This sums up where I am, aside from ‘what the absolute fuck’, which can be taken as a given

genuinely sad (in a 'maybe someday, gotta figure this out' way) that I'm not headed to work at City Hall or surrounding buildings today. The insatiable urge a girl experiences to do civic work at the dawn of the year/era, y'know? on the other hand, we're going to see CHESS today zomg

That (the inauguration, from the depths of the crowd) was amazing, and also Bread and Roses sung live in front of City Hall made me cry, and also I cannot feel my toes at all my feet are little blocks of numb ice

I think I am doing my yiddishkeit radical ancestors proud on my way to stand outside for a socialist mayor’s inauguration in the dead of winter dressed like we have come from Minsk (…with Ethiopian coffee?)

and here's my random-draw Oblique Strategies card for the new year. ... I guess we're doing an Implementation Year. I can go with that.

I may never get over how good our Mayor (of seventeen whole minutes, now!) is at symbolic action. Genuinely cannot stop smiling.

snakes leave behind whole skins. all manner of flying creatures, not just butterflies, do them one better, whole new selves from wriggling worms. rocks into gems. mystics die to the flesh to be reborn in the spirit. rebirth is the rule, not the stray exception, if we can grasp it

I have many relatively-intense feelings about New Year's Eve/Day as a holiday (it's one of my holiest, honestly), but this year has got some truly wonderful instances of marking transformation.

The bad news? We’re not quite ready to open for applications at midnight. We expect to open by late on January 1, or possibly on January 2. We know you’re eager to apply, but please be patient. You can get the latest status at viableparadise.com

They’ll be teaching alongside regulars Max Gladstone, Daryl Gregory, Scott Lynch, and Sherwood Smith. Elizabeth Bear and Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden will be in residence, and also Holly Black. viableparadise.com/viable-parad...

Writers! How are your workshop applications coming? I have good news and bad news… The good news is that we have a STELLAR group of instructors this year! Fonda Lee is back this year after a break, joining Arkady Martine and Valerie Valdes, and new to the faculty: John Wiswell! FOUR amazing alumni!

Today: Society of Illustrators exhibit on Gorey; fancy drinks somewhere with my @ceruleancynic.bsky.social; perhaps MoMA Tomorrow: going to the inauguration block party 😍

This is some real serious symbolism that Mayor Mamdani is going for. Old City Hall was meant to be the showcase of the original subway when it opened in 1904. But it's not just that: the first subway was quick and cheap to build, taking only five years from start to finish. Symbolism, man.

I think, omenwise, this is equivalent to the year it was eaten by jackdaws?

Gone Massachusetts-ward on the MetroNorth, through the fresh-fallen snow, and have begun the second ritual reading of the close of the year: Mark Helprin’s WINTER’S TALE. The weather is exactly right for it.

it is SNOWING in NEW YORK CITY 😍 (and the plumbers - bless them - who had to be summoned to turn on the hot water at the sublet? they have SUCCEEDED! and gone about their way!)

@ramseycampbell.bsky.social, @vajra.me, @byzantienne.bsky.social, @ceruleancynic.bsky.social, @harleypeyton.bsky.social, Jen Fawkes, @peteratkins.bsky.social, @wmboyle4.bsky.social, and Stephen Volk are all on our 2025 bonus episode of AFTERIMAGES! rss.com/podcasts/aft...

we have now listened to Fairytale of New York, which makes it a successfully celebrated Christmas in truth. happy Christmas. I hope yours was lovely.

if any of you have the opportunity to see TARTUFFE at New York Theater Workshop before it closes: DO IT. that was some of the best live theater I've been to in years

In line at the fish counter at Zabar’s for nova & sable, like my father and grandfather before me

hello skyline it is time to post the song of the season ~it's beginning to look a lot like FISHMEN~ www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tTH...

It's midwinter's eve tonight. If you're quick about it, you can start your timed THE DARK IS RISING read-along before midnight. (tonight's portion is Chapter 1, 'Midwinter's Eve'. Tomorrow is 'Midwinter Day' and 'The Sign-Seeker'.)

This made me very, very happy.

Okay I really, really needed some good news and this counts

like, I'm arrogant as all hell, I know I'm good, my research was the kind that was getting me international guest speaker gigs consistently, I have inordinate amounts of luck and I network obscenely well for a nerd ... I work in energy policy because there are no jobs in humanities academia. NONE.

We did it. The @council.nyc.gov just passed COPA. Thanks to @sandynurse.bsky.social for her leadership, and to the 200+ CLTs, housing, and community groups who fought to make this happen. A historic win for NYC.

yup. I mean, I have spent most of the past two weeks deep in utility certificate-of-convenience-and-necessity application complexities, and I would still be aggressively I Am Not An Expert on something like certificated estimated costs

OH MY FUCKING GOD this is so good for renaissance music reasons for arranging reasons, DAMN for 'it's One Night in Bangkok as if Kit Marlowe wrote opera' reasons, especially

dave understands the kind of conversations I, for one, have with my relatives (whether they like it or not) ... seriously though, very cool report.

hello city 😍 lovely sublet in upper Manhattan achieved DELIVERY SICHUAN IMMINENT

@kierongillen.bsky.social writes briefly about my favorite, most unplayable, still-obsessed-with-every-theme-in-it, technically-my-first-professional-writing-credit-was-for TTRPG, In Nomine. I cosign Kieron's statement: "I ran it poorly, however. The game just runs poorly." it sure does

and Tiny Tim, eternal, unchanging, wanders still ... :D

So many of our problems as a country are more explicable when you add the frame of 'we are an industry-captured petrostate, and like most petrostates, we are resource-cursed'.

Absolutely delighted to announce a Spanish edition of ROSE/HOUSE from Nocturna!

Here, for example, are some wind turbines on the Iowa/Illinois border that I have just seen from the window of my train.

So you know how a couple of weeks ago I was vaguely contemplating taking a train from New Mexico to NYC for the holidays? Guess what we’re doing today. And tomorrow. And Wednesday. 😁 Step one: commuter rail from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, where we can pick up Amtrak’s Southwest Chief.

One of the many things you can do is donate to climate champions running at every level of government. State legislature, county council, weird statewide offices you've never heard of: they all matter and your contribution can make a big difference. secure.actblue.com/donate/clima...

packing for holidays in NYC + writing what's probably going to be 40 or more pages of utility regulatory testimony = HI YOUR GIRL IS MAYBE STRESSED OUT TODAY

One hour left to get shining jewels! Necklaces especially - this is as cheap as they'll be! (someone should pick up this green iridescent glass piece: www.etsy.com/listing/1835... ... and someone REALLY should realize how much smoky quartz this is for how little money. www.etsy.com/listing/1751...)

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

good LORD that was a lot of squarespacing but vivianshaw.net is finally updated with current links to not only books but short fiction AND non-book-related stuff, such as jewelry. You should also, of course, check out the Art Books that Need to Happen. slowly we progress!

I am afraid to inform you that this is the world I wish to live in signed, yr girl who would kill for a flat in the Barbican, okay

This makes every 'oh, we're going to use jet engines to power our data center' bullshit claim from data center developers that I've heard recently somehow both more and less plausible at once

LOOK AT THIS TOOL DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH I NEEDED THIS TOOL WHEN I WAS POLICY DIRECTOR AT A STATE ENERGY AGENCY LOOK AT IT YOU CAN HAVE DIFFERENT, NEW PROBLEMS THAN I DID! NO MORE OLD PROBLEMS! ONLY INFORMATION!

This week - necklaces at Bleeding Hart Studio! Brilliant gifts for your holiday gift-giving needs. (or yourself. you definitely need seaglass-green threads of crystal, like a shoreline thrown like a rope of stars around your neck. or an enormous faceted tear. or strands of twilight-dark.)

great conversation starters for a first date: - what's your favorite Linear A inscription? - how did you learn Linear A? - would you like to establish a written correspondence in Linear A?

So I have just finished working my way through @themountaingoats.bsky.social's lyric-annotation book of days THIS YEAR. (Which is, before I go on, an absolutely lovely book, thank you for it, John.)

ROSE/HOUSE by @byzantienne.bsky.social: an astonishing sci-fi gothic thriller by Hugo Award-winning author Arkady Martine, filled with unseen corners of wonder and haunting. Find a signed copy at Brew&Forge Book Fair through 12/3! www.brewandforge.com/bookfair/p/r...

ice cold, 100% correct but my GOD I wish I didn't understand this post, Cat

What Shep said. This is a wonderful, if not glorious-victory, success. Congratulations to everyone in TN-07, you swung this hideously gerrymandered district 16 points. Every inch of that work matters. A lot of very awful people are very worried tonight, and that gives me joy.