iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 29/09/2026

I haven't written a newsletter in weeks and I feel like a fraud and a failure, but I guess there's always another day to write about.

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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 20/09/2026

Holy smokes I fuckin' did it. As promised, I hard launched before Yom Kippur, with hours to spare! I am going to take a nap.

soraya.press

Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself

Look at me. I’m the publisher now.

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 17/09/2026

Never heard a more Jewish chorus than Irene and Seulgi singing about being in love with anxiety

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 17/09/2026

Too bad we don’t have trains or walkable cities in most places it could probably help idk

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Original Berf of Chicagoland @kdc.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I get uncomfortable when orgs and businesses want to commission "zines" because usually what they are asking for is not a zine but a pamphlet/booklet that they don't want to pay professional rates for. It devalues publishing professionals and diminishes the meaning of zines.

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 26/08/2026

Everyone loves nostalgia, and AtHeart are bringing back the sounds of 1996 with remakes of classics by The Cardigans and Roo'Ra. In Conversation with AtHeart for Notes on K-pop: notesonkpop.com/in-conversat...

notesonkpop.com

In Conversation: AtHeart on their Time Travel Project, collaboration, and inspiration

As we all know, nostalgia is in. It's unavoidable in 2026 as the zeitgeist loves the looks of yesteryear, the sound of a decade or two ago, and we're seeing an abundance of remakes. For AtHeart, there...

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 26/08/2026

Kinda wondering if naming it Notes in K-pop was a mistake but yolo four years later

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Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

A person so miraculous she made Siskel & Ebert agree ♥️

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 17/08/2026

So… my suitcase broke. 2/2 broken from samsonite’s set of three I bought before moving to Hong Kong in 2020, so I feel like given how hard I am on my luggage that’s not a bad return rate…

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 17/08/2026

Someone asked me recently why I haven’t switched to video media & the answer is honestly not only do I not have time & that I love writing and the value of words, but that I’m terrified that the videoism of all things is going to lead to a place where we have no real records just content.

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Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This essay by @jillmapes.bsky.social is really crushing and also beautifully written. I also have hope that this period of cultural decline isn't forever and people will remember the value of art and criticism that's not also advertising!

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 13/08/2026

Non-fiction books aren’t always fact-checked.

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 12/08/2026

Cannot express the complicated emotions I have whenever a family member or friend who has ignored my entire career texts me that someone they are talking to went to a BTS concert like yes, I have indeed been telling you about their impact for literal years. They are famously famous!!!

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 09/08/2026

Packing for two BTS concerts in Baltimore, three days of KCON in LA, and a work trip in the Bay in a way that makes sense and convenient for multiple trains and planes feels like the sort of task olympian gods would like to set people on to torture them

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 04/08/2026

dodree are essentially answering the question of what a heavy-emphasis on the Koreanness of K-pop can look like when you base your identity around classical culture, traditional training, and blending them with modern performance sensibilities. Read the whole interview at NotesonKpop.com!

notesonkpop.com

In Conversation: dodree on blending traditional arts with K-pop

The fusion of traditional Korean culture and popular culture via K-pop has been around for years, with acts like VIXX, BTS, Blackpink, Stray Kids, and Oneus incorporating elements and aesthetic of tra...

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Karen K. Ho @karenho.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Sometimes just sending it to a trusted group chat is enough.

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 04/08/2026

Sometimes I wonder if I need to go back to Twitter for professional reasons, but god I really don't want to

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 04/08/2026

notesonkpop.com

In Conversation: dodree on blending traditional arts with K-pop

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 30/07/2026

Hi! I'll be going to KCON! If you're in LA that week for it, I'd love to connect! If you're an editor looking for some K-pop coverage, please reach out.

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Rainesford Stauffer @rainesford.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

It's so bad. Even jobs at places that once seemed "stable" aren't. And with editors being laid off and budgets being cut, there are less opportunities for freelancers to pitch, while it feels like even more people are trying to freelance because of lack of full-time jobs.

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 29/07/2026

BTS have announced they will not be submitting their music to the Grammy’s this year.

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 28/07/2026

Famously, we love books it’s very annoying.

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 27/07/2026

I think something interesting is going on with K-pop music production in 2026: we're seeing more cohesive albums than the past few years have given us, and I wonder if it's a shift away from using albums as nothing more than chart-seeking streaming-oriented packages notesonkpop.com/in-2026-k-po...

notesonkpop.com

In 2026, K-pop is Revisiting The Album

It’s officially halfway through 2026, and I’m starting to think that this is K-pop’s Year of the Albums. Every year, there are good releases. Usually, we as humanity focus on the singles. The songs ...

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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I am always trying to explain to folks that most Americans have never met a Jew and people do not believe me and I just need you to understand that the perception that we are a powerful group in this country is intentionally created by antisemites and you’re unknowingly buying in.

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 27/07/2026

Idk if it’s just me but it really rubs me the wrong way when I read something written by anyone who only cites men writing about BTS as if non-men journalists and critics do not have any validity as sources when discussing one of this generation’s biggest pop acts.

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Michael Samonek @samonek.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

CRJ makes music that feels like finally getting on the ferris wheel with your summer crush and having your first kiss while fireworks go off.

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 27/07/2026

Has anyone done the yearlong cuny writers’ institute program? Very curious about it

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 27/07/2026

notesonkpop.com

In 2026, K-pop is Revisiting The Album

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 27/07/2026

I had Shabbat lunch this week with a Miami Boys Choir guy & am now wondering again about why Yerushalayim keeps going viral, & it just occurred to me that it may be catchy because there are no sounds in it that are unnatural to English speakers, without any ח or צ in the key phrase

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 24/07/2026

youtu.be/QmS7WuI9u40?... are you normal or are you crying at the idea of Galadriel and her husband finding each other amid the end of an age?

youtu.be

The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power - Season 3 Teaser | Prime Video

YouTube video by Prime Video

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 24/07/2026

IDK what it says about me that my life was easier when I was being paid minimum wage in a Hong Kong newsroom in the middle of a pandemic

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Nina Metz @ninametz.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Hollywood's rich and famous are complaining about critics again Are people who make TV and film aware that the job of critic barely exists anymore? Probably not! Perhaps the fact that anyone is still employed as a critic is the actual sticking point This week’s newsletter

buttondown.com

I'm not mad. Please don't put in the newspaper that I got mad.

Hollywood's rich and famous are complaining about critics again.

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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Tonight begins Tisha B'Av, the Jews' mourning the destruction of the First & Second Temples & more. So I'm looking at a now near-lost practice of Jews in Morocco, Kurdistan, Calcutta, the Caucasus, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Ethiopia, Eastern Europe & beyond: Specialized women lamenters / wailers:

lifeisasacredtext.com

"She can make stones cry."

The 2000-year history across the globe of Jewish women wailers

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 13/07/2026

There’s a novella in the Vorkosigan books about a planet of just men nearly dying out (due to their donor eggs running out) because they hate women so much they fled us all and everyday I feel like we’re getting closer to that reality

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 13/07/2026

Okay, what does everyone think is the best K-pop release of 2026 so far?

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kayti burt @kaytiburt.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

As a longtime fanfiction reader (and occasional fic writer), I am deeply concerned about the way AI is impacting fandom spaces. @fansplaining.bsky.social was the perfect place to explore this anxious curiosity in the context of the booming Heated Rivalry fandom.

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Rob Sheridan @rob-sheridan.com · 08/07/2026

Saw a meme of GenZ baffled by how pre-internet travel worked, and realized we’ve crossed an enshittification threshold where IRL services that once seemed outdated, like travel agents, now seem luxurious: “You meet with a human expert who plans out your whole trip with you” sounds incredible now tbh

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rowan kaiser @rowan.monster · 26/06/2026

The people of this generation who "made it" know that we are standing on the ruins of something that was on the verge of being vibrant and promising, and they're extremely correct to be bitter, even if that's annoying to the people who only know the ruins.

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rowan kaiser @rowan.monster · 26/06/2026

I've been seeing a few people who came into games writing/journalism like a decade after I did and they talk about my peers who've got some of the few jobs remaining as if they "made it" and I would like to be clear: virtually none of us made it, even (perhaps especially) the people who seemed to

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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Writers! As of today, we're officially open for pitches. 🎉 New Fansplaining has been live for two months: hopefully time for folks to see the ambition of the project, and the kinds of stuff we're hoping to publish in the future. Also...do you actually want to be edited? 😉 (I always do!)

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 08/07/2026

Going to need someone to ask Vernon his thoughts on Cobra Starship, and hopefully that someone will be me if I ever place an interview again in my entire life

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Tamar Herman @tamarherman.com · 08/07/2026

Bring back the timeline where we shut down a media brand because of racism over whatever the fuck we're doing right now.

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