👻Michael J. Riser𖤐❌👑

One of the first places I visited when I first went to Japan. It's hollow and they'll even let you go inside it. It tastes like pennies (probably—don't lick a Buddha, what's wrong with you)

Thanks, mate! That means a lot

Hollow Knight, Dark Souls, and the Catharsis of Post-Empire Fantasy Because when you inhabit a crumbling empire, I guess all you want to do is stomp around one that's already crumbled.

Newsletter drop! @bryanpedersen.bsky.social's been telling me to get this done for ages. It still took a month. Herein we've got Hollow Knight, Silksong, Dark Souls, Yahweh, and America mashed up together in an unholy bundle of post-imperial #horror fantasy, plus a few choice words for fascists.

Introduce yourself using only one book, one film, and one band or artist that you love:

There Is No Antimemetics Division // qntm
Bringing Out the Dead
Meshuggah

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/783041...
www.imdb.com/title/tt0163...
www.meshuggah.net

Made the right fucking call, Sarah, let me tell you

Let's do it. 💪

It's a classic, though I will avoid discussion of the sequels in polite settings. Iconic, even. Still fails in comparison to the novel on numerous fronts, because the novel is far better than such an honestly kind of dumb premise (in a broad sketch, anyway) has any right to be.

Publishing, including fiction, would be a stronger industry if it published more work that made people deeply uncomfortable

It super is. The movie does some cool things, but also skips several of the most intense scenes in the book. I read that shit as a probably 12 year-old kid and it informed a large part of my early literary identity.

this is arguing with people in the quotes but there's no length a book "should" be. some need to be short. others need to be long. and a long book is not a failure of editing, because the goal of editing is not inherently to make something short

how many times will I be allowed to reskeet this before I'm banned?

A poster on a pole next to a street says: “ICE YOU ARE NOT INVISIBLE !RECORD! !RECORD! !RECORD! NAZI RATS LEAVE OUR CITY”

A stack of posters featuring a hammer-wielding figure with the stars of the Chicago wrapped around his torso. It says: “I PREFER MY ICE CRUSHED. END IMMIGRATION ARRESTS, DEFEND OUR SANCTUARY”

A sign in a store window says: “WE DON’T [SERVE is crossed out] FEED ICE OR PIGS! even if you steal this sign”

The words “ICE OUT” are written in chalk on a sidewalk.

A few messages seen today in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood

To be honest, I regretted watching Skinamarink alone. Not because I was scared by it, but because I was completely sure my wife would either find it terrifying or utterly boring, and I really wanted to know which was going to win.

Shit, I watch every horror movie alone unless it's #horrorwatch or #folkhorrorfriday. This is the life I have chosen, to love stuff my nearest and dearest have generally always hated. Just me?

Jesus. Better soon all around, I hope, my friend.

A screenshot from Deezer showing Carnifex's album Necromanteum. Its cover art displays what looks like an elaborate gateway to a cemetery, with large flaming braziers atop a stone arch. It's painted in largely purple hues, with a green mist seeming to float from the gate beneath, and the band's logo and the album title are also drawn in green. The stats show 10 tracks at 42 minutes long, that it was released on 10/06/2023, that it has 830 fans, and that it has the "explicit" tag.

Today's writing music.

Antifascists and atheists never treated Christians like this, but those Christian Identity fascists have been running around for decades telling everyone they’re “under attack.”

I have one nephew who is thankfully a bit older and would just tell me if I asked without judgment. This is also why I never had children.

A screenshot from the Merriam-Webster website, with its "top lookups" on 2025.10.13. These are represented by a bar graph showing the top seven, which rank in this order: 1. fasciscm, 2. volcano, 3. faze, 4. indigenous, 5. maligned, 6. capitulation, 7. dimity

I see you, America.

Shit, I still remember my home phone number from when I was a tiny child, and the one I got when I was a teenager with my own line. I remember my bloody ICQ number, for fuck's sake.

Reminder to local friends that this is happening in less than two weeks!

Maaan, that sucks. But at least you got your steps in, I guess?

This beautiful set arrived! Daiei Gothic, Vol 2, with three films that span 1960 to 1970.

Looks like a load of fun! And that mana potion looks super intriguing ...

Definitely stay masked if you can. Be comfortable to a fault. Don't bring more in your carryon than you're likely to use. I always brought a portable game device, headphones, a book, maybe a laptop/tablet, a notebook ... only to never actually use any of it even on a 15-hour flight.

Happy Indigenous People's Day! Fuck Christopher Columbus. May the memory of that piece of shit rot with him into oblivion.

Spent my whole childhood watching my rabidly Christian mom freak out about godless secret societies and background groups trying to sway American and global politics. Turns out the shady fuckers trying to inflate government power and get your rights taken away are always a bunch of Christians.

I love people who regularly use hashtags they have clearly never once actually looked at, because they use them incorrectly every time

We all love Apex. Let's keep Apex thriving and publishing for a long time to come.

Same and same.