“When the bird and the book disagree, always believe the bird.” — John James Audubon (Just heard this quote today and will research context, but I like it.)

"Pronoun police"? Please. The proper term is the gendermes.

When I was a kid reading on my own, I assumed “niche” rhymed with “cliche.” Nee-SHAY. I now say “nitch” but I still prefer my original version.

They get to choose where they give it to you tho.

Has anyone ever written a murder mystery where Stanley Kubrick is the amateur detective who solves the case? Seems unfair for Hitchcock to have fully cornered that market.

Double Indemnity: Cain's novel is very good, but Wilder (and Chandler) make some smart, merciless changes to the story that make it far greater.

A film critic's job is to write about film with insight and intelligence. It is not their job to agree with you.

"If it's guilt you're looking for, Buffy, I'm not your man. All you will get from me is my support. And my respect." I was not a parent last time I watched the show but apparently Giles was parenting goals in the background the whole time.

Not my meme, but my take.

Anthony Head’s death nudged me to watch “Surprise” and “Innocence” for the first time in years. I’ve said this was my favorite show since 1998 or so, and that’s still true. The high school years in particular are precisely my jam.

Love to feed my 8-pound family.

I should do an overhaul of this Letterboxd list of influential movie titles. (Specifically the titles themselves, not the movies.) Crowdsourcing it was a good time on Twitter, so clearly a long time ago.

at least we didn't get World War$

Well…..that’s an unfortunate place to put those rivets 😁🤣🦇

When it’s science people do this and say ‘look at me, I’ve discovered a new element’ but when it’s words it’s all ‘stop trying to make “rigify” happen’

“Just make it hurt and you’re on the right track. That’s all I know.”

For the sake of my muted keywords filtering, fill out your alt text If you are screenshotting a tweet or an article it is the easiest thing in the world

Anno Dracula. Miniseries. Could be multiple seasons. Clear the rights to all the goddamn vampires from pop culture and make it happen.

"No" is a complete sentiment.

"It’s critical that we push back against this wretched 'second screen' idea—the assumption that attention is a resource to be optimized rather than surrendered. Art is immersive or it’s décor." — Shona Sanzgiri

fuck AI because you can pry my em dash from my cold, dead fingers

What’s your favorite movie from each decade of your life? 70s: Jaws 80s: Something Wild 90s: Chungking Express 00s: Mulholland Drive 10s: The Grand Budapest Hotel 20s: Killers of the Flower Moon 90s is the toughest call.

This one was a classic. At least 11 rules from his style guide were followed to the letter here

Someone on Reddit recommended downloading Letterboxd ratings and review data, feeding it to an LLM, and asking it to make recommendations. The most interesting result: the more data I give Claude, the worse its recommendations are. And, of course, it makes stuff up.

At least 5% of my career as a university communicator has been dedicated to un-capitalizing others' writing.

People sure do love title case

ME: *clicks link to free article* ME: *starts to read free article* three seconds later... WIRED: *cocks shotgun, aims it right between my eyes* WIRED:

Lore is valuable, lore can be spun into infinite Intellectual Property, stories that produce feelings, relating and catharsis are much less-predictable, much less containable, and thus much less profitable. This is one of the main things I talk about w/r/t modern filmmaking in my book

What’s your favorite movie from each decade of your life? 70s: Jaws 80s: Something Wild 90s: Chungking Express 00s: Mulholland Drive 10s: The Grand Budapest Hotel 20s: Killers of the Flower Moon 90s is the toughest call.

At first I read this as "patois" and was excited to get some deep knowledge about Twin Cities restaurant lingo.

No movie opinion is making me feel older than thinking that last year's Companion is significantly better than this year's Obsession. (And I like Obsession.)

There's a surprising amount of power in not needing things immediately.

If there's a Bluesky heaven, you know they've got a hell of a Discover feed.

Guessing I’m going to tear up at the end of each Culture Gabfest episode from here to the end.

I love movies

As Billy Wilder said, “You have to learn to take the bitter with the sour.”

Just realized my "Summer Strut candidates" playlist will wither on the vine this year.

Between the end of the Gabfest and the restructuring of Hit Parade, it's almost certainly the case that Slate has received my last annual Plus membership fee. Bonus advice columns aren't enough for me.

Crushed to learn that the Slate Culture Gabfest ends at the end of the month. I've been listening for almost 18 years! That said, I'm one of apparently many users who said they'd prefer to see it end than to have Steve, Dana, and Julia rotate out. Glad they're making that tough call.

First enshittification-themed horror movie hits screens in what, 4 years?

Maybe one of my most naïve thoughts back when "content" as a term was taking off was that people wanted to make movies or write books but no one wanted to "create content." False! So false!

Love that Etymonline says the origin of "brouhaha" comes from medieval theater, where it was "the cry of the devil disguised as clergy." Nice contrast with the undisguised cry of the devil: "muahaha."

developing a much thicker skin than i had as a younger man and actively working on a much greater tolerance for the mundane irritations of daily life have both been done wonders for me

Love that Etymonline says the origin of "brouhaha" comes from medieval theater, where it was "the cry of the devil disguised as clergy." Nice contrast with the undisguised cry of the devil: "muahaha."

Debating two possible topics for the next Kinogänger: Seeing movies by yourself Rewatching movies Preferences, readers?

if anyone with a PhD in linguistics, linguistic anthropology, comm, English or a related field would do my student and I the honor of pre-peer reviewing our paper "Queering media references in everyday conversation: constructing solidarity, identity and queer joy", I can offer to return the favor

Related: the reboot was underrated (and overhated, by the end)

Tell me the best Bad Movie with one miracle of a performance in it, mine is Shirley MacClaine in Some Come Running

I'm the weirdo who loved Grape Nuts. Still do. But as a kid it was specifically swamping them with milk and then covering the top with sugar. Crunch crunch crunch.

A, That's not a "four-dot ellipsis," as it's often identified, because there's no such thing as a four-dot ellipsis. It's a period followed by an ellipsis. B, It shouldn't be a period followed by an ellipsis; it should be, simply, an ellipsis. It's not a complete sentence; it's a fragment.