Recent posts by NPR Staffers on Bluesky

It really kind of depends on the movies being riffed. For example, I think Joel's wheelhouse was 50s and 60s schlock, while Mike was really good with 80s and 90s turkeys. I didn't watch the revival hosts enough to get a bead on their preferences, alas. Curse you, Netflix.

"Choosin' Texas" is a perfectly fine country-pop song, and you may have already heard it, like when I spent much of 2023 and 2024 confidently asserting I had never heard Teddy Swims's "Lose Control" until I listened to it and realized it had soundtracked every visit I'd made to a CVS for months.

For #OliveArtClub, please make art based on this sparrow so well-fed by tourists in Tallinn that it could barely fly. Birds are a good start for drawing animals as they are so poofy and this is the poofiest. All skill levels & mediums welcome, no AI. I took the picture, feel free to share

Not making it up: Just boarded a Southwest flight and as I passed the cockpit, pilot and copilot were telling a flight attendant about being furries. Regrettably for the intellectual powerhouse that is the U.S. senator from Alabama, in the next breath they started laughing and called him an idiot.

I feel everybody needs a palate cleanser so here is an indisputably great song about Abilene (where the Choosin’ Texas story takes place) youtu.be/wq6FxVxgM0M?...

The Mighty Sparrow, I'll always remember... readdork.com/music-videos...

I do sort of think that imagining tech bros are in charge of society is the base case issue here. They have exactly the amount of power we give them. So buy a Brick or whatever and stop! This is a short power grab and it can be easily interrupted.

I think I have decided that if you think The Movies Are Over it is a sign you have given up on art, because baby, the movies are always alive

Sunday Night Slop

BTW, if you'd love to hear some country that absolutely rips, Bryan Andrews is the Outlaw Country artist for the Bluesky crowd. I've had this on my driving playlist all summer. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTZa...

BTW, if you'd love to hear some country that absolutely rips, Bryan Andrews is the Outlaw Country artosts for the Bluesky crowd. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTZa...

Gonna be in Berlin very briefly in mid-November, with a full battery of art to see, but if you have any tips I’m all ears

OK I will make one contribution to this whole ridic Choosin’ Texas “debate.” bother to listen and you’ll realize the narrator isn’t the one Choosin’ Texas, she’s getting dumped by a dude for a Texas girl and going back to Tennessee. whether you would or wouldn’t choose Texas is frankly irrelevant

That Choosin' Texas nonsense is 100% cope. Conservatives need a win and would like to believe Conservative coded media is dominating, rather than the sad truth that the Billboard charts haven't functioned properly for years, and is no real barometer of what most people are really listening to.

With regard to the overt and jaw-dropping use of public money to manufacture and broadcast Trump politicals ads, I'm just spitballing here, but maybe, perhaps, if the U.S. Supreme Court didn't give the president blanket immunity from prosecution for crimes he wouldn't feel so comfortable criming.

100%. It's not a coincidence that his three worst movies are the ones he wrote and directed, while his best movies were directed by (chronologically) Rob Reiner, Harold Becker, Mike Nichols, David Fincher, Bennett Miller, and Danny Boyle.

In the most recent episode, two dudes on Saldaña’s team *laugh* about how a bloody restaurant shootout is being blamed in the news on ICE.

I don’t know — I think it was pretty obvious what it was early on.

I never signed a release

Today's review covers the 1899 Dutch advertising film THE SICK CIVIL SERVANT; OR, VAN HOUTEN'S NEW CHOCOLATE SENSATION, which presents hot cocoa as the foolproof cure for all that ails you! moviessilently.com/2026/09/28/t...

Delight isn’t strong enough, IDT. Saldaña’s character being tortured this season while the camera pans over her semi-nude body was a perfect encapsulation of how fucked up this PARAMOUNT+ show is.

"Give it, give it all, give it now."

Watching Kidman float through this sweaty downmarket entertainment — filled with hyper-violence, jingoism, semi-clothed hot chicks getting it on, more killing, more semi-naked hot chicks, a deep hatred of the media and lots of talk about Russia, China, Iran and Ukraine — is *really* something.

this this this this thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis

The thing about studios dictating that everything is a spoiler is that months after the fact, the review doesn’t reflect the critic’s grappling with a film. It’s a reflection of a marketing strategy.

One of my favorite John Ford movies.

Is anyone watching “Lioness” because I need to read a smart piece on this batshit-insane, hyper-militaristic, anti-media Taylor Sheridan thing. It’s impressive how the cast — Zoe Saldaña! Nicole Kidman! Morgan Freeman! Bruce McGill! Martin Donovan! Annabeth Gish! Michael Kelly!— keep straight faces.

So I’m told today is the 30th anniversary of the premire of Sabrina The Teenage Witch. What a blessing it was for me to work on that show. Had some great times, made some great friends. And we must have done something right because people are still watching it and still enjoying it.

I have a hard rule against criticizing people for not having seen/read/heard a particular work—you get to see The Sound of Music for the first time! Good for you!—but making a show of not seeing/reading/hearing it is as far from interesting as it is possible to get

I am fascinated by the over-the-top reaction to people neutrally and non-judgmentally saying that they have not heard a song. "YOU'RE IN A BUBBLE!" "YOU ARE BIGOTED AGAINST COUNTRY MUSIC!" Maybe they should drink some cocoa and relax.

www.emophilips.com/events

First Sunday gravy of the fall

It's like they looked at every garden on earth and concluded that what they all needed was weeds

jack germond namecheck with a dave berg avi – incredible stuff.

Sunday Dinner: Sheet pan sausage and vegetables w/spicy tomato sauce, rice pilaf, pineapples, roll

I’m here too! It was so moving. My wife & I wept ❤️

Tilly Norwood has been tried by kangaroo court & executed for putting fentanyl in baby formula in Ohio

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

CVS clerk to a mother/daughter pair at checkout: Oof, I need my lunch. Snacks don't cut it. Little girl, utterly incredulous: Snacks... don't cut it? Me (silently): Many snacks = meal. I'm with the kid.

Which Trump cabinet member is NOT

If I were a kid, I would own a copy of this, and it would have a cracked spine from nonstop rereading

Chicago: don't miss this one One of the best horror films of the 60s Also chef's kiss B&W CinemaScope, absolutely gorgeous

His combover is collapsing like a rain-damaged roof

catching up on my favorite tv show, Merritt Wever Has Been Contractually Obligated to Do a Press Tour cc @jdmchenry.bsky.social youtube.com/watch?v=3o1J...

My mother-in-law was wearing this black wrinkle reduction face mask when we came by, and I said, “Ah, we merely adapted the dark. You were born in it!” She didn’t get it.

He’s finally crossed the Brimley Line

Has every leader on the planet been spending several hours a day inside of a head pounding machine 

For a nation that supposedly formed in large part because we didn't want anything more to do with monarchies, we sure do seem to love the idea of special bloodlines www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general...

HEART OF THE BEAST: Good boy.

I just generally love Antichrist vibes, so you know this is getting a perfect five from me

HEART PF THE BEAST: Good boy.

Why does this universe have to be so small?

Birthday text from my therapist… Maybe because it’s a milestone birthday. Maybe because I’m his favorite patient. We simply don’t know.

🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁 #GoLions

Because of the nature of the bonuses, I can only sell a handful of lifetime memberships each year. This week, I'm going to open five spots. You reeeeeeeeeeeeally want to take advantage of this deal.

Due to my expertise (great-grandmother from Galveston), I feel it is important to know that when I talk about Choosin' Texas, I mean Dr. Pepper.

Great thread and respect to @marissarmoss.bsky.social for the hard work and good thinking

Star Wars Discourse incoming

Are there still straight men out there who don't comprehend how many more women we'd pull by pulling off gay standards of dress, grooming and general taste? I mean, we'd still need to overcome being relentless assholes, but that's just a given. We've worked around that one for centuries.

"Paid for by the US Government" is such a great tag for a horror movie.

Second movie! Seated for HEART OF THE BEAST.

Yes! Trump & AI go beautifully together.

"A university's obligation to the physical safety of its students is not one commitment among several, to be weighed against reputation or litigation exposure. It is antecedent to everything else the institution does." -- I wish our "professional " media had the guts of this student paper. 

Among the most crucial things you can teach your small children is the importance of a big finish. Singing a song? Put those hands up and get LOUD at the end. No other way to do it.

PRIMETIME: One of the best of the year. Robert Pattinson oozes. That’s the best way to describe his work here. This was much more of a dark comedy than I expected, and that’s what some of the criticisms miss; it’s okay to laugh at the absurdity of it. It’s just life now in this particular hell.

I was at a convention with Barry once, and we hung out most of the weekend. He was hosting a screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show after signing hours when there was a sound issue during “Damnit, Janet.” Barry ran over and grabbed me saying “Cargill, you know the words! Come on!”

Does your favorite sport also have a Fuckass Uniforms Week

This "no. 1 song of all time" nonsense is erasing Yes! We Have No Bananas and I won't have it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAZ7...

Because I do not care, I'm very slow to catch up on the musical discourse, but having headed over to the YouTubes and dedicated five minutes of serious listening, I am now fully prepared to engage in conversation on "Gangnam Style."

1970s candlemaking is apparently up there with 1990s cake decorating in the "what the actual hell" department

glennkenny.substack.com/p/karloff-wi...

My girlfriend forgets I'm not her ex during sex

In showbiz, the Dutch word "prikkel" would correlate to the English word "sensation" yes? As in, "the new show is a sensation!"

Really gives “Season of the Witch” an extra kick when it’s sung by someone who sounds like a witch

Entire record stores were built on this business model

God is good, all the time www.ioncinema.com/news/foreign...

This could have come out of my own mouth, and how great that it’s Kevin Wilson, whose work I love?

more trains? NO better roads? NO affordable housing? NO better public transportation? NO more solar+wind infrastructure? NO ^ these things that would provably make people’s lives better are expensive and would take too long data centers? NO PROBLEM, HOW MANY DO YOU WANT?

Check out this cool fundraiser for Asheville Prison Books Project -

I don’t know when the last time was that you could assume everyone had heard the most popular song in the world but it was no later than the 1980s. We’re a long way past “White Christmas”

the master race, everybody

They said it couldn’t be done.

Fully packed house for a 6 hr doc on a Sunday. I love NYFF

Wow, "Choosin' Texas" discourse is really popping off today. If you could use a refresher, last week I wrote up an explainer to contextualize the song's (momentarily) record-setting Billboard run:

Taking a seat for PRIMETIME.

True true. And 9 to 5, obviously.

Entering the modern country music/working class discourse to say that New York City did not even HAVE a country music station for the entirety of my youth in the 70s & 80s. Closest the working classes got would’ve been Glenn Campbell (and specifically, “Rhinestone Cowboy” or “Gentle on my Mind”).

No, I haven’t heard “Choosin‘ Texas,” but I am the elite son of a bitch who helped popularize this down home tune from Lone Star State. youtu.be/skmdmf_ER50?...

Glad to see my online silo is all in agreement that that RS Ella Langley piece is very unserious

Anyway. I do not miss working in the take mines

No I haven’t heard the country song or of that artist. There’s a ton of rock songs, pop songs, hip-hop, dance, alternative music I haven’t heard either. Since you all decided to explode pop culture, I stay in my lane: movies and the things I like. And frankly, I don’t give a shit about much else.

FANTASY? This is my reality

Now I am obviously in a niche of a niche of a niche (old movies > silent movies > early silent movies) and I try to not be Like This except with professional “of all time“ lists and myths that cause actual harm (“BIRTH OF A NATION is not racist”) but the pop culture landscape is very fractured now

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S is coming to FORTNITE The Fazbear Band has taken over Battle Royale. Face the animatronic animal bosses and survive the night… if you can. Fortnitemares begins October 1.

It really is a wild fucking piece, presuming that we're not at a point culturally and technologically where the vast majority of people have curated and maintained their own personal musical bubble that is basically impenetrable. We're not listening to radio and watching MTV anymore; it's not 1986.

"There are only two rules in horror. To show something that shouldn't be there and is, or something that should be there and is not." - Guillermo del Toro. From September 26, 2026 to July 25, 2027, The Horror Show at The Academy Museum celebrates horror cinema like never before.

There are only two rules in horror. To show something that shouldn't be there and is, or something that should be there and is not." - Guillermo del Toro. From September 26 to July 25, 2027, The Horror Show at The Academy Museum celebrates horror cinema like never before.

Did I say the Gout Cop paperback would be available Monday? Well, it’s already available TODAY! www.amazon.com/Gout-Cop-Fra... GOUT COP!

Election balloting can be ornate and complex, but I've checked with the League of Women Voters and in every state, it is permissible to take a guide into the voting booth with you. I hope this can be of some assistance:

The BEST part of getting old (and there are many) is that you can ABSOLUTELY miss something wildly popular. Zooshas just flying by while you’re admiring someone’s sensible shoes or whatever. Bliss.