Sean Michaels

Montreal, come hang: WRITERS' ROOM #4, November 7 2025.

Unlocking the Mystery of Paris' Most Secret Underground Society (combined) Part I: Entrances On August 23, 2004, they discovered a cinema 60 feet beneath Paris. The sun was shining on the Trocadéro, the Eiffel Tower gleamed

It's still here, in a clumsy way:
gizmodo.com/unlocking-th...

Have fun! Was a lovely poetry event last week.

Apologies to the Queen Mary (Deluxe Edition), by Wolf Parade 25 track album

Happy 20th birthday to Wolf Parade's APOLOGIES TO THE QUEEN MARY! I was so honoured to write the liner notes for the deluxe edition, released in 2016—which everyone should buy, if only for the reminder that you're the one-eyed feather (you're the lion's mane).
wolfparade.bandcamp.com/album/apolog...

YouTube video by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Martha Wainwright: Save the Country | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Montreal's Martha Wainwright was on Fallon last night and chose one hell of a song to play: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c-e...

I know you have strong feelings about some of these things so if anything I bumbled through on the podcast doesn't feel clear to you, please reach out! I hope you're well!

This is really very kind, George. I was disappointed, but isn't everyone.

I am so very sorry, Anakana.

hey don’t tell anyone! ive been trying to snag a cheap original one on ebay for at least five years

I appreciate your surprise. Start a petition!

i applied and they didn't even ask for an interview! 😭

Anthropic's $183 Billion Valuation: The Authors' Pyrrhic Victory Settlement Has Investors Drooling The publishing industry must now contend with a reality where its primary asset - copyrighted content - has been effectively commoditised by companies with access to virtually unlimited capital and a ...

"For publishing professionals watching from the sidelines, this represents a masterclass in how AI companies are treating copyright disputes as manageable business costs rather than existential threats." www.linkedin.com/pulse/anthro...

Unfortunately, I expect that the fact they won a pretty resounding fair use victory is going to be lost in much of the coverage. They lost on downloading & storing the LibGen dataset (straight infringement!), but the act of training on copyrighted material (+ making their own ebooks) was a win.

Home | Parchment Journal Parchment is the only literary journal devoted to contemporary Canadian Jewish writing. We champion work that is diverse in aesthetic and national in scope.

If you're a Jewish writer, it's wide enough for you, too.

More information here:
parchmentmag.ca

Free Palestine
/end

Jewish literature is wide enough for Marcel Proust, Ivor Cutler, Hannah Arendt, Maurice Sendak, Grace Paley, Oliver Sacks, Judy Blume, Paul Auster, Sarah Schulman, Kafka, Deborah Levy, David Graeber, Muriel Spark, "Lemony Snicket," Harold Pinter, Oliver Sacks, Patrick Modiano 4/5

It seems like an insane and also important time for Jewish writers/readers to be in conversation with each other. It feels depressing (oy vey, honestly) but potentially galvanizing, too: reading changes the reader. 3/5

Parchment is a project of the Association for Jewish Canadian Studies; it describes itself as "national in scope" and there's a diversity of politics on the editorial board. But I want to explicitly encourage anti-Zionist writers to submit their fiction, poetry & literary non-fiction. 2/5

"This will never work": PARCHMENT (@parchmentmag.bsky.social), a literary journal devoted to contemporary Canadian Jewish writing, is returning to print.

I joined the editorial board because I don't feel "Jewish writing" needs to mean what it usually means, especially lately. 1/5

Big IP slop is one of the pipelines to genAI slop; denaturing the vitality of the arts for corporate interests. Good to see an actor speak about it honestly.

YouTube video by von_kond Forest Fire - Slow Motion

speaking of stomp and clap—remember this one?

Forest Fire's "Slow Motion"

What a smoulder, what a treasure.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU1d...

BREAKING: Downing Street has warned Sally Rooney risks committing a terrorist offence if she funds Palestine Action

It comes after the author said she would continue to support the group financially

Consistent!

dude!

Mustafa has been nominated for the #SOCANPolarisSongPrize #ShortList for the song Gaza is Calling. Find out the winner and see 9 other artists perform at Massey Hall live on Sept 16. Get 15% off tickets now—link in bio.

a neighbour's vertebra?!

ChatGPT - Identifying vertebrae origin Shared via ChatGPT

Truly seems most likely a deer (or a pork bone from cooking? but reasons to think unlikely).

I asked OpenAI's top public model: chatgpt.com/share/687bbd...

Opinion | The Seductions of A.I. for the Writer’s Mind

This piece by @meghanor.bsky.social nails the big problem looming for literature and AI, and it isn't any of the problems (copyright, homework, slop, bias, energy) most people spend their time worrying about: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/o... A fantastic and well-informed essay.

many thanks, joe!

earlier this year i nearly tripped into Hockney's "Portrait of an Artist"

now my novel about art, poetry, kinship and AI is out in a superbly Hockney-coded Canadian paperback edition

hope you have a chance to trip into it yourself.

yes, i agree!