Sign in

jpate.bsky.social

@jpate.bsky.social
111 followers 141 following 30 posts

Writer who likes cult films, noir and Gothic novels. He/him.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 17/05/2026
this is such a great encapsulation of what the various factions of the reactionary right want. i might add that they envision themselves as slave masters and the rest of us, in one way or another, as their slaves. betterdonkey.substack.com/p/the-vra-wa...
207110483978
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Watched Sudden Fear (1952). I'm a fan of Gothic-influenced noir and this is very much in that mode. Joan Crawford is great as the successful playwright attracted to a struggling actor (Jack Palance). The last third of the film, where Crawford's character seeks revenge/escape, is especially good.
Movie poster of Sudden Fear
000
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Recently finished Patrick McGrath's The Grotesque (1989). Really enjoyed it. The novel walks a fine line between being incredibly bleak and disturbingly funny. Feels influenced by both Joe Orton and Edward Gorey. I definitely plan to read my by McGrath.
Cover of The Grotesque by Patrick McGrath
000
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
TCMFanatics @tcmfans.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Remembering Orson Welles, born on this day, 1915. Pictured here in The Third Man, 1949.
2770485
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Also from AWP this weekend: a copy of Brillo, by @p-cunning.bsky.social. Paul Thek, Warhol--really looking forward to reading this book too.
000
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Had a good time at AWP in Baltimore this weekend. Really looking forward to reading the books I picked up there from @actionbooks.bsky.social. I'm a big fan of Jaime Saenz's poetry (his The Night is fantastic) so I was especially excited to see Two Poems, trans. by Ted Dodson and Kit Schluter.
010
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Last week I saw Humoresque (1946) at the AFI Silver Theater, a movie I've been wanting to see for a while. A great film about artistic obsession and simmering class tensions. It's bleak but also surprisingly funny (mainly due to Oscar Levant's performance). Highly recommended.
000
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14/01/2026
virginia is about to be a one party democratic state again (laudatory)
633746404
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 03/01/2026
The United States carried out a large-scale attack on Venezuela overnight and captured President Nicolás Maduro, U.S. President Trump says in a statement.
3016368
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Your daily Inland Empire screenshot @bluetomorrows.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
0338
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Fifty years ago, Sweden attempted the most ambitious democratic transition to socialism ever. Its architect, a Jewish economist who witnessed the rise of Nazi Germany firsthand, was motivated by the imperative to never repeat the horrors of fascism.
jacobin.com
The Anti-Fascist Origins of Swedish Social Democracy
Fifty years ago, Sweden attempted the most ambitious democratic transition to socialism ever. Its architect, a Jewish economist who witnessed the rise of Nazi Germany firsthand, was motivated by the imperative to never repeat the horrors of fascism.
14913
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 30/12/2025
Healthcare premiums are set to soar in 2026 as key subsidies under the Affordable Care Act expire for millions of people. The United States "has essentially done nothing to control health care costs," says Elisabeth Benjamin of @cssnyorg.bsky.social.
712062
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Abel Ferrera is great in Marty Supreme. The guy really should be in more films.
000
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 22/12/2025
In the 60 Minutes controversy, Weiss is likely doing what she always does: producing a line of propaganda masquerading as news coverage that serves the interest of her patrons–in this case, David Ellison, whose interests are served by protecting Donald Trump. bit.ly/45bGW9m
bit.ly
Bari Weiss's Counter-Journalistic Crusade Targets “60 Minutes”
The new editor in chief at CBS News has shown she's not merely stupendously unqualified--she's ideologically opposed to the practice of good journalism.
56024
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Senator Bernie Sanders @sanders.senate.gov · 19/12/2025
What arrogance. What narcissism. I will be introducing legislation prohibiting the naming of federal buildings after sitting presidents.
951714258
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 19/12/2025
“Trans people and our families are facing terror from this administration.”
democracynow.org
Doctors in Jail? Hospitals Stripped of Fed Funding? The Criminalization of Trans Youth Healthcare
The Trump administration on Thursday announced new measures to target hospitals and doctors providing care to trans youth. Under the new rules unveiled by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr...
112753
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Megan Abbott @meganabbott.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Jeff Buckley on the reminder you might need.
2358
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Shane Anderson 🏳️‍🌈 @shaneanderson.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future." - @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit. Incredible words. Listen to all of it!
8589664143
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Watched The Occupant of the Room and really enjoyed it. I'm a big fan of Christmas season ghost stories, and this one does a great job invoking an eerie, late-night, wintery atmosphere. Written and directed by @kierlajanisse.bsky.social and based on an Algernon Blackwood story.
010
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 15/12/2025
In Gaza, "surveillance is constant," says Palestinian writer Mohammed Mhawish. This omnipresent sense of being watched and tracked — through checkpoints, social media, drones, AI and more — creates an "enormous psychological burden" on the civilian population.
democracynow.org
Gaza Writer Mohammed Mhawish on Life Under Israeli Surveillance
Award-winning Palestinian reporter Mohammed Mhawish, who left Gaza last year, joins us to discuss his new piece for New York magazine about Israel’s surveillance practices. It describes how Palestinia...
815070
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Recently watched The Honeymoon Killers (1970). It's a tense, claustrophobic character study of two truly twisted individuals, based (very loosely) on the "lonely hearts killers" case. It's riveting and deeply unsettling. Scorsese was the original director before he was fired from the project.
010
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 05/12/2025
Ireland, Slovenia, Spain and the Netherlands to Boycott Eurovision over Israel’s Participation
democracynow.org
Ireland, Slovenia, Spain and the Netherlands to Boycott Eurovision over Israel’s Participation
Public broadcasters in Ireland, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Spain said Thursday they will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, after the European Broadcasting Union refused to hold a vote on wh...
1342388
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Thomas Frampton @tframpton.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
This is spot-on. The UVA "deal" might be the worst/most dangerous (so far). With the help of UVA's leadership, Trump coerced a leading U.S. university to foreswear all efforts (including 100% lawful measures) to achieve diversity. A betrayal of our values. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The University of Virginia and Cornell deals with Trump set a dangerous precedent | Serena Mayeri and Amanda Shanor
The bespoke agreements are full of peril for the universities, allowing the federal government to quietly exert control
17763190
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Matt Lyon @mattlyon.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Udo Kier's first and only post on Twitter 💯
Udo Kier on Twitter: "film should not be streamed on netflix. envelop yourself in the darkness of the movie hall and submit to the artist's visioon."
51208392
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
RIP Udo Kier. The intro. to Blood for Dracula (1974) is one of my all-time favorite film openings. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErHh...
youtube.com
Blood For Dracula 1974 intro with Udo Kier - HD
YouTube video by MultiCathyU - Cassie Arc
000
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
I read "One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This" last summer--an incredibly powerful book.
000
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Megan Abbott @meganabbott.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
HBD, the incomparable Martin Scorsese, whose movies and commitment to art changed my life.
211626
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @ocasio-cortez.house.gov · 19/11/2025
Trump's economy is being held up by a massive AI bubble. A recent study found that of 300 companies that owned generative AI tools, 95% reported zero return on their investments. We will not entertain a bailout of these companies should this bubble pop.
13842941275
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
This is officially one of the strangest pictures in American history, and I do not doubt that it will be considered iconic a hundred years from now. 100% serious here.
1434123253015
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Rep. Yassamin Ansari has set up a table and this sign outside Speaker Johnson’s office.
9785095513696
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Add child kidnaspping to the ICE Nuremburg file.
214737
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 05/11/2025
Mamdani: "We can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him."
159183874340
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 05/11/2025
this is genuinely wild
198151151997
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Abigail Larson @abigaillarson.com · 27/10/2025
Guillermo del Toro on wealth: "a wealthy man is a man who has enough, not a man that needs more. If you have enough to invite someone for a beer? You're rich. If you have a yacht, planes, islands, and you still need more? You're not rich."
Guillermo del Toro quote "...think about wealth for me for example. A wealthy man that has enough...""not a man that needs more. If you have enough to invite somebody to beer...""...you're rich. If you have, whatever-""- yachts and planes and islands and you STILL need more? You're not rich."
257245956448
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
old roadside pics @roadside.xor.blue · 22/10/2025
doorway to hell actor haunted house, casino pier, seaside heights, new jersey, 1978
doorway to hell actor haunted house, casino pier, seaside heights, new jersey, 1978
021144
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Jamie McKelvie @mckelvie.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
The main achievement of the tech industry has been increasing the flow of money from people who make or do things to people who already have more money than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes
855751940
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 21/10/2025
Christopher Lee with his cat, Renfield.
4 photos of christopher lee with his cat Renfield
252434504
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Criterion Channel @criterionchannl.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
BLACKOUT NOIR • Coming to criterion channel in November!
Blackout Noir

Among the most agonizingly intense films in the history of film noir are those that adopt the point of view of characters tormented by amnesia, memory holes, and drunken blackouts, leaving them to grasp in the dark in search of an often terrifying truth. These films combine tantalizing whodunit mysteries with creeping doubt, paranoia, and a guilt that shreds the soul.

ALSO FEATURING: Framed (1947), Guilty Bystander (1950), The Blue Gardenia (1953), Blackout (1954)
1133
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
johannesg.bsky.social @johannesg.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Now on sale! Aase Berg ’s Aase’s Death! 25% off with code DEATH at checkout! www.blackocean.org/catalog1/aas...
blackocean.org
Aase's Death by Aase Berg, translated by Johannes Göransson — Black Ocean
One might expect a book by Aase Berg with the title Aase’s Death to be dark, and it is. You may also expect it to be parodic, and maybe it is that too. But if it’s parodic, it’s darkly parodic. A defi...
052
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Thanks to the good people at Heavy Feather Review (@hfr.bsky.social ) who've published poems from a collection I've been working on about cult films. heavyfeatherreview.org/2025/10/15/j...
heavyfeatherreview.org
James Pate: Three Poems for Haunted Passages
Messiah of Evil (1973) We sit in the sun and wait. We sleep. And we dream. Each of us dying slowly in the prison of our minds. —Arletty, Messiah of Evil I’ve often thought of the human head as a me…
022
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Alex Segura @alexsegura.com · 10/10/2025
Just announced at NYCC: I’m writing a KNOW YOUR RIGHTS comic with artist @davidhahn.bsky.social in partnership with @nycschools.bsky.social #civicsforall comics program, covering and explaining student rights when it comes to immigration enforcement.
33460159
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
M. Forajter @saint-remus.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
hi I've been tuned out coz chicago is a lot rn, but must show you this: I'm in the new issue of the resurrected Udolpho gothic journal, ed. by James Pate! Wonderful folks in this issue (Jace Brittan, Paul Cunningham etc) order for spooky gothic halloween vibes! ellersliebookswv.com/product/udol...
ellersliebookswv.com
Udolpho Issue #2
Udolpho is a creative anthology devoted to all things gothic, a literary genre characterized by dark and picturesque settings, intense emotions, and often supernatural or macabre elements. This unique...
063
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Pilsen Community Books @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Attn all ICE agents! Here’s an announcement from our front window: Chicago hates you, and you are not welcome here!
An anti-ICE flyer hanging in the window of the bookstore.
11296422493
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 05/09/2025
'William Burroughs, Terry Southern, Allen Ginsberg, and Jean Genet at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 1968' Michael Cooper photo hatandbeard.com/collections/...
people walking along
69628
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Gains in productivity should serve the working class. We need a reduction in the workweek to 32 hours, at full-time pay.
jacobin.com
A 32-Hour Workweek Is Long Overdue
Bernie Sanders is calling for a reduction in the workweek to 32 hours, at full-time pay. He’s absolutely right. Gains in productivity should serve the working class.
16011
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Paul Cunningham @p-cunning.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
***NOW AVAILABLE TO PREORDER*** Grateful to Katrine for having invited me to be part of #AncientAlgorithms w/ so many #translators and friends whom I greatly admire: CAConrad, Sawako Nakayasu, Aditi Machado, Baba Badji, and Ursula Andkjær Olsen herself! www.sarabandebooks.org/all-titles/p...
032
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 28/08/2025
i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.
781228436220
Reposted by @jpate.bsky.social
Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Israel’s extreme rationing of water to the Palestinian people is central to its larger project of control, domination, and ethnic cleansing.
jacobin.com
Colonialization Through Dehydration in Palestine
Israel’s extreme rationing of water to the Palestinian people is central to its larger project of control, domination, and ethnic cleansing.
197
jpate.bsky.social @jpate.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
Thanks to @noisemakerjoe.bsky.social for having me on his podcast! We discussed the Gothic and noir, writing in different genres, Francis Bacon, David Lynch, the use of personas in art...a whole lot of topics.
032