David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

I don't love posting about twttr but years back I had this great convo about the instinct early writers have to withhold the most salient details in a piece & how it opens doors to do the opposite. There were many great responses & I have forgotten them. Trying to run it back.

Since many of us are cancelling streaming services, now might also be a good time to support writers and artists. Times are extremely tough for creatives, so why not buy a book, commission an art piece, sign up for a Patreon, tip your favorite creators. Everything helps.

If you have an extra $10 a month to spare, here's a list of worker-owned cooperative news sites you might want to support: • 404 Media • Defector • The Flytrap • Flaming Hydra • The Appeal • Aftermath • Racket • Hell Gate • The 51st • The Colorado Sun • Range Media • Discourse Blog • Pop Heist

I wrote about the leveling and deranging effects of the Trumpist snitchscape, and the awful content creation imperatives governing this awful moment. defector.com/the-united-s...

Fox Sports uses AI to achieve the impossible: make Aaron Rodgers look deader inside. defector.com/fox-sports-a...

This brings the Dread Cycle™: Work on personal projects Need to make money to survive Pause personal work Build small safety net Back to personal work Need to make money to survive... Every pause hurts personal work, so the thing we want to be our focus/income never gets traction in survival mode.

Nearly every artist you know/follow is struggling right now. Opportunities are retracting and most of us are barely making rent and/or are one unexpected emergency away from being royally screwed. We're lowering rates, hustling harder than ever, and just trying to do what we love.

Just going to leave this from @onthemedia.bsky.social here

giving you permission for today to not have to argue about how crime is lower actually

The most depressing AI pieces are always going to be the thoughtful, nuanced, open-minded considerations by respected writers who are transparently responding to the publicity incentive created by editors whose owners want this kind of content

yes john the last thing the democratic party needs is members who are not even democrats

Thanks jibjab hot dog.

Rep. Summer Lee said Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill will have a massive impact on PA. ▪️500k lose health insurance ▪️Rural hospitals could close ▪️Over 134k in PA-12 alone could lose SNAP food assistance ▪️$360 yearly increase in energy bills ▪️37k lost energy jobs statewide

Oh no what if they turn this insanely popular young progressive into a national figure, anything but that

Literally begging you to post about Just Some Stuff. We will see the news I absolutely promise. Twenty people will repost the same exact thing about the news. Only you can post about a turtle you saw

I am begging people not to look to the NYT for coverage of what's happening. The BBC, Le Monde, Ajazeera and others will have more truthful coverage.

Bluesky is officially “open” now (no more invites). So just a reminder to not engage with trolls and bad actors, there is no algorithm here to promote or spread them, replying to them is what puts them on everybody’s timelines. So block and give no oxygen.

hello fellow panicked liberals of bluesky - reg is open for my summer course with Stanford Continuing Studies - designed expressly to help you locate yourself & your voice when life feels too big and loud to do so. Link below to enroll or share: continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/deta...

3. Polaroid Death Machine (Mike Scalise, The Georgia Review) "Mike Scalise comes closer than any writer I’ve encountered to explaining the singular power of instant film." www.thegeorgiareview.com/posts/polaro...

hello, the editors have picked my shortish GR essay about Polaroids and death for you to read

"That instant film could live on as both image and object . . . made it an ideal future archive. A message in a bottle. This was it, it said. This was the end for me." Mike Scalise for The Georgia Review:

1. Stop assuming people announce all their activism on social media. 2. Stop demanding people announce all their activism on social media. 3. Stop deriding people for not announcing all their activism on social media. 4. Dunking on people on social media isn't activism and isn't praxis.

Hey, you can celebrate the April 8th BIG CHIEF release day by listening to the Chills at Will podcast, and you can also celebrate @knguyen.bsky.social’s April 8th release IN THE EXACT SAME WAY

Honestly kinda agree with the people saying it’s boring 😬😅 when I go to an author event I’m always way more interested to hear them talk about their process and inspiration and writing in general but then they get to the reading and it’s always some out of context chapter and my mind just wanders

I went to a reading this fall where the author didn’t read from the book but DID read little unpublished stories loosely related to the book. I did not realize this is a trend! Seems so odd—I had no sense whether I’d like the book itself, so I didn’t buy it 🤷‍♀️

Social media complaints about readings have convinced authors they shouldn't read at all, but what authors shouldn't do is read badly and/or overlong. Just be interesting! And brief! (Authors who can't read from their work aren't necessarily interesting for 30 minutes of conversation either...)

It's about 3ish years old now, but yes, the standard event format for most book events is the in-conversation or panel. The thinking was basically that *most authors don't give compelling single person readings. (I have thoughts about why that is, but that's not really relevant.)

q for publishing people / authors: i require my fic students to go to reading events & since maybe last nov they have increasingly reported that the authors @ these events... don't read from the book they promote (there is video evidence) is this like a new trend? if so, what's the thinking/origin?

JF has always been a opportunist shape-shifter, listen to your yinzer soothesayers when they tell you about someone

Duane Michals. Joseph Cornell holding an untitled bottle object. 1969.

Ah, it's list week in lit world, now with all these starter packs which feel similar. Another reminder that you're a great writer if you're on lists, and you're a great writer if you aren't. Keep on, lists don't read

time to take a stupid walk for my stupid physical and stupid mental stupid health

Hi new Bluesky users. Semi-annual reminder to follow my favorite part of this website: the Gift Links feed. It shows any free link to an otherwise paywalled article that’s shared by anyone on Bluesky. It has legit changed how I read the news. bsky.app/profile/did:...

bumping for new folks

ok hello big influx of new people! good to see you & to follow back. i keep a light footprint here & will probably only post when I have new stuff out that i hope you'll read. but i'm looking fwd to the community, & liking what you post--happy to be on bluesky, happy to be sober lol

feels like this headline was written when the article was assigned, me and my lefty Pennsylvanians here are optimistic to a T, pls stop projecting your weird punitive shit on us, we are good

been poking around at full-time copywriting jobs and every listing is essentially "are you HIP? are you ON THE EDGE? do you want to SPEND ALL DAY FEEDING YOUR ORIGINAL WORK TO AN AI? do you want to BE WORK FRIENDS WITH THE AI YOU FEED? can you and the AI YOU FEED meet DEADLINES and SEO GUIDELINES"

I have in my possession the ring that killed henry kissinger

Another big win for voting rights tonight: Democrat Sara Innamorato has won the Allegheny County (Pittsburgh area) executive race. www.nytimes.com/interactive/... That means Pennsylvania's second-largest county will continue to have a Dem-run Board of Elections heading into 2024

For anyone who left twttr that needs results…

Here! I have a feed for US election experts and results:

don’t tell the poets, but

THIS CRAB IS INNOCENT