iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

read this story by @perfidiousscript.bsky.social !!! goes so hard ... goes like crazy ... genuine dalliance with divinity

052

Reposted by steve barbaro

Tòfol @cristofol.org · 03/07/2026

No, that's not a cloud, it's a wildfire I can see from where I live.

081

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

i think people definitely do prefer familiarity over variety, especially as they get older.. there are monocultural tendencies that recur in popmusic listening? imo the tendency to listen to the same stuff over & over seems a corollary to people who simply stop seeking new music as they age

020

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

i "grew up" listening to 90s rap & i love all that stuff but.. i hate the constant lifelong reprise-worship of those same albums over & over.. reminds me of boomers who ingest nothing much beyond the same ~500 monocultural "classic rock" songs their whole ass lives

7181

Reposted by steve barbaro

J G Ballard bot @ballardbot.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

The satellite dishes on the roofs resembled the wimples of an order of computer-literate nuns, committed to the sanctity of the workstation and the pieties of the spreadsheet.

075

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

The voice on the other end of the line sounded like a not quite convincing attempt to reconstitute the actual bodily consistency of whoever was in fact (apparently) speaking.

030

Reposted by steve barbaro

reply-token.bsky.social @reply-token.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

you can stop wandering when things stay perpetually good, which is to say never

011

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

neuroaesthetics?! yeah OK whatever buddy that's just me whenever i open a window … & find myself piqued by the stray Western Avenue exhaust fumes wafting through the trees

050

Reposted by steve barbaro

Samuel M. Moss @perfidiousscript.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Jason Fuhrman with a kind, thoughtful, episode on his Youtube channel about 'The Veldt Institute' www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGat...

youtube.com

Life is a Malady | The Veldt Institute by Samuel M. Moss

YouTube video by Jason Fuhrman

042

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

even more pleasurable than reading a friend's book & finding the book to be a very great book—emailing said same friend to tell them their own book is indeed a great book & being assured that the book in fact could well have been a substantially better book ... the true literary empyrean ☁️ ✍️ 🌀

070

Reposted by steve barbaro

cris @ilchinealach.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

armed conflicts more than doubled in the last 15 years

131

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

song is aging incredibly well i must say.. "civilization without society" ... "stability without stasis" ... & the power of the modest buzzy bassline shifts—sheesh.. just amazing, no matter how insufferable i find its maker(s) www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHFz...

youtube.com

Kids See Ghosts

YouTube video by KIDS SEE GHOSTS - Topic

010

Reposted by steve barbaro

Alvin Lu @alvinlu.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

From the archives, 2024: "The White Album" is, technically, I think, both autofiction and novelette, on Tokyo’s seasons and the lives of salarymen, published in new_sinews Issue 8, edited and designed by @illepitaph.bsky.social, in inimitable style. www.newnewsinews.com/issue8/album

newnewsinews.com

alvin_lu ~ the white album — new_sinews

_Alvin Lu_fiction_THE WHITE ALBUM_news_sinews_issue8_

042

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

1 of the most fundamental & indeed dismal discrepancies of the current moment—believing, namely, that you are expressing something essential & even "actionable" ... while functioning, for all intents & practical purposes, as mere data

061

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

ive been working on this poem "Shitty Fascist-Adjacent Wackass & Even Indeed Quite Precious Quote-Unquote Flash Fiction" for so long ... i hope to share my poem "Shitty Fascist-Adjacent Wackass & Even Indeed Quite Precious Quote-Unquote Flash Fiction" w/ friends quite soon :)

040

Reposted by steve barbaro

cris @ilchinealach.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

The know your enemy podcast interviewed an entrepreneur presenting as disillusioned fascist, is this the third time? such fucking marks those guys

041

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

the AI email gmail is suggesting i send is actively referencing text from another recent email i sent, but assuming wrongly that this potential email's sendee knows the sendee of the other email that the AI's referencing ... does gmail-AI believe email 2 be a function of inherently cozy community ??

041

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

read a bit from PLANE OF CONSUMMATE FINITUDE last night here in Chicago—been some months since the last time ... perhaps you might be interested in a copy! or else (alas) simply let this message slide down your timeline oblivionwardly :) newnewsinews.com/plane

newnewsinews.com

steve barbaro — plane of consummate finitude — new_sinews

steve barbaro — plane of consummate finitude — a collection of poems with deep photomontage backgrounds — new_sinews

071

Reposted by steve barbaro

Israel A. Bonilla @israelbonilla.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

You can now read "Eulalio Salmantino, 1921-2000" in the spring issue of @exactingclam.bsky.social: www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-20... Very grateful to Guillermo and Jacob.

064

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

The speeding; staring. Incessantly consummated sprawlscapes. Fastfood signage looming crypto-crucifixially. Long drive after long self-un-fulfilling drive down earsearing arteries.

151

Reposted by steve barbaro

Tòfol @cristofol.org · 14/02/2026

The bullshit asymmetry principle, or why Bannon's strategy to 'flood the zone with shit' is so hard to counter. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandol...

en.wikipedia.org

Brandolini's law - Wikipedia

011

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

this is a jellyfish bruschetta acct now ... all about the jellyfish bruschetta & in fact *only* about the jellyfish bruschetta ... & if it's not about the jellyfish bruschetta sincerest apologies but—just can't fuck with it :(

070

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

neoliberal professionalism lives on in a weirdly pure form in the contemporary anglosphere poetry world ... some of whose constituents are frenetically publishing self-promoting organizing readings self-commemorating etc.. all of which actions (even more bizarrely) are often utterly bleh

060

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

same. this one's got a lot of the same cleverness-at-all-costs.. it's an interesting reference point for the last samurai

010

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

almost finished reading DeWitt & Gridneff's YOUR NAME HERE—love the perspectival shifts ... the hyperclever cultural referents—well, i have lots of thoughts.. truly an E-Mail Novel ... seems to be present-tensely tackling a culture already ~20 years in the past; still, quite the dizzingly fun read

140

Reposted by steve barbaro

Art Viewer @arthistory.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Susanna kneeling like Gabriel in an Annunciation and everybody with banderoles. What a weird Susanna and the Elders from Lorenzo Lotto, 1517. Florence, Uffizi.

Oil painting with full landscape and walled city in the background. Foreground stone walled bath, no vegetation. Susanna nearly naked but crouching like an ancient Venus but with hand raised like Gabriel announcing whatever's written on her banderole. Four(!) Elders, one with a banderole all very actively moving about. Odd.

071

Reposted by steve barbaro

Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 02/02/2026

The $1 billion OBBBA line-item for DOD "border operations" and the "temporary detention of migrants" is being used by the military as a slush fund to set up private-contractor infrastructure to treat the United States as a theater of military operations (Region 27) in coordination with DHS.

SEC. 20011. IMPROVING DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE BORDER SUPPORT AND COUNTER-DRUG MISSIONS.
In addition to amounts otherwise available, there are appropriated to the Secretary of Defense for fiscal year 2025, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to remain available until September 30, 2029, $1,000,000,000 for the deployment of military personnel in support of border operations, operations and maintenance activities in support of border operations, counter-narcotics and counter-transnational criminal organization mission support, the operation of national defense areas and construction in national defense areas, and the temporary detention of migrants on Department of Defense installations, in accordance with chapter 15 of title 10, United States Code.

11810

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

disturbing but not-un-enlightening to trace the increasing adjacency of "alt-lit" types to unabashed fascists on the other app ... not terribly surprising—if you just auto-concede to lacking any sort of intellectual substance let alone coherence, you're bound to default to the zeitgeist's toxicities

050

Reposted by steve barbaro

Kári Tulinius @kattullus.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

A poem of mine is the subject of the inaugural translation puzzle contest in N+1 Magazine’s Miss Translation column by Bela Shayevich Funnily enough, when I wrote it my first thought was that it could never be translated, and it’s been translated into more languages than any other poem I’ve written

nplusonemag.com

Introducing Miss Translation | Bela Shayevich

You may have noticed that this column feels a little incestuous (there is that Saskia Vogel again . . .) but that’s our world in translation. It’s small, and its actors, often by necessity, are prolif...

1223

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

characteristic sentence from my novel-in-progress: "One couldn’t help but think it was the very distinctive non-distinction which paradoxically if not-un-culture-specifically fueled the fame."

040

Reposted by steve barbaro

The Dial @thedialmag.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

"We’re selling vibes, textures. A sunset on the hills in Chianti, riding a bike on an island in Sicily. Imagine us discussing it in parliament with an Italian accent: l’importanza del made in Italy. We use the English expression unironically. It’s aimed at Americans," Francesco Pacifico writes.

thedial.world

Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? — The Dial

How American tourists took over everything.

064

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

kinda, yes! lol ... proto-mechanical-seurat

010

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

venetian bottleglass window +++ concomitant shadow

150

Reposted by steve barbaro

Addison Zeller @addisonzeller.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

A lot of alt lit folks feel like raccoons in the dumpster of literacy. They have a certain nocturnal luster but you know they’d probably give a life-threatening illness to your pet

0142

Reposted by steve barbaro

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

mint🌿🌿🌿

0131

Reposted by steve barbaro

new_sinews @new-sinews.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

a high lyric fictive sequence ... as assuredly rhythmic as it is philosophically rich ... "Entries" by Zachary Gary ... new_sinews issue9 newnewsinews.com/entries

newnewsinews.com

zachary_gary ~ entries — new_sinews

_ZACHARY GARY_fiction_ENTRIES_new_sinews_issue9_

011

Reposted by steve barbaro

new_sinews @new-sinews.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

retrofuturistic diagnoses ... apportioned into clinically incisive increments ... "A Chronology of the Not Too Distant Future" by Lisa Hsiao Chen.. new_sinews issue9 newnewsinews.com/chronology

newnewsinews.com

lisa_hsiao_chen ~ a_chronology_of_the_not-too-distant_future — new_sinews

_Lisa Hsiao Chen_fiction_A CHRONOLOGY OF THE NOT-TOO-DISTANT FUTURE_new_sinews_issue9_

021

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

sending out some snailmail fiction submissions ... the paper; the staples ... the optimism ... the pagination! like it's ~2007

160

Reposted by steve barbaro

videogame history @vghistory.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

g.a.m.e. (genuine arcade machine entertainment) (1991) '..it looks like a coin operated arcade machine but is actually a system for home game consoles. users can connect up to 3 different video game systems & a vcr to the unit. it has a $2,500 suggested retail price.' archive.org/details/elec...

dude playing neo geo magician lord on the g.a.m.e.
caption:
magician lord for the neo-geo benefits from being displayed on the g.a.m.e.'s monitor.

showing an electronic board and expansion module.
caption:
currently, arcade masters has developed modules for all of the most popular systems.

28116

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

the gulfs the crags the roads the figs the teeth the peaks the magma the lizards the dirt the graves the cacti the snails the sheep

030

Reposted by steve barbaro

new_sinews @new-sinews.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

meticulously rhythmic tale of procuring employment ... full of booze & colors & mythic precision ... "Shortbread" by @zebulonhourse.bsky.social ... new_sinews issue9 newnewsinews.com/shortbread

newnewsinews.com

zebulon_horse ~ shortbread — new_sinews

_Zebulon Horse_fiction_SHORTBREAD_news_sinews_issue9_

043

Reposted by steve barbaro

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 05/01/2026

‘On the night of 28 February 2004, the Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was forced from power. He claimed he’d been kidnapped and didn’t know where he was being taken until, at the end of a 20-hour flight, he found himself in the CAR.’ From the archive: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v2...

lrb.co.uk

Paul Farmer · Who removed Aristide?

0155

steve barbaro @illepitaph.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Selinunte indeed—Greek colony on the southwest Africa-facing coast of Sicily. Dead ass city: twentysome decades. Monuments preserved as monumentally self-confusing debris. Ruins; wreckage. Fixity fixity fixity!

030