Ecce Sigum

Immanentize the Empathy

Category: Life

Weekly Round-up, April 11, 2026

John Winkelman
The Grand River at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Another week in the stupid and unnecessary Iran war, started and exacerbated by syphilitic dotard Donald Trump and his various bootlicks, water carriers, and enablers. Which, at this point, includes every conservative-leaning person in the United States.

The GOP, MAGA, the KKK, DOGE, Christian Nationalism, the Epstein Class. Those are all different names for the same people. That is a Venn diagram which forms a near-perfect circle. There may be some variation at the edges of the odious egg-sack, but they are minimal and inconsequential. And once a willing participant in any of those, there is no path to redemption. All are indistinguishable from fascism, and fascism is a syphilis of the soul: Even when it isn’t apparent, once you’ve had it, it will never go away, and will resurface when the conditions are favorable.

So it goes.

I have been working 50 to 60 hours a week almost every week this year. And it looks like this will continue through the beginning of June. The past few weeks were rough but I have, I think, adjusted. Not that I enjoy it, but the deep-in-my-guts stress from the long hours has been replaced by a sort of restless numbness. I feel kind of like I did in the early 2000s, working for an increasingly thankless and toxic design agency. 70+ hour weeks were answered, not with thanks, but with “I wish you’d done more.” And definitely not with money, though the owners liked to throw parties for us in their gigantic house in the most expensive neighborhood in the city. So we got to see what we could aspire to if we were willing to fuck over a sufficient number of employees.

Reading

I have had very little time to read, but I have made progress in The Evergreen Review Reader, 1967-1973. Much of the content in the first part of the book is about, or by, Che Guevara. Which makes sense, as Guevara was murdered in October 1967. Really interesting stuff. And Guevara was a pretty good writer.

Writing

No free time = no writing. Maybe in June.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Kaiju, Music
Setting: Wilderness
Genre: Romance

Listening

Sekou Sundiata, “Days Going By in Broken English,” from his 1997 album The Blue Oneness of Dreams.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, April 4, 2026

John Winkelman
Pear Tree bud, early spring.

It’s been another crazy week for work. I hit fifty hours mid-afternoon yesterday, and have to put in a few more today. This will be my life until June, if not later. The one bright spot is that I might not need to work on Easter Sunday.

The ongoing idiocy in the Middle East, perpetrated by the Epstein class in the USA and Israel and other various bootlicks and sycophants, continues to take its toll on people not in the Epstein class. Many of whom voted for the Epstein-in-chief, Donald Trump. So the toll has smackings and lashings of the karmic, even if the karma isn’t evenly or equitably distributed.

Reading

I managed to read some poetry here and there, most of it either the daily newsletters I receive in my email, or the contents of one of the issues of Big Scream I picked up last week. This is what is keepign me sane.

Writing

Late last week I transcribed a few poems from an old journal. Some of them were not terrible.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Language, Undead
Setting: Ship
Genre: Solarpunk

Listening

Bruce Springsteen, “Born in the U.S.A.” from Springsteen’s 1984 album of the same name.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, March 28, 2026

John Winkelman
Sunset at Kirk Park in Ottawa County, Michigan, Friday, March 27, 2026

It’s interesting to watch the collapse of one’s own society in real-time. Operation Epstein is well into its third week, and Elon Musk is offering to pay the wages of ICE agents who are being redeployed to assist TSA agents whose paychecks are being held hostage by Donald Trump until congress strips millions of Americans of their right to vote.

Such is the times we live in. How did we get here? Simple: At the end of the Civil War, we should have executed every member of the Confederate government and all of their supporters and backers. And at the end of the Revolutionary War, we should have executed every monarchist on the North American continent.

But we didn’t, because each of these “victories” was really a compromise with the enemy, undertaken in the deliberate continuance of aristocracy under different names. As the saying goes, the South may have lost the war, but the Confederacy is still going strong.

Reading

While traveling for work I finished Greg Rappleye’s beautiful Barley Child, which I picked up from the Grand River Poetry Collective during a recent event at The Lit. Though the writing styles are quite different, the subject was reminiscent of Charles Reznikoff’s Testament.

And as has become my habit, I am working my way through Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation, one sentence at a time. Every time I travel, I start over at the beginning. Soon I will have the first three pages memorized, as the rest of the book gathers dust.

Writing

Not much to report. But I did attend a meeting of the Grand River Poetry Collective, and feel motivated to work on some old poems. We will see how long that motivation lasts, in the face of global war.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Fae, Dragons
Setting: Library
Genre: Slipstream

Listening

That 1 Guy, “Packs a Wallop!”

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, March 21, 2026

John Winkelman
A pair of geese on the Grand River at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan

It was another crazy work week. This is the new normal. Next week brings some work travel, and a short work week besides, which does not at all diminish the amount of work I will need to complete in the next seven days.

The crazy and chaotic weather of last week revisited Grand Rapids this week in the form of some minor flooding along the Grand River. On Friday after work I drove out to Riverside Park and took a brief walk. The river was high but not disastrously so. The air was warm and the park was full of pedestrians. It was good to get outside for a few minutes.

Reading

Last week I picked up a few poetry books, and this week I am reading them. All of them are good. A couple of them are very good.

Writing

As always, nothing to speak of.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Spiritual Beings, Possession
Setting: Outpost
Genre: Lovecraftian

Listening

Black 47, “James Connolly”.

Interesting Links

The usual roundup of the Iran War roundup threads from Naked Capitalism.

Weekly Round-up, March 14, 2026

John Winkelman

Another chaotic week with almost no free time. I thought I was through with long days at work, but work chose otherwise. So at the end of the day little is left for me to do except take a shower and go to bed.

Reading

Given the current chaos in the world, I have been reading the news, and not much else. See, for example, the list of links at the bottom of the page.

Writing

Other than code, I haven’t written much of anything this week. Or this month. Or this year.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Spiritual Beings, Politics
Setting: Wilderness
Genre: Literary Fiction

Listening

Grand Funk Railroad, “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home)”

Interesting Links

What follows is another roundup of Naked Capitalism links discussing Operation Epstein, which is being headed up in the USA by syphilitic dotard Donald Trump and emasculated manbaby Pete Hegseth, with enthusiastic Epsteinian support from all Republicans.

Weekly Round-up, March 7, 2026

John Winkelman
Poe enjoying the first warm, sunny day of the year.

Roughly a week ago, Donald Trump, at the command of Benjamin Netanyahu, launched Operation Epstein in Trump’s most vigorous attempt yet to draw attention away from the mountains of proof that he was a regular visitor and enthusiastic participant in the festivities on Jeffrey Epstein’s island.

With the amount of grift, theft, and murder endemic in every initiative of Drippy Diaper Donald’s administration, we are seeing what would have happened if the Zec had been elected president.

Add in the increasing Christian Nationalist fervor and end-times rhetoric, and the sense is in the air that we are well into a polycrisis moment in history.

Just to be clear – all religious fundamentalism, no matter the religion, is prima facie invalid, as all religious fundamentalism exists only to entrench power among the leaders of religious movements. And fundamentalism among the Abrahamic religions, in particular, is nothing more than an apocalyptic death wish.

Reading

I am still slowly working through Foucault’s Pendulum, a couple of pages a night. And in my spare moments (ha!) during the day, I am reading The Evergreen Review Reader, 1967 – 1973. I read the previous volume, which collected work from 1957 to 1966, last year. There is so much good work within!

Writing

This past Tuesday, for the first time, I attended the monthly Twilight Tribe open mic at Gaia Cafe. It was wonderful! I have not visited or participated in a regular poetry event in years. I have managed the occasional one-off event here and there, but now that my schedule has changed I can reconnect with the local writing communities.

The poets at the event inspired me to step up my review, collecting, and editing efforts with my own poetry, which has been collecting dust for far too long. I hope to have something ready to read by the end of the month.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Fae, Language
Setting: Labyrinth
Genre: Literary Fiction

Listening

Woody Guthrie, “All You Fascists Bound to Lose”

Interesting Links

What follows are several of the Iran War round-up posts at Naked Capitalism. The posts, and the comments which follow each post, are a gold mine of information about the ongoing hegemonic absurdities in the Middle East.

Weekly Round-up, February 28, 2026

John Winkelman
Pepper, anticipating mischief.

This past Sunday our martial arts class held its first Chinese New Year celebration since Master Lee passed away, almost six months ago. A lot of people showed up – family, friends, and old students who we had not seen in a long time. The event was beautiful and bitter-sweet.

The gradual closing of our old downtown location, and the necessary change in schedule as we settle in to our new workout space at From the Heart Yoga, means my own personal schedule is changing for the first time in about 35 years (COVID notwithstanding). I now have Tuesday and Thursday evenings free, which has not been the case since the mid-1990s.

What will I do with my new schedule? Attend some poetry readings. Read. Write. Get back in shape.

Get some sleep.

Being done with February will help. This has been the Februariest February that ever Februaried. I’m glad it’s over.

Reading

I read a few more pages of Foucault’s Pendulum. A mere fraction of my usual reading pace. I had forgotten just how funny this novel is!

Writing

Ha! As if!

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Espionage, Revenge
Setting: Ship
Genre: Solarpunk

Listening

Sun Ra, “Nuclear War.” Seems appropriate, considering. [NOTE: I picked this song before Israel and the USA launched their illegal attacks on Iran. There must have been something in the air.]

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, February 21, 2026

John Winkelman
Milkweed pods at the edge of the property.

This past week was less crazy than the preceding weeks of the year, but it was still hectic. It says something about my life, that a 45-hour week feels like a vacation.

In two weeks, in the beginning of March, we will be changing the schedule at Master Lee’s School of Tai Chi Praying Mantis Kung Fu and Tai Chi Jeung. Some classes will be changed to beginner and advanced levels. Some will be moved to the morning. And for the first time in over 30 years, I will not be teaching classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Instead, Monday and Wednesdays will be class days. And the Saturday classes will move forward an hour, starting at 9:00 am instead of 10:00 am. That means we will be done at noon.

The YWCA West Central Michigan building, our class home since about 1994, is up for sale. The organization is consolidating into a new building outside of the downtown area. While the building has not yet been sold, we decided to get ahead of everything and move weekday classes to From the Heart Yoga, and keep the weekend classes at the YWCA for as long as we can.

Our students have been supportive of the move, and indeed having morning classes opens up some opportunities for some of our long-time students who work odd hours to return to class.

This move has been in the works since the beginning of the year, which coincided with the beginning of the crazy projects at work, and the ramp-up to Magical ConFusion, which took place three weeks ago. And since the new project involves significant travel, I am out in the world much more than usual, so of course I got sick when I went to Philadelphia a week ago. And I am still recovering.

The polar vortex didn’t make things easier.

One more week in February. Then the new schedule kicks in, and I will have the opportunity to develop a new daily and weekly routine.

Reading

I haven’t been able to focus enough to read more than a couple of pages of Foucault’s Pendulum. At this rate I might be done by the end of the year.

Writing

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Reincarnation, Language
Setting: Academia
Genre: Procedural

Listening

The Electric Six playing their excellent cover of the Spinners‘ “Rubberband Man,” from the Electric Six album Zodiac, released in 2010.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, February 14, 2026

John Winkelman

This was another crazy week. Last week I traveled to Philadelphia for work, and came home with serious sleep deprivation and apparently a mild case of the flu, or whatever crud is floating around this month. I was sick enough that I took a day off, but work was busy enough that I still put in more than 40 hours of billable time. So now I am less sick, but more tired.

Reading

I haven’t had the time or energy to focus on reading anything new, but I did finish a re-read of William Gibson’s Spook Country, the second in his Blue Ant trilogy. It was very good, and I think I should read the final book in the trilogy, Zero History, sometime in the next month.

Writing

As with the week before, this past week was so chaotic I barely had time to put words in my journal, much less indulge in creative work.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Undead, Politics
Setting: Space
Genre: Folk Tale

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, February 7, 2026

John Winkelman
View from an airplane, leaving Chicago.

Yesterday I returned home from five days in Philadelphia. My new project at work involves a lot of travel, sometimes twice a month. I told the project leads that such a schedule was excessive and disruptive, and that I would be able to travel, at most, once a month. And there would be some months where I would not be traveling at all. So with a little luck I will be home until at least April.

One upon a time, such travel would have been exciting, but now, for middle-aged me, with a partner and students and cats, it is exhausting.

Reading

I brought three books with me to Philadelphia, but due to exhaustion and fragmented attention span, touched none of them. On the plane ride home I pulled up the eBook of William Gibson’s Spook Country, which is quite good., and more suited to the corporate hellscape of 21st century America than is, for instance, Calvino’s If On a Winters Night a Traveler.

Writing

Nothing. Nada. Bupkis. I was so busy I didn’t even write in my journal.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Precursors, Spiritual Beings
Setting: Ocean
Genre: Horror

Listening

“Lockjaw” by Todd Rundgren, from Rundgren’s 1985 album A Capella. I had this album back in college. One of the first CDs I ever owned. I might even still have it in a box somewhere.

Interesting Links