James Seidler

I just grabbed a stack yesterday. Generally the library is the easiest way for me to watch any films made before the 80s. Even for new stuff, you can avoid ads cutting in every 15 minutes.

Cartoon: Wimpy sits next to a mound of ground beef, a decapitated cow head and legs visible in the foreground. He is cooking a burger on a skillet, saying to himself, “Pickle on onion? I’ll have pickle, onion and lettuce both, please,” as Popeye looks on stunned

Wimpy’s compulsions took a dark turn.

Popeye says, “Say—didn’t ya even sell no hamburgers at all.” Wimpy, in apron, replies, “Ah me—I did—I sold one sandwich—the customer took it away from me by force—he acted with the agility of a cat, the scoundrel!! I have the dime in my pocket.”

Reading the third volume of the complete “Popeye” collection from Fantagraphics, and J. Wellington Wimpy has repeatedly cracked me up. An oddball, all-American original.

Patti Smith’s ‘Horses’ Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary (Gift Article) In 1975, she transformed poetry into punk. Neither would ever be the same. More than 20 artists who made and admired the album share their memories.

If you're looking for something to dislodge that Gordon Lightfoot earworm, tomorrow is ALSO the 50th anniversary of Patti Smith's debut album. Like Bruce Springsteen says, starts with "probably the greatest opening line of anyone’s debut album in rock ’n’ roll."

This is a fun piece:

Bubble Trouble An AI bubble threatens Silicon Valley, and all of us.

Some astonishing numbers in here:
-OpenAI loses $2 for every $1 it makes
-OpenAI projects annual losses of $14 billion by 2026
-To break even OpenAI needs to increase revenue 25x in just 5 years
-33% of VC portfolios are committed to AI
-5 AI-heavy stocks account for 29% of the S&P 500's value

Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard federal probe is looking into work of contractor who faces prison for bribery The south suburb paid more than $200,000 to O.A.K.K. Construction Co., a Summit business whose president Alex Nitchoff awaits sentencing after pleading guilty in January to bribing a Cook County asses...

I would guess he’s referring to Dolton mayor Tiffany Henyard.

chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...

want to get your grubby little paws on a physical copy of my work? and also a bunch of other really cool artists?

pick up EASEL today

Awesome!

Videos of fatal ICE incident in Franklin Park raising new questions about what happened There are new questions about an immigration arrest that turned deadly in suburban Franklin Park.

A dad in Chicago did. www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/v...

A great artist

Goethe

Realized at the end of the (excellent) Lilith Fair documentary that I’ve spent 25 years thinking Sarah McLaclan was Joan Osborne.

I am more open to quitting a book than I used to be, but I still rarely do it. I have had a few page-one “nopes,” though!

Great conversation!

Larry looks like a hostage in front of the camera most mornings.

Great to see this posted in @mcsweeneys.net . Ralph wrote some funny pieces for a humor site I ran in the Cretaceous era.

This series is a wonder--truly beautiful and not as square as Val's haircut would have you believe.

I have never skipped a click faster.

Agree 100%, that's vital information!

This is so sad, we have often had him help us at Jewel.

I am a jazz dummy, but Jerry Garcia had to listen to Grant Green right? Plenty of similarities in the structure of the riffs; it's a fun echo.

“Alien Earth” delivered a genuine “holy shit” line last night. Some of the choices in the first couple episodes seemed far-fetched, but they’ve had consequences, and the show’s done a great job plumbing them.

Reading Vol. 11 of the Fantagraphics collection now—still great stuff!

I guess read this collection! Olive Oyl ends up shooting a dozen cattle rustlers, one strip after another--it's gonzo stuff.

I’ve spent the past three years establishing pollinator gardens at our kids’ elementary school, and today a wasp stung me by the side door, so this is apparently my supervillain origin story.

Just finished “Vera, or Faith” by @shteyngart.bsky.social —what a beautiful, funny book. More than any writer, he keeps capturing our moment.

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.

Smart, comprehensive take from @jasonkoebler.bsky.social at @404media.co on the race to the bottom inherent to "AI journalism." www.404media.co/the-medias-p...

Prism Bitch opened for Built to Spill at Thalia Hall in 2023–they were fun.

I placed a small ad on Meta yesterday for a family-run event, and my screen was overrun with prompts for AI-powered “enhancements.” They looked and read like garbage too…why would I want to replace real photos from our event with AI/stock photo slop?

The @chicagoreader.com is still going!