Tim Ellison

i’m slowly working on a zine called “understand your bugs” about slowing down when debugging and understanding what’s going on before jumping to a fix. But I’ve heard from some folks that they feel pressure to fix bugs As Fast As Possible. Do you feel that? How do you handle it?

Between “there was no plan for the Star Wars sequel trilogy” and “Cruella’s tragic backstory is that dalmatians killed her mom” I hope every indie creator who has ever experienced self-doubt over their storytelling skills and/or professional competency is feeling very reassured.

@amyknoel check out this amazing ancient world nerdery 🏛

I'm so happy to have this review of Jim Shepard's brilliant, incisive novel about the *next* pandemic up at @ChicagoRevBooks

My main objection to cryptocurrencies has been their environmental impact, but this fits right at the top of the list.

Due to the sheer BOREDOM of being laid up with an achilles injury, I’ve decided to make a list of 15 things I wish I’d known about documentary filmmaking at the start of my career. Hopefully someone will find them helpful. NB these aren’t ‘rules’ – please see point 15.

1997? I was twelve years old but somehow I remember when this book came out. How? Did the Fresno Bee publish a review opposite Hägar the Horrible and Blondie? I’m certain my parents and siblings weren’t Roth readers. I was reading The Grapes of Wrath like a normal tween.

Reading @michikokakutani’s review from back then I think she’s exactly right saying this is more the Henry James side of Roth than his Rabelais side. But the novel starts Rabelaisian and that’s the part I prefer. More of that please. pulitzer.org/article/michik…

Philip Roth’s American Pastoral starts out bouncy and clever and fun before descending into hundreds of pages of obsessive, repetitive, depressing slog. Somebody please mail that criticism back to 1997.

History writing that’s grounded in objects & artifacts captures my imagination & attention far more than the god’s eye view that scans names & dates moving across a map. Makes me excited to read one of my wife’s favorites, Portrait of a Woman in Silk by @ZaraAnishanslin.

Poetry is the fruit of privilege. It requires talent & luck to become an established poet, but it also requires education and access which aren’t freely available or evenly distributed. But centuries later that fruit is still sweet, its origins mostly forgotten. The work remains.

Currently reading Marion Turner’s excellent Chaucer: A European Life. Some thoughts: