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Bryan Waterman

@waterman.bsky.social
5.4K followers 3.7K following 4.4K posts

Lit, hist, art, music. Toggling btwn the 1790s and the 1970s, I write abt seduction, friendship, arts scenes/circles, NYC. 33 1/3 on Marquee Moon. Professing English at NYU since 2001. 🔗 bryanwaterman.org Missing me here search the WFMU comments board.

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Reposted by Bryan Waterman
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 5h
I'm begging @teamtalaricohq.bsky.social to run against Musk. He's an unpopular and creepy white nationalist asshole billionaire whose approval rating in most polls is 20 points underwater. You can mock Paxton for needing to be bailed out *and* mock the puppet master pulling his strings.
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Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social · 11h
A few weeks ago when Chris Rufo devoted a podcast episode to "The Indian Question," Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi denounced the racist "question" as dangerous. On Sunday, Krishnamoorthi was inside a Hindu temple when a white supremacist attempted to mass murder Indian Americans inside
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 11h
A long-time fav, which is why I'm surprised I didn't know about it! And speaking of kids, mine brought it to my attn this morning! 🙏😭
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 15h
I didn’t know I could love her more.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 16h
@hesterblum.bsky.social that um was for you. 🙌
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 16h
Um, how did I not know Caroline Shaw released a Moby-Dick album (which also includes an arrangement from Quartet for the End of Time)?
youtube.com
or, The Whale - YouTube
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James Goodwin @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Very revealing moment for the press here. The unstated premise of this question is they cannot understand how Democrats are different from Republicans. That Democrats are capable of abstract, critical thought, and Republicans just use their mouths to reflexively echo.
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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Announcement!!! Big news!!! 📢📢📢 My book, The Racialization of Print, has a cover (!!), and a webpage, and pre-orders are now available! Coming in Spring, 2027, from @uncpress.bsky.social and @oieahc.bsky.social Use code 01SOCIAL30 to save 30% uncpress.org/979889313492...
Cover of my book, full title is The Racialization of Print: from John Smith to Frederick Douglsss. A very simple graphic cover with black and white and yellow background
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Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I think "reading a book is performative" is the end point of American anti-intellectualism. The mere act of reading is now suspicious to swaths of slug people.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Two days later, I just realized that package says “DUMPkin Spice.”
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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 13/10/2026
One student found a handwritten note above “The Whiteness of the Whale” chapter—a transcription from the book review in the London *Leader*: this “chapter…should be read at midnight, alone, with nothing heard but the sounds of the wind moaning without, and the embers falling into the grate within”
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
She’s going to get those bills paid one way or another.
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the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
I don't know that it makes him presidential material but Ossoff's ability to just be honest about how much of a pile of shit these people really are should be a model to the party.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
As for me and my house, we take ‘em rowdy.
Dylan, backed by a bunch of rowdies including Walt Whitman, MLK Jr, Elvis, Odetta, Anne Frank, JFK, the Stones, and Johnny Cash.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Choose your fighter.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
#nowplaying Tune in for the next three hours to time-machine your way back to Evan's legendary stint hosting the New Afternoon Show on WNYU in the early '80s. One of my favorite @wfmu.bsky.social annual traditions. <3
wfmu.org
WFMU-FM 91.1/Jersey City, NJ; 90.1/Hudson Valley, NY
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Also “Liquid Death” anything associated with defecation is just mind boggling.
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🔱Maltose Zaddy🍻 @troubeerdourks.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Wiping oneself with a product called “Liquid Death” is so incredibly MAHA coded and on the nose. 10/10 no notes
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Just in case their seltzer water gives you the shits. Smell like cream soda instead!
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Monetizing homelessness as in these are designed to replace showers? I hadn’t thought of that.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I just can’t figure out why anyone would want cream soda scented wipes marketed by Liquid Death.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Is America okay? 🇺🇸
Pumpkin Spice Dude Wipes, stocked next to Liquid Death Cream Soda Dude Wipes at a Walmart in upstate NY
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I'm convinced Newsom isn't running for President at all. Sure, he might have a committee and use it as a slush fund, but he's running to be appointed to corporate boards and fake think tanks and stuff. Just too many examples of him going out of his way to show he's not aligned with the Dem base.
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Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 10/10/2026
“could”?
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I'd like to encourage every single historian of Nazi Germany to submit an application to this job.
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
New discovery: A royal archive with 184 tablets unearthed at the Hittite settlement of Samuha, in present-day Sivas/Türkiye, sheds new light on the Hittite Empire, revealing records of a deadly epidemic, military threats and royal life dating back 3,400 years. www.dailysabah.com/life/hittite...
A close-up of several cuneiform tablets
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SherpaCato @sherpacato.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Professor Campos tears Peter Hegseth a new one at Lawyers, Guns, & Money and concludes with these sentiments that I heartedly share.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows and books
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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I genuinely mean this. I cannot imagine a more bleak dystopian notion than the idea of all art being turned into slop designed to coddle my exact perceived intentions. The point of literature, film, music, and art is to be exposed to the interior lives of others. Who are these people.
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Mac It Look Like An Accident @macrogers.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Okay so we have a number now: the Onion is officially 6 months ahead of reality.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Can Yale just take back his degree already?
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
It's not lost on me that the same people who want AI to read bedtime stories to their kids are also the people who want AI to replace teachers in the classroom. My kid, the teacher, responds to this morning's discourse in the family group chat:
A kid in my class told me that AI makes up and reads stories aloud to him and it broke my heart. Why become a parent!

Melty face emoji in response.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
She teaches at the same school she attended as a kid. Someone on her hiring interview committee actually remembered her as a first grader. It's so beautiful. Last year she taught in the same classroom where she had been a first grader.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
😭😭😭
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Read to your kids and when they grow up they will buy you books they think you’ll like.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
without crying, basically bc her personality was so Max when she was little. I guess I could have just pulled out my phone and let my AI avatar do it for me so I could get back to my email sooner. What was she thinking?
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
My daughter, who’s 30 and a first grade teacher, asks me to visit her class every year on her birthday. Her kids want to hear lore about her. But this year she asked me to read aloud to them: Where the Wild Things Are, a book we read together a million times when she was a kid. I barely made it thru
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Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
i think this is right and these people aren‘t hoarding liberal education for their own children they actually just hate it or think it’s useless
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
He orders his own copies of these because “I’m building my own library” and “I don’t want to read through your annotations.” 😂
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Speaking of reading with your kids…our last family readaloud was Emily Wilson’s ODYSSEY. 10/10. And here’s the 17yo’s independent reading bedside stack for the semester. He made it through everything on his summer stack except Angels.
BELOVED
KLARA AND THE SUN
ANGELS IN AMERICA
CHILDREN OF GEBELAAWI
THE SOUND AND THE FURY
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Completely tracks that reading is something this guy doesn’t value.
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 08/10/2026
It's telling that men would rather try to invent tech to replace humans' role in caregiving than step up as equal partners in parenting. Telling, that is, in that it shows how financial capitalism and patriarchy work together to dissuade men from doing "unprofitable" labor, like the work of care.
X post from AI industry insider Alvin Sng :

My wife: Can you read our baby a book?
Me: I can just play an audiobook from my phone.
My wife: But then it won't be in your voice.
Me: I can train a voice model.
Parenting hits different when you work in Al.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Almost makes you nostalgic for Bean Dad.
hollywoodreporter.com
“Bean Dad” John Roderick Issues Apology Over Twitter Controversy
"Bean Dad" John Roderick issued an apology on Tuesday after he shared a nonsensical story over the weekend about teaching his 9-year-old a lesson.
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Bryan Waterman @waterman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Drop some CUTLERY 🍴
static.klipy.com
The Swedish Chef Cooking
Alt: The Swedish Chef turning the whole kitchen into a percussion section.
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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
they did the thing
an october 11 2025 post from me reading: every single tech idea is like “soon our robots will be capable of playing catch with your kid, freeing you up to spend more time working on your employers’ spreadsheets”
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 08/10/2026
Not sure why anyone bothers with anti-AI activism when the most effective strategy would be to just point as many microphones as possible to its most vocal champions.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
A Prime Day reminder that Amazon... -Helps fuel ICE's deportations -Gave $1M to Trump's inauguration -Scrapped plans to display tariff costs after pressure from Trump -Shelled out $75M for the Melania doc -Donated to Trump's ballroom -Wants to reboot The Apprentice w/ Don Jr
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Emily Bregel @emilybregel.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to facilitate the return of a Phoenix man who the judge determined was "unlawfully" deported to Equatorial Guinea in April and has suffered "irreparable harm" since then. @tucson.com tucson.com/news/local/b...
tucson.com
Judge orders Arizona man returned from Africa after 'unlawful' deportation
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to facilitate the return of a Phoenix man who the judge determined was "unlawfully" deported to Equatorial Guinea in April and has
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