A rare one from me: a personal essay (gulp) about Hurricane Ida, loneliness, and burning ATMs

“If I’m ever not feeling particularly lucky —if there’s an imbalance in the scales in the world—it reminds me of a way to make my own luck: Cook something homemade and share it with someone else. That’s it. Forge a connection.“

I need to get more galaxy brained at 5 pm (PST) to play Best Guess Live (Netflix).

When we lose Kim Novak (b. 1933), then we can celebrate without qualification her animal activism and mourn the passing of a screen icon and artist who was concerned for the rights and welfare of her fellow man.

That time of year when I keep telling myself to download all my stuff off of Flickr (which I haven’t actively used for 10+ years) before pro rate renews, but then forget and get dinged for the annual fee in the new year. 😭 The Flickr app interface is really nice; I wish I used it more!

A powerful and scary piece with so many implications for the future as wildfires are now a part of modern life in the U.S. Tremendous graphics work by Blacki Migliozzi.

Heated Rivalry is delicious. I would also watch an American football version starting Brock Purdy. Gridiron Grind.

Yesterday, in honor of one of my side dishes served at Christmas dinner, I started re-writing the “12 Days of Christmas” with a winter roots theme. I lost steam after day nine, though. Send me your winter root names or themes! It all started with a parsnip in a pear tree.

Everyone who put up their trees right after Thanksgiving now taking it all down; meanwhile, me, enjoying the scent of pine and basking in the glow of twinkly lights on the fourth day of Christmas. 🎄😊

_Ocean’s 11_ (2001), possibly the last great pre-9/11 vibes movie released after the event.

Convinced the woman who hosts the 10 pm local news on KRON 4 doesn’t actually know how to read.

The Hand (1981) when I was about 6 y.o. — parents thinking I was asleep in the pop-top bunk of our VW Vanagon at the drive-in.

I would read the full memoir.

Previews at Alamo Drafthouse - Valley Fair. Twin Peaks, David Bowies films, Dolly (Parton) Weekend, Reservoir Dogs. (My first time at this theater, which soft-opened back in August. Hopefully lots of the kinks worked out.)

All the ingratiating interviews with Paul Rudd and Jack Black have worked on me, and so I will go see _Anaconda_ this evening at my local Alamo Drafthouse. 🐍

New arrival. Tolka 10 (www.tolkajournal.org) featuring a fresh translation of Patrick Autréaux’s “The Husband” by @tobiasvryan.bsky.social

This Sunday in NYC, enjoy some bleak, tense, provocative cinema, with incredible images by Gordon Willis.

This is a metaphor for the tech industry overall circa 2025

LA peeps: If you slept in today, there’s still a chance tomorrow to see _The Thin Man_ at The Vista at 10 am.

Welcome aboard MOBY-DICK WEEK at @flaminghydra.com, debuting with @benehrenreich.bsky.social reading aloud. flaminghydra.com/issue-470/

What a good boy! 🎖️

It’s never the wrong time, but between Christmas and New Year’s is the perfect time to (re)watch _The Thin Man_ (1934). 🍸

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

Finally made it to dessert course: cranberry swirl cheesecake. Reliable, festive, delicious.

Boulevardier time. Cheers!

Merry Christmas, tutti! I’m still wired from midnight mass; mom was singing with the choir and had a solo singing Cantique de Noël during communion. She’s 82! Couldn’t miss it. 🎄✨🎶♥️

kavanaugh not beating the allegations that he’s a dumbass

Epstein sending a letter to another pedophile explaining that he’s going to kill himself and reflecting on how nice it is to see a pedophile president before he dies really does tie up a bunch of things doesn’t it

Nice Tolkien-aligned juxtaposition this morning in the feed.

Poetry is not the same thing as the imagination taken alone. Nothing is itself taken alone. Things are because of interrelations or interactions. - Wallace Stevens, "Adagio"

Lunardi’s bonanza!! Christmas feast provisions are laid in. 🎄♥️✨🍾

Sampling some of the vibrant South Bay LA brewery scene at Common Space Brewery in Hawthorne. 🍻

Spectacular brunch at with friends from NDALA who gathered in Long Beach at Nonna Mercato from points north in Thousand Oaks to south in San Diego. www.nonnamercato.com

Happy new year to all who celebrate the return of the sun and ever more light on winter solstice. 🌞

"the novel has all of this technology we don’t use anymore. there has been a wholesale deaccessioning of narrative technology from the novel as a form" instead: scale, mediation, Lukacs, 3rd person, full Dickens, full Morrison - all the IMMEDIACY keywords countercraft.substack.com/p/processing...

Pozole and seasonal tamales at El Zarape Cocina in E. Ho. on Fountain Ave. So good.

More chaos from Trump. Don’t these places have multi-year NSF funding contracts in place? How can he just shut a whole research center down like this?

I need some West Coast Samuel Becket (Bay Area / Los Angeles), stat.

Finally getting into Christmas mode today — writing cards, getting a tree, planning menu for the feast. 🎄💫❤️

Inclusive sex positivity sighting in Santa Clara. ♿️

A new interview from Zadie Smith is *always* an immediate "drop everything" moment for me. I found this conversation a desperately needed balm for the miseries of this day. www.npr.org/2025/12/15/n...

😢

Was this installment of _Knives Out_ originally supposed to have been set in the UK with CoE characters? The vibes are not reading as US Catholic— just slightly off, as though written by AI.

[old prairie coot voice] "Dag-NAB it, I rode all the way from Prairie Gulch to this here platform to let y'all know that this western section sale, she's a-STILL goin' on!" [stamps foot] STILL!!!"

Officially on winter break as of today! 🎄💫♥️😴

Can’t wait to get a hold of this: _Boom to Bust: How Streaming Broke Hollywood Workers_ by Miranda Banks (my pal and a scholar of Hollywood production practices and labor history) and her co-author Kate Fortmueller. Due out in April 2026 from UC Press. 🎉✊🎥📺 www.ucpress.edu/books/boom-t...

🔔🗣️Postdoc Alert: The Center for Media Innovation & Social Impact (MISI) at Boston University is recruiting a postdoctoral fellow contributing to research on public trust and local information ecosystems in New England. Apply by Jan 15, 2026. jobs.silkroad.com/BU/External/...

anyone in Dublin have any leads for a rental near UCD for a PhD student? I’m trying to help a young friend who is moving there to study find somewhere to live.

“Something as steadfast as it is ephemeral. It is a novel that is not hopeful, yet holds open a space for hope, something unnamed, rough and unsteady, but something that may yet be born.” @colindickey.com on _To the Lighhouse_, after our plague year(s). lithub.com/the-far-side...

Flesh bound,