I'm wondering if Vince Gilligan likes Wagner.

@charliejane.bsky.social Welp, it happened (sorta)! Something you might enjoy (and many have thought of): www.tiktok.com/@mcluvs2laug...

Cat’s out of the bag! 📡🎥🎬 The NSF NRAO is thrilled to officially share that the Very Large Array appears in Vince Gilligan’s new AppleTV+ series #Pluribus. We’re honored to have served as a filming site and for the chance to work with such a talented team! 📸 Credit: Matt Credle #VLA #Astronomy

@astrokatie.com Over on the other place, Eric Idle is saying nice things about you!

For those needed a response to being dissed by the regime, Miller's Crossing has got you covered: "Tell [him] he's not God on the throne, he's just a cheap political boss with more hair tonic than brains."

a word to comics people - I have been loving The Power Fantasy by @kierongillen.bsky.social and @casparw.bsky.social - it's very smart and fun and fast paced and issue #13 is a massive payoff that ends with a crazy "uhh now what???" scenario. Get on board if you're not already

I will not support a deal that does nothing to make health care more affordable. We are in a health care emergency. A simple one-year extension of these tax credits would cost less than Donald Trump’s $40 billion bailout for Argentina. A vote for this bill is a mistake.

VERY VAGUE PLURIBUS SPOILER BELOW: A lot of stuff is going on in #Pluribus, but I'll add one thing--a structure like Asimov's 3 Laws (with considerable differences in those laws) has been set up, and the tensions and contradictions of that will drive some of the action.

Some of the current splitting on the right may be connected to apocalyptic disappointment. They've done what they should for the kingdom of heaven to come to earth (e.g. elect the last good emperor, etc.), but it doesn't appear to be happening as planned. This disappointment is always dangerous.

This week's newsletter! One week away from DIE: LOADED! Golden Rage: Mother Knows Best trade is out! A general check in with where we are with the Power Fantasy! Stuff! Things!

It's the 5th of November, and unfortunately the Valerie sequence of V for Vendetta has never been more relevant. So here it is (and here we are) again. Of these, hope. www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_Gb...

@aiannucci.bsky.social Just saw your last post on the bad place, so following you here.

Everyone focuses on the Gatsby party, but that's just a front for the once and future Salò party.

Halloween on U St., and the occupiers seemed a bit nervous with an occasion where everyone is in disguise and acting out. Other cultures have maybe one day a year as a social steamvalve of misrule--we contain multitudes. I wonder which ones they'll try to contain.

Free, no-strings archived version of my Post story on the proposed national-security ban of top-selling #TP-Link routers. archive.ph/PhA3w

A kickstarter for an anthology of stories by cancer survivors (but not about cancer), including yours truly!

I've assumed this was either designed by Morgoth or that Sauron was able to tap his former master's power somehow in this region (which also explains the strange characteristics of Mt. Doom). Sauron might even be sentimental about how the region feels close to his banished boss.

I enjoyed #OneBattleAfterAnother --it's odd in the way I like but far from trite. In fact, its relevance is a bit unnerving, like some message from a slightly different timeline. And strangely hopeful. The window is closing on seeing it in theaters, but see it when you can.

Happy Halloween! 270 years ago tomorrow, an earthquake destroyed much of Lisbon. It was All Saints' Day, so many were at mass at the time. This leads in a fairly straight line to Hannibal Lecter's interest in churches collapsing on worshippers. "Watch the papers. God always stays ahead."

If the British Royal Family has more accountability than your own leaders, you have a serious problem.

Hot Halloween take--Blue Oyster Cult's "E.T.I." is a scarier song than "Reaper," but the music is so peppy that no one can tell.

It's Halloween Eve--unleash the cowbell! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy4H...

If you want to read a current comic that gives you that Alan Moore and the Vertigo gang feeling again, try @kierongillen.bsky.social's The Power Fantasy.

In my 2017 essays about the current regime through lenses of classical social thinkers, this one re: Freud & the regime still comes to mind frequently. TL;DR If you can see no reasons, well there are no rational reasons for Thanatos drive. www.tomdoyleauthor.com/2017/07/25/a... H/t @delong.social

@gavia.bsky.social I was in a market in Porto yesterday and heard a piano playing Zimmer’s Interstellar. Went up a level to see a young guy in jeans playing it from memory. Really beautiful rendition.

Saw the remains of a historic synagogue in Tomar— which continues my pattern of having seen a high percentage of such in Iberia without much exertion.

Hey allies and friends, sorry I won't be able to join in person on the 18th--I'm on the road that day. But please know that I support whatever you're able to do.

Let’s play a silly game

I don't know who needs to hear this, but I'm not the Tom Doyle who wrote the Cosmic Thread collection of stories.

@delong.social Hey Brad, I've been reminded a lot lately of of our reading of Neumann's Behemoth in Soc.St. 10, and how he was so very wrong in some respects about how nonrational things were getting in Germany (at least in the 1st edition of his book).

For more about "Force 10 From Navarone"s applicability to the USA today, please read my latest free newsletter, Synthesizing Sense, Vol. 38. substack.com/home/post/p-...

DC area friends, tonight Troy Hughes has a book launch (+sip of one of his fine distilled products) at Bold Fork Books in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood: boldforkbooks.com/products/mak...

Got my covid and flu shots. Worth getting done whatever speed bumps they throw into the process.

Last day at @capclave.bsky.social ! It's been a fun convention--thank you to all who worked on it in any fashion.

Today, I'll be at @capclave.bsky.social, the DC science fiction convention. Joe Haldeman (of The Forever War fame) and Naomi Kritzer are guests of honor. If you want a convention where you can actually meet and talk with all the writers, this one's for you. www.capclave.org

It’s not a chilling effect. It would only be chilling if you had something horrid to say, and you don’t, do you? Certainly nothing critical of the regime, and absolutely no paraphrasing, not of anyone, not at this time!

The Stephen Fry character in V for Vendetta had already been on mind for the past few months, and that has only been amplified recently.

Re: Robert Redford, there's an interesting bit in Robert Pirsig's Lila where he meets with the actor/filmmaker about a possible Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance movie (which would've been odd). IIRC, it's an interesting take on what it's like to encounter fame even in its most benign aspects.

Today at 11am, I'll be on the Twisting History panel at the #BaltimoreBookFestival!

Reupping this to tag @sarahavery.bsky.social - very excited to be working with her!

This Saturday at 11am I'll be at the SFWA Stage of the Baltimore Book Festival on a panel about speculative fiction & history with some marvelous folks: @miriamseidel.bsky.social, @alansmale.bsky.social, @afrostorian.bsky.social, and @nicolegloverauthor.bsky.social! www.sfwa.org/the-sfwa-sta...

Now viewing The English tv series. It's good, but odd--a mix of spaghetti and other classic western cinematography with dialogue where folks say things a lot more bluntly and at length than they might've, but also a healthy shifting of the lens in terms of protagonists.

A little dodo 🦤 told me that the Capclave preregistration ends on Thursday, September 11th at 11:59 pm EDT. capclave.org/capclave25/e...

Just a heads up that if you're coming to Charm City Spec tomorrow night--and you should! Look at that lineup!-- the bike race has falls road closed from Hampden to northern parkway and Northern parkway closed falls to Roland Ave. You can still get to the ivy if you come from the north.

Still available:

I'm so excited to be moderating this panel with such a fantastic group of SFF folks at the #BaltimoreBookFestival, Saturday 9/13! @tomdoyle.bsky.social @alansmale.bsky.social @afrostorian.bsky.social @nicole-glover.com

Why yes, I will be appearing on the SFWA Stage at the Baltimore Book Festival on Saturday 13th with these fine people, talking about alternate history, historical fantasy, and who knows what else? We're doing the Twist! (Pro tip: the rest of the BBF schedule is terrific, too.)

Where I'll be the weekend after this!

Caught Stealing makes clever use of all the bits of plot on the mantelpiece, with some nice '90s homages in casting and other details. The violence seems darker than similar films with higher body counts--there are plenty of funny bits, but it's not a comedy with violence.

On the plus side at Nats Park, Teddy threw a sandwich at somebody. On the minus side, I'm suspicious that they're using some AI-generated "music" for filler when it's not a walkon song, etc.