Jason Sepac

Mr. Polaroid | American Experience | PBS Before the iPhone, the Polaroid camera let people instantly chronicle their lives. Along with instant photo mania, its company culture became the model for Silicon Valley. Mr. Polaroid is the story of...

Chris Bonanos: "...It’s actually better than magic because it’s human. This is the product of very, very smart people applying themselves super hard [...] using science and art together to make something wonderful. And they succeeded."

www.pbs.org/wgbh/america...

For just a quarter of your salary, you too can support tax cuts for billionaires.

My Friend Michael Podcast Episode · Wind of Change · S1 E1 · 45m

In the grocery store tonight, they’re playing “Wind of Change” by Scorpions. Do you know the amazing Patrick Radden Keefe podcast about this song and its alleged writing by the CIA? You should. Hugely entertaining. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

Me in the national security group chat

A Small Press Book We Love: Let Me Clear My Throat by Elena Passarello Small presses have had a rough year, but as the literary world continues to conglomerate, we at Literary Hub think they’re more important than ever. Which is why, every (work) day in March—wh…

Check out another small press book we love: Let Me Clear My Throat by Elena Passarello.

"sometimes I wish I didn’t make things so arduous. It’s just a game, after all. It’s just that sometimes I get IDEAS."

WELCOME MARCH XNESS! This image is of the corny, old-style Publishers Marketplace announcement that "HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: The March Xness Anthology" by Ander Monson and Megan Campbell, cofounders of March Xness, will be published by Split/Lip Press in March 2026. A collection of essays spanning 8 tournaments from 40 contributors, the anthology includes writers Matt Bell, Danielle Evans, Elisa Gabbert, Raquel Gutierrez, and Elena Passarello, among others.

This is the longest we've kept a secret project secret: SLP is proud to be the home for HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY, collated by the Official @marchxness.bsky.social Selection Committee (@angermonsoon.bsky.social + @meganc.bsky.social) and forthcoming on 3/31/26!

Needless to say, I agree.

The Power of the Moving Image | Los Angeles Review of Books Peter B. Kaufman argues that video has become our dominant cultural medium, yet we lack reliable archives for the audiovisual record.

"Television, film, and online video—together, the moving image has gotten to a point, some 440 years after Gutenberg, of displacing print as the world's medium of record." Peter Kaufman argues that video has become our dominant cultural medium. lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...

Government workers when DOGE shows up.

@k-e-c.bsky.social absolutely killing it. 🔥🚶

Announcing the 2025 Oregon Literary Fellowships Announcing the 2025 Oregon Literary Fellowships

🧁 been sitting/coasting on this news for a week ... so so honored to be among this year's @literaryarts.bsky.social fellows

literary-arts.org/2025/01/anno...

Ahhhh! Congratulations!!!!🍾🎉🎈

🫠

There’s really only one appropriate song for this, right?

David Lynch Ushers in a Golden Age - Believer Magazine “This is how we can change this world from suffering and negativity to a world enjoying positivity—end of suffering—real peace.” David Lynch is a filmmaker, musician, writer, painter, sculptor, lamp m...

Thank you, David Lynch, for always reminding us that art and life are spiritual acts. Your wisdom lives on.

www.thebeliever.net/logger/david...

A girl I knew in college saw David Lynch speak at an event. When it ended, she found a way to get to the front to tell him how much his films and shows meant to her.

His response was “Thank you. And remember, the universe is in your basement.”

“… [THE PITT] doesn't much bother capturing the vibe of Pittsburgh – nobody, including Wyle, even attempts the city's unique "yinz"-er accent.”

I might have tuned in just to hear Noah Wyle’s Pittsburghese.

"I have no hopes for 2025. Humanity is disappointing. We killed the Earth. Villains triumph and the innocents suffer. I imagine these trends will continue."

incredible -- the NYT ran fluff "what i hope to see in 2025" blurbs from CEOs and economists, and then this guy

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/o...

I read this one immediately after blacking out on ebay looking for calendars from 1986 to hang on my wall in 2025 (the dates match up)...needless to say, it hit home.

"So I did what poorly aged 90s movies taught me you do in the face of aging: I bought some dumb shit."

12/19 in the @essaydaily.bsky.social advent calendar is @jasonsepac.bsky.social on becoming nostalgia: www.essaydaily.org/2024/12/dec-...

Dec 19: Jason Sepac, Becoming Nostalgia * This is part of our yearly Advent Calendar, which publishes an essay a day each year during advent.  Find the rest of this year's and prev...

I wrote an essay on becoming nostalgia, dressing funny, and buying old shit on eBay to make me feel better. Thanks to @essaydaily.bsky.social and @angermonsoon.bsky.social for the chance to share!

www.essaydaily.org/2024/12/dec-...

How did I not know John Edgar Wideman had a new book out 😳😓😬

An essay on Mick Foley? Merry Christmas to me.

So happy to have an essay on (purportedly) bad Elvis movie songs in this year's Oxford American Music issue! I'll link a few of my fave awesome/awful tunes below.

I was listening to WDVE, in my freshman-year dorm at CMU, when I heard John Lennon had been shot & then that he was dead. Amid the grief and dismay of that day, I remember thinking: Well, he had already done so much, he had a full life, he *was* 40! (I was not yet 18.)

Nov 30, 2024: Julie Marie Wade, Advent Welcome to the 2024 Advent Calendar. We begin with a preview of the Calendar this year, featuring an essay by Julie Marie Wade, "Advent." Th...

"I like the dark despite the way adults complain. Bleak puddles call for bright galoshes. And the word galoshes, too, for galumph and slosh…"

Here's Julie Marie Wade kicking off @essaydaily.bsky.social 's 2024 Advent Calendar with a timely essay, "Advent":
www.essaydaily.org/2024/11/nov-...

Same

Out of habit, I sometimes look at the Nanit app even when I know my daughter is at daycare. This piece perfectly captures what it’s like having a baby at this particular moment.