I never could verify the claim that the problem was due to strikes in the Middle East. I only found the article below which said it was a regional problem only. The books seem to be back up now.
www.seattletimes.com/business/ama...
@scalzi.com Hey John, I just read on Threads that due to strikes on AWS in the gulf, you can’t buy ebooks on Amazon. I randomly clicked on Redshirts and got an error message. Just wondering if you had heard anything.
www.threads.com/@kerriganbyr...
I did the same thing. Very easy!! Gen Xers will find there’s a “hole“ where you might not be protected. It’s very simple to just get an MMR booster.
A wonderful book that did all the things, and whew, there was so much stuff where I was texting Linda, "OH GOD why are you looking into my work history/soul/whole deal??! In a good way??!" Really good, really smart on so many fronts. Recommend!
Heh. The same is true with Dukes in Regency England.
New #RomanceColumn! We’ve got a screamingly funny cursed knight plus evil sorcerer queer romance, a sweet small-town bad-boy romance with a beekeeper heroine (yay bees!), and a New York-set romcom romp with a Regency cosplayer hero and screenwriter heroine (gift link): #romancelandia #booksky 💙📚
If you believe professional critics, some of the best TV that’s ever been made happened after 2000 & the rise of reality TV. It’s conventional wisdom. But if you want to argue that Breaking Bad, Mad Men, & The Americans are poorly written dramas, you could try to argue that (and you will fail).
That’s how it’s always been. I usually don’t watch shows in the top 20. And yes, Dick Wolf is very successful. That’s been true since 1990. But it doesn’t mean great TV isn’t being made. And let’s beware nostalgia, a false emotion. PBS is terrific but it’s never been a huge ratings juggernaut.
Here is the latest ratings score card from TV Guide. I spot one reality TV show plus some game shows. Look at that list! Reality TV doesn’t dominate. It’s in the mix, that’s it.
People care and still enjoy talking TV. I have chatted with the bagger about TV at my grocery store. Now maybe that’s a nerd thing but people of all income levels can be discerning at what they watch.
I am just responding to your opinion that reality TV killed well written dramas and sitcoms. 100% not true. Right now TV is in a contraction but that has zero to do with reality TV, but rather the streaming business. I also will say there’s great TV released every year.
The Golden Age of TV happened after 2000. This idea that well written scripted shows died when reality TV got popular is not true!
Well written sitcoms and dramas do exist. It’s very easy to avoid watching reality TV. But a lot of people have bad taste. That is not because there are a lack of great dramas and comedies.
Agreed. Sometimes they agonize over their songs. Not this time, it seems. It’s clear they were angry and they just put out how they felt in this fraught moment.
U2 just released a EP of songs about Ukraine, Iran, Gaza and Minneapolis and they sound more engaged than they have in years:
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones in Lonesome Dove
After starting out his career doing lots of episodic guest work (including a very good Twilight Zone, s4's "Miniature"), Robert Duvall mostly worked in (great) movies from the 70s on. A rare exception: the wonderful Western miniseries Lonesome Dove, where he played superhumanly charming Gus McCrae.
I have watched it at least 5 times! Totally obsessed. Impressed with the transition from El Apagón (when he was on the telephone pole) to CAFé CON RON. Seamless.
Generally speaking, the minute you see the word “Fabio” attached to an article about romance other than as history, you can throw the entire thing into the garbage. It’s a sneer, designed as communication from one person who thinks romance is stupid to another.
Context: this speech is from SIR THOMAS MORE, a history written, as near as scholars can tell, in the early 1600s by 6 or 7 people including Dekker, Heywood, Chettle, Shakespeare, and Munday.
It was never performed, because Jacobean England was a police state and it was banned by the censor.
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
Just wanted to salute, one more time, The Washington Post books section. I was fortunate to have all three of my books reviewed by the Post and I always knew they were in the hands of expert and experienced writers and editors. It was an honor.
Oh this is an amazing deal on a wonderful series
Long thread:
I was so devastated by the news about the Washington Post this morning that I did not get out of bed until well into the afternoon. I worked at the Post — on the digital side first before print and digital merged — for more than a decade. It's been my hometown paper my whole life.
the Washington Post effectively blew up its arts section today, dismissing its books, TV, music, and theater critics, features writers, and several editors. (I'm also guessing the vacant film critic position will stay that way.) Just an insane loss of talent and a huge self-inflicted wound.
Oh this is awful. I always look forward to Chris’s pop record reviews.
After 20 years, I've been laid off at The Washington Post.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Let’s not underplay the book review section being eliminated. I think it cheapens our society not to have writers who interrogate art.
I was paying 99 cents every 4 weeks but I still cancelled. I had stayed these last couple years for the book section. But that just got eliminated.
lizzie johnson @lizziejohnsonnn · 49m I was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone. I have no words. I'm devastated. Quote lizzie johnson @lizziejohnsonnn · Jan 25 Waking up without power, heat, or running water. (Again.) But the work here in Kyiv continues. Warming up in the car, writing in pencil — pen ink freezes — by headlamp.
INBOX: Washington Post Ukraine Correspondent Lizzie Johnson announces that she has been laid off in the middle of a below-freezing war zone without power, heat, or running water.
Conservatives don’t generally read. But the ones who do have the Wall Street Journal. They are not going to buy subscriptions to the Post. It’s just going to wither away.
