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/
I appreciate everyone trying to make Avatar jokes given that neither they nor their audience know anything about Avatar!
December 27, 2025 at 5:02 AM
I appreciate everyone trying to make Avatar jokes given that neither they nor their audience know anything about Avatar!
Reposted by Mike Barthel
i got a bit obsessed with the modern lovers this year & attempted to assemble a complete-as-possible 1970-1974 live chronology. it's far from complete, but found lots of fun stuff, including a setlist for what might be the 1st gig & ads for their shows in bermuda. jessejarnow.com/2025/12/the-...
December 26, 2025 at 9:42 PM
i got a bit obsessed with the modern lovers this year & attempted to assemble a complete-as-possible 1970-1974 live chronology. it's far from complete, but found lots of fun stuff, including a setlist for what might be the 1st gig & ads for their shows in bermuda. jessejarnow.com/2025/12/the-...
Excited to note that since “Steamboat Willie”’s copyright has been liberated from corporate control, it has been used for the righteous purpose of advertising a predatory law firm. youtu.be/bYkHlxCg6ok?...
Morgan & Morgan - Steamboat Willie (2025, USA)
YouTube video by CartoonNetworkTwo 2.0
youtu.be
December 27, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Excited to note that since “Steamboat Willie”’s copyright has been liberated from corporate control, it has been used for the righteous purpose of advertising a predatory law firm. youtu.be/bYkHlxCg6ok?...
Opened Threads briefly and almost got sucked in by an 3ric Alp3r prompt, smh.
December 26, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Opened Threads briefly and almost got sucked in by an 3ric Alp3r prompt, smh.
“No one wants to see your butthole,” I say to my beloved child, folllwrd a few minutes later by “we are not playing ‘spit hands.’”
December 26, 2025 at 1:28 AM
“No one wants to see your butthole,” I say to my beloved child, folllwrd a few minutes later by “we are not playing ‘spit hands.’”
Our only Christmas tradition is this all-timer of a Kevin Kline performance. youtu.be/Lud3bgEJeTg?...
Bob's Burgers - The Spirits of Christmas (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by Bob's Burgers Side Orders
youtu.be
December 25, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Our only Christmas tradition is this all-timer of a Kevin Kline performance. youtu.be/Lud3bgEJeTg?...
Fairytale of NY regrettably has just enough hoi-hoi-hoi-me-boyo for someone who feels ambivalently about his Irish Catholic heritage to fully enjoy.
December 25, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Fairytale of NY regrettably has just enough hoi-hoi-hoi-me-boyo for someone who feels ambivalently about his Irish Catholic heritage to fully enjoy.
One year ago and a day, my sad Christmas story about aliens appeared in X-RAY! I still like it a lot. xraylitmag.com/skies-of-ame...
SKIES OF AMERICA by Mike Barthel
Lydia was in the Sam’s Club reaching for a box containing three boxes of cereal when the lanky man pushed his flatbed cart uncomfortably close to her flatbed cart. “As you can see, I have a compendium...
xraylitmag.com
December 25, 2025 at 12:27 AM
One year ago and a day, my sad Christmas story about aliens appeared in X-RAY! I still like it a lot. xraylitmag.com/skies-of-ame...
Reposted by Mike Barthel
Look the fuckin’ baby just didn’t like the fuckin’ shoes okay.
June 29, 2024 at 9:57 PM
Look the fuckin’ baby just didn’t like the fuckin’ shoes okay.
It was very common for people in my grandparents’ generation, and even my parents’, to stop talking to family members for decades, often for reasons no one could remember by the end. Great-uncle Harry and his cousin had a falling out over a horse in 1957 and haven’t talked since, etc.
December 24, 2025 at 8:48 PM
It was very common for people in my grandparents’ generation, and even my parents’, to stop talking to family members for decades, often for reasons no one could remember by the end. Great-uncle Harry and his cousin had a falling out over a horse in 1957 and haven’t talked since, etc.
Editor: Hey Charles I feel like you lost track of the Tiny Tim character, could we resolve that plot line in terms of his illness
Dickens [in the middle of typing a sentence] Ugh FINE
Dickens [in the middle of typing a sentence] Ugh FINE
December 24, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Editor: Hey Charles I feel like you lost track of the Tiny Tim character, could we resolve that plot line in terms of his illness
Dickens [in the middle of typing a sentence] Ugh FINE
Dickens [in the middle of typing a sentence] Ugh FINE
Found on tumblr, cackled.
December 24, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Found on tumblr, cackled.
It’s helpful to have this very unambiguous example of what “minimum viable product” means and why it’s a bad idea.
Trump Class battleship illustration, as released by the White House.
December 23, 2025 at 1:24 PM
It’s helpful to have this very unambiguous example of what “minimum viable product” means and why it’s a bad idea.
Harrison Ford! From the Wiki for Adam Sandler’s “The Chanukah Song”:
December 23, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Harrison Ford! From the Wiki for Adam Sandler’s “The Chanukah Song”:
Reposted by Mike Barthel
Mariah’s technical skills are so good they’re literally unbelievable. Minnie Riperton hits the whistle register and you can visualize her singing it. Mariah hits it in “Emotions” and it sounds like someone pressing a key on a synth, just a pure tone.
December 23, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Mariah’s technical skills are so good they’re literally unbelievable. Minnie Riperton hits the whistle register and you can visualize her singing it. Mariah hits it in “Emotions” and it sounds like someone pressing a key on a synth, just a pure tone.
Reposted by Mike Barthel
I keep getting shown “for your Grammy consideration” ads about Bon Iver, which is misguided in at least two ways.
December 23, 2025 at 3:13 AM
I keep getting shown “for your Grammy consideration” ads about Bon Iver, which is misguided in at least two ways.
What do you mean I didn’t contribute to the group project. There’s my name right at the top.
December 23, 2025 at 5:01 AM
What do you mean I didn’t contribute to the group project. There’s my name right at the top.
Reposted by Mike Barthel
[borat voice] bari weiss
December 17, 2024 at 9:12 PM
[borat voice] bari weiss
Current acts aren’t just “inspired” by bands from my youth anymore, they’re full-on soundalikes now. Maybe it’s deliberate or maybe they just reinvented the sound from first principles, but it’s still weird for a band to sound exactly like Rainer Maria or GBV, down to the vocals and production.
December 23, 2025 at 3:57 AM
Current acts aren’t just “inspired” by bands from my youth anymore, they’re full-on soundalikes now. Maybe it’s deliberate or maybe they just reinvented the sound from first principles, but it’s still weird for a band to sound exactly like Rainer Maria or GBV, down to the vocals and production.
Mariah’s technical skills are so good they’re literally unbelievable. Minnie Riperton hits the whistle register and you can visualize her singing it. Mariah hits it in “Emotions” and it sounds like someone pressing a key on a synth, just a pure tone.
December 23, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Mariah’s technical skills are so good they’re literally unbelievable. Minnie Riperton hits the whistle register and you can visualize her singing it. Mariah hits it in “Emotions” and it sounds like someone pressing a key on a synth, just a pure tone.
For some reason this is canonically the Lake Lanier episode of Atlanta to me.
This image has influenced my aesthetic for at least 35 years
December 23, 2025 at 3:24 AM
For some reason this is canonically the Lake Lanier episode of Atlanta to me.
I keep getting shown “for your Grammy consideration” ads about Bon Iver, which is misguided in at least two ways.
December 23, 2025 at 3:13 AM
I keep getting shown “for your Grammy consideration” ads about Bon Iver, which is misguided in at least two ways.
Reposted by Mike Barthel
Heartened by the kids spontaneously bursting into a “boo Donald Trump!”
chant as we drove past the White House, disheartened after seeing a concrete truck going onto the WH grounds and thinking “that’s weird, why would there be a concrete truck at the White House” before remembering.
chant as we drove past the White House, disheartened after seeing a concrete truck going onto the WH grounds and thinking “that’s weird, why would there be a concrete truck at the White House” before remembering.
December 22, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Heartened by the kids spontaneously bursting into a “boo Donald Trump!”
chant as we drove past the White House, disheartened after seeing a concrete truck going onto the WH grounds and thinking “that’s weird, why would there be a concrete truck at the White House” before remembering.
chant as we drove past the White House, disheartened after seeing a concrete truck going onto the WH grounds and thinking “that’s weird, why would there be a concrete truck at the White House” before remembering.