One thing with AI slop is that the unreality it creates waves away a much more complex reality (potentially with social/political ramifications). I’m thinking of this specifically after scrolling through a « Vintage Toronto » account of slop 70s & 80s photos depicting a wholly caucasian Toronto.

The irony of this Facebook comment being posted under a (fake/AI) image of « Vintage Toronto » showing a neighborhood filled with Jewish delis almost made my head explode.

Only one more season but don’t worry it’ll feel like 100 hours

Fuck right off

@pulmyears.bsky.social see you next month!

Like lyrics to the worst country song imaginable sung by a former nü-metal dude.

At war with the correct pronunciation of Iran, maybe.

I’m sure the families appreciate the heartfelt sentiment slurred off a teleprompter by a barely interested sleepy belligerent owl.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a President available to make some kind of address to explain his rationale/plans/etc. instead of the public getting this second-hand from a Fox News host…

@jefito.com Thoughts?

CBS’s news coverage was already one of the more misleading ones in 2003 (according to a well-known article in Polical Science Quarterly by Kull, Ramsey & Lewis), and I don’t expect things to be better this time around. (Source: ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/psq/psq_...)

Pointing out and dunking on the hypocrisy of the Trump administration going to war is fine, sure, but it’s also bringing to mind what the late Norm Macdonald said.

If you need a break from the horrible world news, may I introduce you to Russell Crowe’s TikTok account where he mostly just geeks out about his watches? (I had to shave 20 seconds off the intro to fit Bluesky’s 3-minute requirement)

I’m always amazed that Neil Sedaka’s mid-70s comeback featured a song so ubiquitous (« Laughter in the Rain », no. 1 in 1975) that a year and change later Billy Joel accidentally rewrote it as « Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) »—before changing the melody. youtu.be/NJOXOT7ae7o?...

R.I.P. Neil Sedaka He’s rightfully in the Songwriters Hall of Fame for and may have been inducted in the RRHOF (I think he deserved it) if his own hit recordings hadn’t dried up with the British Invasion (until his Elton John-assisted comeback in the 1970s). youtu.be/vtdbw4vCnDo?...

I regret to inform you that to my university students Jon Hamm is strictly « the guy from the food delivery ads » now.

imo the threat posed by CBS News and CNN getting absorbed by pro-regime billionaires isn't that they're going to produce right-wing slop that convinces people to be right-wing, it's the dismantling of newsrooms capable of doing investigative reporting on the administration. Fewer eyes on the street.

And I’m like, « fuck youuuuu »

« Students aren’t horses and there is no greater freedom they can buy themselves by using AI tools to cheat in the classroom. And worse, the more these tools proliferate, the more suspect the entire enterprise becomes. » www.404media.co/whats-the-po...

Please delete this kind of AI slop featuring someone who looks more like Mak Craney joined by two dozen versions of the same face. This is about as useful in solving current issues as an episode of the West Wing was in preventing the war in Iraq.

George W. Bush in 2002: « We’ve also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles…We’re concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for missions targeting the United States. » georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/release...

Watching this has me considering trying out a particularly aggressive form of bonesmashing on myself.

He’s now multiple decades into not understanding who pays tariffs.

I’m a big fan of Sam Sauvage, who won France’s equivalent of the Grammy for Best New Artist at the Victoires de la musique last week. You can definitely hear why Russell Mael is as well—he invited him to open for Sparks last year. (And yes, red socks are his thing) youtu.be/4ycFfioIey4?...

I’ve seen a lot of people saying « oh it’s normal to visit the White House after winning, why are people making a big deal about the hockey team? » The U.S. won 12 golds in Milano Cortina and 33 medals overall, but only one winning team is willingly letting itself be used by the WH for propaganda.

Ugh. Brady Tkachuk looks so excited to meet Trump and I hate it so much.

A key quote from @pablo.show’s discussion of Kash Patel’s pickup hockey side gig with @brucearthur.bsky.social last year. (The episode is mostly about Wayne Gretzky and is titled « The Great Once »)

A key quote from @pablo.show’s discussion of Kash Patel’s pickup hockey side gig with @brucearthur.bsky.social last year. (The episode is mostly about Wayne Gretzky and is titled « The Great Once »)

Matthew Tkachuk putting his gold medal around the FBI Director’s neck as the team blasts Toby Keith’s post-9/11 jingoistic anthem « Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American) ». Surely the shut-up-and-dribble crowd must be upset about this.

In moments like this you really notice how US Bluesky users outnumber every other country combined.

The funny thing here is the one thing that ever got Kid Rock some positive press in the last 15-20 years was charging $20 a ticket and giving away the first couple of rows to fans in the worst seat (à la Billy Joel).

If you only know his name from Bad Bunny’s « NUEVAYoL », which referenced his debut, you really couldn’t go wrong with any one of at least a dozen of his Fania LPs (I love the two volumes of Asalto Navideño, his Christmas albums with Héctor Lavoe).

To the haters

Canadian curlers proving once again that swearing at the Olympics is *very good*.

Looks like Journey’s (alleged) final tour will serve as a good example of pricing out your remaining fans: with a couple of weeks to go, the floors at all four Canadian dates are largely unsold.

I didn’t know about this until it showed up in new releases, but there is a new 2CD compilation of the great Slim Dunlap’s two wonderful LPs with a bunch of outtakes. RIYL the Replacements (obviously) and good old-fashioned rock & roll with a huge heart slimdunlapband.bandcamp.com/album/every-...

Looks like Journey’s (alleged) final tour will serve as a good example of pricing out your remaining fans: with a couple of weeks to go, the floors at all four Canadian dates are largely unsold.

I didn’t know about this until it showed up in new releases, but there is a new 2CD compilation of the great Slim Dunlap’s two wonderful LPs with a bunch of outtakes. RIYL the Replacements (obviously) and good old-fashioned rock & roll with a huge heart slimdunlapband.bandcamp.com/album/every-...

He’s going to announce that he’s creating the Board of Justice to replace the Supreme Court and naming himself Chairman for life, isn’t he?

Meanwhile, not at the Free Press: youtu.be/0ImRyPymRAM?...

This is exactly the « vectorialist class » described by McKenzie Wark that exploits both creators and users by owning and controlling the vectors (the means to access data, information, etc.) instead of manufacturing anything truly of value.

I already knew about « DJ Rony Seikaly », but this episode of @pablo.show that connects the dots between Seikaly, house music, the AIDS epidemic and a pivotal one-on-one game with Magic Johnson a month before the 1992 NBA All-Star Game is really fascinating & worth your time. youtu.be/xdZvVMgSzTw

I tried to explain the sentence « Clavicular brutally frame mogged by ASU frat leader » to my not-extremely-online partner today and I’m sure you can imagine how that went.

And what you heard just now was a whole country breathing a *huge* sigh of relief.

Thankfully Canada tied it up because Czechia winning it on a goal with (at least) 6 skaters on the ice would have been…problematic.

Honestly, we need more tennis-themed Japanese R&B jams, like this one from Takeda & Tetsuya. youtu.be/cj9QpwVxm18?...