Brian Abrams
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brianabrams.bsky.social
Brian Abrams
@brianabrams.bsky.social
440 followers 210 following 240 posts
Author of books, oral histories, the occasional TikTok.
www.brianlabrams.com
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brianabrams.bsky.social
I'm sure I'm forgetting something but 📽️
June 24, 2025 at 1:11 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
Oh well that’s just fucking great. Now I have to prove to @willsloanesq.bsky.social that I can read.
Photo of the book of the year, Will Sloan’s ED WOOD: MADE IN HOLLYWOOD USA
June 23, 2025 at 10:12 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
ah, FF - ok tempting
June 12, 2025 at 2:55 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
*ties ascot*
June 3, 2025 at 11:36 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
Invite me on your pod to honor a prolific actor and I’ll derail things w a rant about 80s sex comedies. Sorry, @jessehawken.bsky.social. RIP, Joe Don.
May 31, 2025 at 2:16 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
The Gawker oral history is free to download this week on the Kindle app. It was originally published right at the beginning of the tabloid empire’s demise - but to only know it as "the site brought down by Hogan" would be absurd.

I’d urge any students of media to devour this thing. a.co/d/06CZpie
cover art for "Gawker: An Oral History" excerpt from "Gawker: An Oral History" on Emily Gould's online stardom (1/2) excerpt from "Gawker: An Oral History" on Emily Gould's online stardom (2/2)
January 7, 2025 at 12:26 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
December 28, 2024 at 4:01 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
December 25, 2024 at 7:04 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
👋🏻 📽️ see you in February i guess
December 21, 2024 at 3:41 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
gonna freshen up on the Joel Silver-verse this week 📽️
Just Watch alerts for Hudson Hawk and Action Jackson
December 2, 2024 at 2:35 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
people keep asking how John McClane knew that Hans Gruber ("Bill Clay") was one of the terrorists in Die Hard. I didn't include in the oral history bc it's way too much of a detour - but I did torture @jordanfreiman.bsky.social into posting an explainer w/ me web.archive.org/web/20171116...
December 1, 2024 at 8:29 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
November 30, 2024 at 12:04 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
Finally! I can say that I've seen every 007 movie - brb, gonna update my dating app profile
last four watched on letterboxd: No Time to Die (3 stars); Spectre (3.5 stars); Skyfall (4 stars); Quantum of Solace (3.5 stars)
November 29, 2024 at 5:47 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
The Die Hard oral history is free to download right now on Kindle or via the Kindle app, ho ho ho a.co/d/5kCYtP7

It’s prob the most challenging oral history I've done: structuring a wild constellation of a story, wrangling the few who could tell it. I really didn't believe it'd come together.
The cover of “Die Hard: An Oral History” on Kindle
November 28, 2024 at 5:56 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
November 27, 2024 at 4:38 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
🎶 it’s beginning to look a lot like christ-mas 🎶
A Google Trends screenshot that shows search activity currently spiking for the 1988 American film DIE HARD, which, if you hadn’t heard, is a Christmas movie.
November 25, 2024 at 3:56 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
that's really powerful
November 24, 2024 at 12:58 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
Sugar enriched flour, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, polysorbate 60, and Yellow Dye #5: Just everything a growing boy needs.
November 22, 2024 at 2:47 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
My last book was a deep dive into the origins and influence of iconic movie lines - a three-year project that kept me sane throughout (most of) Covid. www.instagram.com/reel/CxtEbgM...

It also ended up in 2024 Oscar nominee gift bags and was a perfect excuse for me to make the podcast rounds.
photo of the black/silver paperback cover for the book "You Talkin' to Me?": The Definitive Guide to Iconic Movie Quotes
November 17, 2024 at 6:19 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
November 15, 2024 at 5:39 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
Got in a rut w/ early 007 but bless Mikey Madison for pulling me outta there 🎥
November 12, 2024 at 2:40 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
oh no, please not "disarray" - anything but that! www.thecity.nyc/2024/11/12/b...
Today, the City Council is expected to pass a bill called the Fairness in Apartment Rentals Act with a veto-proof majority. The bill states that a broker who publishes a listing for a property for rent is to be paid by the landlord. It also requires the landlord or broker to disclose all fees tenants pay up front. Failure to comply comes with penalties. The bill’s advocates say it will result in more affordability for tenants contending with a red-hot rental market and historically low vacancy rate. But real estate groups have opposed it, saying the measure will ultimately hurt tenants and throw the housing market into disarray.
November 12, 2024 at 12:06 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
Some recent obsessions 📽️ boxd.it/Ak3rO
Movies from my September and October horror binge (1 of 2): Shock, Halloween, A Candle for the Devil, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Rosemary's Baby, The Vampire Lovers, The Brides of Dracula, Vampire Circus, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Psycho Movies from my September and October horror binge (2 of 2): Torso, Psycho II, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, All the Colors of the Dark, Satanico Pandemonium, Macabre, Phantasm, Black Narcissus, Deep Red, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
November 11, 2024 at 1:33 PM
brianabrams.bsky.social
LB vibe check 🎥
November 11, 2024 at 12:10 AM
brianabrams.bsky.social
"You should take the entire Pacific Ocean off the table for oil and gas drilling."

Snippets of Obama WH staff contemplating regulatory reforms in the Winter 2016 lame duck - giving a sense of what/how they prioritized, etc. From the Obama oral history.
Brian Deese: We were clear eyed from the get-go that the Garland nomination was an uphill fight and that it could well be the case that we wouldn't end up even with a hearing . . . There was an ongoing debate that played out across issue areas. On one hand, people argued that if we took aggressive executive action, it would draw even more attention to the issue and make it more likely that the incoming administration would seek to unravel the good that we'd done. Therefore, that line of argument led you to say, "Keep your head down. As important as it may seem, to do this big thing could actually backfire." The other argument was obvious. "This is the last chance to lock in gains. You might as well make this as difficult as possible. It's not like you can poke the bear any more than the bear has already been poked." Jason Furman: We certainly implemented executive orders that we had, in effect, been working on for a couple of years. We tried to get most of our executive orders done early, and done in a way that wouldn't be subject to a Congressional Review Act [resolution]. There's always the idea that—and we crossed our t's and dotted our i's—when you do a better notice-and-comment process for regulation, not only do you get a better-quality regulation that's better designed, but you also get something more likely to withstand attempts to change it. Brian Deese: A good example's the announcement we made jointly with Canada to indefinitely withdraw the Arctic from offshore oil and gas drilling. That was something that we had been working on for over a year with the Trudeau administration, and the agency had done a huge amount of technical work to understand the legal and factual reasons for doing a withdrawal. So the view was that they would do what they're gonna do with respect to oil and gas, and in December, we did what we thought was the right thing. But at the same time, there were arguments that said, like, "You should take the entire Pacific Ocean off the table for oil and gas drilling. Go ahead and do that, because who knows where the future's gonna lie?" Brian Deese: If we hadn't done the work, then we weren't going to do it well. We wanted to do things the way we had been doing them and be able to seriously justify them if they were going to be associated with our administration. That's not just quaint. It's practically important, too. As all of these legal defenses get geared up, being able to justify that these regulatory actions were actually based in a record of strong fact, that's what would carry the day in court.
November 10, 2024 at 6:12 PM