I read both at a timultuous time in my life, and it showed me how to find humor amidst chaos and uncertainty. I swear they both rewired my brain.
Feb 9, 2024
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Orwell's a real funny guy! Poverty and privation are not above satire
Also reading Macbeth with my students and The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson for myself
Feb 13, 2024
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The one author I enjoyed most next to Bret Easton Ellis as a teenager was Douglas Coupland, my first introduction to him was his novel, Generation X, and everything else he’s written (especially Shampoo Planet, Polaroids from the Dead, Miss Wyoming, and All Families Are Psychotic) are wonderful works I’ve come to enjoy re-reading multiple times over the years. Great author if you’re looking to binge read all his books in one summer. Most recently I’ve revisited his Marshall McLuhan biography, aptly titled You Know Nothing of My Work!
Jun 17, 2021
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John Swartzwelder is the funniest writer in the world. I don’t know that I could write about him and do him justice, but he was a longtime Simpsons writer and then started self-publishing books that are so incredibly joke dense it will blow your mind. Here’s a quote from The Time Machine Did It, one of his many books following a strange detective named Frank Burly: “When I first became a detective I had tried solving crimes the way mystery writers do: coming up with the solution to the crime first, then working back to the point where you don't know what the hell is going on. But for some reason every time I tried that I ended up locked in a closet.”
Feb 24, 2022
Top Recs from @theclack
The perfect lil snack for when you don’t want a big snack
Apr 3, 2024
Here it is, folks! Volume I of what could very well be a continuous project. Thank you so much to everyone that submitted - I smiled the entire time I was putting this together. It's best listened to with headphones ☺️
Liner Notes:
This collection of field recordings is a collaborative effort with users of PI.FYI, each of which recorded their own pieces. It features audio from all over the world and exhibits eclectic moments from London Underground commutes to cuckoo bird calls in Dhaka to the sounds of a century-old American diner.
Online communities like PI.FYI often represent a diverse set of people, places, and experiences, but together, the submissions form a living collage that highlights the commonalities of modern life - a unifying message for such a tumultuous time. The first track features all of the sounds played at once in an attempt to create an audio snapshot of an online community but in their offline lives.
The individual recordings are unedited except for minor gain and compression adjustments for consistency across the collection.
Mar 29, 2025
