Apparently through January 1st Barnes & Noble is having a 25% off sale on all pre-orders for premium & rewards members. The code is PREORDER25. eBooks and audiobooks are included, too. You can pre-order my book there: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-franch...

So much good work over a long and varied career. Just to highlight one people maybe missed: his season 4 appearance in ATLANTA (“Light Skinned-ed”). He’s in the b-plot of the episode, but it’s very funny and his final outburst is very sad. RIP

I had an incredibly dispiriting discussion with my family over the weekend about AI. Everyone is using LLMs all the time. My wife and I are the only ones who don’t use them, ever, for anything. Everyone seems to think this is foolish. But it was impossible to break through bc “ChatGPT is so useful!”

And Tiny Tim - who did NOT die - stood by himself against its hills, holding darkness within; he had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more.

We just rewatched this tonight and my wife remarked how George can be a real jerk. That’s the point, I think, and Mary is the counterbalance. Great essay

This is an almost shockingly wise essay. I'm glad I've finally read it.

Techbros seem to love Tolkien, so here's an analogy to help you understand what genAI is. GenAI is The One Ring. You think your use is justified, b/c you don't have evil in your heart. But it came from evil, it is intended for evil purpose, & anything you do with it will be twisted to that end.

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

!! Here’s a link to full video of the 60 Minutes segment that Bari Weiss killed last minute, via @jasonparis.bsky.social: is.gd/paU8Ko (It was uploaded to the Global TV app in Canada, seemingly by accident, and has now been taken down)

Hmmm….

I dunno about this one

Pinned post o' links: Preorder my book, out May 12: bookshop.org/p/books/the-... Also available on NetGalley: www.netgalley.com/catalog/book... And subscribe to my website newsletter for additional updates: thomas-elrod.com/subscribe #booksky 📚🪐

Some kind milestone today as I received my first bot email from an AI publicist claiming they can "leverage my book's potential." It even included an AI summary of my book, which is like looking at yourself in one of those carnival funhouse mirrors. Weird and disorienting!

These fucking guys!!!

The photos of those Haitian refugees was his first big break, as they earned him the Robert Capa Gold Medal award, which catapulted his career. But at the moment he took the images, he and the other men on the boat thought they were going to die. He had this to say about the experience:

One of my favorite books as a kid was THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE, Larson’s quasi-memoir/exploration of his comics. Very funny and a great look at the business and art of creative work.

Everyone is rightly noting how strong Reiner’s directorial output was, but the fact that he made so many *different* types of movies - comedy, drama, fantasy, thriller, romance - is important too. That’s extremely hard to do! To direct WHEN HARRY MET SALLY and then MISERY one year later? King shit

Christ

Pinned post o' links: Preorder my book, out May 12: bookshop.org/p/books/the-... Also available on NetGalley: www.netgalley.com/catalog/book... And subscribe to my website newsletter for additional updates: thomas-elrod.com/subscribe #booksky 📚🪐

Great little joke in WAKE UP DEAD MAN is the shot of the cover page for Andrew Scott’s manuscript. “783,000 words.”

Can’t wait to see how wrong this is about many (most) books

There's a scene early in the movie THE APPRENTICE where Trump actually pulls out cash and pays for something and it's one of the weirder things that happens in that film

This is my wife’s alma mater and she has been watching in all horror as this all has gone down for several years

Stay hydrated. Drink you Santa bone juice

Just a baffling film. And I liked DEAD RECKONING. Overall, I judge these films on how fun the set pieces are, and then how easily the story allows Cruise and Co. to get from one to the next. So, if the set pieces are good and the connective stuff is not too self-serious (why Pegg is so essential) 1/

So, uh, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING….is this a movie about Scientology?

Paul Dano doesn’t need me to defend him, but fwiw his role in TWBB is good because that character is supposed to be a fraud, and Plainview sees through him instantly. Eli isn’t a sincere, religious man, he’s just as opportunistic as Plainview but pretends not to be. Dano is very good at playing that

I have a couple of print galleys of my novel THE FRANCHISE, which is being published by Tor in May. If you are a reviewer or an indie bookstore and would like a copy, let me know! I don’t have a ton but I’m willing to ship what I have! (More info on the book: us.macmillan.com/books/978125...) 📚🪐 💙

I have a couple of print galleys of my novel THE FRANCHISE, which is being published by Tor in May. If you are a reviewer or an indie bookstore and would like a copy, let me know! I don’t have a ton but I’m willing to ship what I have! (More info on the book: us.macmillan.com/books/978125...) 📚🪐 💙

Tom Stoppard’s ARCADIA might be my favorite piece of theater from the last 50 years. A titanic work of art from an artist with many highs. RIP

ARCs!

I just regaled my Thanksgiving table with the full Nuzzi/Lizza/RFK Jr. saga. Everybody is confused and no one is happy.

Hey, a fun thanksgiving treat: my book is available on NetGalley! If you are a reviewer and want to read a satiric SF adventure about entertainment, misinformation, and corporate IP, you should check it out! www.netgalley.com/catalog/book... #booksky 📚🪐

Hey, a fun thanksgiving treat: my book is available on NetGalley! If you are a reviewer and want to read a satiric SF adventure about entertainment, misinformation, and corporate IP, you should check it out! www.netgalley.com/catalog/book... #booksky 📚🪐

I’m not Catholic but this is where I am now when I talk about AI with people. Not, “It’s bad for the environment” or, “It’s often wrong,” or, “It steals people’s work.” All true, but I just go for the jugular: “You are a human being blessed with intelligence: a divine gift. Do not squander it.”

My ROGUE ONE take is that they should remake it as Andor Season 3. You can keep the same characters. Bring back Felicity Jones and the rest if you want, but give Gilroy another crack at it all on his own. You’d fix the pacing problems and most of the weird Star Wars Easter eggs.

I always walk around at parties with a joke book and I read them aloud to people and I never get invited back because my jokes are so good.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY is a movie about a man so horned up for Barbara Stanwyck that he commits murder and, worse, insurance fraud

John is correct that this is insane but also this is how I’ve written my second novel and honestly I think it helped? (I’m now past writing by hand and back on my computer doing redrafts…I’m not a monster.) I’ll let you know if it actually worked when I’ve finally turned in this manuscript.

He drinks a whiskey drink He drinks a vodka drink He drinks a lager drink He drinks a cider drink He sings the songs that remind him of the good times He sings the songs that remind him of the better times

You have to love that Brother built a printer whose reputation is “It works” and in our enshittified world that is enough for it to become everyone’s favorite printer. (I have one too)

Over on Threads it’s all very intense posts about very asinine opinions. Someone will be like, “I don’t care if this is an unpopular opinion: The Godfather is good” and then there’s discourse for three weeks

If the Legend of Zelda movie doesn’t include a scene of Link spending thirty minutes frustratingly trying to solve a puzzle by moving some blocks around so he can get into the next room of a dungeon….well, then it’s not *my* Zelda

Incredible stuff

This is some Charles Foster Kane shit

I am reading Richard J. Evans’ THE COMING OF THE THIRD REICH (you know, for escapism) and one thing I’m struck by is how many of the key figures of the Nazi party were just total losers, elevated to prominence by loyalty to the party and their own innate cruelty Just thinking about that today…

A moving scene in Netflix’s DEATH BY LIGHTNING: James Garfield, on his deathbed: “Will history remember my name?” His wife: “Yes, everyone will know Garfield. People love that orange tabby.”

If they think there’s gonna be a vote to extend the ACA next month I have a bridge you can buy. It’s just over here somewhere…

James Watson listened to Rosalind Franklin give a talk in 1951 laying out the foundational ideas behind DNA’s structure, but being a loser he didn’t understand it and later conveniently forgot to cite her in his work with Crick.

THE INSIDER remains great, and of course better than ever about the failures of corporate news. And boy, the filmmakers really did read Mike Wallace for filth. In 1999, when he was still on 60 Minutes!