I have the new Arctic Monkeys song stuck in my head but my cooked brain has swapped the phrase "alternate realities" in the bridge with the Fringe-esque "Walternate realities."

Cohen to Bondi: "You tried to investigate Ms. Good's widow and you tried to investigate Mr. Pretti. They were executed like Kristi Noem executed her dog."

Some thoughts on the US right-wing crash-out over the Olympics. "That so many Americans would rather lose while remaining ideologically disciplined speaks to a great many problems..." for @thestar.com. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

One of my long time obsessions is the contrast between rock musicians who seem to genuinely love the devil (Ghost, Danzig, Jimmy Page) and those who fear him (The Mars Volta, Black Sabbath, Robert Plant).

Got my tickets! Travelling to Toronto just for the occasion!

Carney is apparently polling super well right now. I am reminded of a conversation that I had with a co-worker about 10 years ago that Harper probably could have been a generationally popular PM if he wasn't just such a weasel asshole, and I think Carney might be proving that out.

Canada must help Cuba. Here is my latest about Canada's long and deep relationship with the island nation, and how Carney's Davos speech turned out to be all talk and no action. noraloreto.substack.com/p/canada-mus...

mfw I hear Canadians talk about nuclear weapons in any context other than disarmament

Where is the crackhead and the critic? Where is the kid that was rocking? They have passed like the boogie, said up drop the boogie. The days have gone down in the pit, behind the hills... into Shadow.

Age verification? If you pause the Chaos Theatre scene in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World you can see me running from the Jackie Chan Stunt Team dressed up as a gang of Michael Cera clones.

don't forget they were trying to sell you NFTs on latenight talk shows, they were asking you to join the Metaverse without any legs, they were claiming you could raise your family up out of poverty on gambling apps. now it's 'writing' 200 books a year - the same shitshake with a new flimsy straw.

a terrible feeling that not many authors talk about: signing the one copy of your book they have at your local book store and seeing it on the shelf every time you visit for like two years before it disappears during a post-holiday purge of the section it's in

It’s cool that mass media has basically lost the ability to close read and create thoughtful work bc they fired everyone who can and replaced them with brain wormed pundits

multi-decade subtext recession, no end in sight

generative AI & semaglutide abuse & sports betting & crypto apps

No Kings includes Draft Kings

generative AI & semaglutide abuse & sports betting & crypto apps

If you don't want to make art, I have good news: you don't have to make art. The only guaranteed reward is that you get to be an artist. But if you want to be an artist, I have bad news: you have to make art.

Oh god, this again. Look, the AI-user as an author debate is boring and solved. If you use generative AI to make slop and then frame it as your own art you are: a. a loser b. misunderstanding the core ideas of art in service to the core ideas of commercial product c. forfeiting the respect of peers

I regret to inform you that I am now a curling girlie.

Wait, there's "anti-AI is artistic gatekeeping" discourse happening?

the next book has an essay about The White Stripes

His name has already come up but @peterbcounter.com. He feels like a kindred spirit! Read him.

Once again, it turns out “fully autonomous” means “a guy in the Philippines.”

No look we are not doing a rehabilitation of Stephen Harper, ffs. We have to have higher standards than 'Not as far right as Trump or PP' and Harper's policies did a lot of damage. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Catherine O'Hara on Jiminy Glick. She's just firing stuff at him left and right. She makes up a negative review he wrote about her!

the next book has an essay about Homestar

Also BWAHAHAHA I was v. suspiciously like "Wait, why is CLOUDS back on the bestseller list" and... I am p. sure that one or more poor cursed high school or university classes have been assigned to read it 😭 I am sorry children I have no influence on your instructors

everyone talking about Markiplier is making me think we actually do live in a simulation

The thing that bothers me so much about Carney's joke about greenlighting the Heated Rivalry show is that it furthers the narrative that it's a needle in a haystack. Anyone who reads Canadian books and watches Canadian film knows that we could have dozens more HRs with enough funding.

Here is my latest. Sylvain Charlebois, Canada's beloved commentator on the food industry, thinks that not giving us access to raw milk is communism. noraloreto.substack.com/p/canadas-fo...

new writer on mothership.blog today!! beatrix kondo analyzes the dating sim critique that is Doki Doki Literature Club, and whether the game's critique is obvious enough for people who just see it as a horror game and not much more www.mothership.blog/monster-was-...

In honour of opening the gates, quote tweet with a practical writer's craft tip. I'll start: Be purposeful with the individual words you choose for the beginnings and endings of chapters, paragraphs, and sentences. These words heavily influence the aesthetic of your writing.

Saw a cursed post from Threads scolding writers for somehow gatekeeping craft. While it's tempting to just ridicule this take, I guess there's a chance that some novice writers don't know about the hundreds of excellent writer's craft books. Here's my fav: kingsbookstore.ca/item/cd4Cey4...

I don't think its as easy as "Bluesky has cooked peoples brains", but I do often worry that existing for as long as we have within this kind of text based ecosystem has really done a lot of damage to how people interact with total strangers.

As the coach on Chess dot com says: Yes! This is the way. apnews.com/article/euro...

I want five bands you can’t fucking stand ACDC Vampire Weekend Nickelback Sublime Cat Stevens (for very specific, highly traumatic and personal reasons that have nothing to do with him or the quality of his music)

the pizzagate guy could do the funniest thing right now

obviously preaching to the choir here, but book reviews matter

I'm seeing so many peers get picked up by literary agencies and I'm feeling the peer pressure to apply.

"rich dipshit owner doesn't understand the industry he's bought into and clumsily destroys what made it good" feels less like a narrative unique to the washington post and more like the music that's been playing in the background of all our lives for at least 40 years

anyway- I am trying to revitalize my newsletter as a place for arts and entertainment reviews so I can do my part

Toronto had TWO of them, and they were essential to knowing what was happening in arts and culture every week. Now I often find out about a movie I've been waiting to see a week after it played at Lightbox or the rep houses

obviously preaching to the choir here, but book reviews matter

Bezos' Post eliminates the books section after Bezos' Amazon killed independent booksellers. An educated populace is troublesome to billionaires.

weird type of post emerging where the author brags about having warned everyone about a modern day terror many years ago and I'm sorry that no one told you microblogging is an ineffective way to do anything important

pleased to report that we have started watching series four of Traitors UK, aka the all niciey-cutie series, aka the extra psychological torture series

It should be part of our social media good practices that if there isn't a link to a legitimate news source, we should not be reposting stuff.

I was out at a restaurant with friends and a young man stopped by my table tonight to tell me my essay collection changed his whole life. And I thanked him and wished him well, and then thought about how it can be a really nice life, to be writer.