The Baffler Moves to Cambridge; Issue #19 Celebration Tomorrow (Monday, 4/9) at Harvard Book Store

Just a quick blurb to encourage Open Media Boston viewers to drop by the Harvard Book Store tomorrow (Monday) night at 7 p.m. to check out “the discussion and celebration of the new #19 issue of The Baffler with John Summers, Chris Lehmann, Thomas Frank, and the rest of the Cambridge crew”. That’s right, for those of you keeping score, The Baffler - one of America’s only serious left-wing magazines of arts and criticism - was recently bought by local academic John Summers, moved from Chicago to Cambridge, and will now be coming out on a regular basis for the first-time ever ... thanks to a newly-inked five-year $500,000 deal with MIT Press.

The Harvard Book Store event is free and open to the public.

I had coffee with Summers last week, and deemed him a good egg even before I read the print edition of The Baffler #19 that he handed me. Upon reading about a third of the material in the 180-page publication over this weekend, I pronounced him a good editor as well. And I now feel justified in recommending that the Open Media Boston community check it out, too. You can get a taste of what’s on offer at The Baffler’s website, but you’ll need to buy copies (online or in print) or get yourself a subscription if you want to really dig in.

Lots of big names in this first Cambridge-produced number. Barbara Ehrenrich, Baffler founder Thomas Frank, Chris Lehmann, James K. Galbraith, David Graeber, and Kim Stanley Robinson to name but a few. Issue #19 has a very interesting focus on technology, its discontents, and how capitalism has confounded technology’s progress to the point where most of us are discontented with it. And for good reason ... still waiting for an end to hunger, a cure for the common cold, and maybe a few of those jet-powered propeller beanies we've heard so much about over the last century of futurist prognostication.

Lots more to say, and no time to say it if this piece is to get published in a timely fashion. But pick up a copy of The Baffler as soon as a you can, and plan to stop by the Harvard Book Store event if you have a chance. You'll be glad you did, I reckon.

Jason Pramas is Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston