thinks these irremovable stickers are obnoxiously invasive and antisocial. Fine the fuckers but don't trash their cars for something this minor. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/n...
The New York City Parking Sticker of Shame Is Back
After 14 years, the city has returned to slapping bright stickers on cars that do not move for street sweepers.
nytimes.com
Seen in Park Slope: trashed but oddly appealing 1976 'Vette, for sale!
Find the minuscule non-NY ghetto in the baseball cap section at Paragon.
I'm intrigued that there's a Kai Bird (this New Yorker writer) and a Ka Baird (NYC-based musician).
This will get a fraction of the attention that Zohran Mamdani got for calling Netanyahu a war criminal.
Kyle Clark@kylec.bsky.social · yesterdayDepicting Jewish people with horns is a centuries-old, dehumanizing, antisemitic trope. Democratic Gov nominee Phil Weiser is outspoken about his mother’s birth in a Nazi concentration camp, his family members killed in the Holocaust, and the threat posed by antisemitism today.
For those of you who know the great NYC drummer Rob Smith, he recently had a medical emergency and there's a GoFundMe here: www.gofundme.com/f/get-rob-ho...
Donate to Get Rob Home to His Family After Surgery, organized by Peter Kerlin
Our dear friend Rob Smith had emergency abdominal surgery on July 18 and was hos… Peter Kerlin needs your support for Get Rob Home to His Family After Surgery
gofundme.com
Last night's radio show is now safe and sound in the @wfmu.bsky.social archives. You can hear it, or see the playlist, here: wfmu.org/playlists/sh...
It's Complicated with Dave Mandl
Audio & playlist from August 3, 2026
wfmu.org
Related: People need to know about the legendary "quirks" of Bleecker Bob. Everyone has their stories. My brother was once thrown out of the store because he had a bag from rival record shop St. Marks Sounds in his hands.
Andy Zax@andyzax.bsky.social · 2d ago40 years ago this week, my nemesis Bleecker Bob sold me the first copy off the plane from London of this dreadful LP. Unlike all of the other imports that Bleecker Bob mocked me for buying from him during this era, his low opinion of this one was accurate and his mockery was entirely deserved.
Interesting article about what appear to be the declining fortunes of longtime mega-philanthropist and Republican donor Ronald Lauder. Are old-line billionaires like him being lapped by the new tech/fascist zillionaires? www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/n...
Ronald Lauder, a Billionaire G.O.P. Backer, Closes His Wallet
Ronald S. Lauder, a major funder of conservative political causes, has not given a single dollar this year to Republicans in his home state, and his super PAC has gone idle.
nytimes.com
I've always felt that people have their head in the sand about Bluesky. It's a paradise the same way that Twitter once was, and is vulnerable to the same "market forces" that eventually killed Twitter, even if it doesn't look that way now. I wish Mastodon was more welcoming to non-techies.
Paul Bernal@paulbernal.bsky.social · 2d agoThe new CEO of Bluesky wants to change Bluesky from being a leftist bubble. The thing is, there’s nothing wrong with being a leftist bubble: the idea that everything has to be all-encompassing and suitable for everyone is a trap. 🧵 1/4
Coming your way tonight at 7 ET: This week's installment of my radio show, "It's Complicated" (an hour of prog and prog-adjacent music). Listen at 91.1 FM in and around NYC, on the web at wfmu.org, or through the unparalleled @wfmu.bsky.social app.
This is ridiculously scary. Yes, we are currently talking about ballrooms and reflecting pools and inflation and Iran and Venezuela and Epstein and crypto grift and the moral rot of the GOP. But all that is going to be forgotten soon. Shit is about to get real, as they say.
Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com · 3d agoI'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.
I have a soft spot for these fences with the vinyl strips, which started appearing around Brooklyn in the late '60s or '70s. I fear they'll start disappearing soon. I'd love to do a series of them if I had the time or a grant.
I love this blue plastic building in East Flatbush, but it's extraordinarily difficult to photograph. I made a decent picture of it over the weekend, and even caught two birds hanging out on the roof.
Madness is rare in individuals, but in groups, parties, peoples, ages, it is the rule. - Beyond Good and Evil §156
A bouquet for my social media friends on National Friendship Day.
Incredible (or not) that people with billions of dollars to invest fall for these frauds again and again. Media-ready white "genius" kid who got into Columbia at 15 but had like two weeks of investing experience had no idea what he was doing. (Gift link.) www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/b...
Leopold Aschenbrenner Built a Hot A.I. Hedge Fund. Then it Melted Down. (Gift Article)
Situational Awareness, led by a 24-year-old, exploded onto the artificial intelligence scene — and then nose-dived.
nytimes.com
I keep finding myself telling people that "live" is turned on for their iPhone photos and they might want to turn it off. Personally I hate it, but I don't preach about it. It's just that it seems to be on by default and people don't realize that. It really shouldn't be.
Excellent piece in the @lrb.co.uk (a couple of years old) on superyachts and the shady billionaires who own them: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Laleh Khalili · Showing Off: Superyachts
One can imagine nerdy crypto billionaires revelling in the unfamiliar machismo their yachts allow them to display. But...
lrb.co.uk
Block party on Midwood St. This guy was setting up and wanted to get in my photo and he was a good poser, so sure.
Seen in the wild: unusual two-tone, slightly tricked-out Rolls.
The simple, elegant statesmanship of "You gotta get this war over with."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d agoTrump on Zelenskyy: "I spoke to him about let's get this war over with ... I said, 'You gotta get this war over with.' I think he wants to make a deal and I think Putin wants to make a deal."