Ninajirachi in Vancouver, BC Dry Cleaning in Vancouver, BC (Nourished by Time opened) Nick Cave in Tamworth, NSW They Might Be Giants in Boise, ID (I got handed John's guitar pick and hugged them after the show) @tmbg.bsky.social Andrew Bird in Boise, ID

time for me to remind everybody that Samuel R. Delany's Nevèrÿon series exists, does not take place in a European milieu, AND contains what is often referred to as the first AIDs novel. it should be much more widely read, imo.

majorly bummed about the Jays, now back to hoping Mets or Mariners make it all the way next season

rip my mariners, go jays for the series

🔱 🔱 🔱 🔱 🔱 🔱 🔱 🔱 🔱

You can't logic your way out of being burnt out. Unless you're me. Who should be able to do it and it's a personal failing that I can't

for the NYT to give Doug Wilson any kind of platform is honestly shameful

there are many things that TransLink could do to improve service in Vancouver, but living near the SkyTrain and two major bus routes means I rarely wait long for service & I'm rarely more than 15-30 minutes ride from anywhere - now I can't imagine living somewhere without that level of service

this is a basically undeniable take when reading robots in terms of their origin in Karel Čapek's play R.U.R.

I need the mariners or the jays to make it

Pritzker: "In any other country, if federal agents fired upon journalists & protesters when unprovoked what would we call it? If officials marched down streets harassing civilians & demanding their papers, what would we say? I don't think we'd have trouble calling it what it is: authoritarianism"

What book have you bought the most copies of in your life?

a classic "Torment Nexus" scenario

Me: *through sobs* you can't just say everything is about climate change.... Please.... Weird theorists: *points at any weird fiction nearby* cli-fi hyperobject

I just want to re-post this and use it as an opportunity to post some of my favorite paperback covers from my personal collection:

congrats @jordanscarroll.bsky.social !!!

stepping away from worry to celebrate my anniversary and see weapons, let me know if anything happens while I'm gone

anyways, in 1993 Norton published an SF Anthology (edited by Le Guin and Atteberry!) that I think they should re-edit and bring back into print. the VanderMeers also did this with their "big book" anthologies. maybe the answer is more stuff like this! big, historical anthologies are good!

This means we need readers who have interests ranging from "wide and shallow" to "narrow and deep." The problem with Scalzi is he seems to suggest there's a correct way to make recommendations that will "keep" readers. I don't there is is such a correct way!

I think if you want to grow SF readership you need to recommend both old and new, ideally along the lines of thematic interests. There are as mans SFs as there are readers and writers, and the best case for building a healthy fan community is encouraging more and more reading.

anyways, fun discourse to run into today

sf discourse on the feed today, nice to see

Kim Stanley Robinson

7 of 9 planetary boundaries now crossed: “By 2020 the oceans condition were very close to or beyond the planetary boundary for ocean acidification (calcium carbonate levels >20% below preindustrial). The deeper in the ocean they looked, the worse the findings were, the scientists said.”

read Nathan's book! it's tremendous! it made me revise my dissertation introduction!

had to say goodbye to our dear cat Corb today. please, if you have pets, hold them and love them today for me.

“Expert hacks” i.e. we’ve never spoken to a working class person in our lives

This — LibGen makes accessible research that many scholars around the world wouldn't otherwise have access to.

OK, I see, the actual Atlantic article is behind a paywall, so people might not know: LibGen is a database used by penurious grad students all over the world. Meta didn’t build it; it just deliberately torrented the entire contents of it www.theverge.com/2025/1/14/24...

While in agreement that it is bad LibGen was used by Meta for these purposes, LibGen is a distinct entity and does not deserve the ire being direct towards it on some parts of this app. LibGen (like SciHub) has more in common with the Internet Archive than with torrent databases.

it’s true, pleated pants rock, esp vintage Polo RL and Chaps and L.L.Bean

Putting a strong BUY rating on cold-war spy fiction.

finally, some good news.

fantastic thread, here

but Jordan's book, it's all killer no filler

this is an illegal order. the president does not have the legal authority to discriminate against entire categories of americans on the basis of sex. this order is no different than if he had issued one reinstituting segregation.

What the actual fuck This “ could halt payments within days to states and U.S. households that receive assistance like SNAP food aid.” www.politico.com/news/2025/01...

Davy Byrne's Bar, Guinness, oysters, and good reading courtesy @larapawson.bsky.social (this one and Spent Light, incredible stuff)

David Bowie died when I was in Tokyo, David Lynch died while I am in Ireland I feel sad

so much this—Butler wasn't a prophet, she was an incredibly canny observer and scholar and writer

a great thread that reminds me how grateful I am for Vancouver's countless mom and pop groceries and alternatives to bigger grocery conglomerates—buy produce at places like Persia Foods or Santa Barbara on the Drive, pay the "convenience tax" for other stuff at the Loblaws joint on the corner

feels like kismet to see this as I have a revelatory experience reading a Tim Lilburn book that I took out of the library today

science fiction is capacious!

I swear to god I will find a way to break up the Pixies again so Frank Black can get back to making solo records

ecstatic to finally see hate for The Overstory on the timeline

Fuck every single one of these ventures I am so serious. Hire real humans as teachers

the top of Buchanan Tower at UBC is nearly obscured by fog this afternoon

lovely to read PKD in this register—also a great prompt to remind all the sf scholars and enthusiasts out there that fanac.org is a great resource that includes the fanzine this appears in (it was also indispensable in my research on early responses to Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren)

makes one pine for a big budget adaptation of Le Carré's The Honourable Schoolboy

Now that #Noirvember is over celebrate the Yuletide season with the John Le Carre advent calendar