iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Played roulette and got the new covers in thr mail.

Nabokovs The Gift and Laughter in the Dark, with the new covers

Murakami's COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI, with the new cover

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Kinda loving the new Murakami covers.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

The fact that this was released as a pocket book tells me a lot about McLuhan and the past and current state of academic publishing. To the point where I probably don't even need to read it to get it.

An old penguin paperback of THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

My 2yo figuring out how to make a cube "float" off the side of her magnitile house, just seconds before kicking it over. Value to her is only measured in kick-over pleasures at the moment.

A magnitile buulding with a blue-socked foot entering frame left.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Rep. Josh Gottheimer published some Trump-level gutter racism today. I ask my Jewish friends specifically to call his offices, demanding he apologize publicly. (202) 225-4465 (201) 389-1100 (973) 940-1117

El-Sayed next to a photo of ISIS fighters with the headline "The Democratic Party Is Being Hijacked" with the ISIS photo and "Hijacked" circled in red.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

via Michael Warburton's threads page.

In REAR WINDOW (1954) the songwriter — seen here with Hitchcock doing his cameo thang — is played by Ross Bagdasarian, an accomplished singer and songwriter in his own right, who under his stage name David Seville would go on to create ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Listening to Bronson Pinchot read EYES OF THE DRAGON and holy cow! His vocal design for Flagg is outstanding. I really hope @mikeflanaganfilm.com casts him in his perpetually forthcoming DARK TOWER adaptation.

Libby screen for Stephen King's EYES OF THE DRAGON audiobook.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Anyone else out there follow the necessary conversation family? The parents are hardcore MAGA while the son and daughter (both anti-Trump) patiently talk politics with them. Anyway, the mom is now saying "Abolish ICE." It's one person, but that feels significant as we head toward then midterms.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

One of his potential victims? A sound effects designer. The film is a beautifully executed art-horror that is far more interesting that the usual suspects of early Dolby Stereo releases. Nice to see Criterion's blu includes the original 2.0 surround sound mix. www.criterion.com/films/27993-...

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

THE SHOUT! Finally! Among the few truly experimental uses Dolby in the late 70s. Mixed by Pinewood's Gordon McCallum & Graham Hartstone, who were initially skeptical of Dolby, and who would later design the split-surrounds for SUPERMAN. The premise? A man with a voice so loud it kills people.

The cover for Criterion's upcoming blu ray release of Jerzy Skolimowski's THE SHOUT

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Also, we need to talk about how stunning these books look, matching spines to boot!

Covers for all 8 of Kundera's Czech era books

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

The last batch of birthday presents arrived. Did not anticipate Italian Folktales being quite so large. Again, publishers, don't throw away the designs of the spines. Look at those gorgeous Kunderas!

A stack of 5 Kundera books, 8 Calvino books, and 2 Radiance blu rays (Joan the Maid and Hi Mom)

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Saw this for the first time a few years ago and was shocked by how bad it was.

Rob Lowe playing the sax in ST ELMO'S FIRE

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Arrow is releasing FORBIDDEN PLANET alongside its original Perspecta stereo soundtrack. Though, it doesn't look like the original 4.0 surround sound mix will be included. AFAIK, this was *the* stereo mix of the mid-1950s, MGM's attempt to one-up Fox.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

For context, people were bullish on Beto when he trailed by 5. Y'all.

James Talarico Opens Up Lead Over Ken Paxton

May 27, 2026 at 7:02 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Texas finds James Talarico (D) leading Ken Paxton (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 45% to 38%.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Philip Roth on Anne Frank's place in literary history, from his appropriately titled novella The Ghost Writer.

“The ardor in her, the spirit in her—always on the move, always starting things, being boring as unbearable to her as being bored—a terrific writer, really. And an enormously appealing child. I was thinking she’s like some impassioned little sister of Kafka’s, his lost little daughter—a kinship is even there in the face. I think. Kafka’s garrets and closets, the hidden attics where they hand down the indictments, the camouflaged doors—everything he dreamed in Prague was, to her, real Amsterdam life. What he invented, she suffered. Do you remember the first sentence of The Trial? It could be the epigraph for her book. ‘Someone must have falsely traduced Anne F., because one morning without having done anything wrong, she was placed under arrest.’”

Philip Roth
The Ghost Writer

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I know that @cinementalist.bsky.social and @markharris.bsky.social both know this, and certainly my wife @kqsound.bsky.social knows this... but my goodness HEARTBURN is one of the greatest films of the 1980s in every measurable way. Every moment. Anyway... HBD Nora Ephron!

Streep (looking pissed) and Nicholson (smiling, holding his son) on a plane in HEARTBURN

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Reading DeLillo's THE NAMES and then this passage happened.

"Then I was a man. In fact I was forty. I realized I saw the age of forty from a child's viewpoint."
"I know the feeling," I said. "Forty was my father's age. All fathers were forty. I keep fighting the idea I'm fast approaching his age. As an adult I've only been two ages. Twenty-two and forty. I was twenty-two well into my thirties. Now I've begun to be forty, two years shy of the actual fact. In ten years I'll still be forty."

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

They're slowly rolling out new Nabokov covers, so naturally I'm using this opportunity to slowly collect them all (already got PALE FIRE & PNIN). But the B&Ns still carry the older versions on their shelves. I'm wondering if these 3 are phantom covers, like what happened with the Malamud reissues.

new cover for Nabokov's INVITATION TO A BEHEADING

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Calvino's SIX MEMOS is the real deal. The final chapter especially, my goodness.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I had no idea the original poster was so emo, but this film. Kore-eda's AFTER LIFE. I love Ozu, Oshima, Kurosawa, the whole gamut. But AFTER LIFE remains my favorite. (Would make a nice double feature with DEFENDING YOUR LIFE, as well.)

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

The new Taylor Swift song is 🔥

Two people wearing a Taylor Swift shirt thay says "SOMETIMES FREUD IN HAND, SOMETIMES PORTNOY, SOMETIMES BOTH."

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

On the corner of Valley Forge and Stump Hall near Skippack. Seems safe.

A broken telephone pole being propped up solely by telephone lines.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Top 5 Favorite Lubitsch Films: 1) TROUBLE IN PARADISE 2) TO BE OR NOT TO BE 3) HEAVEN CAN WAIT 4) SO THIS IS PARIS 5) THE MERRY WIDOW

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

The dream: A well-designed clothbound novel with no accompanying dust jacket. Especially if that novel is Calvino's IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER. (Fingers crossed there isn't a misprint in chapter two that leads me on an adventure involving literary terrorists and fascist book burners.)

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Cleaning up my computer and found this random screenshot potentially about the first known recording of sound on film -- an 1899 German patent from a Russian Prof. Poliakoff. Feel free to do with this info what you will.

Sound Pioneer
A recent invention by the Russian, Prof. Poliakoff. has revealed the fact that a patent warrant was issued to him in Germany for the recording of sound on film by an electrical process as long ago as 1899. This probably makes him the first man to have electrically recorded sound on film.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Those new "old" Scribner covers for Stephen King's classic novels now include a few later ones. Looking sharp!

The new "retro" for Buick 8, Dr Sleep, and Cell

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

"What can I say, the camera loves me."

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

I mean, just make them all look like this and you're good to go.

The original yellow cover for PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

"Is Sinners a horror film, or just a film with horror elements? Discuss."

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Someone made leather bound versions of The Dark Tower series and they're absolutely gorgeous. www.computeraidedcrafting.com/shop/the-dar...

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Saul Bass's terrific poster for The Fixer. No mention of Malamud, though. Love the book. Haven't seen the film.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Huge fan of this film, as I think most are who've seen it. Innovative jokes and exceptional satire of avant-garde theater. Maybe my favorite De Palma. Excited to see a new blu ray release of it. www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/hi-...

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

NBD, just a statement from the company that took my 2yo daughter's school photos. schools.lifetouch.com/blog/a-messa...

Lifetouch is not named in the Epstein files. The documents contain no allegations that Lifetouch itself was involved in, or that student photos were used in, any illicit activities.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Not much of a gamer now, but in the early 1990s there was this one MS-DOS game called "The Humans" that addicted me hard for about all of my 4th grade year. Does anyone else remember this game?

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