Today is a great day to buy your friends and co-workers gift cards to the other coffee place one block up the street to help them build a new habit. That’s what I’ll be doing.

🎵 Shoplifters of the world unite … 🎶 🎵… and take over … 🎶

Seconded.

In case you’re wondering, a true mind fuck is being on the Walt Disney Studio Lot for its annual holiday celebration—surrounded by pretty lights & decorations, gift booths & treats, snow machines & Disney characters— and the DJ is playing a Nine Inch Nails song.

Saw the new AVATAR last night. Spectacular entertainment best enjoyed in 3D! Adds interesting new elements & deepens some mythology. Slight emotional depth. Still the same hokey scripting & weak dialogue, but hey, that’s not what we’re there for. If you enjoyed the previous ones, you’ll love this.

Groundhog’s Day is a Christmas movie. #changemymind

If Pete Best went out on tour with three other musicians and played only Beatles songs, billing themselves as the Beatles, that would be seriously annoying to me, a Beatles fan. This extreeemely niche post is about Tangerine Dream.

Weirdly, I’m hearing Dean Martin’s lackluster “Marshmallow World” song everywhere this year, like someone just pulled a lever and now this is the song arbitrarily selected to be a rejuvenated holiday classic.

Netflix acquiring WBD may be the best case scenario out of 3 terrible monopolistic options. It’s the only choice that stands a shot of preserving WB as a classic Hollywood studio lot. The theatrical business is endangered & this doesn’t change that—but I don’t think it kills it either.

It’s #SpotifyWrapped time! (h/t @indivisible.org)

Spotify is helping ICE recruit more agents to infringe our rights and terrorize our communities. Stop paying for or using the app until Spotify stops running ads for ICE: indivisible.org/cancel-spotify?source=bluesky

It’s almost 2026, and people still don’t know how to use Zoom properly. I think some people’s brains are just always permanently on mute.

Finally read Cory Doctorow’s novella RADICALIZED (audiobook performed incredibly by @wilwheaton.net) and realized again how ahead of the curve Doctorow is, especially seeing Luigi Mangione in the news again today.

Question: is Folgers still the best part of waking up, or did tariffs ruin that too?

I can’t help but feel that if auteurs like GDT and Rian Johnson and Alfonso Cuarón want people to see movies at a theater, then they should stop working w/ Netflix.

11 years ago today, we lost my brother. It was also Thanksgiving Day. In recent weeks, I’ve come across several other people who’d lost loved ones at or around this time of year. It’s a reminder that, for some, today is about feeling loss rather than celebrating gratitude with food and family.

Reading the news, I think almost daily about this take from Cory Doctorow that AI can’t replace your job, but an AI salesperson can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can’t do your job. I find myself sharing it a lot in conversations with friends.

I’m reminded every day that reality is for those who can’t face science fiction.

Dawnita and her Binti Circle inspire me. Had the privilege of getting to know her a little when we were in D.C. together for an AARP advocacy event. Amazing to see her recognized like this! 💕

It makes me so giddy hearing Paul Giamatti as the voice of John Adams for the PBS American Revolution series. What a lovely callback.

Today is Trans Day of Remembrance. Let’s honor those who came before while easing the way forward. If you’re taking steps towards being more fully Who You Are, then I’m in your corner, full stop.

@gailsimone.bsky.social The border crossing from Canada back into the U.S. is just getting weirder and weirder.

Something that’s always true: The more powerful the player, the more egregious the grammar and spelling is in their emails.

THE REASON I JUMP is a moving autobiographical book by author Naoki Higashida, who was 13y at the time. As a non-speaking child w/autism, he turned to writing to express his thoughts & imagination, explaining in part what the world looks like through his unique lens. Still sticks w/me years later.

I’m currently reading POSITIVE OBSESSION, the biography of author Octavia E. Butler (by Dr. Susana M. Morris), detailing the life & times of one of SciFi’s best and brightest writers. Butler’s work was ahead of its time, evocative, compelling, and moving. Hard to choose one, but I’ll go with DAWN.

TV trope I’m really starting to tire of: 1/2 the cast (& their ongoing plots) disappear every episode, ping-ponging stories back’n’forth until the finale. I get why, but if you really want bifurcated narratives & casts like that, just have 2 shows w/frequent crossovers. Or use smaller casts.

The Muppets Dr. Manhattan (1986)

The Hateful 8.

As a Jew born in NY (Queens) whose family goes back to the 1890s in that beautiful city, I’m feeling a lot of joy tonight. Can’t wait for my next trip back.

What’s happening in Sudan is not getting the attention it deserves.

We’re one “let them eat cake” moment away from a turning point.

Democrats have a messaging problem. Republicans have a N*zi problem. Big difference, huh?

For the sake of St. Fuck, Facebook managed to enshittify their “like” button. 🤦‍♂️

🚫 👑

It has been a double-yolk week, finding them three days in a row. Does this mean something good is about to happen?

Last night’s SNL was marginally better, but barely. The writing is so meh.

Last night’s season premiere of SNL was really, really bad.

I asked my company’s new #AI chatbot to name all U.S. states with the letter “A” in their names, and it listed 42 of them including “Connecticut” “Tennessee” and “Wisconsin.” Weirder still was the response at the bottom of the list. WTF???

Hey, there may not be anything you can do to affect change at the federal level right now, but it’d be awesome if you went at least slightly out of your way to be kind to a stranger, whether being nice to your barista or letting that car merge in. Just something to help someone carry the load a bit.

Fandango emailed me a birthday gift: “Here’s $4 Just For You!” 😂 Wow! Anyway, it’s my birthday 🎉

Every rapture is just a conspiracy by Debbie Harry to increase royalties.

I wish I’d met Robert Redford. Once, while visiting Skywalker Ranch, he sat at a nearby table with a handful of people. I didn’t want to bother him, of course, but I was a bit starstruck. RIP to a brilliant director, actor, and activist.

I think I’m … tired of Wes Anderson?

About once per decade I try one of the infamous Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes #PSL. Today is that day. It’s terrible. If you love it, then I hope you enjoy your season.

This week’s episode of ALIEN: EARTH was the best ALIEN feature since James Cameron’s. Riveting, compelling, and character driven, while really adding something new and fresh to the lore. Extraordinary. Noah Hawley (who wrote & directed) has single-handedly revived this franchise from redundancy.

Two things annoyingly overhyped and unnecessarily emphasized from STAR WARS since the Disney years: 1. Blue Milk 2. The Millennium Falcon Dice

Recently re-watched THE THUNDERBOLTS* and am still struck by how expertly well-balanced its action, humor, and emotionality is. An ace flick. Fun and surprisingly moving.

Kudos to the #AlienEarth set dec team for including a Duffy on the shelf during this blink-and-you-miss-it scene in Wendy’s bedroom! #DuffyBear

I frequently listen to film score music while I work. One of the underrated scores I constantly re-visit is from THE IMITATION GAME, by Alexandre Desplat. Give it a listen!

The new Laufey song “Snow White” is devastatingly good.