just finished this the other day, and highly recommend it!!

IT'S NOT MY FAULT

... I think this is my fault?

Something to Touch - Unwinnable "The point is not realism, but presence and sensation."

because I am not above shameless self promotion, I wrote about it earlier this year:

There's a lot to love about Kunitsu-Gami, but what drew me in is the use of practical fx across the entire game: miniatures for the setting, handmade costumes, real flames/explosions/fireworks in the battle effects, and they even recorded a significant portion of the music outdoors.

this is the first I'm hearing of this

April 19th Welcome back readers. Kept you waiting, huh? It’s taken me an extra day to do the work, but we’ve got 23 new-and-interesting picks ready to go this week, so pull up a chair and grab a b…

This Week: Unfair Flips, River Kings, Wrestling Monopolies, and a whole lot more:

critical-distance.com/2026/04/20/a...

another sighting

another sighting

she does this every time I go in the stall

she does this every time I go in the stall

nobody can see your draft until you share it

so, write that draft for its audience: yourself

this attitude is perhaps inadvisable when you're writing, say, a paid assignment with certain editorial expectations...

...but if the battle is between yourself and a blank page, and you want to create something "good" — make it good for yourself, not based on an external metric or others' output

when it comes to this feeling (which a lot of people experience!) the tongue-in-cheek advice I give is

SCREW EVERYBODY
WHO CARES
DO IT FOR YOURSELF
NOBODY ELSE MATTERS

don't compare yourself to others, because you're not them

and also: what you see is their finished work, not the first draft

"imagine arguing with someone that disagrees with you"

sometimes I seek out a friend* that I know disagrees with me, or least has a different perspective, and talk through it with them

*yes, often it's julie. hi julie.

KITKA: Kakhuri Iavnana (Live) YouTube video by Kitka

another violation of the "no lyrics" stipulation, but lately I have been working solely to Kitka's album Kolo:

Nowhere YouTube video by H TO O - Topic

haven't really dug into this one, but the album Cycle (H TO O) has a lot of bright timbres and a nice feel to it:

Signals YouTube video by Jameson Nathan Jones - Topic

if you want a threatening vibe: Jameson Nathan Jones' album Signals

Reich - Tehillim - Complete (Official Score Video) YouTube video by Boosey & Hawkes

If you can work with non-english lyrics, Tehillim is an all-timer:

Steve Reich - Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (1974) YouTube video by spiritualarchive

Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (Steve Reich)

(vocalizations, no words)

The last known photo of KM. Two blurry creatures resembling baby goats have jumped on her back.

I AM UNDER ATTACK

The last known photo of KM. Two blurry creatures resembling baby goats have jumped on her back.

I AM UNDER ATTACK

brief soapbox moment: this is why it is never appropriate to let a goat, baby or otherwise, consider you a target for headbutting. it's the same as not allowing a puppy or kitten to bite/scratch.

they may be little, but they mean serious business

yaaaaaaaaaay 💜🐈

OMG it's so good

Reading with the Mouth: A Conversation with Olga Ravn — Lolli Rosie Ellison-Balaam talks to the Danish author about the significance of Lea Gulditte Hestelund’s sculpture in her novel The Employees and what it means to treat art not as an expression of individual genius, but as a collaborative process of making sense of the world around us. And they ta

an added bonus is that it brought artist Lea Gulditte Hestelund to my attention, whom Ravn credits as inspiration for the book's "objects"

I keep recommending The Employees (Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken) to friends, who then finish the book before me

I just love it so much that I want to read it slooooooooowly

KM holds a small toad in her hand

The toad has been released outside

A toad in the house? In this economy?