Down the Drain with Donald and His Followers

Notes in Response to a Trumpist Store Owner

Hank Kalet Sep 21

SAVE

This is the front window of a discount tourist shop down at the Jersey Shore. The shop sells T-shirts and tchotchkes at well-below-market prices, and the prices reflect the quality and the throwaway nature of much of its merchandize. For a long time, it served as a useful counter to its more expensive competitors, and many who made their way onto Long Beach Island left with $3 tank tops and $20 sweatshirts from its racks.

Buy my books.

Upgrade to paid

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Channel Surfing to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Start trial

A subscription gets you:

	Subscriber-only posts and full archive
	Post comments and join the community

© 2022 Hank Kalet
Email me for address.
Unsubscribe

Grassroots: Aiding Temps and All Workers

A Preview Version of My Next Progressive Populist Column

Hank Kalet Sep 21

SAVE

It’s time we regulate temp agencies and make sure temporary workers — most of whom are unauthorized immigrants — get paid what they deserve.

This is an advance copy of my next Progressive Populist column, for paying subscribers only.

Buy my books.

Upgrade to paid

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Channel Surfing to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Start trial

A subscription gets you:

	Subscriber-only posts and full archive
	Post comments and join the community

© 2022 Hank Kalet
Email me for address.
Unsubscribe

This is a free, public post from Hank Kalet’s Channel Surfing. You will continue to receive these email stories and newsletters as long as you remain a an email subscriber. Consider becoming a paid subscriber and get paywall-protected posts, the ability to comment on posts and participate in discussion boards, offers to write guest blog posts, and copies of my books. If you are a $5-a-month Patreon patron, you already are considered a paid subscriber.

Thanks for reading.

Upgrade to paid

Listening to the Crack of Doom on the Hydrogen Jukebox (part 3)

Go Go Godzilla, or Let’s Dance Until the Bombs Drop

Hank Kalet Aug 24

SAVE

The original Godzilla released in Japan in 1954 carried a direct critique of American nuclear testing and underscored the fear of a nation that was the only one to feel the wrath of atomic weapons. A recut American version released two years later, which included the addition of scenes featuring Raymond Burr as an American journalist adding an American point of view, essentially gutted the critical elements but managed to fuse the general fear of the bomb that was an undercurrent of American culture in the 1950s and a sense of American exceptionalism and defense of its use.
This is the second installment of a long chapter from a manuscript I’m working on that fuses memoir, cultural and literary criticism, politics, written through the lens of my decades-long involvement with Jack Kerouac’s work. Kerouac, along with a few other writers, inspired me to make the written word my art form. It has been a love-hate relationship over the years (more love than hate, of course), as any relationship that lasts will be.

Beatdom’s special Kerouac Turns 100 issue included my essay “Women on the Margins of the Kerouac Legend,” which was conceived as part of Paradise Reconsidered. You can get the issue here.

You can read the first installment of ‘“Listening to the Crack of Doom on the Hydrogen Juke Box” here. The second one can be found here.

Another planned section, “Notes on My Early Beatdom,” can be read here.

The earlier posts were free, but this and future posts from the Kerouac manuscript will be housed behind a paywall.

Channel Surfing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber…

Upgrade to paid

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Channel Surfing to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Start trial

A subscription gets you:

	Subscriber-only posts and full archive
	Post comments and join the community

See comments →

© 2022 Hank Kalet
Email me for address.
Unsubscribe

This is a free, public post from Hank Kalet’s Channel Surfing. You will continue to receive these email stories and newsletters as long as you remain a an email subscriber. Consider becoming a paid subscriber and get paywall-protected posts, the ability to comment on posts and participate in discussion boards, offers to write guest blog posts, and copies of my books. If you are a $5-a-month Patreon patron, you already are considered a paid subscriber.

Thanks for reading.

Subscribe now