iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Unserious podcast. Do not subscribe. 📽️

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

I'm sure I'm forgetting something but 📽️

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Oh well that’s just fucking great. Now I have to prove to @willsloanesq.bsky.social that I can read.

Photo of the book of the year, Will Sloan’s ED WOOD: MADE IN HOLLYWOOD USA

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Invite me on your pod to honor a prolific actor and I’ll derail things w a rant about 80s sex comedies. Sorry, @jessehawken.bsky.social. RIP, Joe Don.

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

The Gawker oral history is free to download this week on the Kindle app. It was originally published right at the beginning of the tabloid empire’s demise - but to only know it as "the site brought down by Hogan" would be absurd. I’d urge any students of media to devour this thing. a.co/d/06CZpie

excerpt from "Gawker: An Oral History" on Emily Gould's online stardom (1/2)

excerpt from "Gawker: An Oral History" on Emily Gould's online stardom (2/2)

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

👋🏻 📽️ see you in February i guess

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

gonna freshen up on the Joel Silver-verse this week 📽️

Just Watch alerts for Hudson Hawk and Action Jackson

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

people keep asking how John McClane knew that Hans Gruber ("Bill Clay") was one of the terrorists in Die Hard. I didn't include in the oral history bc it's way too much of a detour - but I did torture @jordanfreiman.bsky.social into posting an explainer w/ me web.archive.org/web/20171116...

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Finally! I can say that I've seen every 007 movie - brb, gonna update my dating app profile

last four watched on letterboxd: No Time to Die (3 stars); Spectre (3.5 stars); Skyfall (4 stars); Quantum of Solace (3.5 stars)

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

The Die Hard oral history is free to download right now on Kindle or via the Kindle app, ho ho ho a.co/d/5kCYtP7 It’s prob the most challenging oral history I've done: structuring a wild constellation of a story, wrangling the few who could tell it. I really didn't believe it'd come together.

The cover of “Die Hard: An Oral History” on Kindle

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

🎶 it’s beginning to look a lot like christ-mas 🎶

A Google Trends screenshot that shows search activity currently spiking for the 1988 American film DIE HARD, which, if you hadn’t heard, is a Christmas movie.

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

My last book was a deep dive into the origins and influence of iconic movie lines - a three-year project that kept me sane throughout (most of) Covid. www.instagram.com/reel/CxtEbgM... It also ended up in 2024 Oscar nominee gift bags and was a perfect excuse for me to make the podcast rounds.

photo of the black/silver paperback cover for the book "You Talkin' to Me?": The Definitive Guide to Iconic Movie Quotes

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Got in a rut w/ early 007 but bless Mikey Madison for pulling me outta there 🎥

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

oh no, please not "disarray" - anything but that! www.thecity.nyc/2024/11/12/b...

Today, the City Council is expected to pass a bill called the Fairness in Apartment Rentals Act with a veto-proof majority.

The bill states that a broker who publishes a listing for a property for rent is to be paid by the landlord. It also requires the landlord or broker to disclose all fees tenants pay up front.

Failure to comply comes with penalties.

The bill’s advocates say it will result in more affordability for tenants contending with a red-hot rental market and historically low vacancy rate. But real estate groups have opposed it, saying the measure will ultimately hurt tenants and throw the housing market into disarray.

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Some recent obsessions 📽️ boxd.it/Ak3rO

Movies from my September and October horror binge (1 of 2): Shock, Halloween, A Candle for the Devil, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Rosemary's Baby, The Vampire Lovers, The Brides of Dracula, Vampire Circus, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Psycho

Movies from my September and October horror binge (2 of 2): Torso, Psycho II, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, All the Colors of the Dark, Satanico Pandemonium, Macabre, Phantasm, Black Narcissus, Deep Red, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 10/11/2024

"You should take the entire Pacific Ocean off the table for oil and gas drilling." Snippets of Obama WH staff contemplating regulatory reforms in the Winter 2016 lame duck - giving a sense of what/how they prioritized, etc. From the Obama oral history.

Brian Deese: We were clear eyed from the get-go that the Garland nomination was an uphill fight and that it could well be the case that we wouldn't end up even with a hearing . . . There was an ongoing debate that played out across issue areas. On one hand, people argued that if we took aggressive executive action, it would draw even more attention to the issue and make it more likely that the incoming administration would seek to unravel the good that we'd done. Therefore, that line of argument led you to say, "Keep your head down. As important as it may seem, to do this big thing could actually backfire." The other argument was obvious. "This is the last chance to lock in gains. You might as well make this as difficult as possible. It's not like you can poke the bear any more than the bear has already been poked."

Jason Furman: We certainly implemented executive orders that we had, in effect, been working on for a couple of years. We tried to get most of our executive orders done early, and done in a way that wouldn't be subject to a Congressional Review Act [resolution]. There's always the idea that—and we crossed our t's and dotted our i's—when you do a better notice-and-comment process for regulation, not only do you get a better-quality regulation that's better designed, but you also get something more likely to withstand attempts to change it.

Brian Deese: A good example's the announcement we made jointly with Canada to indefinitely withdraw the Arctic from offshore oil and gas drilling. That was something that we had been working on for over a year with the Trudeau administration, and the agency had done a huge amount of technical work to understand the legal and factual reasons for doing a withdrawal. So the view was that they would do what they're gonna do with respect to oil and gas, and in December, we did what we thought was the right thing. But at the same time, there were arguments that said, like, "You should take the entire Pacific Ocean off the table for oil and gas drilling. Go ahead and do that, because who knows where the future's gonna lie?"

Brian Deese: If we hadn't done the work, then we weren't going to do it well. We wanted to do things the way we had been doing them and be able to seriously justify them if they were going to be associated with our administration. That's not just quaint. It's practically important, too. As all of these legal defenses get geared up, being able to justify that these regulatory actions were actually based in a record of strong fact, that's what would carry the day in court.

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 19/11/2023

Hey @zachschonfeld.bsky.social the 📖 really looks fantastic! Congrats again!

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 16/11/2023

In 2021 I called Werner Herzog about a fan-favorite joke from Aguirre for my movie-quotes book—a morbidly funny throwaway that Jonathan Demme also happens to love. Ultimately I decided against its inclusion because it felt too insular, something only real heads would know 📽️ boxd.it/5aGCvl

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 05/11/2023

My favorite kind of text 📖 😍

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 02/11/2023

our boy @zachschonfeld.bsky.social at the Strand talking about his new 📕 on early Nic Cage global.oup.com/academic/pro...

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 30/10/2023

caught him in TX in 2001-2002. may he rest in peace. ❤️

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Brian Abrams @brianabrams.bsky.social · 20/10/2023

ready for Nick Nolte to yell at me 📽️

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