Some professional news ... I've been spending some time in the archives and am looking forward to having cake at all the events for this book.

damp shrug of cow horn “we’re hairy for a reason” – summer in Scotland —a haar coo

James Oswald@sirbenfro.bsky.social · yesterday

Lonesome coo

I can vouch for and recommend these situations as a teacher who has seen his students experience them

Éireann@eireannmor.bsky.social · 3w ago

if you are scheduling visitors for your 2026-27 or 2027-28 school year, I would be thrilled to come design such a situation with your students

I miss spitting watermelon seeds, the way they stuck and the way we laughed.

After a loud, strange bird strike against the house across the street I was rushing over to check on the victim when I realized the kid two doors down is a lousy drone pilot.

Grateful for this essay by Willi Carlisle re: the inclusive, low-pressure fun of folk music at its best. The kind of fun I think about when jamming badly on old tunes with strangers, but also when struggling to find enough songs in common across generations to sing together.

ALL JOIN HANDS, CIRCLE TO THE LEFT  — Western As Fuck

Men are socialized to dislike vulnerability, to think of public humiliation like death. Yes, many men are socialized to endure all forms of physical discomfort, pain, and danger. When met with physica...

westernaf.net

I could feel that something had changed in the air of my home when I returned after some weeks away, and after digging through the pile of accumulated mail I now know what. It is the air of @hookland.bsky.social blown in.

It is good for the culture to have widely popular, capably made, aspirational middlebrow artworks.

Anna Kornbluh@annakornbluh.bsky.social · 5d ago

for a few shining weeks, we have culture! lovers, haters, nerds, auteurs, popcorners, stunt guys all communing, summer action blockbuster meets humanist canon, art making ideas making more ideas, this is the middle ground

I'm in Commonweal, writing about Isaac Butler's fine book about the 80s/90s culture wars and progressives' bad habit of being shocked (shocked!) that the religious right is well-organized.

Commonweal@commonwealmagazine.org · last wk.

"The NEA was on the path to becoming the National Endowment for Nice Art, agency insiders lamented." @mathitak.bsky.social reviews @isaacbutler.bsky.social's new history of the conservative outrage machine: www.commonwealmagazine.org/butler-cultu...

What a thrill to see @emersonsoarts.bsky.social MFA alum @kenanorhan.bsky.social's novel THE RENOVATION longlisted for this year's Booker Prize. Congratulations!

The Renovation | The Booker Prizes

The Renovation is a heartbreaking portrait of one family caught in the tides of history, grappling with grief, exile, politics and the painful absurdity of love

thebookerprizes.com

I am once again asking every department head to put this on the doors of every office and seminar room in the corridors of learning

Éireann@eireannmor.bsky.social · 12mo ago

My job remains designing situations within which it is both desirable and possible to become more human, more capable of thinking and asking questions, more capable of being alive with others, on earth

Just spotted that SPENT LIGHT by Lara Pawson has a US edition forthcoming from @mcnallyeditions.com. Excellent news — it remains one of the best books I've read in recent years, as I said a bit about here:

I've been trying to work out a new mandolin tune softly so I wouldn't wake anyone still asleep in the rooms beside mine, but now the village bells across the road are going full bore so oh well.

The carrots in exile know what they did

House spiders really need to up their game when it comes to fruit flies. Get your shit together, arachnids. You're being beaten by apple cider vinegar and washing-up liquid.

“I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries and very frankly give them fruit for their song” Joseph Addison 1672 - 1719. As True today as it was then.

Lost Pulp verse, rediscovered at last

Jean Rhys@msjeanrhys.bsky.social · 2w ago

I long to be like Other People! The extraordinary, ungetatable, oddly cruel Other People accusing you of being thin-skinned, sulky, vindictive or ridiculous.

Really enjoying this brand new album from Maura Shawn Scanlin with John Doyle and Duncan Wickel

Rule of Three, by Maura Shawn Scanlin

10 track album

maurashawnscanlin.bandcamp.com

yeah life is expensive. but y'know what's free? singing a song to a fuckin cat

No such thing as a vacant lot

I just remembered that there was a free chocolate bar in my hotel room and I meant to bring it along when I checked out yesterday but forgot. What a wasted weekend.

Me, sweating, loosening my necktie as I lean over the recording console to shout into the talkback mic: LIE, Bobby, it’s LIE. Unless she’s a goddam chicken she’s LYING across your big brass bed. All right, boys, one more from the top

Two of a kind

Doesn’t seem like they mean it. I’m going in.

Robertson Davies’ FIFTH BUSINESS delivers a mounting pin to my 50yo soul

Caught in unexpected rain during a morning walk on Giudecca, what a privilege.

I don’t know if they’re giving them to everyone or if I unlocked an achievement paying my bar tab, but at checkout the hotel gave me an extra can of beer to take with me.

new four elements just dropped

So many of my interests all in one place

Dennis Hogan@dennismhogan.bsky.social · 3w ago

Official editorial communication: The New England Review of Boats, a handmade regional zine about the vessels and people who go down to the sea for adventure, work, or pleasure--seeks submissions for its inaugural issue.

I’ve done something right today