Chris Holden
@cholden.bsky.social
Music librarian, trivia nerd, infrequent social media presence. The questions are more important than the answers
I actually laughed at this one; Heathcliff has still got it. Crazy that he's stayed funnier longer than Garfield.
November 19, 2025 at 7:10 PM
I actually laughed at this one; Heathcliff has still got it. Crazy that he's stayed funnier longer than Garfield.
There are cats all over Istanbul that are collectively cared for by the city's population, and I find it really charming, and also I love that this goes back hundreds of years. www.dailysabah.com/turkiye/ista...
Cats return as historic cat door reopens in Istanbul’s Topkapı Palace
Visitors to Topkapı Palace in Istanbul can now witness cats passing through the Karaağalar Quarters, highlighting the Ottomans’ integration of animals...
www.dailysabah.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:17 PM
There are cats all over Istanbul that are collectively cared for by the city's population, and I find it really charming, and also I love that this goes back hundreds of years. www.dailysabah.com/turkiye/ista...
The neighborhood listserv is mostly NIMBYisms and barely-concealed racism, but when it hits, it hits.
November 4, 2025 at 1:11 AM
The neighborhood listserv is mostly NIMBYisms and barely-concealed racism, but when it hits, it hits.
The signs and the metro stop identify the airport as "Reagan," but if you call it that, you're either a tourist or a cop.
What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?
October 8, 2025 at 8:58 PM
The signs and the metro stop identify the airport as "Reagan," but if you call it that, you're either a tourist or a cop.
May I offer you the naiads and tritons in the Court of Neptune fountain at the Library of Congress (a fountain so sexy that someone stole the fig leaf off Neptune’s genitals and they never bothered to replace it)
September 24, 2025 at 12:30 PM
May I offer you the naiads and tritons in the Court of Neptune fountain at the Library of Congress (a fountain so sexy that someone stole the fig leaf off Neptune’s genitals and they never bothered to replace it)
I have my gripes with the NYTimes Best Movies of the Century project (overreliance on English-language releases, complete lack of any avant-garde or installation pieces that didn't get a commercial release) but instead of complaining about it incessantly, I'll just post my (unordered) list I guess.
June 24, 2025 at 6:47 PM
I have my gripes with the NYTimes Best Movies of the Century project (overreliance on English-language releases, complete lack of any avant-garde or installation pieces that didn't get a commercial release) but instead of complaining about it incessantly, I'll just post my (unordered) list I guess.
I’m conflicted on the Kennedy Center, which is rotten from the top but has a lot of people doing good work in the face of a hostile Board. And I've talked to people who don't have the luxury of picking and choosing their venues if they want to stay in the arts at all.
May 8, 2025 at 12:03 PM
I’m conflicted on the Kennedy Center, which is rotten from the top but has a lot of people doing good work in the face of a hostile Board. And I've talked to people who don't have the luxury of picking and choosing their venues if they want to stay in the arts at all.
The French Lieutentant's Woman (1981) joins the short list of Movies Better Than The Book. The film fixes the problems with Fowles' novel (turgid prose, authorial voice that thinks it's more clever than it is) and improves on the conceit with a parallel story about the actors making the movie.
April 12, 2025 at 11:21 PM
The French Lieutentant's Woman (1981) joins the short list of Movies Better Than The Book. The film fixes the problems with Fowles' novel (turgid prose, authorial voice that thinks it's more clever than it is) and improves on the conceit with a parallel story about the actors making the movie.
The 🎉 emoji, except it’s muted www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316427...
Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon: 9781594206108 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
The new novel from Thomas Pynchon Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation busines...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
April 9, 2025 at 11:37 AM
The 🎉 emoji, except it’s muted www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316427...
Always excited for new PTA, but worried that, much like with Inherent Vice, he's interpreted post-GR Pynchon as being explicitly pro-hippie.
March 27, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Always excited for new PTA, but worried that, much like with Inherent Vice, he's interpreted post-GR Pynchon as being explicitly pro-hippie.
Nancy, come to the 21st century! You'd fit right in on Letterboxd.
Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller
February 28,1947
February 28,1947
February 28, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Nancy, come to the 21st century! You'd fit right in on Letterboxd.
BP noms, ranked (pending my viewing of I'm Still Here)
Nickel Boys
Dune 2
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Anora
Conclave
(Big gap)
The Substance
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
Not a great year for movies! I have some problems even with the top of my list, and Emilia Pérez and Wicked are both actively bad.
Nickel Boys
Dune 2
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Anora
Conclave
(Big gap)
The Substance
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
Not a great year for movies! I have some problems even with the top of my list, and Emilia Pérez and Wicked are both actively bad.
January 23, 2025 at 2:36 PM
BP noms, ranked (pending my viewing of I'm Still Here)
Nickel Boys
Dune 2
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Anora
Conclave
(Big gap)
The Substance
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
Not a great year for movies! I have some problems even with the top of my list, and Emilia Pérez and Wicked are both actively bad.
Nickel Boys
Dune 2
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Anora
Conclave
(Big gap)
The Substance
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
Not a great year for movies! I have some problems even with the top of my list, and Emilia Pérez and Wicked are both actively bad.
Not a single Senator objects to a 2am vote that helps DC? That's a real Christmas miracle. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
Congress passes RFK bill in surprise move, giving D.C. control of stadium site
Passage of the legislation, which transfers the land to D.C. at no cost, is a tremendous win for Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who has long sought to redevelop the site.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 21, 2024 at 12:04 PM
Not a single Senator objects to a 2am vote that helps DC? That's a real Christmas miracle. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
We made a mushroom wellington in an attempt to find a substantive meat-free Thanksgiving entrée for my vegetarian father. Mostly successful, although next time we need a thicker crust.
November 30, 2024 at 5:33 PM
We made a mushroom wellington in an attempt to find a substantive meat-free Thanksgiving entrée for my vegetarian father. Mostly successful, although next time we need a thicker crust.
I have no idea what kids read these days, but I feel like Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain probably deserve more attention. I returned to The High King so many times growing up.
What's a book—or series of books—that you loved as a kid that almost nobody seems to read or even remember nowadays?
November 27, 2024 at 4:58 PM
I have no idea what kids read these days, but I feel like Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain probably deserve more attention. I returned to The High King so many times growing up.
Glad to see MoMA doing two 24-hour viewings of The Clock, but they should really tack on a Valentine's Day screening. What's more romantic than long-form arthouse cinema?
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/a...
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/a...
‘The Clock’ Revisits New York. Is It Still of Our Time?
Christian Marclay’s 24-hour film — and a century of cinema history — is on view at the Museum of Modern Art, returning after more than a decade.
www.nytimes.com
November 16, 2024 at 6:28 PM
Glad to see MoMA doing two 24-hour viewings of The Clock, but they should really tack on a Valentine's Day screening. What's more romantic than long-form arthouse cinema?
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/a...
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/a...
We need to talk about the reappropriation of the Cranberries' "Zombie" as a "Halloween song"
November 2, 2024 at 1:02 PM
We need to talk about the reappropriation of the Cranberries' "Zombie" as a "Halloween song"
I have been doing a deep dive on Barth for the last year or so; sometimes I think he's a genius, sometimes I think he's a vestige of 60s countercultural experimentalism best left in the past. But he always makes me think. We've lost a uniquely American voice. RIP www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/b...
John Barth, Writer Who Pushed Storytelling’s Limits, Dies at 93
His sprawling and boisterous novel “The Sot-Weed Factor,” published in 1960, projected him into the ranks of the country’s most innovative writers.
www.nytimes.com
April 2, 2024 at 11:41 PM
I have been doing a deep dive on Barth for the last year or so; sometimes I think he's a genius, sometimes I think he's a vestige of 60s countercultural experimentalism best left in the past. But he always makes me think. We've lost a uniquely American voice. RIP www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/b...
New Nuri Bilge Ceylan is finally coming to DC; excited that this next installment in meditative, psychologically-grounded Turkish cinema is the longest one yet!
March 28, 2024 at 4:47 PM
New Nuri Bilge Ceylan is finally coming to DC; excited that this next installment in meditative, psychologically-grounded Turkish cinema is the longest one yet!
...*and* the schedule for the new Edward Yang restoration screenings just dropped? Everything is coming up Chris today. www.filmlinc.org/daily/lineup...
Lineup and Schedule Announced for Desire/Expectations: The Films of Edward Yang, Dec. 22-Jan. 4
Film at Lincoln Center announces “Desire/Expectations: The Films of Edward Yang,” a comprehensive retrospective honoring one of cinema’s most celebrated and deeply missed surveyors of the human ...
www.filmlinc.org
November 28, 2023 at 5:46 PM
...*and* the schedule for the new Edward Yang restoration screenings just dropped? Everything is coming up Chris today. www.filmlinc.org/daily/lineup...
Pivoting into "Peter Gabriel guy" as my new BlueSky persona. petergabriel.com/news/i-o-rel...
i/o release date announcement - PeterGabriel.com
‘After a years-worth of full moon releases, I’m very happy to see all these new songs back together on the good ship i/o and ready for their journey out into the world.’ – Peter Gabriel At the...
petergabriel.com
October 18, 2023 at 8:33 PM
Pivoting into "Peter Gabriel guy" as my new BlueSky persona. petergabriel.com/news/i-o-rel...
Noooo, don't put TV shows on my precious movie app.
(But seriously, Letterboxd is one of the last good social media apps and I hope this doesn't fuck it up)
www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/b...
(But seriously, Letterboxd is one of the last good social media apps and I hope this doesn't fuck it up)
www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/b...
Letterboxd, Online Haven for Film Nerds, Gets a New Owner
Two designers from New Zealand built a wildly popular social network for movie buffs. Now, they’re cashing in (and sticking around for the sequel).
www.nytimes.com
September 29, 2023 at 12:18 PM
Noooo, don't put TV shows on my precious movie app.
(But seriously, Letterboxd is one of the last good social media apps and I hope this doesn't fuck it up)
www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/b...
(But seriously, Letterboxd is one of the last good social media apps and I hope this doesn't fuck it up)
www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/b...
Does this mean we’re getting another Master & Commander movie, then?
We have entered the imperial phase of Millennials’ cultural dominance. If it happened in the aughts and teenagers liked it, then it’s probably about to come back
www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-n...
www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-n...
Usher to Headline Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show
The NFL, Roc Nation and Apple Music made the announcement on Sunday. The big game will take place on Feb. 11, 2024, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
September 24, 2023 at 4:16 PM
Does this mean we’re getting another Master & Commander movie, then?