Tom Lehrer died, aged 97, in late July. Lehrer had written 37 (well, a few more) songs in the 1950s and 1960s, and on the basis of this is still (rightly in my opinion) regarded as one of the pre-eminent satirists of the 20th century. Interviewed in 2014 Weird Al Yankovic said "I wouldn’t call... Continue Reading →
Taylor Swift, cathexis, Zizek and (oof) black boxes
I came to the podcast Ordinary Unhappiness very recently while on a Wilfred Bion binge (blog post abt that stuck in development hell). The shtick seems to be that three very well-informed-on-psychoanalysis young(ish) East Coast Americans (two seem married, to each other I mean) will have a topic (Bion and groups, the 1967 film The... Continue Reading →
Tom Lehrer as the first great song-writer of the Anthropocene
The 37 or so songs of American satirist Tom Lehrer (1928- ) should all be part of the vocabulary of, well, everyone. They are dirty (Smut, I’m a market they can’t glut), sick (I hold your hand in mind and “Be Prepared” - “don’t solicit for your sister, that’s not nice; unless you get a... Continue Reading →