It's amazing how many tricky problems of writing can be solved by moving a paragraph, then deleting it.

Podcasting

Humbly presenting to the void: today is new album release eve. Tomorrow you can get hear my second piano trio "Payne Hollow," inspired by Harlan and Anna Hubbard who lived deliberately on the banks of the Ohio. Recorded by local group NouLou Chamber Players. fictivemusic.bandcamp.com/album/piano-...

With less than one month to go before the paperback release, I am sharing a review a day. Today's review is from the esteemed Olivia Liang in The Financial Times.The FT was actually the first review to appear outside of a trade publication and it was a huge relief to see it reviewed so well overseas

This is a really fun look at a great comic.

Part three of the cultural history of the bowling shirt. Folks, we've got swing revival, Two and a Half Men, fake irony, and a gallon of Donkey Sauce. gabebullard.substack.com/p/the-end-of...

one will soon sink, unrecorded, in the sea

Eating figs and singing ”I got figs” to the tune of ZZ Top’s “Legs.”

the doom of boats, and ships, and men

Still writing about bowling shirts. This time, I touch on the swing revival, old Mac games, that Lit video, and the false idea of a 20-year nostalgia cycle. open.substack.com/pub/gabebull...

Speaking of film formats, I recently published an article on Pola-Lite, a largely unnoticed and under-researched single-strip 3-D format, in Film Atlas, an encyclopedia of every film format ever. I had a blast researching this. It has everything! Monsters, Douglas Sirk, questionable origin stories!

I encourage anyone working in a creative field who is concerned about AI replacing them to not aid in AI's replacement of people in other creative fields. If you're a freelance writer, ask your editor how they'll illustrate your story—with stock images, illustrations, new photos, or AI.

Reading a post critiquing AI podcasts and the image appears to be an AI-made illustration. I see this a lot. People in one medium critique the use of AI in their field, but then use it to do things they can't do or they don't want to hire out—like audio producers using AI images.

Five years of Defector: defector.com/five-years-o...

Many congratulations to Laura Garbes (University of Minnesota) on the publication of her pathbreaking sociology of the culture, idealism, and contradictions of public media. Out today on Princeton University Press.

Don't trust anyone* who shows up to work in the morning with their tie already loosened. *Anyone who isn't a musician†. †A good musician.

Maybe I need to stop on these book edits. I just imagined I wrote the phrase "Load o' Laundry."

So much of mainstream American journalism has just been finding the "iconoclasts" to ensure you're "adding something to the conversation." So you end up with 3 kinds of interviews:

Part one of my cultural history of the bowling shirt is one of the most popular essays I’ve published in a while. I guess people like it? gabebullard.substack.com/p/what-happe...

Going deep on bowling shirts. gabebullard.substack.com/p/what-happe...

Hey Beautiful Nerds! @99pi.org is fifteen years old tomorrow! Hard to believe. We used the occasion for me to talk about our editing process, my design hill to die on, and foot measurement devices podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/9...

The big question facing stations now is whether this surge of giving can last, and fill the gap Congress created. 📝 Story by @gbullard.bsky.social niemanreports.org/rural-statio...

"It’s hard to make good work, period. It’s harder when you’re working in an abstract medium like audio where you literally can’t see the thing you’re editing. The work necessarily moves slower." 👇 defector.com/the-future-o...

This is such an important piece. What's happening to film criticism - and so quickly - is deeply saddening.

“Shipoopi” but it’s Labubu.

Some people have asked if there’s a way to support us beyond a subscription. Yes! Please! :) You can make a one-time (or ongoing) contribution to support BWDR via paypal below. Every bit goes into keeping things going & keeping this ship afloat:

It’s so vital to have publications with thoughtful editors focused on art. Support BW/DR.

One of the great modern American film magazines needs your help! The best way to help is to get a 1 year subscription. The price -- $2.41 a month!! -- is bargain for all the great writing and illustrations it'll help pay for.

This is the best money you will ever spend on a film magazine. Nowhere else in the industry is publishing the kind of work you'll find here. It's so, so, SO worth it.

Delighted to have interviewed with WBUR's Meghna Chakrabarti "On Point." First half discusses the historical intricacies of the US public media ecosystem. Second half I tried to detail how the GOP rescission bill was designed to attack democratic media.

It's so odd to me that we have hours and hours of video podcasts where a host talks to a guest, and none of them look half as decent as TV did 50 years ago. The technology exists!

Really hoping the cow parade 100 CHF note wins.

And with all due respect to those who find it useful, TikTok is not a replacement for what is being lost.

The devaluation of skill, experience, and expertise is a crisis across cultural journalism right now--it's being felt profoundly in theater. It's great that anyone can post a review, but that does not, even in the smallest way, replace what's being thrown away.

It's profoundly saddening to read that AP will no longer be assigning or running book reviews because readers don't engage with them enough and they take too much effort to plan and assign. People complain about critics as gatekeepers; wait until all that's left is marketing.

Connecting the public broadcasting cuts to other administration actions. niemanreports.org/local-truste...

Writing about craft. gabebullard.substack.com/p/confession...

I wrote an essay about this rock. gabebullard.substack.com/p/a-solitary...

My latest. www.watchingtogetheralone.com/p/in-defense...

The "Tesla Diner" looks terrible, but in a significant way. It's supposed to be some retro-future idea, right? The update of the old futurist/Googie designs of the '50s, but for the electric car age? It has none of the imagination, daring, or sense of fun of old designs.

it’s also helpful to sign up for NPR+, which helps both NPR hq AND your favorite local member station of choice. you get great podcasts sponsor free, plus bonus episodes, PLUS you support the public media you love. plus.npr.org

It's possible your local public media station will give you access to PBS Passport with your membership. Just watching the News Hour every day is reason enough to give. But the archives of shows is marvelous. Passport is in my top-three streaming services. www.pbs.org/explore/pass...

Bill Paley was super proud of not letting Paramount investors control CBS in its early days.

would we love an angel $376,000 gift? Sure, but we'd rather have lots of folks giving whatever they can. working together we can make our community a better place, whether through music, events, or local journalism and investigative reporting.

We at Louisville Public Media just lost $376,000 due to Congress passing the rescission bill last night to claw back funds from public media across America. Today we’re asking those who value our work to help make up those funds in an emergency drive so we can maintain the staff/services we provide: