iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Bafflegabs

Paul F. Tompkins @pftompkins.bsky.social · 5h

Had a wonderful time once again with these boys but I will never forgive them for this thumbnail youtu.be/gKB_IAnOBqg?...

youtu.be

Paul F. Tompkins: Tasting Menu | Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster Podcast 🍽️

YouTube video by Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Ahhh! Kind of you to say, thank you so much 🥳🥰

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Thaaank youuu how did you know it was my third birthday 🥳🥰

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

They’re saying it’s his birthday, they’re admitting he’s still a cutie

Self, drinking a hot chai and wearing layers even though it will be 100 degrees today

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

File it along with Eddington and Asteroid City, as in I completely understand why these movies might not have worked for you, but I regret to say that history will record them as nothing but net. Thank fuck they got made.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I saw Digger in IMAX yesterday, and while it absolutely had me on the ropes for a bit, because it’s an audacious movie that you really haven’t seen before & it requires you to go with it, in the end I’m saying it was a banger. Pretty sure that’s Iñárritu’s best film, box office be damned.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It’s Bandcamp Friday, & I have new Painkiller The Pigeon music to offer! Out today: my fourth record & a personal fave, Nervous Birds (2008), recorded in my Chicago bedroom, live drums/bass/guitars. Also avail: my cassette best-of, A/B/C Sides Vol 1! painkillerthepigeon.bandcamp.com/album/nervou...

Cover of Nervous Birds, an abstract business boy splintering in a cubist fashion. Deep pool table green background, rusty orange bold lettering.

Self on the steps down to the basement practice space in Chicago, no glasses, black corduroy suit but no tie, white button up shirt

Self playing bass at Electrical Audio. You can see my color-changing Doctor Who Fan Club Of America pin on my guitar strap, and a “God Save The Kinks” sticker on my black jazz bass. Wearing a brown cardigan and a brown striped tie.

Self looking out the window of the bedroom in question, wearing a green cardigan, pale green button up shirt and a dark green tie

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I finished Deep Water (1957), which you could call Cuck Chair: The Thriller lol, this is a truly nail-biting novel of marital and interpersonal suspense, one of Patricia Highsmith’s bleakest & most misanthropic novels, it absolutely rocked. Her writing is SO addictive.

Cover of the book, Grinklin the black cat just behind looking to camera

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

ATTENTION CASSETTE HEADS! Out today, a limited edition lime green tape with all A’s, B’s, & 5 C’s each from the first 3 Painkiller records (2004-2006). A condensed burst of fun, to sit alongside your other tapes, such as Madonna, or Todd Rundgren. painkillerthepigeon.bandcamp.com/album/a-b-c-...

Lime green tape and track listing on inner sleeve

Stack of tapes, showing what your copy might look like next to The Go-Betweens 1978-1990 or Madonna - Confessions II hot pink edition. For example.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Ahhhh a new child joins my lil family. A/B/C Sides Vol 1 features all A & B sides from the first three Painkiller records, plus five C-side album tracks each. I’ll have these up on Bandcamp this week! I had to fight for the lime green tapes, so worth it!

One tape unwrapped in front of a box of 31 other tapes. Green cover. Drawing of a little boy pointing off screen and his mother’s lower torso and legs beside him (can also see her purse and she is wearing black strappy shoes), the boy is wearing a red shirt with a white collar and blue pants. A/B/C is written in red, white, and blue

Same cover but on its own, from above, on a beige carpet

Track listing on the inner cover (drawing underneath it of tomatoes with dumb faces and a misspelled sign that says Moron Sale):

Side A/B:
Alice Escher
Kick The Summer
This John’s A Journalist
The King Of Skinny Wrists
A Tight Surprise
The Camber Lists
Born In The Wrong Universe
Little Gracenote
Say You’re Sorry
Fast Timothy Grey
Queen Of Mondays
My Collected Letters
Silver Angles In The Service Industry
Beginners Guide (Original)
Harbourghost (Snippet)

Side C:
Pinewood Derby
Friends Of The Elderly
Hey, It Hardly Matters Now
American Shoes
Miss Museumpiece
Opening For The Tight Fibres
Edna Romance
Hayworth
Major Poetry
Crashing The Creep Seed
Snake Angry Girl
The Girl From The Grammar Police
Unlimited Thank You’s
The Quip Celebs
Estella’s Ghost

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Out today: a 2008 EP feat one of my most ambitious bedroom productions, “She’s A Palindrome,” a v romantic song indeed, about the night in NYC this pic was taken with the palindrome herself. Also covers of Billy Bragg, Robyn Hitchcock, & R.E.M. (the axis of Peter Buck lol) youtu.be/RpV2yeQ-1qk?...

Cover of the EP is the words “She’s A Palindrome” repeated over and over, backwards and upside down as well, in a dirty minty green on a pink background. One instance of the title, and the band name Painkiller The Pigeon, are written in a deep berry.

Self and HFHS, the palindrome herself. NYC, 2007/08, we’re both doing thumbs ups, I’m wearing a Union Flag t-shirt (sweaty, post show), we’re both wearing glasses.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I finished GK Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday (1908), this slim novel absolutely rocks, a surreal nightmare of politics & paranoia that was clearly a major influence on Kafka. It’s exactly as funny as it is disorienting and intense. A metaphorical spy thriller in the landscape of the mind!

Cover of the current Penguin Classics edition, with police and anarchists fighting in a chaotic cluster. Grinklin sleeping on floor below.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Out today, a special 2007 EP, three songs I recorded at our practice space on the same day (12/14/06)! My cover of Daniel Johnston’s “My Life Is Starting Over Again” was my most popular song for years, now joined by two funny/depressing originals. open.spotify.com/album/5FK4uL...

Cover of History Is Hell, an abstract drawing of shapes and colors that, to the artist, evokes an angel of some kind (or possibly Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor, much the same thing). Against deep red background, bold black lettering with yellow interiors.

Self walking down Chicago street, winter 2006/07. Sky is very purple, a very specific Midwestern winter color. Wearing a thick army green overcoat (was kind of a canvasy outer material), wearing glasses, beard, I am in sharp focus but the street lights in the background are streaking

Self, same as the previous photo but now I’m looking to camera with a nonspecific look, lips slightly parted. Background again is streaky, sky seems lighter in this shot because of the street lamp behind me blowing out the exposure a bit more.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Finished The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (1966), this is an exceptional sci-fi novel. As entertaining & gripping as it is a thought-provoking how-to for revolutions. Some odd stuff in there as well, but what a piece of writing! Mike is an amazing character.

Current edition of the book, bright yellow cover with a moon breaking its chains, Grinklin in the background looking to camera.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Bought some new books after the movie (I’m a little addicted to buying a books after a movie). The Americana Barnes & Noble is gigantic, yet in all that real estate they somehow only had a single Patricia Highsmith novel & ZERO Shirley Jackson, seems weird lol.

New books: Strange Buildings by Uketsu, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A Heinlein, A Quiet Place by Seichō Matsumoto, Cécile Is Dead by Simenon, The Human Factor by Graham Greene. In a stack on my sofa.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Preview for Wildwood played before it, even the preview had me tearing up!!

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Man this was SO good! Eat shit Zaslav, you fuckin’ clown lol.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Seated for Coyote Vs Acme. They tried to take my boy down, but if you come at the (comically inept) king you’d best not miss lol

Wile E Coyote looking through Acme binoculars

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Dolly was 21 when she wrote her first Top 20 hit. Clever, catchy, cutting country: “I guess some largemouth bass left that lipstick on your shirt? I don’t think you’re a fisherman, honey, I think you’re a flirt.” Just 1 early great thing she did in a life full of ‘em. RIP 😭 youtu.be/G2KcKFBTKl4?...

youtu.be

Something Fishy

YouTube video by Dolly Parton - Topic

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Finished The Tokyo Zodiac Murders (1981, English 2004), my second mystery by Soji Shimada. Both feature ultra-detailed, methodical clues pointing towards truly outlandish solutions, these are a ton of fun. This one is particularly fiendish! Liked this more than Murder In The Crooked House.

Cover of the Pushkin Vertigo edition, with black cat Grinklin sitting nearby, as is her wont while I read.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I really like the John Huston film, but have not read the book yet!

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I just reach The Dispossessed last month, it was absolutely brilliant, one of the most intriguing and thought-provoking novels I’ve ever read! I bought The Lathe Of Heaven and Left Hand Of Darkness right away, they’re on my stack!

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Finished Graham Greene’s The Power & The Glory (1940), a very serious novel and also a thriller, about an alcoholic priest on the run in 1930s Mexico as the government begins shooting the clergy. The writing is incredible, the setting so detailed. This was fascinating.

The cover of the current Penguin Classics edition, an officer leveling a gun off camera, black and white.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The second EP from my record The Quip Celebs (2006) is streaming everywhere now! This has three of my very best B-sides: My Collected Letters, Silver Angles In The Service Industry, and the dancey, strange original version of The Beginner’s Guide To Birds. open.spotify.com/album/3JLva1...

The cover of the single features an abstract drawing of a woman’s torso in a periwinkle and orange striped shirt, she has a fork for one arm and a desktop lamp for the other. Her head is just shapes. Against a purple background.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I can see that would be very easy to do, this one was sort of too intriguing to put down!

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I read Strange Pictures in about 24 hours, it’s very fun in its tricksy construction, more puzzle-based mystery than horror. The characters are a bit thin, & it requires quite a lot of disbelief suspension, but I definitely enjoyed it, will read another!

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

The first EP from my third album is streaming everywhere now, and it contains Little Gracenote, one of my favorite of my B-sides. This is a catchy, strummy love song for somebody who thinks they can’t sing. No music pun knowingly left unused. youtu.be/Ge61ElX2LY0?...

youtu.be

Little Gracenote

YouTube video by Painkiller The Pigeon - Topic

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Universal Harvester was so good. Strange, sad, subtle, sensitive, resolutely refusing to be something it’s not, still redefining what it is at regular intervals all the way to the end. Sincerely great, @themountaingoats.bsky.social

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Eating a Chipotle bowl while I’m in the Criterion Closet, accidentally getting guacamole on The Battle Of Algiers.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I withstood about two and a half series of Not Going Out, but when I learned Tim Vine leaves pretty early on, I lost interest relatively immediately lol

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

A song to my then-girlfriend, who was delightfully mopey, but I’m also talking to myself. Not a ton of pop songs namechecking both Sylvia Plath and lowrider jeans. youtu.be/knCJv5ObZ48?...

youtu.be

Snake Angry Girl

YouTube video by Painkiller The Pigeon - Topic

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

This is what I looked like 2005/6 while making the third Painkiller record, The Quip Celebs (out now!). The whole record was made in the Fullerton apt on the other side of this wall, Brett’s drums in the living room, my amp in our dryer. Everywhere: artists.landr.com/PTPQuip

Self, around 25, holding a balloon with my name drawn on it, wearing solid grey t shirt, clean shaven, grinning foolishly, short hair, a ladder leans against a wall in the background

Self around 25/26, bearded, glasses, stripey scarf and sweater plus sportcoat, double exposed in a red and orange swirl of light. Possibly a bit stoned, who can say.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Oingo Boingo very much the thinking man’s Red Hot Chili Peppers.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I finished Death In Her Hands (2020) by Ottessa Moshfegh, or, as I’d call it, Unreliable Narrator: The Novel, what a sad, haunted experience it is. A 72 year old widow finds a mysterious note suggesting a dead body, & begins to spiral out considering all the implications. Dark & hermetically sealed.

Cover of the book, Grinklin bathes herself behind it

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I’m so happy to have found a copy of Dreams With Sharp Teeth, the only one of a proposed series of annotated Harlan Ellison omnibuses that ever materialized (in 1991). He’s so criminally out of print right now, but I’ve got 30-ish stories that are brand new to me here.

Cover, strange drawing of flowers with babies growing out of them.

DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH
a three-volume omnibus
42 remarkable fantasies
with a new introduction
HARLAN ELLISON

Contents page:

DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH
INTRODUCTION:
TOSSING A BRICK THROUGH FRANZ KAFKA'S WINDOW
BOOK ONE:
I HAVE NO MOUTH & I MUST SCREAM
BOOK TWO:
DEATHBIRD STORIES
BOOK THREE:
SHATTERDAY

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Out today! My third album, The Quip Celebs (2006), newly remixed & remastered! Some of my most popular songs (Born In The Wrong Universe, The Girl From The Grammar Police), & many unheard ones (Billy Bragg’s She’s Got A New Spell). One of my best! painkillerthepigeon.bandcamp.com/album/the-qu...

painkillerthepigeon.bandcamp.com

The Quip Celebs, by Painkiller The Pigeon

13 track album

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

The key thing that I will not change is that the series takes place in 1993, the present day.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Wrote the first 9 scenes of an audio comedy pilot today! I found 17 scripts at my mom’s house for a silly superhero show that I wrote when I was about 10-12, and even recorded a few with my school friends. It’s honestly pretty good, just needs to be fleshed out. I know real actors now lol!

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Three favorite short stories right now: Shirley Jackson “Louisa, Please Come Home” Harlan Ellison “Jeffty Is Five” Ray Bradbury “The Next In Line”

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Almost done with Ray Bradbury’s remix of his own debut story collection (originally Dark Carnival in 1947, revised into this in 1955), it’s fantastic. “The Next In Line” is as good a short story as I’ve ever read from anyone. “Skeleton,” “The Small Assassin,” “Jack-In-The-Box,” all wonderful.

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Oh that’s excellent! I hope you like it too, her stories are like little traps, it’s such a thrill!

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

This was sensational. Highlights for me were “Louisa,” “The Beautiful Stranger,” “A Visit,” “Family Treasures,” “The Summer People,” “All She Said Was Yes,” “The Story We Used To Tell,” these were all so clever & potent. She was absolutely brilliant at miniatures, a poet of panic attacks!

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Hi - Amy Klobuchar here. We’re looking for 10 volunteers in your area to help me move & install a washer/dryer unit. Won’t you help today?

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Book haul from The Tattered Cover in Denver (I have recurring dreams about the original location); my dad gets an employee discount there, so I went ham, ten books for a nice price. I already have a chunk of novels in my To Read pile, so this time I went for a lot of short stories.

Stack of books.

Shirley Jackson - Dark Tales
Willa Cather - Collected Stories
Keith Rosson - The Devil By Name
Graham Greene - The Power And The Glory
MR James - Count Magus And Other Ghost Stories
The Penguin Book Of Japanese Short Stories
Agatha Christie - Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories
John Darnielle - Devil House
Ursula K LeGuin - The Lathe Of Heaven
Stanislaw Lem - The Truth And Other Stories

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I had not heard of her, adding to my list, thank you for the rec!

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I’ll get to that one today! Can’t wait!!

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Bafflegabs @bafflegabs.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I’d say the biggest positive of The Odyssey’s success is that way more people will understand what Sting means by “caught between the Scylla and Charybdis” in Wrapped Around Your Finger. Thanks, Chris!

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