Things are heating up at ORB as our orbit narrows towards what we’re calling our launch, in a few weeks–the Six Senses of Oakland!–even though you, our faithful subscribers, know that time is a circle, or at least an eccentric ellipse, and that at every point in its revolution, the ORB is always launching towards infinity.
This past week, for example, we published Megan Wachspress’s Unpaid Debts, exploring what debt means to Oakland and the prospect of declaring bankruptcy on climate capitalism, by way of explaining just exactly how the hell a Kentucky judge can propose to bankrupt us as punishment for a company going bankrupt. Take some time to read it–you’ll need it–and become the smarter version of yourself, if you haven’t already. We also ran a note from our sponsor–literally a note from Brad at EBB, who is sponsoring us–a vibe report from some waterfront art at Tamarack and some thoughts on why Sinners is great (and why nothing is, except at just the right moment).
A quick program note: as spin faster and faster, we’re going to be publishing a lot more. You can help us settle the internal debate we’ve been having about how many emails people want to receive from us by logging into your account and choosing between 1. Only the link-encrusted calendar on Tuesdays and this semi-weekly, semi-digested weekly digest, or 2. if you like life, you can get everything we publish in email form, The Full Review. Log in to the website, click that big green “My Account” button at the top right, and update your email preferences to choose your poison:
Meanwhile, Coyote reminds us that it’s ten years since we hated the superbowl, we learn about the Bay Area Leftist Chinese Group and talking to AC Transit drivers at the Current, and Street Spirit rode along with the point-in-time count of homelessness. Our friend Annie investigates why empires in decline make websites that look like that, the Phoenix Project writes about what Lurie is and isn’t saying, and Omar gets Into the Details at city council, his new politics-obsessed roundup for people who are 15 percent less politics-obsessed. The Hausa vegan. SFSU is cutting anthropology—and so much more!—so that CSU has money to give to OpenAI. Liam found out about the USS Hornet (and told us) and also the new Kaiser Center. Sam goes for a run in fascism. The Rebel King's celebrated their Kingceañera.
Elsewhere, Bezos has broken his toy and gone home, so we’re reading about how the government pays billionaires to burn money on their hobbies. Crow-maggedon. In a different-but-no-less-cursed confluence of billionaires and journalism and hobbyist cosplaying, a “barrage of journalists,” we are told, “backed [a bunch of billionaire stooges] into a tree” at the billionaire march in the West Bay. (Remember, Aella-related attacks are a lot rare than you'd think; she's more afraid of you than you are of her). Mountain View joins the ranks of cities telling Flock to flock off, which [redacted]. The Impact of ICE Raids on Street-Food Vendors, and our American immigration concentration camps have their own playlist, developed via hurled lotion bottles, I hate this country. Good playlist, though. In sports, JD Vance’s motorcade got in Alysa Liu’s way–next time she should slash his tires with her skates–and when Bad Bunny consults the scholarship, the scholarship consults him (and Alexis chats with the scholars).
And books? Along with P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance, folks in the orbit have been reading Yiyun Li’s new book about the worst thing that’s ever happened (since the last time she wrote a book about the SAME WORST THING, when it did the first time), also Pedro the Vast from California’s Bizarro South American doppelganger–a slim volume, ironically–and there was an Exoterica sighting from local publishers Cantine, at EBB. Yoko Tawada’s Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel is there, if you’re into globe-trotting books about books; people seem to be into Gabrielle Calvocoressi's The New Economy, or at least people who give awards, and also Charlotte Beradt’s The Third Reich of Dreams. Celebrate the year of the horse with Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, get thrown in a world of technical legalese with Sergio de la Pava’s A Naked Singularity, and if you saw the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha show at BAMPFA, get your hands on Dictée.
