so do i file my taxes?

You know we have too many music biopics when one musician is portrayed by a bunch of Lego bricks and another by a cgi chimpanzee. Next we'll have Mick Jagger portrayed by a six-year-old girl and Billy Joel played by a stick of butter.

The Brutalist and Megalopolis were the exact same movie. An Ayn Rand libertarian story (a remake of The Fountainhead, if we're honest) about a great man, an architect, a genius who does everything by himself (how?) and who no one appreciates. The only difference between them was the budget.

Enjoy this birb.

Periodically, the jet engines in this 757 rev up to an alarming degree - less "i need to pass this mofo" and more "getting ready to explode." i'm not a nervous flier but it's disconcerting.

Commercial real estate is getting out of hand.

some people say travel broadens the mind. it mostly makes me happy for my life choices, that i'm not fighting loudly with a stupid person, like the couple next to me.

really intense writing.

everywhere in the shops in milan are signs for black friday, but no one seems to know when black friday is, and why would they? so there's a lot of "happy black friday month!" and "black week!" i saw stickers for black friday on a cigarette machine today.

I decided to be lazy and take a taxi from Piacenza to Milan, a trip of over an hour. Turns out it's my taxi driver's first day on the job, and I'm his first ever rider. An adventure for both of us!

sweet/surreal

beautiful stories of the maps that shape our lives.

first time i've ever stayed in a hotel room without a land line phone.

The weird thing about Trump's nominations is it makes it clear who's running this administration. He only trusts talking heads on Fox News, more than experts with decades of experience. Murdoch better hire some policy experts, because he's running this country now.

THE BELL JAR

HARD ❌

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York

EASY ✅

That summer was sizzling, and so were the Rosenbergs

Walking down the street, an older Chinese guy walks up to me and says, "I still want to buy your Corolla." I suddenly remember that over a year ago, he walked up to me on the street and told me he wanted to buy my Corolla. Both times, not in or near my car. Never talked to the guy otherwise.

"Who did you vote for Mayor?" oh, you know, the person closest to my ideology, with plenty of experience. you? everyone at the table voted for the millionaire with no experience. why? in unison, "Because he has no experience!" ......I guess advertising works?

You might say no one wants to hear me singing, but it's not my fault the restaurant keeps playing songs I studied in voice lessons.

Guy on BART told me I look like a young Lynne Cheney. I don't know what to do with that.