Tony Lugo
@lugotron.bsky.social
The Ernest Hemingway of pointless stories
Pinned
Tony Lugo
@lugotron.bsky.social
· Sep 14
Every meaningful leap forward in human rights, abolition, civil rights, women’s suffrage, was powered by people who refuse to shut off empathy for those suffering.
If you can’t be profound, at least be interesting
October 23, 2025 at 6:42 PM
If you can’t be profound, at least be interesting
Taking it day by day is just ‘winging it’ with better PR
October 12, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Taking it day by day is just ‘winging it’ with better PR
Some recent reads. What’s everyone else reading?
October 9, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Some recent reads. What’s everyone else reading?
Is it me or has certainty become the new status symbol. Everyone seems to be so sure of everything. Everyone seems to be an expert. Nobody wants to sound human.
When was the last time you said ‘I don’t know’ and meant it?
When was the last time you said ‘I don’t know’ and meant it?
October 8, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Is it me or has certainty become the new status symbol. Everyone seems to be so sure of everything. Everyone seems to be an expert. Nobody wants to sound human.
When was the last time you said ‘I don’t know’ and meant it?
When was the last time you said ‘I don’t know’ and meant it?
42 donut holes are equivalent to one donut, right? Asking for a friend…
October 7, 2025 at 8:29 PM
42 donut holes are equivalent to one donut, right? Asking for a friend…
The world wants your anger. What if you gave it care instead?
New essay: The Strength to Care
On choosing empathy when cynicism feels safer.
#essays #reflection #empathy
open.substack.com/pub/lugotron...
New essay: The Strength to Care
On choosing empathy when cynicism feels safer.
#essays #reflection #empathy
open.substack.com/pub/lugotron...
The Strength to Care
On choosing empathy when cynicism feels safer.
open.substack.com
October 7, 2025 at 6:26 PM
The world wants your anger. What if you gave it care instead?
New essay: The Strength to Care
On choosing empathy when cynicism feels safer.
#essays #reflection #empathy
open.substack.com/pub/lugotron...
New essay: The Strength to Care
On choosing empathy when cynicism feels safer.
#essays #reflection #empathy
open.substack.com/pub/lugotron...
“History doesn’t repeat, it rhymes.” Cute. And I’m just hallucinating this shot-for-shot remake of the same train wreck.
October 2, 2025 at 7:46 PM
“History doesn’t repeat, it rhymes.” Cute. And I’m just hallucinating this shot-for-shot remake of the same train wreck.
No Country wasn’t nihilism. It was honesty.
September 19, 2025 at 7:01 PM
No Country wasn’t nihilism. It was honesty.
Progress is slow, like wading uphill through knee-high mud.
It takes everything.
But backsliding is effortless.
It takes nothing.
#protectfreespeech #writersofbluesky
It takes everything.
But backsliding is effortless.
It takes nothing.
#protectfreespeech #writersofbluesky
September 18, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Progress is slow, like wading uphill through knee-high mud.
It takes everything.
But backsliding is effortless.
It takes nothing.
#protectfreespeech #writersofbluesky
It takes everything.
But backsliding is effortless.
It takes nothing.
#protectfreespeech #writersofbluesky
Every meaningful leap forward in human rights, abolition, civil rights, women’s suffrage, was powered by people who refuse to shut off empathy for those suffering.
September 14, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Every meaningful leap forward in human rights, abolition, civil rights, women’s suffrage, was powered by people who refuse to shut off empathy for those suffering.
Now hiring: Me.
Position: Writer/Filmmaker/Poet/Occasional Human.
Duties include: juggling three unfinished scripts, debating commas at 2 a.m. and pretending to understand Final Draft updates.
Salary: exposure (to crippling self-doubt).
Benefits: fleeting moments of creative joy…
Position: Writer/Filmmaker/Poet/Occasional Human.
Duties include: juggling three unfinished scripts, debating commas at 2 a.m. and pretending to understand Final Draft updates.
Salary: exposure (to crippling self-doubt).
Benefits: fleeting moments of creative joy…
August 14, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Now hiring: Me.
Position: Writer/Filmmaker/Poet/Occasional Human.
Duties include: juggling three unfinished scripts, debating commas at 2 a.m. and pretending to understand Final Draft updates.
Salary: exposure (to crippling self-doubt).
Benefits: fleeting moments of creative joy…
Position: Writer/Filmmaker/Poet/Occasional Human.
Duties include: juggling three unfinished scripts, debating commas at 2 a.m. and pretending to understand Final Draft updates.
Salary: exposure (to crippling self-doubt).
Benefits: fleeting moments of creative joy…
One day, those songs you had on repeat during the worst days of your life, the songs that once defined a chapter you were going through, will be downgraded to elevator music
August 14, 2025 at 7:45 AM
One day, those songs you had on repeat during the worst days of your life, the songs that once defined a chapter you were going through, will be downgraded to elevator music
2 poems in. A new collection is taking shape. This one’s about patience, self-love, and the quiet ways we grow. Looking forward to sharing it with the world.
July 6, 2025 at 7:23 PM
2 poems in. A new collection is taking shape. This one’s about patience, self-love, and the quiet ways we grow. Looking forward to sharing it with the world.
The Memory Police is an absolute banger
Front and center table at my Barnes and Noble. Good on you, @barnesandnoble.com
July 6, 2025 at 5:50 PM
The Memory Police is an absolute banger
In Tough Guys Don’t Dance, Mailer’s out here using em dashes like commas and it works. If this dropped today, some dude with a podcast would call it AI pulp. Funny how voice and chaos used to be a style, and now it’s a red flag. Mailer wrote like a man on fire who refused to stop and proofread.
July 6, 2025 at 5:13 PM
In Tough Guys Don’t Dance, Mailer’s out here using em dashes like commas and it works. If this dropped today, some dude with a podcast would call it AI pulp. Funny how voice and chaos used to be a style, and now it’s a red flag. Mailer wrote like a man on fire who refused to stop and proofread.
Peace was on the table.
Cooperation was happening.
Then we backed out of the treaty and dropped bombs instead.
We called it a necessary step toward stability.
So it goes.
Cooperation was happening.
Then we backed out of the treaty and dropped bombs instead.
We called it a necessary step toward stability.
So it goes.
June 22, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Peace was on the table.
Cooperation was happening.
Then we backed out of the treaty and dropped bombs instead.
We called it a necessary step toward stability.
So it goes.
Cooperation was happening.
Then we backed out of the treaty and dropped bombs instead.
We called it a necessary step toward stability.
So it goes.
I wrote about my brother.
About a moment I wish I could take back.
About grief showing up 21 years later in a coffee shop.
Maybe grief isn’t just sadness. Maybe it’s the echo of love we didn’t know how to show when we had the chance.
open.substack.com/pub/lugotron...
About a moment I wish I could take back.
About grief showing up 21 years later in a coffee shop.
Maybe grief isn’t just sadness. Maybe it’s the echo of love we didn’t know how to show when we had the chance.
open.substack.com/pub/lugotron...
21 Years
Grief, guilt, and the memory I couldn’t shake.
open.substack.com
May 1, 2025 at 7:07 PM
I wrote about my brother.
About a moment I wish I could take back.
About grief showing up 21 years later in a coffee shop.
Maybe grief isn’t just sadness. Maybe it’s the echo of love we didn’t know how to show when we had the chance.
open.substack.com/pub/lugotron...
About a moment I wish I could take back.
About grief showing up 21 years later in a coffee shop.
Maybe grief isn’t just sadness. Maybe it’s the echo of love we didn’t know how to show when we had the chance.
open.substack.com/pub/lugotron...
Is it just me, or are em dashes becoming the cargo shorts of punctuation?
Shame, I do love me an em dash 🤷🏽♂️
Shame, I do love me an em dash 🤷🏽♂️
April 30, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Is it just me, or are em dashes becoming the cargo shorts of punctuation?
Shame, I do love me an em dash 🤷🏽♂️
Shame, I do love me an em dash 🤷🏽♂️
✍🏽 Been a minute since I posted.
Deep in the writing trenches, working on something that’s been clawing at me for a bit now. About love, obligation, what happens when care turns into captivity—when the weight of responsibility becomes unbearable.
More soon.
#Writing #Screenwriting #IndieFilm
Deep in the writing trenches, working on something that’s been clawing at me for a bit now. About love, obligation, what happens when care turns into captivity—when the weight of responsibility becomes unbearable.
More soon.
#Writing #Screenwriting #IndieFilm
March 20, 2025 at 6:37 PM
✍🏽 Been a minute since I posted.
Deep in the writing trenches, working on something that’s been clawing at me for a bit now. About love, obligation, what happens when care turns into captivity—when the weight of responsibility becomes unbearable.
More soon.
#Writing #Screenwriting #IndieFilm
Deep in the writing trenches, working on something that’s been clawing at me for a bit now. About love, obligation, what happens when care turns into captivity—when the weight of responsibility becomes unbearable.
More soon.
#Writing #Screenwriting #IndieFilm
Writing is arguing with myself until one of us cries. Usually, it’s both of us… 🤣🤣☹️🥺😢😭
February 13, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Writing is arguing with myself until one of us cries. Usually, it’s both of us… 🤣🤣☹️🥺😢😭
Damn drake, the whole superdome said that sh!t
February 10, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Damn drake, the whole superdome said that sh!t
I wrote 6,765 words today. I can’t even fathom that right now. My brain is done-zo today. 🫠
#writersky #authorsky #writer
#writersky #authorsky #writer
February 9, 2025 at 4:22 AM
I wrote 6,765 words today. I can’t even fathom that right now. My brain is done-zo today. 🫠
#writersky #authorsky #writer
#writersky #authorsky #writer
AI is tragic. It was supposed to be a tool for empowerment, a way to enhance human potential, automate the mundane, and free people up for creative and meaningful work. But instead, it’s often used as a mechanism for control, cost-cutting, and replacing human effort rather than complementing it.
February 7, 2025 at 9:40 PM
AI is tragic. It was supposed to be a tool for empowerment, a way to enhance human potential, automate the mundane, and free people up for creative and meaningful work. But instead, it’s often used as a mechanism for control, cost-cutting, and replacing human effort rather than complementing it.
Been thinking about identity—what it means to be Latino, what it means to be American, and what it means when you feel like you don’t fit neatly into either.
February 5, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Been thinking about identity—what it means to be Latino, what it means to be American, and what it means when you feel like you don’t fit neatly into either.
Patrick Cowley was ahead of his time. A pioneer of electronic music, he shaped the sound of the late ’70s and early ’80s, yet his legacy remains underappreciated.
#PatrickCowley #ElectronicMusic #housemusic
#PatrickCowley #ElectronicMusic #housemusic
February 5, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Patrick Cowley was ahead of his time. A pioneer of electronic music, he shaped the sound of the late ’70s and early ’80s, yet his legacy remains underappreciated.
#PatrickCowley #ElectronicMusic #housemusic
#PatrickCowley #ElectronicMusic #housemusic