I will say that the Tylenol press conference was bad enough that after seeing a clip of it on CNN my mom called me in a rage. The level of insanity is palpable to normal, non-online older folks.

Today I was struck, once again, by how much small gestures can mean. Took my kid to get their hair dyed (a big deal for them) & the barber shop had a bunch of rainbow stickers up that said “Hair cuts have no gender.” They noticed. It mattered to them. And no one even had to say or do anything.

Hamlet is the most emo of spoiled bitches!! Also … look again at how he treats his girlfriend and tell me he’s principled …

I will be on this podcast and I think we all know where I stand. Angel sucks, thank you for listening to my TED talk.

okay but I’m pretty sure at this point that this is what’s UNDER that paved-over Rose Garden

I took this video and I laughed so hard at it I cried … no one knows wrath like a 3rd child

so acutely depressed I’m online shopping for Snake Plissken cosplay pieces

this exists it is called thinking

Today I had some students finish an activity about 5 min before others. Many immediately got on video games on their laptops (my school is phone free during the day). It felt SO crazy—like, you can't be alone with your thoughts in a classroom for 5 minutes? WHEN WILL YOU EVER GET AN ORIGINAL IDEA?

The Jimmy Kimmel firing, Colbert's show, what's happening at WaPo, CBS... legacy journalism is slowly but surely coming under state control. It is more important now than ever before that we support the independent journalists out there doing the work not beholden to a fascist's bidding.

just playing John Carpenter’s score to Assault on Precinct 13 while I put makeup on, you know, setting the vibe for a normal 2025 day

In All the President’s Men, Redford is pissed and says to Hoffman, “I don’t mind what you did, I mind the way you did it.” And it was a perfect professional dagger into a partner that also maintained respect. Rogers and I would often say it to each other as shorthand on Halt. What an icon.

One of my favorite Robert Redford stories is when Mike Nichols was considering him for "The Graduate" and told him he needed to act like a guy who has struck out with women and Redford replied "what do you mean?"

Godfuckingdamn it.

guys have you seen RIVER’S EDGE? I saw it last night and can’t stop thinking about it? Aside from being chaotically upsetting, mildly surreal, and thoroughly disillusioned, it’s also got Keanu at his most beautiful (in his first role!) and a troubled Dennis Hopper the same year as Blue Velvet…

feels like a good day to read some poems and go for a long walk

There’s no better place to ponder the collapse of the concept of truth than in the car line to pick your kid up from the middle school dance

It is never a bad idea to have Brianna’s art on your wall!!

Okay real talk: what are high school humanities teachers doing tomorrow? Waffling between pausing our regular programming to address this at length in class & merely acknowledging, holding space for the fact that many of them saw someone killed on social media, and moving on ...

I don’t know, guys, I thought I was feeling so bad inside because of the Texas A&M stuff, but then I scrolled past the article saying that AI is feminist? If I didn’t have to go teach students today I would just go back to bed.

My favorite part of copy editing for @bwdr.bsky.social is when I have to double check quotations and it forces me to rewatch scenes I ABSOLUTELY LOVE (yes I am quote-checking a Road House piece right now)

I know I’m late to the Billy Joel doc but boy I love it so much.

INT. TWIN PEAKS SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT DALTON All you have to do is follow three simple rules. One: Never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. ANDY looks up from his pad, hand raised. DALTON (sighing) Yes, Andy? ANDY Mr. Dalton, isn't that two rules? ALBERT snorts. COOPER Albert.

We finished Act II and all the kids could talk about today was the part about how the people voted a person into office who actually hated the common people and was only planning to take all their rights away. Stunningly resonant stuff from Mr. Shakespeare.

3yo: Do you know what “thin” is? Me: No, what is it? 3yo: It’s a kind of shape that you never see in the dark. Like a school bus window. … I forgot how bizarre and wonderful young kids’ brains are.

This piece is such a great cap on @bwdr.bsky.social’s Demme issue.

guys please, I beg of us, we can do better

oh my god I need this

After watching Barry Lyndon last night, I thought: where does this rank in my Kubrick list? But then I also thought: how are you supposed to rank Kubrick films when each one feels like its own separate incomparable world? I can rank Lynch but I don’t know if I can rank Kubrick.

"Other superhero films may claim to be grim, but in BATMAN RETURNS we have something that delivers an underbelly of actual darkness: discolored bodily fluids, thrillingly unhealthy psychosexual games, raw fish, toxic sewage, and a semi-catatonic hero who barely speaks." - @eccantwell.bsky.social

I’d never seen Barry Lyndon before and it was really a treat to see the new 4K restoration on a big screen! Also someone get me that wig for my Halloween costume please

After 10 years working at a boarding school & having now moved to a day school, I would like to announce: weekends without students around are great

My 3yo just told me nonchalantly that having a green light on in his room at night (there’s a small green light at the bottom of his nightlight) keeps the ghosts away

That’s two reported ChatGPT suicides in one week, plus the grandpa who died trying to meet Meta’s chatbot which had arranged an in-person meeting All going really well

A reminder for teachers in their first 1-2 weeks of class (and also, always, still to myself!): it’s normal for not all of your routines and activities to be super functional yet. Sometimes it takes a class a whole month to really get there. Just be patient and keep doing your thing.

i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.

I had my doubts about teaching Coriolanus but it has been REALLY interesting to dive into a play whose primary question seems to be "how can you ever know your own desires or be happy if you grow up in a system that prioritizes the commitment of violent acts for your country above all else"

The best part about this photo is that Funland actually has not changed at all since 1985 and still looks exactly like this

love a little sprinkle of baudrillard every now and then to keep me grounded

a former student of mine made a perfect replica of the eraserhead baby over the summer so my week is off to a great start

It’s my millionth first day of school tomorrow and I’m STILL worried about wearing the right thing

Can folks do me a favor? I was on Bluesky early & it was great. Mostly. I hit the eject button in January. I came back, many colleagues are here, but still don’t know I am. I co-created Halt and Catch Fire. I write TV & comics. Here’s two favorite set photos. Repost? I am in the wilderness.

Louisiana has to build three new natural gas power plants to accommodate the "AI" data center that Meta just crammed through because said center will use *Three Times* as much electricity (and, thus, attendant resources) as the *Entire City Of New Orleans*, every year. Y'all this isn't sustainable.

Don’t ask me how my 3yo decided that Jumper by Third Eye Blind was a lullaby but here we are

forgot that starting a new job would mean that I have to go through a whole new round of "did you know you look like Liz Lemon" (picture from 9 years ago but ... I have only aged more into it)

Spent four days in the forest with 9th graders and I haven’t looked at any news since Monday. Gotta say I prefer it that way and I kind of don’t even want to know what I missed?

current AI policy on my class syllabus

There’s one right answer to “when does Halloween season start,” and the answer is August 18th.

In less than 24 hours, you've helped us offset nearly 30% of our lost revenue, and given us our single best subscription day in 12+ years (and a way to see the light at the end of the tunnel). We're not even sure what to say except, humbly: thank you thank you thank you.

I love @bwdr.bsky.social and edit/write for the site out of joy. But we can’t operate solely on joy, sadly. As much as we’d like to!