Mats Holberg

Hollywood liberal, Bollinger bolshevik, choose your favorite pejorative. Turn-ons include film/TV, music, civil rights, architecture, cars, travel, food, gin martinis. Turn-offs include broccoli and spectacularly awful people like a few billionaires who come to mind. He/Him.

Avatar: Selfie of middle-aged white guy with salt-and-pepper hair and beard, and rectangular tortoiseshell glasses, in Connaught Place, New Delhi

Header: Ministry of Beer, a restaurant in Connaught Circle, New Delhi

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npub1es6gstkd2g2an4kpyfvwlnar77vzzqqftwy77mjx9jgvnemuqvdse6whst

NIP-05 Address

Holberg_at_mstdn.social@mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqsvcdyg9mx4y9we6mqjyk80e73l0xppqqy4hz00derzeyxfua7qxxc6z7785

Author Public Key

npub1es6gstkd2g2an4kpyfvwlnar77vzzqqftwy77mjx9jgvnemuqvdse6whst

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Last Notes

2024-09-23 22:03:16

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@npub1mmf…eknq Golly. I never got past how his idea of sampling in the ‘90s was just lifting entire songs and rewriting lyrics.

2024-09-17 03:28:10

It’s like they don’t even realize they’re revealing this phony kumbaya bullshit is programmed by a very specific right-wing ideology that doggedly misuses ‘Democrat’ as an adjective because it’s so ingrained in their backward culture.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/113/150/766/241/315/189/original/234255b570302ba7.jpeg
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/113/150/766/942/404/227/original/1048b58c1eaff2af.jpeg

2024-09-15 17:20:15

So, to make your political point, it's okay not only to lie -- er, 'create stories' -- but to lie in a racist way that upends communities and threatens lives in your own state?
Got it. Where would we be without such leaders to put us on the correct moral path? Praise Jesus for JD Vance.

2024-08-27 02:29:03

Turned out I’m on a surprise double date and it’s fine with me. I’m thinking she’s the greatest thing ever until two hours in when she tells me they all met going to Trump’s inauguration in 2016. Oy vey.

2024-08-25 17:15:25

But I do not need an email from Harris-Walz every fifteen minutes.

2024-08-20 16:15:13

When you low-key think your breakfast cereal might start shouting right-wing talking points at you.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/995/238/501/727/452/original/18005d4144b0a234.jpeg

2024-08-19 16:14:17

That thing when you buy a product that’ll last a decade but—the very next day—you start getting frequent email about buying another one.

2024-08-12 21:04:12

FROM HIS OWN SIDE. That seems like a pretty important subhead concept.
The racist calls are coming from inside the racist house at the racist party he’s co-hosting.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/951/076/269/875/495/original/b12dca854f877760.jpeg

2024-08-12 18:37:29

Something I witnessed last night—often observed, but especially egregious—makes me feel like I need to beg open-letter style.
Fellas: When you’re on a date, please ask questions. And follow-up questions. Then listen. With no intent beyond learning more about someone and their knowledge/experiences/opinions. Without the purpose of steering it back to yourself.
Because if you can’t see eyes glazing over while you monologue, I’m here to tell you eyes are glazing over. This is not a good date.

2024-08-12 15:38:19

Banning a book is basically telling a kid its ideas are—prima facie—stronger than yours. That you need more time to better establish the sanctity of a less sensible ideology.

2024-08-11 16:30:32

Harris and Walz talk about the people they want to help.
Trump and Vance talk about the people they want to harm.

2024-08-10 18:12:14

I don’t do wishful or magical thinking as a rule. I’m a pragmatic realist and it never makes me feel better.
But it’s feeling increasingly *possible* that we could not only win this thing but achieve a decisive victory that ends Trump once and for all—leaving the GOP’s deeply unpopular agenda unprotected by his inexplicably charismatic spell.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, my cynical instinct to shut this thinking down isn’t activating.

2024-08-08 21:32:18

I grew up in a Los Angeles of the ‘70s and ‘80s where it was very normal to have undocumented housekeepers, nannies, gardeners, etc. Because they’d work for far less than their labor’s market value.
And what’s always driven me crazy about the scapegoating—aside from the racism and ignoring how much they pay in taxes—is that it ignores HOW MUCH this country has benefited from decades and decades of exploited labor. That’s got to be a pretty big number if you add it all up.

2024-08-07 21:39:49

I get where they’re going with this. (I think?) But I would absolutely try t-rex if were available and a chef put it on the menu.
I might not order it again. I didn’t, for instance, care for puffin when I tried it—I can be a one-and-done guy. But my culinary FOMO is way too intense to leave unusual food untasted if it’s right in front of me.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/922/904/796/122/056/original/66a9d41d64aff4b8.jpeg

2024-08-07 00:46:12

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@npub1sfl…gczt I really can't believe our country allows this to exist!

2024-08-07 00:42:43

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And I have to tell you -- I've never had a conservative tell me it's wrong to give period products to those whose lives are disrupted because they can't afford them. I doubt they'll get much genuine outrage-traction on that.

2024-08-07 00:40:05

Ending period poverty is one of my passions. I talk about it all the time -- both to raise awareness and normalize the topic for men. Doesn't embarrass me, shouldn't embarrass you.
But beyond the stupidity of mocking someone for making sure people who menstruate have access to essential products: If that's the best they've got to attack Tim Walz, it's sure as hell admitting they ain't got much.

2024-08-06 19:52:57

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@npub1sfl…gczt Haha just noticed your display name. Brilliant.

2024-08-06 19:29:11

Oh, yeah, sure, that’s way less weird. It’s totally okay if I’m shooting blanks. Got it.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/916/728/765/900/878/original/25f67b1997339b69.jpeg

2024-08-05 15:58:29

But have you REALLY lost if it’s because your dick’s that big?

2024-08-03 04:13:01

The thing about Aerosmith retiring is that that Steven Tyler—at 76—has reached the life expectancy for a US male and it’s weird to think it’s statistically normal for any rock star above this age to drop dead on stage at literally any concert on a tour.

2024-08-02 15:18:04

My primary foodie buddy is ‘single’ for a while—his husband is working in New York—so I’m in a good mood with the flurry of reservations at joints neither of us has been.
Tonight is Primal, interesting as a high-end steakhouse in a bad neighborhood.
Next week—so far—is Delilah, a supper club at the Wynn, interesting because the only way to get a reservation (at least when we tried making one the normal way, no dice) is to know someone or be someone. We’re the former, obvs, haha.

2024-08-01 20:21:42

THE AMERICANS but bad at it.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/888/623/788/722/124/original/4a89be4c8905c315.jpeg

2024-08-01 01:04:38

Good god. You never think the lies can get any weirder and then they do. https://journa.host/@w7voa/112883922045421438

2024-07-30 00:35:42

It's fun to watch hundred of thousands of dollars pour into the Harris campaign.
Up another $50,000 just since I took this screenshot.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/872/630/577/525/850/original/c287192ea9497f6c.png

2024-07-24 23:25:52

I laugh a lot and have no children.
No cats, though. I’m not really a taking-care-of-things person. This is actually a recent replacement for the only other living thing in my house—the last lucky bamboo I managed to kill through negligence.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/844/049/456/958/756/original/cf8579efb97e3795.jpeg

2024-07-23 01:36:15

God, I hope it’s just Kamala and not more drama.
And, god, I hope she gets a debate with Trump. I want to see her EAT HIM ALIVE while he’s an aware a Black/Asian woman is doing it.

2024-07-16 21:46:25

My father isn’t a bad person. But he’s a complete narcissist committed to his carefully constructed narratives.
It’s exhausting. The sum total of our relationship has always been my choosing whether to accommodate or battle the self-centered prism through which he interacts with the world, then processing how it’s damaged me.
I’ve cut him off for years at a time. And I guess I’m saying this in case you need someone to tell you it’s okay to end ANY toxic relationship.
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a44178122/family-estrangement-cut-off-parents/

2024-07-13 20:29:37

I was 13 or 14 when Dr Ruth became a radio sensation and I'm incredibly grateful for her influence at that formative time.
She (and Loveline on KROQ, back when it was Poorman and a pre-kooky Dr Drew) took embarrassment and hangups out of conversations about sex. And that was incredibly important.
RIP

2024-07-07 02:24:51

Shorts ordered from a regular supplier are a couple inches shorter than usual.
And—for context—I have zero modesty in venues where it’s normal to be completely nude. But it’s funny how I feel a little naked walking around in something this ‘skimpy’ when it’s not even close to being as short as the shorts I wore as a kid in the ‘70s haha.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/742/831/708/931/089/original/5e2d150e6855bf85.jpeg

2024-07-03 01:59:43

Two weeks until it’s curtains for the Mirage. Where I’ve not gone in forever—it didn’t hang on to its appeal like Steve Wynn’s later Bellagio and Wynn. But it’s important as a property that redefined the Strip. So, just in that basis, some melancholy.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/720/083/636/359/526/original/429fa924f7b0ea55.jpeg

2024-06-27 04:32:04

One of the great pleasures in my life is Dinah Washington's phrasing. No one can touch its magnificence.
'Drinking Again' from Dinah '62 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6BoqUDJ8TA

2024-06-25 02:47:33

I’d never have moved here if air conditioning didn’t exist.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/674/973/240/363/059/original/ec052efb51c7176e.jpeg

2024-06-21 23:15:46

FWIW. The wedding I most enjoyed was when a pal from a showbiz family decided to elope at home, as it were.
A short service at the Little Brown Church in Studio City with guests who happened to be in town. Then a small dinner-dance at a nice restaurant on Ventura Boulevard. None of the usual wedding reception tropes. None.
She was only 25, it was totally impromptu, and it was fairly inexpensive as weddings go. But it felt far more elegant and grown-up than any other wedding I've ever attended.

2024-06-14 15:19:02

I can often understand the rationale of opposing viewpoints—even if disagreeing vehemently—but I will never comprehend how anyone hears our Supreme Court just made it easier to commit mass murder with a device wholly unnecessary for any sporting or self-defense purpose and thinks GOOD.

2024-06-10 14:13:51

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@npub1xkn…elux And then it got even better because skinny dipping happened haha.

2024-06-09 23:01:25

Nice thing about summer when this is dressing for a party.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/589/149/403/364/775/original/24a0d2ca16318bf9.jpeg

2024-06-03 18:14:42

Okay, most Americans will think these are just random stock photos. BUT IT’S WEIRDER THAN THAT. They are King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/554/048/104/798/349/original/e5eae34aecea7de5.jpeg

2024-06-01 20:33:24

I’m sorry but that looks like a paint store. I cannot bring myself to believe they sell coffee.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/543/268/810/732/687/original/650f011a9967746b.jpeg

2024-05-30 21:20:45

Maybe not the best idea to trash the judge before he hands down a sentence. Christ is Trump dumb.

2024-05-29 16:50:29

I’ve gotten really nostalgic for the ‘90s. Which was the last time most people seemed normal to me.
And maybe they weren’t. But they still maintained a veneer of normalcy in public—which still made them more normal than they are now.

2024-05-22 22:07:27

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@npub19fc…ay3c I love Peggy so much.

2024-05-21 02:32:57

This is a HUGE deal in a lot of ritzy LA zip codes. Either not being able to get fire insurance at all or being presented with annual premiums like $200,000.
Really wondering what kind of effect this will have on valuations.
Bloomberg: Beverly Hills 90210 Mansions Lose Fire Coverage as Insurers Flee
State Farm is discontinuing fire insurance policies in wealthy California areas. It’s part of a nationwide trend fueled by climate change.
https://apple.news/AJwqcU6tRRCqgB3Z21ykl8g

2024-05-21 00:52:44

Heads-up that you’ve only got to mid-July if you want to see the Mirage’s volcano show before they shutter the hotel for its Hard Rock makeover—and all of this goes away for a new guitar-shaped tower.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/476/340/908/514/952/original/b9f3cdb80de6aca0.jpeg

2024-05-19 17:07:49

Life should always be as pleasant as a perfect late spring evening on the lawn with a bar that has a negligible queue.
(What I couldn’t when Mastodon wasn’t letting me in all night.)
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/468/850/371/607/608/original/f584075882b30af4.jpeg

2024-05-17 22:23:20

It’s sickening to know what the Resnicks are trying to do not only to workers on their own farms but on every farm in California.
Look at their house on Sunset Boulevard sometime and tell me if you think they can’t afford unions.
LA Times:
Column: Inside the effort by two Beverly Hills billionaires to kill a state law protecting farmworkers
The billionaire owners of Wonderful Co. — grower of almonds and pistachios — say a California farm labor law is unconstitutional
https://apple.news/AziewxzjfTfiPsiXce42P_A

2024-05-17 22:07:19

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@npub1hvz…mle9 Glad you’re okay! (And as the guy always apologizing for the mess—just a reflex even if there’s only one plate in the sink—I know the feeling.)

2024-05-14 01:49:15

This afternoon’s nostalgic purchase: A 1959 edition of the first Hardy Boys book—the same cover design as when I was checking these out of the library in the early ‘80s.
A minor trauma as an adult was learning there’s no such person as Franklin W Dixon. Simply a name invented by a publisher for any number of ghostwriters.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/436/926/719/231/574/original/77959830085dd140.jpeg

2024-05-09 22:12:06

Kind of wild how right-wing ‘Christians’ in this country never recognize themselves as the wicked and the hypocrites and the moaners in the parables.
Though perhaps it’s out of sight and out of mind—I can’t imagine the gospels are very fashionable in those circles these days.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/413/423/773/827/277/original/9cd1dee72eb5f21b.jpeg

2024-05-09 21:23:12

I live in constant terror that La Scala will remove its payphone and I can no longer imagine a grumpy Jim Rockford in a plaid sport coat making a call as I pass on the way to the restroom.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/413/221/046/653/564/original/8618c1cc882c7713.jpg

2024-05-08 18:47:46

Totally fine with all the grey on my head and face. But not coping well with the fact that my chest is now more salt than pepper.
Vanity, all is vanity, getting the better of me haha.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/406/957/978/358/761/original/fc6f787938f176a1.jpeg

2024-05-08 05:22:20

Wondering how many wedge salads I’ve had over the years when I’m meeting friends for drinks, realize I haven’t had dinner and am not particularly hungry but and should probably eat SOMETHING.
This of course happened tonight.

2024-05-07 16:51:40

Little tip if you want to stock your bar with booze in which you don’t specialize: Ask a bartender at a joint that aligns with your typical guest’s vibe what they’d recommend as a general crowd pleaser.
I was quizzing my bartender last night about white wine—about which I know NOTHING—and she said whites aren’t generally popular but Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio is in constant demand. Favorite bartender at another high-end restaurant recommended MacRostie Chardonnay 2021. Both very affordable.

2024-05-07 00:47:13

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It's pretty nondescript outside -- an overgrown ranch house. Inside, however...let's just say she had a scaled-down replica of the Eiffel Tower's base.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/397/042/073/182/034/original/03752253e0dc752d.jpg
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/112/397/042/498/181/279/original/2514400b7df79eba.jpg

2024-05-07 00:41:48

Still impresses me about the internet that I can wonder what Phyllis McGuire's house sold for and -- two seconds later -- be slightly surprised it was only $3 million.
Very dated, not what most people are looking for in a house or location. But still. Over two acres and almost 40,000 square feet in a still-fashionable neighborhood very close to downtown and the Strip. Seems like a bargain.
https://www.redfin.com/NV/Las-Vegas/100-Rancho-Cir-89107/home/29479258

2024-05-06 21:22:13

You wouldn’t tolerate Trump’s attitudes or behaviors for a single moment if he were your 13-year-old kid, but—sure—he should lead the free world.

2024-04-02 20:39:54

Still can’t quite believe it’s controversial to oppose without qualification the slaughter of innocents who—even before the indiscriminate killing—were trapped in an overcrowded sliver of poverty and power outages.

2023-10-31 18:09:51

I’ve gotten peckish and am going to borrow @npub18lj…80hq’s format to ask:
What is the best meal you ever had? And are you able to have it again or was it just that one magical moment?

2023-09-28 15:17:07

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Fortunately, I HAD just purchased one of these at Target. And rationing toilet paper would’ve been a lot worse, so I thanked my lucky stars for that.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/111/143/432/763/711/808/original/6a2f7687f430d79e.jpg

2023-09-28 15:08:51

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I’d been at Costco right before everything hit and had actually had a four-pack of these in my hands BUT put it back thinking I didn’t need that much.
I thought about that A LOT while I was rationing wipes at the beginning—debating the use of each and every one while knowing it could’ve been different.

2023-09-28 14:58:59

It’s so weird to think how stupefyingly black market this section of my cleaning supply shelf would’ve looked just three years ago.
https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/111/143/348/464/232/509/original/caff98f250647057.jpg

2023-08-24 03:40:22

Republicans may like having Ramaswamy in the primary race because it makes them feel artificially broadminded. But whatever else they might like about him, I just don't think there's any way those religious bigots would vote for a Hindu. I mean, my evangelical relatives think of any non-Christian god as demonic.
I think Haley is the only one of South Asian heritage with a viable path because she converted to Christianity. And I'll bet a lot of them aren't totally convinced of that.

2023-07-29 01:41:54

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@npub18lj…80hq No kids. Never particularly wanted any, don’t like taking care of things, get 85% of the upside as an uncle and godfather. Perfectly content.

2023-06-20 14:35:19

Hunter Biden has actually been a very useful case study for the difference in this country between the right and the left.
I’ve never heard anyone in my liberal circles suggest he shouldn’t be investigated and prosecuted if there’s evidence of wrongdoing. Joe Biden hasn’t blathered endlessly about political witch hunts, hasn’t insulted and attacked everyone involved in the process, and won’t make this a violence-inducing talking point at cultish campaign rallies. Because we’d think that’s nuts.