iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Why, I can remember in journalism school when we had lessons about conflicts of interest and why it was unethical to be involved in decision-making about stories where you have a personal connection or personal interest. I guess that was a waste of tuition money.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Of course they will. They are replaceable and don't own the companies!

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Book publishers are quietly deploying AI to write marketing copy, design covers, and email agents and authors. Their staffers are pushing back. archive.is/Fn7r7

archive.is

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Since Zoe Kazan's story is about Adam and Kate, and they end in miserable condition (madness and suicide for one, and defeat and stroke paralysis for the other), there is no real catharsis and little hope, only a terribly contemporary sense of the futility of American life.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The upshot, though, is that the final scenes don't hit quite as hard, even though they are more clearly laid out and explained (sometimes, over-explained thanks to Lee's unnecessary exposition, seemingly to correct the 1955 film's lack of clarity).

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The decision to cast actors who looked like the 1955 stars and to style the kids with the same hair styles and similar costumes shows how much Elia Kazan's film was on Zoe Kazan's mind, however much her version shifts the focus to back to Adam and Cathy/Kate.

The cast of the 1955 "East of Eden" in a publicity still.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A big reason for that is this version of Adam (Christopher Abbott), while echoing Raymond Massey's voice and look, is much younger and softer and almost kindly. He's not the intimidating, righteous prick from the 1955 film, so his fits of pique read as immaturity, not rectitude.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

As such, the new Cal (Joseph Zada) does his best scaled-down imitation of James Dean's performance, but it lacks the emotional connection, both because Zoe Kazan fixates less on his character and because the script gives him less to be emotional about.

Joseph Zada as Cal Trask sitting in a field in New Zealand doubling for California.

James Dean as Cal Trask sitting in a field.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The older film was a character study of Cal Trask (James Dean) and as such minimized the other characters. The new miniseries services all the characters equally, and Cathy prima inter pares, but that sometimes pulls focus and undercuts the emotion.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Since I wrote a biography of James Dean, it was interesting to compare Zoe Kazan's version to that of her grandfather, Elia Kazan, whose 1955 film covered the last third of the novel. The longer, fuller narrative makes more logical sense, filling in gaps the older film skipped.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The new "East of Eden" is beautifully produced, and the leads act through it masterfully, even the didactic parts imparting Zoe Kazan's conventionally liberal moral lessons. However good I thought it, it did not "change [my] life" as Esquire promised. www.esquire.com/entertainmen...

esquire.com

Netflix’s ‘East of Eden’ Is Breathtaking Beyond Belief

Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott, and Hoon Lee honor John Steinbeck’s epic while moving into a class of their own.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Wish me luck. My agent will start pitching my book proposal tomorrow. Let's hope someone likes it!

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Though I was just a low-level communications person, I was there when museum officials catalogued and debated which pieces from the museum's collection of 9/11 artifacts, the largest in the world, would go on permanent display as the temporary exhibit transitioned to permanent.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

After college, I did some work for the New York State Museum, and one of the exhibits I contributed to was "The World Trade Center: Rescue, Recovery, Response." I edited, revised, and wrote many of the placards, a number of which are still there 20 years later.

An image of the New York State Museum 9/11 exhibit, featuring steel from the World Trade Center and a large American flag that flew over Ground Zero.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

But even now, 25 years later, it's still difficult to look at the video of the events of that day, and maybe that's why the random, retrospectively unimportant details get seared into your mind, to avoid having to relive head-on the unimaginable horror of what we all saw happen.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This was, of course, only two weeks into the semester. The professor, incidentally, took a visceral dislike to me for reasons I never understood and she never explained, and by the end of the term told me that she would make sure I never worked in network news.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I remember putting on the TV in the classroom to watch the news coverage, and I remember her insisting that our homework was still due and we needed to go to the edit bay to edit entertainment stories while all this went on. It made me mad.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

In retrospect, she was probably in shock, but it felt so weird having a network TV producer tell us that it wasn't a big deal, there was nothing more to see, and we needed to get back to the real work of talking about entertainment interviews.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Most professors canceled class, but my broadcast journalism professor, a former producer for Barbara Walters, did not. I assumed she wanted to discuss news coverage, but no. She announced at 1 PM that that 9/11 was over and we didn't need to talk about it.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

It's weird the random detail you remember, like discussing the events over lunch, where the dining hall was serving leftover chicken fingers, or helping to rig up a semi-legal cable hook up in an auditorium so students could watch news coverage.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I had had the Today Show on before I left for breakfast, so when I turned the TV back on, that's where I saw the second plane. I was one of the few with cable TV in my dorm, so others stopped by to watch on my TV.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

On 9/11, I was in an 8 AM class at college, and the professor, unusually, dismissed us 20 minutes early because he had run out of material for the day, so it was pure happenstance that I returned to my dorm room to flick on the TV just as the news broke.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Therapists and divorce lawyers say there is a new trend of women leaving their husbands after watching "Heated Rivalry," a show that caused them to realize their relationships were sterile and unfulfilling. www.elle.com/life-love/se...

elle.com

Why a Gay Hockey Romance Is Making Straight Women Leave Their Husbands

For some viewers, Heated Rivalry was a wake-up call for what’s missing in their own relationships.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The same vulture rights management firm that governs use of James Dean's image is profiled in Air Mail for their current efforts to restrict use of Einstein's image. They're even deploying AI to find anyone wearing a fright wig and claiming to be smart. airmail.news/issues/2026-...

airmail.news

Einstein's Eternal Returns

Albert Einstein has been dead for 71 years, but his face is still making a fortune selling smart meters, A.I. software, and cognition-boosting candy bars.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

When my 9-year-old watched "Garfield and Friends," I had to explain the reference to him, just as my parents had to do for me when it first aired in the early '90s, since Merv Griffin's talk show went off the air in 1986, when I was 5 years old.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

CBS boss Bari Weiss is "enraptured" with Chris Cuomo and thinks he will save the network. I'm sure that will go great. 90% of his audience did not follow him when he changed networks, and Cuomo currently has 254,000 viewers. That will help CBS how? www.yahoo.com/entertainmen...

yahoo.com

CBS Boss Reportedly Looking at Fired CNN Host for New Job

The MAGA-curious head of CBS News is reportedly text-bombing a fired CNN host in a bid to lure him over to the Trump-friendly network. Bari Weiss, 42, took on the top job at the once-prestigious netwo...

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

That's a good question. I don't recall seeing a photo of it, only the transcript, and I am not sure where the book currently is.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I am so glad that you enjoyed the book, and as an author, there are few greater rewards than knowing that my words moved a reader!

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Reposted by Jason Colavito

Ever Dundas @everdundas.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Thanks so much to @jasoncolavito.bsky.social for writing 'Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean', exploring sexuality, masculinity, and the morality of the time, how this impacted Dean’s life, and how it's still relevant today. As a Dean fan and a queer person, this book means a lot to me [1/6]

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Am I supposed to be shocked that wealth urban elites face fewer barriers to achieving stable relationships and family lives? Having lots of money makes many things easier.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

It is really not nice to get a large surprise medical bill sent electronically at 6:30 pm on a Saturday with no clear explanation of what it is for and a notice that I can't find out until their office opens on Monday. Now I can just be upset all weekend.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I was on the "Things Visible & Invisible" podcast today to talk about James Dean and the truth about his secret life. www.youtube.com/watch?v=flhQ...

youtube.com

James Dean's Secret Life: Was the Truth in Plain Sight?

YouTube video by Things Visible & Invisible

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

An Albany woman was arrested for plotting to bomb the New York State Capitol for ISIS. Disturbing that this happened only a couple of miles from me, and I was right next door to the Home Depot where she bought the supplies while she was there yesterday. cbs6albany.com/news/local/w...

cbs6albany.com

New York Capitol, Albany City Hall listed as targets in foiled attack plot

Federal investigators say an Albany woman tried to provide material support to ISIS.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Penguin has scrubbed journalist Ross Barkan's forthcoming book from its website and removed sales listings for it after New York magazine found Barkan had plagiarized in at least 67 columns he wrote for the magazine. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

washingtonpost.com

Publisher suspends sales of journalist’s book after plagiarism review

New York Magazine said it updated 67 of Ross Barkan’s columns that did not include proper attribution. His Penguin Random House book on Mayor Zohran Mamdani was set for the fall.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I don't think there is any genre that doesn't have its share of quality and trash. And most books in any genre are going to be trash by definition.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Free version if you are paywalled: www.msn.com/en-us/entert...

msn.com

MSN

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The hottest new literary genre is aimed squarely at men who don't like to read: Books that tell straightforward, mechanical fantasy stories modeled on describing playing through a video game, complete with "leveling up" and "skill trees." Meet LitRPG. www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/n...

telegraph.co.uk

Forget romantasy, the hottest new literary trend is strictly for men

Having not been catered to by traditional publishers, male readers have been discovering – and devouring – books with video-game qualities

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Historians are in broad consensus that Jesus was a historical figure. However, there has never been any evidence of anyone possessing magical powers.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

South Korea plans a new run of a musical about the life of James Dean, featuring an "imaginative" account of a supernatural game of souls occurring in the last minutes of Dean's life. The show, originally performed in January, opens next month. www.nc.press/news/article...

nc.press

‘James Byron Dean: The Original’ Finds Three Faces of a Restless Icon in Hui, Yoon Seobin and Lee Dongwook - 뉴스컬처

[News Culture] Hollywood’s eternal symbol of youth and rebellion is returning to the music

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

It's a quite silly movie that seems like it is aimed at kids, but then it whips out an extended discussion of the pubescent kids' virginities and whether a 5-year-old is a virgin, and let's just say it's a good thing my son wasn't paying a lot of attention.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I watched this movie with my 9-year-old son recently after one of the streaming algorithms recommended it as a family-friendly monster movie. I hadn't seen it in decades, and I was shocked by the very questionable content that passed for "family-friendly" in the '80s.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I'm not sure what to make of "The Shards." It's another Ryan Murphy show that makes the viewer feel unclean if you think too deeply about what it's asking you to feel. But it's also too shiny and empty to care too much about. It's like a gay(er) "Cruel Intentions" made by A.I.

A still from "The Shards" showing the characters of Brett (Igby Rigney) and Robert (Homer Gere) descending a mall escalator.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I was also struck by how similar the story felt to Karl Ulrichs's "Manor" (1885), which I just translated. They share themes in common—queer teen love, community rejection, supernatural curses—but times have changed and "Leviticus" is hopeful, not tragic. www.jasoncolavito.com/manor.html

jasoncolavito.com

Manor

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) was a German lawyer, writer, and a gay rights advocate. He advocated for the reform of Prussian laws against homosexuality, and he published widely on what he called....

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I watched "Leviticus" today, and it was both an excellent horror story and love story. The tale of two gay teens stalked by a demon their parents summoned to punish them is reminiscent of "It Follows," but in this film you care more about the characters than you do the plot.

A still from "Leviticus" (2026) depicting the movie's central couple separated by a screen, hands touching through the mesh. Unbeknownst to one, the other is secretly a demon.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

A film version of "Manor," called "No Rest for the Wicked," which ages the boys up into full adult men, will be released later this year.

"No Rest for the Wicked" promotional image featuring two men, one shirtless, standing in water.

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

J. Sheridan LeFanu's "Carmilla" (1872) predates "Manor," though his lesbian vampire novella is less explicitly romantic. Ulrichs differs by having the boys in love while both are alive, with the revenant form serving to symbolize how their love continued even after death.

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