#you WISH you were monica byrne

[deathlonging]

the actual star thesis statement of the past is another kind of future i love you forever

[panelshowsource]

rather than who you would like to see on the next taskmaster series, who do you think will be on it? like just your predictions or any inklings you may have!

anon if you're still around then you'll know i really took my time with this hahaha so sorry! i hope anyone reading this takes it as just a bit of fun and nbd, who knows who we'll get or who alex & the network have in mind! i'm answering thoughtfully (bc i always feel guilty not to 😩 so sorry this is long lol) but it's really just fun!!

i will say, of the more recent-ish series, i did get a few right!!! krishnan guru-murthy, nicola coughlan, alan davies, judi love, sue perkins, john robins, and joanne mcnally were people i just knew would eventually be on if the show could get their schedules right, and i was also certain sarah millican and dara ó briain would be asked — though not necessarily that they'd actually agree. when you have a level of seniority and esteem, the "it's such a great opportunity" aspect of the show isn't such a draw 😅 for some reason i feel SO PROUD about guessing nicola! i was just WAITING and wish sooooo much she had done a full series 😭😭😭 (how fun would saoirse-monica jackson be too!)

anyways, as for people who haven't been on yet — and this isn't to say i want them all to be, just that i think it's likeliest they have been asked or will be asked; i talked about who i want to see a little while ago here — it's important to consider the casting 'roles' the network has in mind when working with the producers to form a series, so i will keep that in mind too!

established comedian, typically a straight white man over 40: bill bailey, vic reeves, harry hill, geoff norcott, kevin bridges, adam buxton, ade edmondson, paul whitehouse (tommy tiernan? god i feel bad for not saying ed byrne but why do i feel like he's not gonna make it in the next few series? i'm on the fence with nick helm — unless he's friends with alex, then his chances go up significantly imo — and tom allen for some reason, and i feel like john bishop is almost too much of an ask?)

fresh talent comedian, typically a man under 40: rhys james, huge davies, ahir shah, darren harriott would be my top guesses but tbh any of the semi-recent edinburgh comedy award finalists are good bets as a majority of the winners from the last ~10 years have been on the series + throwing out tom rosenthal (i know he's not fresh fresh and also mostly an actor)...and, like, jazz emu?...just because if taskmaster know how much its audience adores weird little white twinks then they'll cast them

female or non-binary comedian: 100% sarah keyworth + harriet kemsley, maisie adam, jess fostekew, suzi ruffell. i've shifted away from betting on cariad lloyd and catherine bohart for some reason... (joanne was my no.1 lady bet for the last like 4 series hahaha)

non-comedian: this is very, very hard to predict because between comedy actors, non-comedy actors, tv presenters, news people, reality & social media stars... the potential predictions are just so endless! logically, the most likely is an established actor with a lot of comedy connections (think sally phillips, lolly adefope, liza tarbuck, sian gibson, daisy may cooper, susan wokoma; this category is where tm gets quite a few of its female contestants): matt holness, kevin eldon, amanda abbington, tom davis, sharon horgan, kathy burke, georgia tennant (also friends w alex?), su pollard, tom basden, apparently anyone from the cast of ghosts, and so on and so on and so on... + i'll also throw out maggie aderin-pocock as a serious contender + i really feel like one of the spice girls will be on new years treat

friend of alex: john robins was the prediction for the past few series, so just worth keeping in mind other people in this circle include elis james, matthew crosby, tom neenan, and so on

freebie answers because alex/greg have mentioned them before: jack dee, lorraine kelly, joanna lumley (i want jennifer saunders SO BAD give us an epic series w both ade and jen pleaseeee tm gods!!!!)

complete wild card bets that are either my instincts kicking in or my bias taking over: limmy, adam buxton, paddy mcguinness, diane morgan, daniel sloss, joel dommett, jess hynes, spencer jones??, alasdair beckett-king or josh pugh + if suzy izzard wasn't doing a big nyc show i'd say that's a good guess if only bc you know greg & alex grew up big fans

did i mention too many people?? if i had to put my money behind a single person it would be either ahir shah or sarah keyworth

these are almost all of my fr big heavy hitters when it comes to placing bets! but there are of course so many people i didn't name who i could totally see on either a main series or the ny treat — so many people just make sense and that's the beauty of taskmaster!!

[deanmarywinchester]

previous years: 2022, 2021 / list of worst sf/f/horror

the bangers were BANGING this year, I kept mentally readjusting my top 5 list every time I read something good so the honorable mentions are extremely honorable this year. I hope you read anything that sounds good from this list and tell me about it!

top 5:

chain gang all stars by nana kwame adjei-brenyah: when I say that this book is like the hunger games for adults, I’m not making a glib comparison between two books about fighting to the death, I’m saying that I haven’t felt so intensely about a book since I stayed up late to tear through the hunger games and sob about it when I was thirteen. this book is satire as real and devastating as I’ve ever read, with action scenes that feel like they’re being dripped directly into my hindbrain and a unique and believable love story. put it on hold at your library literally RIGHT now.

the actual star by monica byrne: about a post-climate catastrophe utopian society built around a religion started by a teenage girl in 2012 based on mayan traditions, and also about the teenage girl, and also about the maya. this book made me crazy because the future society felt real enough to touch, with its radical openness and collectivity solving problems that exist today but causing new ones that are totally novel and meaty and interesting to dig into. read it if you’re interested in different ways of being.

the spear cuts through water by simon jiménez: really, REALLY good, fresh, original epic fantasy. jimenez picks a few perspectives to stick to but hops fluidly into bystanders’ brains to give you their perspectives, so even background characters feel fleshed-out and no one’s pain is dismissed as a side effect of heroic battles or whatever. highly recommended if you like framing narratives and stories about stories, and like epic fantasy but wish it wasn’t mostly about finding acceptable enemies to slaughter with cool swords

the dispossessed by ursula k. le guin: I love how much this book is about hope as clear-eyed commitment to the boring and difficult work of a brighter and necessary future. sometimes the work of the glorious anarcho-communist revolution is leaving your university post and romantic partner for months at a time to dig irrigation ditches so nobody starves when there’s a drought. read this book for diplomatic conniving, a clash of values between a capitalist planet and its dissident moon, and hope.

imperial radch trilogy and its spinoffs by ann leckie: what if you were built to be a weapon of the empire, a serene sentient battleship with thousands of human bodies all containing your consciousness, and you lost all bodies but one and had to figure out how to be a person, singular and alone? what if you were a 19th century british military officer and you slept for a thousand years into the decline of the empire? what if you were grown in a vat to be a facsimile of human and then told off for eating all your siblings even though eating them was SO interesting? what then. leckie’s prose is incisive and funny, her unreliable narrators are wonderful, and her stories are intimate even though the backdrops are insanely huge. 👍.

honorable mentions:

house of leaves by mark z. danielewski: guys? anyone hearda this one? anyway. Something Is Wrong With This House horror with themes of storytelling and grief. recommending that you slam this book as fast as possible like I did so you can hold all its layers in your head at once.

the lathe of heaven by ursula k le guin: i thought I didn’t like ursula k le guin, and then I read this book, went OH and immediately devoured the hainish cycle. im so sorry miss ursula. this book about a hapless pacific northwesterner whose therapist is making him dream different realities into being is so sharp and sly and funny. themes of choices, ends and means.

he who drowned the world by shelley parker-chan: I liked the prequel to this addition to the radiant emperor duology. I LOVED this book. parker-chan has invented new and exciting modes of fucked-up codependency and im obsessed. historical light-fantasy with themes of ideals vs what it takes to reach them, gender, and regret.

babel by r. f. kuang: found the didacticism of this book annoying, but i really loved the concept of this novel and the way it slowly ratchets up the stakes. this novel is for people who want to smash the fun of the magic school genre against the reality of universities’ complicity in the imperial machine.

piranesi by susannah clarke: im late to this book but it’s such a weird little gem. peaceful yet unsettling. a man takes care of an endless house with an ocean inside it until he realizes the house is stealing his memories. themes of memory and devotion.

hell follows with us by andrew joseph white: I can only read YA these days if it’s a reread or if it’s genuinely good and really really strange. this is that. weird gory fantasy about a trans teen who escapes his militarized post-apocalyptic christian cult and finds himself turning into something Different. my only gripe is that he uses 2023-perfect language to describe transness and I think he should be inventing genders weve never even thought of. such is YA.

some desperate glory by emily tesch: a rolickin’ good space opera time with terrible women <3. a thriller about how the golden child of her isolated human-supremacist space station cult deprograms and the consequences of it. this feels like a grown-up SPOP until the theoretical physics gets involved. big fan

the library of mount char by scott hawkins: this book is harrow the ninth in suburbia until it becomes a more macabre version of the absurdity of the gomens apocalypse. God raises his children, sometimes brutally, to hone their powers in a neighborhood that mysteriously keeps out outsiders. came for the dysfunctional mess of the god-children and now I can never look at a grill the same way

runners up:

bunny by mona awad: books that make you WISH you were in mona awad’s MFA program where she must have been having a terrible time. the weird one out in an MFA program accepts overtures into the unbearable rich-girls’ clique to find out what they’re Up To. themes of aimlessness and the intersection of class with the art world

camp damascus by chuck tingle: have you ever wished that you were simply too autistic to be successfully demonically brainwashed into not having gay thoughts? horror-flavored thriller that was just fun

light from uncommon stars by ryka aoki: this author put a bunch of genres in a blender and came up with something fun and surprisingly cozy. an immortal woman must sell violinists’ souls to the devil in exchange for their fame, or he’ll drag her to damnation instead. there might be aliens and coffeeshop romance involved. definitely a blender.

the fragile threads of power by v. e. schwab: if you haven’t read a darker shade of magic and you like tightly paced high fantasy and historical fantasy elements, political intrigue, and pirates, read that first. if you have, there’s more now! lila bard are you free on thursday when I am free

the library of the dead & our lady of mysterious ailments by t. l. huchu: a teenage girl provides for her family in soft-apocalypse magic edinburgh with a job carrying messages from ghosts to their living relatives. an ongoing mystery series about the intrigues she uncovers among the dead.

severance by ling ma: this books is on the list of media that is the terror to me: it's about an apocalyptic disease that makes people reenact their routines mindlessly until they collapse. intimate apocalypse novel with themes of late capitalist malaise.

ocean’s echo by everina maxwell: i didn't really like winter's orbit because i'm just not a romance guy, but this second novel stands alone and the romance is more insane and less of the entire point of the novel. (also it's between essentially Discworld's Carrot and Moist Von Lipwig, which is. really something.) in the Space Military, a buttoned-up mind controller must pretend to bend a socialite with illegal mind-reading powers to his will. what if fake relationship but the relationship they have to fake is "brain linked master/servant pair."

the murderbot diaries by martha wells: novellas about a misanthropic security android who jailbroke itself in order to watch tv. the name "murderbot" is a joke but it very much did kill people <3 themes of paranoia and outsiderhood, corporate wrongdoing, repentance, and trust

black water sister by zen cho: zen cho is good at any kind of fantasy she writes, including this, her first modern fantasy novel. a closeted lesbian has to move in with her family in malaysia after college in the US, only to discover that her dead grandmother has some unfinished business involving a local goddess and a conniving real estate developer. themes of family, gender, and place.

the way inn by will wiles: a man who’s paid to pretend he’s other people to attend conferences in their place gets trapped in an endless Marriott. has the sharp humor of a colson whitehead corporate satire until it becomes more straightforwardly horror-flavored.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Jonathan Demme - SNAP! on KCRW, Santa Monica, California, November 4, 1984

I finally got it together and went to see Stop Making Sense on the big screen last week. And, wow, I'm glad I did. Jonathan Demme's 1984 Talking Heads extravaganza remains one of the best (if not the best) concert films of all time. Demme was a perfect match for Byrne, Weymouth, Harrison and Frantz.

Every frame of Stop Making Sense tells you that the late director loved movies, music and — above all else — people. By the end of the film, you feel like you know the players personally. You almost feel like you're in Talking Heads. Experiencing it all again made me wish that every great band (you know the ones) had had the good fortune to team up with such a sympathetic filmmaker. (Why oh why didn't Jonathan make an entire Feelies flick when he shot this video???)

So! Here's Demme in 1984, popping up on KCRW with DJ Deirdre O'Donoghue right around the time that Stop Making Sense was in theaters for the first time. It's a great two hours of SoCal radio, with Jonathan spinning some favorite tunes (Robyn Hitchcock! The Fall! The Damned!) and chatting amiably about all sorts of topics. Including David Byrne's eating habits.

Well, what's it like working with David Byrne?

He’s unusually easy to get along with and real funny. The biggest thing about David, that I was startled by, is the fact that he's an unbelievable chow hound. The man never stops eating.

David Byrne? Come on.

He’s a slender dude, but I'm telling you, he never quits eating.

It’s that metabolism.

That’s right.

High energy, constantly moving, and dreaming up all those ideas.

When I first met him, he was eating sushi and carrots and stuff, but now that he's been staying out in Los Angeles while we were doing the movie, it's cheeseburgers, and hot dogs, and things like that, yet he remains the same.

[oldblood]

6 & 13 !!

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

the actual star by monica byrne and my name is red by orhan pamuk!! there's also a stack of books set in and about the renaissance era that i really wish i got to.

13. What were your least favorite books of the year?

probably this is how you lose the time war by max gladstone & amal el-mohtar and severance by ling ma. both are underwhelming, especially the former -- and this was the second time i read it! i read it for the first time years ago and after it recently blew up in popularity and a friend vouched for it, i gave it another try. and i still didn't enjoy it very much.

[anunkindncss]

BASIC INFORMATION

Full Name: Rory Byrne

Nickname(s): Sarge

Age: 24 (Verse Dependent)

Date of Birth: October 3rd

Hometown: Tree Hill, NC

Current Location: Tree Hill, NC

Gender: cis male.

Pronouns: he/his.

Orientation:  heterosexual.

Occupation: Veteran/Counselor.

Living Arrangements: Loft Apartment. 

Language(s) Spoken: english.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE 

Face Claim: max thieriot.

Hair Colour: brownish blonde.

Eye Colour: blue.

Height: 6'1”

Tattoos: x x x

Piercings: stretched ears.

Clothing Style: x.

PERSONALITY

Label: the suffering.

Positive Traits: brave, caring, loving.

Negative Traits: skiddish, self-depricating, lost.

Hobbies: helping others, building, crafting.

FAMILY

Father: Roger Byrne.

Mother: Monica Byrne

Sibling(s): N/A.

Children: N/A.

Pet(s): Zeus (Service Dog, Black Lab) and Mama (border collie).

Family’s Financial Status: lower class.

EXTRA

Zodiac Sign: Libra.

Species: Human.

Fandom: One Tree Hill.

BIOGRAPHY:

If you knew Peyton Sawyer and Brooke Davis, you knew Rory Byrne. He was the boy that was always with them, the one protecting them when guys got too handsy at a party, the one who spent the night between Brooke and Peyton's house (between when their boyfriends were and weren't there), but mostly Rory was known as the son of that guy who robbed the local bank and got caught, who's mom was always at the liquor store spending their last dime.

Tree Hill was too small and his parents were too well known for Rory to get by it all unscathed. People knew where he came from and sometimes it made people assume he was just like them. Fortunately, having known him most of their lives, Brooke and Peyton always came to his defense. Peyton was his undeniable best friend. He could confide anything in her, trust her with his life. And it never hurt that her dad found him to be entirely harmless, so much so it was frequent that Rory had his own room in the Sawyer household.

But Brooke? If you asked Rory at 13 who the love of his life would be, he would say Brooke Davis. He told Peyton he knew he would marry her someday. And he held fast to that hope, no matter who came in and out of her life and heart.

Tired of watching her settle, Rory finally admitted how he felt just before prom, after a fight over her being heartbroken by Lucas for the final time. And suddenly the world seemed to change. Having the weight of his feelings off his chest, and the ball in her court, Rory was able to really breathe for the first time in a long time. Brooke, fortunately, responded lovingly. But again, Tree Hill was small. And he had to do something to get away.

He promised Brooke he loved her more than anything but he needed to find his way. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and became an Ordinance Disposal soldier, training bomb dogs and spending his time overseas. Promising Brooke he'd write everyday, he did just that, sending her wishes of being together when he got back, telling her how much he missed her, describing what he could about where he was at.

When letters didn't come in return, he got worried. When he got a box full of magazines with her on the arms of different guys in New York, he became just a little broken. Shortly after this, Rory was involved in a roadside bombing incident that left him without his left leg, and stole his hope for a brighter future.

Now home in Tree Hill after recouping, Rory finds himself doing two things. Counseling other veterans by days, and drinking himself into a hole by night.

[theawkwardterrier]

greatestheights replied to your post: 2018 book roundup

holy shit. that is incredible tbh what were your faves out of the adult and picture books? i’m sure it’s pretty hard to narrow down, so no worries if that’s too tall an ask!

Not at all! For adult books:

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green 

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

Educated by Tara Westover

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik 

Textbook by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

I’m also including Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak and Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson in this category - for different reasons, they each have an adult bent even though they are marketed as YA.

The picture book list is quite a bit longer so it’s going under the cut, but it includes both books that appealed to me aesthetically and those which had narratives or phrasing that I loved:

Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts

After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again by Dan Santat

All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson and E.B. Lewis

The Antlered Ship by Dashka Slater, and Eric and Terry Fan

The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach

Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper

Blue by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken

The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem's Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and R. Gregory Christie

Crankenstein by Samantha Berger and Dan Santat

The Dark by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen

Dear Substitute by Audrey Vernick, Liz Garton Scanlon, and Chris Raschka

A Different Pond by Bao Phi and Thi Bui

Dreamers by Yuyi Morales

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle and Rafael López

Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos by Monica Brown and John Parra

Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome

Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas by Natasha Yim and Grace Zong

A Greyhound, A Groundhog by Emily Jenkins and Chris Appelhans

Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers

How to Be an Elephant by Katherine Roy

I Really Want to See You, Grandma by Taro Gomi

I Wish You More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld

Ida, Always by Caron Levis and Charles Santoso

Imani's Moon by Janay Brown-Wood and Hazel Mitchell

The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig and Patrice Barton

Life Without Nico by Andrea Maturana and Francisco Javier Olea

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

Love by Matt de la Pena and Loren Long

Lucia the Luchadora by Cynthia Leonor Garza and Alyssa Bermudez 

Malala's Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai and Kerascoët

Marilyn's Monster by Michelle Knudsen and Matt Phelan

The Mermaid and the Shoe by K.G. Campbell

Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino and Isabelle Malenfant

Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins

Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters by Michael James Mahin and Evan Turk

My Teacher Is a Monster! (No, I Am Not.) by Peter Brown

Nanette's Baguette by Mo Willems

Night Animals by Gianna Marino

Noodle Magic by Roseanne Thong and Meilo So

Not Quite Narwhal by Jessie Sima

Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability by Shane Burcaw and Matt Carr

Number One Sam by Greg Pizzoli

One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree by Daniel Bernstrom and Brendan Wenzel

A Perfect Day by Lane Smith

The Pigeon Needs a Bath! by Mo Willems

La Princesa and the Pea by Susan Middleton Elya and Juana Martinez-Neal

The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton

The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine by Mark Twain, and Philip C. and Erin E. Stead

Red: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall

School's First Day of School by Adam Rex and Christian Robinson

Snappsy the Alligator by Julie Falatko and Tim Miller

Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev and Taeeun Yoo

This Book Just Ate My Dog! by Richard Byrne

This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World by Matt LaMothe

This Is Sadie by Sara O'Leary and Julie Morstad

Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts and Noah Z. Jones

To the Sea by Cale Atkinson

Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great by Bob Shea

We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins

We Found A Hat by Jon Klassen

The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman and Zachariah OHora