My cat is only happy when listening to really loud music. Here she is, listening to the latest Foo Fighters album. She likes it, but Sophie thinks they could consider getting an awesome woman drummer like Rush has.

rest in power and peace, Marjane Satrapi, you were like no one else I know what it is like to want to die from sadness after the loss of a loved one, but I wish you had not done so, and I think it's so important to try not to die from sadness

Host @ariel-gordon.bsky.social and @davidjonfuller.bsky.social very briefly being super serious tonight at an otherwise very fun @mcnallyrobinson.com launch of David’s theatricL new novel VENUE 13

Listening to Dominic and Tom on @theresthistory.bsky.social talk about the horrid WW1 1915 campaign fighting over the Strait of Gallipoli (reminiscent of recent squalid battles): I've never heard them say "He's mad!" "They're mad!" "It's mad!" quite so often.

Doing a thing with Dora!⏬️ ⏬️ 🧡 🧡 @doradueck.bsky.social @mcnallyrobinson.com

WHY NOT THE ENTIRE MOVIE #FILMSKY

Our long national nightmare is over.

Ahead of NIGHTBERRIES' Winnipeg launch (June 3) and Toronto launch (June 4) enjoy this interview with Elina Penner on the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social newbooksnetwork.com/nightberries

goodnight, May

This works a dream btw.

I have a German coming to stay with me, and I'm suddenly very aware of how absolutely unGerman are my housekeeping, uh, skills

fan ownership update: I DID buy a fan last spring so now have lots o' fans good thing I guess for fans of classic detective fiction, I refer you to the "hiding in plain sight" (in my office) solution offered by Poe's C. Auguste Dupin in "The Purloined Letter" mea culpa AND a literature lecture

suddenly, this & everything seems better

I swear same thing happened last spring: suddenly, it's hella hot so I go to basement to retrieve the 2 fans that make house bearable but there is only one fan (why?) so I go from store to store along with every other overheated person in Winnipeg & pay top dollar for fan I'm sure I got last year

One week from tonight! On Wednesday June 3, 7:00 pm, join us and genial host Andrew Unger @realandrewunger.bsky.social at Winnipeg's @mcnallyrobinson.com for a celebration of German author Elina Penner’s novel "Nightberries," translated by Bradley Schmidt.

finished last night Agatha Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, now 106 years old, and though I'd read it before, I remembered not a single thing however, I did know that whatever Poirot's utterly clueless sidekick Hastings came up with, the opposite would be true #booksky

Heard Sonny Rollins at The Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver in the 90s. A wild experience. Rest in Power and Peace, Colossus.

Acedia not accepted, SpellingBee? Kathleen Norris and Penguin Random House aren't authoritative enough?

Stephen Colbert says, "My brother is getting married, so when my show is done, it's not about me, it's about them." Leader of the "Free World": " AHHHGGHH @$÷×^&*_/ expletive nonsense MAKE A GOLDEN STATUE OF ME." Who should be leading the Untied Snakes of Amurica?

nowadays it's too easy for kids to just stream albums of Gregorian Chants but back in the day you needed to go to a library and sign out a little cardboard rectangle in order to take home the desired LP for 2 or 3 weeks, which surely wasn't enough time to enjoy it

Just played my first 45 in many, many years. (Ichi-Bons, rockabilly group who open for The Damned in Toronto in 2024.) Had to do a refresher on wiring speakers and also just what are amps and pre-amps & such, but my new setup sounds fab.

on CBC today to talk James Bond, and given the demographic with time to phone into radio shows, I shouldn't have been surprised the segment took a turn for the Roger Moore🙄when I was ready w/ list of new Bonds (Johnny Flynn, Rupert Friend, Daryl McCormack) nor was there time for my Marxist analysis

since I have been mostly indoors, coughing, for about two weeks, I believe I may have missed Winnipeg spring, which generally only lasts about nine and a half days

If Amsterdam's police cat Nimis ran the world, I'd feel a lot better about everything. (Photo from IG police_cat_amsterdam)

Ecosia and Duck Duck Go for me.

This is about the only thing good that happened to me today. Discovering Squeeze reuniting with Jools Holland to play Take Me I'm Yours (1978!) on the BBC this week. youtu.be/9U1sUro6Qio?...

I don't want to hear that my virus is GOING AROUND or that EVERYBODY has it I want it affirmed that my virus is the worst ever, unique to me, and my suffering is the only suffering

Massive, up until dawn many nights kind of project. ⬇️

go humans go!

This day: - Day 10 of cold/bronchitis that won't leave - Main stack plugged in house - Waiting for green light to return new-to-me computer that says "No bootable devices found" - Chair broke and I smacked my cheek hard against ancient radiator Good news: Cat is ok, plumber arrived, I have ice pack.

doing accounting for the tiny publisher I mostly volunteer for & I'm shocked as usual at the deep discounts retailers demand (Amazon gets 48% discount) & at the HIGH rate of returns my proposal: companies returning books get very small percentage of money back as incentive to sell the damn things

I think people who are anti-royalty should have to go into work on Victoria Day. I, on the other hand, always loved our frosty queen and deserve this holiday. (Charles and William are ok. They mean well.) (Below, my favourite images of Vicky and Liz.)

there was a bird in my house (well, the verandah on that super windy day which kept blowing doors open) & I've read my Margaret Laurence so I've been bracing myself for a death in the family but cat, kids, and I are okay however, I AM sitting in front of one dead computer, SO I'm a believer

my super cool kid has tickets to see this oh-so-French artist TWICE this year and it's only a matter of time until his entire pay cheque goes to oversized pinstripe suits and metallic gauntlets youtu.be/goFj5sgXx9E?...

I have had this cold so long even my hair is sick

Winnipeg! All are welcome at the launch of German novelist Elina Penner's NIGHTBERRIES, June 3, at @mcnallyrobinson.com, hosted by @realandrewunger.bsky.social. "Brilliant and compelling." —David Bergen In person & livestream Info here: www.mcnallyrobinson.com/event-18940/Elina-Penner-Book-Launch

whaaaat 🍞 💰

Bored and unable to do much while you're sick? Do a careful study of subtle changes in the face of Neil Patrick Harris as Dr Horrible. An exceptionally fine master class in acting.

Novel conclusion 7a seems to be the winner. You'll have to wait a mere year to find out what the hell I'm going on about.

Novel editing live update: Potential final sentences nos. 6, 7 & 8 sent to editor. Last lines are the hardest.

😬 Wordle 1,790 6/6 ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜ 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

while my cold progresses to productive cough stage, which my mom said was good, but feels like a lawnmower in my chest, I decided to catch up on Jason Bourne movies except I seem to have seen them all w/o realizing so my farewell note to Julia Stiles is SCARF put on a scarf to avoid surveillance

if generative AI were really good for us, it would be like going to church or reading a long wholesome book, things most people think they maybe ought to do, but generally don't instead ads, devices & platforms shove it at us like drugs, booze, gambling: try a little, it's fun, everybody's doing it

it's spring I guess since every dog in my neighbourhood is currently losing its mind

do you think Rasputin's friends called him Greg

I am on a mission to get book subtitles under control.

never have so many tissues been sacrificed to one woman's rhinovirus

I'm at the stage of a tedious cold when watching Jason Bourne movies is the only possibility.