Most weeks in the history of white supremacy are not good weeks, but this is a particularly bad week. Some lowlights: In my hometown of Minneapolis, a white police officer lynches George Floyd while three other officers look on. The incident is caught on video, which is important because the initial police report does not […]
Author Archives: Jonathan Sterne
COVID-19: This Time It’s Personal
As regions and municipalities start to relax their lockdowns, advice is starting to pop up about risk and decision making. It is almost entirely addressed to readers in the second-person singular. For instance, Madison physician James Stein outlined different levels of personal risk and says “I can’t make decisions for you”; The New York Times […]
Instant thoughts on moving instruction online for the fall
I was very happy to read that McGill is taking instruction online in the fall. There are still some ambiguous words in the provost’s email about the student experience, on-campus seminars and learning experiences, etc.* But this is so much better than pretending everything will be the same when we know it can’t be. And […]
Locked Down Reviews: TV, more of it.
Okay, we’re here for awhile. I’m going to start reviewing stuff. The usual caveats apply. My tastes aren’t yours, they might suck to you and certainly cannot withstand political scrutiny. There are minor spoilers included but nothing that would ruin it for me if it was the other way around. There is a lot of […]
Locked down reviews: Jewish General Hospital + some good news
This morning I arose an a frankly disgusting hour (or so said by body) in order to get my blood drawn at the Jewish General Hospital at 7:30am. I wasn’t sure what to expect. JGH, which is where all my cancer treatment happens, is also one of the hospitals in Montreal designated to deal with […]
Do your civic duty to musicians and music: go buy some music on Bandcamp tomorrow
This Friday, May 1st, Bandcamp is waiving their share of revenue for all purchases, which means every penny you spend on Bandcamp goes directly to artists (or small indy labels). Last time they did this, on March 20th, they raised $4.3 million for their musicians, “helping artists cover rents, mortgages, groceries, medications, and so much […]
Work update: a new deadline and a note on endless apologies
The reviews for Diminished Faculties came back at the end of February. The reviewers were positive and had some good suggestions. I wrote my reply, Duke University Press’ board met, and yesterday I signed the contract. That’s some happy news. I found it actually helpful to publicly announce a deadline, as I did in the […]