#tom stephenson

[nevenkebla]

El espíritu humano

Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Comics Magazine (2001) #9 Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson, Tom DeFalco (Escritores), Ron Frenz, Frank Fosco, Bill Wray, Paul Ryan (Dibujantes)

— Reed Richards: Nos has subestimado gravemente, Annihilus! Nuestros cuerpos mortales te pueden parecer frágiles, comparados con el tuyo… ¡Pero el espíritu humano nunca podrá ser conquistado! — Ben Grimm: ¡Yujuuu! ¡Así se canta, Elvis! ¡Aquí vienen los coros!

[youtwitinmyface]

CHAPEL

Written by Brian Witten & Eric Stephenson Drawn by Tom Tenny & Calvin Irving Published by Image Comics

The character of Chapel is a standard Big Muscular Soldier With Lots of Guns that Rob Liefeld is known for, making his debut in the very first issue of Youngblood, the series that launched Image Comics. He was former U.S. soldier and CIA operative named Bruce Stinson who was recruited onto the first Youngblood team and given the codename Chapel (I don't think it was ever explained what the name is supposed to mean). His distinguishing characteristics are that he’s a Black man, and he wore face paint of a white skull on his face. In an early synergistic connection of the burgeoning Image Comics Universe, it was eventually revealed that Chapel was the man who murdered Al Simmons, who then came back as Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. When Spawn finally remembered that, he tracked down Chapel looking for revenge, but instead of killing him he burned the paint on Chapel’s face, now giving him a permanent skull-face (the implication is that this would make Chapel, who was a notorious womanizer in her personal life, look like a freak and that would scare women away from him, which is something that would be worse than death for a man like him).

I'll note that when the character appeared in the 1997 Spawn animated series he was named Jess Chapel. Chapel was also revealed to have HIV (which was purposely injected in him by his old boss, Jason Wynn, another character from Todd McFarlane's Spawn series), which got him removed from Youngblood and sent to the covert ops Bloodstrike team.

This two-part series, published in February 1995, takes place during that time, as Chapel is alone and feeling like his life is spiraling out of control, and he flashes back to a mission he had when he was still a U.S. Government soldier.

It’s 1983, Chapel leads a handpicked squad of soldiers to Nicaragua, where they’ve been sent to assassin a man identified only as Col. Black, said to have been a former U.S. ally who’s gone rogue and set himself up as some kind of warlord. We’re introduced to his team of six soldiers but even though Chapel notes the specific skills of each one (one is a martial arts expert, one speaks multiple languages, etc.), it’s pretty clear that these guys are basically red shirts, just there to further Chapel’s story. The only notable thing about any of them is that one is named Billy Zane and one is named Jet Li. The team lands in the jungle where they immediately encounter some of Black’s soldiers and a massive gunfight ensues, which Chapel and his team win. But Chapel has noted that there were rumors of Col. Black engaging in voodoo and necromancy, and he sees evidence of that when one of the dead soldiers speaks to him after Chapel killed him. The team continues exploring the jungle, cutting through a lake where Chapel is suddenly dragged underwater by a giant anaconda.

In issue number two, which came out a month later, Chapel of course survives the anaconda attack, and the team makes it to a local village where they see that all of the villagers had been slaughtered and had their hearts ripped out. Even Chapel is outraged at the loss of all those innocent civilians and is determined to make Col. Black pay for them. They then get attacked and surrounded by another batch of soldiers, but these are zombies, making them extra difficult to “kill.” Most of Chapel’s team gets killed (like I said: redshirts) and this leads to Chapel’s one-on-one showdown with Col. Black, who does turn out to possess demonic powers.

This series is heavy on action, and lots of brutal gun violence, ably illustrated by Tom Tenny and Calvin Irving in the first issue and just by Irving in the second issue. It’s like a Rambo movie on paper. The story itself shows that Chapel is not the unfeeling brute that he often appeared to be, through the anger he felt at the deaths of the villagers and his team members, plus at one point he admits to himself that he’s scared. He also shows intelligence in figuring out how to defeat Col. Black. Thus it's an entertaining little series for what it is.

Unfortunately, the series is long out-of-print and not available for sale digitally, but I'd recommend tracking down copies if you're a fan of Rob Liefeld's Extreme Universe characters. Chapel (02/1995 1st Series) comic books 1990-1999

[letterboxd-loggd]

Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939) William Beaudine

July 29th 2023

[wausaupilot]

Your letters: Writer urges support for Tiffany in congressional race

"Our freedom and national security are on the ballot this November, and Congressman Tiffany will stop at nothing to defend those precious things." - Roger Stephenson of Wausau

Dear editor, Congressman Tom Tiffany has spent the last four years in office fighting for the values and beliefs of the residents of northern Wisconsin, and it is time to send him back to Washington, D.C., for another two years to continue his work. The constituents of this district are the congressman’s first priority, and I urge those who have not had the opportunity to meet him to take some…

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Beck - Loser 1993

"Loser" is a single by American musician Beck. It was written by Beck and record producer Carl Stephenson, who both produced the song with Tom Rothrock. "Loser" was initially released as Beck's second single by independent record label Bong Load Custom Records on 12-inch vinyl format with catalog number BL5 on March 8, 1993.

When it was first released independently, "Loser" began receiving airplay on various modern rock stations, and the song's popularity eventually led to a major-label record deal with Geffen Records-subsidiary DGC Records. After the song's re-release under DGC, the song peaked at number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in April 1994, becoming Beck's first single to hit a major chart. Internationally, the song reached number one in Norway and entered the top 10 in Australia, Austria, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden. The song was subsequently released on the 1994 album Mellow Gold.

"Loser" received a total of 73,3% yes votes!

[violaobanion]

PERIOD MEN IN DISTRESS*:･ﾟ✧ Aneurin Barnard Edition

The White Queen (2013), dir. James Kent, Colin Teague, Jamie Payne Peaky Blinders (2013-2022), created by Steven Knight Dunkirk (2017), dir. Christopher Nolan Interlude in Prague (2017), dir. John Stephenson War & Peace (2016), dir. Tom Harper 1899 (2022), created by Baran bo Odar, Jantje Friese

[tdoth]

W A K E U P O M E N

This place used to be Houston, now it’s something else, something dying. Titans, lords of industry and everything else left are the ones keeping it in a half-life. There’s a rot that runs so deep there’s no saving it anymore, not as it is. There’s salvation and devastation down this path, but you already knew that, Omen. Free the Hue, free yourselves, and free the future - the Titans must fall.

Titanomachy: DREAMS OF THE HUE / Demo Edition is now live, a fully playable version of the full release entering Kickstarter in late Spring of 2025. It contains the full rules, 19 classes, an example Titan and plenty 00's sensibility but-make-it-nightmare art from the incredible Jonatan Anjos and Minerva McJanda.

Built on The Wildsea's mechanical engine, TDotH is a fast and furious queer blitz of a tabletop roleplaying game, shrouded with furious revolutionary anger but cored through with hope for a better future.

Fans of Cyberpunk 2077, Spire, NorCo, Jeff VanderMeer, Neil Stephenson, Metropolis, and the work of Tom Bloom (Kill Six Billion Demons) and Wildbow (Worm, Twig, Pact) will find parallels in the broken world we've built for you to tell incredible stories in.

We hope you join us Omen, there's work to be done.

DOWNLOAD HERE

[tornadoyoungiron]

The Rocket - Stephenson's Rocket Replica at Locomotion

Tom Scott also did a video on it explaining how it works and how it has no brakes.

Imagine Stephen just puffing around with no brakes and only a reverser to stop himself.

✨️Chaos✨️

He'd love it.

[mutant-distraction]

Rufous-Necked Hornbill.

📸: Tom Stephenson.

[wankerwatch]

Commons Vote

On: Passenger Railway Services Bill (Public Ownership) Bill: Committee: Amendment 14

Ayes: 111 (95.5% Con, 4.5% DUP) Noes: 362 (97.0% Lab, 2.5% Ind, 0.6% SDLP) Absent: ~177

Day's business papers: 2024-9-3

Likely Referenced Bill: Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill

Description: A Bill to make provision for passenger railway services to be provided by public sector companies instead of by means of franchises.

Originating house: Commons Current house: Commons Bill Stage: 3rd reading

Individual Votes:

Ayes

Conservative (106 votes)

Alan Mak Alberto Costa Alex Burghart Alicia Kearns Alison Griffiths Andrew Bowie Andrew Murrison Andrew Rosindell Andrew Snowden Aphra Brandreth Ashley Fox Ben Obese-Jecty Ben Spencer Bernard Jenkin Blake Stephenson Bob Blackman Bradley Thomas Caroline Dinenage Caroline Johnson Charlie Dewhirst Chris Philp Claire Coutinho Damian Hinds Danny Kruger David Davis David Mundell David Reed David Simmonds Desmond Swayne Edward Argar Edward Leigh Gagan Mohindra Gareth Bacon Gareth Davies Gavin Williamson Geoffrey Cox George Freeman Greg Smith Gregory Stafford Harriet Cross Harriett Baldwin Helen Whately Iain Duncan Smith Jack Rankin James Cartlidge James Cleverly James Wild Jeremy Hunt Jeremy Wright Jerome Mayhew Jesse Norman Joe Robertson John Cooper John Glen John Hayes John Lamont John Whittingdale Joy Morrissey Julia Lopez Julian Lewis Karen Bradley Katie Lam Kemi Badenoch Kevin Hollinrake Kieran Mullan Kit Malthouse Laura Trott Lewis Cocking Lincoln Jopp Louie French Mark Francois Mark Garnier Mark Pritchard Martin Vickers Matt Vickers Mel Stride Mike Wood Mims Davies Neil Hudson Neil O'Brien Neil Shastri-Hurst Nick Timothy Nigel Huddleston Oliver Dowden Patrick Spencer Peter Bedford Peter Fortune Priti Patel Rebecca Harris Rebecca Paul Rebecca Smith Richard Fuller Richard Holden Robbie Moore Robert Jenrick Saqib Bhatti Sarah Bool Shivani Raja Simon Hoare Steve Barclay Stuart Anderson Stuart Andrew Suella Braverman Tom Tugendhat Victoria Atkins Wendy Morton

Democratic Unionist Party (5 votes)

Carla Lockhart Gavin Robinson Gregory Campbell Jim Shannon Sammy Wilson

Noes

Labour (351 votes)

Abena Oppong-Asare Abtisam Mohamed Adam Jogee Adam Thompson Afzal Khan Al Carns Alan Campbell Alan Gemmell Alan Strickland Alex Baker Alex Ballinger Alex Barros-Curtis Alex Davies-Jones Alex Mayer Alex McIntyre Alex Norris Alex Sobel Alice Macdonald Alison Hume Alison McGovern Alistair Strathern Allison Gardner Amanda Hack Amanda Martin Andrew Cooper Andrew Gwynne Andrew Lewin Andrew Pakes Andrew Ranger Andrew Western Andy MacNae Andy McDonald Andy Slaughter Angela Eagle Anna Dixon Anna Gelderd Anna McMorrin Anna Turley Anneliese Dodds Anneliese Midgley Antonia Bance Ashley Dalton Baggy Shanker Bambos Charalambous Barry Gardiner Bayo Alaba Beccy Cooper Becky Gittins Ben Coleman Ben Goldsborough Bill Esterson Blair McDougall Brian Leishman Callum Anderson Calvin Bailey Carolyn Harris Cat Smith Catherine Atkinson Catherine Fookes Catherine McKinnell Catherine West Charlotte Nichols Chi Onwurah Chris Bloore Chris Curtis Chris Elmore Chris Evans Chris Hinchliff Chris Kane Chris McDonald Chris Murray Chris Vince Chris Ward Chris Webb Christian Wakeford Claire Hazelgrove Claire Hughes Clive Betts Clive Efford Clive Lewis Connor Naismith Connor Rand Damien Egan Dan Aldridge Dan Carden Dan Jarvis Dan Norris Dan Tomlinson Daniel Francis Danny Beales Darren Paffey Dave Robertson David Burton-Sampson David Pinto-Duschinsky David Smith David Taylor Dawn Butler Debbie Abrahams Deirdre Costigan Derek Twigg Diana Johnson Douglas Alexander Douglas McAllister Elaine Stewart Ellie Reeves Elsie Blundell Emily Darlington Emily Thornberry Emma Foody Emma Lewell-Buck Euan Stainbank Fabian Hamilton Fleur Anderson Florence Eshalomi Frank McNally Gareth Snell Gareth Thomas Gen Kitchen Gerald Jones Gill Furniss Gill German Gordon McKee Graeme Downie Graham Stringer Grahame Morris Gregor Poynton Gurinder Singh Josan Harpreet Uppal Heidi Alexander Helen Hayes Helena Dollimore Henry Tufnell Ian Lavery Ian Murray Imogen Walker Irene Campbell Jack Abbott Jacob Collier Jade Botterill Jake Richards James Asser James Frith James Naish Janet Daby Jayne Kirkham Jeevun Sandher Jeff Smith Jen Craft Jenny Riddell-Carpenter Jess Asato Jess Phillips Jessica Morden Jessica Toale Jim Dickson Jim McMahon Jo Platt Jo Stevens Jo White Joani Reid Jodie Gosling Joe Morris Joe Powell Johanna Baxter John Grady John Healey John Slinger John Whitby Jon Pearce Jon Trickett Jonathan Brash Jonathan Davies Jonathan Hinder Josh Dean Josh Fenton-Glynn Josh MacAlister Josh Newbury Julia Buckley Julie Minns Juliet Campbell Justin Madders Karin Smyth Karl Turner Kate Osamor Kate Osborne Katie White Katrina Murray Keir Mather Kerry McCarthy Kevin Bonavia Kim Johnson Kim Leadbeater Kirith Entwistle Kirsteen Sullivan Kirsty McNeill Laura Kyrke-Smith Lauren Edwards Lauren Sullivan Laurence Turner Lee Barron Lee Pitcher Leigh Ingham Lewis Atkinson Liam Byrne Liam Conlon Lilian Greenwood Lillian Jones Linsey Farnsworth Liz Kendall Liz Twist Lizzi Collinge Lloyd Hatton Lola McEvoy Louise Haigh Louise Jones Lucy Powell Lucy Rigby Luke Akehurst Luke Charters Luke Murphy Luke Myer Margaret Mullane Marie Tidball Mark Ferguson Mark Hendrick Mark Sewards Mark Tami Markus Campbell-Savours Marsha De Cordova Martin Rhodes Mary Glindon Mary Kelly Foy Matt Bishop Matt Rodda Matt Turmaine Matt Western Matthew Patrick Matthew Pennycook Maureen Burke Meg Hillier Melanie Onn Melanie Ward Miatta Fahnbulleh Michael Payne Michael Shanks Michael Wheeler Michelle Scrogham Michelle Welsh Mike Amesbury Mike Kane Mike Reader Mike Tapp Mohammad Yasin Nadia Whittome Natalie Fleet Natasha Irons Naushabah Khan Navendu Mishra Neil Coyle Neil Duncan-Jordan Nesil Caliskan Nia Griffith Nicholas Dakin Nick Smith Nick Thomas-Symonds Noah Law Oliver Ryan Olivia Bailey Olivia Blake Pam Cox Pamela Nash Pat McFadden Patricia Ferguson Patrick Hurley Paul Davies Paul Foster Paul Waugh Paula Barker Paulette Hamilton Perran Moon Peter Dowd Peter Kyle Peter Lamb Peter Swallow Phil Brickell Polly Billington Preet Kaur Gill Rachael Maskell Rachel Blake Rachel Hopkins Rachel Taylor Richard Baker Richard Quigley Rosie Duffield

Rupa Huq Ruth Cadbury Ruth Jones Sadik Al-Hassan Sally Jameson Sam Carling Sam Rushworth Samantha Dixon Samantha Niblett Sarah Champion Sarah Coombes Sarah Edwards Sarah Hall Sarah Jones Sarah Owen Sarah Sackman Satvir Kaur Scott Arthur Sean Woodcock Seema Malhotra Sharon Hodgson Shaun Davies Simon Lightwood Simon Opher Siobhain McDonagh Sojan Joseph Sonia Kumar Stella Creasy Stephanie Peacock Stephen Kinnock Stephen Timms Steve Race Steve Witherden Steve Yemm Sureena Brackenridge Tahir Ali Taiwo Owatemi Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Tim Roca Toby Perkins Tom Collins Tom Hayes Tom Rutland Tonia Antoniazzi Tony Vaughan Torcuil Crichton Torsten Bell Tracy Gilbert Tristan Osborne Uma Kumaran Valerie Vaz Vicky Foxcroft Warinder Juss Wes Streeting Will Stone Yasmin Qureshi Yuan Yang Zubir Ahmed

Independent (9 votes)

Apsana Begum Ayoub Khan Imran Hussain Jeremy Corbyn John McDonnell Rebecca Long Bailey Richard Burgon Shockat Adam Zarah Sultana

Social Democratic & Labour Party (2 votes)

Claire Hanna Colum Eastwood

[youtwitinmyface]

Youngblood Strikefile #6

PREVIOUSLY: YOUNGBLOOD STRIKEFILE #5 The Day After, Part 2 Written by Eric Stephenson Drawn by Sam Liu Down in the sewer, Thomas encountered another humanoid monster, who calls himself HUSK. This monster has killed several guards from the same lab that Thomas escaped from. Husks reveals his background, he’s a reject from a government project that was supposed to save him from dying, but instead…

[ijustwantedtobeoneofthestrokesuk]

Doing It Ourselves

Online

The internet played a key role in making the UK indie scene sustainable, but this was pre-social media, if the NME wasn’t talking about it, you wouldn’t know about anything that was going on beyond your doorstep unless you went on the band forums which built communities of like-minded people. These weren’t exclusively for the London bands, but it was that scene that really benefited from them.

They were a space where bands could share their music to an audience who liked bands similar to theirs, for free. The Others, The Paddingtons and The Cribs used their own forums and each other bands’ forums to not only advertise gigs but book gigs too. Arctic Monkeys recognised this as part of their early success (despite not doing it themselves) but it only worked for them because of the quality of the music. Success requires both luck and skill, without the skill it just becomes a trend that won’t last, Arctic Monkeys outlasted everybody because they were better than everybody.

Ask anybody who was part of the 2000’s indie scene about .org (The Libertines fan forum), they were probably on it. It was legendary and it built a community amongst fans but it was more than just a fan club. 

The band themselves used the forum to engage with fans, often jumping in on conversations, uploading demos (people would burn them on CDs and sell on eBay) and announce last-minute gigs. The forum was also used by other bands in the scene to connect with like-minded people and build a fan base. If something exciting was happening in London, details would be on .org. 

Zac Stephenson (Special Needs) “We used to post our news on .org and some other fan forums. It was great because there was a pretty large gig-going community on there and it was easy to reach them quickly and at no cost to the bands. And there was a lot of exchange of fans, particularly as bands shared line-ups.” 

Tom Greatorex (Black Wire) “There is no way anyone can ever talk down the importance of online message boards from 2002 - 2006. Every website that had anything to do with music had one: club nights had one, bands had one, cities and towns had one and they were integral in constructing this amazing network of people. 

There's nothing new about any of it, fanzines and letters pages in music mags had been doing it for decades but this was instant. Two extremely important factors that fed into this came a couple of years beforehand: Napster and the roll-out and prevalence of what was then called Pay-As-You-Go mobile phones.  

All of a sudden young people had access to music and sounds which would have most likely passed them by previously, maybe through lack of funds or maybe due to a geographical remoteness, via Napster. You could take a punt on an artist without losing your pocket money. 

Pay-As-You-Go made it affordable to be in direct contact with your friends which made meeting up for gigs much easier. It also meant that if you organised events/gigs you could make last-minute bookings and alterations at the drop of a hat. 

What these two cultural changes cultivated was a sense of immediacy and so when the internet really became a household tool around 2001 (mainly thanks to AOL carpet-bombing the UK with free installation disks through the post allowing easy dial-up access to people who may previously have still thought the Information Superhighway was just for nerds. Once people found out how much porn they could access any other war was lost) these kids were already primed with the knowledge of how to use it and where it should go. 

In fact they were so on it that almost a quarter of a century later the music industry still doesn't know what its own role is. 

Black Wire booked our first tour using message boards. We didn't know any promoters outside of Leeds so we hit people up on forums. The brilliant thing was that all the promoters used the same message boards so they could all coordinate with each other directly, in real-time, what would be the best dates for the gigs to happen.  

'Playing a gig in Bath on the Friday? Ok, the promoter for the Cardiff gig is going to pick you up afterwards and drive you to their friend's flat where you can stay for the night so you're in town for your show on the Saturday' (This is just one example of something that actually happened because of forums). 

For that first tour we pooled together our dole money for train tickets to the first gig and then used the fees from each subsequent gig to pay for train tickets to the next. 

It's called DIY that is. Punk Rock. Make a note of it. LOLzzz.” 

Paul Melbourne “I don't actually know I discovered .org, I was just always on it from as soon as I'd first heard about The Libertines, and that was as much a part of it all as the actual band. It was where you would go to chat music, gigs and new bands with like-minded kids across the country. It just harboured that real sense of community amongst like minded folk. There was no bullshit or pretension, just people who liked the same music travelling the country meeting up for gigs and getting wasted! 

Pete was the only Libertine I remember contributing, I think Carl posted from time to time but after things got messy with Libs Pete would regularly be on there posting about all the tiny gigs we has doing, tenners on the door! 

That community spawned many lifelong friendships! At the time that was where I discovered The Others who were notorious on the scene at the time and they really carried on the whole community and made their own. All of the Poptones bands were part of .org and bands like Special Needs, 10,000 Things (one of the most underrated bands of that time), Ludes, Dustin's Bar Mitzvah and Les Incompetents. 

I have made so many lifelong friends through .org, and indirectly met my wife through there, we met through mutual friend Alan Jewels, who we both met through going to gigs with .org'ers. I went to uni in Notingham and we would regularly find out about gigs on .org and travel down to London and to other cities, Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and meet up with .org'ers there. Also many gigs at Stoke Underground! An unlikely place to go but for Pete making it a bit of a second home for a time! I met one of my best mates Delaney (delaney girl) on there and all of her mates who are some of my best mates to this day!” 

Tom Atkin “.org was massive for The Paddingtons.” 

Each band had its own forum and online community too, The Others, The Cribs, Bloc Party and The Rakes were all pretty active, it was tribal and it brought fans from across the world, which was never so easy in pre-internet days but is normalised in the social media era.  

Bill Ryder-Jones “I was aware of The Coral forum and engaged with that a bit but ultimately we belonged to a time where fans had to go looking for info on their bands.” 

Whatever you had an interest in, however niche, it was now easily accessible to find others to connect with. Music blogs had started to build up a following, each had its own core group who went there for the latest news, reviews and opinions. We take this for granted these days.

NEXT CHAPTER

[mappingthemoon]

Books Read 2023

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations / Mira Jacob

A Grief Observed / C. S. Lewis

Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader / ed. Brian Carpenter & Tom Franklin

Two or Three Things I Know for Sure / Dorothy Allison

Weather: Air Masses, Clouds, Rainfall, Storms, Weather Maps, Climate (A Golden Nature Guide) / Paul E. Lehr, R. Will Burnett, Herbert S. Zim ; Harry McNaught (ill.)

Improbable Memories / Sarah Moon

Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery / Adam Clair

The Difference Between / Billy McCall

The Submissive (The Submissive #1) / Tara Sue Me

Last Night at the Casino [v. 1] / Billy McCall

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing / Marie Kondo ; Cathy Hirano (tr.)

Pnin / Vladimir Nabokov

My Heart Is a Chainsaw / Stephen Graham Jones

"Waltz of the Body Snatchers" / Alfred Bester, in Andromeda I: An original SF anthology / ed. Peter Weston

Blue Highways: A Journey Into America / William Least Heat-Moon

The Stars My Destination (The Gregg Press Science Fiction Series) / Alfred Bester

Laughter in the Dark / Vladimir Nabokov

Man and His Symbols / Carl G. Jung

Mysteries of the Unexplained / ed. Carroll C. Calkins

The Westing Game / Ellen Raskin

The Seven Ages / Louise Glück

The Wild Iris / Louise Glück

Vita Nova / Louise Glück

Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds: A 50-Year Treasury of Art and Design / Stephen Nicholas & Mike Tucker

Where's Waldo? (Where's Waldo #1) / Martin Handford

Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey (Where's Waldo #3) / Martin Handford

Doctor Who 50 Years #3: The Doctors / ed. Marcus Hearn

Rabbit, Run / John Updike

Mother Night / Kurt Vonnegut

Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) / Bibliographic Standards Committee, Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, in collaboration with The Policy Standards Office of the Library of Congress

"Descriptive Bibliography" / Terry Belanger, in Book Collecting: A Modern Guide / ed. Jean Peters

The Essential Doctor Who #2: The TARDIS / ed. Marcus Hearn

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited / Vladimir Nabokov

Chicago: City on the Make / Nelson Algren

Gustav Klimt, 1862-1918 / Gilles Néret

American Gods: A Novel / Neil Gaiman

Marcel Duchamp, 1887-1968: Art as Anti-Art / Janis Mink

The Empathy Exams: Essays / Leslie Jamison

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families / James Agee & Walker Evans

Hallucination Orbit: Psychology in Science Fiction / ed. Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg

Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project / W. Eugene Smith ; ed. Sam Stephenson

Twilight / Gregory Crewdson ; Rick Moody

Magic Eye: A New Way of Looking at the World / N.E. Thing Enterprises

Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams / Steve Horton & Michael Allred ; Laura Allred (ill.)

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path / Jack Kornfield

The Gin Closet: A Novel / Leslie Jamison

The New Kid on the Block / Jack Prelutsky ; James Stevenson (ill.)

A Book of Common Prayer / Joan Didion

Mariette in Ecstasy / Ron Hansen

Camp Damascus / Chuck Tingle

The Mass Production of Memory: Travel and Personal Archiving in the Age of the Kodak (Public History in Historical Perspective) / Tammy S. Gordon

Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas / Rebecca Solnit & Rebecca Snedeker

Other Voices, Other Rooms / Truman Capote

Fabulous New Orleans / Lyle Saxon ; E.H. Suydam (ill.)

Weird Pennsylvania: Your Travel Guide to Pennsylvania's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets / Matt Lake

Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence (Griffin & Sabine #1) / Nick Bantock

Sabine's Notebook: In Which The Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Continues (Griffin & Sabine #2) / Nick Bantock

The Golden Mean: In Which The Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes (Griffin & Sabine #3) / Nick Bantock

Breath, Eyes, Memory / Edwidge Danticat

Last Night at the Casino, v. 2 / Billy McCall

What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions / Randall Munroe

Collection-Level Cataloging: Bound-with Books (Third Millennium Cataloging) / Jain Fletcher

Speaking Pittsburghese: The Story of a Dialect (Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics) / Barbara Johnstone

My Misspent Youth: Essays / Meghan Daum

Slender Intuition: Essays on Artist's Block / Brian Hitselberger

The Mister / E L James

Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place / Scott McClanahan

The Transcriptionist: A Novel / Amy Rowland

Explanations/Opinions below the cut:

Ok so I have several reading lists/stacks that I rotate through: my to-read spreadsheet (which has almost 300 titles listed in chronological order by date added, with the oldest being from 8/22/2014), my to-read bookcase/nightstand (which holds ~50 books I’ve acquired over the past few years but haven’t yet read), a stack of oversized unreads that don’t fit on the nightstand shelves (this gets its own list bc I need to read them and find a permanent home for them before the stack gets too tall), and “interruptions” (books that override the list order bc I didn’t want to wait to read them, for whatever reason).

Maybe it’s weird that I’m so attached to reading things “in order”? Idk. I’ve always been like this. It’s only a mild compulsion – obviously, I am perfectly capable of ignoring what’s supposed to be next on the list, in favor of reading something that catches my interest more strongly in the moment, but in general, I like to read things either in the order I added them to the list, or the order I personally acquired a physical copy (if I went by the list only, I’d be drowning in unread books [yay, college town thrift stores], so I gotta stay on top of that pile pretty regularly). So that is why I am often reading things that I first became aware of/added to my list nearly 10 years ago. Sometimes this practice results in feelings like, “Dang, I wish I would’ve actually read this 10 years ago,” but also sometimes, “WOW, I’m so glad I’m reading this RIGHT NOW, as opposed to 10 years ago when I first heard about it!”

I think my favorites this year were Mariette in Ecstasy; Other Voices, Other Rooms; Crapalachia; and Speak, Memory.

Mild disappointments were the essay collections by Leslie Jamison and Meghan Daum, two authors I’m pretty sure I discovered via popular and relateable quotes reblogged on tumblr ca. 2014, but the collections taken as a whole just had too many moments of cringe – casual classism, arrogant self-absorption, and other annoying and unrelateable qualities typical of privileged 20-something writers (this tone definitely appealed to me when I was a naïve and melodramatic snotty 20-something, so there’s that).

As a kind of memorial, Rachael and I read David’s three favorite books: The Stars My Destination, Mother Night, and American Gods. In all the time I knew him, including all the times we used to sit on the porch together, reading quietly while he drank whiskey, I never thought to ask him his favorites. I kept looking for pieces of him in the stories, wondering what lines stood out, what made a book memorable, what did it say about him that these were his favorites.

Being an elder Millennial, I’m in the stage of nostalgically re-acquiring important artifacts from my childhood, so that’s why there are some children’s books on my list. Where’s Waldo? was one of the most coveted books in my grade-school library! There was always a list of people waiting to check it out, but usually, whoever actually had the book that week would let the other kids gather around and look together.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw was a recommendation from my goth teenaged birthdaughter <3 which I probably read too much personal symbolism into but maybe not!

I thought John Updike was overrated, lol.

Favorite photography book: W. Eugene Smith’s Dream Street. His pictures made me so homesick, and it was wild because he took them from 1955-1957 but they still really, REALLY, to me, looked like the Pittsburgh of my ‘80s/’90s memories (bc Pittsburgh doesn’t change, and also the “idea” or “brand” of Pittsburgh in the ‘80s/’90s was ofc consciously referencing its industrial working-class past). He took over 10,000 photos but was never able to “finish” the project to his intense, obsessive standards of perfection (I KNOW THAT FEEL) and felt it failed to capture the multifaceted essence of the city. WELL, not in my opinion at least!

PS I'm moonmoth on LibraryThing.

[quoththemaven]

2023 Favoritest Book Reads

Vineland - Pynchon, Thomas

Prophet - Blaché, Sin & Helen Macdonald

And the Ass Saw the Angel - Cave, Nick

Lou Reed: The King of New York - Hermes, Will 

The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind, #1) - Pratchett, Terry

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative - Kleon, Austin 

Sonic Life: A Memoir - Moore, Thurston

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) - Jemisin, N.K. 

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law - Roach, Mary

Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too - Sun, Jonny

The Night Masquerade (Binti, #3) - Okorafor, Nnedi 

Home (Binti, #2) - Okorafor, Nnedi 

Binti: Sacred Fire (Binti, #1.5) - Okorafor, Nnedi 

Binti (Binti, #1) - Okorafor, Nnedi 

Black Paradox - Ito, Junji

David Bowie's Low (33 1/3) - Wilcken, Hugo

Faith, Hope and Carnage - Cave, Nick

The Sirens of Titan - Vonnegut Jr., Kurt

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth - Aslan, Reza

Smashed - Ito, Junji

Time Shelter - Gospodinov, Georgi

Brian Eno's Another Green World (33 1/3) - Dayal, Geeta

Armageddon in Retrospect - Vonnegut Jr., Kurt

Neverwhere (London Below, #1) - Gaiman, Neil 

The Committed (The Sympathizer #2) - Nguyen, Viet Thanh 

Into the Great Wide Open - Canty, Kevin 

Mongrels - Jones, Stephen Graham 

DisneyWar - Stewart, James B.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex - Roach, Mary

The Left Hand of Darkness - Le Guin, Ursula K.

My Bloody Valentine's Loveless (33 1/3) - McGonigal, Mike 

Suttree - McCarthy, Cormac

Life's Work: A Memoir - Milch, David

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - Schwab, V.E.

Against the Day - Pynchon, Thomas

Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood - Ryan, Maureen 

Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA (33 1/3) - Himes, Geoffrey

La Moustache - Carrère, Emmanuel

Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid (33 1/3) - Favreau, Alyssa 

Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea - Pinsker, Sarah 

The Man Without a Shadow - Oates, Joyce Carol

The City & the City - Miéville, China 

Mem - Morrow, Bethany C. 

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Harari, Yuval Noah

Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs (33 1/3) - Eidelstein, Eric

Gutshot - Gray, Amelia 

The Price of Time (Watch What You Wish For #1) - Tigner, Tim 

The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever - Sepinwall, Alan 

Just Kids - Smith, Patti 

Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir - Hindman, Jessica Chiccehitto 

Flicker - Roszak, Theodore

Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers - Miller, James Andrew 

Flashback - Simmons, Dan

Flaming Lips' Zaireeka (33 1/3) - Richardson, Mark 

The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer #1) - Nguyen, Viet Thanh 

Pavement's Wowee Zowee (33 1/3) - Charles, Bryan

Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1) - Gibson, William

Invisible Cities - Calvino, Italo

Don't Fear the Reaper (The Indian Lake Trilogy, #2) - Jones, Stephen Graham 

The Wes Anderson Collection - Seitz, Matt Zoller

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - Dick, Philip K.

Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly (33 1/3) - Maner, Sequoia

The Nineties - Klosterman, Chuck

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Zevin, Gabrielle 

Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age - Mitenbuler, Reid

A Heart That Works - Delaney, Rob 

Imago (Xenogenesis, #3) - Butler, Octavia E.

Cryptonomicon (Crypto, #1) - Stephenson, Neal 

Blacktop Wasteland - Cosby, S.A. 

Pearl Jam's Vs. (33 1/3) - Brownlee, Clint

Tracy Flick Can't Win - Perrotta, Tom

Devil House - Darnielle, John 

Adulthood Rites (Xenogenesis, #2) - Butler, Octavia E.

Heat 2 - Mann, Michael & Meg Gardiner

Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures (33 1/3) - Ott, Chris

Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1) - Butler, Octavia E.

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Stephenson, Neal 

The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3) - Lynch, Scott 

The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam, #2) - Atwood, Margaret 

[keenenthusiastinfluencer]

Official vice presidential Les mis cast rankings (based solely on performers I’ve seen)

Jean Valjean: 1.Milan van Waardenburg 2.Jon Robyns 3.Luke McCall 4.Josh Piterman

Javert: 1.Stewart Clarke 2.Bradley Jaden 3.Richard Carson

Fantine: 1.Katie Hall 2.Kathy Peacock 3.Charnice Alexander Burnett 4.Lucie Jones

Eponine: 1. Amena El-Kindy 2.Sha Dessi 3.Jessie Hart 4.Jo Stephenson

Marius: 1.Harry Apps 2.Will Callan 3.Robert Tripolino

Cosette: 1.Lulu Mae Pears 2.Charlie Burn

Ternardier: 1.Luke Kempner 2.Gerard Carey 3.Mark Pearce

Madame Ternardier: 1.Clare Manchin 2. Josefina Garbrielle

Enjorlas: 1. Dajevan van de Fliet 2.Harry Chandler 3.Jordan Shaw

FAVORITE ensemble members: Bart Lambert, Tom Hext, Adam Pearce, Donald Craig Manuel, Matt Dempsey and Anouk Van Laake