it's december! life is sometimes bleak! here are my 100 favourite songs, and a man's fumbling swerves about why he loves them so much. www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/bes...

it's december! life is sometimes bleak! here are my 100 favourite songs, and a man's fumbling swerves about why he loves them so much. www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/bes...

happy to be reading tonight from Zsuzsi Gartner's BEST CANADIAN SHORT STORIES at De Stiil—celebrating works by Kaitlin Reuther, DF McCourt, Grant Buday & others alongside Eliza Robertson, Cat Leroux, Neil Smith, Paige Cooper etc!

Truly love this article about how there are tons of bad short stories being published because they are lucrative!

I'm watching the irate responses to this development roll in & I am baffled. 1) Authors can opt out. 2) People don't understand that in 3 years (or sooner?) this will all be moot. As soon as the courts rule that AI use is fair use, which is how this is trending, everything will be up for grabs.

happy st viateur's day to all who celebrate

Montreal, come hang: WRITERS' ROOM #4, November 7 2025.

whooooooooa!!!! yes, please!

« Two years ago, Stephen Shiller — a real estate magnate — donated $850 to Martinez Ferrada. Shiller’s firm, Shiller-Lavy, used rental hikes to drive out small businesses from its properties in the Mile End before flipping the buildings at a massive profit. » therover.ca/municipal-el...

Montreal, come hang: WRITERS' ROOM #4, November 7 2025.

Happy 20th birthday to Wolf Parade's APOLOGIES TO THE QUEEN MARY! I was so honoured to write the liner notes for the deluxe edition, released in 2016—which everyone should buy, if only for the reminder that you're the one-eyed feather (you're the lion's mane). wolfparade.bandcamp.com/album/apolog...

Montreal's Martha Wainwright was on Fallon last night and chose one hell of a song to play: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c-e...

"For publishing professionals watching from the sidelines, this represents a masterclass in how AI companies are treating copyright disputes as manageable business costs rather than existential threats." www.linkedin.com/pulse/anthro...

Unfortunately, I expect that the fact they won a pretty resounding fair use victory is going to be lost in much of the coverage. They lost on downloading & storing the LibGen dataset (straight infringement!), but the act of training on copyrighted material (+ making their own ebooks) was a win.

"This will never work": PARCHMENT (@parchmentmag.bsky.social), a literary journal devoted to contemporary Canadian Jewish writing, is returning to print. I joined the editorial board because I don't feel "Jewish writing" needs to mean what it usually means, especially lately. 1/5

Big IP slop is one of the pipelines to genAI slop; denaturing the vitality of the arts for corporate interests. Good to see an actor speak about it honestly.

speaking of stomp and clap—remember this one? Forest Fire's "Slow Motion" What a smoulder, what a treasure. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU1d...

BREAKING: Downing Street has warned Sally Rooney risks committing a terrorist offence if she funds Palestine Action It comes after the author said she would continue to support the group financially

Mustafa has been nominated for the #SOCANPolarisSongPrize #ShortList for the song Gaza is Calling. Find out the winner and see 9 other artists perform at Massey Hall live on Sept 16. Get 15% off tickets now—link in bio.

This piece by @meghanor.bsky.social nails the big problem looming for literature and AI, and it isn't any of the problems (copyright, homework, slop, bias, energy) most people spend their time worrying about: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/o... A fantastic and well-informed essay.

earlier this year i nearly tripped into Hockney's "Portrait of an Artist" now my novel about art, poetry, kinship and AI is out in a superbly Hockney-coded Canadian paperback edition hope you have a chance to trip into it yourself.

Can I say something without people getting mad?

it being 3pm on a friday in montreal, it is the time to listen to punk rock and watch a human-pony race in the park

“Trump is using military forces to stop a protest — I want y'all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us.” Doechii at the #BETAwards

You wanna see something really scary? open.substack.com/pub/amandagu...

Worried about ChatGPT in your essay-writing classroom? I wrote up some guidelines for my class last year and I think it worked pretty well. (Plus some more links to other resources to come.)

I'm writing about the history of study guides at the moment, and am researching the early days of SparkNotes, back when it was largely staffed by Harvard undergrads. It turns out that their very first guides to DRACULA, OTHELLO, and PRIDE & PREJUDICE were written by none other than...Ross Douthat?!

two days left to get autographed books (including a "book club bundle" from me) while doing some good toward the humanitarian crisis in gaza app.galabid.com/authors4esim...

really chock-full, amazing literary fundraiser (featuring a "book club" pack of my novels) now live, collecting funds for eSims for Gaza. my admiration to the organizers, end the war. tinyurl.com/authors4esims

Yay! Congratulations to Canisia!!

Have you heard a lot about the environmental impact of ChatGPT? This article is a very interesting corrective: andymasley.substack.com/p/a-cheat-sh...

taipei still one of the all-time greatest cities on this vast spinning planet

in the mix!

Trump Says He Won’t Rule Out Third Reich

current favourite band in the world is back: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwUa... caroline.band ❤️ CAROLINE

happy Frozen Mammoth Day 2025, for all in montreal who celebrate

more people need to be talking about this amazing new album bringing together the poetry of ANNE WALDMAN and the sonics of broken social scene's ANDREW WHITEMAN. the first volume from Whiteman's new "sonic poetry" label, SIREN RECORDINGS: sirenrecordings.com/anne-waldman

plainly evil

french-language canadian leadership debates are always the craziest and most revealing things—don't know of any other political contest in the world where would-be heads of state have to perform at length in languages they barely speak

friday!

Very happy to be speaking in Guelph next week! www.eventbrite.ca/e/author-eve...

harsh but fair

once again wishing artists had a plan for dealing with AI fallout besides hopes & prayers about copyright lawsuits

Giller Foundation cuts ties with Scotiabank—bravo, finally. Congratulations to the activists who lead the campaign to compel this change, and hoping it leads banks to yet further divestment from weapons-makers. www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/a...

the KLF would be grinning— a hearty WELCOME to Total Fucking Darkness: www.totalfuckingdarkness.com

dearest friends! www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EVf...

trying to piece together this excellent bygone mixtape of wintertime, blues-chasing rock'n'roll. sad absence of Mavo, Sister Suvi and Haunted House on the internet! www.saidthegramophone.com/archives/mar...

everything i've heard from Horsegirl's new record is just the best remedy for the part of my heart reared on Tigermilk, Electrelane and Yo La Tengo (but the thing is: they're new & young & made of right-now)

I wrote about Neil Gaiman, and the women accusing him of sexual coercion, assault and abuse. www.vulture.com/article/neil...