Olivia Giovetti
@oliviagiovetti.bsky.social
When I was 4, I dressed up as Mephistopheles from Faust for Halloween and corrected each of my grandparents' friends when they thought I was the devil.
Now I'm a cultural critic.
Web: oliviagiovetti.com
Substack: criticaldrift.org
Now I'm a cultural critic.
Web: oliviagiovetti.com
Substack: criticaldrift.org
Pinned
“Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.”
Hedwig and the Angry Grinch
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Grinch
Salo, or 120 Days of the Grinch
December 18, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Hedwig and the Angry Grinch
Konzept: Wozzeck
December 15, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Konzept: Wozzeck
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
Fellini's Santacon
December 15, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Fellini's Santacon
"This may be the last time you ever see me because… there's only a couple of us that are speaking out in this hard way." Rob Reiner on CNN, September 2025
December 15, 2025 at 5:35 PM
"This may be the last time you ever see me because… there's only a couple of us that are speaking out in this hard way." Rob Reiner on CNN, September 2025
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
Ahmed al Ahmed, the man who tackled one of the Bondi killers, became an Australian citizen 3 years ago.
His deed was "his way of conveying his gratitude for staying in Australia, for being granted citizenship."
He took 5 bullets, and fears he'll lose his left arm.
www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...
His deed was "his way of conveying his gratitude for staying in Australia, for being granted citizenship."
He took 5 bullets, and fears he'll lose his left arm.
www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...
December 15, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Ahmed al Ahmed, the man who tackled one of the Bondi killers, became an Australian citizen 3 years ago.
His deed was "his way of conveying his gratitude for staying in Australia, for being granted citizenship."
He took 5 bullets, and fears he'll lose his left arm.
www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...
His deed was "his way of conveying his gratitude for staying in Australia, for being granted citizenship."
He took 5 bullets, and fears he'll lose his left arm.
www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...
I can’t believe the first night of Hanukkah fell on Muntadhar al-Zaidi Day this year and I didn’t think to make a shoe menorah. Please tell me one of you did.
December 15, 2025 at 12:30 PM
I can’t believe the first night of Hanukkah fell on Muntadhar al-Zaidi Day this year and I didn’t think to make a shoe menorah. Please tell me one of you did.
My dad had tattoos of Woody Woodpecker and the Roadrunner (he liked to say he had two birds and a pecker). I knew my husband was related to Mel Blanc, but it was only recently that we both learned that cousin Mel voiced both Woody and the Roadrunner.
At my niece’s wedding, where I learned she and her husband’s moms were waitresses together at several restaurants near Hudson, WI, pregnant at the same time, and they used to joke about what if their kids got married someday. They met working at the same bar.
December 13, 2025 at 4:26 PM
My dad had tattoos of Woody Woodpecker and the Roadrunner (he liked to say he had two birds and a pecker). I knew my husband was related to Mel Blanc, but it was only recently that we both learned that cousin Mel voiced both Woody and the Roadrunner.
It‘s not the dumbest thing the NYT has done lately but still… this is a baffling photo crop especially given the (awful) story.
December 10, 2025 at 7:55 AM
It‘s not the dumbest thing the NYT has done lately but still… this is a baffling photo crop especially given the (awful) story.
You will be visited by three spirits
December 9, 2025 at 8:12 AM
You will be visited by three spirits
Had just finished Kracht’s Eurotrash yesterday, in an edition whose cover sports one of Parr’s photographs.
December 7, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Had just finished Kracht’s Eurotrash yesterday, in an edition whose cover sports one of Parr’s photographs.
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
Today I learned that Art Garfunkel's son, Art Garfunkel, Jr., has released a teutonically-tinged Christmas album and I was not prepared to hear this guy sing "Winter Wonderland" in German.
Weißer Winterwald (Winter Wonderland)
YouTube video by Art Garfunkel jr. - Topic
www.youtube.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Today I learned that Art Garfunkel's son, Art Garfunkel, Jr., has released a teutonically-tinged Christmas album and I was not prepared to hear this guy sing "Winter Wonderland" in German.
I just told a friend that I could fill out this entire Anna Netrebko Accountability Advent Calendar quite easily but it seemed like overkill and they responded that people in their 20s have no idea about half of her problematic moments and oh my god 2019 was six years ago
December 3, 2025 at 7:32 PM
I just told a friend that I could fill out this entire Anna Netrebko Accountability Advent Calendar quite easily but it seemed like overkill and they responded that people in their 20s have no idea about half of her problematic moments and oh my god 2019 was six years ago
Featuring:
– An Alma Mahler Labubu
– The Britten Seaside Trauma snow globe
– “Fratres” for Cats
– The “Anna Netrebko Accountability” Advent Calendar
– Lush’s “Shostakovich Panic Attack” bath bomb
– An Alma Mahler Labubu
– The Britten Seaside Trauma snow globe
– “Fratres” for Cats
– The “Anna Netrebko Accountability” Advent Calendar
– Lush’s “Shostakovich Panic Attack” bath bomb
The Ultimate Classical Music Gift Guide for the Terminally Online and Historically-Burdened
Because we've all read too much music theory to be merry.
www.criticaldrift.org
December 3, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Featuring:
– An Alma Mahler Labubu
– The Britten Seaside Trauma snow globe
– “Fratres” for Cats
– The “Anna Netrebko Accountability” Advent Calendar
– Lush’s “Shostakovich Panic Attack” bath bomb
– An Alma Mahler Labubu
– The Britten Seaside Trauma snow globe
– “Fratres” for Cats
– The “Anna Netrebko Accountability” Advent Calendar
– Lush’s “Shostakovich Panic Attack” bath bomb
Musicologists: Can someone with an AMS Journal subscription help me out with a recent article that's not on JSTOR?
December 3, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Musicologists: Can someone with an AMS Journal subscription help me out with a recent article that's not on JSTOR?
Oh, you all think the "Last Christmas" from Vienna is unhinged? That's cute.
The Batshit Classical Holiday Mixtape
John Brown, Bertolt Brecht, and George Michael
open.substack.com
December 1, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Oh, you all think the "Last Christmas" from Vienna is unhinged? That's cute.
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
‘“We can’t stay here through the winter,” my mother said. “Our tents are worn out.”
I had no answer for her. Even if we had been allowed to cross the Yellow Line to get to Rafah, our home there had been destroyed months ago.’
Hassan Ayman Herzallah reports from Gaza
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
I had no answer for her. Even if we had been allowed to cross the Yellow Line to get to Rafah, our home there had been destroyed months ago.’
Hassan Ayman Herzallah reports from Gaza
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
Hassan Ayman Herzallah | Seventeen Minutes of Rain
In the first week of November I was sitting with my mother in the tent in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza. It was 9 a.m. on...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 30, 2025 at 5:10 PM
‘“We can’t stay here through the winter,” my mother said. “Our tents are worn out.”
I had no answer for her. Even if we had been allowed to cross the Yellow Line to get to Rafah, our home there had been destroyed months ago.’
Hassan Ayman Herzallah reports from Gaza
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
I had no answer for her. Even if we had been allowed to cross the Yellow Line to get to Rafah, our home there had been destroyed months ago.’
Hassan Ayman Herzallah reports from Gaza
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
Every job will invariably give you transferrable skills: When I was in college I worked answering phones and making bookings for a dungeon, and this week I didn’t have to look up “felching.”
November 30, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Every job will invariably give you transferrable skills: When I was in college I worked answering phones and making bookings for a dungeon, and this week I didn’t have to look up “felching.”
Social media dumbspeak has cooked my brain to the point where I just read “unavailing” as “unaliving.”
November 30, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Social media dumbspeak has cooked my brain to the point where I just read “unavailing” as “unaliving.”
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
‘After two long years during which use of the word “ceasefire” was enough to put you at risk of losing your livelihood, “ceasefire” has become something we are expected to be grateful for, now that “ceasefire” means continued genocide.’
@selmadabbagh.bsky.social
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
@selmadabbagh.bsky.social
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
Selma Dabbagh | Rebranding Genocide
The killing of Palestinians has continued, sometimes surpassing pre-ceasefire levels and accelerating viciously in the...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
‘After two long years during which use of the word “ceasefire” was enough to put you at risk of losing your livelihood, “ceasefire” has become something we are expected to be grateful for, now that “ceasefire” means continued genocide.’
@selmadabbagh.bsky.social
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
@selmadabbagh.bsky.social
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
Unprepared as I was to learn that Tom Stoppard has died, I was even less prepared to learn that he punched up Last Crusade.
Worth noting too is Stoppard’s work on Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade. Jeffrey Boam wrote the script but Stoppard did a rewrite just before shooting - he compressed scenes, raised the stakes, built most of the jokes & sequences you remember.
November 29, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Unprepared as I was to learn that Tom Stoppard has died, I was even less prepared to learn that he punched up Last Crusade.
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
Patti Smith is definitely one of the rockers who incorporates religious ecstasy into her performances, only instead of channeling American gospel like the rest of her generation it feels more like she went with Hildegard of Bingen
November 29, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Patti Smith is definitely one of the rockers who incorporates religious ecstasy into her performances, only instead of channeling American gospel like the rest of her generation it feels more like she went with Hildegard of Bingen
Is this Etsy description too unhinged or not unhinged enough? www.etsy.com/de-en/listin...
www.etsy.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Is this Etsy description too unhinged or not unhinged enough? www.etsy.com/de-en/listin...
Reposted by Olivia Giovetti
Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
"no seriously you think it’s so funny that i saw flowers in winter
like oh let’s make fun of the guy who took a risk and put himself out there romantically."
like oh let’s make fun of the guy who took a risk and put himself out there romantically."
Dirtbag Winterreise
“more like suck-blick”
www.criticaldrift.org
November 26, 2025 at 11:43 AM
"no seriously you think it’s so funny that i saw flowers in winter
like oh let’s make fun of the guy who took a risk and put himself out there romantically."
like oh let’s make fun of the guy who took a risk and put himself out there romantically."