Justin’s Newsletter: March 2025
Vol. 5, Issue 3
If you’re not already subscribed to my free monthly email newsletter, you can sign up here. Or if you know someone who might enjoy this, feel free to share it with them.
What’s Up With Me
I was interviewed extensively by Pasadena Media for this special episode about Altadena and the Eaton Fire, “Arroyo Now: Rise from the Ashes.”
Watch the March 2025 episode of my award-winning TV show, “Pasadena Monthly with Justin Chapman,” featuring an interview with Daniel Rossman, the new executive director of the One Arroyo Foundation.
My family’s GoFundMe page is still live, if you’d like to contribute.
Around Town
Great Reads
Here are some recommendations for interesting books I’ve read recently:
Fight Club 2 and 3—Chuck Palahniuk
The original Fight Club, both the book and the movie, were huge influences on 15-year-old me back in the early aughts. But when the two sequels came out two decades later in graphic novel form only, I wasn’t into comics at the time, so I skipped them. I’ve since really gotten into comics and graphic novels and thus re-visited Fight Club 2 and Fight Club 3, which are fun and of course fucked up, as much of Palahniuk’s work is. They’re not for everyone, and they’re a different kind of story than even the original novel, but I enjoyed them.
Treason in the Blood: H. St. John Philby, Kim Philby, and the Spy Case of the Century—Anthony Cave Brown
I can’t get enough of the story of Kim Philby, the British double agent who wormed his way to the upper echelons of the British secret service before, during, and after World War II while working for the Soviet secret service the entire time. He betrayed countless British, American, and other Allied agents and dealt a major blow to British and American prestige. The full extent of the damage he did will probably never be known. His father’s story is equally as fascinating. St. John Philby also betrayed Britain, his home country, when he served as a top advisor to Ibn Saud of Arabia and essentially gave oil contracts to the Americans instead of the British. His adventures in what became Saudi Arabia are akin to those of Lawrence of Arabia, his contemporary. St. John is not as well known but perhaps he should be. This book is a magnum opus that examines the truly astonishing lives of the Philby father and son.
Spotlight on My Past Stories
A look back at my story on the Bombay Beach Biennale in Culture Honey Magazine. They didn’t hold a Biennale this year, in preparation for an even bigger event for the 10th anniversary next year, but they are still holding a weekend gathering next month called a Convivium, the dates of which are not public. But I’ll be there.
And read all of my journalism here.