Archive - Border Studies - Notes from Samantha Culp

The Backrooms, Before Hollywood: Lore vs. the Sublime

Before you head to the cineplex (ideally in a dead mall), my Backrooms essay from 2022

May 30

December 2025

Fracking for Cool

On Vice, the ZIRP Era, and Amalia Ulman's "Magic Farm"

Dec 5, 2025

June 2024

An Essay By My Late Mom, Candace Wilson Culp

Along with a note from me, plus 1970s tourist postcards of Morocco

Jun 9, 2024

December 2023

Substackers Against Nazis

A collective letter to Substack leadership

Dec 14, 2023

September 2022

Highway Hypnosis

From the Flying-J to the Backrooms and back again

Sep 25, 2022

January 2022

Nautical Twilight

End of year notes & recommended books, films, etc

Jan 1, 2022

December 2021

"A Sense of Being Outside" - RIP J. Didion

Joan Didion tolerating some dumb college kids (incl me) in 2003 + my favorite reggae Xmas song

Dec 25, 2021

November 2021

The Beige Room: a podcast

A three-part podcast out now on "The 11th", an anthology by Pineapple Street Media

Nov 12, 2021

July 2021

Hollywood is a Verb

A very good book to recommend, a song about UFOs, humid Ruscha

Jul 23, 2021

April 2021

Mirror Spit Luxurious Flowerbuds

The voluptuaries of Walasse Ting, sudden tragedy vs slow takes, a new golden age of experimental docs & "bee bread"

Apr 1, 2021

March 2021

Fricatives and Plosives

40 Ways to Say Fuck, A Micro-Canon of Chinese Cinema, & The Great Shanghai Daft Punk Scam

Mar 5, 2021

February 2021

Year of the Metal Ox

50 Years of Future Shock, A Deconstructed Western & Dinosaurs in the Sahara

Feb 19, 2021