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George Grella

@gtra1n.bsky.social

610 followers 340 following 3.4K posts

Write/edit about music & stuff all over the place, amazing taste, hard core values. Prolly only person to play CBGB and write about opera for the FT. Edit Brooklyn Rail music section, kickass newsletter: killyridols.substack.com venmo.com/George-Grella

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George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · Sep 2

Coming out April 2, 2026: preorder now! Links and more at the link! open.substack.com/pub/killyrid...

George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 35m

If you ever want to know why criticism is essential …

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 3h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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John Bolton's Mustache @jonboltonsmustache.bsky.social · 11h

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Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 15h

theonion.com/ice-raids-my...

MYTH: ICE agents lack proper training.

FACT: Most have been racists their entire lives.

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George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 11h

In a way, very impressive to bat -1.000%

Freezing Cold Takes @oldtakesexposed.bsky.social · 12h

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George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 12h

This and also this ten years ago without stopping

Ify Nwadiwe @ifycomedy.com · 16h

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

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ULTRA💀BLAST @ultrakillblast.bsky.social · 17h

THE THING (1982)

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George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 19h

Reminded again today that opera draws the dullest, smuggest, most bourgeois criticism. Which is why you should read mine: newyorkclassicalreview.com/author/ggrel...

New York Classical Review

newyorkclassicalreview.com

George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 19h

youtu.be/9FAV3zr1PMk?...

Diane Keaton - It Seems Like Old Times

YouTube video by AhmalShukup

youtu.be

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George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 20h

And the way they use transitive verbs without verifying if the object suffered the effect of the action is both incorrect and irritating as fuck

Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 20h

The structure of this lede is quite instructive. Use action words ("slams") and extensive quotes to amplify Johnson's heinous lie, then, rather than plainly stating that this is complete bs, the reporters avers that his statement "drew condemnation from some Democrats."

Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday slammed the No Kings protest march scheduled to take place at the National Mall next week, describing the planned protest as the “hate America rally” that would draw “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” His characterizations, however, drew condemnation from some Democrats who defended the protest movement, whose first big demonstration was overwhelmingly peaceful.

George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 21h

So much this. Acronyms are fast becoming a heuristic that the writer has nothing interesting or useful to say.

norbizness @norbizness.bsky.social · 21h

At some point everybody's going to have to stop typing RIFed like they're cool new savvy reporters for whom human misery is no big deal, it's ILLEGALLY FIRED WITHOUT CAUSE. This ain't a bad John Carradine movie on MST3K.

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LOWρUF🐸 🇵🇦🇬🇱🇨🇦🇲🇽 @lowrhoufo.bsky.social · 21h

Ms. Rachel derangement syndrome is a uniquely effective sign that you're a bad person

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Melvin Gibbs @melvingibbs.bsky.social · 21h

In memory of Andrew Yang's mayoral run
let's take moment to honor him for:
1) taking the A train to the Bronx to see the Yankees
2) calling a 7-11 a bodega

Melvin Gibbs @melvingibbs.bsky.social · 21h

WHERE you order is just as important as what
ordering a plain slice from Di Fara's will get me more cred & votes than a pepperoni slice from Roberta's
(but a smart politician would do both)
My non-traditional order from from Ess-A-Bagel will get me more votes than traditional one from 7-11

Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your bagel order and I will tell you *based on NYC cultural expectations* if you have won or lost your election for political office in NYC.

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George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 22h

Someone introduce the NY Times political writer to the concept of the "unreliable narrator" it will really help them get to a competent level of arts criticism

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 1d

A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.

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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 1d

Argentina edition of Libertarian bible

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Kenny Mayne @kennymayne.bsky.social · 1d

Hitting balls in house with 5 iron

Knitting

Making pasta

Registering voters

Kenny Mayne @kennymayne.bsky.social · 1d

Switching rooms
New TV

Holden @rlljr13.bsky.social · 1d

Oh captain, my captain…

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George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 1d

This shit was never entertaining

Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 1d

What on earth??

hellgatenyc.com/city-jail-na...

Adams Administration Quietly Renames the Tombs for Disgraced Criminal Bernard Kerik

The Lower Manhattan jail facility briefly bore Kerik's name once before, until he was convicted of corruption.

hellgatenyc.com

George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 1d

Seems like a NatSec issue for the President to be full of nanobots and magnetized

Meg Tirrell @megtirrell.bsky.social · 1d

President Trump got an updated Covid vaccine & flu shot at Walter Reed today www.cnn.com/2025/10/10/p...

Trump received Covid vaccine and flu shot during second physical of the year | CNN Politics

President Donald Trump received a Covid vaccine and flu shot during his visit to Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday, his physician said in a memo released by the White House.

www.cnn.com

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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 1d

I know what he means about dying a thousand deaths.

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Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 1d

Billionaire Peter Thiel believes Greta Thunberg works for the Antichrist.

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Award-Winning Reporter Dave Colon @davecolon.bsky.social · 1d

The thing the "Haha Mayor Adams we'll miss him what a quotable character" postmortems get wrong is that he's a jerk

City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 1d

Hizzoner delivers a pretty remarkable broadside against the press, claiming it was responsible for killing his reelection after a subway crime press conference, singling out reporters. We chased him out of the station.
Me: “Would you take the upgrades again?”
Adams: “I’m so glad your back”

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Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 1d

Flatterers up the *ss of the rich man. Some things never change! Here in 1592 by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, whose day is today.

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George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 1d

Actually a clever subterfuge to trick an addled old man who has lost touch with reality

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Rep. Buddy Carter: "Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. That's why I'm introducing a resolution today that will honor him with the Nobel Peace Prize."

(It doesn't work like that lol)

George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 1d

Not enough people on this app read military history or watch Peacemaker and even people with politics you like who don’t get enough culture can have problems thinking and don’t know always have useful takes

I’m not even getting into deep and abstract culture, just pop beyond Taylor Swift

George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 1d

What other accomplishment did Obama achieve? It was the one that drove people insane, what was it again? Thinking, thinking…

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 2d

One of the only things Trump has ever been right about: Obama had no business winning the Nobel Peace Prize for what amounted to the accomplishment of being a US president who was not George W Bush. (Remember, he had been in office for eight months at the time.)

George Grella @gtra1n.bsky.social · 2d

He needs friends in his life because what legit embarrassing dumb shit that is to say out loud

Shibley Telhami @stelhami.bsky.social · 2d

"Tech billionaire Peter Thiel recently warned that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and critics of technology or artificial intelligence are “legionnaires of the Antichrist” in private lectures on Christianity" wapo.st/4q5wR6S

Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction

In leaked recordings of private lectures by tech billionaire Peter Thiel he argued that “the Antichrist” is likely to take the form of a critic of technology.

wapo.st