I know someone who was.

Some of the biggest disappointments in my life have been encountering brilliant minds locked inside mediocre brains.

Beware of critics trying to talk you out of loving something. Evil people.

I'm going to write a short book of ten essays about different themes, situations, and intimations from Lodge 49. I already have it mapped out. These two seasons of pure art deserve a critical eye and a kind heart applied.

[BOOK PROJECT] ENLIGHTENMENT AND TWIN PEAKS - CHAPTER 7 The Return: Naido’s Reversal & The Viewer’s Injection

When Naido reverses polarity in Part 3 of Twin Peaks: The Return, most viewers see a plot mechanism. Chapter 7 argues it's something far more significant: the moment Lynch formally injects the viewer's consciousness into the narrative.

jbminton.substack.com/p/book-proje...

Is Bluesky dying? An attempt to untangle a few different arguments around the future of Bluesky – if it has one

Bluesky is dying. Good. Let all social media die and use social media to tell it that it’s dying .

open.substack.com/pub/techtris...

Incessant celebrations over the anniversaries of when things were made is a primary example of Segment 1 appreciation of art.
What a silly thing to group think on.

I work in segment 2. Segment 1 is sometimes cute but mostly annoying and filled with noise, celebration, and often public hangings.

DICHOTOMY OF MODERN CRITICISM

SEG 1
WHO made the art?
HOW was the art made?
WHERE did they make the art?

= Surface-level pop culture journalism (oral history) & Comic-Con level fans

SEG 2
WHAT is the art?
WHY does the art matter to a human living life in 2026?
= New Critical Thinking & Analysis

The world is finally recognizing Stephen Graham's talent, even revisiting his early work in This Is England. I’m the only American who wrote a book about it, doing all the writing, design, and publishing myself. Read it; I endured a lot to create this book.

The paid artist was a 60-year commercial accident, not a historical norm. Bach had patrons. Melville worked customs. The machine that cut checks is breaking, and the artists it made dependent are calling it a crisis. It’s actually a clearing. Art with no master has no ceiling.

Do you know what modern human labor is in corporate America, regarding the use of Generative A.I.?

I do. I sell it and use it within that context.

Modern labor now goes like this: “Prompt —> Validate —> Prompt —> Validate.”

A new world is being built on this foundation.

I like to make money, and I know what I’m doing with the technology. Maybe learn something new or learn to be poor. The future belongs to humans in the loop until they aren’t needed anymore and can focus on other more valuable efforts.

Getting paid for making art was cute while it lasted.

If you want ideas that matter to you to stand out in a sea of noise, every now and then, you need to throw an elbow to give them space.
It's not personal, but stupid ideas must be dismissed with expedience.

Twin Peaks may be Lynch’s best TV show, but The Straight Story is the greatest film he made.

April Fools Day and social media is a creature spawned from Hell.

What do critics criticize?

We criticize that which isn’t pure of intent. A merciful and wise critic forgives imperfections of art that is pure in intention.

For All Mankind is a very, very good show.

In this season opener, they gave Breaking Bad a very deep and very direct compliment.

The world is becoming increasingly divided between those who understand and adapt to the reality of Generative AI and those who will be broke and without employment, living on subsistence wages, if they can even find a job.

No prime time TV show was more disrespectful to law enforcement than Murder She Wrote. Every police officer on that show was a bumbling moron. And the show treated death with the same reverence that reality TV shows now have for human dignity.

Luckily, we don’t have to choose between them. We have all three, and they all tell the same essential story about what it costs a man to gain the world while losing his soul.

It is possible that Peaky Blinders will go down as the superior gangster story over The Godfather Trilogy and possibly even The Sopranos. Superior in the sense that it tells a more complete and emotionally satisfying story of balance between cruelty, suffering, and justice.

The people who can’t do it aren’t principled. They’re just still inside the story of the celebrity.

Harry Potter taught a generation to stand against authoritarianism. The author’s worldview doesn’t change what the story put in millions of kids’ chests.
Divorcing art from artist isn’t moral compromise. It’s basic literacy.

You’re not a better critic because you read the director’s Wikipedia page. You’re just better at avoiding the only question that matters: what does this work do to you?
The biography is a shield. Put it down.

It’s a loaded fringe number but it’s staring to fill up with data. What I’m starting to see in Financial Services is jaw dropping. I can’t talk specifics, but damn…

A.I. has already erased ¼ of the time it takes to develop new medical drugs. But you’ll never hear that from the AI Boomer Doomers.

But don’t worry they can’t fight the future because it’s already here.

I write to enlighten others, so I’m not lonely.

Why else does anyone write anything?

You should check out what's happening with this book. No one else is writing about this stuff, and it matters.

I couldn’t have said that last sentence the year I watched "Twin Peaks: The Return." It has taken me almost a decade to craft that sentence, and I’m one of the few people on Earth who can write it and understand its meaning. It’s lonely being the only one able to write a certain kind of sentence.