iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

face of an angel / face of a maniac

A tabby cat lying on the floor with her rainbow snake toy looking very sweet and angelic, eyes turned up with a slight smile

A tabby cat lying on the floor with her rainbow snake toy looking unhinged, one eye wide and the other squinted, her expression a maniacal half-smile/half-grimace

D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

If this story inspires you to make your own fact slab, PLEASE be sure to use the correct procedures and materials in its construction and maintenance. Slab care is no laughing matter!

Frame from The Simpsons S4E7: actor Troy McClure in overalls, cap and tool belt, standing in front of a cracked wall. The caption reads, "First, patch the cracks in the slab."

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Close enough Apparently my strongest regional markers include pronouncing pecan as "pick-AWN" and calling woodlice "roly-polies"

A dialect map of the USA with the "most like you" area concentrated in Oklahoma and Texas. Text above the map reads, "You talk most like someone from Oklahoma—about 55% of your answers match a typical resident."

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

“He is the most gamesome and light-hearted of all the whales, making more gay foam and white water generally than any other of them.” - Melville on the humpback whale (Moby-Dick ch. 32, “Cetology”)

A humpback whale’s flipper, resembling a white tentacle or periscope, held up out of the ocean as if waving hello

The flukes of a humpback’s whale’s tail disappearing into the water

The backs and dorsal fins of five humpback whales, just barely emerging from the water

A humpback whale breaching in the middle distance, its flipper extended and its belly turned upward, showing its ventral grooves. A white spot and a cluster of what look like barnacles are visible on its chin

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Almost forgot to wish everyone a happy Bastille Day! Ah, ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, / L'égalité partout régnera

A 1793 etching entitled Hell Broke Loose, or, The Murder of Louis. It shows Louis XVI being executed by guillotine on a scaffold surrounded by soldiers while devils fly around playing drums and horns and singing the Revolutionary anthem "Ça Ira."

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Highly choice epigraphs for this story in Ananda Lima’s excellent Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil

Epigraphs of “Tropicália” by Ananda Lima:

“I’m only interested in what is not
mine.” - Oswald de Andrade, The Cannibalist Manifesto, 1928

“Fred, what we want is, I think, what everyone wants, and what you and your viewers have—civilization … We want to be civilized.” - Brain Gremlin, Gremlins II: The New Batch, 1990

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Happy World Bee Day (art by Kathy Lam aka Dawning Crow)

A circular drawing of a fuzzy bee with a white cat clinging to its back

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Spotted in the window of Dog Eared Books in San Francisco: a copy of The Nightmare Box signed by @cynthiasaysboo.bsky.social! Excellent collection, recommended to horror readers in the Bay Area and beyond

A copy of The Nightmare Box and Other Stories by Cynthia Gómez in a bookstore window, with a label that says “Signed by the author!”

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Cat outside our Airbnb giving me The Stare

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Excellent book btw, recommended to enjoyers of literary eeriness and quiet oceanic dread/awe

Book cover of Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro, translated from the French by Eve Hill-Agnus. The cover image shows a cutaway view of the ocean from surface to floor, a container ship on the surface dwarfed by blue depths

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

cherry blossoms in peak bloom at Branch Brook Park, Newark

White cherry blossoms on dark branches against a blue sky

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Happy April Fool’s Day from the April fool herself

A tabby cat sticking her head out from under the flap of a cardboard box lying on its side

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Birthday book haul acquired in a multi-store frenzy

A stack of paperbacks:
* Persona by Aoife Josie Clements
* Fatale by Jean-Patrick Manchette
* Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov
* The Butcher of Nazareth by David Scott Hay
* Human Sacrifices by María Fernanda Ampuero
* Panics by Barbara Molinard

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore at the Knockdown Center in Maspeth

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

gizmos and contraptions at the Calder Gardens in Philadelphia

a mobile of black sections connected by wires hanging from a white ceiling

a mobile of black and red sections hanging against an off-white wall

a vaguely insectile or clock-like assemblage of black and red sections hanging on an off-white wall

a construction of red, white and black spheres on a black frame standing in a concrete alcove

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Capture and Burning of Washington, D.C. in 1814 (wood engraving, 1876)

Wood engraving of the capture and burning of Washington, D.C. by the British in 1814. Soldiers gather in the foreground while a classical-style building burns in the background, clouds of smoke rolling through the sky.

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Have you considered that your kid may be some kind of vegetation deity?

painted interior of a 6th-century BCE Greek vase depicting the god Dionysus sailing through a sea full of dolphins on a ship with grape vines growing from the mast

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

It’s true! Check out FCQ #8 for gnawing tales of weird and cosmic horror, plus cover art that will send a chill up your spine 🥶😱

Cover art for Fraidy Cat Quarterly Volume 8: Gnaw. Image of a snowy, shadowy forest, two eyes glowing from the darkness

Pages Found Under a Child’s Bed
D. Matthew Urban

Monday
It’s hard to write today. I found Daddy dead in the kitchen this morning. I feel all sick like my belly’s full of ice and worms. It feels like when I wake up at night and hear the folks moaning outside, only it’s even worse because Daddy always comes and yells hush out my window to make the folks go back under the lake where they came from, but he can’t come now.

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Before man was, SantaCon waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.

Young people in Christmas/Santa-related garb walking down a street in the East Village

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Spotted in Ridgewood on the way to the NYC Indie Horror Book Fair: a van full of skinned carcasses. Auspicious!

A white van parked at the curb of a city street. The van’s open back doors show a cargo space full of skinned animal carcasses, perhaps goats or sheep

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Your last saved meme is your moral philosophy. Guess I'm an anprim now. Could be worse!

A four-panel cartoon captioned "My plans for the next 6 months."
First panel. A woman in an office surrounded by ringing phones and work-related demands
Second panel. The woman putting on a bear suit
Third panel. The bear-suited woman walking through leafless woods toward a cave
Fourth panel. The bear-suited woman hibernating in the cave alongside two bears

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday! Come on down to Book Culture LIC for Indie Horror Night. A fun time for all, featuring readings, a discussion/Q&A and book signing. There may also be 🍪cookies🍪

Join us for Indie Horror Night, featuring D. Matthew Urban, OF Cieri, Saskia Nislow, LC von Hessen, and Sasha Ravitch! When: 7pm on Tuesday November 11. Where: Book Culture LIC, 26-09 Jackson Ave., Long Island City, NY 11101

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

If you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

October is over, but the hauntings continue! A week from tomorrow, Book Culture LIC is hosting Indie Horror Night, featuring @ossuary.bsky.social, @lcvonhessen.bsky.social, @sasharavitch.bsky.social, Saskia Nislow, and me. Weirdos of New York, come on down!

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Well, after three days of fun and games at VoidCon, it’s back to the grind of my real job: human pedestal

Selfie of me stooped forward looking into the camera while a tabby cat with alert expression and motion-blurred tail perches on my back

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Final celebrity sighting in Gettysburg: stopped to look at this memorial for two Marines who crashed their plane in 1922 during a reenactment of Pickett’s Charge(?!), and who should I meet but THE Cool Koala

A sign in Gettysburg, PA labeled “The Last Line-of-Duty Deaths on Gettysburg Battlefield,” commemorating two Marines who died in a plane crash during a reenactment of Pickett’s Charge in 1922. On the ground next to the sign lies a colorful object, which closer inspection proves to be none other than…

Cool Koala! A brown stuffed koala with a jaunty smile, four different-colored paws (blue, orange, purple and yellow), and the words “COOL Koala” written in a white patch on its chest

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Welcome to GARA, human traveler. Would it please you to enjoy our recreation park?

Signs on the edge of a park in Gettysburg, PA. The sign on the left says “Recreation Park / Borough of Gettysburg.” The sign on the right says “Welcome to GARA / Gettysburg Area Recreation Authority”

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Spotted in Gettysburg: a cat and its imitators

A gray and white cat sleeping on an upholstered chair next to two artificial cats, one orange and one gray

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Here in Gettysburg, PA, home of this metal bear, to attend @voidcon.bsky.social. Will this be the most historic event ever to happen in Gettysburg? Let’s find out!

A rusty metal bear on the roof of a hardware store in Gettysburg, PA

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

There are cryptids everywhere for those with the eyes to see

A blurry photo of a tabby cat’s face looking out from under a bookshelf

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

spotted in Austin: a big thing of parakeets

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

Studies in Suffocation I, Robyn O’Neil. Seen at the Menil Collection, always one of my first stops when I’m in Houston

Studies in Suffocation I by Robyn O’Neil, a graphite drawing showing bowed heads mostly submerged in a dark, textured substance

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Worth remembering that any time I say "It's happening!" I'm talking about The Happening (2008), directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, and Betty Buckley

Still from The Happening (2008): Mark Wahlberg looking very concerned against the background of a grassy field, trees in the distance

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Fucking moo brings her bratty sprog in at 8:59am dressed in a generic Kmart cape with stars and glitter and fucking gaudy BLAH. Twig for a wand.

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

picture this: we go nationwide, Sufjan Stevens this thing

Don Draper standing in front an ad mock-up displaying the words OKLAHOMA CIRCUS PUNK above an outline of the state of Oklahoma

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D. Matthew Urban @breathinghead.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Almost missed International Cat Day! Pancake hopes you had a good one

A tabby cat lounging on an office chair, her expression resembling a sly or dreamy smile

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