"twt is dead!" "bsky is dead!" all of these websites are dead. we scavenge the bones, cavernous ribcages of bygone giants arching overhead like cathedral vaults. and in the diffused shade cast by these dead web gods, we grow gardens

“I saw the best minds of my generation writing lists about which of the Muppets were most fuckable.” Much to relate to in this, via @patricklenton.bsky.social

it's true that LLMs are functionally no different to that guy who isn't actually that good at his job but keeps getting promoted because he's cultivated an air of sounding like he knows things, however we should not dignify this in any way by calling it intelligence

An astonishingly good profile via @nowvoyagermagazine.bsky.social, the kind that both paints a complex portrait of its subject, while delighting on the sentence level nowvoyagermag.com/reporting/a-...

[At the café. I pick up my phone and start typing]: Friend: I thought you didn't have social media. Me: I don't. Friend: But- you're... What is that, Bluesky? Me: It's not social. It's not media, either. Friend: Bu- Me, exasperated: It's a POST,

Pronunciation practice is going great

It’s a beautiful weekend — and for 300 lucky people who click the free link it can begin with reading this absoluyely mad yet undeniably insightful story from today’s egg-themed magazine. Jemima’s fever dream brought to life as.ft.com/r/2472cb26-a...

I've launched a newsletter. Close Reading is a fortnightly dispatch of literary obsessions. Each edition features a guest writer who shares one word, one quote, one poem, one book, and one other thing. Free of algorithms. Free to subscribe. Get it at closereading.co

Valentine’s Day eve at the florist

These people who want to “generate a book in a day” will never know the joy of getting to know a character layer by layer, the relief of solving an intractable plot problem, the satisfaction of PUTTING IN THE WORK and seeing your story flower into life. Absolute soulless motherfuckers

Me and who

I cannot get to Europe for this but you can bet your ass I’d write the hell out of a paper on how the Catholic Church reckoned with the demoniac spectres of Spiritualism during WWI

A real news headline today

This has not aged well

you’re right! it feels mostly awful to Go Online™, these days. the internet in a sad state, for reason after reason after reason. but there is a way to fix it; to trade the voidful howling for a quiet & joyful song. here’s how to win the war for the soul of the internet, and build the Web We Want.

Oh no, thank you, I actually just had a year.

I deleted my Spotify account a few months ago. Zero regrets. Currently using a mix of Bandcamp and my old library of ripped CDs loaded onto an iPod classic and let me tell you, the iPod still fucking rules

Guess I’ve found the topic of my next PhD www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

I simply love an album with churchlike organ, eerie violins and a tremulous children’s choir as back up. Hilary Woods gets it hilarywoodsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/night-...

May have gotten slightly trigger happy placing holds at my local library (I regret nothing)

Am I a member of the Sukarazukamori? I’ll never tell

going into the weekend like

Wonderful review/essay hybrid on the civic purpose of trains, via @europeanreview.bsky.social

Considered the oldest complete seventy-eight card tarot deck in existence, the 15th-century Sola Busca — named for the family of Milanese nobles who owned it for some five generations — is also one of the most mysterious: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sola-busca

Meanwhile The Guardian is posting articles wondering if you can hurt a chatbot’s feelings

Four days later and I’m still thinking about Athina Rachel Tsangari’s stunningly beautiful film Harvest. Quite possibly film of the year for me. (There’s one more screening tonight at MIFF, get along if you can!) miff.com.au/program/film...

1. History is not a science, it's poems about ghosts.

Today we’re launching the first in what we hope will be a series of fundraising tote bags. All proceeds from the sale of this first bag (that is the full $15 not just the profits) will go to the World Food Programme Palestine Emergency Appeal. paperbackbooks.com.au/p/fundraiser... 🖤

Happy birthday, Laura

Our Mid-Year Fundraiser is launched! publicdomainreview.org/support If you like what we do, and want to see it continue, then please do lend your support. Available to donors, our themed postcard packs: upcoming theme on... DESIRE.

Anyone have a recommendation for a good read-it-later app now that Pocket is shutting down? I’ve built a personal archive of all my favourite writing there and without it I will be BEREFT.

My paper on same-sex military mock weddings during WWI made the front cover! Free to download, check it out…

*stares in scholar of WWI queer history*

Goth friends near me

Should I book flights just so I can go to the panel on queer magic or

Melbourne!

Three meals in Adelaide, including a dish I hated open.substack.com/pub/acloudin...

A real treat to review Cigarettes After Sex for The Age ✨ www.theage.com.au/culture/live...

i swear to god i’m going to throw this book across the room

Back home after five days of Adelaide Writers’ Week. It’s a perfect festival: great line-up, picturesque surrounds, and almost every event is free. I can’t believe we still get to have nice things.

Isadora Duncan photographed by Arnold Genthe

New newsletter on queerness, faith and isolation 🕯️ lauravenning.substack.com/p/anchoress-...

Proud to have been part of this magical sharehouse

Forever and ever

Gillian Anderson polaroid behind the scenes of "THE X-FILES"

Perfect seams of light

Nosferatu is the Barbie movie but for goths