Ally J. Shivka 💖💜💙

The gremblin has something to say

Single panel cartoon in the style of Gary Larson Far side. Hacker T. Dog, a dog puppet in a flashy shirt, pulls a goofy smile behind a table of 4 crudely made tools as his co-host, Lauren, puts her thumb and forefinger to her nose trying to stifle laughter. Caption reads "just normal tools."

what do you mean 'normal tools'?

It's gratifying that however ugly cybertrucks are in pictures, they're even worse in public

your billions are your incentive you absolute ghoul.

A red dip made to look like Darth Maul's face, complete with Bugle "horns"

Disney's Chips and Sith (2015-2015): In anticipation of the "Galaxy's Edge" attraction, both Disneyland and Disney World released this dish: Chickpea and lemon hummus, topped with roasted red pepper coulis, Bugles, and black sesame dust, to replicate the face of Darth Maul.

What’s a Novel Idea? What’s a Short Story Idea? I Used to Know the Difference - Uncanny Magazine How can you tell if a particular story idea is more suitable for a short story or a novel? People ask me this all the time, and I used to have a pretty good answer. I used to say that a short story fe...

How do you know if an idea is better for a novel or a short story?

I used to have a clear sense of what would work as a novel versus short fiction... until I realized I was wrong. Now I deliberately write novels with all the hallmarks of short stories.

www.uncannymagazine.com/article/what...

Big Freedia takes bounce music to church on new album, 'Pressing Onward' NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Big Freedia about her new album, "Pressing Onward," and how her childhood singing in the church led her to this moment, fusing gospel with her signature bounce music.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Big Freedia about her new album, "Pressing Onward," and how her childhood singing in the church led her to this moment, fusing gospel with her signature bounce music.

I have to be honest, friends, I wish it wasn't necessary to have an LI in my field. It's just the pits.

The Millennial Linkedin Experience
1) Remember once a month-ish that you have LI
2) Tell LI "no I don't know these three people trying to connect to me"
3) See you have a message but once again its a weird promoted ad
4) Close
5) Repeat

hey you want to see some old timey pictures of the toledo rockets mascot
www.utoledo.edu/mascot/histo...

Photo of Tom Lehrer

My last living musical hero is still my hero but unfortunately no longer living. RIP to the great, great Mr. Tom Lehrer.

A wide portrait of James whale in 1919

A close up on James whale’s handsome face

The important thing to understand about the director of Frankenstein is that I would allow him to absolutely ruin my life

Tyler Perry continues building his empire on Black pain Putting Black women through the wringer has been the business plan of Tyler Perry for 20 years, and there are no signs of stopping.

I wrote about Tyler Perry (w/special appearance from Jay Jacksonrao and @judysquirrels.bsky.social) for @avclub.com. www.avclub.com/tyler-perry-...

RYAN: Do you think it's unjust to push those values on people that don't want that? Like, where I'm going with this in schools. NEWSOM: Yeah, I don't know who's pushing. I mean, I hear this all the time. "Well, we're being — people — we're promoting —" I mean, Donald Trump says kids come to school one day as a boy and they come the next — that afternoon as a girl. I mean, what the hell is he talking about? RYAN: Well, I mean, I'll tell you what he's — I don't know what he's talking about, 'cause I'm not familiar with that conversation or when he said that, but, I mean, just here in Tennessee, for example, in — I think it's Cookeville — they had these kids that showed up and they're called Furbies or something. And they're showing up in school in a kennel, which, you know, 10 years rolled back, you put your kid in a kennel, you're going to fucking prison. But you know what I mean? And then they're shitting in a kitty litter box, and it's like — this is disrupting the rest of the class. NEWSOM: That's not a little too far, this is too far.

NEWSOM: And by the way, that's been so overhyped and exploited. There's a few instances of that, but — and I've read — I've seen that. I'm like, "Jeez, you think that stuff's happening every day, everywhere?" Those are extreme examples, and yeah, that's absurd. Couldn't agree more, man. Come on. A kennel — I mean, cat litter, I — turns out most of it's bullshit. But if that occurred, that's ridiculous. Like, that's crazy, with respect. Maybe on Halloween. That's what I think. RYAN: I just wanted to see where you're going. NEWSOM: Oh, no, no, no, no. That's — come on. I mean, I — yeah. I mean, that stuff — I've seen some of that stuff online. We tracked some of that stuff down, even my own state, and it turns out a lot of that was just bullshit. And then it gets weaponized, exploited, surrounds sound on social media, and my friends Jesse Watters and everyone at night are jumping down, saying Democrats want to turn the kids into furries, and now we got to do accommodations and anti-discrimination for kids that need cat litter in their schools. I mean, come on. They're red lines. That's one of them. God bless. RYAN: Thank you. Thank you. I needed to hear that. I needed to hear that.

I also want to point out this insane part of the interview where the podcaster talks about the urban legend of kids identifying as cats and pooping in litterboxes and Newsom doesn't immediately just say "that's not happening anywhere and never has"

"It Fucken Warmn" on an image of a Fennec fox in the desert, walking into a stiff breeze.

Monkey Business An anthropological look at a strange kind of human

I looked into a disturbing island while researching an essay about nature. What I found was a media drama starting in 1996, one involving multiple apologies, story retractions, and personal grudges stretching over decades and into the present. Enjoy! johnpaulbrammer.substack.com/p/monkey-bus...

"I don’t have any intention to single out Microsoft, Amazon, Google, or Palantir, but I am doing that because existing records clearly show that they are working with authoritarian regimes to provide cloud infrastructure and various technologies that are powering war and exacerbating injustice."

“The New York Times collaborated with a white nationalist eugenicist hacker and agreed to keep his identity a secret to publish a Zohran Mamdani hit piece” is a way bigger story than “18 year old Zohran Mamdani ticked ‘African American’ on his Columbia application because he was a citizen of Uganda”

Brad Pitt Is Fooling You The F1 press tour has been a carefully attuned charm offensive meant to obscure Pitt’s alleged violent behavior toward ex-wife Angelina Jolie.

I wrote about how Brad Pitt has effectively albeit transparently used F1: The Movie and its press tour to rehabilitate his image, in order to obscure the violent allegations about abuse toward Angelina Jolie & his current estrangement from his six kids, @vulture.com. www.vulture.com/article/brad...

Happy #pride 🌈 NYC

4 members of Jem and the Holograms from left to right: Aja, Jem, Kimber, Shana. Aja and Shana are playing guitar. Kimber is playing keytar, and Jem is singing into microphone. Aja has blue hair and wears a pink shirt and purple miniskirt. Jem has pink hair and wears a pink minidress with fringes belt. Kimber has red hair and wears blue capris, white blazer, and pink blouse underneath with cuffs that peek through end of sleeves. Shana has purple Afro and wears purple dress with silver blazer on top. The background is yellow, orange, purple color gradient. Jem logo is in bottom left corner.

Last semester, I had the opportunity to take a class on costume design in fantasy, sci-fi, and supernatural film and television. And for my final project, I chose to analyze the costumes in Jem and The Holograms! ✨

I'd forgotten about the truly bonkers conclusion of Time's review of Brokeback Mountain -- "fails to fully engage our emotions"! What film did this guy see???

Cinematrix No. 455: June 24, 2025 Can you name an Eddie or Brittany Murphy movie that made $100 million?

Vulture Cinematrix No. 455: Jun 24, 2025

I got 9/9 Correct
Score: 2597

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Play at:
vulture.com/vulturecinem...

Meet the most influential clothier you’ve never heard of. www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/c... @simonandschuster.bsky.social @eedickinson.bsky.social #Booksky

Calling all LGBTQ+ SFF authors! I started a new starter pack for us. Happy to add folks, please just share the link when you get a moment!

go.bsky.app/URHc5QB

Okay maybe this is too hot a take for 5:30pm on a Saturday but I think meme accounts that don’t give any attribution paved the way for people to accept AI words and imagery because it separated culture and entertainment from the idea that someone had to have those thoughts and compose them.

This is a vital message: one of the larger reasons BlueSky is refreshingly free of alt-right shitlords is because in the early days we made a gentleperson’s agreement to starve these fuckos out and it worked. No likes, no quotes, no engagement. They got bored and left. Please keep the Old Ways.

this is the most bullshit logic that I have ever seen and my rage CAN NOT BE CONTAINED.

the supreme court does not need to be deciding WHAT MEDICAL CONDITIONS ARE TREATABLE and no one should ignore this just because this time it wasn't yours, holy shit

this is monstrous.

A black plastic lunchbox with the classic black/red "scope" James Bond intro logo, with Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, in the middle, holding a gun. At the top is the "GoldenEye" logo, with the 007 logo at the bottom

Day #65: GoldenEye 007 (1995)