iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 02/10/2026

ramona and Winona calling in

A black cat lying on a table with its paw stretched out

A tortoise shell cat leaning on a blue suitcase

Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 30/09/2026

this guy is just an AI booster on Twitter, of course he's going to have this opinion because it lures in the town he's currently trying to sell a monorail to, but it's not actually real. When guys say this, they don't actually know or care about music or history, they just care about the attention

The general public hates AI music.

Here are other things the general public hated over the years.

1920s: microphones.

The idea that you could project your voice was lambasted by critics for being "manipulative" when they were first released. Today, microphones are pretty much a requirement.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 29/09/2026

J Mascis making the best records of his career with two guys he can’t fucking stand

An illustrated version of Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 28/09/2026

Lady if you're waiting for the good times to transition you're never going to do it.

a screenshot from the video game Control Resonant. text in the middle of the screen reads cannot transition during combat.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 23/09/2026

me at the end of the day after typing all my little words into the word stealing machine

Andy Daly as forest mcneill having an existential crisis eating pancakes

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 23/09/2026

Who will let me write about the Wendy’s emo record

SONGS TO LISTEN TO IN A WENDY'S PARKING LOT
Likes
WENDY'S JUST DROPPED AN EMO EP FEATURING MEMBERS OF STATE CHAMPS, SILVERSTEIN AND MORE

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 21/09/2026

I received the best AI book promo email today, which was sent to me email address, addressed to @tuck.bsky.social and also thinks Sex Change and the City, our collection of art and writing about Sex and the City, is a YA fantasy novel

Dear Tuck,

I came across Sex Change and the City and, honestly, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

You've written something that speaks directly to anyone who has ever wondered how a hero becomes a villain, and who believes that even the purest love can't save us from our true destiny written in the stars. Before a villain is made, darkness is born. But Matthew was never meant to become the villain; he believed he was destined to save the worlds. In the enchanting realm of the Kallos, magic is balanced and sacred. Diya, a young majan gifted in healing, is determined to earn a coveted spot in Avalon, if only her final year of training weren't so dominated by thoughts of her handsome classmate. Matthew, a charismatic fairy from Earth who challenges the careful teachings of the Kallos, is lured by the promise of unlimited power into Skotadi, a realm where magic is raw and ambitious. This is not just a YA fantasy. It is a story of first love, ambition, and the fragile line between hero and villain.

I also noticed the impact this book is already having, 0 ratings with a 0 star average, and the kind of early response that tells me you've written something truly special. Under the mentorship of a mysterious fairy who pushes Matthew to discover his true potential, his abilities expand beyond anything the Kallos can control. Eager to prove himself, Matthew consents to forbidden blood magic while pledging to fight the evil Soulless threatening the realms, setting off a chain of events that alters the balance in the Kallos and Skotadi forever. They say love conquers all, but even the purest love can't save us from our true destiny written in the stars. This is a dual perspective young adult fantasy that stands alone as a prequel to The Kallos Trilogy or serves as a companion for fans eager to dive deeper into this mystical world. You've written for anyone who loves YA fantasy, anyone who enjoys stories of magic and destiny, and anyone who believes that the line between hero and villain is thinner than we think.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 18/09/2026

before I retire from posting for the day, my week in streaming

a music album 5 x 5 grid, from left to right, top to bottom: slay the spire OST, Slow Pulp Melodie,. King Geedorah take me to your leader, Guncho OST, deep blue something home, wishy nature's pill, Gillian welch revival, beastie boys ill communication, gan Starr women of truth, tic crazy sexy cool, the national boxer, the smashing pumpkins siamese dreams, versa salt American thighs, dinosaur jr there near, tv on the radio desperate youth//blood thirsty, cat power you are free, Constantines tournament of hearts, Jon Mckiel hold Horatio, waxahatchee Saint Cloud, beck ride lonesome, de la soul stakes is high, elastica self titled, Jeff rosenstock worry, liz phair exhale in guyville, mj lender man manning fireworks.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 17/09/2026

I recently got sucked into the disparite worlds of both grey hair and wavy hair influencers on Instagram and I just want to know how I can be the first to do both

A woman in a vintage Willie Nelson shirt with grey hair in a mirror

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 15/09/2026

once I saw this and thought “2 years HRT” and I can never unsee it.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 10/09/2026

[Jack Donaghy voice] Saw from the movie “Saw“

Luckey said that he used three explosive charges he usually uses for a “different project.” Luckey didn’t specify which project, but he is also the founder of Anduril, a weapons and defense contractor which has won massive contracts with the government, and that is already developing loitering munitions, anti-drone tech for U.S. special forces, and underwater drones.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 02/09/2026

I'm thinking genuine, I'm thinking intimate, I'm thinking 22,000 person capacity venue in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world.

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift Needed ‘Intimate and Genuine’ Venue for Wedding — So MSG Was Perfect
"We needed it to be a private feel," Kelce said on the first episode of his New Heights podcast since the July 3 ceremony

By Larisha Paul

September 2, 2026

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 02/09/2026

chess dot com and Magic the gathering arena have the same intro energy

a cat with a word balloon that reads greetings. it would appear our destinies are intertwined.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 01/09/2026

August as seen through the eyes of streaming habits, which doesn't account for the hours spent flipping the same record over on a turntable because I don't really want to find something else. (I know there are apps for scrobbling vinyl listens, but I've only got so much time left on this earth.)

a 5x5 grid of albums, from top left: Phoebe bridgers, lost weekend, slay the spire OST, mega man 2 OST, Wishy nature's pill, TLC crazy sexy cool, Milly strange self titled, Guncho OST, Gillian Welch revival, Townes Van Zandt self titled, Beastie Boys Ill Communication, Veruca Salt American Things, TV On The Radio Desperate Youth, blood thirst, Mopars official researchers of the NJ Devil, Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream, Liz Phair Exile in Guville, The Specials, Beck colours, Patsy Cline self titled, Sleater Kinney One Beat, Sonic Youth Dirty, Waxahatchee Saint Cloud, Elastic self titled, The Advantage Elf Titled, Chrono Trigger OST, Aldous Harding Train on the Island

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 28/08/2026

Everything changes when you consider this song as written from the perspective of Santa

When I'm eastbound and down and I can't help but cry
'Cause I-40 gets lonelier with every mile
I'll know that his mind wasn't ever gonna change
'Cause his heart still belongs to the Lone Star State

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 27/08/2026

The future the liberals want

A screengrab of the anime of One Piece, where a busty sailor with text that reads my sex has been changed

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 27/08/2026

Every fearful op ed about trans people is just this one panel in One Piece

A panel from chapter 1063 of One Piece, where various members of Law’s crew have had their genders changed to women. Text bubbles read “nooo it got me too!”, “don’t touch anyone who’s already got it!!”, “this power can infect other people” and “it’ll change your gender”

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 26/08/2026

I talk about Bowie a lot in my writing, esp in my newsletter, but it’s national dog day so this is what he looks like. He’s the best.

A brown and black dog wrapped in a blanket on a grey couch

A brown and black dog who is part corgi part Sheppard standing in a field

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 26/08/2026

RHPS was so important to me, although I feel differently about it now than when I was younger and needed it. I loved Tim Curry in anything he touched, oddly the first role that came to mind was the voice of Gabriel Knight on the CD ROM version of the game

Tim curry “Gabriel knight” in a very pixelated photo

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 21/08/2026

people keep talking about how old everyone is on this website but we had 48 hours of Spreadsheet People discourse and not one person made a Randy Newman joke

randy newman in black and white from the Little Criminals album, which has a song called Short People on it

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 15/08/2026

The only pre transition photo of myself I like is this one where I was a child holding a lion cub in a mall in British Columbia

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 15/08/2026

Bless @antlervel.vet for creating the only good starter pack

Rui Pestana and 3 others followed you • 16m via starter pack To Beautiful Women Who Have
Never Done Anything Wrong

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 11/08/2026

10,000 words about how beautiful it is that kids getting into physical media means they’re learning about a cultural world that had secrets passed between people in hallways and at record stores and not just as content for views on the internet

A screenshot of a Instagram reel with text that says did you know this about CDs?

Text reads hidden track that’s and above it the Coldplay album parachutes on CD

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 05/08/2026

Actors who went back to normal jobs

A photo of famous actor Frankie Muniz doing a normal job: race car driver

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 04/08/2026

Wild to remember that this is what we used to consider busy.

Richard Scarrys busytown. There’s a bunch of animals doing some pretty tame shit. A raccoon goes to the movies. A pig drives a tow truck. You get it.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 03/08/2026

the Logistics Depot is what Dr Spaceman would call IKEA

a bunch of borderline illegible text that talks about work and production, alongside some drawings that look like IKEA art filled in with the free crayons you get at outback steakhouse when you're 9.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 31/07/2026

streamed so little and a little burnt out and i couldn't even fill a 5 x 5 this week

a 4x4 grid, fromt top left to right: gillian welch revival, juliana hatfield only everything, drinking boys and girls club keep drinking, hi standard making the road, shonen knife lets knife, drinking boys and girls club marriage license, guitar wolf planet of the wolves, liz phair exhile in guyville, the i don't cares wild stab, short music for short people, otoboke beaver okoshiyasu!, ken yokoyama four, otobokoe beave chu chu song, stupid stupid don't forget our youth, magnolia soundtrack, low IQ 01 master low two.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 28/07/2026

renting this movie on VHS every weekend between the years 1996 and forever for "no reason"

Harold Perrineau as Mercutio in Romeo+Juliet, wearing an open white linen shirt with a cross necklace

Harold Perrineau as Mercutio in Romeo+Juliet in full sparkly drag

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 24/07/2026

"Which do you think it is possible to throw further: a baguette or a naan bread?"

werner Herzog speaking into a microphone.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 21/07/2026

I’m not going to reveal what @raxkingisdead.bsky.social and I are planning just yet, but I did have a good laugh when I flipped open to this note I forgot I had written after accidentally talking about “Horse With No Name” for 20 minutes.

A notepad with the words in the pit at the America show written on it.

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 19/07/2026

“Oh Niko did you just get the one photo?” No obviously I took 100 including this one in fucking black and white like a real morning bitch

A raccoon climbing out of a trash can in black and white

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 19/07/2026

Saw a little guy living up to the hype this morning

A raccoon climbing out of a garbage can held tight with bungee chords

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 18/07/2026

this is a legitimately fucking baffling run of logic

“Everyone knows there’s been a genuine insincerity going on in popular music for decades,” he says. “No disrespect to Britney Spears or the Backstreet Boys, but AI has been what art has been for a minute. What’s the difference between these songwriters teams and AI? In fact, emotionally speaking, on one level you’re creating more of a direct violence to the artists themselves by putting them in these structures—this sort of human centipede where the artists still don’t get paid. I understand the implications of AI being trained on artists’ work, but none of it’s going to stop. If you have it broken down as organic versus AI, the AI is gonna win our world. The good guy doesn’t win this one.”

The way Benja sees it, using gen AI isn’t a cash grab or even a shortcut. It’s a way to fight back against an industry that’s often left him stressed and skint, and a way to realize the insane musical dreams coursing through his skull. “Don’t get me wrong, I understand the stigmas and the confusion. I’m not a nihilist, and I don’t want the planet to be destroyed either, but let’s check our hypocrisy,” he says. “Artists are so often boiled down to just a product, so in my generative projects I was able to take the devil’s advocate role—not really an advocate, but more just take the devil’s role—and make this program slave for me, and churn out unlimited options, in a way that maybe a label director might have viewed me in the past.”

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 17/07/2026

Wasn't streaming music this week unless i was working on something and losing my mind, so we call this a perfectly all over the place 5x5

a 5 x 5 grid, from top left to right: gillian welch revival, wilco yankee hotel foxtrot, townes van zandt self titled, gillain welch soul journey, ween quebec, cat stevens best of, emmylou harris luxury liner, pixies surer rosa and come on pilgrim, middle brother self titled, momma household name, toshiko akiyoshi toshiko's paino, radiohead oc computer, beck ride lonesome single, warren zevon self titled, omc how bizarre, fleetwood mac rumours, okkervil river the stage names, bon iver blood bank, silksong soundtrack, magnolia electric co josephine, the decmeberists the king is dead, laura stevenson self titled, wednesday bleeds, bobs burgers music album vol 2, deftones around the fur

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 15/07/2026

In the 90s if you looked like this it meant you like music

Lammy from the video game um jammy lammy, who is a kind of deer human crpyrid, with a red crop top and baggy blue jeans and blue sneakers

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 14/07/2026

All cars become tanks is the best thing George Lucas has written in decades

Artificial intelligence means it’s much easier for us to make movies,” he tells A Rabbit’s Foot. “It’s very much like sitting here saying, ‘Well, I believe the horse and the buggy is really where it’s at. These cars, they break down, they need gas, there’s all kinds of problems with them and pretty soon they’ll be making them into tanks, and then they’ll be killing people. It’s terrible.’ There’s nothing you can do about it. That’s progress, it’s the future.”

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 07/07/2026

I wrote a whole book about it! You can get it literally everywhere, even audiobook!

The dad rock that made me a woman by Niko Stratis

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 04/07/2026

Oh they got married? Should we tell everyone? Should we throw a party? Should we invite Gigi Hadid?

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce married at New York City’s Madison Square Garden
The couple had an array of celebrity guests, including Gigi Hadid and Bradley Cooper, and Adam Sandler officiated their nuptials

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 03/07/2026

scrapping it all to write a series of essays about the foundational transsexual urge of Sloane's fringe jacket in Ferris Bueller's Day Off

mia sara as sloane peterson in ferris Buellers day of, wearing a white crop jacket with a fringe

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 02/07/2026

new perfect J Mascis image just dropped youtube.com/watch?v=KMPf...

j mascis from Dinosaur Jr, wearing a pink hat outside. text below him says "I wish the world would fucking end"

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 30/06/2026

It's my 44th birthday today (holy hell) and to celebrate I wrote a little newsletter about being my own ghost on Google street view, and a Harry Nilsson song. 🖇️: www.anxietyshark.ca/make-it-easy...

a pastice of images from google street view ,one of which shows a ghost of a person walking through a parking lot, from a van to a glass shop

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 28/06/2026

My writing app wants me to know that one does not simply cum on the Birdman.

a block of text that includes the words "cums on tony hawk" then a style note that says that expression is informal, perhaps i would prefer to write it as "ejaculates"

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 26/06/2026

been a while since i did a 5x5, i haven't been streaming as much as i've been playing whatever's on my iPod/turntable but this is a fun if not bizarre party mix for depressive adults.

a 5 x5 album grid, from left to right, top to bottom:

gillian wwelch, soul journey, wilco yankee hotel foxtrot, paul simon the best of, cat stevens the best of, grandaddy sumday, john k samson winter wheat, magnolia electric co josephine, olivia rodrigo, the bealtes abbey road, smashing pumpkins siamese dream, the beatles white album, belveder fast forward eats the tape, bon iver blood bank, paul simon self titled, paul simon 50 ways to leave your lover, rem the bet of, cake b sides, deftones around the fur, joyce manor i used to go to this bar, nada surf high/low, right away grea captain the church of the good thief, simon and garfunkle bookens, tlc crazy sexy cool, townes van zandt the late great, violet grohl be sweet to me

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 26/06/2026

the description of Okkervil Rivers' split w Julie Doiron is such a fucking perfect encapsulation of their respective energies.

River EP.[2] Love and a longing for home are the themes of Doiron's half of the split while Okkervil River's tracks predominantly deal with murder.[3]

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 25/06/2026

Glee did more for gay people that Harvey Milk, and trans people are best when you don’t have to see or hear from us

June Thomas: I’m very torn about this because I do think that especially around trans issues, there is this kind of division between people being exploited, because, well, trans people are people, and yet when the Republican Party uses them, they’re not thinking about human beings, it’s just an issue that they’re exploiting. And at the same time, I have heard for many years from trans activists that trans activism is best when it kind of happens under the radar. That people are talking to companies, they’re talking to politicians, they’re talking and they’re not doing it with a big ta-da. They’re doing it not in secret either, but quietly, because attention doesn’t necessarily bring better results. But then I also think that we mustn’t forget what has already happened, what has already changed. When I think about visibility, I think of things that honestly are quite banal, like the fact that I truly believe that Glee caused more benefits for gay people than most politicians, probably more than Harvey Milk, because everyone—

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Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 25/06/2026

put these people to work finding the zodiac killer

For those well-versed in Ms. Swift’s lore, other clues loom large: She has hosted extravagant Fourth of July parties. And as her most loyal fans know, July 3 could echo an attachment to the No. 3. There was the surprise 3 a.m. edition of her album Midnights, and a reference to “you squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi” in her song “New Year’s Day.”

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