iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

It has been a themed fashion week over here, celebrating selected albums by Elvis Costello for no reason other than he’s my favorite of all time ever and also I like clothes. Welcome to the working week.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

It’s because that’s where your gums are. Hope that helps

an Instagram ad for a dental product says “Nobody talks about the real reason gum disease happens in your mouth.”

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Fig. 1: Taylor Frankie Paul of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives models the look by pairing baggy camo pants with an itsy bitsy undershirt, a business-lady handbag, a delicate gold chain, and full glam.

Fig. 1: In a screengrab from the show, “star” Taylor Frankie Paul of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is shown walkikg down the street in baggy camo pants (hunting party) with an itsy bitsy undershirt (pajama party), a business-lady handbag, a delicate gold chain, a deep tan, and full glam (Grand Old Party). The elements of the look are labeled with text boxes.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Hematoma, but make it fashion (inspired by my recent black eye)

A white woman is shown in five different outfits, each inspired by a bruise in various stages of healing. The colors in the outfits start out in shades of plum, black, and red and gradually move through pinks, yellow/greens, and beige.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Thinking back to when I went to this event at ASU. As a student, I got the tickets for free. My doctoral cohort went together. I thought, how wonderful to hear from such luminaries. What a privilege! Chomsky, Krauss, they are both Epstein dirtbags.

A ticket and program from a 2015 event sponsored by the Origins Project at Arizona State. The event featured Noam Chomsky and Lawrence Krauss in dialogue about “science, mind, and politics.”

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Coming in April and availabe now for preorder from Teachers College Press: Let’s Discuss: Practices for Equitable Student Participation in ELA Classrooms!! Couldn’t be prouder to be part of this.

The cover of a forthcoming volume from Teachers College Press. The title is Let’s Discuss: Practices for Equitable Student Participation in ELA Classrooms. The authors are Jen Soalt and Andrea Avery. The book is part of the visions of practice series edited by Sonia Nieto.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

You all have so tolerated the looks I served this week as part of Cookbook Lookbook week, so here’s your dessert. You’ve earned it.

On the right side of the image is a white flufft Thai rice cake festooned with fresh fruit in shades of red and green. The cake is set on a yellow wooden surface. On the right is an image of a woman wearing a silk blouse festooned with pictures of bright red and green and yellow fruit, a tan and white striped waistcoat, wide leg khaki pants with exposed French seams, white ankle booties, and red glasses. She holds a white bag with a yellow scarf tied on its handle.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Welcome to Cookbook Lookbook, Day 4. Offered for your consideration: a fashion interpretation of Cabbage Roulades with Lemon Sauce.

On the left side of the image is a plate of cabbage roulades served on a ceramic plate. The cabbage is green, and drizzled with pale yellow sauce. The plate is white with a purple and green floral motif on its edge. The plate sits on a black and white cloth, perhaps a keffiyah, against a purple background. On the right side, a woman wears a black and white patterned Marimekko mini dress, black tights, and purple boots. She wears a green Athleta puffer vest and a diaphanous silk skirt in pale cream with bright purple wool trim. She holds a gray and green Zac Posen handbag.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

In case you were wondering if over on threads they have cracked the Guthrie case, I can tell you they have not. I just saw a person outraged that a six year old murdered in 1981 hasn’t showed up to help solve it.

A still from the Nancy Guthrie surveillance video showing the purported abductor. The post above it says “Where is Adam Walsh when you need him?” Adam Walsh was abducted and murdered in 1981, when he was six. His father, John Walsh, went on to have a career as a TV presenter, victim’s rights activist, cofounder of the Missing and Exploited Children, and host of America’s Most Wanted.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

It’s Day 3 of Cookbook Lookbook week, wherein I shop my own closet to whip up looks inspired by the photos in Roz Denny’s Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook. All clothes (and the book) were bought secondhand. Here’s some Chinese potatoes with Chili Beans.

On the right side of the image is a bowl of cubed, cooked potatoes and chili beans, garnished with coriander and parsley. The bowl is teal and it is displayed on a blue striped tablecloth. On the left, a woman wears a deep burgundy bias cut silk skirt (Ralph Lauren), teal leather pointed flats (Miz Mooz), a light teal sweater tank (Eileen Fisher) and a long blue and white stripedduster (Eileen Fisher). She is holding a kidney bean colored leather bag (Rebecca Minkoff) and wearing an oversized chunky link necklace in potato-esque white.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Day 2 of cookbook lookbook: Vegetables Julienne with Red Pepper Coulis

On the right side of the image is some cauliflower, snap peas, carrots, asparagus and broccoli, garnished with red pepper coulis, beautifully plated on a mottled gray plate. On the left stands a white woman wearing an outfit meant to interpret the dish as fashion: green wide leg pants, orange shoes and bag, an orange and green neckerchief and a muted gray blouse.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

It’s time for another themed fashion week! This week’s looks are inspired by photos in Roz Denny’s Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook. First up, Pasta and Beet Salad.

On the left, a close up of a leafy green salad with red/pink beets, avocado, and walnuts. On the right, a woman poses outdoors in front of a gray stucco wall in an outfit composed of a beet-pink silk top with ruched sleeves, a green-yellow miniskirt, brown suede western boots, brown wooden jewelry, and a belt made of brown leather cinched with a green/brown/yellow/white scarf tied in a knot. She is holding a bright green purse and wearing green glasses and earrings.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Here’s an arthritic irony, & you can use it to understand disabiltity accommodations. I don’t have the hand strength to put on most store bought socks but I can knit my own socks with those same hands. People know best what they need and want help with and it might not be what you think it is.

A closeup shot of a pair of feet in handknit striped socks of red, gray, and brown. The wearer is standing on a braided rag rug.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

The absolute PRECISION of the curio shelf placement vis a vis the perfectly symmetrical HEAD on this guy.

CNN commentator Van Jones sits in front of a set of shelves, presumably in his home office. He is positioned perfectly such that small figurines sit perched on his head, ear tips, and shoulders, symmetrically framing Van Jones’s very symmetrical face.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Me: My type is, take Erik Estrada in the opening sequence of CHiPs and then cross him with the dad from Family Ties. Everyone: No such man exists The Pitt: Sha na na naaaaaa

Noah Wyle in the opening sequence of The Pitt. He rides a vintage motorcycle while
wearing aviator shades and black
leather gloves.

Noah Wyle in The Pitt. He is a conventionally handsome tall, thin, white middle aged man. He has salt-and-pepper hair and tortoiseshell reading glasses.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

this looks like food! bad food, like if Tillamook cream cheese went to Glamour Shots

A hand with red painted fingernails brandishes a small tub filled with yellow Play-Doh butter, garnished with plastic shreds.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Maybe don’t make an inedible toy (designated as a choking hazard and containing “compounds and polymer sprinkles”) and call it “Play-Doh scented butter” (even “butter-scented Play-Doh” would be marginally better, with a good graphic designer on the case) and put it in food-style packaging?

Play-Doh scented butter comes in a pink and yellow plastic tub. The word butter is larger thanany other text on the label.

Quoted directly from the retailer website: The features of the product are that it “smells like breakfast …with a buttery scent that is weirdly amazing”; that is contains “compounds and polymer sprinkles”; and that it is for ages “4+ (choking hazard)”

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

She came so close to getting to a lot more complex and enduring insight, though! She just needed one of these to help her

A non-elderly, white, female-presenting wheelchair user employs a reacher stick to get somethinf off a high shelf.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Do you think it’s forever? 🎤

A close-cropped stock photo of a person in jeans handcuffed behind their back. Below it is an entreaty for career-seekers: be a MUNICIPAL JAILER. This six-syllable phrase can, of course, be substituted for ELIZABETH TAYLOR in that song on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl. (The next line is “do you think it’s forever?”.) This is my last joke along these lines. I think.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

A day later and I’m still thinking about it

A gray crewneck sweater is shown against a white background. Handstitched letters in pink spell out GRANDEUR ADEQUATE

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

I like this French-speaker’s review of a replacement cushion for a patio basket swing. I am in love with the phrase “grandeur adequate.”

The purchaser has given the cushion a five-star rating and written: Bien. Confortable. Grandeur adequate.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Do you think it’s forever? 🎤

A labeled picture of the Currier painting AMERICAN WHALER, which can be substituted for ELIZABETH TAYLOR in that song on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl. (The next line is “do you think it’s forever?”.)

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Do you think it’s forever? 🎤

A labeled picture of the VLAD THE IMPALER, whose name can be substituted for ELIZABETH TAYLOR in that song on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl. (The next line is “do you think it’s forever?”.)

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Do you think it’s forever? 🎤

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

… Do you think it’s forever 🎤

A bottle of INDUSTRIAL DESCALER, a phrase which can be substituted for ELIZABETH TAYLOR in that song on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl. (The next line is “do you think it’s forever?”.)

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

We have had this cat since Blackout-era Britney. Today we said goodbye to Inga.

A small white and gray cat, 18 years old, is shown in super close-up, her whiskers spreading to the sides of the image, her pencil-eraser nose a perfect pink heart, her eyes as blue as ever. A caption says “Inga (2007-2025).”

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Y’all doing the seleect the T-shirt (bonus points if it’s Elvis Costello) that completes two outfits unalike in vibe/occasion but utilizing the same black leather miniskirt (you may accessorize freely) to go with these two pairs of shoes Tik Tok challenge

A vintage black Elvis Costello T-shirt features the artist holding a guitar and looking pensive behind his trademark glasses; The album title (“Brutal Youth”) is splayed across the image in red, as if spraypainted. To one side of the shirt is a pair of patent leather block-heel loafers by Jeffrey Campbell in olive green patent leather with brown and red accents and a horesbit embellishment. To the right is a pair of Adidas superstars in off-white suede with the signature shell toe plated in shiny rose gold metal. If you mentally add a black leather miniskirt, and riff on accessory options you see that these are two excellent and versatile looks.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

That tracks. Born in 1977 here. Made this to welcome my dad home from a business trip. Granted, he worked for, uh, the Agency. But still. These fears were very close to the surface of my 6yo brain.

A child’s crayon drawing shows a large fiery explosion and a person saying “Help.” In the sky, a plane labeled “Rushians” drops bombs. The child has written to her father, who worked for the CIA and was returning from a business trip, “To Daddy. Welcome back. I missed you. Even for the shortest time.”

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Wait wait in the last several years I have published an essay called Father/Figure and another one about Ophelia. Am I … is my whole life a #LifeOfAShowgirl Easter Egg and I didn’t even know it? Way to play the long game, Tay.

Art from Taylor Swift’s upcoming Life Of A Showgirl, showing tracks named The Fate of Ophelia (1) and Father Figure (4).

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Phoenix friends! If you are free this Thursday night, I hope you will join me at Changing Hands on Camelback for a good old-fashioned book launch for my novella, Visiting Composer!

Andrea Avery will be reading, discussing, and signing her new novella, Visiting Composer, on August 21 at Changing Hands Bookstore, 300 W. Camelback Rd., Phoenix. The event begins at 6:30 pm and is free.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

I get that the national news is universally awful but is everybody’s local news also the horrifying shitshow we have over here in Arizona?

A collage of local Arizona headlines from the last week: Tarantula mating season has begun! Women shouldn’t hold office, says GOP woman now running for office! Fire destroys Oxbow Bridge! Bat flies into woman’s mouth!

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Out: good cop/bad cop In: belt with tucked shirt cop/no belt with tucked shirt cop

A still from the 1985 movie Terror at London Bridge. Two plainclothes detectives are shown: Joe Nez (played by Randolph Mantooth” wears a nice leather belt with his dark-wash jeans, while Don Gregory (David Hasselhoff) is out here wearing no belt on his snug-fitting light-wash denim and his shirt tucked in.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Are the croissants in the room with us right now?

A piece of home decor says “Croissants.” Below the word is an image of …. baguettes.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Nominating for best Superman this little hero I saw at a market in Paris

A little boy, about 5 or 6, stands nonchalantly next to a produce cart. He is wearing a full Superman outfit and light blue Adidas. His hair is mussed and he looks dreamy or pensive, like he just had a nap.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

I will be at the National Women’s Music Festival this week leading a session on writing about music. Prep has been wonderful, as I spend time with some of my favorite writers and their beautiful and powerful music writing @johncotter.bsky.social @marthaannetoll.bsky.social

A stack of books: The Beginning of Everything, by Andrea J. Buchanan; The Skin Above My Knee, by Marcia Butler; Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis, by Dave Maass and Patrick Lay; Duet for One, by Martha Anne Toll; Losing Music, by John Cotter; Fiddler’s Dream, by Gregory Spatz; I’m So Fine: A List of Famous Men and What I Had On, by Khadijah Queen; Why Mariah Carey Matters, by Andrew Chan; The Time of Our Singing, by Richard Powers; What Could Be Saved: Bookmatched Novellas and Stories, by Gregory Spatz; and Swing Time, by Zadie Smith.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Hey, Arizona friends… you’re invited… Save the date!

A flyer invites viewers to a Book Launch for Visiting Composer: A Novella. It will be held August 21, 2025, at 6:30 pm at Changing Hands Phoenix. The address is 300 W. Camelback Rd., Phoenix AZ 85013. The flyer is a cream-colored square with text in blue and orange. There is a line drawing of a stack of books in the center.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Just how “limited” are we talking here

An open bag of the “limited edition” Old Bay Goldfish Crackers.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

i wanna know how the mandatory training module I had to take ended up discussing “prenatal, intraNASAL, and postnatal care.” Sike: I know how it happened (AI).

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

I like how I can tell the seemingly great husband in this Lifetime movie is going to be the bad guy because clearly the casting director was like gimme a JD Vance type

A screenshot from a Lifetime TV movie. The husband is a 30-ish white man in a toothpaste-colored polo shirt. He has carefully groomed hair, a short beard, and a smug and punchable face.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Aaaaaahaagahhagahahahahhaha my author copies just arrived and July 1 you can all read the untold story (part of it, anyway) of the world’s greatest imaginary time-traveling female composer Preorder at: sites.miamioh.edu/miami-univer...

the cover of a paperback novella is shown. The title is Visiting Composer and the author is Andrea Avery. The cover design is an abstract, vaguely musical image of circles and arcs in black, yellow, orange, and blue, meant to evoke early 20th-century graphic design, as the book is about an aspiring female composer in 1910 Baltimore who crash-lands in a music theory class in 1996 in Arizona.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Your periodic reminder that generative AI is wrong, a lot, and if it is wrong (and nonsensical) about little things like this, it is even wrong-er when it chains together little wrong things to make big wrong things

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Are you out the world? Amongst other people? Have you noticed something about their bodies that makes you curious? Fine! But don’t do this.

hideous questions from “well-meaning“ strangers, vol. 1,496:
woman I don’t know, on line at airport: what happened to you?
me: what happened to me?
WIDK: your hand
me: oh I have rheumatoid arthritis
WIDK: oh my son’s ex wife blah blah has that her shoulders hurt she can’t do her hair it’s terrible
me: oh well I hope she’s doing well
WIDK: do you take methotrexal [sic]?
me: no, I did 30 years ago, though.
WIDK: do you take something else now?
me: yes
WIDK: is it better?
me: I hope so.
WIDK: what is it?
me: I’m sorry, I don’t like discussing details of my medical condition with strangers.
WIDK: oh! I was just curious
me: well those are personal questions, aren’t they?
WIDK: if you prefer

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Another great thing about my book Visiting Composer, coming soon from the great humans at Miami University Press is, the book was written by an actual human! Me!

An official registration (#1579546) from the Authors Guild certifying that Visiting Composer: A Novella is a human-authored work.

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Andrea Avery @andreaavery.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

So, so gross. I'm not interested in using their bullshit AI toys and tools, I'm not relinquishing my humanity so easily, I'm still interested in thinking and creating for myself and I sure as shit didn't give them permission to use my work to mount their creative/intellectual takeover. 1/2

A screenshot from the recent Atlantic article shows a search box where the OP's name has been searched in the illegal pirate site LibGen, with two results showing her work as having been pirated by Meta: A memoir and a story in a literary magazine.

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