With apologies to Max and Theodor…

Mastermind:5 Easy Pieces::Meek’s Cutoff:Stagecoach

H. N. Lukes usefully frames "Classical Hollywood, American Modernism" as "a version of a villain’s 'origin story' that Marvel has recently made so much of by recycling its own IP" in the most recent issue of @mmodernity.bsky.social muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

NYT piloting troll headlines www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/b...

See below for a post-Emmys reading list, courtesy of the @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social! Featuring brilliant essays on THE PITT (by @charlotteerosen.bsky.social), WHITE LOTUS (by @cinementalist.bsky.social) & SEVERANCE (by @jordanrbrower.bsky.social) (plus something partly sorta on THE STUDIO by me)

David Ellison: Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further. Ghost of Zukor: Mark me.

Dear Dr. Swift, I'm sorry to inform you that, due to historic financial pressures, your position has been eliminated. This is by no means a reflection on your talent in the classroom; I know that you have been very popular with students. Best wishes, Associate Dean

Severance earned an industry-leading 27 Emmy nominations. Why has it worked so well? In part because it sustained its put-on from the first episode to “Cold Harbor,” the justly-celebrated Season 2 finale

"Severance’s most compelling excess is an excess of genre: the neo-noir conspiracy sits alongside a remarriage comedy that is itself internally divided and doomed to failure."

My alternate title was "The Offness," in homage to Teddy Blanks, who designed the show's typography: “The production design in Severance is highly indebted to that clean, modernist ’60s corporate look, but there’s something ‘off’ about it.... The type needed to be the same way.”

In time for the end of the fiscal year, I took account of Severance for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...

Looks like I was on to something in “A24’s Academic Style; or, Coming of Age in an Era of Student Debt” tinyurl.com/yrxxza6t

My take on Michael Szalay’s impressive “Second Lives: Black-Market Melodramas and the Reinvention of Television,” is out today in the ALH Review academic.oup.com/alh/article/...

At long last, “A24’s Academic Style; or, Coming of Age in an Era of Student Debt” is now out with @jcmsjournal.bsky.social quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/i...

Coming soon in @jcmsjournal.bsky.social, "A24's Academic Style; or, Coming of Age in an Era of Student Debt."

Speaking today at the University of Kentucky on anti-Trumpism. Starting with Carlos Manuel Álvarez's line, "To see half of the nation trying to annihilate Trump is like watching a body attempting to get rid of its shadow.” Grateful to my old friend @jordanrbrower.bsky.social for the invitation!

Proud of my colleague Emily Shortslef, winner of @universityofky.bsky.social's College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award! Pleased, too, that I've received the prize for talking loudly in big rooms (Excellence in Teaching Large Courses Award).

Who will write "The Idea of Order at Mar-a-Lago"?

First birthday card came in!

What a pleasure to be understood! Thanks @fuscowrites.bsky.social for the kind and careful reading scalar.usc.edu/works/the-sp...

Anticipating several panels along the lines of "How to get to Dunkies on the way To the Lighthouse"

The CFP for the USC Cinema & Media Studies grad conference "Infrastructure and Abstraction" is now live. It is always great. Please circulate widely. The Alt Text is a mess, sorry.

Outstanding review-essay by Ellen Song about working-class Asian American life in contemporary film and television. lareviewofbooks.org/article/they...

The book would have been unthinkable without the dozens of hours in J.D.'s seminars and scores more in his office. If nothing else, it's a testament to good mentorship.