Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 3d

Michael Jackson reviews last week's Hyde Park Jazz Festival for "Chicago Reader", with tons of photos that give a good feel for what the event was like.
chicagoreader.com/music/music-...

The Hyde Park Jazz Festival defies federal defunding to shine brighter than ever - Chicago Reader

Photos from the Hyde Park Jazz Festival's 19th year overflow with joy and community that give the lie to Trump’s ugly vision of the world.

chicagoreader.com

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Reposted by Michael K. Bourdaghs

lindsey adler @lindseyadler.bsky.social · 5d

Great story. Can't overstate the desperation in creative industries right now. Nearly every person I know who previously had a viable, or even lucrative, career in media/entertainment is in a financial panic, leaving longtime apartments, desperately taking any work they can find. It is really bad.

Ben Fritz @benfritz.bsky.social · 7d

The most important human story in the entertainment industry right now is the severe downturn in film and TV production in LA and how it's affecting middle-class crew workers. I spoke to dozens of them for this story about the depressed Hollywood economy. www.wsj.com/business/med...

L.A.’s Entertainment Economy Is Looking Like a Disaster Movie

Work is evaporating, businesses are closing, longtime residents are leaving, and Los Angeles’s creative middle class is hanging on by a thread.

www.wsj.com

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Reposted by Michael K. Bourdaghs

Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 5d

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 6d

The volume "Social Voices: The Cultural Politics of Singers Around the Globe," ed. Levi. S. Gibbs (University of Illinois Press) is available as a free download this month. It includes my essay on singer Teresa Teng's career in Japan and much other great scholarship.

mailchi.mp/illinois/pf0...

UIP October 2025 free e-book

mailchi.mp

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 6d

New book: "Literary and Artistic Japan behind the Iron Curtain," edited by Irina Holca and George T. Sipos (Routledge).
www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

Literary and Artistic Japan behind the Iron Curtain | Irina Holca, Geo

This book examines the public perception, scholarly reception, and critical analysis of Japan through translations of its literature and artistic endeavors

www.taylorfrancis.com

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 12d

Legendary pianist Yamashita Yosuke 山下洋輔 opened today's first day of the 2025 Hyde Park Jazz Festival here in Chicago. A striking set by "Nikutai Mondo," also featuring Aoki Tatsu 青木達幸on bass and Tomatsu Takahiro 戸松美貴博 on "body movement."

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 13d

Rivi Handler-Spitz (of my alma mater, Macalester College) for Inside Higher Education: "Visa Chaos: What 6 Chinese Students Say."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

Visa Chaos: A Graphic Narrative (opinion)

A graphic narrative written and drawn by Rivi Handler-Spitz.

www.insidehighered.com

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 15d

Jill Mapes at "Hearing Things" on the music of the Gilmore Girls: "Those Gilmore Girls Sure Do Know A Lot About Music."

www.hearingthings.co/those-gilmor...

Those Gilmore Girls Sure Do Know A Lot About Music

TV’s greatest fast-talking mother and daughter created a discerning but feminine cultural canon, gilded with la-la-las.

www.hearingthings.co

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 15d

Carl Wilson with a great piece for Slate on the history and stakes of the poptimism/rockism wars: "Criticism’s Biggest Straw Man."
slate.com/culture/2025...

Grumps Blame It for Everything From the Rise of Taylor to the Fall of Pitchfork. They Don’t Even Understand It.

Criticism’s most abused straw man.

slate.com

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 17d

Lecture next week at UChicago: TAKAHASHI Akinori on "Tsukinami as a Keyword in Japanese Culture" (in Japanese). Oct. 3, 2025 at 2:00 p.m.

To attend IN-PERSON: www.eventbrite.com/e/takahashi-...
To attend VIRTUALLY: uchicagogroup.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 17d

Mark Jenkins reviews the new Haru Nemuri album “Ekkolaptómenos" for the Washington Post. We learn, among other things, that she's a big fan of Fugazi. wapo.st/4gCbfL4

Japanese musician Haru Nemuri blends pop, rap, EDM and so much more

In her third full-length release, “Ekkolaptómenos,” political and philosophical questions are explored through the English language and heavy synths.

wapo.st

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · 26d

Sonia's debut single, "Emily" is out today and available on all platforms (see the links below). Give it a listen!

open.spotify.com/album/2IOWjB...

tidal.com/browse/track...

amazon.com/music/player...

music.apple.com/us/album/emi...

Emily

open.spotify.com

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Reposted by Michael K. Bourdaghs

Jenni Tabler @jennismovingcastle.bsky.social · Sep 10

🙃

CNN Article 1) Tesla proposes Elon musk pay package that would make him the first trillionaire. CNN Article 2) YouTube sisters share $1 meals to help families survive soaring food prices. RIP Marx you would have loved this.

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Reposted by Michael K. Bourdaghs

Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · Sep 6

Reading books is becoming an act of resistance.

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Reposted by Michael K. Bourdaghs

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · Sep 8

What Trump's Secret Police did today.

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Reposted by Michael K. Bourdaghs

Paul Bassett Davies @thewritertype.bsky.social · Nov 20

Eventually you have to accept that no matter how many different notebooks you buy, they won’t make you a better writer. For that, you need to spend a lot of money on the right pen.

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Reposted by Michael K. Bourdaghs

新刊発見bot @discover.sinkan.net · Sep 3

2025年9月30日『仲介する日本』シャオルー・マー/秋草俊一郎/今井亮一/高橋知之 (文学通信) [Book] https://sinkan.net/?ean=9784867660966&action_item=true #新刊情報 #sinkan

2025/9/30 仲介する日本シャオルー・マー/秋草... [単行本] - 新刊.net - 書籍やCD、DVD、ゲームの新刊発売日を自動チェック

2025年9月30日火曜日発売仲介する日本シャオルー・マー/秋草俊一郎/今井亮一/高橋知之文学通信単行本

sinkan.net

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · Sep 1

Joshua Minsoo Kim devotes Pitchfork's "The Sunday Review" for classic albums to Hosono Haruomi's 1975 LP "Tropical Dandy."

pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

Haruomi Hosono: Tropical Dandy

Read Joshua Minsoo Kim’s review of the album.

pitchfork.com

Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · Aug 31

Larry Graham is still alive and slapping. See if he’s available.

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · Aug 25

New book: Anne Walthall, "In the Presence of Gods and Spirits: Hirata Atsutane and His Collaborators" (University of Michigan Press).
press.umich.edu/Books/I/In-t...

In the Presence of Gods and Spirits

In the Presence of Gods and Spirits brings to life the early nineteenth-century Japanese religious leader and scholar Hirata Atsutane, whose fear of Russian incursion onto Japan’s soil led him to rede...

press.umich.edu

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Reposted by Michael K. Bourdaghs

Maia Kobabe @redgoldsparks.bsky.social · Aug 15

If any of your books are in this database of works stolen by Libgen theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/ You can fill out this form to receive updates on the ongoing class action lawsuit www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-author-contact/ (my agent said yes, do this)

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI

Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

theatlantic.com

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · Aug 5

New book: Christopher T. Nelson, "When the Bones Speak: The Living, the Dead, and the Sacrifice of Contemporary Okinawa" (Duke University Press). Online open access version available.

www.dukeupress.edu/when-the-bon...

When the Bones Speak

www.dukeupress.edu

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · Aug 2

Excellent review by Katie Kitamura of Tsushima Yuko's novel "Wildcat Dome" (trans. Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda). Behind a paywall, but well worth tracking down--

harpers.org/archive/2025...

Into the Vortex, by Katie Kitamura

harpers.org

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Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · Aug 1

Let them eat AI.

Michael K. Bourdaghs @mbourdaghs.bsky.social · Jul 31

Not a good day to be a Minnesota Twins fan….