Content creators tend to think any spectacle is defensible if they can say health and safety concerns have been attended to behind the scenes, but that’s not really it imho. Mr. Beast’s whole thing is that his subjects’ desperation for cash allows him—a wealthier person—to indulge his sadism.

The Piano Teacher (2001, d. Haneke) Isabelle Huppert is a sexually repressed piano teacher with unrealized masochistic tendencies. Then she meets Benoit Magimel, an attractive young man who is smitten with her. 1/2

This whole section really.

"I'm God's instrument," Reverend Short said. "I don't doubt that," Grave Digger said, trying to hold his attention until Coffin Ed had time to approach the rear windows. "All we want to do is see that you get safe and sound back into God's instrument case." - Chester Himes, The Crazy Kill

I've now lost 170 pounds. I used the ancient method known as stepping off the scale.

This could just as easily have been my place, a home where a man could drink in boredom and repent in violence and be forgiven for the price of a beer. - James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss

How appropriate that this reminds me of a scene from a movie called “Clueless.”

As Tears Go By (1988, d. Wai) Excellent film about an enforcer, Andy Lau, who tries to protect his obnoxious little brother, Jacky Cheung, while falling in love with his cousin, Maggie Cheung. Excellent crime movie that intermingles with a pretty good romance, as Wai tends to do.

I told the dog I was going to watch a Wong Kar Wai movie with Maggie Cheung. Then I explained that I wouldn't be watching it with Maggie Cheung, but she would be in it. Because if I don't speak clearly to Misha, how will she ever learn English?

Newsom fans, especially in CA: time to show your guy the way forward! (also non-fans but I know YOU’VE got this…)

Nick Valencia, who has been doing amazing reporting, just wrote about this: “These Are Abductions.” Newlywed Husband Says Wife Taken During Green Card Interview open.substack.com/pub/nickvale...

3 Women (1977, d. Altman) Sissy Spacek gets obsessed with Shelly Duvall, her co-worker in a nursing home. She thinks Duvall is perfect (Spacek is nuts and Duvall is self-promotionally delusional) 1/2

The rest of y'all may be wasting time, but I'm listening to John Lee Hooker and drinking bourbon.

Whole lot of John Woo, among others, coming to The Criterion Channel in October. www.criterion.com/current/post...

Friendly reminder: Authors don't choose which stores their book will be sold in. Publishers and stores may do so. Authors are ordinary people with talents. Harvard Bookstore: www.harvard.com/book/9798822... Walmart: www.walmart.com/ip/The-Hidde... Target: www.target.com/p/the-hidden...

Pret-a-Porter (1994, d. Altman) Great cast, funny script, about a bigtime fashion show where one of the head honchos dies and murder is suspected. 1/2

“Some musicians looked down on the cover acts, but not Delmar. Butchering a song you wrote was one thing—most times nobody knew the difference. Make a mistake on an old standard and that’s when the glass starts to fly.”

The disability community needs support & solidarity to fight these pharmaceutical tariffs. Most of us can barely afford our medications as is. We can’t suddenly stop taking them, we will die. We can’t stockpile them. A 100% tariff will cost lives.

It happened. Bookshop.org has acquired the NEW EDITION of THE HIDDEN FACE. Get the paperback format here: bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

The Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993, d. Lau) Wondrous piece of madness with an all-star cast in this musical romantic comedy magic kung-fu flick. Directed by Jeffrey Lau, produced by Wong Kar Wai, with Sammo Hung as the action director. With “monsters” in costumes straight out of Gilligan’s Island.

No money for veterans or the homeless or hungry children, but plenty of money for Argentina’s unpopular leaders.

I meant to rewatch the last episode of Slow Horses Season 4 before Season 5 started, but Season 5 is up now so I got in my rewatch but the next season will have to wait until tomorrow. I should have put this on my calendar.

Train To Busan (2016, d, Sang-Ho) Excellent Korean Zombie flick, marred slightly by its ending. A man is taking his young daughter by train to his ex-wife when a massive zombie outbreak occurs, terrorizing the train and much of Korea. 1/2

Today it was 85 degrees around 1:00. Misha didn't want to walk, steered us into The Crepe Place, where I drank a Negra Modelo with a friend, who requested one of my books. Hell yeah! Btw, Misha will want to walk more when it gets warmer.

My noirish folk horror novella SONG OF THE RED SQUIRE was released three years ago this month. If you haven’t read it, pick up a copy in time for the apple harvest 🍎

"This is a wonderful book for freaks and perverts, for scared and tired academics, and for Witches who like to see Witchcraft done in new and interesting ways... my Witchy read of the fall." - Meg Elison 😳😻🥰 wildhunt.org/2025/09/less...

"By 1980, pressure had been growing to put through a National Health Act. This was blocked by the medical lobby, doctors protesting that such an act would mean the virtual end of private practice, and that the overall quality of medical service would decline. 1/3

I loved @caseystegman.com's story from my first reading. Effie is a brilliant character and this inclusion is very much deserved. Expecting big things from Casey!

Cleveland tonight! Chicago tomorrow! Detroit Thursday! Kansas City Friday! It's not a Strokes song, or a Bay City Rollers oldie--it's ONE OF US, on tour. Step out and see me!

This is from a couple of years ago. Clockwise from bottom left: Misha, Melvin, and Lemmy. Just three short people at the bar.

ICYMI, the end of an era in T-minus..

Collective action is what led to this. Keep the energy up for trans people, for artists, for our BIPOC community, for Palestine. We have shown them WHY we have free speech and HOW we will keep it. Now. Keep USING it.

Hey babe, wake up - new interview answer just dropped.

Dark Habits (1983, d. Almodovar) Exceedingly funny film about nuns who give up a spot in their convent to a singer on the run who happens to be into junk, much like their Mother Superior. It’s a small number of nuns, all of them drug-addled, and it’s funny as hell.

my favorite subgenre of Halloween decoration is “skeleton of things that absolutely do not have skeletons”

Madness (1980, d. di Leo) Fine crime film stars Joe Dallesandro as an escaped convict after the 300 million liras he hid. It’s under a fireplace in a home currently owned by a man who, in addition to sleeping with his wife, the absolutely adorable Patricia Behn, 1/2

Former counselor to RFK Jr’s predecessor:

I heard the first note of this and named the song. Get me on this game of Name That Tune. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubXv...

Devil in a Blue Dress (1995, d. Franklin) Magnificently directed by Carl Franklin—there’s an early shot that goes directly from the street to Denzel Washington scouring the want ads—and acted story about a guy who gets fired, needs to make his mortgage, and takes a job hunting down a 1/2 or 3

A Better Tomorrow II (1987, d. Woo) Excellent continuation; who knew anyone was left alive after the first one? But after a relatively sedate beginning, this film explodes. The idealistic kid from the first flick, now married, starts going out with the daughter of a suspect, 1/2 or 3

Trash day dog walks are awful - gotta stop and sniff all the garbage. And the dog does, too.

Rewatched the first episode of The Wire. So many stories and characters introduced, so many scenes concluded; it did so much in a single episode, no wonder that I love this series.

So good to see that the U.K. still lauds kiddy rapers. Yeah he's ours, but we don't want him.

Kamikaze ’89 (1982, d. Gremm) stars Rainer Werner Fassbinder as the cop sent to solve a crime against the state (Germany), which has taken control of the world, solved pollution and everything else, and is controlled by one agency. 1/4?

Per the BBC, "Trump welcomed to Windsor Castle." aka, "We like child rapists here."

But just when it seemed over and all the stories wrapped up, a grand finale (?) to this, Desire is Death; “A life as you age of bitterness, disconnection, and grim financial prospects. We're in the realm of a certain, and not uncommon, American man.” (Scott Adlerberg) bookshop.org/p/books/desi...

Don't copy that floppy! archive.org/details/Dont...

Heroes Shed No Tears (1986, d. Woo) Eddy Ko leads a force of Chinese commandos hired by the Thai government to capture a drug lord. They take the drug lord prisoner but have to go through Vietnam, where a crazed colonel wages war on them. 1/2

If this became a weekly series, it would run longer than The Simpsons.

You’re gonna be BLOWN away when you see this cover. And yes, please share and preorder!