on the 50th anniversary of the release of The Boys Are Back in Town I'm morally obligated to share my favorite story of all time

knocked a re-read out this weekend and one material difference in the TV adaption is that being a visual medium a huge amount of the recontextualisation of a moment through M/C's perspective is not possible. Instead they make the characters explain their the view of the past on-screen

This is such a strange book to read. Despite being written seventy years ago, On The Beach frequently contains these flashes of "here's a type of guy and has been forever" today presenting Dwight, the proto cinema sins art critique who only cares about accuracy

James and I are texting like 30 times a week but let's be honest: the pure antagonism of Hat Boys is our relationship. And ongoing argument with no winner youtu.be/Ga1JkipAa-s

A telling quality of LLM boosterism is a single focus on cost, never on value. A generation of lifetime executives proudly announcing they don't actually understand and never have what labour actually is, nor that there can be joy in labour and the doing of great things.

Going through our clips folder and found this gem of @levelstory.bsky.social guiltily removing her earbuds to avoid spoilers for Inception, a film from 2010

We're entering the perfect four months of weather in Brisbane. Absolutely bosh to sit on the balcony and have a pint

This applies to writing too. The struggle is where you learn the important stuff

the work is the work

Me and a buddy are relaunching a new version of a show we did forrrrever ago and i just have to say: i have no idea which artist this stock image of a bear smoking a cigarette came from (i believe we added the hat) but he's great. I love him

What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?

So much AI stuff in general is clearly founded on a desire for not having to socially exist in any human way. Turn life into a prolonged flow state of game tutorials where you're constantly checking menus and following directions and none of it "really" matters because the menu won't judge you

Latest ep of our genre studies show is up, and it's a doozy: youtu.be/-8TUyvBvUSY

we're heading into my favorite LOTR shit, which is "increasingly weird metaphysical layers of reality designed to produce the worst things imaginable"

instead of watching the new harry potter trailer, why not pick up some horror books by trans and nb writers for the trans rights readathon?? there are so many good options. For example, check out some of these writers:

so support our lovely MinnMax crew or just go buy the game directly, idgaf as long as you are consuming art that expands your brain and makes you feel! it's not hard or boring we're just out of the habit because of inflated external reward systems! store.steampowered.com/app/2088810/...

Might be the greatest opening paragraph of anything ever.

I had a *very* weird experience with replaying the PS5 port of Red Dead Redemption. zeroindent.com/rdr/

I had a *very* weird experience with replaying the PS5 port of Red Dead Redemption. zeroindent.com/rdr/

When I talk about why I approach them with a certain sheepishness, this is part of it. I know so many people who've been thinking about games and writing against this position. How do push back against this? I don't know if there's a remedy to this. The "culture" is broadly poisoned with no cure!

Every few years a sci fi novel attacks the aesthetic concept of the novel in a way that makes a bunch of well-read-ish commentators lose their ability to talk about the book. They collapse into arch-homonym territory & swap words around until they convey some phenomenal version of book good

To be clear, this is why I subscribe to @remapradio.bsky.social. There are so few places to find writing as fascinating as this, telling stories that both illuminate the history of the medium and also grapple with the question of what the fuck lore is, was, or if it is worth caring about.

I think this is disqualifying really; it fundamentally calls into question their ability to cover the field. If you want to know why games media sucks it's because it's filled with either grifters or... perhaps even worse.... cowards!

I wrote to the vital and talented Eric Anderson for 2 months about the role of art in the collapsing world we seem to inhabit, unbidden and beyond our control and Eric is in career best form in this letters series, a must-read zeroindent.com/delight/

Meredith saying something I’ve spent a lot of the last couple years thinking about:

I wrote to the vital and talented Eric Anderson for 2 months about the role of art in the collapsing world we seem to inhabit, unbidden and beyond our control and Eric is in career best form in this letters series, a must-read zeroindent.com/delight/

important

CYBERMETAL STREETS: March 24. A lofi heavy metal cyberpunk 28mm skirmish game set in Pentagram City and compatible with Cybermetal 2012 RPG. Grab your sharpest knife and your spiciest falafel wrap and meet me in the junkyard. Pwyw digital and free/trade scrappy diy zines from me at Adepticon.

A crossover inspired mainly by the fact that my wife misheard “Ra’s al Ghul” as “Roz al Ghul.”

In case you were wondering: Esoteric Ebb has the sauce and then *some* almost immediately.

What I learned about time management from 12 months of writing 3 novels while working full-time & running a part-time podcast network: 1) five minutes is five minutes more than nothing 2) your phone is an enemy 3) keep your writing device of choice on your hip at all times

Month six of regular exercise, good nutrition, daily writing/editing routine and staying tf offline as much as possible. Regret to inform you: the real world kind of rules, and supplying your nervous system with the right tools for your mind does, annoyingly, make the craft a lot easier.

This is bad, and part of what makes it so bad is that this is clearly pulling from *genre* understandings of reality, which the statistical linguistic machine seemingly cannot distinguish from other text included in the training data. Truly an ideology machine where every episode of CSI is true.

Dozens of U.S. strikes on Iran. Dunno what to say now other than my thoughts are with the Iranian civilians under fire. What a nightmare.

YOU - Are you the miracle? INSULINDIAN PHASMID - No. You are the miracle. CONCEPTUALIZATION - It was you. Coming from the west. From the Whirling. You were coming…

I've been in the lab: open.substack.com/pub/culturem...

This week I tried to write about the specter hanging over the Disco Elysium sequel - I'm certain this will not be the last time I write about this game: zeroindent.com/zero-parades...

it's all just art. "porn" is just art that makes you horny, in precisely the way that "horror" is art that makes you scared and "metroidvania" is art that makes you write video essays

Having played an hour and change of Zero Parades For Dead Spies demo I'm left with a few elemental questions about the story's pursuit of communism as a central topic, especially given the studio's carnal history - I am, however, not convinced the idea wasn't meant for Kim as the protagonist.

Replaying the OG Red Dead I'm not sure I ever appreciated how the sparse art design and airy score deliver such an empty tone. The influence of "government" on New Austin ricochets against the sense that John's life is already over. The lushness of RDR2 is emptied from the west. Possibilities close.

When life closes a door, it opens a window. And if the fall is too steep, use the fire exit. Run to the roof -- you always have that airship on the dock. The most important thing is to keep moving. Keep dreaming.

I've been in the lab: open.substack.com/pub/culturem...

as far as purely psychological analyses of the situation go this one seems pretty convincing to me

Y'all I just became unemployed, if you have a dollar I have a new story out: underink.press/products/don

at the end of the day, we have to hit the target where it's weakest: Harry Potter is just a children's story designed to make kids okay with the idea of going to school that totally disappeared up its own ass

Kill the cop in your own head, and disable your Ring camera.

DOLORES DEI - I always loved you for it -- but it could not save us. It could not make me stay. ELECTROCHEMISTRY - You would be right to drown this shit in alcohol. Drown it... until your neurons depolarize. Until it's gone, melted.

Y'all I just became unemployed, if you have a dollar I have a new story out: underink.press/products/don

SHIVERS - A grey rain falls on Martinaise. The city soaks in it, cold and dripping. Waves hit the concrete breakers. The homeless huddle by the fires behind the fences. There, among the shacks, is your home. Stay. Have a drink. Forever.

Pssst, I have a new story out, if you have spare 2 bucks you can add to the "let's not starve as an indie publisher" fund underink.press/products/don