Banks, Not Armies

Banks, Not Armies

Florence, 1490sThe thing about the Medici that is most relevant to the present moment is not the art patronage, which is what they are remembered for, but the banking. Lorenzo understood something that most political leaders of his era did not fully grasp: that...
The Feast of Ghosts: Present Tense

The Feast of Ghosts: Present Tense

Present Day, May 2026The Victorian comparison I keep returning to is this: the salons where the wealthy consumed the performance of contact with the dead while the living poor were consuming cholera in the streets below. The performance was elaborate and expensive and...
The Double Edge

The Double Edge

Present Day, May 2026Every technology I have watched arrive has been a double edge, and it has taken me some time to arrive at a settled view about what this means and what the appropriate response to it is.The printing press. The steam engine. The telegraph. The...
Diagnosis, Not Doom

Diagnosis, Not Doom

Present Day, April 2026Some people who have heard Black Sun Rising have described it as pessimistic. I want to address this directly because I think the characterization misses something important about what the song is doing and what the album is doing.Pessimism is a...
Black Sun Rising: What the Song Is

Black Sun Rising: What the Song Is

Present Day, April 24, 2026The song is out now. I want to say something about what it is, because I think the title requires explanation rather than allowing the usual mysterious ambiguity that single titles sometimes perform.The black sun is a specific thing. It is...