iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

FWIW, I would personally rather relive 2024 (a tight NLDS, a slightly less stressful NLCS) than 2025 (sweeping through all series until an epic 7 game WS). Not that we’ll make it through the DS, but this thought exercise is my copium for tonight’s silliness.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

For anyone who’s been paying attention through all 162: the Dodgers have struggled against good pitching the entire last month of the regular season. This is an old familiar feeling.

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nerdydodger @nerdydodger.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

like i mean this so lovingly, maybe bench shohei or something

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The Dodgers’ problems in this game (the lack of timely hits with RISP plus poor pitching with 2 outs and 2 strikes) have been dogging us since August. Vibes are off. Hoping the team doesn’t punt tonight bc it’s not like we’re gonna do better facing even better pitching at Truist

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Only tolerating this middling, passionless Dodgers performance today because @weareangelcity.bsky.social keep giving me life with their fight and we got a result against Gotham today. Dodgers need to keep on par w/ all the L.A. teams who came from behind today (looking at the Rams too).

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

What a gutsy result from the brink by @weareangelcity! Sams with that center back assist to our rookie super sub Suarez! WE REFUSE TO QUIT!!! Love this team.

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andré carrington @andrecarrington.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I'll be at USC (L.A.) on October 6 in dialogue with Sarah Kessler about our new books: mine ( #Audiofuturism ) and hers: Out of Sync! shoutout to @inlandemperor.bsky.social dukeupress.edu/out-of-sync

dukeupress.edu

Out of Sync: Ventriloquism in Popular Media from Vinyl to TikTok

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Tuned out of the game for a minute, and noticed we let the Reds score one and felt annoyed until I noticed Treinen gave it up and the Schadenfreude kicked in.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Does everyone laughcry every time they get an email about mental health and wellness from their work place? Or is that just me?

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Stella ✨ @iamwhatyousay.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

GRACIAS SOLECITO

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Dad and I got free tickets to tonight’s Dodgers game last minute. It ain’t over but the STANK continues (I feel like it’s practically elder abuse bringing my pops here after making him drive out from the I.E.). The vibes are so off that I’m actually checking my WORK EMAIL to escape from the malaise.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I can’t even enjoy baseball anymore.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

NEW: Evidence filed in a Colorado case reveals how ICE officers are arresting people without a warrant, which is illegal unless ICE determines the person is a flight risk. A man was dragged from his car after ICE showed him a warrant for someone else and refused to check his ID to see his identity.

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Katherine Ibbett @eparpillee.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

With thanks (kinda) to @inlandemperor.bsky.social for making me realize: it’s thirty years this week since I started grad school. 😬 the tail end of the first Clinton administration and a very different world for international students in the US

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

9 to 5 is one of my queer roots, it was my entry into a feminist “America,” and it inaugurated a lifetime of loving the brilliant Dolly Parton and her music. This world, and especially this country, are much poorer places without her. May the hardest “Working Girl” in show business rest in peace.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Not that anybody needs them, but these are my thoughts on Dr. Jason Arday’s death and the culpability of our “elite” institutions.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I was indoctrinated into two cults this year: the AMC A-list and Delta Skymiles.

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Sam Adams @samadams.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Worth reiterating every time that this is not some cancel-culture purity test: JK Rowling has pledged more than a billion dollars of her Harry Potter money towards bankrolling anti-trans lawsuits. This finances that.

deadline.com

Nicholas Hoult In 'Harry Potter' Season 2 As Gilderoy Lockhart - Excl.

Nicholas Hoult has joined Season 2 of HBO Max's 'Harry Potter. He will play Gilderoy Lockhart, portrayed in the second movie by Kenneth Branagh.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

As a pop culture scholar, I’m tired of how easily a farce like “Juwanna Mann” is treated like a documentary and turned into a conservative “talking point.” It’s become the pretext for cis-men stunting like they’re eligible to play in the WNBA, making a mockery of the league/women’s sports in general

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

My brilliant better half has a new book coming out on ventriloquism, media, performance and politics. Pre-order now!

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sarah @moveablejaw.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

The New York Times has once again rediscovered ventriloquism so let me once again plug my book on the subject coming out October 27 from Duke UP dukeupress.edu/out-of-sync

dukeupress.edu

Out of Sync: Ventriloquism in Popular Media from Vinyl to TikTok

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Uncharacteristically wading into a conversation about literary studies here (I.e. Appiah’s bizarre piece that purports to advocate for the study of literature against the partisan, mostly left-leaning, identitarian, nay “sociological” approaches that have ruined our sense of aesthetic value). 1/

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Christopher Hale @christopherjhale.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

NEW: Many conservatives hoped for a standoff between New York’s Muslim democratic socialist mayor and Pope Leo XIV’s new archbishop. Instead, a shared love of the poor — and the Knicks — is making them fast friends.

open.substack.com

New York’s Odd Couple: A Muslim Democratic Socialist Mayor and Pope Leo XIV’s New Archbishop

What Mayor Mamdani and Archbishop Hicks share turns out to matter more than what divides them.

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Mel Andrews @bayesianboy.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

You don’t shoot a goldendoodle in a Knicks jersey bc he’s excited. You don’t shoot a 1-year-old bc you suspect his parent stole diapers (she didn’t). If you are that scared of a dog & an infant and have no idea how to de-escalate without firing a weapon, you probably shouldn’t be a cop.

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Frank Conniff @frankconniff.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

The Knicks victory is generating so much passion and excitement that if it ran in a primary election, Establishment Democrats would not support it.

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ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

España, by Ricard Verde, 1937, 📸 by Ronald Cortes

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Tom Phillips @tom-phillips.com · 08/06/2026

Call me an idealist, but I think that a prerequisite for hosting an international sport event should be that you're willing to host an international sport event.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Not going to spoil the outcome of Top Chef 23, but just came here to say that this is the most pleasing final 3 I’ve ever seen. (My favorite final 2 were Kristen Kish vs. Brooke Williamson).

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Thor Benson @thorbenson.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Why does Wemby, the tallest player, not simply eat the other athletes

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

This isn’t about keeping people out, but keep us IN.

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Cheryl Lynn Eaton @cheryllynneaton.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

One of the saddest things about this era is discovering how little people charged for their souls.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Re: the Hacks finale - in a moment when we, as a culture, want desperately not to have to fight anymore, it’s really meaningful to have something remind us that our core pleasure/talent are reasons to stick around a little longer; to live for who we are, not just who we love. Beautiful.

Two women walk down the Vegas strip arm-in-arm between Paris and the Aria

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

The fact that a professional rival (former friend) took the time to mock me for mourning my dead cats when I haven’t spoken to them in years says so much more about the smallness of that person than the “smallness” of grieving our pets.

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victoria scott @victoriascott.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Every Republican primary is between 99% Hitler and 110% Hitler and voters are breaking the lever they’re going so hard for 110% Hitler

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

It’s a bleak time to be watching Dodgers baseball.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t trust the Americans who’ve been released from the MV Hondius quarantine in Nebraska to “self-monitor” successfully. We already had an exposed passenger who debarked earlier break her self-quar to go on a Pacific Island vacay before France barred her entry to Polynesia

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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 11/05/2026

Didn't the Supreme Court say Texas couldn't use their old maps back in December because it was too close to the primary elections? But it's okay for Alabama, where voting has ALREADY BEGUN?

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Christopher D. Brown @cdbrow1.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

I have worked for Government for 30 years. I have NEVER seen Government work so fast to do anything then disenfranchise black voters.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

I call BS on this idiotic Jacobin article by Jarek Paul Ervin on rock’s political resurgence over pop, more specifically the “symbolically diverse” Poptimism that never actually existed, but that white dudes groused about bc they didn’t get to set the mark for what music remained worthy of criticism

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Daisy Gardner @daisygardner.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Chris Shaw referred to someone in attendance as a “bitch with a Pride flag.” Later, when he saw a trans man who has critiqued Shaw’s wife at board meetings - he called both of us “ladies.” Again, this dude’s wife is running for CA state office and is on the GOP slate with Bianco and Hilton.

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Karen Tongson @inlandemperor.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

It’s a great book for those who want to become even more enmeshed in the world of Killing Eve. Congrats @claresears.bsky.social!

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 21/04/2026

For too long, bureaucracy kept 7 child care centers across our city empty — spaces that should have been alive with laughter instead collected dust. We've run through that red tape. This fall, all 7 will open their doors, bringing an additional 240 free 3-K seats & real relief to working families.

Mayor Mamdani and a group of children hold hands while running through red tape in a hallway.

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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 22/04/2026

Absolutely dying at “we’re celebrating Confederate Heritage month for mysterious reasons”

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Helen Kennedy @helenkennedy.com · 22/04/2026

Priceless post from the official White House social media

Margo Martin
@MargoMartin47
X.com
Congratulations, Georgia Women's Tennis!

The photo shows Trump and five white dudes in red ties standing in front of and completely blocking 10 young women

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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 22/04/2026

Pulitzer-worthy reporting here from Minnesota immigrant news @sahanjournal.bsky.social. 70+ children detained during Operation MetroSurge. 30 sent to Dilley. Two dozen held >20 days, a Flores violation. 7 still detained as of March 10. ~20 have been deported. sahanjournal.com/immigration/...

sahanjournal.com

ICE detained more than 70 Minnesota children, data reveals

Immigration officials detained more than 70 Minnesota children between Dec. 1 and March 10, a Sahan analysis of court records and federal deportation data shows.

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