Derek Kompare

One was a mortician in Chicago who ran his own funeral home for decades. The other was a produce broker in south Florida.

Mary Bronstein’s IN A LONELY PLACE

And I’m genuinely concerned about the protection of the film and TV catalogs at both Paramount and WB.

Probably. It certainly feels like another nail in the coffin. We’re left with the good graces of Comcast, Disney, and Sony. 😣

Nobody at WB deserves this, just as nobody at Paramount deserved it either. Hugs and godspeed to all in Burbank, and congrats to the Smoke House for what should be a record night of commiseration at their bar.

Tbf, the episode also has one of my favorite Trek line readings.

Paris: (describes what he saw and felt when he crossed Warp 10 in wide-eyed existential awe)

The Doctor: (pause) I’m glad you had a good time.

Late 90s Star Trek:

DS9: what if the galaxy was embroiled in war, and personal and political security and loyalties were threatened?

VOY: what if Paris and Janeway cross Warp 10, mutate into giant salamanders, and have salamander babies?

Shout out to everyone at Warner Bros who have consistently put out fantastic and iconic works across every media platform over the last 30-odd years despite getting perpetually dicked around by an apparently endless succession of soul-sucking corporate parents.

‘We’re losing accessibility’: America says goodbye to the mass-market paperback The so-called ‘pocket book’ sold in supermarkets is being phased out across the US, the latest sign of an ongoing shift in how people are choosing to read

I devoured MMPBs for the first few decades of my reading life. An absolutely essential format for crime fiction, SF, horror, romance, and pop psychology in the 20th century. Now they’re another print-culture casualty of shifting technology and modes of reading.

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

Great discussion, Steven. Bleak but bracingly realistic about the likely trajectory of TV, and the fate of "weird" TV for "weirdos." Still thinking the best plan at this juncture is Wilderness Years 2.0 and leaning cult instead of mainstream.

Absolutely vital in my pre-teen to teen years in understanding the broader universe of SF. Starlog led me directly to Doctor Who, which has been a massively influential part of my life for 40+ years.

Same. 💯

A section of a yellow shoe box touting the shoes’ “air-cooles memory foam insole,” increases softness and breathability” and an icon of a person bending over in pain with a red slash across it and the caption “no more bending.”

The subtle consumer semiotics of “you’re getting old.” I know, shoebox, I know.

🎉

Stone, parchment or laser-written glass? Scientists find new way to preserve data Hard disks and magnetic tape have a limited lifespan, but glass storage developed by Microsoft could last millennia

The relationship between media technology and the human pursuit of immortality is endlessly fascinating. Nothing we record now will be of anything beyond deeply esoteric scholarly interest in 1000 years, let alone 10,000 years.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

(I give a nod to this mélange of techniques across the crafts in my piece on the Twilight Zone in the first ed of Thompson and Mittell's How To Watch Television)

By contrast, fwiw, DeForest Kelley was a seasoned film actor (mostly B Westerns). But anyway: I would love to read a deep dive into casting and directing techniques and small-screen acting training during this era.

There's a whole history to be written about the first few decades of US TV acting. As TV goes from live to film, acting styles are a kind of hybrid of dominant modes in 1950s-60s theater and film. Shatner was a stage actor through and through before TV, and that's the register he delivers.

👏👏👏👏

Still ashamed that none of us fiftysomethings recognized Lizzy Caplan in last night's pub trivia. The Gen X - Millennial gap is real.

PLAYTIME: How Jacques Tati Develops a Single Gag YouTube video by CRITERION

I have very few films that I love unconditionally, and Playtime is top of the list. 123 minutes of crowded cinematic choreography in the exclusive service of complicated and gleefully silly sight gags and the joy of escalating chaos. youtu.be/0apeMNoM1XE?...

12-hour days, no weekends: the anxiety driving AI’s brutal work culture is a warning for all of us San Francisco’s AI startups are pushing workers to grind endlessly, hinting at pressures soon hitting other sectors

It really doesn’t have to be this way.

www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

This whole thread. A society clogged by its oldest and most privileged members' denial of their own mortality.

Drop an album that was important to you when you were 19

Sublime!

A great reminder that the “AI discourse” (such as it is) doesn’t have to be this way. We should have honest, grounded discussions about technology without them quickly fading into hand-waving carnival barker proselytizing.

Spending a warm but wet V Day cleaning out the garage. A domestic archeological dig unearthing faintly familiar bits of ancient hardware and half-empty caulk canisters from Obama-era DIY projects.

Athletes are great. The capital investment and emotional labor of nationalism are not.

Clarification: this isn't about Bluesky or my job or personal relationships. It's about another online community.