Ian
banner
brocktoon.bsky.social
Ian
@brocktoon.bsky.social
Wrote a lot professionally. Write a little now. Adjunct. Doctor of Communication.

https://stuckness.ghost.io/what-this-is-who-i-am-who-i-am-is-what-i-am-is-who-i-am-context-collapse/
Come to think of it, I've not gotten a Taylor Swift paper in three years. Of any variety. First four years in the biz, inundated. In retrospect, that absence rather than the recent album was the first indication of the waning cultural sway.
December 7, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Ian
December 7, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Every generation of cultural studies undergrads has something which they want to talk about, which they like, but they can't quite bring themselves to be truly critical of. Punk rock, then Buffy, Taylor Swift. All of that has disappeared to be replaced by K Pop papers.
December 7, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Bookmarked this so fast for next time I teach Berger and/or Benjamin

www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Us71tB/
TikTok video by marie.pax
www.tiktok.com
December 7, 2025 at 4:18 PM
I have a buddy who sends me really messed up pictures with the caption "us" (we are not unique or interesting in this regard) so I've started sending him wholesome pictures with the caption "us".
December 7, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Thinking about what a masterpiece Amen Dunes' Freedom album is
December 7, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Ian
Frog and Toad Together
December 7, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Reposted by Ian
that this didn't work, despite a full court press and a corporate rebranding, I think, points to some pretty hard limits of the hype framework for understanding tech. it's useful, but probably shouldn't be central.
He really thought this was the future
December 6, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Ian
ok going even further back in 23-24 the only >= 2.0 xG match was the late win over Spurs but there's a penalty in there

for >2.0 non penalty xG, not a dead rubber, no red cards, you have to go back to the 4-1 title on the line loss to City in April 2023

it's been over two and a half *years*
December 6, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Ian
a little unfortunate not to get two goals but Arsenal clearly starting to see the effects of all the injuries on the back line, 2 xG conceded is their most of the entire season

last season they only conceded >2 xG in the dead rubber against Liverpool and the red card game against City
December 6, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Plus I'll be honest, and this needs to be read very narrowly, Saka is really good but there's got to be more end product for him to be mentioned in the same breath as PL wingers like Salah or Hazard. That's the game your star is supposed to swing.
December 6, 2025 at 2:32 PM
I think my preseason take that it's going to come down to figuring out 18 month long injury crisis plus figuring out how to use Gyokeres (ie don't use him like Havertz or Merino) holds.
December 6, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Mitigation and/or cope: very very tough schedule so far, tired, injured team. But two years of absolutely shocking injury numbers isn't some mysterious accident or luck.
December 6, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Man just clear the ball
December 6, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Imagine wanting to sell Trossard
December 6, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Reposted by Ian
Apt comparison of gambling industry these days
It’s like the opioid epidemic was. It’s unfolding before our eyes, with the obvious catastrophic consequences plain to see, but there’s too much money being made for anyone in power to do the right thing yet.
December 6, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Watching X Files and the guy who played Kubiak on Parker Lewis was in it. I shouted the Koob, which confused the kid. So I was showing her Parker Lewis clips, which she thought were funny. But we discovered the French version was really popular.
December 6, 2025 at 1:53 AM
This is the equivalent of stripping the copper out. Guilford College is capital F fucked. Immensely sad. One of the best, most interesting SLACs in the Southeast

greensboro.com/news/local/e...
To settle debt, Guilford College looked to its vast art collection
College is on probation because of financial woes. Could learn its fate next week.
greensboro.com
December 5, 2025 at 11:11 PM
This piece by Asad Haider dropped for me at exactly the right time. Extraordinary talent.

www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/3...
A New Practice of Politics: Althusser and Marxist Philosophy
In the spring of 1966, the Central Committee of the French Communist Party (PCF) met in the Parisian suburb of Argenteuil, ostensibly for a discussion of the “problem of ideology and culture.” In fact...
www.versobooks.com
December 5, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Everything is interesting btw.
December 5, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Ian
extremely sad news that Asad Haider has passed away. i didn't know him personally but it'd be impossible to overstate how important his writing and editing in Viewpoint was to my trajectory. as I said last night, we are losing too many comrades.
December 5, 2025 at 7:50 PM
This is tangential so I'm breaking it out, but part of the reason I ended up being drawn to qualitative research, so much so that my research because a qualitative work, is because I really am just interested in people and why they do things (eg making games). People are weird and wonderful.
December 5, 2025 at 7:41 PM
(Banging the table til it shakes) Ludonarrative dissonance!
(AIRHORNS BLASTING) WE'RE BACK
December 5, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Ian
Relevant, absolutely. But what does the concept even mean? @annakornbluh.bsky.social has an excellent essay responding to its recent uses and abuses
December 5, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Ian
The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service
December 5, 2025 at 1:31 PM