iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I was a little too tired to write much useful from the past couple of Pageantry era shows, but I tried anyway, before getting to my "real" work. Thanks David at REMHQ for getting it up and out on a Saturday night! tinyurl.com/ScotEirejust...

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Posting early to be sure my American friends see it so they can register and thenget the email saying “your email address has been validated” (in case they want to fly halfway around the world to see their favorite band) See W.A.S.T.E. of course for details! 🎸🇦🇺🇯🇵

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Such sincerity…. I would delete, report, block, but it’s more fun to wonder how the hell they got my data to send me their junk ❄️

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Something good to do this weekend— it only takes about 5 minutes to personalize your own letter, and these things do indeed make a difference when it comes to congressional action! tinyurl.com/HeadStartAnt...

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

From an art exhibit currently on display until September at the Manchester Cathedral. Crossroad: The Price of Choice diankostov.com#about-section

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I guess some would say this arrangement of elements stands for “getting rid of the alcohol” and I guess it does ever since I heard about Tanqueray 0° (zero alcohol) Now a gin and tonic doesn’t cost me a chance at a decent night of sleep!

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Prague: how perfect that Vaclev Havel Airport has a tree just off the tarmac… 🙏🏻

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

If Bluesky let you add a soundtrack it would have to be a Satie gymnopodie or gnossienne! Alas not in this world, yet 🙏🏻🇫🇷💙

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Wow, not just a few songs out of nowhere, straight out of Dublin with @jacknifelee 🇮🇪 but some really great songs— and the final one I can’t just stop listening to. Yours eternally, indeed 🎸💯 Can’t get this one out of my head: tinyurl.com/U2AshESsong The whole EP— tinyurl.com/U2Ash

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Athens friends: Open Letter from the Keep Athens Local neighborhood group opposing the proposed corporate hotel intended for the UGA Presidents House site on Prince Avenue— much too large and problematic for that site in that historic neighborhood: keepathenslocal.org/wp-content/u...

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Hey Athens, with the holiday rush, it’s easy to miss some important local developments. Like…. I’m amazed at how many people don’t know anything at all about the proposed corporate hotel behind the UGA President’s house on Prince Avenue. With rezoning looming, learn more here KeepAthensLocal.org

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Gratitude this Thanksgiving dawn— for family, friends, music, work, hoops, morning skies, evening walks, decent health (so far), people all over who are resisting authoritarians keeping people down in favor of their own wealth… inspiration from so many people speaking up and speaking out 🙏

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Lucky enough to spend some blessed time in Scotland the past couple of weeks, and a little in London, Wales and Dublin. Back during lockdown, I often dreamed of that part of the world and realized my internal soundtrack was so many Scottish bands….so I made a playlist:| berto.fyi/Mayhap

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Song of the day, sadly— from the prescient playlist of years gone by berto.fyi/HopeDespiteT...

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

July 31: Happy Birthday Bill Berry: the man, the legend, the stalwart and a whole lot more Photo by Anton Corbijn, St Paul de Vence, 🇫🇷 Sept 1994 Bill “I was looking at Roger Moore, 007 when Anton grabbed that. You might recall that the suave secret agent often took his meals at La Colombe d’Or”

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

All kidding aside, the upcoming jailhouse private meeting of the #2 official in the Dept of Justice and the convicted felon Maxwell is very very strange, at best. What could they possibly be up to?

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

The jokes in the headlines today: “Trump taps Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to be interim NASA chief” “Social Security pulls field office staff to answer overwhelmed phone line” “Trump praises English-speaking Liberian president’s English” “Want Medicaid coverage? Go pick some vegetables”

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

So good last weekend— Robert Smith and Olivia Rodrigo and her band of kids making Just Like Heaven sound as new and fresh and wonderful as ever: berto.fyi/justlikeheav... Robert seemed to have fun but I think the 20-somethings were even more chuffed!

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

One of the best of the underrated @R.E.M. albums at the turn of the century…. the album itself, the promotour (Cologne Cathedral and Trafalgar Square with Nelson Mandela, among other highlights), the videos, the one for All the Way to Reno a personal favorite…. I could go on. I love this album

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

A particularly thoughtful analysis of the state of the nation right now by one of the best columnists working for a major newspaper in America, Will Bunch

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Great story from NPR, words and music, and altogether the story… #REM45 on Saturday, a busy day in Belgium and the United States and everywhere else for that matter berto.fyi/43AddqR

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Are you attending an INDIVISIBLE “Hands Off” rally on Saturday? Where? The premise: “Our democracy is under threat. But we will not yield to fascism….” Expecting crowds everywhere…. big cities, small towns. I’m curious to see how this will go — peacefully, effectively, I hope 🙏 handsoff2025.com

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

WIRED: The US is not in the business of selling spectacle. Its value lies in its reliability. Instead it is now erratic, unpredictable. It’s messy. International politics is a relationship business; Donald Trump seems intent on undermining America’s relationships at every turn. berto.fyi/4kW3L7w

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Kari Lake does the dirty work today “The Iranian ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years,” Stephen Capus, President RFE/RL Easier to destroy things than to build up. Agence France-Presse berto.fyi/3Rigy6h

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Just listening on my phone to Spotify and dialed up Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones… and then Spotify went all playlist for half an hour, more Stones, some Led Zeppelin, David Bowie even some R.E.M. And then I came up on a #TeslaTakedown protest. The phone was playing Sympathy for the Devil! 🎸🚙🤣

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

According to a radio expert: “when in doubt, just play Bob Marley or R.E.M.” Boston tonight, Brooklyn tomorrow, finishing up strong in the Midwest next week. The fables have been well reconstructed by these guys, the “British Isles” coming in August @jasonnarducy.bsky.social berto.fyi/4i94v79

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Sitting Still at the 9:30 club in Washington DC, with Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy, and friends reconstructing the fables. Forty years on and the music still brings joy, especially in the hands of these super-talented musicians, on a night like this in the nation’s capitol.

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

No other place I’d rather Washington DC tonight than right here at the 9:30 Club. Rocking and joyous rockshow reconstructing the fables 🙏🏼🎸 @jasonnarducy.bsky.social @jonwurster.bsky.social

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

A message to the neofeudalists in Washington and Moscow— Americans support, freedom and democracy, not Putin 🇺🇦

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Welcome to Athens Michael and Jason and friends. Reconstruction of the fables, indeed! Tonight‘s the night! And they are only halfway through the tour— coming soon to you I hope! (Photo by Katherine Downs) berto.fyi/fablemen

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Surely it’s not long until there is a #AltwaPo I had hung on for the columnists

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

A little doggerel on a stormy Monday: There once was a rich guy named Musk With a manner ungraceful, quite brusque He was good at some things, not so at others And Americans actually turned out to have druthers When his boneheaded coup turned right into a putsch

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Kind of kidding, kind of not… my sleep-deprived attempt to retain perspective after reading this amazing article in Foreign Affairs— find it, read it, brace for it 🙏🏼 The Path to American Authoritarianism What Comes After Democratic Breakdown By Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way berto.fyi/430zNsd

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Seasonal window at TATTE, downtown DC – – young guy, sitting there inside, he’s wide awake in America. Gotta agree with The Dude: this aggression will not stand man!

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

I’m told US Capitol switchboard is swamped and that it’s better for us constituents to call rather than than emailing or writing a letter. Call and leave a message, talk to an intern, whatever is on offer, but the volume of communication, is noted and it matters. 202.224.3121 ☎️ We live in hope!

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

What’s the old proverb, “you never miss the water till the well runs dry”?

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

In five years of reading the Letters from an American newsletters by @heathercoxrichardson, I don’t recall her ever devoting so much of an essay to the words of one individual like she did today to the floor speech of fellow Mainer, Independent US Senator, Angus King. berto.fyi/41aMU9a

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

What are you gonna do now? Hmmmmmm… Read the New York Times article this evening about the Musk takeover of the United States Treasury. On Monday, call all your Republican friends and just ask them what they think of what’s going on That’s a start www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/u...

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Worth knowing about: berto.fyi/altparks H/T 🙏🏼@dianeravitch.bsky.social

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Safe travels everybody – – that’s a hope, a blessing and a prayer And if @bluesky would let me add music, this would be the soundtrack for this photograph berto.fyi/40XLJtz

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

I missed Stephen Curry last night at the Chase Center, but lo and behold, here he was at the barbershop today! 🏀

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Some say to Meta, Some say no Meta, To Meta, no Meta Can’t call the whole thing off! #resistanceisFeudal

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

A Bluesky weeklong intensive, thanks to No Damn Meta week. I like it here— a B to me. They could tweak some things to make it better: letting us add music to photos, like IG; and let us edit when we notice a type-0H! And we all need to tell our friends to join— to help build critical mass etc

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

From the AJC— starting the line for the next round of pardons of hostages, I’m sure

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Awww, Meta misses me – – isn’t that sweet?! The week away has been fine and I’m not all that excited about firing up Facebook and Instagram tomorrow. I’m getting used to @Bluesky— certainly better than nothing, and maybe as it improves and gains traction it’ll will become the right landing place.

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Dear @newyorker.com I will not listen to any story “read by an automated voice” This looks like an interesting story and I might get around to reading it, maybe… but I definitely would have listened to it on my afternoon walk but…no thanks Human narrators please. Robots can’t do this task well 🙏🏼

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Dear New Yorker, I will not listen to any story “read by an automated voice” This looks like an interesting story and I might get around to reading it, maybe… but I definitely would have listened to it on my afternoon walk but…not Human narrators please. Robots can’t do this task well 🙏🏼

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Hmmmm…. This might be a long seminar

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Bertis Downs @bertisdowns.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

If only @bsky.app allowed a soundtrack for shared images, this one would have to be an old favorite from Lloyd Cole and The Commotions first album Rattlesnakes: berto.fyi/3EeGYTe

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