Jeff
@libraryjeff.bsky.social
Librarian, adjunct history guy, likes medieval stuff. Keep it spooky.
My apple music recap thing is kind of terrible and inaccurate, so here's just a few new albums that I enjoyed listening to this year:
The Midnight - Syndicate
Florence and the Machine - Everybody Scream
Wet Leg - Moisturizer
NIN - Tron: Ares
The Midnight - Syndicate
Florence and the Machine - Everybody Scream
Wet Leg - Moisturizer
NIN - Tron: Ares
December 4, 2025 at 5:21 PM
My apple music recap thing is kind of terrible and inaccurate, so here's just a few new albums that I enjoyed listening to this year:
The Midnight - Syndicate
Florence and the Machine - Everybody Scream
Wet Leg - Moisturizer
NIN - Tron: Ares
The Midnight - Syndicate
Florence and the Machine - Everybody Scream
Wet Leg - Moisturizer
NIN - Tron: Ares
Finally watched the first three episodes of Stranger Things (not the fourth, so no spoilers please!) and...
December 4, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Finally watched the first three episodes of Stranger Things (not the fourth, so no spoilers please!) and...
Continued Halloween movie watching last night and got to Near Dark, which I'd somehow never seen. Impressive, gritty, nihilist vampire western. Kathryn Bigelow sets up a bunch of visual work that James Cameron then uses in T2 four years later. Maybe Bill Paxton's best role (apologies to Hudson)??
October 15, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Continued Halloween movie watching last night and got to Near Dark, which I'd somehow never seen. Impressive, gritty, nihilist vampire western. Kathryn Bigelow sets up a bunch of visual work that James Cameron then uses in T2 four years later. Maybe Bill Paxton's best role (apologies to Hudson)??
This is even funnier because the current post office in Chelmsford is next to the Hong & Kong Chinese American Restaurant, which is best known for having moderately terrible food and ridiculous scorpion bowls. (The Friendly's was down the street but closed 8 years ago 😭)
August 20, 2025 at 4:36 PM
This is even funnier because the current post office in Chelmsford is next to the Hong & Kong Chinese American Restaurant, which is best known for having moderately terrible food and ridiculous scorpion bowls. (The Friendly's was down the street but closed 8 years ago 😭)
Triple rabbits greeting me at work is hopefully a good sign for the day.
August 6, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Triple rabbits greeting me at work is hopefully a good sign for the day.
WAIT. SORRY. STOP THE PRESSES. The editor has been sacked. And the supervisor responsible for sacking the editor has also been sacked.
The actual perfect album of 1996 was hiding in plain sight all along:
The actual perfect album of 1996 was hiding in plain sight all along:
July 23, 2025 at 2:35 PM
WAIT. SORRY. STOP THE PRESSES. The editor has been sacked. And the supervisor responsible for sacking the editor has also been sacked.
The actual perfect album of 1996 was hiding in plain sight all along:
The actual perfect album of 1996 was hiding in plain sight all along:
I had a similar problem with 1996. First of all, 16 year old me's taste in music was not that great. Secondly, tons of artists (Tori Amos, Tool, Nick Cave, Weezer) had albums with great songs...but were they perfect albums? I don't know. But if we're going for the feeling of the time? Tie.
July 23, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I had a similar problem with 1996. First of all, 16 year old me's taste in music was not that great. Secondly, tons of artists (Tori Amos, Tool, Nick Cave, Weezer) had albums with great songs...but were they perfect albums? I don't know. But if we're going for the feeling of the time? Tie.
This just makes me miss Blaseball!
July 14, 2025 at 2:25 PM
This just makes me miss Blaseball!
Can I say Terminator: Dark Fate? Underrated movie, IMO! He and Linda Hamilton both having a blast and still bringing good depth as they come back to the characters 25 years later.
June 12, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Can I say Terminator: Dark Fate? Underrated movie, IMO! He and Linda Hamilton both having a blast and still bringing good depth as they come back to the characters 25 years later.
Hippopotamus. Gunslingers.
March 12, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Hippopotamus. Gunslingers.
I present the Great Northern Expedition as told by Stephen R. Bown in Island of the Blue Foxes! From St Petersburg to the Bering Strait (led in fact by Vitus Bering). “One of the most tragic and ghastly trials of suffering in the annals of maritime and arctic history."
March 6, 2025 at 1:36 PM
I present the Great Northern Expedition as told by Stephen R. Bown in Island of the Blue Foxes! From St Petersburg to the Bering Strait (led in fact by Vitus Bering). “One of the most tragic and ghastly trials of suffering in the annals of maritime and arctic history."
For reference! Really only chapter 3 is about Florence, but the rest of the book takes the reader from Ptolemaic Egypt to William Randolph Hearst talking about why powerful people (and governments) work to acquire and display exotic animals.
March 4, 2025 at 7:46 PM
For reference! Really only chapter 3 is about Florence, but the rest of the book takes the reader from Ptolemaic Egypt to William Randolph Hearst talking about why powerful people (and governments) work to acquire and display exotic animals.
Probably obvious, but The Northman. Not a direct adaptation of any one thing, but pulls bits in from Grettis saga, Vápnfirðinga saga, and a couple of others as well as the more clear cut Hamlet/Amleth stuff from Saxo Grammaticus. I really liked the costuming and farm life details in particular.
February 26, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Probably obvious, but The Northman. Not a direct adaptation of any one thing, but pulls bits in from Grettis saga, Vápnfirðinga saga, and a couple of others as well as the more clear cut Hamlet/Amleth stuff from Saxo Grammaticus. I really liked the costuming and farm life details in particular.
I have it on good authority (@cryptozooloren.bsky.social) that the Pamola in Maine has the head of a moose, the body of a man, and the wings of an eagle!
January 17, 2025 at 3:17 PM
I have it on good authority (@cryptozooloren.bsky.social) that the Pamola in Maine has the head of a moose, the body of a man, and the wings of an eagle!
Always fun when the new book cart rolls in and you get to say, hey, I know that one! @lollardfish.bsky.social @profgabriele.com
January 14, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Always fun when the new book cart rolls in and you get to say, hey, I know that one! @lollardfish.bsky.social @profgabriele.com
Porting this over from the bad place, because damnit we should be able to have nice things! Mill No. 5 has been one of the best things about Lowell for a while and its closing sucks. Hive and Forge starting a new public market to replace it is an amazing step to course correct. gofund.me/dc20ceba
January 7, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Porting this over from the bad place, because damnit we should be able to have nice things! Mill No. 5 has been one of the best things about Lowell for a while and its closing sucks. Hive and Forge starting a new public market to replace it is an amazing step to course correct. gofund.me/dc20ceba
Topato Potato has graced my laptop for many years!
December 10, 2024 at 3:31 PM
Topato Potato has graced my laptop for many years!
I like that this season spent a bunch of time setting up a potential conflict with the skids...which never happened beyond Tanis briefly showing up to be weirded out and then it just tapers off. 😂
December 5, 2024 at 5:07 PM
I like that this season spent a bunch of time setting up a potential conflict with the skids...which never happened beyond Tanis briefly showing up to be weirded out and then it just tapers off. 😂
Should have showed them the Finnish cult classic about hunting cannibalistic Santas! It's educational!
November 27, 2024 at 3:39 PM
Should have showed them the Finnish cult classic about hunting cannibalistic Santas! It's educational!
Show me your pet and what they were named after. (He came with the name and it suits him, but I don’t know exactly why it was chosen.)
November 24, 2024 at 3:52 AM
Show me your pet and what they were named after. (He came with the name and it suits him, but I don’t know exactly why it was chosen.)
I have nothing to say about the people there, but the views are nice.
November 5, 2024 at 3:15 PM
I have nothing to say about the people there, but the views are nice.
I grew up in these streets
November 5, 2024 at 2:58 PM
I grew up in these streets