#kelsey mckinney

[djregular]

And before you dismiss this outright as a problem of the rich and famous, this kind of parasocial overreach is happening at all levels of the fame spectrum. I am famous in the way a spray-painted, run-down van that parks in a specific neighborhood can be famous—which is to say only to a certain group of people in a certain place. Sometimes, maybe twice a week, I meet someone who likes my writing or Normal Gossip. These interactions are almost always lovely, and I do genuinely like them. But it is odd and a little unnerving to find yourself in a situation where somebody clearly knows you and you do not know them. Imagine walking into a party filled with strangers, and realizing that a few of them are already talking about you. Now imagine you are famous enough that the whole world becomes like that.  

What’s strange about the behavior of these fans isn’t that they want to meet a celebrity. That has always been true of fans. For as long as there have been stage doors, there have been people waiting outside of them. What’s new is that today’s fans aren’t looking for a fleeting chance to feel close to an artist they love—they’re seeking confirmation of the closeness they already assume exists.

[campgender]

from God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney (2021)

[…] pouring into their small community. Most of these families had moved into subdivisions built where wildflowers had once grown and they had chosen the Hope. By the time Caroline hit high school, her father’s church held six services each weekend: four live and two streamed, every single one of them at capacity.

But the Hope had never felt like a megachurch to Caroline. She had grown with it. As children, she and her sister had counted heads for attendance. They’d emptied offering buckets as teens. The girls hadn’t just seen behind the curtain; they lived there. Caroline often stared at her father’s name on the banner proclaiming his Genesis sermon series and wondered why he, of all men, had been chosen by God. Her whole life, people had told her that he was a great man—holy, righteous, talented. So what had happened to that man? She wondered if he had ever truly existed.

[quotesfrommyreading]

No one expects Holden Caulfield to find love at the end of his self-explorative adventure, and we shouldn’t expect every female character to either. Coming of age novels are supposed to be about finding yourself, not finding someone else.

  —  It’s Frustratingly Rare to Find a Novel About Women That’s Not About Love

[lgbtlunaverse]

Shocked to report that this works. I just wrote 1.8K words in the span of one and a half hours and got past the part I've been stuck on for over a week.

(tweet 1) (tweet 2) (article)

[ihavebeesinmybrain]

i can’t believe normal gossip got gabby windey, they did this just for me

[insomniac-dot-ink]

2025 Anticipated Book Releases

My reading goal for this year is the same for last year in that I want to read 70 books! And hopefully a few more nonfiction, as always. BUT my main 2025 New Years Resolution for reading is to read less broadly. I read very broadly last year which was good, but it kind of made me sad in the sense I wasn't reading as many books that are "for me." So! More fantasy this year.

January

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao (Jan 14th): Set in a pawnshop where people can sell their regrets and past choices. I am always a sucker for a slower magical realism story when done well.

Breath of the Dragon by Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee (Jan 7th): I usually strictly avoid YA at this point but adore Fonda Lee so I'll be reading everything she writes. This is an Asian-inspired fantasy work with dragons.

The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom by Nancy Reddy (Jan 25): I am always drawn to gender dynamics that are a little more invisible and have thought there is some absurdity to the idea it's "always the mother's fault." A nonfiction on socially constructed motherhood.

February

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Feb 6th): !!! Probably my most anticipated read. The Tainted Cup was such a breath of fresh air in fantasy last year and the combination of epic fantasy and fun characters was perfect for me personally. This should me another murder mystery and I can't wait.

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde 3) by Heather Fawcett (Feb 11th): I have already read this since I got an ARC but I did adore the ending! This installment started quiet slowly but ended on a much more high fantasy note than I expected in a good way.

March

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green (March 18): I was surprised by how much I enjoyed John Green's nonfiction essay collection since I found his fiction a little rote. But his essay collection had a bittersweet thoughtfulness I really appreciated. As such, I am very interested in his next nonfiction work.

April

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (April 25th): I am among the masses that have followed Emily Henry ever since I read "Book Lovers" and discovered her dialogue. Her work can get a little repetitive after a point, but this had such an interesting premise of two writers competing to write the biography of a reclusive famous author. I'm seated.

Authority by Andrea Long Chu (April 8th): An essay collection on the nature of authority in a world where "everyone thinks they know everything." I am fascinated by this topic.

May

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Fredrik Backman is one of my authors. I read A Man Called Ove at such a challenging time in my life that it hit like a freight train and I've been following Backman's work ever since. I love when things hurt nicely--and a book about friendship from Backman? I am ready to hurt nicely.

OTHERS

Hemlock and Silver by T Kingfisher, a Snow White retelling (!!! another one of my authors, I adore Kingfisher)

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by Victoria E. Schwab (I've always been lukewarm on Schwab, but toxic lesbian vampires has my damn ears perked)

You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip by Kelsey McKinney (I LOVE the Normal Gossip podcast and will be here for this)

------------

If there are any books you think I'll like, lmk! I'm always on the look out for stuff like Jade City or Naomi Novik's work.

[self-made-cages]

Morgan’s 2024 Reading List

Jan 2: The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah (4 stars)

Jan 10: Eragon - Christopher Paolini (re-read)

Jan 12: Eldest - Christopher Paolini (re-read)

Jan 15: Brisingr - Christopher Paolini (re-read)

Jan 19: Inheritance - Christopher Paolini (re-read)

Jan 26: England - Rick Steves (not rating)

Jan 30: Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (2.5 stars)

Feb 16: The Poppy War - R. F. Kuang (1.5 stars)

Feb 18: The Good Part - Sophie Cousens (4.5 stars)

Feb 26: Trust - Hernan Diaz (4.5 stars)

Mar 5: Part of Your World - Abby Jiminez (2.5 stars)

Mar 12: Murtagh - Christopher Paolini (3.5 stars)

Mar 15: The Things We Cannot Say - Kelly Rimmer (3.5 stars)

Mar 31: NW - Zadie Smith (3 stars)

Apr 8: The Sun Sets in Singapore - Kehinde Fadipe (1.5 stars)

April 17: How To End a Love Story - Yulin Kuang (4 stars)

April 30: The Club - Ellery Lloyd (4 stars)

May 5: Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt (3 stars)

May 11: Funny Story - Emily Henry (4.5 stars)

May 16: The Husbands - Holly Gramazio (4 stars)

June 1: House of Earth and Blood - Sarah J. Maas (3 stars)

June 2: The Women - Kristin Hannah (2.5 stars)

June 11: House of Sky and Breath - Sarah J. Maas (4 stars)

June 15: When He Was Wicked - Julia Quinn (re-read)

June 22: House of Flame and Shadow - Sarah J. Maas (3 stars)

June 22: God Spare the Girls - Kelsey McKinney (1 star)

June 25: In Cold Blood - Truman Capote (not rating)

June 25: The Four Winds - Kristin Hannah (1.5 stars)

June 29: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake - Alexis Hall (4 stars)

July 3: Bad Summer People - Emma Rosenbaum (2.5 stars)

July 6: Widowland - CJ Carey (2 stars)

July 12: What’s Mine and Yours - Naima Coster (2 stars)

July 23: The Gifted School - Bruce Holsinger (4.5 stars)

July 29: All the Summers in Between - Brooke Lea Foster (dnf)

Aug 2: Cover Story- Susan Rigetti (4.5 stars)

Aug 7: Family Family - Laurie Frankel (5 stars)

Aug 17: Plays Well with Others - Sophie Brickman (4 stars)

Aug 23: Class Mom - Laurie Gelman (1.5 stars)

Aug 31: The Guncle Abroad - Steven Rowley (2 stars)

Sep 2: Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi (4.5 stars)

Sep 15: Twilight - Stephanie Meyer (re-read)

Sep 16: New Moon - Stephanie Meyer (re-read)

Sep 20: Eclipse - Stephanie Meyer (re-read)

Sep 22: Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Meyer (re-read)

Sep 24: The God of the Woods - Liz Moore (3.5 stars)

Sep 30: The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah (2 stars)

Oct 12: Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate (2.5 stars)

Oct 16: Lies and Weddings - Kevin Kwan (4 stars)

Nov 1: How to be Eaten - Maria Adelmann (1.5 stars)

Nov 2: Home Front - Kristin Hannah (2.5 stars)

Nov 7: The Rom-Commers - Katherine Center (3 stars)

Nov 20: Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas (1 star)

Dec 1: Crown of Midnight - Sarah J. Maas (2.5 stars)

Dec 7: Heir of Fire - Sarah J. Maas (3 stars)

Dec 13: The Assassins Blade - Sarah J. Maas (2.5 stars)

Dec 14: Queen of Shadows - Sarah J. Maas (3.5 stars)

Dec 19: Empire of Storms - Sarah J. Maas (4 stars)

Dec 26: Tower of Dawn - Sarah J. Maas (2 stars)

Dec 28: Kingdom of Ash - Sarah J. Maas (3 stars)

[clancyycat]

books i read in 2024: 2.0 bc tumblr ate my last list

gregor and the curse of the warmbloods - suzanne collins (jan)

gregor and the marks of secret - suzanne collins (jan)

gregor and the code of claw - suzanne collins (jan)

the cartographers - peng shepherd (jan-feb)

god spare the girls - kelsey mckinney (feb)

untamed - glennon doyle (feb-mar)

grimoire girl - hilarie burton morgan (apr)

lore - alexandra bracken (may)

holy the firm - annie dillard (may-jun)

the christie affair - nina de gramont (may-jun)

we show what we have learned - clare beams (may-jun)

there's always this year - hanif abdurraquib (jun)

the ocean at the end of the lane - neil gaiman (jun)

trigger warning: short fictions and disturbances - neil gaiman (jun)

the rural diaries - hilarie burton morgan (jul)

wolfish - erica berry (jul)

bless the daughter raised by a voice in her head - warsan shire (jul)

the trouble with poetry - billy collins (jul)

fever 1793 - laurie halse anderson (jul)

we run the tides - vendela vida (jul)

the last true poets of the sea - julia drake (jul)

we have always lived in the castle - shirley jackson (jul)

foxfire: confessions of a girl gang - joyce carol oates (aug)

neverwhere - neil gaiman (aug)

manhattan beach - jennifer egan (sep)

the mary shelley club - goldy moldavsky (sep)

leaving the atocha station (oct) (don’t read this)

the god of endings - jacqueline holland (nov)

appalachian elegy - bell hooks (nov)

don’t let the forest in - c. g. drews (nov)

inspection - josh malerman (dec)

somewhere beyond the sea - tj klune (dec)

[nototherwisespecified]

kelsey mckinney for defector

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Oops! All linkdump!

Tonight (May 2) I’ll be in Portland at the Cedar Hills Powell’s with Andy Baio for my new novel, Red Team Blues.

On May 5, I’ll be at the Books, Inc in Mountain View with Mitch Kapor; and on May 6/7, I’ll be in Berkeley at the Bay Area Bookfest.

In 1997, Jorn Barger coined the term “web-log” to describe his website “Robot Wisdom,” where he logged his journeys around this exciting new digital space called “the web.” Two years later, Peter Merholz shortened “web-blog” to “blog”:

https://peterme.com/archives/00000205.html

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this dump to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/02/wunderkammer/#jubillee

Two years after that, I started blogging, when Mark Frauenfelder made me a guest-editor on Boing Boing:

https://boingboing.net/2001/01/13/hey-mark-made-me-a.html

I’ve now been blogging for 23 years, nearly half my life, a near-daily discipline that forms the spine of my writing practice. I take everything that seems important, and, in summarizing it for strangers, embed it in my own mind, and then find connections that turn into essays, speeches, stories and novels:

https://doctorow.medium.com/the-memex-method-238c71f2fb46

For the past 3+ years, I’ve been blogging solo on my Pluralistic.net project. It started off as a “link-blog,” in the Robot Wisdom vein — short hits summarizing interesting things:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/19/pluralist-19-feb-2020/

But over the months and years, it’s turned into a place where I write long essays, sometimes six or seven per week, trying to pull on all those threads that I’ve cataloged over the decades, weaving them together into big, thoughtful pieces, often to great and gratifying notice and even a little fanfare:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

But I miss the linkblogging! For the past 14 months, Pluralistic has featured a little section called “Hey look at this,” where I post three short links, bare-bones pointers to interesting stuff online:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/01/reit-modernization-act/#linkdump

These links pile up in my todo.txt file, ebbing and flowing. Some days, I’ve got nothing for the section. Some days, I’ve got a backlog. These days, I’ve got a massive backlog — enough links for many, many editions. I am drowning in linkblog debt, and the interest is compounding. It’s time for a jubilee:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/24/grandparents-optional-party/#jubilee

Here, then, is the first-ever Pluralistic Jubilee Linkdump Backlog Bankruptcy!

First up:

“The Internet Isn’t Meant To Be So Small,” Kelsey McKinney’s crie-de-coeur for Defector:

https://defector.com/the-internet-isnt-meant-to-be-so-small

This is part of the enshittification canon that includes Cat Valente’s unmissable “Stop Talking to Each Other and Start Buying Things”:

https://catvalente.substack.com/p/stop-talking-to-each-other-and-start

McKinney’s money-shot:

It is worth remembering that the internet wasn’t supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to be six boring men with too much money creating spaces that no one likes but everyone is forced to use because those men have driven every other form of online existence into the ground. The internet was supposed to have pockets, to have enchanting forests you could stumble into and dark ravines you knew better than to enter. The internet was supposed to be a place of opportunity, not just for profit but for surprise and connection and delight. Instead, like most everything American enterprise has promised held some new dream, it has turned out to be the same old thing — a dream for a few, and something much more confining for everyone else.

This doesn’t just make me want to stand up and salute — it makes me want to build a barricade (or a guillotine).

On to “Reddit Data API Update: Changes to Pushshift Access,” a Reddit thread where the volunteer mods are discussing another enshittification move: Reddit’s pre-IPO API shut-down that has broken all the mod tools that volunteers use to shovel out Reddit’s Augean Stables, getting rid of spam and catfishing and fraud:

https://old.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/134tjpe/reddit_data_api_update_changes_to_pushshift_access/

This isn’t just “stop talking to each other and start buying things” — this is “stop doing billions of dollars in volunteer labor keeping our users safe, and start paying us for the privilege.” Good luck with that, Reddit.

Hey! The Hollywood writers are back on strike! The Guild is a shitkicking, take-no-prisoners, radical union with massive solidarity:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/2/23707813/wga-hollywood-writers-strike-2023-streaming-ai-wages-contract

It’s what let them trounce the talent agencies — hyper-concentrated to just four companies, two owned by private equity ghouls — over a 22 month strike:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/23/opsec-and-personal-security/#monopsony

The talent agencies had rigged the system so that instead of getting a 10% commission on the writers’ earnings, they were taking as much as 90% out of every dollar — and were about to make it worse, building their own studios, so they could negotiate with themselves on behalf of their clients. In the same week, 7,000 writers — even the ones who weren’t getting screwed — fired their agents, and demanded a return to the 90/10 split and a ban on agencies owning studios. The agencies say nfw. The writers stayed on the picket line.

There’s a whole chapter on this in Chokepoint Capitalism, Rebecca Giblin’s and my book on creative labor markets and monopoly. One of our sources was David Goodman, who led the strike:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

David hosted our LA launch, where he told us, “We thought the agencies had all the power. We learned that they only had as much power as we gave them. You can make a movie without an agent. You can’t make one without a writer.”

The new strike is about the same thing as the old strike: shifting money from labor to capital. The studios have figured out how to use streaming to avoid paying writers, using gimmicks like shorter seasons and running their own streaming services to dodge the wages the writers are owed. As the union says, the studios “created a gig economy inside a union workforce.”

I live in Burbank, where many of these studios are located. I’ll see you on the picket line.

Sticking with labor for a moment: the Biden administration is investigating the use of bossware — the spyware your boss uses to monitor your driving, keystrokes, web usage, location, hand-movements, facial expressions, even your eyeballs:

https://gizmodo.com/remote-work-surveillance-software-workers-rights-1850392911

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Request for Information solicits your experiences with bossware:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/050123_OSTP_RFI_PREPUBLISH_.pdf

They want to know:

Workers’ firsthand experiences with surveillance technologies;

Details from employers, technology developers, and vendors on how they develop, sell, and use these technologies;

Best practices for mitigating risks to workers;

Relevant data and research; and

Ideas for how the federal government should respond to any relevant risks and opportunities.

If you’re living under bossware’s yoke — say, if your boss has transformed “work from home” into “live at work,” then you know what to do: melt the switchboard!

One more labor story: a reminder that labor rights are a marathon, not a sprint. A group of Amazon drivers won a $30/hour contract through their union, the Teamsters. Even more importantly, the contract lets them refuse to work under unsafe conditions (it’s never just about money):

https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/4/27/23667968/amazon-contractor-delivery-union-teamsters

But there’s a catch: these are Amazon drivers, but they don’t work for Amazon. They drive Amazon-branded vans, specced down to the last rivet by Amazon. They wear Amazon vests. They deliver Amazon packages. But they work for “Delivery Service Partners,” a kind of pyramid scheme created by Amazon that tricks workers into thinking that paying Amazon for the privilege of working for a trillion-dollar company makes them “entrepreneurs.”

Instead, they’re “chickenized reverse centaurs.” “Chickenized” because — like poultry farmers — they are totally controlled by a monopoly buyer that dictates every part of their business to them, dribbling out just enough money to roll over their loans and go deeper into debt. “reverse-centaurs,” because they’re the inverse of the AI theorists’ idea of a “centaur,” that is, a computer-assisted human. Instead, they are human-assisted computers, with their every last move scripted to the finest degree by bossware that they have to pay for:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/19/the-shakedown/#weird-flex

Amazon now has the luxury of terminating its contract with the union’s employer — the cutout that allows Amazon to maintain the worker misclassification pretext that these drivers in Amazon vans wearing Amazon uniforms delivering Amazon packages don’t work for Amazon.

Amazon hates unions in ways that are hard for everyday people to grasp. One of the organizers of the union drive has been illegally terminated in retaliation for his labor activism:

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/amazon-delivery-owner-says-he-was-punished-for-supporting-union

This fuckery doesn’t mean that union organizing is dead. As Jane McAlevy writes in “A Collective Bargain,” her superb memoir of her union-organizing career, unions started winning the class war when labor organizing was illegal, fighting in the teeth of a rigged legal system. We won then, we’ll win again:

https://doctorow.medium.com/a-collective-bargain-a48925f944fe

Seeing defeat (seemingly) snatched from the jaws of victory is a major bummer, but a better world is possible. It’s not even complicated — it’s just hard. If you are in precarious housing, or homeless, or if you experience the moral injury of living in a city where your neighbors lack the foundational human right to a home, it’s easy to feel despondent.

But solving homelessness isn’t complicated, it’s just hard. In Finland, they solved homelessness through the simple expedient of giving everyone a home. This didn’t just address the problem of not having a home — it also made incredible progress on the comorbidities of homelessness, like mental health problems and addiction. Turns out, getting sober or getting treatment is a lot easier when you’re not freezing to death on a sidewalk. Whoathunk?

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/how-finland-solved-homelessness

There are many ways to improve our cities. You can (and should) fight for better local government, but there’s always the tantalizing option of taking matters into your own hands. That’s what the Crosswalk Vigilantes do. They research the intersections where cars are killing their neighbors, then they put on hi-viz vests, set out traffic-cones, and install crosswalks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x33yLuJ5slI

If you’re wondering how the forces of bossware, homelessness, and other enshittifying factors came to rule, it’s actually pretty straightforward. 40 years ago, we installed a software patch called neoliberalism (in some regions, this patch was had localized names like Thatcherism or Reaganomics).

40 years later, the patch is an unequivocal failure and now it’s our job to roll it back, despite all the broken dependencies this will trigger. Most of us can see this is true, but not The Economist, which Brad DeLong calls “Neoliberalism’s Final Stronghold” in his Project Syndicate article:

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/economist-writers-last-true-believers-in-neoliberalism-by-j-bradford-delong-2023-04

De Long’s catalog of the recent bizarre, delusional work in The Economist embodies Upton Sinclair’s maxim, “it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Every Naomi Kritzer story is a fucking delight and “Better Living Through Algorithms,” just published in Clarkesworld, is no exception:

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_05_23/

Few writers are better at inhabiting the uncomfortable space between recognizing the delights of the internet without flinching away from its horrors. This one is simultaneously hilarious and horrifying.

If you’re just discovering Kritzer, check out “So Much Cooking,” an eerily prophetic 2015 story in the form of a series of perky cooking-blog posts amidst a global pandemic. It got a much-deserved second life during lockdown’s peak sourdough moment:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/17/pack-of-knaves/#so-much-cooking

And then try her at book length! “Catfishing on Catnet” is Kritzer’s book-length adaptation of her Hugo-winning short story “Cat Pictures Please.” It’s an AI caper about cat memes, community, and the anti-enshittification underground:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/11/19/naomi-kritzers-catfishing-on-the-catnet-an-ai-caper-about-the-true-nature-of-online-friendship/

Speaking of science fiction: I’ve got a new novel out. Red Team Blues is an anti-finance finance thriller, a heist book about cryptocurrency and forensic accounting with a 67-year-old hero, Marty Hench:

http://redteamblues.com/

The book came out last week and I am still in the nailbiting interregnum where its fate is unknowable — will it be another bestseller, or fizzle? Thankfully, the reviews have been stunning. Mitch Wagner calls it “the most exciting technothriller about a 67-year-old accountant you’ll read this year”:

https://mitchw.blog/2023/04/25/warning-cory-doctorows.html

Mitch ruminates some on the distinctive way I’m handling Hench’s aging process in this book and its two (at least sequels). Reading other peoples’ insights into one’s own work is a wild experience. I mean, it’s nice when a reader notices something you worked hard to put in there, and frustrating when a reader imagines something that definitely isn’t there.

But the best thing is when a reader notices something that you didn’t consciously put in there, but which is undeniably there, and also very cool. In his Locus review, Paul DiFilippo homes in on the way that Marty Hench is totally reliant on his friends and comrades to get out of hot water:

https://locusmag.com/2023/04/paul-di-filippo-reviews-red-team-blues-by-cory-doctorow/

 Marty is besieged and almost helpless without the aid of friends, acquaintances, and even strangers. He is no go-it-alone superman, but rather an individual tied into a network of humanity, relying on the goodness and altruism of his fellows for survival.

This is so right. Marty is no great man of history — he is part of a polity, a collective of people from all walks of life who try hard to help each other. Call it solidaritypunk. Also, Paul opens his review with “I can’t possibly say enough good things about Cory Doctorow’s new novel.” I mean, who can complain about that?

I was also very gratified by Henry Farrell’s Crookedtimber review, which says some very nice things about the way I work in technical detail, and suggests that this technique is one that all kinds of technical experts, policy wonks and scientists could learn from:

https://crookedtimber.org/2023/04/27/red-team-blues-and-the-as-you-know-bob-problem/

Which makes Matt Green’s review, where the eminent cryptographer digs into the cryptographic technical details of the book, especially delicious. Green is a brilliant scientist and science communicator, and he says I get it right, and do it well:

https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2023/04/24/book-review-red-team-blues/

One of the first reviews to hit the web came from Matt Haughey, AKA “Metafilter Matt,” who called it “a ‘ripped from the headlines’ romp”:

https://a.wholelottanothing.org/2023/04/25/red-team-blues-is-a-fun-ripped-from-the-headlines-romp/

Matt’s fellow PDXer and olde timey blogger, Andy Baio, called it “a wild ride”:

https://waxy.org/2023/04/cory-doctorows-red-team-blues-is-out-now/

Andy is my host at tonight’s book signing in PDX, at the Powell’s in Cedar Hills:

https://www.powells.com/book/red-team-blues-martin-hench-1-9781250865847?partnerid=33241

As I type these words, I am sitting in a window-seat on Alaska Air, en route to Portland for that event. I am wearing slip-off shoes, a jacket with pockets of sufficient volume to store my watch, wallet and belt, and socks that I don’t mind exposing to a dirty airport floor. As I shuffled through the TSA checkpoint an hour ago, I found myself looking on the beleaguered “officers” who were patting people down with pity and even a little sympathy.

The TSA is an abomination. A boondoggle that doesn’t make aviation safer, lights billions on fire in lost productivity, wages and capital equipment. Its legion of underpaid, miserable workers invade the privacy and even sexually assault millions of Americans every day, and have been at it for decades without any sign of stopping or even slowing down.

The agency is now 20 years old, and it just keeps getting worse, finding new ways to make America hate it. Reading “The Humiliating History of the TSA,” Darryl Campbell’s giant reckoning in The Verge was a wild ride, and a reminder that while most of us only interact with the TSA’s awful, inexcusable policies a couple times a year, TSA workers live with it every day:

https://www.theverge.com/c/23311333/tsa-history-airport-security-theater-homeland

Before I close, please let us have a moment to acknowledge the passing of Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian music legend, who has just died at 84. He will be missed:

https://www.joeydevilla.com/2023/05/01/r-i-p-gordon-lightfoot/

All right, it’s time to hit publish on this linkdump, but before I go, a couple of absolutely lovely little webtoys and grace-notes for you to take away:

Womprat (the font you’re looking for) is the world’s greatest Star Wars font collection:

http://womprat.xyz/

And finally, Tumblr, now owned by WordPress parent company Automattic, is striving mightily to reverse decades of enshittification from Yahoo and Verizon. They’re leaving very heavily into listening to their users, paving the desire-paths and putting the community ahead of any other priority.

One place where that is paying unexpected dividends is their deeply weird little merch store, where you can buy up to 24 blue checkmarks to appear on your posts (they sell in pairs at $8). Even better: they’re now selling a 3D printed, light-up, Tumblr-themed Dumpster-Fire:

https://shop.tumblr.com/product/tumblr-dumpster-fire-3d-print/

The dumpster-fire was hoisted from a community member, who made their own, sent it to management, and struck a bargain to sell them through the store. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you make sarsaparilla when life gives you SARS.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Mountain View, Berkeley, Portland, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[Image ID: A page of comic book 'small ads.']

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

[Image ID: Tweet from kelsey mckinney (@/ mckinneyKelsey) on 20204-07-26 reading: if i am killed doing what i love (walking in my walkable city) by my enemy (cars) please politicize my death forever. make me a fuckin speedbump /End ID]

[ear-worthy]

Greatest Escapes Podcast Premieres: From Dillinger To El Chapo

For some inexplicable reason, people are obsessed with escapes. Even when those escapes are completed by the most odious of people, like drug cartel kingpin El Chapo.

Maybe, it's the pure balls of affecting an escape. Or that whole rooting for the underdog, even if that underdog is a psychopathic killer.

It could be that people are often "obsessed" with escapes because they use it themselves as a coping mechanism to relieve stress, anxiety, or discomfort. In effect, they also want to escape, and for them, it's from difficult life situations, not prison.  

That may be why iHeartPodcasts and FilmNation Entertainment have announced the launch of Greatest Escapes podcast with Arturo Castro, who is a comedian and actor (Broad City, Narcos, The Menu). The podcast recounts history’s most daring escape stories, from El Chapo to John Dillinger, with humor and wit.

Greatest Escapes is set to debut episodes weekly starting on January 28, 2025. Fans can listen to the trailer now.

 Blending comedy, history, and a touch of improv, Greatest Escapes with Arturo Castro combines the casual and fun nature of a chat show with the exhilarating thrill of true crime. Each episode explores a new escape alongside a guest, offering both a deep dive into history’s most jaw-dropping and laugh-out-loud moments. Joining Castro will be a lineup of Hollywood celebrities including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ed Helms, Zoë Chao, Billy Magnussen, Sunita Mani, Kelsey McKinney, and more.

Arturo Castro first broke out in the beloved role of ‘Jaime’ in the Comedy Central series BROAD CITY. From there, he went on to be the writer, executive producer, and star of his comedy sketch series ALTERNATINO. He can previously be seen in Mark Mylod’s THE MENU for Searchlight, produced by Adam McKay, where he stars opposite Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes, and Nicholas Hoult.

"Every episode of Greatest Escapes is like a late-night talk show but with danger, humor, and insane twists," insists Castro. “We’re telling some of the wildest escape stories in history, from daring jailbreaks to death-defying spy stunts, and my guests are some of the funniest, smartest people I’ve ever encountered. I’m beyond excited to partner with iHeartPodcasts, FilmNation, and Gilded Audio to bring these incredible stories to life.”

iHeartPodcasts and FilmNation are collaborators on the podcast SNAFU with Ed Helms, which won the 2024 Signal Awards for Best Writing and Best Host in the category Limited Series and Specials. FilmNation is also behind the popular true-crime podcast Murder on the Towpath with host Soledad O’Brien; Torched with host Molly Bloom; and Hyper-thetical hosted by Kerry Bishé.

 “From the moment we met Arturo, we knew he was the most perfectly hilarious and charming host and creative collaborator for this idea,” gushes Alyssa Martino, SVP of Podcasting at FilmNation and one of the show’s Executive Producers. “We wanted Greatest Escapes to feel like one of your favorite heist movies, with fun comedic elements a la Drunk History or My Favorite Murder. The final series is a wild ride that will take listeners all over the world and throughout time, all while enjoying Arturo and his guests’ laugh-out-loud antics.”

The podcast launches on January 28, 2025.

[ihavebeesinmybrain]

i am a month late to the normal gossip changeover because i’ve been bad at podcasts recently but omg???? im so gagged!!! im so sad because i truly love kelsey mckinney as a host. she is so spectacular. but it seems like they’ve done the transition very smoothly, and rachelle seems like she’s gonna be amazing. i am excited for this new era of normal gossip, but i nearly shed a tear about kelsey and alex’s departure

[angelcityfm]

mwf?

Hi!

I have a list HERE.

But some more ideas:

Ana De Armas, Poppy Drayton, Kelsey Chow, Crystal Reed, Selena Gomez, Anya Taylor-Joy, Leighton Meester, Jaz Sinclair, Alexandra Shipp, Kiana Madeira, Whitney Peak, Sofia Bryant, Taylor Russell, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Melissa Barrera, Havana Rose Liu, Madison Iseman, Kathryn Newton, Jane Fonda, Amberly Yang, Leah Halton, Florence Pugh, Isabela Merced, Minka Kelly, Go Minsi, Zion Moreno, Greta Onieogou, Demet Ozdemir, Pinar Deniz,Nathalie Kelley, Bensu Soral, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica Chastain, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kat Graham, Anna Sawai, Sobhita Dhulipala, Mikey Madison, Savannah Lee Smith, Cagla Demir, Carmela Zumbado, Laura Harrier, Christina Ricci, Courtney Eaton, D'Arcy Carden, Demetria McKinney, Dichen Lachman, Elodie Yung, Imogen Poots, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Vera Farmiga, Naomi Scott, Devery Jacobs, Renee Rapp, Kaia Gerber, Anna Lambe

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[Image ID: Tweet from verified user kelsey mckinney (@/ mckinneyKelsey) reading: I am yet again asking the olympics to simply let a regular non athlete person do the event first so I can understand how good these people are /End ID]

[clawdee]

Kelsey's TBR List:

With You Forever - Chloe Liese

Everything for You - Chloe Liese

If Only You - Chloe Liese

Only and Forever - Chloe Liese

One of Us Is Back - Karen McManus

Bookshops & Bonedust - Travis Baldree

Defy the Fates - Claudia Gray*

In the Serpent's Wake - Rachel Hartman*

When Sparks Fly - Helena Hunting*

Starry-Eyed Love - Helena Hunting*

A Crown So Cursed - L.L. McKinney*

There's Something About Sweetie - Sandhya Menon*

10 Things I Hate About Pinky - Sandhya Menon*

The End of Oz - Danielle Paige*

This is the year of catching up on series' I have started and enjoyed in the past.

If you want to play along and help me pick my next read to add to the list, pick a page number, 1-6, and then a book number 1-10

And I might jump around in the list, depending on what my libraries have available and when my holds are up.