Oh look, I’m reading in the Portland Poetry Confluence this weekend! It has been a minute since I’ve given a reading, I hope I haven’t forgotten how to weird words mouthly nice! portlandpoetryconfluence.org

I’ll be solving crosswords with @wordgarbler.bsky.social on stream, starting…. now! www.twitch.tv/megaphonicfm

I also briefly mention (finally!) reading @daviddemchuk.com's terrific horror novel Red X. And there are some interesting connections that I could have made between Red X and Wuthering Heights, but it would have been kind of spoilery...

Poetry!

In a complete coincidence, The Mads' riff of I Accuse My Parents is our sale of the week! Thanks for the shout-outs @itsjustashow.com! We love what you do!

Jared Pechaček (@vandroidhelsing.bsky.social) introduces and reads from his debut novel The West Passage, which is shortlisted for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. For more about this year's shortlist: www.ursulakleguin.com/prize25

The editing of this episode was absolutely crawling with gremlins, so I hope none snuck in at the last minute!

And writes for the Atlantic, you say?

Ned’s thoughts on music are always worth reading, but especially when he’s saying nice things about my band’s new album! (But his bit about Canary Records is also true. They’re great.)

This line (or a version of it) was announced in 2007, right before I moved to Toronto for grad school. "Well, this would be great," I thought, moving into my first Toronto home just off Eglinton, "but it will only be done when I finish my PhD." Reader, I never did finish that PhD.

I'm glad Charlotte's cats decided they wanted to sing along on this one. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkE1...

Canadians, please sign!

Maggie is incredible, and this book is so thoughtful and caring and astonishing, and I would love for Toronto to see itself reflected in this book.

Oh hey I know the guy making this!

OK but this (from Edwin Herbert Lewis's dissertation, The History of the English Paragraph) really IS the stuff

POEM SEALED IN A BOTTLE A Petrarchan sonnet in iambic pentameter, holding inside it a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic monometer.

Finally catching up on this episode, I LOVED hearing Chris and Suzanne on Gatsby and its EXTRAORDINARY STRUCTURE..

I kinda wanna reframe the original painting w/ extra black space and text up top so it looks just like the album cover.

"Complacencies of the pupper..."

I read the big unreadable book, ask me anything.

Great review of Leif Weatherby's Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism. Hell of a lot more sophisticated on LLMs than what's normally hereabouts

I was going to post “apparently it’s Sunday?!” but then realized that was something that surprised me yesterday, not today. I can’t be the only one who is getting worse at this.

We celebrate a big birthday by looking at MST3K 203, JUNGLE GODDESS. Hoo boy, that's gonna give us something to talk about. But also there's the first chapter of The Phantom Creeps! Listen at itsjustashow.com/episode/179 or on your podcast app

I know some of you will be very excited to check this out.

This question has been fun to think about. I have some thoughts about this which are probably too broad, but I’m curious what other Canadians think are “iconic Canadian paintings”.

The new songs, the new songs, the new songs... The Minor Thirds' first full album of new songs in 18 years is out, and here's the video for its title track, The New Songs. Enjoy.

The new songs, the new songs, the new songs... The Minor Thirds' first full album of new songs in 18 years is out, and here's the video for its title track, The New Songs. Enjoy.

Here's a new crossword that, if you've been paying attention to my posts here today, will be a little easier for you... But just a little.

Here'a detail shot of the skeleton!

Everyone should listen to this tomorrow! Bonus: I play a little piano.

The painting on the cover of our new album is by Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net and I absolutely love this little skeleton guy emerging from the water in the middle of this dramatic landscape. You can (and should) check out more of his work at www.lastwater.net

It sure would be weird if my old band, the Minor Thirds, had spent the last few months recording our first full album of new songs in 18 years, and it was going to drop tomorrow, on my birthday. Heh, yeah, that would be weird. theminorthirds.bandcamp.com/album/the-ne...

It sure would be weird if my old band, the Minor Thirds, had spent the last few months recording our first full album of new songs in 18 years, and it was going to drop tomorrow, on my birthday. Heh, yeah, that would be weird. theminorthirds.bandcamp.com/album/the-ne...

Let's Keep Calling!

Turns out my foos WILL moos!

It boggles my mind that it is legal for payment processors to have a say in what sorts of things they will process payments for (outside of blatantly illegal things).

I just looked through my library, and only one perfect album came out in 1991.

Rejoyce! Tomorrow (Tuesday) at about 7pm Eastern I’ll be solving these over at twitch.tv/MegaphonicFM

Rejoyce! Tomorrow (Tuesday) at about 7pm Eastern I’ll be solving these over at twitch.tv/MegaphonicFM

Eadweard Muybridge: Animal Locomotion: An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movement 1872-1885

AI scammers are getting bold.

Just letting you crossword freaks know that as soon as @bewilderingly.bsky.social is finished publishing his James Joyce inspired crossword puzzles, I'll be doing a marathon stream of them. blog.bewilderinglypuzzles.com/2025/07/puzz...

I am pleased to report that the new Alison Bechdel novel (Spent) is very good. (Is it weird that I was getting Middlemarch vibes from it? That's not really a helpful comparison point, as George Eliot wasn't as good at drawing cats in bed, but I kept thinking it as I was reading.)

out today in paperback! all the cool kids are reading THE WEST PASSAGE! all the cool kids are getting friends and family to read THE WEST PASSAGE! all the cool kids are standing at their windows at midnight whispering THE WEST PASSAGE in voices not their own!

"Why," @sakbari.bsky.social asks, "why on earth did you pick Peter Rabbit to talk about this month?" Oh, I had a reason, don't worry. Even beyond it being an important and charming and influential book!

"Artists like Bach and Beethoven erected churches and temples on the heights. I only wanted to build dwellings for men in which they might feel happy and at home." - Edvard Grieg

One of my visual poems was included in this exhibit, Postcards to the Future, organized by the Coastal Arts Guild in Newport, OR and exhibited July 4-6. All of the postcards were scanned and uploaded, which is a nice touch. (The one that appears in the preview is not mine.) postcardstothefuture.org

Beloved, visionary Fanny Howe, a beacon of ferocity, honesty & integrity—a fighter in all senses of the term—has moved on. Read her. The powerful voice does not depart. It only grows louder…. 1940-2025 www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...

Finally gathered the strength to read that oral history of BABEL. So strange to see this thing that you used to do, a context — now as history, a thing that happened. And seeing so many names — of friends, of collaborators, of slight acquaintances — each hitting me right in the heart!

“Why is Bluesky so awful today? What is even… oh, wait, I’m on the Discover page for some reason.”