Mike Barthel
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mikebarthelauthor.com
Mike Barthel
@mikebarthelauthor.com
1.9K followers 820 following 3.9K posts
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/
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I’m sorry Harvey Guillén is the goddamn house from the Mickey Mouse show?
His IMDB page showing the credit A monstrous grinning cartoon house named Funny
November 11, 2025 at 1:59 AM
mikebarthelauthor.com
While there are a lot of ridiculous things about the present moment, the 20th century trend of super-rich Americans buying European buildings and having them shipped overseas piece by piece and reassembled is hard to top.
In 1925, Thomas C. Williams Jr. bought a 15th-century Tudor manor house, Agecroft Hall, which stood by the River Irwell in Pendlebury, England. The hall was disassembled, crated and transported to Richmond, Virginia, where it was reassembled as the centrepiece of a Tudor estate on the banks of the James River. 27, The 16th-century Warwick Priory in Warwick, England was bought by Alexander and Virginia Weddell in 1926 and relocated in the same manner. Architect Henry G. Morse oversaw both moves. He designed additions to the reassembled priory, inspired by Sulgrave Manor and Wormleighton Manor. The expanded building was renamed Virginia House, and stands next door to Agecroft Hall. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst purchased and attempted to relocate two Cistercian monasteries during his travels in Spain, but neither was completed during his lifetime. The first was built about 1141 and found abandoned by Hearst in 1925. He purchased the ruin and attempted to ship it to his home in California, San Simeon. The crates, however, were detained by customs officials in New York City, and due to his deteriorating finances during the Great Depression, Hearst was unable to complete the shipment. The stones were purchased in 1951 and reassembled in Florida as a tourist attraction. In 1964, the building was purchased by a local Episcopal diocese and restored to its original purpose as the Church of St. Bernard de Clairvaux. [281 On 18 April 1968, John Rennie's London Bridge (which had replaced the original bridge in 1831) was sold to the American entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for the sum of $2,460,000. The bridge was reconstructed at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and opened on 10 October 1971. Not all of the bridge was transported to America, as some were kept behind in lieu of tax duties. The version of London Bridge that was rebuilt at Lake Havasu consists of a concrete frame with stones from the old (but not the original) London Bridge used as cladding. It spans a canal that leads from Lake Havasu to Thomson Bay, and forms the centrepiece of a theme park in the English style, complete with mock-Tudor shopping mall. The bridge has become one of Arizona's biggest tourist attractions. 301
November 10, 2025 at 2:47 AM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Nice Zevon reflection from an old coworker at the record label.
Sage Robinson • 1st Creative Communications & PR Strategist Privileged to have worked with Warren and to have been in attendance for his last appearance on Letterman. And I cherish a card, accompanied by a dozen roses, sent after he pushed back on doing a TV guide interview, always the biggest circulation of any magazine when it existed in magazine form, and I strong armed him into it. It will never run, he cynically told a coworker. It was a full page. It was about his recording of the Hockey Song with Letterman and Paul Schaffer. The card reads: you were right, I was wrong. Love, Warren. It's still one of my best press coups. He died the day my mom was hospitalized with a stroke and I clearly remember just sitting in the backyard crying about my mom, who was on a ventilator, and hearing Warren died. They're forever, weirdly, entwined.
November 9, 2025 at 11:46 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
The Mamdani sign but it says EIGHT, EIGHT, I FORGET WHAT EIGHT IS and then in the normal font FOR
November 8, 2025 at 8:15 PM
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Donald Duck: the orange juice made with pure rage.
An ad for the orange juice in which a red-eyed grimacing Donald furiously squeezes an orange.
November 7, 2025 at 3:43 AM
mikebarthelauthor.com
It has been a very good year for the type of music I pay attention to! Here’s an initial unranked top 10 singles:
Something Beautiful - Miley Cyrus
Total euphoria - caroline
Emulate - Light Beams
Leave Me Alone - Reneé Rapp
The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station - CMAT
A screenshot of the list
November 6, 2025 at 4:11 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
The guys from the Simpsons where the little guy says “nay” and then Homer asks who said that and the little guy pretends it was the big guy
November 5, 2025 at 2:52 AM
mikebarthelauthor.com
May your children never know peace
Email header. It’s from LinkedIn. Subject: Mike, view your application updates from this week Email text: Your applications on LinkedIn We don't have any updates on your applications, but we'll update you when we hear back
November 4, 2025 at 11:43 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Thank you to Fish Barrel Review for nominating my story “Known Unknowns” for Best of the Net! You can read it here: fishbarrelreview.wordpress.com/2025/02/28/m...
List of nominees: FICTION "Known Unknowns" by Mike Barthel "Heatstroke" by Saskia Cohen CREATIVE NONFICTION "Development Direction" by Angela Townsend "On Neighbors" by Merridawn Duckler VISUAL ART "PICNIC" by Caitlin Walton "in another life.." by Kenna De Valor "Andri's Rathaus" by Nuala McEvoy
November 4, 2025 at 11:33 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Congrats to Geese’s “Long Island City Here I Come” on its new inclusion in one of my most treasured playlists: the one of songs that keep going up.
Spotify screenshot of a playlist. Always rising Cups Underworld Plug It In Basement Jaxx, JC Chasez Bull Believer Wednesday It's in Our Hands Björk Arming Eritrea Future Of The Left Eg-Ged-Ösis - Todd Terje Extende... Lindstrom, Todd Terje Go Dig My Grave Lankum Long Island City Here | Come Geese
November 4, 2025 at 4:26 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
A picture of beaker A picture of me
November 4, 2025 at 3:37 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Accidentally put on the Geese album at 45rpm and it’s kind of awesome.
November 4, 2025 at 3:09 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Important text from my dad
Today 9:30 PM Just finished Big Trouble in Little China. MP4 copy saved. Love, Dad
November 3, 2025 at 2:33 AM
mikebarthelauthor.com
What in tarnation
The Charmings The Charmings is an American fantasy sitcom that follows Snow White and Prince Charming, awakened from a thousand-year spell, as they adjust from their familiar life in the enchanted forest to the modern ways of 20th-century Los Angeles suburbs. l' The series originally aired from March 20, 1987, to February 11, 1988, on ABC. [21 The opening voice-over sets up the premise: Once upon a time there was a vain queen who was so jealous of her beautiful stepdaughter, Snow White, that she poisoned her with an apple. But a handsome prince came along and broke the spell. Snow White and Prince Charming threw the wicked stepmother down a bottomless pit and lived happily ever after. But, it turns out the pit wasn't bottomless-just very deep. And now, the queen was very mad. With a spell so powerful even she couldn't control it, she put the Charmings asleep for a thousand years. She also got herself and one dwarf. Eventually they woke up. The premise of the series' plot was that fairy tale characters Snow White and Prince Charming were magically transported to a 20th-century suburb in Burbank, California. Each episode shows the Charmings trying to adapt to their new life while Lillian, Judy Parfitt, the wicked stepmother, and her wise cracking Magic Mirror, Paul Winfield, watch from upstairs. After the first season, Caitlin O'Heaney (who portrayed Snow White) was replaced by Carol Huston.
November 3, 2025 at 12:11 AM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Boris has picked up a giant inflatable Buc-Ees mascot on their swing through the southeast and I love it so much.
An electric guitar setup but a giant inflatable gopher with the words party time on its belly stands in front of the microphone. The guitarist peeks out from behind.
November 3, 2025 at 12:05 AM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Thinking of updating this playlist. Do the Happy Mondays have a band origin song? It feels like they should. Does Pulp?
A playlist called Formed a band. Description: Songs telling the story of his the band was formed. Songs: Formed a Band Art Brut The E Street Shuffle Bruce Springsteen Prequel to Asshole Pandemic E Pkew Pkew Pkew Science Fair Black Country, New Road Three Great Alabama Icons Drive-By Truckers DENIAL IS A RIVER Doechii
November 2, 2025 at 4:34 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Is this in the print edition somewhere? I couldn’t find it. From the font, it looks like it’s from the magazine. Are they posting magazine articles a full week ahead of time now?
Screenshot of a NYT headline in characteristic magazine font. The Woman Who Wouldn't Stop Having Children MaryBeth Lewis had 13 kids, but she wanted more. Her desire to be a new mom again at 65 led to felony charges — and a custody battle like no other.
November 2, 2025 at 4:26 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
You ever read a sentence and hear it perfectly in your head as if it had been spoken aloud? www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/m...
November 2, 2025 at 4:25 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Ok here it is
November 1, 2025 at 3:16 AM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Bought Steve Albini’s copy of a Spike Jones album, both because I would pay $25 for that album anyway and because it’s very on-brand for me.
Screenshot of the inventory listening for Spike Jones’ album “Featuring Spike Jones.”
October 31, 2025 at 1:46 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Exciting new innovation in rendering webpages unreadable: this un-dismissable overlay that means you can only read the article in the top half of the screen…unless you haven’t dismissed the video and banner ad, in which case you can only read a single line.
As described in the post As described in the post
October 30, 2025 at 10:54 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
What's your favorite underrated and under appreciated short lived sitcom?
Up All Night Go On Carol and the end of the world Unsupervised
October 30, 2025 at 1:18 PM
mikebarthelauthor.com
And also one off from Reno Dakota blue!
Lyrics: Reno Dakota There's not an iota Of kindness in you You know you enthrall me And yet you don't call me It's making me blue Pantone 292
October 29, 2025 at 4:25 AM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Like this is straight out of a mimeographed zine or an indie comic.
Screenshot of the official White House website showing a naked man smoking a cigarette in the bathtub while looking high. The text reads 2023 Cocaine Discovered During Biden's administration, a U.S. Secret Service agent discovered a small, zippered plastic bag containing cocaine in the West Wing entrance lobby. Speculation has pointed to Hunter Biden, an admitted drug user. Additional evidence includes a laptop, seized in 2019, which contains photos of frequent drug use alongside emails about foreign business dealings (Ukraine, China) involving his father, Joe, while he was Vice President.
October 29, 2025 at 2:55 AM
mikebarthelauthor.com
Several exciting aspects here including 1) the idea of having essentially a small club inside your house to throw shows at and 2) Edith Wharton wrote a book on interior design??
"A gala room is never meant to be seen except when crowded: The crowd takes the place of furniture," Edith Wharton explained in her 1897 book, "The Decoration of Houses," which she wrote with the architect Ogden Codman Jr. "Occupied by a small number of people, such a room looks out of proportion, stiff and empty."
October 29, 2025 at 2:01 AM