Security was as fast as I’ve ever experienced this morning at DAL. All the way through in less than 5 minutes.

TFW events revise your #SCMS26 paper, just in time. Friday morning in panel F14! www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...

Another fresh hell in the endless series of automated commoditized surveillance that is being online in the 2020s. www.404media.co/this-company...

This is a no-brainer development deal as a mutual business decision. But I'm looking forward to @alyxvesey.bsky.social's takes on the films and series that result. www.reuters.com/business/med...

20+ years into platform-based public social media may have had some genuine cultural and social benefits for some. But I’d argue the overall cultural and social costs to how we think and communicate have been greater. We need to get beyond (gestures all around) this.

An series of existential media industry podcasts today. First, a topical “March Sadness” tournament of the non-HBO WBD and Paramount cable brands from the Ankler crew to determine the likely survivors of the merger, with a surprising winner. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

The magic of rerun syndication in the sweet spot of linear TV (the 1970s-90s). There’s a great, dare I say classic, book about it! 🙂 bookshop.org/p/books/reru...

This is the sound — the audio brand — that signaled The News many times a day for 10s of millions of American radio listeners for decades. youtu.be/0W7VhbQbdqs?...

Great piece synthesizing the threads of the political delusions of the AI project.

The GOAT.

Let’s see… I went 8 for 16, though these were picks and not predictions. I’m good with most of the outcomes, though Lindo and The Secret Agent were robbed, and Greenwood* and Byrne unfortunately never had a chance in this campaign season. * and Fendrix!

My Oscar ballot: 🎶 Jonny Greenwood (OBAA) 🎤 “Golden” (KPop) 👩🏼‍💻 Gabriel Domingues (TSA) ✂️ Andy Jurgensen (OBAA) 👗 Ruth Carter (Sinners) 🎥 Michael Bauman (OBAA) 📝 PTA (OBAA) 📝 Ryan Coogler (Sinners) 🎨 KPop 🌐 The Secret Agent 🎭 Teyana Taylor 🎭 Delroy Lindo 🎭 Michael B. Jordan 🎭 Rose Byrne 🎬 PTA 🎞️ OBAA

So far in 2026, the number of missing Doctor Who episodes recovered (2) > the number of new Doctor Who episodes made or forthcoming (1).

Delighted to learn that there are several apps that can transform your Plex server interface from a 2020s SVOD to a 1990s cable EPG. I love the serendipity of linear TV.

Really hoping there’s some great creative film and TV traction somewhere in Hollywood* to make up for all the oxygen and stability the Warnamount saga will suck out of the room for the next 2-3 years. * Beyond the “Sheridanverse” and a franchise-centric Disney

Mary Bronstein’s IN A LONELY PLACE

Nobody at WB deserves this, just as nobody at Paramount deserved it either. Hugs and godspeed to all in Burbank, and congrats to the Smoke House for what should be a record night of commiseration at their bar.

Late 90s Star Trek: DS9: what if the galaxy was embroiled in war, and personal and political security and loyalties were threatened? VOY: what if Paris and Janeway cross Warp 10, mutate into giant salamanders, and have salamander babies?

Shout out to everyone at Warner Bros who have consistently put out fantastic and iconic works across every media platform over the last 30-odd years despite getting perpetually dicked around by an apparently endless succession of soul-sucking corporate parents.

I devoured MMPBs for the first few decades of my reading life. An absolutely essential format for crime fiction, SF, horror, romance, and pop psychology in the 20th century. Now they’re another print-culture casualty of shifting technology and modes of reading. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

The relationship between media technology and the human pursuit of immortality is endlessly fascinating. Nothing we record now will be of anything beyond deeply esoteric scholarly interest in 1000 years, let alone 10,000 years. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Still ashamed that none of us fiftysomethings recognized Lizzy Caplan in last night's pub trivia. The Gen X - Millennial gap is real.

I have very few films that I love unconditionally, and Playtime is top of the list. 123 minutes of crowded cinematic choreography in the exclusive service of complicated and gleefully silly sight gags and the joy of escalating chaos. youtu.be/0apeMNoM1XE?...

It really doesn’t have to be this way. www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

This whole thread. A society clogged by its oldest and most privileged members' denial of their own mortality.

Drop an album that was important to you when you were 19

A great reminder that the “AI discourse” (such as it is) doesn’t have to be this way. We should have honest, grounded discussions about technology without them quickly fading into hand-waving carnival barker proselytizing.

Spending a warm but wet V Day cleaning out the garage. A domestic archeological dig unearthing faintly familiar bits of ancient hardware and half-empty caulk canisters from Obama-era DIY projects.

Athletes are great. The capital investment and emotional labor of nationalism are not.

Sometimes a clean break is best.

Being "too old for this shit" implies the existence of age-appropriate shit to deal with.

This is tempting, especially since I'm most of the way there with a deep Plex library. youtu.be/M9qJI2u_be0?...

Picked up a few shiny new 2026 bangers on this month’s Bandcamp Friday, but this solo debut from Momoko Gill is the standout. Looking forward to the rest of the tracks when they drop next Friday. momokogill.bandcamp.com/album/momoko

Happy antepenultimate #gally1 eve, and all the libation and joy that entails, to all assembling at the LAX Marriott tonight. You've all earned it. Hope to see y'all in 2028. 🥂

It's not as much the obsequiousness and excuses of the power-adjacent to the crimes of the powerful that shocks and disappoints. It's our jaded acceptance of our cultural and social paralysis that prevents us from demanding and expecting consequences. Nothing will change until that changes.

The techlords' grand enshittification project continues apace, I see.

Great analysis on the limits of ad revenue and the long tail on FASTs, as virtually unwatched "zombie channels" drag platforms down. Bad news for the "everything will stream" thesis. fastmaster.substack.com/p/how-the-60...

Seems to me like a great opportunity to contextualize the history of attention in all forms (including entertainment, education, and subject formation).

“There was this guy this morning … but it turns out he’s a criminal.” 👏👏👏

A critical lesson every media exec (and fan) should have learned over the past decade is that not every beloved IP generates an endless gravy train of $. Sometimes there's a real ceiling, and it's not actually bigger on the inside.

Tell me your pet’s name with a gif.

A great piece linking together the threads of 2020s dissent that propel these shows and these characters.

Did No Other Choice not hit the theaters in LA? 🤔

Adding No Other Choice to my hypothetical cinema of extractions syllabus. Bonus!: it also features an actual non-metaphorical (and tbf also metaphorical) “extraction.”

The entirety of American broadcast news has apparently been a slow pivot all the way back to Camel News Caravan.

In between other, more enjoyable things on my birthday, I'm migrating a dozen years of notes from Evernote to the much-leaner (and more conscientious, and much, much cheaper) Joplin.

If I'm quiet here lately, it's because I'm quiet EVERYWHERE. I haven't been on FB since 2017, never done the Gram or the Tok, and quit the Old Place in 2022. I'm OK; just decided to take a few more steps away from The Scroll. So: very sporadic posting, and no reposting. See you when I see you! 👋

Pretty sure I won't be on here later tonight, so happy 2026 to all (including those of us still in 2025)! Whatever "it" is for you, I hope it happens this year.

Spending a couple days finally cataloguing DVDs, Blu-Rays, and 4Ks. We forget how the 2000s were the peak for media packaging and bonus features. A lovely and baroque era which we'll never see again, except on the esoteric margins. One of the biggest aesthetic losses of our surrender to streaming.

The Jones Film & Video Collection at SMU has an eclectic and deep audiovisual archive that taps into US Hollywood and independent film, Texas-based film artists and entrepreneurs, and an outstanding collection of 1950s-70s Dallas local TV news film. www.smu.edu/libraries/lo...