Mike Barthel
@mikebarthelauthor.com
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/
Making music as APOPHRA https://apophra.bandcamp.com/
Had a chat thread with a random coworker, a recent hire who needed technical support. It all seemed normal. Then I went to check their profile pic and it’s AI-generated, and now I’m like…what does that mean???
November 26, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Had a chat thread with a random coworker, a recent hire who needed technical support. It all seemed normal. Then I went to check their profile pic and it’s AI-generated, and now I’m like…what does that mean???
[first we take manhattan voice] It’s Wednesday / and everybody’s cooking / first we make the dressing / then we order INNNNN
November 26, 2025 at 10:03 PM
[first we take manhattan voice] It’s Wednesday / and everybody’s cooking / first we make the dressing / then we order INNNNN
My child: I want to go somewhere I’ve never been before!
Me, having played thousands of hours of open-world video games: I’ve trained for this
Me, having played thousands of hours of open-world video games: I’ve trained for this
November 26, 2025 at 5:49 PM
My child: I want to go somewhere I’ve never been before!
Me, having played thousands of hours of open-world video games: I’ve trained for this
Me, having played thousands of hours of open-world video games: I’ve trained for this
Thinking of blowing the “culture is stagnant” people’s minds by arguing that musical great leaps forward happen when new technology becomes available and so they should all start making AI music
November 26, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Thinking of blowing the “culture is stagnant” people’s minds by arguing that musical great leaps forward happen when new technology becomes available and so they should all start making AI music
Making Sandra Lee’s classic cocktail, the Milk Milk Lemonade (with fudge swirl)
November 25, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Making Sandra Lee’s classic cocktail, the Milk Milk Lemonade (with fudge swirl)
Still wild that lite FM inspirational pop—which was understood, in the 90s, to be for adult office workers stuck in boring tedium—somehow became the sound of 00s mainstream pop for actual youths. (Related to @otherdavemoore.com ‘s “teenpop is just adult contemporary” theorem.)
November 25, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Still wild that lite FM inspirational pop—which was understood, in the 90s, to be for adult office workers stuck in boring tedium—somehow became the sound of 00s mainstream pop for actual youths. (Related to @otherdavemoore.com ‘s “teenpop is just adult contemporary” theorem.)
Identifying a section that needs to change, not knowing how to change it, highlighting the whole thing, adding a comment that just says “edit,” leaning back and nodding to myself like “you’ve done it again barthel”
November 25, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Identifying a section that needs to change, not knowing how to change it, highlighting the whole thing, adding a comment that just says “edit,” leaning back and nodding to myself like “you’ve done it again barthel”
Reposted by Mike Barthel
The 1993 mid-handoff moment between shoegaze and Britpop has always been one of my hyperspecific musical sweet spots. Zach does a tremendous job here capturing both that moment and probably the greatest album it produced.
For this week's Sunday Review, I went long on one of my favorite albums of all time: Giant Steps by the Boo Radleys.
The Boo Radleys: Giant Steps
Read Zach Schoenfeld’s review of the album.
pitchfork.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:27 PM
The 1993 mid-handoff moment between shoegaze and Britpop has always been one of my hyperspecific musical sweet spots. Zach does a tremendous job here capturing both that moment and probably the greatest album it produced.
Why is this so funny to me
November 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Why is this so funny to me
Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” but every time she says “cherry Chapstick” the entirety of YLT’s “Cherry Chapstick” plays.
November 24, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” but every time she says “cherry Chapstick” the entirety of YLT’s “Cherry Chapstick” plays.
Due to recent troubling revelations, the first line of “Tik Tok” will henceforth be “Wake up in the morning / like Quagmire sayin ‘giggity’”
November 24, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Due to recent troubling revelations, the first line of “Tik Tok” will henceforth be “Wake up in the morning / like Quagmire sayin ‘giggity’”
Very much had this impulse but for me was Doors and Stones and the Dead, all the bands boomers tried to convince us were radical countercultural heroes. (The Doors movie was death.) Beatles were “great lads, great tunes,” so were fine. But my wife hates pretty much all pre-75 rock for this reason.
As someone who is this guy's age I can tell you 100% that if you were into Pixies, Nirvana, 120 Minutes stuff, etc. but didn't like the Beatles you had to have worked hard to contort yourself into that special little box. Your enemy, if you absolutely needed one, was hair metal. GTFO here with this.
November 23, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Very much had this impulse but for me was Doors and Stones and the Dead, all the bands boomers tried to convince us were radical countercultural heroes. (The Doors movie was death.) Beatles were “great lads, great tunes,” so were fine. But my wife hates pretty much all pre-75 rock for this reason.
A movie that takes place where you’re from.
The actual answer is “A Quiet Place” but spiritually it’s “steamed hams.”
The actual answer is “A Quiet Place” but spiritually it’s “steamed hams.”
November 23, 2025 at 6:35 PM
A movie that takes place where you’re from.
The actual answer is “A Quiet Place” but spiritually it’s “steamed hams.”
The actual answer is “A Quiet Place” but spiritually it’s “steamed hams.”
Elites are not concerned about male loneliness because they care about the suffering of men, especially younger and lower-income men. They care about male loneliness in the same way they care about bears’ hunger or fireworks’ flammability. Male discontent always ends up being a societal threat.
November 23, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Elites are not concerned about male loneliness because they care about the suffering of men, especially younger and lower-income men. They care about male loneliness in the same way they care about bears’ hunger or fireworks’ flammability. Male discontent always ends up being a societal threat.
Reposted by Mike Barthel
to the tune of "21st century schizoid man"
November 22, 2025 at 9:47 PM
to the tune of "21st century schizoid man"
Why is the product name like a line from a Wu-Tang song?
mfing Whoville lookin’ ass cabinet, this jusy ruined my whole god dam day smfh fuck this shit
November 22, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Why is the product name like a line from a Wu-Tang song?
What do you think the black wool overcoats on Law and Order smelled like?
November 22, 2025 at 11:06 PM
What do you think the black wool overcoats on Law and Order smelled like?
Reposted by Mike Barthel
Naturally I have this memorized and occasionally recite it to myself for calming purposes
Saturday morning timeline cleanse: Tenement, probably the greatest sketch The State did on their all too short run on MTV vimeo.com/346231299
Tenement
This is "Tenement" by David Wain on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
vimeo.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Naturally I have this memorized and occasionally recite it to myself for calming purposes
My kids all put on their vampire costumes and declared themselves “the Dracula band” which is how I found out you can accidentally reinvent the Misfits from first principles.
November 22, 2025 at 5:33 PM
My kids all put on their vampire costumes and declared themselves “the Dracula band” which is how I found out you can accidentally reinvent the Misfits from first principles.
The RFK poem is, unfortunately, strong evidence that he’s a Bukowski fan.
November 22, 2025 at 3:41 PM
The RFK poem is, unfortunately, strong evidence that he’s a Bukowski fan.
That seems like an unnecessarily cruel way to refer to Boris Johnson.
An enormous wall of trash about 500 feet in length and up to four stories tall was recently discovered near a highway in the English countryside, leading to a national outcry across Britain.
A Colossal, Hidden Pile of Trash Ignites Outcry in Britain
The discovery of a mountain of garbage near a highway is the latest example of what experts say is a growing problem of criminal organizations profiting from illegal dumping.
nyti.ms
November 22, 2025 at 6:00 AM
That seems like an unnecessarily cruel way to refer to Boris Johnson.
For some reason “grapery dot biz” is absolutely sending me.
November 21, 2025 at 11:58 PM
For some reason “grapery dot biz” is absolutely sending me.
Reposted by Mike Barthel
"Any story can be told over & over & over again. The newness is in the questions you’re asking, even if you don’t have an answer.” — @theoffingmag.bsky.social EIC Vonetta Young on what reading the slush pile taught her about good writing.
blogs.gothamwriters.com/2025/11/18/n...
#WritingCommunity
blogs.gothamwriters.com/2025/11/18/n...
#WritingCommunity
November 20, 2025 at 10:32 PM
"Any story can be told over & over & over again. The newness is in the questions you’re asking, even if you don’t have an answer.” — @theoffingmag.bsky.social EIC Vonetta Young on what reading the slush pile taught her about good writing.
blogs.gothamwriters.com/2025/11/18/n...
#WritingCommunity
blogs.gothamwriters.com/2025/11/18/n...
#WritingCommunity