Is Billy Joel really an innocent man? @sarahdbunting.bsky.social and I find out as we rank every song on his blockbuster 1983 album, joined by the fantastic Dan Rogge. bleav.com/shows/mark-a...

For #TonyAward fans, here's the correct award statistic: Bess Wohl is the FOURTH female playwright to win for Best Play. 1956: Frances Goodrich, The Diary of Anne Frank (co-author) 1989: Wendy Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles 1998 & 2009: Yasmina Reza, Art & The God of Carnage

A show I watch is airing its final season, but I've liked each successive season less than the one before it. Now I resentfully consider the unwatched episodes. Will I watch them anyway? This is the great cosmic riddle.

I want so much to talk about Pluribus with someone, but I am watching it by myself, months after it first aired, while existing in a friend community where no one else has seen it. THIS Is the loneliness that Carol feels, pretty much.

I can't decide how to feel about Sue Grafton getting all the way to the Y book, then dying before she could write the Z book.

In the 21st Century, only five Oscar winners for Best Original Song have also reached the top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100. They are... (1) "Lose Yourself" (2) "Let It Go" (3) "Skyfall" (4) "Shallow" and, as of tonight, (5) "Golden"

Thanks to Autumn Durald Arkapaw's win in Cinematography and Cassandra Kulukundis' win in the inaugural Casting race, a woman has now won at least once in every current Oscar category (except, of course, Actor and Supporting Actor).

Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography. (Yes, the first woman ever to win in this category.)

Something fun to consider before they give out the screenplay awards.

A tie for live action short! This is the 7th time this has happened, including in 1994 when there was ALSO a tie for live action short. The last occurrence was 2012, for sound design. The most famous tie was between Katherine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand for Best Actress in 1968.

Amy Madigan is the 9th performer to win Best Supporting Actress as the only Oscar nominee from her film. She follows Mary Astor, Claire Trevor, Margaret Rutherford, Goldie Hawn, Linda Hunt, Marisa Tomei, Angelina Jolie, and Penelope Cruz.

Amy Madigan's win for "Weapons" is delightful just like Ruth Gordon's win for "Rosemary's Baby." Beloved veteran actress does great work as a supernatural villain in an excellent horror film. In years to come, this is a retrospective Oscar film festival I look forward to attending.

Here's a thread of deep cut Oscar trivia about today's nominations...

Many thanks to @cole.fyi for taking these photos and making me feel like a halfway normal person during the photo shoot!

When you’re playing NYT Spelling Bee and you know the word is spelled “facsimile,” but you try “facimile” juuuust in case.

The view from my TV: @sarahdbunting.bsky.social delivering wit and wisdom on ABC’s new doc series DIRTY TALK

I miss her, too! She's welcome to visit any time.

Yesterday she barked at @markblankenship.bsky.social for an hour and a half. Today, she is in love with

AND THEN YOU BEAT HIS ASS WITH “CORIOLANUS” cc @markblankenship.bsky.social @cole.fyi

You’re playing Zero. “A Shakespearean Tragedy” comes up. You’re sitting with this guy

The countdown concludes! Here are my top 10 songs of the year, featuring at least one track that made me laugh out loud. lostsongs.substack.com/p/my-top-40-...

As is my custom, I am counting down my top 40 songs of the year. Here's the first batch of songs, including punk, country, and new music from the lead singer of Fun. lostsongs.substack.com/p/top-40-son...

I write sparse, brutal tales about life on ALF’s home planet under the pen name Melmac McCarthy

At long last, @sarahdbunting.bsky.social and I are able to investigate Madonna's music.

If you think you have a nightmare ex, these woman may have you beat! This week on @crimeseenpod.bsky.social we watched “Don’t Date Brandon” with guest @markblankenship.bsky.social go check it out now! #TrueCrime #TrueCrimepodcast #DontDateBrandon crimeseenpod.com/episode/dont...

There goes @markblankenship.bsky.social bringing me joy with his newsletter again. You need to subscribe to The Lost Songs Project: lostsongs.substack.com

I am counting down my top 100 90s songs, because obviously it needs to be done. The first batch of songs includes Paula, Phil, Heavy, and Jade. lostsongs.substack.com/p/my-top-100...

William Joel has engrossed us again! @sarahdbunting.bsky.social and I team up with our good pal Dan Rogge to rank the songs on Billy Joel's album THE STRANGER. bleav.com/shows/mark-a...

Turns out I can still recite this entire monologue. youtu.be/7jQ0SbWYdgQ?...

At various points in my life, I had both of these phones, so you know my conversations were COOL.

Print media alert! I was fortunate to write the companion book for the vinyl cast album of the GYPSY revival. Available now!

I wrote about why this is the most exciting song of 2025: lostsongs.substack.com/p/the-subway...

Throughout my life, I've had such a complex relationship with mayonnaise. Currently, it's a love affair, but I've been through this cycle enough times to know it could end at any second.

I just saw Final Destination: Bloodlines. My favorite thing is how the film is supposedly set in America, but half the cast sounds more Canadian than the cashier at Ottawa's second-largest Tim Horton's.

Hi. Hello. I will never stop writing text messages in complete sentences with punctuation. Thank you for loving me as I am.

I am delighted to be back on Extra Hot Great, especially for an episode that involves so much music.

Remembering that brief period when Dutch pop acts stormed the US charts with songs that sounded like they came from a German beerhall. lostsongs.substack.com/p/how-do-you...?

A couple of times in the last week, I've seen a suggestion that "Chicago" was somehow a poor choice for Best Picture, and I cannot let this madness stand. The entire internet is grounded.

This song ISN'T by Donna Lewis, and I wrote about why. lostsongs.substack.com/p/mouth-merr...

Let's talk about the surprisingly large number of European dance tracks that goof on the idea of American cowboys and such. lostsongs.substack.com/p/i-wanna-be...

A print-only newspaper! We just published Issue 7 of Modern Vintage News (modernvintagenews.com), where I'm proud to be Senior Editor. Join us for 40 pages of original reporting and essays about appreciating what we already have and rediscovering the supposedly familiar world around us.

This is the godmother of pretty songs that became creepy because of a horror movie. lostsongs.substack.com/p/hush-hush-...

Unsung heroes: The people who communicate clearly with freelancers about payment and help them get their money promptly.

Here's proof that Aerosmith wasn't the first act to sing about romance in a stuck elevator. lostsongs.substack.com/p/heaven-on-...

This is a fantastic performance of my favorite song from DEAD OUTLAW, which is my favorite new musical of this Broadway season. It's from the POV of a frontier woman whose boyfriend was killed while robbing a train. youtu.be/vpdVOQJBeYQ?...

Warning: If you read this essay, then the chorus of this song WILL be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. lostsongs.substack.com/p/i-do-toya-...

In Nashville, fruit tea inspires legends, secrets, and scandals. I'm covering all the juicy beverage stories over at The Food Section. thefoodsection.com/fruit-tea-go...

I wrote about this song because it helped in invent a genre. Back in 1994, I just knew it had a sweet groove. lostsongs.substack.com/p/dream-on-d...

Did you know a Maggie Smith movie inspired a massive hit ballad that references sheep in a meadow? Here's the scoop! lostsongs.substack.com/p/jean-olive...

Sarah and I realized we needed (yes *needed*) to rank every song on a Billy Joel album. So we did!