Brian Libby

I also appreciate Lethem’s evocation of Ross Macdonald toward the end of the book.

Any fans of novelist Jonathan Lethem out there? I just finished Brooklyn Crime Novel and it grew on me through the course of the book. Its name is misleading, or rather the crime is not a felony or misdemeanor so much as gentrification and its impact on one street's denizens over 50 years.

Yeah, same here! Some of the portraits in particular are excellent.

Lost California photos from Ansel Adams raise compelling questions SFGATE unearthed a rare series from the iconic San Francisco photographer.

www.sfgate.com/local/articl...

The SF Gate’s Charles Russo has written a fascinating feature about the largely forgotten commercial images of Ansel Adams, a departure from the landscape photography for which he’s known. Much of it was commissioned by Stanford and the University of California system.

He’s made many terrific records but that one may still be my favorite.

"The day of accountability will come": Rep. Delia Ramirez on abolishing and prosecuting DHS The Handbasket spoke with the congresswoman who called out ICE long before it was popular.

🔥 “To me, when we're talking about what justice looks like, it's ultimately getting to a place where every single fascist agent and the leaders that directed them to do what they did are held accountable to the highest degree of the law. And that means prosecution.”

I saw Art Farmer and Ron Carter play a brilliant set in 1991 at NYC’s Sweet Basil club, as an ignorant but jazz-curious 19-year-old not knowing at the time who either was. But I was swept away, and now have loved both for decades.

Love this. Murder, My Sweet is one of my top five (or so) all-time favorite movies and I regard it as a masterpiece.

Purchase, Dikran G. Kelekian Gift, 1922

The Sea https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436021

Thanks! I still haven’t seen all of her films (like Certain Women, Wendy & Lucy), but I love the ones I have, especially First Cow, Old Joy and of course The Mastermind.

I actually requested an interview when they sent me the Mastermind book but was declined. Hoping I’ll get another chance. I’ve interviewed her frequent screenwriter (Jon Raymond) a few times so I’m hoping that might help.

I’m excited to listen to this podcast. Reichardt is our neighbor here in Portland and I love her films. I also just got the Mastermind book. Thanks for the rec!

That filmmaker certainly merits the benefit of the doubt. I still remember seeing "Cure" in the theater and getting more than I bargained for.

This is actually just how the film seemed to me in a preview I saw. There seemed to be this compelling atmosphere being established...and then the spell seemed to be broken as people were chasing him.

Tree shadows on our garage door this afternoon…

A cringe-inducing point ineloquently made.

This, I believe, is my grandpa's graduation photo from that same year.

This is so cool! An archival photo from 1939 by the great Dorothea Lange, taken in my grandfather's hometown of Independence, Oregon the same year he graduated from high school.

Murakami is definitely not for everyone. I have some friends with great taste who are very well read and they don't like him. And Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is actually one of my faves. But you never know!

Haruki Murakami Isn’t Afraid of the Dark

I think I’ve read more novels by Murakami than any other writer except Ross Macdonald. His self-description here seems accurate: It’s not the prose but rather the juxtaposition of surreal yet mundane world-building. Glad he’s getting more respect. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...

Showing Up is indeed excellent. For me it resembles The Mastermind in that its impact slowly builds over the course of the film. It was filmed at a beloved but now-closed art school here in Portland, making the location feel bittersweet. I love Michelle Williams, and Andre 3000 is surprisingly good.

I made that trip with @valarie.bsky.social about 15 years ago and we had a great time, be it breakfast at Tweed's cafe or staring at Snoqualmie Falls.

It's actually the waiting for tickets I remember most fondly, particularly a half-hour where people saved our place in line, and we wandered out onto a completely empty Fifth Avenue at 49th Street — one of the densest urban locales in America — and sat down in the middle of the street.

Twin Peaks parody by Saturday Night Live (1990) Dailymotion video by Malmignatte

I found in its entirety the Twin Peaks parody from Saturday Night Live in 1990, which I was in the audience for. I was a freshman in college, and along with a couple friends we waited all night in line for standby tickets in a Rockefeller Center hallway. www.dailymotion.com/video/x7o2ca

Despite spending the bulk of the past three weeks in deep, crazy snow Japan, I always make time to get out in my neighbourhood when it snows even a little. And this spot, Ebara Jinja, is one of the reasons. For the conjunction of snow and the early cherry blossoms: The Kawazu Zakura.

I haven’t seen Certain Women but Valarie and I both really want to. I need to become a completist because Reichardt is actually our neighbor and I’m really hoping to interview her at some point.

I really love it, and was similarly won over across the course of the film. And coincidentally, I just received a book about the production in today’s mail. Are you a fan of any other particular Reichardt films? I especially love First Cow and Old Joy.

Thank you so much! That really means a lot, especially given you myriad talents as poet, professor, quilter and more.