iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 13h

If you wanted someone to get to know you, what horror movie would you show them?

Ernest Thesiger & Eva Moore in "The Old Dark House": "If you don't know where it is, I'll tell you. It's on the top landing on the little table. You know where the top landing is, Horace? At least you might believe there is a top landing, although you do believe in so little."

Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 17h

Wilson was a pro-Deep-State (AKA "nonpartisan expertise") & professional academic (baffling!) BUT he also opposed Black students at Princeton, restored segregation to the federal government, & eliminated Black officers from the military.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 17h

Plugging @pbump.com's latest newsletter for him: Thanks for the pointer & summary of YouGov's research! Just in case you weren't being ironic with "(Trump's list excluded several of those and included, bafflingly, Woodrow Wilson)," ...

link.ctinsider.com

Discover what’s new this season with unlimited digital access.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Yeats was responsible for my own overuse of the word: "I offer to love’s play My dark declivities."

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

On a more positive note, it shocked the USA into not being anti-intellectual for a decade or so.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Yes, so far as I can tell, there's no such thing anymore as a one-size-fits-all search engine. In particular, Google still has a lock on "Book", "Scholar", & "Video" searches, even if they no longer care about the first two.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

For OG (G for "Google") searches, I turn to Marginalia or Kagi, but few others do. marginalia-search.com/search?query... kagi.com/search?q=unf...

marginalia-search.com

unfogged "verweile doch" - Marginalia Search

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Once Google prioritized video & frequent (automated) changes, all stable reliable URLs suffered. How sad I was when it disappeared my formerly top-of-the-list Tuesday Weld pages, no matter how many qualifiers I threw at it.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Congratulations, Steve. I never heard it said pithier.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

As you subtly suggest, the five kites together had more "structure" but their individual "structure" was less.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Beau Geste had three movie adaptations. I've watched & enjoyed the first two. The third sounds like it should be a parody & I'm not the only one to notice. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beau_Ge... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beau_Ge... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beau_Ge... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Las...

en.wikipedia.org

Beau Geste (1926 film) - Wikipedia

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Of the '76 titles, I read the Vonnegut & flipped through the Vidal (thanks to the Chillicothe, MO, library), but I'd already begun to shift exploration from current NYTBR lists to inappropriately-ambitious genre writing.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I'm old enough & came from enough of a backwater that I tried reading "Green Mansions" (and gave up).

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Stinks that @wfmu.bsky.social dropped Becky's ever-lovin' Honky Tonk Radio Girl show from the schedule (& the list of possible pledge credits). At least the archives are there: wfmu.org/playlists/HG

wfmu.org

Honky Tonk Radio Girl with Becky

Playlists & archives

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

In the UK I can imagine it. If there ever was such a thing as Bourdieu's "cultural capital" in the USA, though, it was gone before I hit puberty. My niche interests weren't considered threatening, just weird. (Of course, being weird is still more than enough to trigger aggression!)

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I haven't heard of "Choosin' Texas" or "Langley" but I have no problem enjoying capitalism with a (good) beat (that I can dance to). I just never heard of them.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

No, "The Wire". "The Sopranos" started as an iffy Scorsese knock-off, occasionally got better as the characters developed, & then went into a long tail of diminishing returns. Some of the performances were indelible; the concept stayed feeble.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I love imagining the hapless editor going to his nearest newsstand & asking "Do you have any Impulse?"

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I agree: it's very rare that the quality justifies the time commitment. I've bailed out early from virtually every series I've seen recommended by people I otherwise trust.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I should mention that I found the first few episodes familiar cop-show stuff & almost didn't keep watching. Turns out those were front-loaded to soften the studio executives -- it became something very different as it went on.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

My (very few) other favorites either had deliberately limited spans ("The Prisoner", "The Six Wives of Henry VIII") or were only worthwhile for a season or two worth of shows, or for even shorter stretches (I'd put "The Sopranos" in that last camp).

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"The Wire" truly was a novelty so far as good long-span television goes.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

What fascinates me is that Pogo's status as audience POV made the joke comprehensible even thought Pogo NEVER wore pants.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I think Scrooge McDuck might've started that fashion. My favorite pants-related Pogo moment was when one of the bats ("Bothered", maybe?) lost his pants in a poker game & started hiccuping, & Pogo asked why, & a brother bat answered "How would YOU feel if you lost your pants", & Pogo hiccupped.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Suiting his rueful-but-resigned expression on the Stanford website photo.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I'm delighted (& on reflection not surprised) that you're a fellow admirer, Tony. @jwomack.bsky.social , if you haven't read Mr. White's books, I think you'd like them.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Postal service makes EVERYONE happy!

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

No, thank YOU (and so on) -- these topics are, by design, almost impossible to talk about, and they need a lot of talking.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I thought it was a joke, but I guess that's always what I think.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

He & Oscar Wilde were both surprisingly powerful, given their aesthetic reputations. All that good Irish cooking, I reckon.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I appreciated the opportunity to remember "Wavelength" as I zoomed to look at the photo.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Herbert West would like a word with you.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Lili Loofbourow's TV criticism and current-events punditry were always welcome, but for years I've selfishly wished she'd turn to topics worthier of her talent and intelligence. It's happening and it's scary and it's beautiful.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Vielight: "Take that silly thing off your head." Happy Customer: "I feel smarter already!"

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Reposted by Ray Davis

rob mclennan @robmclennan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

sad to hear, via Ben Friedlander, that American poet Beverly Dahlen (b. 1934) has died, // @ampoetryreview.bsky.social @pw.org ;

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

My pet recasting is "Pennies from Heaven". Hollywood, he's a world class hoofer who can be simultaneously beautiful, damaged, & horrifyingly invincible. What were you thinking?

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Not that that keeps it from being the Ultimate Man Sex Doll! Au contraire, as I learned from the "Talkin Walken" insert ("official newsletter of the Christopher Walken Appreciation Society") in John Kelly's brilliant "XYY" zine: www.pseudopodium.org/repress/shor...

pseudopodium.org

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Here's the god-bless-you-IA snapshot of the long-dead link I referenced: web.archive.org/web/20031204...

Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The one time I wrote a review of a Coppola-scion movie AFTER watching it: www.pseudopodium.org/search.cgi?u...

pseudopodium.org

pseudopodium: do karaoke

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

@davidcollard.bsky.social : "His [word aversion] paper focuses on 'moist.' What are your thoughts on that? I'm trying to think of its use in a poem and come up with nothing at all." I thought you'd never ask! www.pseudopodium.org/ht-20260626....

St. Mary of Egypt washes her hair; capital from St. Etienne Cathedral, Musee des Augustins, Toulouse

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I see the headlines & posts flash by & just smile vaguely & say "That's nice, dear."

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I must be at least a few months older than you since even today I do not know who Ed Sheeran is.

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Ray Davis @pseudopodium.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I remember enjoying it, but admittedly there wasn't a lot else going on that night in Braymer, Missouri.

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