Mike Barthel
@mikebarthelauthor.com
Writer/critic/researcher/musician in DC. Fiction lotsa places. Writing a speculative novel and a book for DUP “Singles” about “Party in the USA.” mikebarthelauthor.com
Making music as APOPHRA https://apophra.bandcamp.com/
Making music as APOPHRA https://apophra.bandcamp.com/
By the terms set out here, Spring Breakers with my girlfriend and no one else in Indiana, but really it’s Master and Commander with my dad at Thanksgiving
Have asked this before and always like the responses. What are your biggest “I saw that in the first run cinema” flexes? Couple of mine:
Transformers: The Movie (1986)
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Office Space (1999)
Transformers: The Movie (1986)
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Office Space (1999)
February 12, 2026 at 4:11 AM
By the terms set out here, Spring Breakers with my girlfriend and no one else in Indiana, but really it’s Master and Commander with my dad at Thanksgiving
Passed a bunch of goths going into the NIN show and they were talking about tax assessments.
February 12, 2026 at 1:08 AM
Passed a bunch of goths going into the NIN show and they were talking about tax assessments.
Reposted by Mike Barthel
my names ozymandias and im here to say, look upon my works in a major way
February 10, 2026 at 7:21 PM
my names ozymandias and im here to say, look upon my works in a major way
Funniest possible bit at this point would be to do a starter pack
February 11, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Funniest possible bit at this point would be to do a starter pack
Reposted by Mike Barthel
Sick and so watching Mulholland Drive
February 10, 2026 at 9:29 PM
Sick and so watching Mulholland Drive
It’s Fat Tuesday for birds here as the melting reveals grass for the first time in weeks and all the berries blown down by the high winds. The robins and sparrows et al are having a field day.
February 10, 2026 at 5:07 PM
It’s Fat Tuesday for birds here as the melting reveals grass for the first time in weeks and all the berries blown down by the high winds. The robins and sparrows et al are having a field day.
Reposted by Mike Barthel
I don't even fuck with covers generally (and of Prince especially!) but this is tremendous
I WOULD DIE 4 U, by jane foster
track by jane foster
janesonewish.bandcamp.com
February 9, 2026 at 10:15 PM
I don't even fuck with covers generally (and of Prince especially!) but this is tremendous
Reposted by Mike Barthel
Hersheys Kisses should advertise themselves as “the candy that gets to first base.”
February 9, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Hersheys Kisses should advertise themselves as “the candy that gets to first base.”
Marked myself safe from being included in the Bluesky map
February 9, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Marked myself safe from being included in the Bluesky map
Receiving this passage from the Ratboys profile like a man lost in the desert coming across a water fountain. pitchfork.com/features/rat...
February 9, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Receiving this passage from the Ratboys profile like a man lost in the desert coming across a water fountain. pitchfork.com/features/rat...
Did everyone else just see that ad
February 9, 2026 at 1:40 AM
Did everyone else just see that ad
Reposted by Mike Barthel
Gaga “just so excited” to use the salsa lessons she took in 2008
February 9, 2026 at 1:27 AM
Gaga “just so excited” to use the salsa lessons she took in 2008
A younger attendee of the Super Bowl party has taken to calling the pigs in a blanket “cozy pigs.”
February 9, 2026 at 1:19 AM
A younger attendee of the Super Bowl party has taken to calling the pigs in a blanket “cozy pigs.”
Having overheard a lot of cartons this weekend, the Vanessa Bayer bits here still hold up. youtu.be/QSFNw1lrnto?...
Spotlightz Acting Camp Salutes The Oscars - SNL
YouTube video by Saturday Night Live
youtu.be
February 8, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Having overheard a lot of cartons this weekend, the Vanessa Bayer bits here still hold up. youtu.be/QSFNw1lrnto?...
Yes! Here’s a particularly solid stretch:
February 8, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Yes! Here’s a particularly solid stretch:
Reposted by Mike Barthel
“Look me in the eye and tell me you know what to wear to a vigil” might be the greatest line of TV dialogue this century. Perfect set up, writing, delivery.
If you never watched Search Party, it’s on Netflix now. The first three seasons are great TV, and then the final two are the closest a sitcom has ever gotten to Holy Motors or The Magic Mountain.
February 8, 2026 at 4:23 PM
“Look me in the eye and tell me you know what to wear to a vigil” might be the greatest line of TV dialogue this century. Perfect set up, writing, delivery.
Sitting on the couch with boy twin and he goes nuts hugging me, shouting “it’s too much! It’s too much!” like he’s the dame in a film noir.
February 8, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Sitting on the couch with boy twin and he goes nuts hugging me, shouting “it’s too much! It’s too much!” like he’s the dame in a film noir.
If you never watched Search Party, it’s on Netflix now. The first three seasons are great TV, and then the final two are the closest a sitcom has ever gotten to Holy Motors or The Magic Mountain.
February 8, 2026 at 4:02 PM
If you never watched Search Party, it’s on Netflix now. The first three seasons are great TV, and then the final two are the closest a sitcom has ever gotten to Holy Motors or The Magic Mountain.
Reposted by Mike Barthel
When listening to a piece of music, it can be useful to think of that music as an opaque bureaucracy that was designed to function according to principles of which you have little understanding. But with frustration, perseverance and some luck, that bureaucratic system might eventually be navigated.
February 6, 2026 at 5:54 PM
When listening to a piece of music, it can be useful to think of that music as an opaque bureaucracy that was designed to function according to principles of which you have little understanding. But with frustration, perseverance and some luck, that bureaucratic system might eventually be navigated.
In Opinion
“Bad Bunny’s performance isn’t just the story of the ascendancy of a single performer,” Noah Shachtman writes about Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show. “It’s the sign of something bigger still. America’s pop culture is today multilingual, polycultural and international at its very core.”
“Bad Bunny’s performance isn’t just the story of the ascendancy of a single performer,” Noah Shachtman writes about Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show. “It’s the sign of something bigger still. America’s pop culture is today multilingual, polycultural and international at its very core.”
Opinion | The Culture War Is Over. Bad Bunny Won.
American pop culture is global pop culture, and vice versa.
nyti.ms
February 8, 2026 at 2:52 PM
My wife, an avid Post reader until the opinion page turned, saw the news about Lewis getting fired and asked: why did they fire him? Didn’t he do exactly what they wanted him to do by turning the editorial page conservative? I said: yes, but they wanted him to make more money while doing it.
February 8, 2026 at 2:44 PM
My wife, an avid Post reader until the opinion page turned, saw the news about Lewis getting fired and asked: why did they fire him? Didn’t he do exactly what they wanted him to do by turning the editorial page conservative? I said: yes, but they wanted him to make more money while doing it.
We were talking how our kids’ state of nature is cuteness and my brain whispered the phrase “Hobbes’ kawaiiathan”
February 8, 2026 at 2:24 PM
We were talking how our kids’ state of nature is cuteness and my brain whispered the phrase “Hobbes’ kawaiiathan”