Douglas Wolk
@douglaswolk.bsky.social
magical language machine
roses are red
the Bee Gees sang "Run to Me"
the Bee Gees sang "Run to Me"
February 14, 2026 at 6:59 PM
roses are red
the Bee Gees sang "Run to Me"
the Bee Gees sang "Run to Me"
Oh, karaoke, I’ve missed you. “Cool,” “I Often Dream of Trains,” “The True Wheel,” “Bloodshot Eyes”! Plus a guy who did a fantastic “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate.”
February 13, 2026 at 6:23 AM
Oh, karaoke, I’ve missed you. “Cool,” “I Often Dream of Trains,” “The True Wheel,” “Bloodshot Eyes”! Plus a guy who did a fantastic “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate.”
I had somehow missed out on Alice Phoebe Lou before this, but this is one hell of a vocal performance/arrangement. Just wish the keyboard player were visible... www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFky...
Alice Phoebe Lou - Grey | Live from Paste Studios 3/5/2018 [Paste Rewind]
YouTube video by Paste Magazine
www.youtube.com
February 12, 2026 at 8:43 PM
I had somehow missed out on Alice Phoebe Lou before this, but this is one hell of a vocal performance/arrangement. Just wish the keyboard player were visible... www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFky...
Age verification? I bought a thrashed copy of Giant-Size X-Men #1, missing its back cover, out of a 25-cent bin
Age verification? I got to see Superman the Movie in the theater for free because a poem I wrote about the planet Krypton won a contest they held at Kaufmann's department store in downtown Pittsburgh.
Age verification? The definitive pop star, the performance and musical standard against which I subconsciously judge all others, is a guy with a stripe painted on his nose dressed as an 18th century bandit yelling “fa-diddly-qua-qua”
February 10, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Age verification? I bought a thrashed copy of Giant-Size X-Men #1, missing its back cover, out of a 25-cent bin
Super interesting, shot-by-shot exegesis of Bad Bunny's performance. SO MUCH packed in there.
Disturbingly detailed analysis of my first rewatch incoming
February 9, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Super interesting, shot-by-shot exegesis of Bad Bunny's performance. SO MUCH packed in there.
Thoughts while watching Robyn Hitchcock & band play “Flesh No. 1”: 1) Oh, this song has a bridge now! It always needed one! And it’s gorgeous! 2) Oh wait I recognize it. 3) …It’s a verse and chorus of Roxy Music’s “More Than This.” 4) Fair enough!
February 8, 2026 at 7:25 AM
Thoughts while watching Robyn Hitchcock & band play “Flesh No. 1”: 1) Oh, this song has a bridge now! It always needed one! And it’s gorgeous! 2) Oh wait I recognize it. 3) …It’s a verse and chorus of Roxy Music’s “More Than This.” 4) Fair enough!
New Swell Maps! Well--Jowe Head with an otherwise new lineup (David Callahan of Moonshake etc. on lead guitar), so rather Buzzcocks F.O.C. But still. swellmapsc21.bandcamp.com/album/c21
C21, by Swell Maps
12 track album
swellmapsc21.bandcamp.com
February 6, 2026 at 11:30 PM
New Swell Maps! Well--Jowe Head with an otherwise new lineup (David Callahan of Moonshake etc. on lead guitar), so rather Buzzcocks F.O.C. But still. swellmapsc21.bandcamp.com/album/c21
specifically, this is "what if 'Greased Lightning' were a song from Into the Woods," and it is exactly what one would hope www.youtube.com/shorts/q-s6V...
IF SONDHEIM WROTE GREASE (Greased Lightning)
YouTube video by Jared Goldsmith
www.youtube.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:35 AM
specifically, this is "what if 'Greased Lightning' were a song from Into the Woods," and it is exactly what one would hope www.youtube.com/shorts/q-s6V...
Fantastic books, highly recommended. Remember to do the "ADJUST DONATION" thing so that a lot more of what you pay goes to charity!
This deal is incredible & it's for the best cause! You can get ALL the fiction by me and @charliejane.bsky.social from @humblebundle.com for a low, low price -- and all sales benefit the Miss Major Alexander L. Lee Black Trans Justice Center. www.humblebundle.com/books/charli...
February 3, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Fantastic books, highly recommended. Remember to do the "ADJUST DONATION" thing so that a lot more of what you pay goes to charity!
Not real, but outstanding.
Some terrifically titled papers from a discovered collection of NASA research documents found in a skip
(with thanks to @juliarez.placid.horse)
(with thanks to @juliarez.placid.horse)
February 3, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Not real, but outstanding.
I am pleased and a little surprised to note that the Wonder Man TV show is really enjoyable. Ben Kingsley!! (I'm 5 episodes in.)
February 2, 2026 at 9:26 PM
I am pleased and a little surprised to note that the Wonder Man TV show is really enjoyable. Ben Kingsley!! (I'm 5 episodes in.)
Oh wow. The invaluable Mike's Amazing World site now has a subsite devoted to public-domain-era newspaper comic strips! Which you can read! In black and white from microfiche, but it's a resource I've always wanted! www.mikesamazingworld.com/main/strips/
Mike's Amazing World of Comic Strips
Mike's Amazing World of Comic Strips. A searchable resource indexing a large variety of public domain comic strips.
www.mikesamazingworld.com
February 2, 2026 at 6:34 AM
Oh wow. The invaluable Mike's Amazing World site now has a subsite devoted to public-domain-era newspaper comic strips! Which you can read! In black and white from microfiche, but it's a resource I've always wanted! www.mikesamazingworld.com/main/strips/
Reposted by Douglas Wolk
Books with Pictures stands with our community in opposition to ICE and Trump Regime.
We believe in the power of books and bookstores and will be OPEN REGULAR HOURS on Friday 1/30.
We will be CASH ONLY all day. No money to credit card processors, no money to banks.
We believe in the power of books and bookstores and will be OPEN REGULAR HOURS on Friday 1/30.
We will be CASH ONLY all day. No money to credit card processors, no money to banks.
January 29, 2026 at 10:59 PM
Books with Pictures stands with our community in opposition to ICE and Trump Regime.
We believe in the power of books and bookstores and will be OPEN REGULAR HOURS on Friday 1/30.
We will be CASH ONLY all day. No money to credit card processors, no money to banks.
We believe in the power of books and bookstores and will be OPEN REGULAR HOURS on Friday 1/30.
We will be CASH ONLY all day. No money to credit card processors, no money to banks.
No new pictures. Where are you at mentally?
January 17, 2026 at 11:45 PM
No new pictures. Where are you at mentally?
Rereading The Power Fantasy in preparation for next week’s issue, and observing a syntactical curiosity: Gillen and characters he writes tend to use the causal “as” rather than “because” or “since.” Is that a Britishism? A regionalism? A personal quirk like Alan Moore’s “upon” for “on”?
January 14, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Rereading The Power Fantasy in preparation for next week’s issue, and observing a syntactical curiosity: Gillen and characters he writes tend to use the causal “as” rather than “because” or “since.” Is that a Britishism? A regionalism? A personal quirk like Alan Moore’s “upon” for “on”?
the weird relief that a subcultural demi-celebrity who appears to be not especially compos mentis right now is at least not expressing any hateful sentiments (no, this is not a comics person)
January 13, 2026 at 7:49 PM
the weird relief that a subcultural demi-celebrity who appears to be not especially compos mentis right now is at least not expressing any hateful sentiments (no, this is not a comics person)
I didn't write a Bowie obit, but I did write this review, which I'm still pretty happy with, about the three forms of his 2014 musical retrospective. pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...
David Bowie: Nothing Has Changed
Twenty-five years after 1989's career-spanning Sound + Vision box set, David Bowie has assembled a new retrospective, Nothing Has Changed, which comes in three different versions, each with a cover im...
pitchfork.com
January 10, 2026 at 5:05 PM
I didn't write a Bowie obit, but I did write this review, which I'm still pretty happy with, about the three forms of his 2014 musical retrospective. pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...
Every January 9, I post this video of the best live band I've ever seen, Dog Faced Hermans. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOAS... (The song that's the reason for that is at 51:46.)
Dog Faced Hermans - Live @ Le Cafe Shakes
YouTube video by Ridza Fzza
www.youtube.com
January 9, 2026 at 8:07 PM
Every January 9, I post this video of the best live band I've ever seen, Dog Faced Hermans. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOAS... (The song that's the reason for that is at 51:46.)
I have just acquired two very, very cheap musical instruments
January 6, 2026 at 2:25 AM
I have just acquired two very, very cheap musical instruments
Reposted by Douglas Wolk
If you’ve been on the Internet the past few weeks, you probably heard that MTV went off the air last Wednesday, New Year’s Eve, at midnight, after 44 years. It’s a sad moment in cultural history, and also an interesting one, in that it absolutely did not happen at all....
MTV Is Still Alive. So Why Does Everyone Think It Shut Down Last Week?
Our ability to tell fact from fiction—even when the facts are right in front of you—is nearly gone. This is not going to end well.
www.esquire.com
January 6, 2026 at 2:05 AM
If you’ve been on the Internet the past few weeks, you probably heard that MTV went off the air last Wednesday, New Year’s Eve, at midnight, after 44 years. It’s a sad moment in cultural history, and also an interesting one, in that it absolutely did not happen at all....
Breakfast with the superheroes, #1. From Marvel Team-Up #118, 1982, by J.M. DeMatteis, Herb Trimpe and Mike Esposito.
January 5, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Breakfast with the superheroes, #1. From Marvel Team-Up #118, 1982, by J.M. DeMatteis, Herb Trimpe and Mike Esposito.
I should ask here, too, because I've gotten a couple of good ideas already: what's something I could post one of every day (either here or elsewhere) that would make you happy to see?
January 4, 2026 at 11:01 PM
I should ask here, too, because I've gotten a couple of good ideas already: what's something I could post one of every day (either here or elsewhere) that would make you happy to see?
This is a spectacular piece of critical writing.
#Discourse2000 returns with the best #2000AD story yet as Judge Dredd goes epic in a story about horror, history, Britain's idea of America and what it means to be "THE LAW" - join me for a saunter across THE CURSED EARTH
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2026/0...
January 3, 2026 at 4:35 PM
This is a spectacular piece of critical writing.
In my dream I was looking at some off-brand comics adaptation of a forgotten mid-'90s syndicated cartoon and it turned out to be a wickedly pointed issue-length parody of Alex Toth, please somebody make this retroactively exist
January 2, 2026 at 4:48 PM
In my dream I was looking at some off-brand comics adaptation of a forgotten mid-'90s syndicated cartoon and it turned out to be a wickedly pointed issue-length parody of Alex Toth, please somebody make this retroactively exist
I love that (the extraordinary Dutch art-punk band) The Ex updates their statistics page annually. theex.nl/statistics.h...
The Ex: Statistics
The Ex - Statistics. All Ex concerts (till end 2025) broken down by countries, cities, who played and which bands they played with.
theex.nl
January 1, 2026 at 8:07 PM
I love that (the extraordinary Dutch art-punk band) The Ex updates their statistics page annually. theex.nl/statistics.h...