this is really interesting to me. I was 42 when my mom died, at which point my migraines and sleep problems reached a new nadir. when i was 44, we were in Peak COVID with just the whisper of a hope for a vaccine, and I was nearly losing my goddamn mind again. www.thecut.com/article/midd...

this year has been all about reading, reading, reading, just sheer book gluttony after years of struggling to focus. fiction, short stories, books on the occult, memoir, I ate it all up! the impulse to write flickers occasionally, but it's harder work to fan that flame into something worth pursuing.

I just watched "Sorry, Baby" on HBO, and it was so self-assured and steady and terrific. I love the way it was written -- it didn't fall into any weird dramatic traps or tropes, which is nice. I enjoyed the performances very much, especially the cats (obviously).

abolish ICE and CBP primary anyone who disagrees

Was reminded of my very favorite tweet of all time today:

there are jews of every nationality, color, and ethnicity on god’s green earth and while white jews are beneficiaries of white privilege it also tempered by conditionality: we’re only white insofar as it serves white supremacy. once we begin to combat it, we lose our access to whiteness.

holy SHIT I forgot about the long boxes.... what else have I forgotten??

Really enjoying how the Yiddish paper referred to a new transmasc in the shtetl as A CURIOUS OCCURRENCE (אַ טשיקאַװע פּאַסירונג) and then just happily tells the tale

and on my birthday!

Spirited Away is the best movie to watch on a cold and rainy Sunday evening. It's so much weirder than I remember (and obviously terrific).

make movies horny again

hon hon hon!!!

The right is full of grown-ass adults who are afraid of vaccines, kid's books, and anyone Twitter or OAN tells them to fear, including the entirety of NYC, and NYC is full of people who cheerfully chase federal agents out of the state and then do stunts on Citibikes; you tell ME who's going to win.

Udo in my living room circa 2001, holding the blow-up doll from Jorg Buttgereit's SCHRAMM (that's Ant Timpson on his right) Thanks to my friend Dave Pikker for unearthing the pic

someones my partner seems like he's got something heavy weighing on him, and I get a tad worried. did something happen? I brace myself. "I think I just have to admit...." he says, mussing his hair worriedly, "I'm really more of a socialist than anything else."

Look, I just think it's important to watch the video for Electric Six's "Danger! High Voltage" every once in a while to rebalance one's humors, okay? I'm just trying to help

Is MGM+ a hotbed of softcore smut? Some of the search results pique one's curiosity, but perhaps not enough to sign up for yet another streaming service.

🖤

the danny aiello space pickle movie is @rufus-hickok.bsky.social's rosebud.

I don't want to know if it's visible to everyone else on the google doc that I have cranked it up to 150%, just don't fucking tell me

this hazelnut chocolate black tea is my current fave, but I am open to suggestions august.la/collections/...

Have I truly never watched Kiki's Delivery Service until tonight or was it during the summer my friend lived with me while she worked as a jeweler's apprentice and we got stoned and rented movies from Kim's on A every night? I may never know. the delivery service we used had punch cards!

the Transcendental Meditation app icon looks a bit like Bumble dating app from afar, so that's always a fun jump scare waiting for me on my home screen.

"You know, they say that Mamdani is a 'socialist,' but he's what people are calling a democratic socialist. Isn't that something? While me, I'm more about America, and putting our nation first. You could say I'm more like a national socialist really."

holy shit.

OK tonight I learned that Gaspar Noe brought Dario Argento as his +1 to meet the Pope, and this is possibly the sweetest and the maddest thing to ever happen.

learning there's an angel in the Kabbalah who helps you find the books you need at the library has made my night. from @phantasmaphile.bsky.social's deeply researched Magic Maker, which I am slowly savoring.

last night we went to a fabulous reading and Q&A where the author specifically requested that everyone mask. masks were provided, but there were still 2 people who resolutely did not mask despite paying money to attend an event for a book that takes place during both the AIDS crisis and COVID. why?!

People mag is constantly undervalued because the majority of its pages are dedicated to female-coded interests (celebs, shopping, true crime). They don't crave or need political access to exist & so are free to speak truth to power. One of the few outlets to cover Project 2025 with any seriousness.

I think it's super that MTG and the other MAGAfemme freaks have finally begun to realize that the leopards will eventually get around to eating your face too, and maybe it will save them from whatever they think hell is, but they're still morally vacant, terrible people with repugnant ideas. Cool?

last night seeing Simon Raymonde read from his memoir in the absolutely packed back room of the parkside lounge was such a goddamn treat! @ladymillicent.bsky.social's readings are always worth fighting through my claustrophobia.

“Short bursts indicate an ICE sighting. Long whistles indicate agents making arrests. If you hear the whistle and you’re undocumented, said [Whitney Hu, a community activist and organizer with South Brooklyn Mutual Aid], ‘you hide. And if you’re somebody who’s not, you go to the street.’”

Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.

eating a grilled cheese in a diner while "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey plays is essential to my well-being.

this was what I worked on when I was being treated for treatment-resistant depression (first with ketamine and then with TMS). physically nailing down those moments of joy and relief to revisit later. a bunny romping in the grass at Tompkins with their human nearby. the crosstown bus. everything.

last night we watched the Mapplethorpe biopic currently streaming on Criterion. whatever cut they have makes great use of his most explicit photos (no complaints here, mind you). Matt Smith is terrific, even tho I'm still scarred from him slumping badly to play Manson in Charlie Says.

yes I did yes I did yes I finished reading Ulysses last night before bed Yes.

Iggy has no idea he's going mildly viral. he is mooning around the apt crying because he wants Rufus to hang out with him in the empty bath tub.

calling @horrornonna.com to the courtesy phone

anyway, here's Iggy

the mind-body connection is such a fun game. it's like, why are my eyes blurry? why do I feel dissociated and everything feels hyperreal and bright? am I having a stroke or sensing an incoming storm? can I monetize this?

where's the gif for Rafi saying, "bite each others' dicks off!" when you need it?

[To the tune of Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison] 🎵Baba Yaga 🎵Walking down the street 🎵Baba Yaga 🎵House with chicken feet 🎵Baba Yaga

probably Ulysses (20 pages left, baby!) and a Namio Harukawa art book.

evidence from the west memphis 3 case has been sent to a lab for advanced DNA testing -- seems like a legit local news source? talkbusiness.net/2025/11/evid...

trust is neither given nor earned. it forms naturally between people who share the experience of having listened to Skinny Puppy at or after 3 am in the dark by themselves

never forget when Luke Wilson was dubbed the Butterscotch Stallion by the brilliant Stu VanAirsdale. I wanted to work for Defamer sooooo bad!!!

the brain fog struggle is extremely real today... could NOT think of the title "Belladonna of Sadness" and resorted to "rereleased animated film about a demon and a beautiful lady" until I could google lists of "adult" anime movies. sigh.

Above all else, these people have absolutely NO moral standing to lecture the rest of us about the art we enjoy, the books we read, the relationships we have, or what we do with our bodies.