I interviewed @aplaceforowls.bsky.social about their upcoming EP, All Thieves, Vol. 1. I'm calling it 'Seven Swans by way of Oblique Strategies.' Read all about the band's 'first idea, best idea' approach to songwriting and the constellation of excellent guests. spectrumculture.com/2026/07/19/i...

I wrote about 'Independence Day,' which was released 30 years ago: 'Global unity and cooperation do occur in "Independence Day", but only because a superior alien force poses an obliterating alternative...the globe is united in war, which results in peace.' spectrumculture.com/2026/07/13/r...

I reviewed the Madonna album for @spectrumculture.bsky.social. ‘Confessions II is so bound to the past, including its status as an official sequel album, that previous highlights serve as persistent presences or gold standards on an album that cannot measure up.’ spectrumculture.com/2026/07/12/m...

NEW LP "MF" previously available digital only is NOW UP for pre-order via @iheartnoise.bandcamp.com - and it's only $15! There are only 50 copies available right now, pick one up!

For @spectrumculture.bsky.social's Best Albums of 2026 (So Far), I wrote about 'Last Week’s Horse' by @happyjusttoseeyou.bsky.social: 'an absolute comfort listen for fans of the last three decades of alternative rock... extended out for a group of musicians like this to make the next last splash.'

Do not, under any circumstances, *ever*, feed someone else's work into an LLM without their explicit permission, if you use the things at all, which you shouldn't. It all becomes training data for the LLM, which means you're helping those things steal their work.

The Best Films of 2026 (So Far). I wrote about 'Shelter,' the exceptional Jason Statham movie that you should all watch right now. At maximum volume. spectrumculture.com/2026/07/05/t...

Air playing 'Run' live in 2024. Sensational. Underrated. youtu.be/uQauaVbPEAA?...

Wait, you mean you're not listening to 'Whack's Museum' this very moment?

Heat dome music: themodernfolk.bandcamp.com/album/mf-meg...

I reviewed the new Muse album for @spectrumculture.bsky.social. ‘If [Muse] cannot recapture the glory of “Absolution“ they could stand to be a bit more judicious about how they deploy what works and jettison the less successful experiments as cosmic debris.’ spectrumculture.com/2026/07/01/m...

Watch 'To the Manor Born' in her honour. She's unparalleled.

Physical media library ftw.

I reviewed the new Tierra Whack mixtape, 'WHACK'S MUSEUM,' for @spectrumculture.bsky.social. 'Tierra Whack remains an expert musical curator of the whims of her brilliant mind, but this museum could be less guarded.' spectrumculture.com/2026/06/25/t...

New Zao! Old songs. New Zao! officialzao.bandcamp.com/album/pillars

Here is an article I presented in Cannes at the 2024 conference 'Failure in Anglophone print and audiovisual culture,' finally published two years later. One of my favourite 'bad' movies, perhaps the best of the bunch. 'Beyond Failure in "After Last Season".' journals.openedition.org/erea/21908

I'll be speaking today about waking/woke/wokeness and their meanings at NECS 2026 at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier. necs.org/conference/2...

Bob Dylan gave us ONE '"Love and Theft".' @aplaceforowls.bsky.social is promising MORE THAN ONE 'All Thieves.' All is well.

DISCLOSURE DAY: 'Dublin 6 residents liken proposed tennis dome at exclusive club to "colossal glowing orb".'

Bandcamp: aplaceforowls.bandcamp.com/track/to-be-... Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/0ups5o... Apple: music.apple.com/us/album/to-...

I reviewed the Bladee album at @spectrumculture.bsky.social. 'If a common observation about Bladee is that he transcends genres, Sulfur Surfer supports that argument with its fantastical, metaphysical yearning that cannot be bound to conventional hip-hop or rap.' spectrumculture.com/2026/06/02/b...

Oh, yes.

The latest in the David Lynch series I'm editing: 'Time in Worlds Within Worlds Within Worlds: Experiencing Proper Time Via David Lynch’s Inland Empire' by Bastien Bussieres. camera-stylo.com.au/index.php/co...

Today I'm in Dublin at the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), speaking about sad '90s films by Solondz and Gallo as part of the conference 'Bad Feelings: sadness + gender in contemporary culture.' www.ucd.ie/humanities/r...

Today I'm in Dublin at the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), speaking about sad '90s films by Solondz and Gallo as part of the conference 'Bad Feelings: sadness + gender in contemporary culture.' www.ucd.ie/humanities/r...

If it’s true that an LLM is likelier than a prof to generate feedback everybody agrees on, that doesn’t tell me that profs should be using it, but that they don’t need to. Students can get it themselves. What the LLM doesn’t do is give the feedback that any particular prof (and only that one) would

oh no, how awful

I reviewed the Bladee album at @spectrumculture.bsky.social. 'If a common observation about Bladee is that he transcends genres, Sulfur Surfer supports that argument with its fantastical, metaphysical yearning that cannot be bound to conventional hip-hop or rap.' spectrumculture.com/2026/06/02/b...

Across America, a massive bipartisan revolt is erupting against the spread of data centers powering the AI boom. It may be the most united Americans have been on anything in years, and their leaders aren't listening. #Velshi

The silver lining here is that a winnowing is happening. It‘s a good thing that AI users are so easily detectable.

If you're planning to listen to the new Boards of Canada, that's all well and good. But it would be cooler if you revisited The Books' 'The Way Out' first. Similar ballpark, but (oh-so) superior: books.bandcamp.com/album/the-wa...

Real talk.

“Two Sisters” from the Nine Pound Hammer single ahead of my upcoming LP on @iheartnoise.bandcamp.com - I fell in love w/ the melody of this jealousy-based murder ballad from 1600’s England. My recording is a fragment, the story is really long. This song is also known as “Dreadful Wind & Rain”

As they say in Super Troopers, ‘desperation is a stinky cologne.’

I'll be speaking at this year's Children's Literature Association Conference, which begins tomorrow in Pittsburgh. I'm a part of the panel called 'WEAPONS: Violence, Moral Panics and Safety in Children’s Literature, Media and Cultures.' www.childlitassn.org/chla-2026-co...

MIT (endowment: $27B) shuttering three of its four main libraries is one of those news items that just knocks you off balance, auguring, as it does, profound and permanent changes to the entire institutional apparatus of higher education in this country.

I reviewed the three recent Drake albums at @spectrumculture.bsky.social. ‘Three albums fail to capitalize on the attention aimed Drake's way after Kendrick Lamar bested him, creating the impression that the Drake character is content to live on streams alone.’ spectrumculture.com/2026/05/25/d...

I'm sitting here grinding my teeth. They didn't choose. They didn't make a judgement call. They just ran probabilities without regard for the result. It doesn't understand anything, it makes answer-shaped answers. Stop attributing agency to a glorified equation.

Probably the most underrated band. I will never understand how little attention they got, given the quality of the music. www.youtube.com/watch?v=APJu...

Do you like found-footage horror films? Can you TRUST found-footage horror films? Find the answer and much more in this wonderful new book, releasing next month from @edinburghup.bsky.social.

Dire.

Available next month. I contributed the closing chapter, 'Horrors of Digital Communication in Found-Footage Supernatural Films.'

A type of accelerationism I can get behind.

One does not simply wait for Drake to drop.

OUR NEW SINGLE "found an enemy" IS STREAMING EVERYWHERE NOW! MUSIC VIDEO AT LINK IN BIO. Produced & Mixed by @billymannino.bsky.social Mastered by Mike Kalajian Single Art by @chemicalmessiah.bsky.social

The paper-bag trick, the hanky over the face, the glasses at a funny angle, tricks in the arsenal for dads all over the country for years to come. He was fashioned from the funniest of funny bones and could light up the darkest of rooms. Happy 100 to Eric Morecambe. youtu.be/8FYZ5Y4PONM?...

Nearly 50,000 people in the Lake Tahoe area have been told that their utility will stop providing power to them, because it's redirecting that power to data centers. /1