J. Marshall Freeman
@jmarshallfreeman.bsky.social
Novelist, poet, musician, queer aesthete, Toronto biker, older and only marginally wiser.
jmarshallfreeman.com My new short story collection, "To Wrap Yourself in Light," is now available on Amazon.
jmarshallfreeman.com My new short story collection, "To Wrap Yourself in Light," is now available on Amazon.
Reposted by J. Marshall Freeman
Things that have contributed to "ruining the arts":
Ideological funding cuts
Austerity
Gen AI "art" theft-tech
Commodification
Social media toxicity
Things that haven't:
"Woke"
Ideological funding cuts
Austerity
Gen AI "art" theft-tech
Commodification
Social media toxicity
Things that haven't:
"Woke"
January 3, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Things that have contributed to "ruining the arts":
Ideological funding cuts
Austerity
Gen AI "art" theft-tech
Commodification
Social media toxicity
Things that haven't:
"Woke"
Ideological funding cuts
Austerity
Gen AI "art" theft-tech
Commodification
Social media toxicity
Things that haven't:
"Woke"
Reposted by J. Marshall Freeman
Imagine licking the boot of a president who's threatened to annex your country multiple times.
January 3, 2026 at 7:34 PM
Imagine licking the boot of a president who's threatened to annex your country multiple times.
Frustrating day anecdote:
Coming back from a failed trip to the bike shop, still carrying unwieldy and broken tire pump in one hand and managing a corgi with the other. On ice. Older woman (older than me, and I’m 62) biking down the narrow sidewalk towards us, stops and speaks.
1/3
Coming back from a failed trip to the bike shop, still carrying unwieldy and broken tire pump in one hand and managing a corgi with the other. On ice. Older woman (older than me, and I’m 62) biking down the narrow sidewalk towards us, stops and speaks.
1/3
January 3, 2026 at 8:25 PM
Frustrating day anecdote:
Coming back from a failed trip to the bike shop, still carrying unwieldy and broken tire pump in one hand and managing a corgi with the other. On ice. Older woman (older than me, and I’m 62) biking down the narrow sidewalk towards us, stops and speaks.
1/3
Coming back from a failed trip to the bike shop, still carrying unwieldy and broken tire pump in one hand and managing a corgi with the other. On ice. Older woman (older than me, and I’m 62) biking down the narrow sidewalk towards us, stops and speaks.
1/3
So much truthiness
Social media is going great, in order to make a living, we’re forced to make our own free commercials for the things we’re making until the most of what we’re making is the commercials.
January 3, 2026 at 2:28 AM
So much truthiness
One last batch of my “best of 2025” pics. What am I up? #7? Just a small miscellany this time. Thank you for your interest and patience, and please be tender to each other in 2026. Make art! I don’t sell photography, but perhaps buy my recent short story collection (see my bio for info) #photography
January 2, 2026 at 11:51 PM
One last batch of my “best of 2025” pics. What am I up? #7? Just a small miscellany this time. Thank you for your interest and patience, and please be tender to each other in 2026. Make art! I don’t sell photography, but perhaps buy my recent short story collection (see my bio for info) #photography
January 2, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Here is batch #5 of my best pics of 2025. This time feature what I call abstracts—pictures focussing on shape and colour as it appears to me in my travels through world.
#photography #abstract_photography #colour #form
#photography #abstract_photography #colour #form
January 2, 2026 at 2:40 AM
Here is batch #5 of my best pics of 2025. This time feature what I call abstracts—pictures focussing on shape and colour as it appears to me in my travels through world.
#photography #abstract_photography #colour #form
#photography #abstract_photography #colour #form
For Batch #4 of my “best of 2025” pics, I am featuring pics of poets from Toronto open mics. The poetry community has come to mean so much to me in the last few years, and these people are daring to put some of the deepest, most vulnerable parts of themselves out there. #photography #poetry #openmic
January 1, 2026 at 6:50 PM
For Batch #4 of my “best of 2025” pics, I am featuring pics of poets from Toronto open mics. The poetry community has come to mean so much to me in the last few years, and these people are daring to put some of the deepest, most vulnerable parts of themselves out there. #photography #poetry #openmic
Batch #3 of my “best of 2025” pics is flowers and other plants. I got particularly interested this year in decaying flowers, showing the last of their beauty before withering and falling. #photography #flowers #springflowers #decay
January 1, 2026 at 4:54 PM
Batch #3 of my “best of 2025” pics is flowers and other plants. I got particularly interested this year in decaying flowers, showing the last of their beauty before withering and falling. #photography #flowers #springflowers #decay
Next batch of my “best of 2025” pics is people, including friends and family and a selfie or two. #photography #peoplephotography
January 1, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Next batch of my “best of 2025” pics is people, including friends and family and a selfie or two. #photography #peoplephotography
Here comes a pile of threads of the best pics I took in 2025, by category. Starting with cityscapes (New York and Toronto both)
#photography #streetphotography #city
#photography #streetphotography #city
January 1, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Here comes a pile of threads of the best pics I took in 2025, by category. Starting with cityscapes (New York and Toronto both)
#photography #streetphotography #city
#photography #streetphotography #city
Reposted by J. Marshall Freeman
You also know this little dipshit robostapler won’t even work right — you’ll flinch and reach for a pen and it’ll wheel up and beg for your attention. It’ll staple your hand. It’ll get jammed and shit loose staples. It’ll bark right-wing propaganda and tell you how to build a suitcase nuke.
December 30, 2025 at 3:19 PM
You also know this little dipshit robostapler won’t even work right — you’ll flinch and reach for a pen and it’ll wheel up and beg for your attention. It’ll staple your hand. It’ll get jammed and shit loose staples. It’ll bark right-wing propaganda and tell you how to build a suitcase nuke.
Reposted by J. Marshall Freeman
From Ted Chiang's fb
October 14, 2025 at 10:41 PM
From Ted Chiang's fb
Laying out a book. I have this 28 pages of philosophers' biographies in Indesign (see sample in pic) and I want to make a list of just philosopher family names from it for use as a background element on the cover. A how-to thread.
#adobeindesign #book_design #indesign
#adobeindesign #book_design #indesign
December 28, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Laying out a book. I have this 28 pages of philosophers' biographies in Indesign (see sample in pic) and I want to make a list of just philosopher family names from it for use as a background element on the cover. A how-to thread.
#adobeindesign #book_design #indesign
#adobeindesign #book_design #indesign
A Hungarian outlet recently ran a profile on the actor, Peter Falk, and a section on how he had to have a cancerous eye removed as a child contained this gem: “Doctors had to decide whether to save the child or save the eye.” But wait, there’s more #badwriting … 1/2
December 28, 2025 at 1:56 PM
A Hungarian outlet recently ran a profile on the actor, Peter Falk, and a section on how he had to have a cancerous eye removed as a child contained this gem: “Doctors had to decide whether to save the child or save the eye.” But wait, there’s more #badwriting … 1/2
The vast majority of antisemitism in North America and Europe is coming from right-aligned white supremacists, not from protesters supporting the people of Gaza.
What these people are doing to the power of calling out real antisemitism, in an incredibly dangerous time of surging global antisemitism….man, it is just so worrisome
December 27, 2025 at 3:48 PM
The vast majority of antisemitism in North America and Europe is coming from right-aligned white supremacists, not from protesters supporting the people of Gaza.
Reposted by J. Marshall Freeman
I will not buy your AI book
I will not give its text a look
I will not share your AI art
I will not share even a part
I will not play your AI game
I will not play it, feel some shame!
Use your soul and heart and head
And make us things to love, instead
(With apologies to Dr. Seuss).
I will not give its text a look
I will not share your AI art
I will not share even a part
I will not play your AI game
I will not play it, feel some shame!
Use your soul and heart and head
And make us things to love, instead
(With apologies to Dr. Seuss).
I don't want gen AI in my software
I don't want gen AI in my phone
I don't want gen AI in my email
I don't want gen AI in my recipes
I don't want gen AI in my safety documentation
I don't want gen AI in my schools
I don't want gen AI in my healthcare
I don't want gen AI in my life
I don't want gen AI in my phone
I don't want gen AI in my email
I don't want gen AI in my recipes
I don't want gen AI in my safety documentation
I don't want gen AI in my schools
I don't want gen AI in my healthcare
I don't want gen AI in my life
I don't want gen AI in my browser
I don't want gen AI in my pc
I don't want gen AI in my art
I don't want gen AI in my games
I don't want gen AI in my music
I don't want gen AI in my movies
I don't want gen AI in my books
I don't want gen AI in my cart
I don't want gen AI in my life
I don't want gen AI in my pc
I don't want gen AI in my art
I don't want gen AI in my games
I don't want gen AI in my music
I don't want gen AI in my movies
I don't want gen AI in my books
I don't want gen AI in my cart
I don't want gen AI in my life
December 27, 2025 at 1:18 PM
I will not buy your AI book
I will not give its text a look
I will not share your AI art
I will not share even a part
I will not play your AI game
I will not play it, feel some shame!
Use your soul and heart and head
And make us things to love, instead
(With apologies to Dr. Seuss).
I will not give its text a look
I will not share your AI art
I will not share even a part
I will not play your AI game
I will not play it, feel some shame!
Use your soul and heart and head
And make us things to love, instead
(With apologies to Dr. Seuss).
The bowl of ramen I photographed instead of my friend who was sitting across from me and who died a few months later. The photo I wish I had.
December 26, 2025 at 11:07 PM
The bowl of ramen I photographed instead of my friend who was sitting across from me and who died a few months later. The photo I wish I had.
My friend Paul and I rewriting Handel’s Messiah for #BoxingDay
December 26, 2025 at 7:39 PM
My friend Paul and I rewriting Handel’s Messiah for #BoxingDay
Reposted by J. Marshall Freeman
I've always thought this was at the root of the American conservative fiction that cities are warzones. There's a jealousy there, and acknowledging that our blue cities are very nice places to live undermines their own choices and worldview, so they just fuckin' lie about it.
December 26, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I've always thought this was at the root of the American conservative fiction that cities are warzones. There's a jealousy there, and acknowledging that our blue cities are very nice places to live undermines their own choices and worldview, so they just fuckin' lie about it.
My husband got me the most appropriate whiskey.
December 26, 2025 at 2:32 AM
My husband got me the most appropriate whiskey.
Jews like Christmas, because we don’t have to do anything special, and we usually get the day off. Not me. My current book design clients are two Jews and a Muslim, and they’re all sweating deadlines.
December 25, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Jews like Christmas, because we don’t have to do anything special, and we usually get the day off. Not me. My current book design clients are two Jews and a Muslim, and they’re all sweating deadlines.
Merry Christmas and watch your back!
December 24, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Merry Christmas and watch your back!
Reposted by J. Marshall Freeman
I’m getting ready to post the best pictures I took in 2025. I’m doing my selections on my iPad instead of on my phone, and I’m certain that will change what I consider worthy. It might also mean I’m posting pictures that will be meh if viewed on a phone in portrait mode. I am choosing not to care.
December 24, 2025 at 3:26 AM
I’m getting ready to post the best pictures I took in 2025. I’m doing my selections on my iPad instead of on my phone, and I’m certain that will change what I consider worthy. It might also mean I’m posting pictures that will be meh if viewed on a phone in portrait mode. I am choosing not to care.