Spaghetti For Brains
By Spaghetti For Brains
spaghettiforbrains.substack.com
Spaghetti For BrainsMay 15, 2022
36: BABY BRAINS
The boys are back after Lord Eli graciously reinstated them. On this episode, Ben talks about having a baby and what fatherhood means when you're not one of the freaks and perverts obsessed with gender ideology (ie. ultra cishet people). Norm has a word for the haters.
For those who want to read up about the subject of miscarriage and why it's stupid that we have a taboo around talking about it, we suggest this article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/mv5knx/we-need-to-remove-the-taboo-of-talking-about-miscarriage-337
35a: BESIDE THE GOLDEN DOOR
Beside the Golden Door: A Love Letter to Govanhill
All about Scotland's rent freeze, what gentrification is (and isn't)—and Ben's neighbourhood, Govanhill.
Read the piece, and subscribe for other new writing, at Spaghetti For Brains newsletter.
35: SOCIALISM IN SICK TIMES
In this episode, Ben talks a little about how he came to write 'Socialism In Sick Times' for the first issue of a new magazine called The Guts Of It, then reads the piece. You can read the piece yourself in print or online. Check out www.thegutsofit.org to find your copy.
Subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains newsletter if you want to read more: spaghettiforbrains.substack.com/p/sick-times
34: CAPITAL'S LOWER INTESTINE
Norm samples the local delicacies. George W. Bush and Ellen think you're a punk. Elon challenges you to name five weird things about his weird thing. Partygate is a movie that flops. Dick Stormer, the human korma. Workers are just capital's lower intestine. Glasgow's radical history of rent strikes. An open letter to landlords, who are the modern-day Beverly Hillbillies.
SPAGHETTI FOR BRAINS LIVE!
www.burninghousebooks.com
THE HOUSING MONSTER (Part 4)
In the last of four parts, we present an audiobook version of The Housing Monster, written by an anonymous construction worker for the website prole.info.
The Housing Monster is a scathing illustrated essay that takes one seemingly simple, everyday thing—a house—and looks at the social relations that surround it. Moving from intensely personal thoughts and interactions to large-scale political and economic forces, it reads alternately like a worker’s diary, a short story, a psychology of everyday life, a historical account, an introduction to Marxist critique of political economy, and an angry flyer someone would pass you on the street.
Starting with the construction site and the physical building of houses, the book slowly builds and links more and more issues together: from gentrification and city politics to gender roles and identity politics, from subcontracting and speculation to union contracts and negotiation, from individual belief, suffering, and resistance to structural division, necessity, and instability. What starts as a look at housing broadens into a critique of capitalism as a whole.
This episode includes:
Part Three: Pushing, Pulling and Breaking
- Chapter 1: Notes on the Class Struggle
- Chapter 2: Collective Living
- Chapter 3: The Unions
- Chapter 4: Rent Control and State Housing
- Chapter 5: The Second World
- Chapter 6: Getting Rid of Monsters
Go to prole.info to access the illustrated ebook.
Subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains newsletter for new writing and updates.
THE HOUSING MONSTER (Part 3)
In the third of four parts, we present an audiobook version of The Housing Monster, written by an anonymous construction worker for the website prole.info.
The Housing Monster is a scathing illustrated essay that takes one seemingly simple, everyday thing—a house—and looks at the social relations that surround it. Moving from intensely personal thoughts and interactions to large-scale political and economic forces, it reads alternately like a worker’s diary, a short story, a psychology of everyday life, a historical account, an introduction to Marxist critique of political economy, and an angry flyer someone would pass you on the street.
Starting with the construction site and the physical building of houses, the book slowly builds and links more and more issues together: from gentrification and city politics to gender roles and identity politics, from subcontracting and speculation to union contracts and negotiation, from individual belief, suffering, and resistance to structural division, necessity, and instability. What starts as a look at housing broadens into a critique of capitalism as a whole.
This episode includes:
Part Two: The Neighborhood
- Chapter 1: Loans
- Chapter 2: Land
- Chapter 3: Development and Decay
- Chapter 4: The Housing Market and the Labor Market
- Chapter 5: Ownership and Class
- Chapter 6: A Woman's Place
- Chapter 7: Community and Commodity
Go to prole.info to access the illustrated ebook.
Subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains newsletter for new writing and updates.
THE HOUSING MONSTER (Part 2)
In the second of four parts, we present an audiobook version of The Housing Monster, written by an anonymous construction worker for the website prole.info.
The Housing Monster is a scathing illustrated essay that takes one seemingly simple, everyday thing—a house—and looks at the social relations that surround it. Moving from intensely personal thoughts and interactions to large-scale political and economic forces, it reads alternately like a worker’s diary, a short story, a psychology of everyday life, a historical account, an introduction to Marxist critique of political economy, and an angry flyer someone would pass you on the street.
Starting with the construction site and the physical building of houses, the book slowly builds and links more and more issues together: from gentrification and city politics to gender roles and identity politics, from subcontracting and speculation to union contracts and negotiation, from individual belief, suffering, and resistance to structural division, necessity, and instability. What starts as a look at housing broadens into a critique of capitalism as a whole.
This episode includes:
Part One: The Construction Site
- Chapter 2: Socialization, Separation and Subcontracting
- Chapter 3: Skill and Backwardness
- Chapter 4: The Pace of Work
- Chapter 5: Safety and Self-Destruction
- Chapter 6: Macho Shit
- Chapter 7: Blue Collar Blues
Go to prole.info to access the illustrated ebook.
Subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains newsletter for new writing and updates.
THE HOUSING MONSTER (Part 1)
In the first of four parts, we present an audiobook version of The Housing Monster, written by an anonymous construction worker for the website prole.info.
The Housing Monster is a scathing illustrated essay that takes one seemingly simple, everyday thing—a house—and looks at the social relations that surround it. Moving from intensely personal thoughts and interactions to large-scale political and economic forces, it reads alternately like a worker’s diary, a short story, a psychology of everyday life, a historical account, an introduction to Marxist critique of political economy, and an angry flyer someone would pass you on the street.
Starting with the construction site and the physical building of houses, the book slowly builds and links more and more issues together: from gentrification and city politics to gender roles and identity politics, from subcontracting and speculation to union contracts and negotiation, from individual belief, suffering, and resistance to structural division, necessity, and instability. What starts as a look at housing broadens into a critique of capitalism as a whole.
This episode includes:
Foreword
Part One: The Construction Site
- Chapter 1: Living and Dead Labor
Go to prole.info to access the illustrated ebook.
Subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains newsletter for new writing and updates.
33: CRITICAL RENT THEORY
The fellas are back with a reading about the housing crisis. The first article, from the Financial Times, traces the origins of the crisis in Britain to Thatcher's 'Right to Buy' scheme, but also the less well remembered New Labour creation from whole cloth of the 'buy-to-let' private rental sector (and the ballooning landlord class) as we know it. The second article comes courtesy of the Guardian, who are demonstrably invoking a new Maoist Land Reform Movement, by asking—WILL SOMEONE PLEASE CONSIDER THE POOR LANDLORDS? Come with us on a journey through this Tiny Tim Nation and let us poison your mind with CRT (critical rent theory) while we pack up our stuff and move into a future that will be either socialism or barbarism (but more likely the latter).
Next week, we'll start releasing The Housing Monster, written by an anonymous construction worker for the website prole.info where you can download the ebook for free. You can listen to Ben read it here in four instalments in the coming weeks.
Subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains newsletter for new writing and updates.
32: BRU-PILLED
MR Online: ‘COP26: Military pollution is the skeleton in the West’s climate closet’ mronline.org/2021/11/10/cop26-military-pollution-is-the-skeleton-in-the-wests-climate-closet/
GlasgowLive: ‘Glaswegians rally in George Square to demand free public transport for locals when COP26 ends’ www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/glaswegians-demand-free-public-transport-22126892
31: DO HARD THINGS
Ben's landlord wants more free money. The UK sucks and no one wants to come here. Hence the crisis of HGV drivers and the government finally turning to Jerry. Speaking of which, you too can be super-rich if you follow Seinfeld's advice and start doing Transcendental Meditation or learn to say happy birthday like Jeff Bezos.
30a: BACKWATER BLUES
*BONUS EPISODE*
Backwater Blues: "Natural" Disaster, Blues Records and the Commodity Form.
Ben looks at Bessie Smith's classic 1927 recording and the way it transforms a 'merely private misfortune' into a historical record of race and class dispossession, carving out a space for a collective consciousness. Music that speaks to and even operates as a social consciousness and memory—how has this changed over time? Can music in America and other “developed” capitalist societies still do this? Are there modern-day equivalents? Or has the commodification of recorded music and its shaping of the way we listen undermined our ability to have this kind of collective experience?
You can read this article and subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains newsletter at https://spaghettiforbrains.substack.com
30: AD NAUSEA ft. DARREN CULLEN
For our landmark 30th episode we talked to artist Darren Cullen a.k.a. Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives. Here in the UK, lots of people have seen his art at bus stops, on the Tube and on billboards, occupying the space normally reserved for advertisements. And that’s because much of his work takes the form of commercial images, messaging and design—but turned against the giant corporations and political actors who usually have a monopoly on our attention through these channels. Darren has made short films with Veterans For Peace, produced installations for Banksy's Dismaland, co-curated The Museum of Neoliberalism in London as well as authoring countless other acts of artistic sabotage. The tone of Darren’s work is comical: he makes satire. It’s faithful to the format that it parodies, which often makes for nauseating viewing because the subject matter couldn’t be more serious.
We talk about growing up (and out of) being right-wing, how the military preys on working-class children, the porous line between politics and PR, satire and bullshit in a post-Trump world, PFI and privatisation in the NHS, why neoliberalism needed a museum, and finally about Comrade Ant'ny converting to catholicism.
Check out Darren's work at Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives: https://www.spellingmistakescostlives.com
The Museum of Neoliberalism: https://www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/museumofneoliberalism
Works under discussion:
https://www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/bethemeat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KtyMcb86go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBAHuJbP_EA
Closing music from Darren's video 'The PFI Game' [link above]
Read Spaghetti For Brains propaganda and subscribe to our newsletter at https://spaghettiforbrains.substack.com
29: MUGSHOTS AND RADICAL LOVE ft. HATTY NESTOR
Check out Ethical Portraits and more of Hatty Nestor's writing here: hattynestor.com/Editorial
28: COP PSYCHOLOGY
27: A KILLING MACHINE CALLED AMERICA ft. AIMEE FROM BURNING HOUSE BOOKS
Aimee from Burning House Books joins us again in part two of our mini-series on David Wojnarowicz's rocket launcher of a memoir, Close to the Knives (1991). We read some key passages of the book aloud then talk about the AIDS crisis (in the US and UK vs. the 'other' parts of the world) and Covid, America's idea of itself as what Wojnarowicz called a 'ONE-TRIBE NATION', what the state's violent neglect of its own citizens can tell us about the rise of neoliberalism and the outsourcing of sickness and vulnerability, and finally what a revolutionary individuality might look like.
Check out Burning House Books at https://www.burninghousebooks.com
Listen to 3 Teens Kill 4's 'Tell Me Something Good': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwNdEjsh5Gg
Wojnarowicz's painting discussed in the ep: Untitled (Hujar Dead), 1988-89: https://whitney.org/collection/works/48140
Episode cover art by David Wojnarowicz: Untitled (Buffalo), 1988-89: https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/356226
26: X RAYS FROM HELL ft. AIMEE FROM BURNING HOUSE BOOKS
25: SERF N TERF
24a: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE "GENDER CRITICAL" LEFT
You can read the letter on the Spaghetti For Brains Substack: spaghettiforbrains.substack.com/p/an-open-letter-to-the-gender-critical
24: END OF HISTORY SEASON TWO
After a totally planned hiatus, Ben & Norm are back. It's the End of History — Season Two. Israel, the movie. Fighting to lose. Chimps and Spaniards of Hartlepool. The Queen's Speech, Kill the Bill, long distance asylum applications and other Tory manoeuvres straight out of the Republican playbook. Cockhands' Voter ID law and how the US is like the UK a little further down the road. Also we call out Chapo Trap House.
23: OWNIN'-ISM
Norm loses the game. Ben adopted a cat and made it an honorary Italian. Constantine the influencer posted Christianity until it went viral. Corporations pretending to be human. White boy summer in a totally not-racist police state. Conspiracy is all well and good but have you heard of the valorisation of capital? If only the Chauvin trial really could put the criminal justice system in the dock. What 'Keir' stands for.
The open letter about #killthebill that Ben talks about: https://spaghettiforbrains.substack.com/p/a-dark-stain-on-our-democracy
Ben reading that open letter on Open Mic Podcast with Alfie Prendergast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3HNMvefv5MV7Vpwi72znZy?si=JEMy3jn6T5qh7I7rO5OdoA
22a: GHOSTS
Ben reads his essay 'Ghosts: Whiteness and the Spectre of Race in America'.
22: THE MAN OF THE MOMENT
W.E.B. DuBois and the history of American citizenship. The truth about Britain is not so "Priti". Noname does a bad communism. #killthebill. "Lesser Trumpism". Joe Biden falling up stairs is the perfect embodiment of America—truly he is the man of the moment. Ben & Norm celebrate a wonderful piece of writing in which the author imagines Jeff Bezos as a next-level piss pig: tinyletter.com/Aimee-BHB/letters/toilet-talk-amazon-and-derek-mccormack-s-castle-faggot-1 and a shout out to all the ladies.
Listen to Ben read an open letter about #killthebill at Open Mic Podcast with Alfie Prendergast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-mic-podcast-with-alfie-prendergast/id1372552546
Read the letter at spaghettiforbrains.substack.com
21: A BEGGAR'S OPERA
Apple Johnson comes out as 'ex-gay.' Gif or Jif and fungible art. Why your veggie pizza is just wrong. Big bunny milkers get cancelled. Lastly, and in all seriousness, we talk about Sarah Everard, the police brutally cracking down on vigils held in her memory, and the context in which this is taking place: increasingly violent and arbitrary state repression against legitimate forms of protest. Ben gives a short history of British policing. If you have a problem with 'defund the police' then how about we do a Marie Kondo on these mfers?
Check out and subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains Substack: spaghettiforbrains.substack.com
20: ECCE CUOMO
For our milestone 20th episode, Norm & Ben gain exclusive access to a wet a** press conference. Norm takes a moment to be serious and address anti-Italian bias. Iranian history plays an understated role in present day geopolitics. A picture of Cuomo being a sex pest is worth a thousand words. Norm calls out a celebrity chef and drops truth about tahdig rice.
Featured music: 'Del Dare' by Kourosh Yaghmaei
Drone courtesy of The Unperson: https://theunperson.bandcamp.com/
Check out the Spaghetti For Brains Substack: spaghettiforbrains.substack.com
19: STARMFRONT
This week Ben & Norm look at Neera's chances, compare German guilt with Anglo-American guilt, recount the foibles of Keir "Daily" Starmer, why you should give up on Labour and just go for a party who also won't win but will at least lose with dignity, the Biden admin launch Coolag Junior, Mr & Mrs Potato Head's God-given biology, why "normal" people are perverts and psychopaths, Sophia the Robot vs. Shamima Begum, and Cuomo the sex pest.
Check out the Spaghetti For Brains Substack: spaghettiforbrains.substack.com
18: CANNOLI CRONIES
17: IS IT WORTH IT
Ben revisits the most disgusting thing he's ever done in public. Neera Tanden frightens America's enemies by dropping it, flipping it and reversing it. The Queen has a thing or two to learn about consent. Norm does Barstool Sports. Gina Carano vs. Nathan J Robinson. Dunning-Kruger antisemitism. Fragmentation, storytelling, and why Ben is going to sue Adam Curtis for stealing his ideas.
Here's the David Graeber article we refer to: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/first-time-my-life-im-frightened-be-jewish/
And here's the Felix Biederman article about MMA fighters and conspiracy theories: https://deadspin.com/why-are-so-many-mma-fighters-truthers-conspiracists-a-1782042590/amp
Check out the Spaghetti For Brains Substack: spaghettiforbrains.substack.com
16a: SALES SOAR AT THE EVERYTHING STORE
Ben reads the latest instalment in a series of pamphlets on the “Orwellian”: ‘Sales Soar at the Everything Store: Orwell, Power-Worship and the “Story of America”’. The piece looks at Orwell’s many critiques of James Burnham, whose 1940s works inspired 1984’s nightmare vision of an Anglicised Soviet surveillance state. Ben also explores the relationship between traditional intelligence methods (mostly leading to mass murder in the name of “anticommunism”) and the modern ‘data companies’ role in running that game for the ruling class. It’s easy to forget that power and control are not the same thing, and that sometimes our desire to feel like the ship is being steered entices us into believing that things are not going haywire. Hence Biden’s (and others’) guff about ‘the story of America’.
Read the piece on the Substack: spaghettiforbrains.substack.com/p/sales-soar-at-the-everything-store and subscribe for free to read future pamphlets in the newsletter.
Opening music: 'Now That I Can See' by Gerry Nobody.
Closing music: 'The Chestnut Tree' by Glenn Miller
16: ALL THUMBS
Just so you people don't get mad at us, here are some articles:
Agriculture needs subsidies: fullfact.org/economy/farming-subsidies-uk/
EU rules mean Holyrood and Westminster let BiFab tank: www.energyvoice.com/renewables-energy-transition/283594/bifab-administration-unite-gmb/
Production vs. Trade: morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/years-eu-debate-has-been-dominated-talk-trade-its-time-start-talking-about-production
Closing music: 'I Love Europe' by Christer Sjögren
Read the first part of Ben's essay on the 'Orwellian' at spaghettiforbrains.substack.com and sign up to the newsletter to read the second part as soon as it's published.
15a: "ORWELLIAN"
A short bonus episode. Ben reads the first part of an essay on the concept of the "Orwellian".
Read it at spaghettiforbrains.substack.com where you can also subscribe to the newsletter and read the rest of the essay as it's published.
Music: 'Now That I Can See' by Gerry Nobody.
15: EAT MY SHORTS
Jon Hamm has beef with Norm but Obama's got his back. Norm and Ben talk about the stock shorting attack radiating from the sulphurous bowels of Reddit. Is it a form of online organising? Trolling in the style of 4chan Trump "supporters"? Or are these guys just Jokers in it for the lols?
Stay tuned later in the week for a *BONUS EPISODE* where Ben reads an essay on the concept of the "Orwellian."
Theme music: 'Now That I Can See' by Gerry Nobody
Subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains Substack & newsletter: spaghettiforbrains.substack.com
14: MANIFEST DENSITY
Don Draper makes a guest appearance to read the 'hard' poetry of our greatest living William. Inauguration intubation across the nation. Sea Ashanti. Bible studies with Ben & Joe. Blessed be the grifters, for theirs is the kingdom of MLM. Americans abroad are only as bad as Brits at home. The United States is a nation of Mad Men.
Special thanks to The Unperson for the synth drone.
Opening theme: 'Now That I Can See' by Gerry Nobody.
Check out the Spaghetti For Brains Substack where you can read articles and subscribe to the newsletter: spaghettiforbrains.substack.com.
13: LET THEM EAT BEANZ
Opening theme: 'Now That I Can See' by Gerry Nobody.
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12: RAT CHOWDER
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11: GOODBYE 2020, WE HARDLY KNEW EU
Both tunes are taken from Gerry Nobody's tribute to Thelonious Monk: He Saw.
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10: AM I THE BADDIES
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09: HOPE ADDICTS
The opening music, as ever, is Gerry Nobody's 'Now That I Can See'.
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08: RELEASE THE COOLAG
Opening music, as ever, 'Now That I Can See' by Gerry Nobody
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07: BUTTS UP
Opening music, as ever, 'Now That I Can See' by Gerry Nobody.
Subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains newsletter for nuggets of brain genius and to see images of the Desert Storm baseball cards: spaghettiforbrains.substack.com
06: HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FEELS
05: MASK OFF
04: KING OF ASHES
03: ASHES
This week Ben talks to his old friend Norm, a comedian and political organiser in Connecticut. They discuss healthcare during the COVID-19 crisis, the legacy of a failed Obamacare, perform a post-mortem on the Bernie 2020 campaign and try to figure out where the movement can go from here.
02: DUAL CITIZENSHIP
This week Ben talks lockdown, #GeneralStrike2020, working at the grocery where people keep asking for takeaway coffee, the possibility of getting sick, losing friends and lovers and acquaintances, and what it means to still be here. Ben reads 'DUAL CITIZENSHIP or I AM LOST TO THE WORLD', about loss and language. You can buy a copy at www.burninghousebooks.com or http://goodpress.co.uk/writing-1/dual-citizenship-or-am-i-lost-to-the-world-by-ben-kritikos as well as copies of Ep01's 'ROUGH SLEEP', both in stock from today.
Subscribe to the Spaghetti For Brains Newsletter: https://spaghettiforbrains.substack.com/.
Title track 'Now That I Can See' by Gerry Nobody: https://gerrynobody.bandcamp.com/track/now-that-i-can-see-2
Closing track 'The Plague' by Herons: https://open.spotify.com/track/2OPVIbi4VDk6GJMCKovudJ?si=7WrqW7p8RcqchmP2VYPPzQ
01: ROUGH SLEEP
It's the first day of spring. Coronavirus is spreading. The economy is tumbling because neoliberalism sucks and Tories are not fit for purpose (unless that purpose is pillory). Austerity has picked Britain's bones clean but no one knows if capitalism will survive this crisis or what will come next. Where is Brexit? Who cares? Most of us are stuck inside anyway. In our first episode, Ben reads 'Rough Sleep', an essay that should have been published this week but all the shops are closed. Except Burning House Books, which is an online shop, where you can buy a copy. 'Rough Sleep' charts the passing clouds of history as they cast shadows on the author's life: from working for low pay and being a homeless teenaged drop-out in the US in the late '90s; working for low pay while in an abusive relationship in London when the Tories first came to power in 2010; working for low pay in a cafe and volunteering at a food bank in Cornwall during the Brexit vote; to finally working for low pay at a soul-destroying call centre in Glasgow in 2019. Buy a copy of 'Rough Sleep' at www.burninghousebooks.com
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