Doing a full listen through the Grateful Dead discography, and I was surprised how well "Shakedown Street" landed. It's slick, but the cleanness lets you hear how tight the band it and how inventive Jerry is with his lead lines. I guess I'm ready for my Steely Dan phase...

I am cheering Team USA all the way but have to admit the funniest outcome would be for Belgium to beat us 5-2 again tomorrow night.

on second thought maybe paywalling workers’ ability to think wasn’t a great business strategy

"I approached [Robert Quine] and reintroduced myself, this time as the guy who had written the Voice piece titled 'Quine-Ola' (Bob was a big Jeff Beck person). That was a great piece,' he said. 'You should write about me more.'" www.furious.com/perfect/quin...

Kevin Morby's masterful 'Little Wide Open' is out today. Morby took us through the album track by track, sharing in-depth insights about the writing and recording process that led to these remarkable songs. Stream the album and read our interview:

I love it when you read the poem that makes you glad you picked up a collection, and today for me that was Mark Doty’s “Now You’re an Animal.”

Just rewatched “Brush with Greatness,” and we get Homer stuck in the waterslide, Ringo Starr AND Mr. Burns’ nude portrait all in one episode? Stone-cold classic.

Great conversation with Willy Vlautin on the Otherppl podcast—moving reflections on working class life and masculinity. otherpeoplepod.libsyn.com/1030-willy-v...

I spoke to @juliansimpson.bsky.social all about the excellent podcast The Lovecraft Investigations and its latest series, Crowley. And the new Mythos. Both of which are truly fantastic - links to get them are at the end of the article. kotaku.com/lovecraft-po...

William Onyeabor's "Atomic Bomb" makes me envision Curtis Mayfield home-recording in Nigeria. How do you not love that cover photo? Great release from Luaka Bop. williamonyeabor.bandcamp.com/album/atomic...

I'd never read anything by Paco Roca, but "Return to Eden" swept me away. It's a sad, delicately illustrated memoir of his mother's life. Roca shares her early years in the context of her broken family, hungry and devastated in the wake of the Spanish Civil War. www.fantagraphics.com/collections/...

Following Wimpy’s example, Popeye has also cast aside harmful gender norms.

It tracks that Wimpy is uninvested in the patriarchy.

Getting a “Good Burger” / “Sinners” double feature in tonight.

Wonder if J. Spaceman would’ve let them license “Lay Back in the Sun” for the Samson/Kelson scenes?

In my seat now for “28 Years Later: the Bone Temple!” When I walked in, the cashier clocked as exactly the kind of weirdo who wanted to pay in cash.

Reading the third volume of the complete “Popeye” collection from Fantagraphics, and J. Wellington Wimpy has repeatedly cracked me up. An oddball, all-American original.

If you're looking for something to dislodge that Gordon Lightfoot earworm, tomorrow is ALSO the 50th anniversary of Patti Smith's debut album. Like Bruce Springsteen says, starts with "probably the greatest opening line of anyone’s debut album in rock ’n’ roll." This is a fun piece:

Some astonishing numbers in here: -OpenAI loses $2 for every $1 it makes -OpenAI projects annual losses of $14 billion by 2026 -To break even OpenAI needs to increase revenue 25x in just 5 years -33% of VC portfolios are committed to AI -5 AI-heavy stocks account for 29% of the S&P 500's value

want to get your grubby little paws on a physical copy of my work? and also a bunch of other really cool artists? pick up EASEL today

A great artist

Realized at the end of the (excellent) Lilith Fair documentary that I’ve spent 25 years thinking Sarah McLaclan was Joan Osborne.

Great to see this posted in @mcsweeneys.net . Ralph wrote some funny pieces for a humor site I ran in the Cretaceous era.

I am a jazz dummy, but Jerry Garcia had to listen to Grant Green right? Plenty of similarities in the structure of the riffs; it's a fun echo.

“Alien Earth” delivered a genuine “holy shit” line last night. Some of the choices in the first couple episodes seemed far-fetched, but they’ve had consequences, and the show’s done a great job plumbing them.

I’ve spent the past three years establishing pollinator gardens at our kids’ elementary school, and today a wasp stung me by the side door, so this is apparently my supervillain origin story.

Just finished “Vera, or Faith” by @shteyngart.bsky.social —what a beautiful, funny book. More than any writer, he keeps capturing our moment.

Smart, comprehensive take from @jasonkoebler.bsky.social at @404media.co on the race to the bottom inherent to "AI journalism." www.404media.co/the-medias-p...

This from @jonathanrheaps.bsky.social “God’s mercy…spared a group of men in the dark of the Montana Territory the indignity of forgetting their humanity for a while.” Like I was looking for a better holy miracle but this is the immense one, there and gone churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/dea...

FB has announced they're removing old "Live" videos, so I've spent the morning downloading video from my time at Shedd Aquarium, which includes BTS time with sea otters and dolphins and sawfish. That was a special experience with some pretty amazing people! www.facebook.com/100064820467...

Tom Humberstone's excellent comic about the Luddites' history. thenib.com/im-a-luddite/

There’s a lot going on, and most of it seems bad, but Poetry Foundation is still posting poems of the day, and sometimes they’re pretty good. www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...

Sad to hear about the passing of David Thomas, a creative force and rock-and-roll original. Back in 2016, I wrote about a very late night seeing Rocket from the Tombs at @emptybottleyt.bsky.social . Thomas was grouchy on stage, but they killed on "What Love Is." magazine.nd.edu/stories/out-...

Very excited to have a short story, "Are You Feeling Brave?," published in the latest issue of Cleaver Magazine. It's about a broke kid trying to tough his way through a situation that's bigger than he should have to deal with. www.cleavermagazine.com/are-you-feel...

Beautiful poem of the day at Poetry Foundation has me diving down the chapbook rabbit hole. Now I’m throwing first saves of creaky publisher websites toward @waybackmachine.bsky.social . You can read it at www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/152834...

Planet Definitions xkcd.com/3063

Lindsey is right that it's important to remember that the bigots trying to take away rights from transgender people are weird losers.

Check out my interview with Filmmatic.com on my contest winning Sci Fi TV pilot "Hereditary"! www.filmmatic.com/post/craig-b... #amwritingfantasy and sci fi 💗🧙‍♂️⚔️

If you enjoy my Bluesky bullshit, come on out to see it live! I'm a co-writer of "Now That's What I Call F-ck It," a new sketch comedy show happening every Friday night in March at 9 at The Second City in Chicago. Get your tickets now:

Just found out the leotard is named after an actual guy, and it’s giving me real “John Backflip” vibes.

In (what feels like) week six of watching “My Fair Lady.” Henry Higgins’ character has not improved. I am dreading the inevitable turn to romance.

My favorite part about cutting mangos is eating the remaining fruit around the pit like a cheeky little monkey.

I didn’t go to the best high school, but I can tell you that Henry Higgins would have been allowed to call some girl “a bilious pigeon” exactly once.

LCD Soundsystem's debut album turns 20 today so throwback to the time I made Stephen Malkmus listen to it for the first time. www.vice.com/en/article/s...

“The Köln Concert,” some of my favorite music ever recorded, was performed 50 years ago today. I wrote about it once, for a website that tragically no longer exists. deadspin.com/kind-of-weir...

Cannot say enough about how good the Martian series of Revolutions is. The latest is propulsive, cinematic, staggering, and charged with possibility podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...

Wonderful “overlooked obituary” from the New York Times about a cartographer who developed an atlas of Middle Earth. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/13/o...

Yaa Gyasi's "Transcendent Kingdom" offered a beautiful, painful look at the impact of addiction on families. It captures the "good kid" surrounded by addiction, one with the heartbreaking sense that they can save everything by being perfect. www.jamesseidler.com/book-review-...

Do you think an intern in the Catholic Church has ever been assigned to knock together a few thoughts on “robot Jesus”?