iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I don't know why a photo didn't come up with my link -- looks like I need to go back to wordpress school! -- but here it is.

A b/w image from Robert Bresson's Pickpocket. Pickpocket Michel (Martin LaSalle) stands behind two marks who are paying attention to the action on a racetrack.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It's surprising how often I have the opportunity to use "There's nothing more foolish than a man chasing his hat."

Gabriel Byrne in MILLER'S CROSSING. He's wearing his hat.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Love to see it: Trump's disapproval rating hits a new high on the NYT's poll tracker. 61%!

The New York Times's presidential approval tracker: two jagged, divergent lines on a graph. Disapproval, in red, keeps getting higher and higher, and is currently at 61%. Approval, in green, is declining, and is now at 37%.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Today is National Comic Book Day! Drop a pic of the first comic books you remember reading. (The first three are all early buys for me; Legion 203 was read at a friend's house, and was probably a hand-me-down)

Superman 314: Superman holds his ears as space pirate Amalak plays a death harmonica

Flash 253: Flash is being turned into putty by The Molder, Elongated Man's badass villain persona

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #232: Superboy swats Saturn Girl to the ground to save her from space gas -- The Disease That Wouldn't Die! (Happy Klordny!)

Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes #203: Validus, a three-fingered purple giant with a visible brain, looms over the Legion, in a MASSACRE BY REMOTE CONTROL!

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

There's something about the 70s pacing of The Rockford Files that calms me right into dreamland. The perfect bedtime show is one that's interesting enough to keep me off my phone, but soothing enough to slow my heart rate. Rockford never misses (and I catch the end of the show in the morning).

Jim Rockford (James Garner), counting some money with a gun in his hand and a bottle of whiskey on the desk. (It's probably not his money.)

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Because your bisque is on my list... of the best things in life

Hall and Oates in concert, from sometime in the 80s.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I guess it's time to unveil it: I've started a new website to celebrate movies, comics, music, and more. Welcome to Virtual Appreciation Society! virtualappreciationsociety.com

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) approaches the snowed-in camp cinema warily in a scene from Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

Jonah Hex rides into town, as drawn by Tony DeZuniga (words by John Albano).

A b/w image of men at a bar -- including Hoagie Carmichael, Harold Russell, and Dana Andrews -- in the postwar drama The Best Years of Our Lives.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Scavenger Hunt. Much funnier when you're ten than when you rent it for a bunch of your friends in your late 20s and they're left staring, agog, at the screen, wondering what the hell is wrong with you.

The cast of Scavenger Hunt, featuring a lot of 1970s comedy stars, including Richard Benjamin, Richard Mulligan, Cloris Leachman, Tony Randall, Willie Aames, James Coco, Scatman Crothers, and Roddy McDowell.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Last four characters you saved on your phone are your D&D party. That's actually a pretty fascinating combo

Detective Laura Holt from Remington Steele

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

"Precious and few are the moments we toucans share."

A pair of toucans, perched on a branch, looking at each other.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Leap of Faith Riddle of Fire Lone Wolf & Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons Lone Wolf & Cub: Baby Cart in Peril #LetterboxdFriday #lastfourwatched #letterboxd #FilmSky #MovieSky #Films #Movies

Letterboxd listing for my last four watched:

Leap of Faith
Riddle of Fire
Lone Wolf & Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons
Lone Wolf & Cub: Baby Cart in Peril

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I saw RIDDLE OF FIRE on Mubi last night, and it became an immediate favorite. I love these feral kids, with their dirtbikes and their paintball guns, and their need for speckled eggs, and I love this movie.

Home video art for RIDDLE OF FIRE (2023): Three kids stand astride their dirtbikes, brandishing paintball guns, while a fourth sits cross-legged in front of them.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Legion of Super-Heroes #1 is out, and it's an absolute blast! We get introduced to six of our heroes and the futuristic society they belong to (and butt heads against), and begin to see the shape of an intriguing mystery that will shape their lives! Long Live the Legion!

An alt cover for Legion of Super-Heroes #1 by Yasmine Putri. We see Lightning Lad sitting in his room, using his electrical powers to read an old Superman comic while his brother Mekt walks by outside.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Excited to see the new Lanterns episode and see how Ulrich Thomsen measures up to the OG Sinestro.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

One of the timeless themes of the Lone Wolf and Cub movies...

Still from LONE WOLF AND CUB: BABY CART IN PERIL. Daigoro, a young boy, is crouching in front of the baby cart he and his Ronin father travel the countryside with. Someone offscreen is speaking, and we can read his dialogue in the subtitle: "What's with the kid? He creeps me out."

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Welcome to Bluesky. Please familiarize yourself with the following accounts to understand the range of opinions it is acceptable to express.

The cover of an issue of adventure comics featuring Superboy and the Legion of superheroes. Heroes on the cover include Superboy, Sun Boy, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Triplicate Girl, Mon-el.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Marvel's still listing movies to see before DOOMSDAY

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The Ruling Class. Peter O'Toole is a member of the British aristocracy who thinks he's Jesus. Hilarity and horror ensue.

The poster for 1972's THE RULING CLASS starring Peter O'Toole. In a black and white image on a baby blue background, he's shown leaping off a cross

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I haven't seen the cover yet -- though I imagine it'll be the wraparound cover for Wonder Woman 1 -- but we're getting a tabloid-size reprint of some Perez Wonder Woman in December!

The wraparound cover to Wonder Woman #1, with art by the incomparable George Perez. The front cover (seen on the right) features Wonder Woman front and center, backed by her patron goddesses; the back cover (on the left) features scenes from the history of the Amazons and Hippolyta, with the helmeted face of Ares looming over them.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Just noticed the welcome return of a supporting character from 90s Hourman comics -- police officer Audrey Lee, Bethany's mom! She's still in Happy Harbor, now interacting with the Titans in issues 36 & 37! And cheery as ever.

Happy Harbor police chief Audrey Lee, pointing her thumb at Hourman and saying "You got a permit for this pile of junk?" Art by Rags Morales, writing by Tom Peyer.

Audrey Lee interacting with two of the newer Titans, Wonder Girl and Batgirl (nee Spoiler). She's telling Batgirl, "Zip it, small fry!" and later says "Sometimes it pays to be miserable," so it seems she's the same tough & cranky dame we met in the Hourman comic (even if she's now a police officer rather than chief of police). Art by Marcus To, writing by Tate Bromball.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I feel like I'm one of the only people on the planet who didn't adore The Sheep Detectives. I expected to love it, but those sheep INFURIATED me.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Not my first, but definitely a contender.

Stephanie Zimbalist as Laura Holt on Remington Steele.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Well, at least now we know where all the diarrhea lettuce came from.

NY Times Breaking front page headline: Trump hid in a catering cart to sneak out of Turkey amid threats.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I have no heart, but... The Sheep Detectives REALLY didn't work for me. I hated their sheep societal nature of forgetting all the bad stuff, and just ... despised them! I know I'm a bad person for this. I went into this expecting to love it, and somehow couldn't get over that one plot point.

Hugh Jackman reading a mystery to a bunch of dumbass sheep who don't deserve him in THE SHEEP DETECTIVES.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

No details on the contents/sale dates yet, but here are some upcoming DC Finests.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Gotta make a move to a town that's right for me ...

A street sign reading HORNEYTOWN RD.

(there's a smaller sign underneath explaining it has RFID tracking)

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Sheep go to heaven, goats go to...

Three goats in a pen at the Delaware State Fair

A wood burnt sign with a picture of a goat on it. The goat's name is HADES

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Trump's popularity hits a new low. But there's still more bottom to this barrel.

A screengrab of the New York Times presidential approval poll tracker for today, July 31, 2026. Trump's disapproval is at 60 percent (which he hit once before, briefly, and his approval is at 37% (a new low).

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Drop an album that was important to you when you were nineteen. Released when I was negative 1. But I heard "Poverty Train" on the radio one late night over summer break. I tracked down a used record, and spun this relentlessly, poring over the lyric sheet like it was the Rosetta stone

The cover of Laura Nyro's 1968 album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Tough to beat Alain Delon in Purple Noon.

Alain Delon, his hair a little mussed, with a jacket slung over his shoulder. He's looking to his right with considerable intensity

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Philly native Jon Polito. A treat to watch every time.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I'm the only one in the house today, so I can blast John Hartford on the record player downstairs while I work upstairs in the office.

The cover to John Hartford's MORNING BUGLE album, which features a boy in a shorts (maybe a scouting uniform?) blowing a bugle against a fiery orange sky.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

If anyone can tell me this is fake it's you. But...

The "I WANT TO BELIEVE" poster from X-Files, with a flying saucer in a cloudy sky hovering over the silhouettes of trees.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

This poor sap in TWO PROSECUTORS does as much walking in prison hallways as that one group of hobbits did all over Middle Earth. 📽️

Movie still from to prosecutors. The main character, a young prosecutor named Kornyev, is walking in a bleak stone hallway accompanied by a couple prison guards.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Probably a tie between FREEJACK and SECOND SIGHT. I hated GOONIES more, but it's probably a better movie than either of those.

A poster for FREEJACK, a sci-fi thriller starring Mick Jagger, Rene Russo, Emilio Estevez, and Anthony Hopkins

A poster for SECOND SIGHT, a paranormal comedy starring John Laroquette and Bronson Pinchot.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

"And Lenny and Squiggy and the Green Goblin followed us here! Can you believe it?"

Laverne and Shirley (Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams) in their Malibu apartment. Shirley's on the phone while Laverne looks at her nails, or something in her hand.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Show me a comic book page you love! No explanation needed!

Page 1 of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #232. Superboy, Shrinking Violet, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl are dancing in a nightclub on a spaceship on anti-gravity discs. It's the Klordny Festival, and Superboy doesn't know what it celebrates. And no one will tell him. Art by Ric Estrada and Jack Abel, written by Gerry Conway.

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I grabbed these screen shots of Thomas Mitchell as the drunken Doc Boone in STAGECOACH (1939), figuring that someone would make use of them.

Black and white movie still. Thomas Mitchell in John Ford's STAGECOACH. He's saying, "being so partial to the weed myself,"

Black and white movie still. Thomas Mitchell in John Ford's STAGECOACH. He continues from the previous frame, "I sometimes forget that it disagrees with others."

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

John Constantine sums up DC's Millennium crossover event.

Comic panel. Art by Rick Veitch and Alfredo Alcala, script by Veitch. John Constantine is holding action figures of a Manhunter and a Guardian of the Universe, as he talks to Rodney, a young boy. He says, "How about this? The Guardians and the Manhunters decide to have a big war... and all our Superfriends get caught in the draft."

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I'm hoping DC continues JSA with a new writer; I think one reason the more ancillary superhero comics don't find purchase is that companies prefer to relaunch with a new creative team (for understandable reasons). That said, DC's moves to continue Titans (twice now) leave me hopeful for an issue 25.

The cover of JSA 1, on which the team races out toward the reader. Art by Diego Olortegui

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Rob Staeger @robstaeger.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Thursday, July 9th! Join me and BEHOLD!

A flyer for Hotsy Totsy Burlesque's tribute to Godzilla, Thursday, July 9 at the Slipper Room in NYC.

There are Kaiju on the loose and then only match for them is Cherry Pitz! Or maybe MechaCherry Pitz. We’ll see what the budget looks like.

With Cherry Pitz, Handsome Brad, Betty Brash, Queensiñera, Dutch Baby, Susie Dahl, Bitsy Brûlée, World Wide Blond, and More!
July 9th at the Slipper Room! Doors at 7, show at 8.

Tickets at https://bit.ly/hotzilla

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