Sign in

Mad Scholar Frights

@mattzollerseitz.bsky.social
137K followers 4.2K following 16K posts

Author, filmmaker, book dealer. New York and Dallas. Bookstore: mzs.press. RogerEbert.com editor-at-large. Next book: Jack Nicholson: Leading Man

PostsRepliesMedia
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 1h
Excited to see this. I was thinking about it in relation to Ratched & other "sympathy for the devil" prequels/alternate takes on canon. We don't need to see a story rewritten to turn the villain into the hero. Usually it's enough to flesh them out and give them 3 dimensions instead of just 2.
120
Reposted by Mad Scholar Frights
Judy Berman @judyberman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Sliding in just before the weekend, I wrote about why Zoe Kazan and Florence Pugh's reinterpretation of Cathy from East of Eden is so brilliant—and so much better than the typical 'subversive' feminist rewrite.
time.com
Netflix's 'East of Eden' Brilliantly Reinterprets 'Evil' Cathy—Without Betraying Steinbeck
Zoe Kazan's series grounds its feminist perspective on one of literature's most maligned characters in a shrewd reading of the novel
4439
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 1h
The other reason why I think it's crucial to have research materials/indexes/end note text/back matter in the actual, physical book is, websites & apps die off all the time for all kinds of reasons. Verification material never disappears if it's attached to the actual book.
1152
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 1h
I have successfully included extensive footnotes in every book I've been involved with. As a journalist I, hate when people don't. I'm reading a Jack Nicholson biography right now where there's footnotes, but they refer to, basically, "deleted material" -- there's no actual sourcing for anything.
130
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 1h
I think we start with Bush the younger and work our way back in time
020
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 1h
YES sounded like a Nazi organization from the moment they announced it And as we can see, they did not disappoint
3839
Reposted by Mad Scholar Frights
Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 1h
It does appear the "data center eliminated Nazi and otherwise fuckface bots" narrative is basically wishcasting, it does show you how popular getting rid of this shit would broadly be, and that maybe a smart person should run on it.
482237377
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 1h
Dallas:
040
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 1h
GREAT title
030
Reposted by Mad Scholar Frights
C. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · 2h
WHAT IS MIDNIGHT RADIO? That thing we've been quietly working on for a while has a name, a release date, and our first few episodes' cast! variety.com/2026/digital...
variety.com
Ethan Hawke Stars in Supernatural Horror Podcast ‘Midnight Radio’: ‘There’s an Intimacy to the Audio-Only Medium’
Ethan Hawke stars in supernatural horror podcast series “Midnight Radio” as the host of a cult-favorite late-night AM radio show.
4248882
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
Imagine being able to strum a guitar & make sunshine beam out
0170
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
Since people are listing low-key beautiful things that happen on social media, here's one: sometimes people you've never communicated with like your post, and you check out their page and find out they have a beautiful voice & are wonderful songwriters. Like @cdg.bsky.social. youtu.be/CwsXQw_qrog
youtu.be
Fire | Original Song by Cassidy Graves (COUNTRY ARTIST)
YouTube video by Cassidy Rose Graves
1425
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
He's funny! Something magical happens when he plays a meathead
050
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
Incredible how deep the thinking goes on the production stuff
010
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
Like all of his movies, except possibly the first one, it is also funny as hell
130
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
AKA Hamlet meets Curb your Enthusiasm "I know you want your mom back and your father's kingdom back, but somebody else took it away from me and now we live together on this farm and she's gotten used to me and maybe loves me, I don't know"
050
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
Dude is four for four, currently. Yes, I include the Northman, his Barry Lyndon. 
3180
Reposted by Mad Scholar Frights
Sean T. Collins @seantcollins.com · 23/01/2025
What a ridiculous figure Robert Eggers is, making a series of beautiful, confrontationally uncompromising films about subjects in which he is deeply interested. Let's get him
1457054
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
Yeah! I think there's a little bit of a retroactive hipness makeover by some writers & filmmakers as well. The posters on the 1980s kids walls are of films and performers now universally recognized as the hippies of their time. Not enough crap.
0210
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
Yes!
000
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
I'm grateful you brought this to my attention, because now I don't resent it anymore
130
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
I don't think they ever say it, but the implication is, she started dressing him, probably because his taste was embarrassing her in front of her young friends
1200
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
Absolutely! One of my favorite examples: Don Draper has amazing clothes that are perfectly tailored, but they are the clothes that a businessman born in 1925 who is somewhat cultured would wear. When he marries a woman almost half his age, he starts to wear current fashions.
1230
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
Would it be an acceptable substitute to have a question and answer thing where the answer is obvious but you have to go to the trouble of typing it
110
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
I spent five formative years with my grandparents, which is why I reflexively make jokes that utilize catchphrases from radio shows that not even my mother could name 
1150
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
You know who never makes this mistake? Scorsese. When the story is about gangsters in the 1970s and 80s, the music on the soundtrack, and in the bars that they stole from the rightful owners, is songs they liked when they were kids or adolescents, or stuff their parents might've played all the time.
412610
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
Kind of a general one: in period dramas, they often have everybody wearing clothes from that decade and driving cars from that year and listening to music released the month when the story takes place, and that's not how it works.
1029223
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
[deep cough] "He must be watching Claire's Knee again."
130
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18h
I'm gonna put up the Odie Signal®
Signed black and white publicity still of  African-American comedian Flip Wilson, who was at peak fame in the 1960s and 70s.  he is wearing a dark pinstripe suit and white dress shirt with cufflinks, crouching down behind a metal bench and leaning on it with both hands, smiling. 
251
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
Not only is that becoming rare, when somebody gives you a "gift link" you have to give the publication your email address to read it What the fuck?
180
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
HAH
020
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
I need a name for her
250
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
^ this wasn't the world's greatest thread, but this old New York lady is speaking through me and I think I need to do something about that, either literarily or psychologically
1140
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
[raspy old New York lady] "No, Carmine. I am not 'down ta do the deed.' I haven't finished my coffee."
170
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
I have had so many people explain to me why there is realistically no alternative to this, but dammit
150
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
Sometimes I'm on the website of major publications and I have to simultaneously play whack-a-mole and boogie-through-the-minefield with all the pop-up ads and autoplay videos to get from the beginning of the story to the end. I'm too lazy for this. Please just let me read it. 
2232
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
[exhales cumulus cloud of unfiltered Gitane smoke]
190
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
[raspy old New York lady voice] "Whatevah happened ta foreplay."
1150
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
The online media equivalent of one of those small brick and mortar stores where the little bell on the door hasn't even stopped jingling after you've entered the place and an employee is lunging at you asking "Can I help you find anything?"
1160
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
I click on a link to a story/piece that sounds interesting on a website that I haven't visited before. The page hasn't even fully loaded & they're already putting up a box that blocks the content, imploring me to subscribe. This is not how you grow readership, my friends.
5949
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
"It's one in the morning, so I guess you're going for a salad, eh Matt? Just kidding. Pie's on the bottom shelf."
010
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 19h
Thanks for making me feel less delusional
010
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 20h
No more smart technology in the home. Let's have dumb technology. Dumb as a box of rocks technology. For example, a refrigerator that you just plug-in, and there's a little tiny dial inside to adjust the temperature. 
4672
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 20h
And boldly coming
000
Reposted by Mad Scholar Frights
Maybe It Will Happen Today @today-maybe.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
A digital illustration depicting Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo in his signature rumpled raincoat, shown in profile looking to the right, nearly nose to nose with his basset hound, Dog, who is leaning out of the open window of a car looking back at the detective. A word balloon next to Columbo's head contains lettering reading 'Maybe it will happen today'
71791420
Reposted by Mad Scholar Frights
'How we are is who we are' - dolly @tenntimber.bsky.social · 21h
HR and finance are now self check-out, but the printers don’t work and a kid sprayed “67” on the scanner in crazy string
0232
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 22h
Mitch Pileggi
010
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 22h
I can't think of another significant American political publication that inadvertently proves almost every day that horseshoe theory is valid
0262
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 22h
Hey, everybody has a moment where their emotion gets better of them, and that's why it's important to have third parties looking out for you, so thank you
010
Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 22h
It does jump out at me on days like this, however, where a young artist dies and there isn't a 10,000 word Wikipedia article that everybody can rewrite for "quick reaction" pieces, and the one guy who could've done something really stunning got laid off by executives who don't even like journalism 
000