Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 55mWhen i lived here six years ago this was a Planet Organic. Packet ramen eating has triumphed over wellness 000
Reposted by Max LiuSam Sacks @ssacks.bsky.social · 01/10/2026For National Poetry Day "Jamesian" By Thom Gunn (From 'The Man with Night Sweats,' which has just been reissued by FSG.) 022
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 01/10/2026It's National Poetry Day and I still like this poem v much - by an actual living poet 000
Reposted by Max LiuLondon Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 01/10/2026The poet, translator and physician Dr. Fady Joudah will give this year’s Edward W. Said London Lecture, titled ‘Notes on Solidarity’, on 15 October at the Royal Geographical Society. Tickets here: mosaicrooms.org/edward-w-sai... 064
Reposted by Max LiuRRRMMM @strongmisgiving.bsky.social · 01/10/2026For National Poetry Day, Frank O'Hara 37326
Reposted by Max LiuHelen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026‘The Sixties never happened in Blackburn.’ www.ft.com/content/4277...ft.comDeep into the Sixties: Britain 1965-66 — David Kynaston’s latest vivid historyThe historian richly evokes the texture of a decade that was often dubbed ‘swinging’ — but was, for many, a time of unsettling change and death of tradition 2225
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Anyone else read this? I really struggled and would like to think I'm missing something. His films are eternal, his prose dead on the page. Some things are better left in the archives 021
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Two mins before filing piece I've fiddled with for two days: "Now I see how I could make this much better." 020
Reposted by Max LiuBrian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 26/09/2026This story brought me back to Kara, one of the mothers in my book, There Is No Place for Us. She was homeless with her four kids while driving for DoorDash. They had to pee in bottles so bathroom stops wouldn't make her late. After gas, she earned $6.50 an hour—75 cents less than the minimum wage. 5826313
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Reckon I've seen more Man City shirts today than on any day during their decade-and-a-half of stolen success 010
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Good Emily Witt critique of an artist whose work I've found original, perceptive and underwhelming at various points over the the last 20 years www.newyorker.com/culture/crit...newyorker.com 000
Reposted by Max LiuClare Bogen @clarebot.bsky.social · 25/09/2026www.ft.com/content/fad8...ft.comFitzcarraldo – inside the chicest publisher on earthJacques Testard is transforming our reading habits, one blue book at a time 061
Reposted by Max LiuSamantha Asumadu @samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 22/09/2026'New analysis on UK media: British media is not delivering the news to its readers. They are delivering an agenda. The seven days after Channel 4 filmed James Orr are a damning indictment of the British press. Orr is a Cambridge associate professor.' via @newscord.org 5469221
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026I thought this v good. I've struggled with some politically astute/stylistically null books recently but that doesn't apply here - AJ can write. Using Ernaux, Houellebecq, more to look at the mess we're in today. I found it revelatory and inspiring 010
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Damn. Left my laptop with all my work on it in the library while I went out for lunch and nobody stole it 020
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Am reading The Netanyahus again as prep for this and, while not my favourite Cohen due to the letters and lectures, I just know with the truth of fiction that the depiction of the eponymous family is spot on 020
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 15/09/2026One of the reasons popstars today are sell outs is that so many of them went to private school 010
Reposted by Max LiuGraeme Thomson @graemethomson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026The sad fact is, as Ed Sheeran well knows, that this Macklemore business will not materially impact upon his career one jot. Of all the musicians I've met, I found Sheeran perhaps the most numbers conscious (those album titles are very intentional). He will have done his calculations. 6203
Reposted by Max LiuLydia Kiesling @lydiakiesling.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Unbelievably pathetic capitulation to truly terrible people www.theguardian.com/music/2026/s...theguardian.comMacklemore dropped from Ed Sheeran’s US tour after ‘free Palestine’ speechThe American rapper will no longer support Sheeran’s US leg of Loop tour after comments at MetLife Stadium show 0131
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 12/09/2026"Rosalía’s audience: in general I take no comfort from these people." I felt exactly the same when I saw her perform in London. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukAnne Carson · On RosalíaWe require heroism of our entertainers. We want them sacrificing themselves to a certain ultimate degree of input. No... 000
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Went to see Kurt Vile. Awesome cosmic autorock. Everyone still loves guitars. Hooray 110
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 08/09/2026This is two weeks from today (22/9). Munir Hachemi is an entertaining speaker (I've talked to him before so this is episode 2) on writing, writing about writing, translation and he's funny. Both of his novels from @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social are excellent in different ways. Come down 031
Reposted by Max LiuHelen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 06/09/2026So engrossed in this I've missed by tube destination by three stops. 0187
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I'm rewatching Girls and, midway season 3, I will say it has aged well. Could be wrong but I think the world it chronicles came and went v quickly. Episodes released 2012-14 feel more like stuff I was reading and reading about 2008-2010, perhaps because TV plays catch up with lit 110
Reposted by Max LiuMax Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Reviewed Sebastian Barry's novel The Newer World for this week's @ftweekend.com. It's as accomplished as you'd expect, if a little lyrical for my tastes. The big question is whether he should be writing this story in the first place and I don't really have the answer www.ft.com/content/a442...ft.comThe Newer World — Sebastian Barry’s novel of the Black American slave experienceSet in the mid-1800s, the Irish author’s narrative blazes with an authenticity and poignancy that mitigates any risk of ‘cultural appropriation’ 021
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Reviewed Sebastian Barry's novel The Newer World for this week's @ftweekend.com. It's as accomplished as you'd expect, if a little lyrical for my tastes. The big question is whether he should be writing this story in the first place and I don't really have the answer www.ft.com/content/a442...ft.comThe Newer World — Sebastian Barry’s novel of the Black American slave experienceSet in the mid-1800s, the Irish author’s narrative blazes with an authenticity and poignancy that mitigates any risk of ‘cultural appropriation’ 021
Reposted by Max LiuAnne-Marie Creamer @amcreamer.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Excellent reporting from Channel4 news & Verbatim Media- more corruption from Farage & Reform caught on camera. Great to see James Orr & co, & dubious pollsters screwed. Bring in the police Reforms ‘popularity’ maybe based on more fictitious polling than we realised. 👇 youtu.be/aXut3s90rUI?...youtu.beGoing undercover to expose Reform's secret donations plotYouTube video by Channel 4 News 0186
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 31/08/2026"Hallway" by Roy DeCarava from the Dulwich Picture Gallery American photography show. Mostly the usual names - Winogrand, Leiter, a whole room from Bruce Davidson's Subway - but this strange, painterly picture is among the highlights 000
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 29/08/2026I wrote about the worst way to dine www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...theguardian.comThe hill I will die on: The barbecue is fundamentally unenjoyable. Please, put a lid on it | Max LiuDress up the barbie however you like – it’s toxic, tiresome and, more to the point, malnourishing, says freelance writer Max Liu 241
Reposted by Max LiuGeorge Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 28/08/2026I know this isn't terrorism. You know this isn't terrorism. The authorities know this isn't terrorism. But, once again, they have labelled protesters "terrorists", as part of the long-running programme to ensure that no one dares protest about anything any more. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...theguardian.comSeven charged with damaging Trump’s Scottish golf course accused of ‘terrorist connection’Course at Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort was painted with words ‘Gaza is not 4 sale’ and clubhouse was sprayed with graffiti 13534501492
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 28/08/2026The new Lambchop album Punching The Clown is a beauty. I'm taking detours on walks so I can keep listening on my headphones and playing the record every night. There's a choir and Justin Vernon plays banjo on every song but more than anything it's Kurt Wagner at his strange and sublime best 030
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 26/08/2026To the tune of Helpless by Neil Young today's writing/typing soundtrack is: "Joyless joyless joyless" 020
Reposted by Max LiuMarie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 26/08/2026honestly I think literally all gigs should do this, sincerely don't understand what people believe they're achieving by not meaningfully watching a gig and instead filming a video they will obviously never watch again, hateful behaviour, get rid 8264869
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Good wide-ranging interview with Samanta Schweblin whose Good and Evil and Other Stories has really stayed with me since I read it a year ago. Nice to be reminded too that there are still things to like about Argentina english.elpais.com/culture/2026...english.elpais.comSamanta Schweblin, writer: ‘Paying attention is the greatest superpower. Not everyone is still capable of it’From ‘Mouthful of Birds’ to ‘Good and Evil and Other Stories,’ the Argentine writer has built one of the most distinctive and unsettling bodies of work in Spanish-language literature. In an interview ... 030
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Heard an American in Naples order a drink by saying: "We're going to do..." Camorra should've been alerted 100
Reposted by Max LiuThe Onion @theonion.com · 24/08/2026Guy Who Sucks At Being A Person Sees Huge Potential In AI theonion.com/guy-who-sucks-at-being… 4471561820
Reposted by Max LiuMax Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I'm looking forward to asking Spanish writer Munir Hachemi about his new novel The Mulai and much more at Libreria on 22 September. It's FREE and you can reserve tickets here libreria.io/munir-hachem...libreria.ioMunir Hachemi: Inventing Another World | LibreriaSpanish writer Munir Hachemi talks with Max Liu about his new novel, The Mulai, in which an archaeologist travels to a distant planet to study the descendants 011
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Kermode (M) says Camp Miasma is a big step up from I Saw The TV Glow for Jane Schoenbrun. How is that possible?! I have to find out by going to the cinema... 100
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 21/08/2026There are probably enough FT Lunches with the far right to make a book now 110
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 21/08/2026With its wish washy production there doesn't seem to be a good time to listen to the new Phoebe Bridgers record. Its alternately muffled and raspy so no good at night and I've found it oddly unengaging so far. Am trying an early listen, when I'm most receptive, to see if I can click with it 211
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Becca Rothfeld being marvellously cutting about a writer to whose work my own reaction has always been indifference www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...newyorker.comRachel Cusk’s Protest Against PersonhoodShort reviews of recent releases. 010
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I'm looking forward to asking Spanish writer Munir Hachemi about his new novel The Mulai and much more at Libreria on 22 September. It's FREE and you can reserve tickets here libreria.io/munir-hachem...libreria.ioMunir Hachemi: Inventing Another World | LibreriaSpanish writer Munir Hachemi talks with Max Liu about his new novel, The Mulai, in which an archaeologist travels to a distant planet to study the descendants 011
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Enjoyed Alfie Whiteman: A Loan exhib at OOF Gallery. Witty photo diary of ex-Spurs GK AW's loan at Swedish club. Do footballers get bored, introspective, read Thoreau? Apparently yes! Small show, prob better as book. AW retired from football last year age 25 & is now full-time photographer. Cool 020
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 15/08/2026I was lucky enough to read, wrestle with, re-read and review Triage by Claudia Rankine - a writer whose work is never less than essential and exhilarating - for this week's @ftweekend.com www.ft.com/content/f566...ft.comClaudia Rankine’s Triage explores a harder America under Trump 2.0A hybrid work of poetry, fiction and memoir challenges both its writer and readers to consider what kind of world they want to live in 030
Max Liu @maxjliu.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Escaped the hell to see Tony in an air-conditioned cinema. Jolly glad I did too. They got it just right. We seem to have worked out how to do biopic. Wish something had saved me from writing when I was 20 000