W. David Marx
@wdavidmarx.bsky.social
Author of Blank Space, Ametora, and Status and Culture. Newsletter at http://culture.ghost.io. Tokyo, Japan.
Roland Kelts and I try to explain why Japan is so popular right now... and Search Engine's math proves us right?
www.searchengine.show/whys-everybo...
www.searchengine.show/whys-everybo...
Why’s everybody going to Japan?
A Japanese listener gets so many houseguests she starts a spreadsheet to try to figure out what's going on. Why has American tourism to Japan gotten so out of contr…
www.searchengine.show
September 12, 2026 at 1:05 AM
Roland Kelts and I try to explain why Japan is so popular right now... and Search Engine's math proves us right?
www.searchengine.show/whys-everybo...
www.searchengine.show/whys-everybo...
WSJ did a great video on Iron Heart denim including interviews with @trufelman.bsky.social and me
www.wsj.com/style/fashio...?
www.wsj.com/style/fashio...?
How Japan Made American Denim Its Own—and Built a Cult Following
Watch how a Japanese biker makes the $500 jeans denimheads can’t get enough of.
www.wsj.com
September 8, 2026 at 10:25 PM
WSJ did a great video on Iron Heart denim including interviews with @trufelman.bsky.social and me
www.wsj.com/style/fashio...?
www.wsj.com/style/fashio...?
Criterion Channel @criterionchannl.bsky.social is now screening a deluxe edition of *Head*, the notorious 1968 Bob Rafelson psych-pop freak-out starring the Monkees.
It's simultaneously a masterpiece and an artistic failure—a rare feat.
www.criterion.com/films/27527-...
It's simultaneously a masterpiece and an artistic failure—a rare feat.
www.criterion.com/films/27527-...
Head
Hey, hey, it’s the Monkees . . . being catapulted through one of American cinema’s most surreal sixties odysseys. The brainchild of Bob Rafelson, making his directorial debut; his producing partner an...
www.criterion.com
September 6, 2026 at 1:15 AM
Criterion Channel @criterionchannl.bsky.social is now screening a deluxe edition of *Head*, the notorious 1968 Bob Rafelson psych-pop freak-out starring the Monkees.
It's simultaneously a masterpiece and an artistic failure—a rare feat.
www.criterion.com/films/27527-...
It's simultaneously a masterpiece and an artistic failure—a rare feat.
www.criterion.com/films/27527-...
I had never noticed the backwards credits at the end of Bob Rafelson / The Monkees' Head (1968)
September 5, 2026 at 9:59 AM
I had never noticed the backwards credits at the end of Bob Rafelson / The Monkees' Head (1968)
Always give someone a hard time if they pronounce a word correctly.
It means they didn't learn it from reading.
It means they didn't learn it from reading.
macabre = “muh-KAHB”
Worcestershire = “WOOSS-ter-sheer”
omnipotent = “ahm-NI-puh-tunt”
reticent = “RET-uh-sunt”
epitome = “ih-PIT-uh-mee”
myriad = "MEER-ee-ud"
Never make fun of someone if they mispronounce a word.
It means they learned it by reading.
Worcestershire = “WOOSS-ter-sheer”
omnipotent = “ahm-NI-puh-tunt”
reticent = “RET-uh-sunt”
epitome = “ih-PIT-uh-mee”
myriad = "MEER-ee-ud"
Never make fun of someone if they mispronounce a word.
It means they learned it by reading.
August 31, 2026 at 10:32 PM
Always give someone a hard time if they pronounce a word correctly.
It means they didn't learn it from reading.
It means they didn't learn it from reading.
"The Defiant Ones"
So, I just read this NYT interview with Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine and whoa boy. They talk about AI use, or I would say they try to talk about it, and it's as ill-informed, rediculous, and contradictory as I expected.
I'm about to rant.
www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/b...
I'm about to rant.
www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/b...
Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine Think A.I. Is Good for Music (Gift Article)
The hit-making duo turned tech moguls also have thoughts about why corporate America isn’t collaborative enough.
www.nytimes.com
August 24, 2026 at 3:23 AM
"The Defiant Ones"
Reposted by W. David Marx
I listened to two v interesting podcast eps this morning:
1. Cross over pod with @samsanders.bsky.social and Willa Paskin on @wdavidmarx.bsky.social's book www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sa...
2. @bookriot.bsky.social ep w/ "Canon Editor" Gilbert Cruz on NYT's thriller list! bookriot.com/listen/curat...
1. Cross over pod with @samsanders.bsky.social and Willa Paskin on @wdavidmarx.bsky.social's book www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sa...
2. @bookriot.bsky.social ep w/ "Canon Editor" Gilbert Cruz on NYT's thriller list! bookriot.com/listen/curat...
www.kcrw.com
August 16, 2026 at 3:51 PM
I listened to two v interesting podcast eps this morning:
1. Cross over pod with @samsanders.bsky.social and Willa Paskin on @wdavidmarx.bsky.social's book www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sa...
2. @bookriot.bsky.social ep w/ "Canon Editor" Gilbert Cruz on NYT's thriller list! bookriot.com/listen/curat...
1. Cross over pod with @samsanders.bsky.social and Willa Paskin on @wdavidmarx.bsky.social's book www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sa...
2. @bookriot.bsky.social ep w/ "Canon Editor" Gilbert Cruz on NYT's thriller list! bookriot.com/listen/curat...
The Banana Splits O.S.T. is all bangers
August 6, 2026 at 11:38 AM
The Banana Splits O.S.T. is all bangers
Too hot for cotton this summer: I went full Marx-Linen
August 3, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Too hot for cotton this summer: I went full Marx-Linen
Lollapalooza sux now. When I was younger, they literally could get the CEO of Goldman Sacks to spin. Now I don't see a single CEO, Chairman, or Board Member of a major financial institution on the artist roster... smh
August 2, 2026 at 2:41 AM
Lollapalooza sux now. When I was younger, they literally could get the CEO of Goldman Sacks to spin. Now I don't see a single CEO, Chairman, or Board Member of a major financial institution on the artist roster... smh
Reposted by W. David Marx
Gonna tell my kids this is City Pop
July 29, 2026 at 12:37 AM
Gonna tell my kids this is City Pop
Reposted by W. David Marx
Warum fühlt sich Kultur heute so gleichförmig an? Es liegt nicht allein an Kapitalismus und Algorithmen, sagt der Autor W. David Marx. Sondern auch an der Linken.
W. David Marx: »Die Nullerjahre waren eine merkwürdige Zwischenzeit«
Warum fühlt sich Kultur heute so gleichförmig an? Es liegt nicht allein an Kapitalismus und Algorithmen, sagt der Autor W. David Marx. Sondern auch an der Linken.
www.zeit.de
July 26, 2026 at 4:05 PM
Warum fühlt sich Kultur heute so gleichförmig an? Es liegt nicht allein an Kapitalismus und Algorithmen, sagt der Autor W. David Marx. Sondern auch an der Linken.
"Jay-Z wants his journey from the Marcy Houses in Brooklyn to the most exclusive boardrooms in America to be rendered as a chapter in the civil rights movement."
Jay-Z promised 2026 would be a year of "all offense." I took a stab at figuring out what that really means. www.theringer.com/2026/07/23/m...
This Has Always Been Jay-Z’s Blueprint
Jay-Z said 2026 will be a year of “all offense.” Here’s what that really means.
www.theringer.com
July 24, 2026 at 9:46 PM
"Jay-Z wants his journey from the Marcy Houses in Brooklyn to the most exclusive boardrooms in America to be rendered as a chapter in the civil rights movement."
Poptimism: "Every billionaire is a policy failure—except the musician I'm writing a hagiography about."
July 23, 2026 at 11:41 PM
Poptimism: "Every billionaire is a policy failure—except the musician I'm writing a hagiography about."
Very sad news. I worked under him during my summer internship at Kōdansha and he was impressive how seamlessly he could move between being a TV talent and a serious magazine editor. I had hoped to run into him again someday...
Sad news that critic and commentator Goro Yamada has passed away at 67. He had been ill with cancer for some time. Yamada was a popular figure on numerous TV shows. japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/obit...
July 22, 2026 at 9:05 AM
Very sad news. I worked under him during my summer internship at Kōdansha and he was impressive how seamlessly he could move between being a TV talent and a serious magazine editor. I had hoped to run into him again someday...
TOMORROW I'm speaking at Temple University, Japan
Book Talk | Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century
Date: Thursday, July 16, 2026
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Register here:
Book Talk | Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century
Date: Thursday, July 16, 2026
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Register here:
July 15, 2026 at 6:15 AM
TOMORROW I'm speaking at Temple University, Japan
Book Talk | Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century
Date: Thursday, July 16, 2026
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Register here:
Book Talk | Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century
Date: Thursday, July 16, 2026
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Register here:
Due to the extended length of this football match, NHK-E is having to delay its normal programming: "Vegetable Time"
July 11, 2026 at 11:13 PM
Due to the extended length of this football match, NHK-E is having to delay its normal programming: "Vegetable Time"
Nearly a Million Investors Lost a Total of $3.8 Billion on Trump Crypto Coin
www.nytimes.com
July 4, 2026 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by W. David Marx
In 2004 and 2005 if you went to a Mae Shi show and handed them a mixtape or mix CD to listen to in the van they would give you a copy of the Mae Shi 2004 Mix Tape, a collection of their 3000 favorite songs in about 70 minutes. Now you too can enjoy a copy.
April 7, 2025 at 12:06 AM
In 2004 and 2005 if you went to a Mae Shi show and handed them a mixtape or mix CD to listen to in the van they would give you a copy of the Mae Shi 2004 Mix Tape, a collection of their 3000 favorite songs in about 70 minutes. Now you too can enjoy a copy.
Reposted by W. David Marx
art imagines new things, upends social norms, says the unsayable, builds alternate worlds, designs counterlogics, revels in curiosity+ exercises fundamental human capacity for creative representation
this is why art intrinsically sides with freedom, good discoursing on art this morning, everybody!
this is why art intrinsically sides with freedom, good discoursing on art this morning, everybody!
May 31, 2026 at 1:44 PM
art imagines new things, upends social norms, says the unsayable, builds alternate worlds, designs counterlogics, revels in curiosity+ exercises fundamental human capacity for creative representation
this is why art intrinsically sides with freedom, good discoursing on art this morning, everybody!
this is why art intrinsically sides with freedom, good discoursing on art this morning, everybody!
Reposted by W. David Marx
New issue of Popeye, a Japanese menswear mag, looks great. It's a rare all-English edition and looks at how people from 18 different countries dress. Very aligned with my view of style: diversity and differences are good, and dress is a form of social language. Avail at Kinokuniya.
May 23, 2026 at 4:42 AM
New issue of Popeye, a Japanese menswear mag, looks great. It's a rare all-English edition and looks at how people from 18 different countries dress. Very aligned with my view of style: diversity and differences are good, and dress is a form of social language. Avail at Kinokuniya.
I will never understand the jump to "you must be an idiot" to people making good faith interpretations to clear changes to the structure of cultural flows in the 21st century. We can all see and hear a *relative* lack of stylistic change in the *narrative-defining* culture of our times.
"Stuck culture" is the ultimate dumb-intellectual rhetorical notion of the 2020s and I'll tell you why you should be DEEPLY EMBARRASSED to ever indulge it
May 18, 2026 at 3:52 AM
I will never understand the jump to "you must be an idiot" to people making good faith interpretations to clear changes to the structure of cultural flows in the 21st century. We can all see and hear a *relative* lack of stylistic change in the *narrative-defining* culture of our times.
"Tech companies promised us their apps would free us from the gatekeepers and institutions that lorded over the 20th century only to replace them with basically the exact same thing those institutions offered us, but worse." — @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social
www.garbageday.email/p/there-s-no...
www.garbageday.email/p/there-s-no...
There's nothing to watch on YouTube anymore
Read to the end for an Australian town everyone on Reddit agrees is haunted
www.garbageday.email
May 13, 2026 at 10:59 AM
"Tech companies promised us their apps would free us from the gatekeepers and institutions that lorded over the 20th century only to replace them with basically the exact same thing those institutions offered us, but worse." — @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social
www.garbageday.email/p/there-s-no...
www.garbageday.email/p/there-s-no...
Instagram is the creation of a global phone book where virtually anyone can call you and leave a message.
Definitely some downsides!
Definitely some downsides!
May 5, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Instagram is the creation of a global phone book where virtually anyone can call you and leave a message.
Definitely some downsides!
Definitely some downsides!