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Benjamin Tausig

@burrata.bsky.social

4.6K followers 1.6K following 4.5K posts

Associate professor of music and sound in Asia/anthropology. Crossword puzzle editor; TNG watcher.

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · Jan 7

My new book, "Bangkok After Dark: Maurice Rocco, Transnational Nightlife, and the Making of Cold War Intimacies" is now available for pre-order!! It comes out in May.

You'll love reading it, I believe!

Use code E25TAUSG and it'll be about $21 + shipping.

www.dukeupress.edu/bangkok-afte...

www.dukeupress.edu

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 1h

My daughter has a school assignment to write a scary story in just a few lines, and I showed her this from Clickhole, which is some of the most efficient horror scripting I've ever read.

Clickhole headline: "Incredible! We Asked These Astronauts What It's Like to Be In Space"

Astronaut Barry Wilmore, pictured in an orange spacesuit, says "“You never know true beauty until you see Earth from space, or true terror until you hear someone knocking on the space station door from outside. You look through the porthole and see an astronaut, but all your crew is inside and accounted for. You use the comm to ask who it is and he says he’s Ramirez returning from a repair mission, but Ramirez is sitting right next to you in the command module and he’s just as confused as you are. When you tell the guy this over the radio he starts banging on the door louder and harder, begging you to let him in, saying he’s the real Ramirez. Meanwhile, the Ramirez inside with you is pleading to keep the airlock shut. It really puts life on Earth into perspective.”

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 8h

I have no idea whether FoS holds up. I liked it very much when I read it in my first six months of living in New York, but it might have that early 2000s white male nyc author sheen on it.

I can however absolutely vouch in advance for my “Ratatouille” novel.

Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 8h

I was also going to say “Ratatouille” before realizing you specified “novel,” but now I am thinking myself about novelizing that film.

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 8h

Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

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Reposted by Benjamin Tausig

Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 23h

A “Music for 18 Musicians”-type piece, but made up of interlocking recordings of players in handshake lines saying “good game, good game, good game, good game…”

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 15h

At the same time, I hope you eventually do the right thing here

Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 23h

A “Music for 18 Musicians”-type piece, but made up of interlocking recordings of players in handshake lines saying “good game, good game, good game, good game…”

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks for this!! Kinkos does still exist (as fedex I guess). I wonder if they would still take these orders at all, and if so what the cover price would look like for a course pack in 2025?

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 1d

When we used course packs in college, was Kinkos (or whatever local place) paying licensing fees? I don’t think I was aware of all the economics.

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 1d

Fair.

Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 1d

And if there are challenges for us as instructors in going analog, I think they’re usually worth it — the potential risks of working within university surveillance systems are very real, for students above all. It’s just good practice.

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Reposted by Benjamin Tausig

Cara L. Lewis @carallewis.bsky.social · 1d

Does anyone still make coursepacks for students?

Super common when I was in college & grad school, but I imagine putting PDFs on the LMS has mostly (entirely?) replaced it. Anyone just printing out everything for them?

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 1d

Reverting to blue books for writing
assignments and paper for exams seemed hard, until it wasn’t. That’s been my new standard for a while.

I see no reason why course packs would be different. There are still places to print things, including on campus. Obv class size matters, but generally …

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 1d

Anyone who speaks favorably or even neutrally about the compact, should have to speak in the voice of the desperately greedy frog

Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 1d

"Administration officials are weaponizing federal funding to make universities more congenial to Trumpism, saying that those who sign the compact will be at the front of the line for government money."

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

A still from the film "Spirited Away" in which a monster offers Chihiroa heaping handful of gold while the bathhouse workers all watch in greedy excitement. it turns out that the monster shrinks and runs away when people don't accept the gold (which, in any case, wasn't real gold anyway)

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 2d

I also happen to know that, during that series, Wendy O. Williams was on Joan Rivers, and it fucking slays, and Rivers talks about one of the games during the banter. It’s on YouTube if you want a truly deep sense of the moment.

Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 2d

Watching game 6 of the 1986 World Series with my son during this rain delay, and I can’t recommend it enough — the supple athlete bodies of a bygone age, breathless ads from Tandy for 286 computers, and much more. But nothing’s as glorious as seeing Roger Clemens really sad.

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 2d

It’s breezy in the nicest way

Reposted by Benjamin Tausig

Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 2d

Appreciating the lovely cool weather today in Queens

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 2d

Appreciating the lovely cool weather today in Queens

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 3d

It feels weirdly like a crime now to enter a store, exchange money for a good, and leave without disclosing your name or contact information

Reposted by Benjamin Tausig

Polly Pallister-Wilkins @pollypw.bsky.social · 3d

Political violence is when people laugh at me

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 4d

But in the Canadian baseball system, you have to wait in line for runs

Reposted by Benjamin Tausig

👻 YSUBoOooOooOo 👻 @bassoonysu.bsky.social · 5d

Post on r/Cleveland about the student radio station at Cleveland State University getting shut down for being "too woke," with the shut down attended by a state senator.

From the Cleveland community on Reddit: And then they came for college radio DJs (WCSB 89.3FM)

Explore this post and more from the Cleveland community

www.reddit.com

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 6d

Teaching my children the fundaments of Showtime

Clowning on an empty subway car with my kids (I am a middle aged man in work clothes hanging upside down)