we’ve started posting weekly images of Mary’s artwork to her website. you can follow @maryg (on Micro.blog), or use RSS, or subscribe to get emails (also weekly). we want to share her work with everyone, so you’re invited regardless of whether or how well you knew her 🎨

Movement Voter Project puts up a call for help:

we need to invest at the same level we did in 2020… or at a higher level because everything costs more… while polling & enthusiasm is much worse

MVP builds local orgs for the long run, regardless of this year’s candidates. you can help 🇺🇸

new post: What International Football’s Like, in which a masterfully charming simile is deployed (by a professional English sportswriter, and then block-quoted by me) ⚽️

new project from Molly White: Follow the Crypto; nice intro & explanation in her latest newsletter:

Did you know that the cryptocurrency industry has spent more on 2024 elections in the United States than the oil industry? More than the pharmaceutical industry?

happy first of the month, when we all switch our single AirPod usage from one ear to the other to keep the battery wear even. July is an odd-numbered month so as we all know that means it’s Left’s turn again

Saturday night video: Do It With a Rockstar, by Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra 🎵 🌈

I love this, from Wikipedia: Well he would, wouldn’t he?, “referred to as Mandy Rice-Davies Applies (MRDA)”

[asked during the trial] whether she was aware that Lord Astor had denied having an affair with her; Rice-Davies replied “Well he would, wouldn’t he?”

I really like this idea from Cal Newport that social media is ultra-processed content, analogous to ultra-processed food:

the users of social media platforms simulate something like the food scientist’s ability to break down corn and reconstitute it into hyper-palatable edible food-like substances

Mike Masnick argues that social media can’t be inherently harmful, saying, “The complaints here are with speech.” but while Doritos & Pepsi are (technically) food, that doesn’t mean they’re good for you

AI personified in 1986: Max Headroom in Paranoimia by The Art of Noise 🎵

Poetry, that’ll work
Come, sweet slumber
Enshroud me in thy purple cloak
Hmm, doesn’t even rhyme

another day of Euros, another Ukraine game bizarrely not being shown on any of Fox’s channels. I know it’s paranoid thinking, but I can’t help wondering whether that’s a coincidence from a broadcaster that’s shown perfect willingness to cozy up to the likes of Russia in 2018 & Qatar in 2022 ⚽️

new post: 600 Words About 1,000 Words, in which said writing stunt is found to have been worthwhile (and, thankfully, behind me) 📝

new post: 600 Words About 1,000 Words, in which said writing stunt is found to have been worthwhile (and, thankfully, behind me) 📝

600 Words About 1,000 Words

@V_ thanks! I was continuing a novel that I'd already started, a hardboiled detective story in a sci-fi/utopian setting

@manton thanks for this! answers something I've been wondering about but hadn't gotten around to asking yet

The Decemberists, The Island (20th anniversary stream) – https://youtu.be/4Frcgj9pC3s 🎵

and… scene! I stopped posting it daily, but I did it: I wrote a thousand words a day for two weeks (Ulysses tells me it’s actually a total of 14,606). I’m glad I did it but I’m glad it’s done. now to figure out what’s next 📝 #1000WordsOfSummer

me, finishing Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club: that was great. I wonder if they’ll make a movie of this

Wikipedia: YA THINK?

Spielberg’s production company bought the global film rights… Osman confirmed… that Helen Mirren would play Elizabeth, Pierce Brosnan would play Ron, & Ben Kingsley would play Ibrahim

📚🍿

The Dead Weather: I Feel Love (Every Million Miles) 🎵

another day, another thousand words: 1,011 today, in which I finally got to make the silly, obscure reference I set up from the start (“better head back to 10-SE, Jed”) 📝 #1000WordsOfSummer

I didn’t get around to posting it yesterday, but I did write: 1,072 words. today, too: 1,016 words. clearly stopping just as soon as I cross the word-count line, but no apologies. six days down, eight to go 📝 #1000WordsOfSummer

I did it again; 4 for 4 so far. 1,143 words today, in which a good cop as well as a bad cop appeared 📝 #1000WordsOfSummer

a long day today, that started with a trip to the dentist for a replacement crown, and only got Monday-er from there. nevertheless, I persisted, and wrote 1,015 words this evening 📝 #1000WordsOfSummer

day 2 of #1000WordsOfSummer, and I felt so little like sitting down to write today, but I did it: 1,002 words. now my murder mystery finally has a dead body 📝

feeling less than complete confidence about managing this every day for the next two weeks, but today, the first day, I did it: 1,005 words written 📝 #1000WordsOfSummer

The Atlantic: Guilty on All Counts

The jury returned with a verdict… after less than 12 hours of deliberation. …Trump is the first current or former president to be tried for any serious crime, and now he is the first to be convicted. Not only that, but he was found guilty on all 34 counts against him.

couldn’t happen to a shittier guy

Warpaint at Mohawk 🎵

going to give #1000WordsOfSummer a shot this year. like a mini NaNoWriMo, it calls for writing 1,000 words a day, for two weeks. starts June 1. not sure I’ll do daily word-count checkins they suggest, but for the sake of non-Twitter social media – maybe! (god help me I may even join the Slack…) 📝

@pratik yes! looking forward to that, should be pretty cool

@pratik I'd also add: Messi's fame also invites these stories. Lorenzo Insigne (who?) is paid $15.4M by Toronto (where?), but however many teams' payrolls that eclipses is not making headlines 😆

@pratik I don't have strong feelings for or against Messi as a player, but imho he's worth that money for the league. vacationing in Mexico a couple of weeks ago, we saw one (1) MLS player's jersey: Messi, and one (1) MLS game on in the resort soccer/sports bar: Miami

@toddgrotenhuis totally. ha, maybe for some items even a weird AI-generated name might actually be an improvement! if they manage to filter out the OpenAI error messages, that is

@pratik their famous diversity? 😝

@manton definitely too pricy for the mass market now, but that will come down. amazing tech; I haven't used one yet but can't wait. agree it's not a development priority for many apps, but for games, movies, & immersive stuff that barely exists yet, I think this will (eventually) be a big hit

@skoobz yum, Cuvée is always good ☕️

@chipotle wonderful post from the libraries, it even made up for making me read some of DHH's nonsense (which I try to avoid)

@pratik yep, makes sense. wasn’t sure what part of town you’d be coming from

@pratik nice writeup! hadn't heard about protests, that's interesting. if & when you go to an AFC game, you'll find an even louder & more engaged crowd. look at CapMetro for transportation - there's a fleet of 803 buses waiting afterward, & the new train stop should be open next year

@pratik thank you!

@pratik what really stinks, thinking (& reading) more about it, is that SA doesn’t even have to pretend or make promises about any kind of reforms

@pratik very disappointing

@anniegreens yes! that really was a good episode

@Miraz great picture! (I have a thing for kingfishers)

@manton whoa, that's where the post office on Speedway was?? I'll have to check it out. I worked near there in Hyde Park, pre-pandemic

@toddgrotenhuis ha ha, nice! 🎯

@pimoore thank you 🙏

@odd thank you 🙏

@crossingthethreshold thank you 🙏

@jean thank you, Jean

@adam agree. all the injuries have been really unfortunate, from before the tournament as well as during it

@Miraz & it was a great one! I don’t usually have a rooting interest in games without the US, but was hoping the Ferns would get that win 🇳🇿 ⚽️