Darren Hughes
@longpauses.bsky.social
Occasional writer and film programmer with a day job. Cinema Scope, Filmmaker Magazine, MUBI Notebook. Artistic Director, FILM FEST KNOX. www.longpauses.com
Pinned
This weekend we're gonna get 0-36 inches of snow here in East TN, and I think they should just let us all go home now and sit on the couch and read books and drink coffee. This is my retirement plan, by the way -- coffee and books and sitting on the couch, ideally with an animal or two beside me.
January 21, 2026 at 3:50 PM
This weekend we're gonna get 0-36 inches of snow here in East TN, and I think they should just let us all go home now and sit on the couch and read books and drink coffee. This is my retirement plan, by the way -- coffee and books and sitting on the couch, ideally with an animal or two beside me.
This mf’r out here stealing Jim’s tweet for engagement!
January 20, 2026 at 6:03 PM
This mf’r out here stealing Jim’s tweet for engagement!
In memory of Rob Hirst ... one of the all-time great live-TV rock performances.
Midnight Oil - Truganini
YouTube video by Aleks Martins
www.youtube.com
January 20, 2026 at 3:58 PM
In memory of Rob Hirst ... one of the all-time great live-TV rock performances.
Bookmarking for later. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Oliver Sacks Put Himself Into His Case Studies. What Was the Cost?
The scientist was famous for linking healing with storytelling. Sometimes that meant reshaping patients’ reality.
www.newyorker.com
January 20, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Bookmarking for later. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
I didn't have a strong rooting interest in the game last night, but I'm glad this guy's beard lost.
January 20, 2026 at 2:26 PM
I didn't have a strong rooting interest in the game last night, but I'm glad this guy's beard lost.
Reposted by Darren Hughes
We know that people are being horrendously abused in these facilities. It will take a long time for us to figure out exactly what that abuse looks like. But we can’t say that we didn’t know.
January 19, 2026 at 10:12 PM
We know that people are being horrendously abused in these facilities. It will take a long time for us to figure out exactly what that abuse looks like. But we can’t say that we didn’t know.
The guards are terrible at protecting the entrance to the Zone. The Stalker, the Professor, and the Writer aren’t exactly master criminals.
January 19, 2026 at 3:40 AM
The guards are terrible at protecting the entrance to the Zone. The Stalker, the Professor, and the Writer aren’t exactly master criminals.
Just had my first Avatar experience and am trying to imagine an aesthetic more repulsive than “Roger Dean album cover + Sid and Marty Kroft + that weirdly colonialist parade of nations at Epcot.”
January 19, 2026 at 12:32 AM
Just had my first Avatar experience and am trying to imagine an aesthetic more repulsive than “Roger Dean album cover + Sid and Marty Kroft + that weirdly colonialist parade of nations at Epcot.”
Fwiw, I’ve never known my uncle to express a political opinion — he’s in his 70s, a blue-collar guy from rural southern Illinois — and he’s pretty fired up about ICE attacking citizens and hard-working immigrants.
January 18, 2026 at 3:08 AM
Fwiw, I’ve never known my uncle to express a political opinion — he’s in his 70s, a blue-collar guy from rural southern Illinois — and he’s pretty fired up about ICE attacking citizens and hard-working immigrants.
I just watched the NFL for the first time in a decade. Kickoffs are goofy now, and apparently I don’t know what a catch is? Weird game.
January 18, 2026 at 1:26 AM
I just watched the NFL for the first time in a decade. Kickoffs are goofy now, and apparently I don’t know what a catch is? Weird game.
Reposted by Darren Hughes
the toddler’s fury that Obama got a sticker that he didn’t get is unquenchable, and there are no limits to the lengths to which he will go to play pretend that he got the sticker too
Why Trump accepting Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize is no laughing matter | CNN Politics
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s presentation Thursday of her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump was instant fodder for ridicule among Trump’s opponents.
www.cnn.com
January 17, 2026 at 12:03 AM
the toddler’s fury that Obama got a sticker that he didn’t get is unquenchable, and there are no limits to the lengths to which he will go to play pretend that he got the sticker too
First thing that came to mind is the old security guard giving Wendy $6 in Wendy and Lucy.
This is a favorite question to ask. Favorite little moment of kindness in a movie? I'm thinking of Tim Blake Nelson leaving money on the sill after they steal a pie in O Brother.
January 15, 2026 at 7:02 PM
First thing that came to mind is the old security guard giving Wendy $6 in Wendy and Lucy.
Reposted by Darren Hughes
Among bald Minnesotans, this guy reflects the mood more accurately than the governor does right now.
January 15, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Among bald Minnesotans, this guy reflects the mood more accurately than the governor does right now.
Taking a break from the hellscape for a little grammar pedantry. Three times this week I've encountered "I's" -- as in "my wife and I's anniversary" -- a crime so egregious I had to fight with my browser's autocorrect for 30 seconds to write this post.
January 15, 2026 at 3:54 PM
Taking a break from the hellscape for a little grammar pedantry. Three times this week I've encountered "I's" -- as in "my wife and I's anniversary" -- a crime so egregious I had to fight with my browser's autocorrect for 30 seconds to write this post.
Joanna and I finished Chernobyl last night (we're on the pop-culture cutting edge, as always), and I can't think of a prestige series that is so good in some respects but so badly written and directed. It's stacked with corny speeches, garish camera choices, and poorly controlled performances.
January 14, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Joanna and I finished Chernobyl last night (we're on the pop-culture cutting edge, as always), and I can't think of a prestige series that is so good in some respects but so badly written and directed. It's stacked with corny speeches, garish camera choices, and poorly controlled performances.
Progress. bsky.app/profile/edit...
Manifesting an Anonymous-style doxing of every single person who works for ICE.
January 13, 2026 at 11:02 PM
Progress. bsky.app/profile/edit...
I'm rereading Hard Times for the time in 30 years. I remembered it being a satire, but this book verges on Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl territory. I picked it up after finishing a reread of Inherent Vice and it turns out they make a pretty great pairing.
January 13, 2026 at 1:48 PM
I'm rereading Hard Times for the time in 30 years. I remembered it being a satire, but this book verges on Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl territory. I picked it up after finishing a reread of Inherent Vice and it turns out they make a pretty great pairing.
What was your #childhoodcinema
My strongest movie-going memories from Maryland are driving to the dollar theater in Glen Burnie most weekends as a teenager, but the Plaza Theater in Annapolis is where I had my peak childhood experiences, Star Trek 2 and The Empire Strikes Back.
My strongest movie-going memories from Maryland are driving to the dollar theater in Glen Burnie most weekends as a teenager, but the Plaza Theater in Annapolis is where I had my peak childhood experiences, Star Trek 2 and The Empire Strikes Back.
January 9, 2026 at 1:50 PM
What was your #childhoodcinema
My strongest movie-going memories from Maryland are driving to the dollar theater in Glen Burnie most weekends as a teenager, but the Plaza Theater in Annapolis is where I had my peak childhood experiences, Star Trek 2 and The Empire Strikes Back.
My strongest movie-going memories from Maryland are driving to the dollar theater in Glen Burnie most weekends as a teenager, but the Plaza Theater in Annapolis is where I had my peak childhood experiences, Star Trek 2 and The Empire Strikes Back.
Adding my voice to the choir of praise for Scott and Vadim, who supported my work first as a critic and then as a programmer. Both attended Film Fest Knox and found room in the magazine and on the website for several thousand words about what we're trying to build here. Total mensches, both of them.
Tmw is my last day at Filmmaker, and it’s also the last day for our estimable director of editorial operations Vadim Rizov, who has been a valued partner for 11 of my 33 years. Here, he curates some of his best work that we’ve had the privilege of publishing. filmmakermagazine.com/132962-vadim...
My Best Work as (Mostly) an Editor
When I realized I’d be laid off (via: restructuring) from the publication I’ve worked at for 11+ years, I went back through the print archives to round up work I was proud of as an interviewer and…
filmmakermagazine.com
January 8, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Adding my voice to the choir of praise for Scott and Vadim, who supported my work first as a critic and then as a programmer. Both attended Film Fest Knox and found room in the magazine and on the website for several thousand words about what we're trying to build here. Total mensches, both of them.
Manifesting an Anonymous-style doxing of every single person who works for ICE.
January 8, 2026 at 4:34 PM
Manifesting an Anonymous-style doxing of every single person who works for ICE.
Until last night I'd somehow never heard or seen Yoko Ono's live performance of "Don't Worry Kyoko" with John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band. I may have underestimated her. 😳
January 8, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Until last night I'd somehow never heard or seen Yoko Ono's live performance of "Don't Worry Kyoko" with John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band. I may have underestimated her. 😳
I did this too, except it was a 2.5-hour drive to see a pre-restoration 35mm print at The Belcourt in Nashville.
Very glad I once took the trek driving 3 hours up to Cleveland to watch 7.5 hours of Satantango at the Cleveland Cinematheque then immediately drove 3 hours home. Feels like the right way to experience such a sprawling object.
January 6, 2026 at 10:24 PM
I did this too, except it was a 2.5-hour drive to see a pre-restoration 35mm print at The Belcourt in Nashville.
Reposted by Darren Hughes
The most unsubtle, heavy-handed claims made by pomo academic types have turned out to all be true. Gender is a relation of domination that requires constant, affirming witness. Capitalism will require extractive colonial relations. There’s no subtlety. Every day is like a 101 seminar at Oberlin.
January 6, 2026 at 1:27 PM
The most unsubtle, heavy-handed claims made by pomo academic types have turned out to all be true. Gender is a relation of domination that requires constant, affirming witness. Capitalism will require extractive colonial relations. There’s no subtlety. Every day is like a 101 seminar at Oberlin.
Civilization II is the first and last PC game that consumed my life.
January 5, 2026 at 9:14 PM
Civilization II is the first and last PC game that consumed my life.
Anyone else remember the mod that allowed you to lob a can of beans at the bad guys, who would then start farting and shooting randomly, making them easy to kill? Good times.
January 4, 2026 at 2:28 PM
Anyone else remember the mod that allowed you to lob a can of beans at the bad guys, who would then start farting and shooting randomly, making them easy to kill? Good times.