I watched this movie with my 9-year-old son recently after one of the streaming algorithms recommended it as a family-friendly monster movie. I hadn't seen it in decades, and I was shocked by the very questionable content that passed for "family-friendly" in the '80s.

Adam Frazier@popnpizza.bsky.social · 2d ago

Good morning @shawnrobare.com

I'm not sure what to make of "The Shards." It's another Ryan Murphy show that makes the viewer feel unclean if you think too deeply about what it's asking you to feel. But it's also too shiny and empty to care too much about. It's like a gay(er) "Cruel Intentions" made by A.I.

I watched "Leviticus" today, and it was both an excellent horror story and love story. The tale of two gay teens stalked by a demon their parents summoned to punish them is reminiscent of "It Follows," but in this film you care more about the characters than you do the plot.

New in my Library, my translation of a rare and special story: "Manor" by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1885), one of the earliest vampire tales to take the form of an openly gay love story. The tragic tale tells of the love of two teen boys, one undead. www.jasoncolavito.com/manor.html

Manor

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) was a German lawyer, writer, and a gay rights advocate. He advocated for the reform of Prussian laws against homosexuality, and he published widely on what he called....

jasoncolavito.com

Diana Pasulka's "The Others" is a dry, overly academic discussion of theology and philosophy punctuated by insane interviews with high-powered believers in the paranormal and tedious efforts to claim science fiction novels as philosophical treatises. www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-...

Review of "The Others" by D. W. Pasulka

The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny D. W. Pasulka | St. Martin’s Essentials | July 2026 | 288 pages | ISBN: 9781250394866 | $28.00

jasoncolavito.com

This seems a little short-sighted if you can't predict reliably what skills or knowledge will be valuable 10 or 20 years from now--or whether today's "top-earning" degrees will still hold value then. I'm just going to bet that A.I. prompting won't be a cutting-edge skill in 2050.

The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2w ago

Under a new rule, if your degree doesn’t make enough money, you won’t be able to get a student loan. trib.al/6EiWtL2

Joe Rogan spent three hours discussing lost civilizations with a YouTuber who was inspired by another YouTuber who was inspired by Graham Hancock. Lowlights from a conversation that spanned heavy rocks, dragons, and full-throated hatred of academic elites: www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/joe-rog...

Joe Rogan Talks Lost Super-Civilizations with Yet Another Pseudoscience YouTuber

​Joe Rogan was at it again this week with a podcast exploring archaeological conspiracy theories. This time, Rogan interviewed Cassie Coppersmith, a YouTuber who makes videos about ancient stone...

jasoncolavito.com

For my Polish readers, an excerpt from "Jimmy" ran today in this popular Polish publication. www.onet.pl/kultura/wyda...

James Dean, którego nie znaliście. Biografia burzy legendę aktora [FRAGMENT KSIĄŻKI]

James Dean żył zaledwie 24 lata, zagrał tylko w trzech filmach, a mimo to na zawsze odmienił historię kina i stał się symbolem buntu oraz nowoczesnej męskości. Przez dekady wokół jego życia narosły je...

onet.pl

Men are taking an unapproved peptide to give themselves sunless tans, but the injection is giving them unwanted side effects ranging from muscle loss and melanoma to spontaneous, uncontrollable, and painful 30-hour erections. www.menshealth.com/health/a7317...

Young Guys Are Taking Melanotan II for the Perfect ‘Sunless Tan’—and Finding Other Results

Yes, your skin will get darker. But is the peptide worth the risks?

menshealth.com

The anti-science "wellness" crusaders who brought you raw milk and vaccine conspiracies are now attacking a new target: sunscreen. They falsely claim sunscreen, not UV radiation, is the cause of skin cancer. www.menshealth.com/health/a7186...

Inside the Rise of the Anti-Sunscreen Movement

Sunscreen is in the middle of a PR crisis, with skeptics claiming it’s hazardous to your health. Experts dismiss the claims as misinformation, but has the damage already been done? MH investigates.

menshealth.com

A couple of months ago, I recorded a podcast interview about H. P. Lovecraft with the "Things Visible & Invisible" podcast. I wasn't aware that it had already run until they told me when I came back for a second interview, which will be out shortly. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWhd...

H.P. Lovecraft: Genius or Something Far Stranger

YouTube video by Things Visible & Invisible

youtube.com

This video, with weird A.I. animation, tells the story of the "curse" of Little Bastard and ends by explaining that "researchers" combed the records and could find no trace of its supposed trail of deaths. The "researchers" are me. I am the researcher. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl52...

James Dean 'The Curse of the Little Bastard' - CollideTV Original

YouTube video by CollideTV

youtube.com

This is doubly insane because Axel Springer officially claims to be all-in on AI and is actively working to replace journalism with AI-generated content. What would Bari Weiss do for $120 million? Prompt the AI to be more conservative?

Tim Karr@timkarr.bsky.social · last mo.

In the latest chapter of the Bari Weiss saga "Failing Upwards," another solicitous billionaire offers our heroine more than $100 million to join his push to build a conservative media empire to rival the Murdochs'. @nataliekorach.bsky.social has the details: www.status.news/p/mathias-do...

It's not just a strange piece on the merits; it's also strange because TNR, for which I have written, allowed Katherine Kelaidis to write it without explaining that her own work promotes Orthodox Christianity and she herself uses her historical writing as ... wait for it ... political punditry.

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · last mo.

This bizarre @newrepublic.com piece accuses me of being a proponent of American exceptionalism and someone who refuses to challenge the basic myths of American history and, uh, that is certainly a take?

A fascinating account of the invention of edge markers on American roads and the man who relentlessly promoted their use in the twilight of his life. www.wsj.com/business/whi...

This Simple White Line Is America’s Greatest Unsung Innovation

You know about the lightbulb and the iPhone. This is the unknown story of another ingenious creation that changed a nation.

wsj.com

As Pride month comes to a close, I'll put in a plug for my book "Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean," a compelling reassessment of the iconic American actor and the secret same-sex relationships that defined his life and art. Print and audio available. www.jasoncolavito.com/jimmy-the-se...

In the WSJ's review of the new Zorro TV show, the writer explained that "Everyone is Don here, so don't assume it's a political allegory." I'm not sure if it's worse that he assumes readers think Don must be a Trump reference or that he doesn't know it's a Spanish title not name.

I guess it is good that my work is now just accepted as fact, and while Buzzfeed did link to my Esquire piece, it would have been nice for them to acknowledge that this interpretation of "Rebel without a Cause" is mine. www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillau...

I was genuinely shocked to see that the old cherry tree in my front yard produced cherries for the first time I can remember.

On the "Diary of CEO" podcast, Vice President JD Vance revised earlier comments about UFOs being demons, saying he also believes in aliens. Additionally, he claimed an exploding lightbulb was the work of his grandmother's ghost. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cKD...

EXCLUSIVE - Vice President JD Vance: They Tricked Me About Donald Trump, But Everything Changed!

YouTube video by The Diary Of A CEO

youtube.com

Michael Shermer's "Skeptic" magazine publishes an article by Roman Polanski, noting only that Polanski faced "serious controversy" and that choosing to publish his article should not be seen as "a referendum on that legacy." www.skeptic.com/article/roma...

Roman Polanski: Hell is empty. All the devils are here.

Filmmaker Roman Polanski, one of the last living survivors of the Krakow ghetto, reflects on antisemitism, the Holocaust, and how quickly the unthinkable can become reality.

skeptic.com

A Chinese company is selling what it claims to be shreds of historic letters written by celebrities. I, however, doubt it.

This week Sky in the UK aired an English version of a French documentary about James Dean that first aired in December. I was shocked by how similar its themes were to my 2024 book "Jimmy," right down to Sky using almost the same wording I used in my conclusion.

New in my Library: I have translated the Aztec Legend of the Suns from the Codex Chimalpopoca to make this text available online in full in English and not just in summary. www.jasoncolavito.com/the-legend-o...

The Legend of the Suns

NOTE

jasoncolavito.com

$1.77 trillion seems like a lot for a company that makes exploding rockets and an AI that calls itself Mecha-Hitler.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2mo ago

SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket and A.I. company, has finalized its initial public offering as the world’s largest stock market debut, and its shares will begin publicly trading Friday. The company's valuation is at $1.77 trillion, toppling all previous IPO records. nyti.ms/4xrAK9J

I still remember the "Abu Dhabi: That's where you'll stay / Abu Dhabi, it's far away!" song, and at the time I had a cousin who worked in the UAE, but it's amazing how much Abu Dhabi has changed since then. No one would name it as a distant backwater anymore.

Garfield and Friends Screens@garfieldscreens.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If true, this gives the lie to the reports over the weekend that Ellison was looking to oust her because she had become a liability.

Mike Boylan-Kolchin@mbkplus.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The ultimate boss of failing upward.

These kinds of pronouncements are silly. My hot take? Modern Italian cuisine and modern Italian-American and other diaspora Italian foods are all coequal inheritors of late 19th century Italian peasant cookery and are all inauthentic in different ways. www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-dri...

Angela Hartnett: Eating pizza with a fork is a crime against Italian food

The Michelin-starred chef on the right way to cook spaghetti and her strong feelings about Parmesan

telegraph.co.uk

In all the articles about the "Masters of the Universe" movie, I read a lot about how adult critics reacted while watching it alone, so I wrote a reflection on seeing the film with my 9-year-old son and sharing a fleeting moment of childhood wonder. jasoncolavito.substack.com/p/i-have-the...

“I Have the Power!”

On the bittersweet pleasures of watching “Masters of the Universe” with my son.

jasoncolavito.substack.com

Look at this absolute unit of a moth that decided to spend the day snoozing on my back door.