iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Somehow I just found out that, in one of his last appearances, Bill Gunn played Homer on an episode of The C*sby Show in 1986.

The magnificent Bill Gunn as 'Homer' in a season 2 episode of The C*sby Show, 1986.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Finally saw The Weight today - great, crackerjack film. Wasn't as mind-blowingly amazing as some have said, but I totally get the hard desire for this kind of throwback, and it mostly pulls it off. Hawke, though, is as great as everyone's saying and his current renaissance continues to impress!

Movie poster for 'The Weight' (2026), starring a fantastic Ethan Hawke, and a fine-but-mostly-wasted Russell Crowe.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity."

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Nothing 'medium' about it! (Robert Forster (and Belmondo!) in Medium Cool, dir. by Haskell Wexler, 1969).

Robert Forster, as John, in his y-fronts, in a shot from Medium Cool (dir. Haskell Wexler). A poster of Jean-Paul Belmondo over his left shoulder, and smaller prints of Tiny Tim and (partially) Eddie Adams's "Saigon Execution" to his right.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I can understand leaving off The Last Airbender cuz these peeps probably think it's a kids show - but no Veronica Mars seems like either wilful trolling or plain TV illiteracy. (I'd have 3 Rob Thomas shows!). Of course, I lean goofy heartfelt genre crap! My top ten US shows INPO:

Today's version of my top ten US shows of this century:

Lost iZombie
Veronica Mars Cougar Town
Party Down Silo
Mad Men The Good Place
BSG Better Call Saul

(and it’s not TV, but I’d probably throw
Felicia Day’s The Guild on there too!)

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Is Veronica Mars gonna be top 10 or just top 20?

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Evan Dando was in great form at the Grand Social last night - strong voice, loud guitar. Did 2 Richard&Linda Thompson songs, Rondstadt's "Different Drum," and a bunch of classic Lemonheads - no "Alison ..." sadly. For some reason, ran the entirety of Phantom of the Paradise on screen throughout.

Evan Dando and the Lemonheads on stage at The Grand Social, Dublin, while Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise plays onscreen in the background.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

25 years ago today, Bob Dylan released this absolute masterpiece. Give it a spin! #9/11 #LoveAndTheft

The cover of Bob Dylan’s album “Love and Theft,” released on 11 September 2001.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Sunrise over a gaa field, Dublin 12

A late August sunrise in south Dublin, houses in the background, gaa goal posts in the foreground.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I wouldn't say 'despise' because it has its moments, and Ledger's great, but The Dark Knight is not a very good movie.

Heath Ledger as The Joker, holding up a, um, joker card ... in the film The Dark Knight (Nolan 2008).

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Listening to a lot of early, mid-career Beatles this summer. I think my fave 3-album run by the band might be Beatles for Sale - Help! - Rubber Soul.

The album covers for three consecutive Beatles albums: Beatles for Sale; Help!; and Rubber Soul.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

I've got two tickets to Robyn at 3Arena (Dublin) tomorrow night (24 June) that I'm trying to sell. Would love to get face value (@81.50 each), but open to offers! You can buy direct through TM, or hit me up! secure.ticketmaster.ie/rs/18006434B...

Pop singer Robyn, in a promo image for her 2026 Sexisential Tour.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Anthony Head had so many great "big" moments in Buffy, but also tons of brilliant "little" moments - like this short scene from Dead Man's Party (S03E02) when he's just discovered that Buffy's back in town and safe.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Incredibly bummed to hear about Tony Head (RIP) - I know he played a lot of brilliant roles, but Rupert Giles is an absolute TV legend - lover, fighter, sage, ripper, dad, librarian ... killer of gods, singer of Who songs.

Anthony Stewart Head (1954-2026), as Rupert Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

If you’ve been seeing all the ‘Marcia Lucas saved Star Wars’ posts and wondering … what? I highly recommend Karen Pearlman’s chapter on women editors of the 70s (including Lucas). Not only great on these editors, but one of the best scholarly discussions of how editing works you’re likely to read!

Title page of Karen Pearlman’s Women Editors in New Hollywood: Cutting Down on the Raging Bullshit. Published in Women and New Hollywood (Rutgers), eds Aaron Hunter and Martha Shearer.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Sugar were magnificent - loud, fast, with a bit of jangle and a ton of heart! When they kicked into Hoover Dam (pictured) I was flattened by a wave of euphoria - ‘I’m on the centerline, right between two states of mind!’

Sugar on stage, playing Hoover Dam,’ Dublin, May 2026

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

RIP Sonny Rollins. The Bridge is one of my favourite albums of all time!

The cover of Sonny Rollins's 1962 album, The Bridge.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

I'm such a small fish that I've no idea how I got on this list, but if it means an invite to Zoë's party, then I'm totally down with it!

An image from bluesky showing my account blocked by the bsky developer @why.bsky.team

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

What has two thumbs and just signed on to write the BFI Classic for Harold and Maude?

It’s me! I’ve got two thumbs and just signed on to write the BFI Classic for Harold and Maude!

Here I am in a black jacket and a blue Hal Ashby t-shirt pointing those thumbs at myself - with posters behind me for Harold and Maude, Shampoo and The Last Detail.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

“This is the first song on our new album!”

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

In 1980, Murphy would become the first female cinematographer on a Hollywood film - 1980! - btw, the film's title (Fatso) and marketing are off putting, but it's actually a really sweet early 80s NYC romcom, directed by Anne Bancroft.

Candice Azzara and Dom DeLuise in Fatso (1980).

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

The first two women to join a camera operators union were Jessie Maple (east coast) and Brianne Murphy (west coast) - both in 1973. In 1980, Murphy would become the first woman to join the American Society of Cinematographers.

Jessie Maple joined the NYC camera operators union in 1973. She wrote the book "How to Become a Union Camerawoman" in 1977, which partly details her struggles.

Brianne Murphy joined the LA camera operators union in 1973. In 1980, she became the first woman to join the American Society of Cinematographers.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Congratulations to Autumn Durald Arkapaw on her Oscar for Cinematography. She's the first woman to win the award (in 97 years!) - and also the first person, male or female, of Black or Filipino descent. The film looks amazing and certainly should've won in its own right ... but a bit of context ->

Autumn Durald Arkapaw accepting her Academy Award for Best Cinematography for the film Sinners (March 2026).

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Somehow I'm just finding out that the same guy, Gerard Huerta, designed AC/DC's logo and the HBO logo. And now you know, too!

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Happy Woman's Day! Didn't plan it this way, but tomorrow I'm teaching Born in Flames and Away from Her - two fantastic (and very different!) films directed by women that you should see if you haven't.

Movie poster for Born in Flames (1983) directed by Lizzie Borden.

Movie poster for Away from Her (2006) directed by Sarah Polley.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

What’s the first record you remember buying with your own money? I think I was 10. A friend at school told me that KISS was so out and this 'new' group AC/DC were in. Bought this with a mix of Christmas money and saved allowance. Changed everything!

Album cover, AC/DC 'Back in Black' - the original embossed version with full black.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

The film's title is great, too: during the Famine, the Choctaw nation raised relief funds for Ireland, even though they were still reeling from the Trail of Tears. The commemorative sculpture in County Cork is called 'Kindred Spirits'.

"Kindred Spirits" - a sculpture in Middleton, County Cork, Ireland, commemorating the 1847 gift of the Choctaw Nation in support of Irish Famine relief. Sculpted by Alex Pentek with assistance by students from the Crawford College of Art and Design.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

RIP Robert Carradine - just hearing about his passing now. He was absolutely fantastic in a small but intense (and sadly prescient) roll in Coming Home.

Robert Carradine (RIP) plays guitar, with Jon Voight, in Coming Home, directed by Hal Ashby, 1978.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Teaching Decline of Western Civilization for a few years now - the gigs are still thrilling, but I increasingly find the film's framing of the punk scene very middle class-y reactionary. Titillation around violence, very little on the scene as community, or even why so many women were drawn to it.

Jennipher, one of the light-bulb talking-head interviewees from The Decline of Western Civilization (1981).

Alice Bag performing with the Alice Bag Band in The Decline of Western Civilization (1981).

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Grand stretch w/dog, crescent moon.

A dog, in a field, sundown, crescent moon - Perrystown, Dublin

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

In this version of the film, Jesse Jackson is one of the central figures expressing the film's political consciousness. Along with Peggy Terry.

In unused footage from Medium Cool, Jesse Jackson speaking at a political rally, spring 1968.

In unused footage from Medium Cool, Peggy Terry speaking at a political rally (same as Jackson), spring 1968

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

The idea seems to have been that while Robert Forster's reporter is trying to piece together the connections between Chicago's various poverty situations and prejudices from the outside (and doing a lot of dillydallying), Eileen is getting directly involved.

Eileen learning about the connection between Appalachian poverty and Black poverty in Chicago, in unused footage from Medium Cool.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Peggy Terry was a member of the Communist Party, and a social and civil rights organiser, originally from Oklahoma and Kentucky. In Chicago she was a member of JOIN and worked with Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. In unused footage, she takes Eileen to a Jackson rally.

In unused footage from Medium Cool, Jesse Jackson speaks about poverty, and how it unites people from different backgrounds - spring 1968.

In unused footage from Medium Cool, Eileen (Verna Bloom) and Peggy Terry attend a Jesse Jackson anti-poverty rally in spring 1968.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

In the finished film, Eileen (Verna Bloom) is an economic migrant from Appalachia, who lives in a Chicago tenement with her son and whose politics are alluded to. But there was originally a subplot in which she starts organising with Peggy Terry, the socialist anti-poverty campaigner. ->

Eileen (Verna Bloom) peeling potatoes with her son, Harold (Harold Blankeship), in Medium Cool (1969).

Eileen and Harold's Chicago tenement in Medium Cool (1969).

Robert F Kennedy poster on Eileen's wall in Medium Cool (1969).

In unused footage from Medium Cool, Peggy Terry explains the Poor People's Campaign to Eileen (Verna Bloom).

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

A brief shot of Jesse Jackson at the Poor People's Campaign march on Washington, spring '68 - from the film Medium Cool. Jackson figured much more significantly in Wexler's original vision for the film ->

Jesse Jackson at the Poor People's Campaign march on Washington, fist in the air - from the 1969 film Medium Cool (which included actual footage from the march).

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Here's a plaque in memory of his speaking in Dublin in 1845.

A plaque commemorating Frederick Douglas's visit to Dublin, 1845.

Located on Eustace Street, outside the Irish Film Institute.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

RIP Bud Cort It can be hard to see him beyond Harold - an indelible role in a once-in-a-lifetime film. But I loved him every time he popped up in something.

Bud Cort as Bill Ubell, dedicated company man, in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Michael Gambon in the background.

Bud Cort as Harold, blowing bubbles in bed the night after he and Maude finally sleep together (Harold and Maude 1971).

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Did anybody not absolutely love Catherine O'Hara? The thrill of joy I used to get when I was young and before I really knew who she was and she'd pop in things and I'd be, like, she's in this one, too? Yes!

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Managed to get a peak at the Northern Lights in Perrystown, 19 Jan

Northern Lights in Perrystown, D12, 19 January

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Back at it on an early Jan morning! Wishing all my aca friends & colleagues a great semester! In times like these it’s more important than ever to help our students develop their critical thinking skills. Best of luck!

Trinity College Dublin, early morning, January’26

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

In 2017 I was presented with John Ford's Oscar for directing How Green Was My Valley. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect!

Me in 2017, being awarded John Ford's Oscar for directing How Green Was My Valley. No really, it's mine - really!

(Actually, it's in the John Ford archives at Indiana University. It was being cleaned that day and they let all of us hold it and get a picture. Librarians and archivists are so cool!)

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Planning this term’s Punk Cinema class, and so stoked to get this Shellshock Rock package from @cherryredrecords.bsky.social in the post today. Includes John Davis’s original’79 film, 3cds of music & a 70page booklet w/write-ups on all the bands and old magazine clippings about the NI punk scene.

Shellshock Rock boxes from Cherry Red Records - featuring 3cds of music and a dvd of John T Davis’s original 1979 documentary about the Northern Irish punk scene.

A shamefully blurry photo of the 3 cds and dvd in the Shellshock Rock boxes set.

An example of the band/song descriptions in the Shellshock Rock box set booklet - this one focused on the woefully underrated band Rudi.

An example spread of the contemporary articles collected in the Shellshock Rock box set booklet - this one featuring (left) an article by Chris Moore in Melody Maker from Aug 79 about the film’s global popularity, and (right) a review of the film by John McKenna in Hot Press.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Movie stills in dialog (Being There 1979 / Stranger than Paradise 1984).

A still from the film Being There, directed by Hal Ashby 1979. In this scene Chance (Peter Sellers) walks through Washington DC. Graffiti on a wall reads: America Aint Shit cause the White Man's Gota god Complex.

A still from the film Stranger than Paradise, directed by Jim Jarmusch 1984. In this scene, Eva (Eszter Balint) walks through New York City. Graffiti on a storefront shutter reads: US Out of Everywhere Yankee Go Home

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

How much do I know to talk out of turn? You might say that I'm young, you might say I'm unlearned But there's one thing I know, though I'm younger than you That even Jesus would never forgive what you do.

An image of Pope Leo XIV singing, surrounded by clergy and press.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Stranger Things may be over, but I still got game! #DnD, #OldSchool, #ClassOf89

Original ADnD books in a pile, from the bottom up: Fiend Folio; Monster Manual 2; Deities and Demigods; Dungeon Masters Guide; Players Handbook; Monster Manual.

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Aaron Hunter @aaronhunter.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

55 today, feeling it. But my mum tells me 55-65 were the best ten years of her life. We’ll see, but I’m looking forward to what comes next. 🤞

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