I think ultimately many more people than I'd prefer to imagine just don't like trans people very much-- perhaps not deeply enough to act on it, but enough to look at their feet when stuff like this happens.

Woke up rattled thinking about how correct @saracentury.bsky.social is about Spellbound. I guess maybe I dreamed about that shot of baby Gregory Peck cartoonishly kicking a toddler onto a nest of spikes.

a clip of actress elle fanning pronouncing the name of beloved dragonball character vegeta as "ve-ghee-ta" (from the audiobook for "margo's got money troubles")

ENORMOUS news!! This made my day, this and Peter Hujar

With the WP book section closing and other publishing news, I think literary people really need to adopt a punk rock mindset. It's DIY or die these days.

My favorite era of Sal Buscema was his 90s Spider-Man work with J.M. DeMatteis. He drew tormented sturm und drang like nobody else, operatic contortions that lived up to the psychological extremities of DeMatteis' scripts. They were a LOT to take in as a child, but an indelible education. RIP.

this is straight up not a big enough part of the discourse

I keep thinking “my god the people they’ve killed seem like exceptionally good folks” and I think the lesson there is that they’re not exceptional, but that wonderful people abound and that a baseline distrust in humanity is a shitty conservative trope that privileges power over collective strength

One thing people should remember is that these ICE agents are having fun hunting humans. They enjoy doing this. So when a Democrat tells you the solution is "better training", you should wonder why they want better trained versions of these freaks.

Yes! YES!!!

Watching this freak mewl and grunt about what he’s owed and what he deserves is always a full body flashbacks to getting child molested in the early 90s, except that guy usually bought me a 7-Up at least

Trump is now being nakedly, Nazi level racist about Somalians at Davos, and this will not get a mention from the world’s press.

Dilbert can transition now. Who's gonna stop her. You? I'd like to see you try. She's getting vaccinated too btw. Flu AND COVID.

The ICE agent who shot Marimar Martinez in Chicago tried to goad her out of her car. He said “do something b*tch” and shot her 5 times. The ICE agent who shot Nicole Renee Good did the same thing. Stood right in front of her vehicle and yelled “f*cking bitch”. They hate women & it shows.

Anyone who has ever simultaneously been female perceived and a target of violence knows the vicious satisfaction of “fucking bitch” as the punctuation at the end of the assault

Two queer women with a 6 year old in school today stopped to film ICE and for their bravery ICE agents murdered one before the other’s eyes. The grief in the survivor’s voice is a knife to the gut. Destroying people and their bonds is what ICE has always done.

I think they kill people because they like killing people and lie in bed at night fantasizing about hurting and killing but what do I know

it is incredible that the entire high level legal apparatus of the United States is "anything that helps people is impossible, anything that kills people is permitted"

I'm watching an installment of the great Pioneers of African-American Cinema series, "Hell-bound Train" from 1930. It's a series of silent vignettes from a wife/husband evangelical duo to be shown at church. Anyway, it struck me how few movies now have scenes of the devil just dancing and cavorting

There's a Benjamin Christensen introduction to Haxan that was recorded in 1941 as a preface to a new release of the movie, and I can't believe that it's eight minutes long. Imagine sitting down to a movie and Benjamin Christensen just yells at you-- quite vociferously!!-- for eight minutes.

@michelllbrunch.bsky.social do it for tartuffe

This was a quite busy and stressful year but I wrote a number of things I'm proud of. Here are links to a few of them: shelfdust.com/2025/05/21/a... shelfdust.com/2025/06/18/a... shelfdust.com/2025/07/23/i... shelfdust.com/2025/08/20/i...

And like— I transitioned at 31. Most days I feel like I barely look human. If I’d had the chance to start when I was younger I can’t conceive of what my life would look like

When I was a kid not even aware of the term "trans" I hated being alive so severely and ferociously, I hated every second of being legible as a boy. It's so sadistic to force this on a generation of children who, for awhile, saw a way out, saw a pathway to care and validation. What a piss poor day.

I've seen a huge resurgence in students and just younger people I know making zines-- we went to this queer craft fair last weekend and saw tons and tons of zines. Mega heartwarming and encouraging.

Christopher Lee spends a lot of time on the commentary track to "The Devil Rides Out" almost angrily insisting that black magic is real. I admire him for having the courage of his convictions.

yeah!!! yeah!!!!!!!

Kim Deal: The desert doesn’t know what you can’t tell. Don’t know your wrist from water in a wishing well. Black Francis: My penis hurts. My butt is full of dirts.

One of my favorite things is getting to tell friends who are new to NYC that the subway "stand clear of the closing doors please" voice is a trans woman named Bernie Wagenblast and she's amazing.

you 🫵 have to read my poem about lesbian lizards right now

*beededededoop* Sam. It’s me, Die-Hardman. Wanted to let you know there’s banana bread in the kitchen. You can take a portion of this sweet cake bread anytime. Use the knife to cut off part of the loaf. You can take a full piece or a small piece depending on how hungry you are.

This label is preventing people from realizing The Joke of Bart Simpson (Rude) youtu.be/uXKoiJrEUtI?...

This is the advice I give people a lot. I’ve been out as trans for 8-ish years, I’ve been sober for just over 6 of them. I always say that they are both things I wanted to fix all the broken parts of me, and what they did instead was give me a life worth putting the necessary work into.

Being trans in 2025 is really miserable but it’s infinitely better than being closeted. The Trump admin’s rapid moves on youth transition care is scary and depressing. There’s a baseline of safe and valuable care these kids are going to be denied for no reason and their lives will be worse for it

CHOTINER: So you asked for a Birkin bag? KOKO: Yes. Possession Bag. CHOTINER: And you had the funds to acquire this? KOKO: No, Professor Purchase Koko Gorilla CHOTINER: That doesn't sound like the funds were justifiable. KOKO: Hostility Interviewer

a trans girl in vermont was kicked off her swimming team and committed suicide and at the very same time, the discourse in d.c. today is about whether the democratic party should’ve abandoned her sooner in order to win votes a day in an american life

Lia Smith was a transgender rights advocate and athlete who spoke out forcefully against this administration's policies. Rest in peace. Every trans suicide is a murder by those in power. www.middleburycampus.com/article/2025...

Penda’s Fen Texas Chainsaw Massacre Eyes of Fire Communion

I should be allowed to cancel class if life is hellish

He stopped at my door and looked me in the eye, and I’ll never, ever forget this. I repeated it recently. He said, “Jim, our job is to protect empathy at all costs, and to live groovy lives.”

we are not cannon fodder for "revolutionary fantasies" any more than sylvia rivera was cannon fodder for queer liberation. we are its beating heart. every trans person is proof that humanity can know itself better, can express its joy, can live authentically and with intent. we ARE a revolution.

There are some sick ones in this list. A Wounded Fawn and Jethica are both standout ghost movies of the past couple years. Light From Light looks killer too.

One of the better lists of underseen films I've read, from @thathagengrrl.bsky.social, @siddhantadlakha.bsky.social, @rifewithkatie.bsky.social and others! Rare you see actual obscure movies on one of these, but this is about 70% things I've never watched! letterboxd.com/journal/lett...

"The World's Greatest Sinner" is a deliriously dumb fucking movie but it feels like it meets our deliriously dumb fucking moment where it is in a way "A Face in the Crowd" doesn't quite. It's so dumb and I can feel every major Nicholas Cage role squirming around inside of it.

of all the mid-20th century "british gaslighting" movies I think "So Long at the Fair" is one of the best. Jean Simmons just goes for it, although like a lot of these movies it sort of putters out once questions start being answered.

I choose Vegeta. Let’s give him a chance and hear what Vegeta has to say.

CHOTINER: This game you like to play, what's it called? ME: Slay the Spire. CHOTINER: And you play it on the computer? ME: Yeah. Well, I also have it on my phone. I played another 300 hours. CHOTINER: And these other games in your Steam library. Have you finished them? ME: Now hold on a second,

I often wonder what these policies imply for trans faculty. Like, as a trans professor I imagine even if I shut up and played nice theoretically under this sort of model I’d be under the gun nonstop

Guy at Primus concert: It’s almost like heavier than heavy music. Because it’s so challenging. Primus: I’m a real funny bunny, and I know you’ll be my honey, when I put on my big wig and preen, That hunter got a shock, when I went and called him doc, and started munching beta-carotene. YIPPEE!