Michael
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durak.bsky.social
Michael
@durak.bsky.social
190 followers 290 following 300 posts
moderately healthy adult
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durak.bsky.social
we're one step closer to his dream
Revolver "Liquid Ocelot" Ocelot from the video game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots pointing a finger-gun at his head
November 19, 2025 at 7:08 PM
durak.bsky.social
Wild aside about Ma and Pa store owners experiencing police harassment in Studs Terkel’s Working.

They later “got into the psychic field” to deal with the stress.
"We've been turned in for everything. We had a raid here. It was a set-up deal. A couple of crooked cops had some guy bring in cans of lunch meat. The guy said he's goin' out of business and he had a couple cases. I got a good price off of him. I set it in the aisle. About a half an hour later in walks these two guys. 'That's stolen merchandise. What else you got that's stolen?" They went through the house. 'We're gonna have to take your television. We're gonna have to take this. This is stolen. That's stolen. We know how things are. Give us a thousand dollars and we'll leave you alone. "We were new at this thing and got scared. So I went out and borrowed the money and gave it to these guys. I took the license number of their car and reported it. They put us through a lie detector test. They didn't want to believe us. We had to go to the police show-up and things like that. During this time cop after cop was comin' in raiding us with search warrants, just harassment, one thing after another. All the time, we were waitin' to identify these guys at the show-up. "The phone'd ring all night long, with heavy breathing and all. They worked on the family and stuff like that. We had health inspectors, building inspectors, fire inspectors, all the harassments of the city that you could get. Just because we turned in a couple of cops. They were hushing it up all down the line." Irene interjects: "One day, nine or eleven plainclothesmen come in and started goin' through the store, tearing stuff out and everything. He has a search warrant that we had a printing press and we're supposed to be print-ing false credit cards and false ID cards. They tore the place upside down, up in the attic, in the basement. What really took the cake, they came in looking for these pornography books. They said some woman in the neighborhood reported us that we were selling to children. They put me in a state of shock. What we were selling were those coin saver books. We had 'em behind the counter … "We decided we had to do something to enlighten ourselves. To be mentally active besides physically active. So we got into the psychic field. I did palm-istry before. We went to hypnosis classes. Irene went into more develop-ment in hand reading and I was teaching hynotic principles. She's a staff member at the psychic center." Irene interjects: "We're both ordained as reverends by the IGAS-Inter-national General Assembly of Spiritualists. It's a nondenominational church. George takes people in that have hang-ups and problems. In the meditation room here."
November 13, 2025 at 5:26 PM
durak.bsky.social
Sad to see the classical/opera streaming service (available through the library!) use ai slop on their error page
October 30, 2025 at 2:00 PM
durak.bsky.social
Starting my first Balzac, Cousin Bette, which they say is his last great work. I have several cousins, and am therefore also a cousin, so maybe I'll connect with it in some way.
The novel Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac
October 22, 2025 at 12:17 AM
durak.bsky.social
goals
Balzac's work habits were legendary. He wrote from 1 A.M. to 8 A.M. every morning and sometimes even longer. Balzac could write very rapidly; some of his novels, written with a quill, were composed at a pace equal to thirty words per minute on a modern typewriter. [59] His preferred method was to eat a light meal at five or six in the afternoon, then sleep until midnight. He then rose and wrote for many hours, fueled by innumerable cups of black coffee. He often worked for fifteen hours or more at a stretch; he claimed to have once worked for 48 hours with only three hours of rest in the middle. [24]
October 20, 2025 at 10:22 PM
durak.bsky.social
Happy Shadow Ticket Day to all who celebrate
Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
October 7, 2025 at 7:37 PM
durak.bsky.social
🚨 Hard Boiled (1992) is now streaming on Kanopy 🚨
September 13, 2025 at 2:00 AM
durak.bsky.social
finding out that Something Happened
September 10, 2025 at 6:54 PM
durak.bsky.social
they call me Mr. Deals
A can of diet coke with a price sticker: $5.99
September 8, 2025 at 6:47 PM
durak.bsky.social
Early birthday gift. Been looking forward to this one for a while
The Fort Bragg Cartel by Seth Harp
August 16, 2025 at 2:33 PM
durak.bsky.social
Interesting bit on how expressways changed the economics of short-haul trucking
Years ago, we ran through city streets, alongside streetcars, buses, and what have you. It was a two-hour run from the mills of Gary to the North Side of Chicago. Some seventy-six traffic lights. Every one of them had to be individually timed and played differently. If you have to stop that truck and start it, it's not only aggravating and tiring, but you'd wear out the truck twice as fast as you would if you made those lights. It was a constant thing of playing these lights almost by instinct. This is all changed with the expressways. It's just as if automation had entered the trucking business. Now you pull out of U.S. Steel in Gary and you don't have a light until you drop off at the expressway in the city of Milwaukee. It's a miracle compared to what it used to be. So much easier on yourself, on your equipment.
August 12, 2025 at 4:26 PM
durak.bsky.social
an unfortunate union name
Since the wildcat strike of 1967 he's been an organizer for the Fraternal Association of Steel Haulers (FASH). "Forty-six months trying to build an association, to give the haulers a voice and get 'em better working con-ditions. And a terrific fight with the Teamsters Union."
August 12, 2025 at 4:18 PM
durak.bsky.social
Nabokov gets it
He had just bought a hat; they all started trying it on.
August 3, 2025 at 6:52 PM
durak.bsky.social
thrift store grab bag
Fortunes of War, The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning; Trojan Instrumentals Box Set; Godsmack, Godsmack
August 2, 2025 at 6:58 PM
durak.bsky.social
action.transequality.org/a/stopmedica...
URGENT: Tell the Senate to Protect Trans Health ATE ADVOCATES FOR All done! Thanks for taking action on this important issue. Your message has been delivered to Senator Angela Alsobrooks and Senator Chris Van Hollen. Thank you again for your support!
May 22, 2025 at 8:50 PM
durak.bsky.social
100 years ago Nabokov wrote about the Michelin Man and a lovely wife who turned into a worm
"You know something," he went on, sprinkling sugar on some pink rhubarb, "you and your friends are playing with fire. There can be really terrifying occurrences. One Viennese doctor told me about some incredible metamorphoses the other day. Some woman-some kind of fortune-telling hysteric-died, of a heart attack I think, and, when the doctor undressed her (it all happened in a Hungarian hut, by candle-light), he was stunned at the sight of her body; it was entirely covered with a reddish sheen, was soft and slimy to the touch, and, upon closer examination, he realized that this plump, taut cadaver consisted entirely of narrow, circular bands of skin, as if it were all bound evenly and tightly by invisible strings, something like that advertisement for French tires, the man whose body is all tires. Except that in her case these tires were very thin and pale red. And, as the doctor watched, the corpse gradually began to unwind like a huge ball of yarn... Her body was a thin, endless worm, which was disentangling itself and crawling, slithering out through the crack under the door while, on the bed, there remained a naked, white, still humid skeleton. Yet this woman had a husband, who had once kissed her-kissed that worm."
May 12, 2025 at 11:34 PM
durak.bsky.social
What is this drawing of Lena Dunham in the New Yorker? Does she look like that now?
A drawing of Lena Dunham. Caption: Lena Dunham ("Goodbye to All This," online only) is an Emmy-nominated
May 6, 2025 at 12:28 PM
durak.bsky.social
Indie Bookstore Day stack
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders; 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami; Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
April 26, 2025 at 4:47 PM
durak.bsky.social
Heaters this week. Targets really stood out. It's far better than it has any right to be
Mission: Impossible - Fallout; All the President's Men; Targets; Wrath of Man
April 26, 2025 at 2:00 AM
durak.bsky.social
these people are evil
“If he ever ends up back in the United States, he would immediately be deported again,” Leavitt said. “Nothing will change the fact that Abrego García will never be a Maryland father. He will never live in the United States of America again.”
April 18, 2025 at 12:05 PM
durak.bsky.social
I wish we got more unhinged cop movies starring William Petersen
Letterboxd Recent Activity: Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation; Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol; Mission: Impossible: III; To Live and Die in L.A.
April 12, 2025 at 2:00 AM
durak.bsky.social
DelMar (dir Lucy Morales Carlisle): "A young surfer on the cusp of adulthood navigates life between two worlds... In 2017, however, Brenda moved to Maryland, a state not known for its beaches nor its perfect waves, to reunite with her mother, whom she had never met."
Movie poster for DelMar: a young woman surfs a wave
April 7, 2025 at 10:20 PM
durak.bsky.social
Monument (dir Jeremy Drummond): "Monument pairs hand-processed and chemically-altered Super 8mm film footage of the decaying monuments of Presidents Park in Croaker, VA with original and appropriated community video footage captured at Marcus-David Peters Circle..."
Still from Monument: a chemically altered 8mm frame of a statue of Abraham Lincoln's head superimposed over a color-inverted still of a riot cope wielding a can of pepper spray
April 7, 2025 at 10:20 PM
durak.bsky.social
Black Printmakers of Washington, DC: Percy B. Martin & Michael B. Platt (dir Susan Goldman): "Washington, D.C. has a rich history of Black-owned printmaking workshops where artists thrived and formed community."
Still from Black Printmakers of Washington, DC: Percy B. Martin & Michael B. Platt: an artistic rendering of a African American face painted yellow
April 7, 2025 at 10:20 PM
durak.bsky.social
Dora Fugh Lee (dir Samantha Cheng): A Life in Art: "Through a personal lens, Dora’s life is explored as her art developed and reveals why her works are so compelling. Trained by many of the great artists of China, Dora is often referred to as one of the last of the Chinese Literati Painters."
Movie poster for Dora Fugh Lee: A Life in Art: a collage of the artist's work
April 7, 2025 at 10:20 PM