iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

well, her doing that was a way to get the precise definition to the reader, in case maybe some didn’t know dolmen from dolma

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I spent about a week and a half thinking I’d be going to dinner with Anne and a bunch of grad students at Chez Panisse with the New Yorker picking up the tab.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Thinking about this, and her “listening to the wind” comment, and my experiences in her seminar at Cal. Anne Carson has always been adept at doing her own thing, even when it creates a bit of awkwardness or isn’t initially understood. It makes her so intriguing.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I mean, this quote doesn’t surprise me at all.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

New Yorker reporter: Where do you want me to take you to dinner? Anne Carson: I don't know. Chez Panisse? NY: With 17 grad students? AC: Yes. NY: At Chez Panisse? AC: Yes. NY: On Valentine's Day?!? AC: Yes. NY: AC: NY: (sigh) I'll ask my editor.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I took a grad seminar on Simonides with Anne Carson at Cal in the 1990s. The New Yorker wanted to profile her; she agreed, but only if they took her to dinner at the fabulously expensive Chez Panisse with her seminar students. Eventually the reporter declined, which is what she wanted all along.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

"I just do my best. Being a diva is hard." — Guillermo, Mariah Carey night

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Once again reminded of the brilliance of Paul Ford's 2011 column: every medium answers a fundamental question. The fundamental question of the web is WHY WASN'T I CONSULTED? and everyone is constantly demanding an answer.

ftrain.com

The Web Is a Customer Service Medium, by Paul Ford

I look forward to your feedback.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

@itsdlevy.me Last night we were talking about a kitsch-themed runway on RPDR, and I (correctly) said all of the runways were going to be camp but not kitsch, and I did a google search on the difference and the first thing I found were some blogposts from you from (gulp) 2008.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I’ve known Julián for years and years, and even though they are a well-known writer (won a Lambda in 2021, first novel got a rave review in the New York Times) I’m still stunned that they are nominated for a National Book Award in Fiction this year.

77TH NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS

PRETEND YOU'RE DEAD
AND I CARRY YOU
Julián Delgado Lopera
Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company

PRETEND YOU'RE DEAD AND I
CARRY YOU
A NOVEL
JULIAN DELGADO LOPERA

Fiction | Longlist

Cover image of the 77th National Book Awards fiction longlist featuring 10 book covers and the title "Fiction | Longlist."

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I remember reading once that some of the structure of this film was transformed into Rocky Horror, not sure how true that is

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

it was Saturday night I guess that makes it all right

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

there was still sadness and grief, but also joy and playfulness. I'll never forget Prince coming out to the central piano & microphone on a little Razr scooter with lights on his shoes

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

the rumor was that Apollonia and Susan & Brenda from Vanity 6/Apollonia 6 were in the audience. I'd like to believe it's so. the Oakland Arena show was announced a day later for the Friday of the same week. I'm glad we went back — the bigger venue and crowd meant the mood shifted.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

just five days before, we had seen him at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, a much smaller venue. the Paramount show was the day after Vanity's funeral, which had been held nearby in Union City. not surprisingly, the show was intimate and profound and felt like family.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

the new Prince compilation of unreleased songs includes a live version of How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore from a March 2016 Oakland Arena Piano and a Microphone concert that I attended, so I've decided you can hear me in the crowd

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Keep thinking of ways that Dolly and her music touched my life. Closest I ever got was a one-night stay at a rinky-dink Reno casino when my mom and I drove through to be with my grandma in her last weeks. Dolly was performing at that casino that night, but attending wasn't in the cards.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I think I saw a recently legal ruling protecting drag performances that cited Dolly as an example

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

My favorite underrated Dolly song is Better Get To Livin', a Dolly-fied way of saying "get your act together". I can't tell you how many times I've said, or at least thought, this. Also great: Star of the Show from her last album of the 70s, about a year before 9 to 5 changed everything.

A girlfriend came to my house, started crying on my shoulder
Sunday evening
Better get to living
She was spinning such a sad tale, I could not believe the yarn That she was weaving Better get to living
So negative, the words she had to say
I said if I had a violin, I'd play I said you'd better get to living, giving
Be willing and forgiving
'Cause all healing has to start with you
You better stop whining, pining
Get your dreams in line
And then just shine, design, refine till they come true
And you better get to living

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

She also underscores the quality of the drag of most of the returning Mexico girls; similar to Slaysian Royale. Helpful to have someone pretty good but still somehow mid (because she’s kind of generic) to highlight how individual other girls are

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I feel like I’m on the threshold of revelation about this — it’s like the idea that arguing about the times when the Pulitzers/Tonys/Oscars get something wrong is something that reinforces their importance, and means that when it gets it right it has more impact. I need to think about it more.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I forgot to post immediately when I felt the earthquake tremors but nonetheless I felt them

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

@randallmann.bsky.social thank you for this gorgeous poem, and a sestina at that— that was also my first week of college at UF. I remember people in my dorms who withdrew for the week, or the year (or forever), and Access Hollywood interviewing students while I walked past to go to class. Bizarre.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

New Randall Mann poem, "Five Murders", about the first week of his freshman year at the University of Florida, which was also my freshman year at UF. I can't tell you what the fog of fear and rumor felt like; I had no other experience of college life. Eventually everyone just… moved on.

poets.org

Five Murders

It was my first week as a college student. / I’d traveled with friends

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

This was moving, and also it was interesting how the narrative was told. Loved this comic — 16 Scenes of You and Your Dad in Cars

thenewfatherhood.org

16 Scenes of You & Your Dad in Cars

Warning. This email may cause emotional damage.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

wait, so she inspired both this and becky with the good hair? this is like finding out that george harrison’s something and eric clapton’s layla were both about pattie boyd

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Charli XCX's Yeah is the purest and most stupid CXCX lyric I've ever heard and I think it's brilliant. Love that the next track is Wink Wink

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

sometimes I see that someone like Phoebe Bridgers has new music and I get excited and then I remember that the singer I was thinking of was actually Maggie Rogers

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

we arranged our vacation to make sure we were back in time for the 25th anniversary Hedwig screening with John Cameron Mitchell (and Peaches Christ)

A short line in front of the Castro Theatre with the marquee: Hedwig and the Angry Inch with John Cameron Mitchell 7/17 8pm

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I would like to manifest one last truly great Janet album please if you want a late era banger, I recommend "shoulda known better" from unbreakable.

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

now that I've successfully worn my tee-shirts in rainbow order, I can relax

nine photos — one closeup of plumeria, plus eight selfies of me wearing pink, red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, blue and purple shirts

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

had a fantastic morning snorkeling on the other side of the island. I took a nap after we got back; we are headed out later for a fun luau on the ocean

Me in a purple tee with a rooster in the background

an empty beach with some rocks in the foreground

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

dragged my chair out to the lanai to read while housekeeping is in the room

me in blue shirt that says “but first… pie”

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Looks like something Betty Cooper would have turned into a cool vest in the late 60s

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

busy day — snorkeling in the morning, new shoes because the bottom of my sandal broke, farmer's market, dropping off and picking up laundry, napping

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

went out to look at this sunrise, and walking back I saw what appeared to be a very large housecat that was somehow wagging its tail like a dog — turns out it was a wild boar

a line of cottages behind a big field with a teeny tiny white cat on the far left

ocean sunrise with silhouetted trees on the beach

a forested area behind a lawn with a small wild boar eating

a wild boar eating and swishing its tail

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

a while back we switched to aisle seats in the same row and it’s ideal

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

found a little spot of beauty while in a tiny strip mall parking lot

me in a green shirt in front of a palm tree beside a creek

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I’ve only been to Braum’s once, but I can attest that this is true

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Bill (Pliny the Older) @plinytheolder.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

had a leisurely drive to poipu this afternoon

me in a yellow shirt standing in front of a green wall

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