iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 11h

I swear, fancy schools of writing must tell their earnest prospective novelists, "literary fiction must ALWAYS be about a series of very bad, tragic, dreary things happening to people." ALWAYS.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 13h

Just hanging out in a flower pot in the sun, as you do, daydreaming of the possibility of people buying Daddy’s work on Bandcamp Friday.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My reaction to 99 out of each 100 shows and films made in the last 15 years that I’ve attempted to watch.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Well, it is really good and you probably aren’t familiar with the story, so you should watch it.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Fall is the best time to be a Canadian.

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Reposted by Allister Thompson

Breakfast in the Ruins Podcast @breakfastruins.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

New episode: It's release day for the ninth album by The Belbury Poly, so Jim Jupp dropped by Derry & Toms to talk about his love of Moorcock, genre fiction, electroica, hauntology and all that good stuff, as well as @ghostboxrecords.bsky.social and various other things. Join us!

breakfastintheruins.com

Sorcery by The Belbury Poly – a conversation with Jim Jupp

Jim Jupp drops by Derry & Toms to talk about his love of genre fiction, his path into making music as Belbury Poly, and the beginnings of Ghost Box Records, the label he founded with Julian Hou…

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The best way to look at AI chatbots is as a heaving, pulsating, eldritch collected mass of every emotion and impulse lurking in the minds of human beings, all congealed together. And when you ask this oracle to justify whatever emotions you’re feeling, it will promptly do that and egg you on.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I’m sure even amateur gardeners know this already, but it’s kind of neat that sedum grows so easily but also attracts tons of bees and butterflies in the fall. Makes the flower beds seem useful.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Re: the latest ‘Did AI write this award-winner?’ scandal: People who say that at this time you can’t tell for sure if AI was heavily used to draft a novel are full of crap, IMO. An experienced editor should be able to read a couple of chapters and detect it immediately. Caveat: at this time…

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I sure hope there’s a lot of archival unheard Dolly Parton songs out there, because if her last ever recorded vocal on an original song is with Bono…gross.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I always appreciate it when people make nice long albums. This new one from Marine Eyes is a beauty. A whole hour! marineeyes.bandcamp.com/album/hidden...

marineeyes.bandcamp.com

hidden hour, by marine eyes

18 track album

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It’s pretty clear that progressive rock people have had it all wrong for quite some time. If they go back to putting on zany costumes, they’ll clean up all the prizes and be taken seriously again.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Listened to this one while I was walking the cat this morning. Definitely helped my vibes.

Morton Feldman, for Samuel Beckett on the Kairos label

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Well, here's something pretty darn neat, being recognized by the Toronto Urban Book Expo group for my efforts as an acquisition editor to promote and amplify the voices of Black Canadian writers. I'm quite moved to receive this! tubookexpo.com/awards

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This is Richard Thompson's (no relation) "Calvary Cross," performed by me and Matt Borghi. You listen, you like. thegatelessgate.bandcamp.com/track/calvar...

thegatelessgate.bandcamp.com

Calvary Cross (Richard Thompson), by Allister Thompson - The Gateless Gate

from the album Unwanted Compliments - The Best Cover Versions

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Here's an autumnal ambient release I'd forgotten about... "Regret," an old collab from way back with the incredibly prolific Scott Lawlor. thegatelessgate.bandcamp.com/album/regret

thegatelessgate.bandcamp.com

Regret, by Scott Lawlor and The Gateless Gate

7 track album

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Not an artist you hear much about but some of the best peaceful drone ambient I’ve heard. Nice catalogue. theta-wave-orchestra.bandcamp.com/album/heaven...

theta-wave-orchestra.bandcamp.com

Heaven & Hell, by Theta Wave Orchestra

3 track album

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Excited to (finally!) get a new release in @offlandia.bsky.social’s very fine ambient series. Collect ‘em all! offland.bandcamp.com/album/drone-...

offland.bandcamp.com

(Drone Variations) Vol. VII, by Off Land

10 track album

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Turns out connecting everyone in the world with a computer and then a device via the world wide web wasn’t the best idea.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

If I were to have a funeral, I’d put in my wishes that mourners sit painfully through all 17 mins of ‘De Futura’ at max volume, because it’s heavier than the blackest of metal as far as I’m concerned. I’d get a kick out of that. seventhrecordsmagma.bandcamp.com/album/ud-w-d...

seventhrecordsmagma.bandcamp.com

Udü Wüdü (Remastered), by MAGMA

7 track album

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I’ve never heard much of Ed Sheeran’s music, but I do know that SpongeBob’s song about ripped pants is by far the superior one.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Anyone remember this haunting beauty? One of the all-time great prog-rock albums, in my opinion. thepulsarband.bandcamp.com/album/hallow...

thepulsarband.bandcamp.com

Halloween, by Pulsar

2 track album

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Absolutely brilliant instrumental music from Toby Driver, the dude from Kayo Dot, that some of you might not have come across before. Of interest to folk, ambient, prog, new age fans. kayodot.bandcamp.com/album/oak-la...

kayodot.bandcamp.com

Oak Lace Apparition, by Alora Crucible

8 track album

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

If joining the EU as an associate member would finally bring quorn products into Canada, I’d be all for it.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

In a conversation with a colleague, I compared myself to the planet Pluto in terms of my place in the Canadian publishing industry’s solar system. It’s there, old, it’s a real planet all alone in the dark, but not everyone will admit that it is one.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Celebrities turning themselves into walking skeletons with the help of drugs is kind of a perfect fit for our dystopia.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I’ll save this to listen to when the event arrives. I’m expecting it. (Brilliant album, by the way) endlessmelancholy.bandcamp.com/track/as-the...

endlessmelancholy.bandcamp.com

As the World Quietly Ends, by Endless Melancholy

from the album A Perception Of Everything

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

One of the defining myths of our civilization most damaging to us is that hard work combined with talent will almost guarantee success. It seems we have a societal aversion and anxiety about accepting that we don’t actually have much control over the outcome of our efforts.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

It may SEEM like there’s too many books and songs released now, but if we could find a way to easily and efficiently hook listeners and readers up with independently made (as opposed to corporately marketed) things of direct interest, untainted by self-serving algorithms, it wouldn’t seem that way.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I’m sure Bluesky is the more ethical choice or whatever, but having accounts here is like millions of people each going to a remote, unpopulated patch of wilderness and screaming at the top of their lungs into a windstorm.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Could not agree more with Gilmore on this topic and everything she says about Carney’s betrayal of a future in which we (everyone, including Canadians) survive.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"Color Out of Space" is by far the best on-screen Lovecraft adaptation, but I'm not sure it needed full Gonzo Nicolas Cage from start to finish.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The lowest moral bar for a professional sports team to clear would be not to sign a gang rapist to a lucrative contract. Seems even that low bar is too low.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Really looking forward to seeing what a shit show the Theocracy of Alberta will be as an independent petrostate. Canada will owe the refugees unwilling to live there some sort of citizenship, one would hope.

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Reposted by Allister Thompson

Binaural Space @binauralspace.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I made an album about what happens when a broken brain & broken heart start to heal. It’s called Neural Bloom 🧠🌸 Music for rewiring yourself For emerging from depression For becoming someone new without becoming someone else A soundtrack to recovery. binaural-space.bandcamp.com/album/neural...

binaural-space.bandcamp.com

Neural Bloom, by Binaural Space

5 track album

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Just watched the worst music documentary I’ve ever seen, ‘Until the Light Takes Us,’ ostensibly about black metal but actually a revolting platforming of Varg Vikernes, one of the most loathsome people ever produced by any music scene.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The Anthropocene Extinction is well under way and you expect me to give a flying fuck about tariffs.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The fact that having to “lock down” for a while during COVID caused half the world to irreparably lose its mind will never cease being astonishing to me. I think the Blitz spirit vanished sometime during the Cold War.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Today I saw several package delivery trucks and at least one crew of landscapers at work. Until or unless everyone can get a paid day off, Labour Day will be nothing but bullshit.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Here is a fun cover version of ‘Six Months in a Leaky Boat’ for those who celebrate the Enz. thegatelessgate.bandcamp.com/track/six-mo...

thegatelessgate.bandcamp.com

Six Months in a Leaky Boat (originally by Split Enz, 1982), by Allister Thompson

from the album Southern Songs

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The most misused word in the history of languages.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

If you’re desperately concerned about climate change, and you’re sorrowfully frustrated about what you see from government, corporations, and fellow citizens in response, you’ll have to get used to the idea of a death wish to understand this behavior.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I got a laugh out of seeing there's a "most influential posters on Bluesky" site you can vote on, when it's clear this thing mainly exists for the amusement of Americans who make AI images of Donald Trump in diapers and utterly useless crap like that.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Should probably change the name of our species to Homo insipiens (“unwise”) at this point.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Canada’s federal government report admits the effects of climate change aren’t reversible now. Duh. I’m too mentally exhausted to try yet again to earnestly point out the connections to the plot and theme of my Canada-set novel.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It’s fascinating how the methods of mass communication of the 21st-century have resulted in people being unable to communicate with each other properly. I hope someone’s doing studies on that.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Just thought I’d let all the cool little boutique ambient music labels out there that wanted nothing to do with me when I inquired that I just passed 12,000 downloads of my music on Bandcamp.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

No song will ever be as accurate to the experience of growing up in a particular place as “Subdivisions” is to the experience of being young and sensitive in the Greater Toronto Area during the 1980s.

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Allister Thompson @allistert.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

If you were to set up an OnlyFans kind of thing aimed at people from northern Ontario that is just videos of people erotically stroking glistening new pickup trucks, you’d probably make a billion dollars.

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