A lot is going on in the US, and perhaps I’ll write about some things over at the other place (though I haven’t yet). I’ll be honest and say I’m looking for moments to turn to happier things when the news is overwhelming.
So, this week I’m linking to things inspired by two ideas. First, I want to celebrate the art, creativity, and expression that brings me some joy. Second, I wanted to look at ways to express yourself online and how that’s changing now. One common reaction I’ve heard this week: all the social networks that most people use are owned by attendees at Trump’s inauguration.
Most folks know about Bluesky and Mastodon - you should check them out - but I gather some other articles that look a little deeper. I also share some tools I use to diversify my news and media intake.
(and please stop using Twitter/X!)
Reads #
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Dr. Adrienne Edwards Is Bringing Visionary Choreography to the Whitney Museum: I had the luck of catching this exhibit at the Whitney Museum a few weekends ago. It is amazing. It’s a wonderful testimony to a career that influenced and elevated so many. Dance is not an art form that always speaks to me, but seeing an Ailey School performance in high school is a core memory. This exhibit connects the dots of his career from his influences to his peers to his legacy. Just reading some of his letters was inspiring to me. This article is an interview with the curator of the exhibit.
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Rapper’s First Time Hamilton Reaction: There is an indescribable joy in seeing someone discover a love for art that you love. I watched way too much of this series of videos from YouTuber & rapper Amari Leone. Give it time to get going. He starts out as an absolute skeptic, with no knowledge of the musical or its origins. By the end of the first act, he laughs, he cries, and he has his jaw just drop. As he’s recording each part over weeks, in between he’s getting educated by the comment threads and his own research on the musical. It’s a fun journey. I haven’t finished the entire series in the playlist - it’s quite long - but when I need a little joy, I watch the next part. He has an additional series going deeper into analyzing the musicality and lyrics of specific songs, check out his page for those.
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The animation guide for the film Flow: See this post from a friend sharing how the team behind the 2024 animated movie Flow organized their work.
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The Technological Poison Pill: How ATProtocol Encourages Competition, Resists Evil Billionaires, Lock-In & Enshittification: This post looks at why Bluesky’s foundations will keep it from following the same arc as the other VC-backed networks. It’s a little optimistic, IMHO, but I have hope that it will survive.
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Free Our Feeds: A group has started a crowdfunding initiative to stand up another separate service that leverages Bluesky’s underlying protocol. It’s started by some Mozilla folks and other names you may recognize. I haven’t donated yet, but I’m keeping an eye on it. More at the Verge. Maybe it’s not optimistic to believe that the AT Protocol will allow Bluesky to be resilient to capture.
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The people should own the town square: Mastodon is moving to a foundation-owned model, removing one of the concerns around that ecosystem. I find my Mastodon feed has more technical posts, so it’s worth digging into that community if you’re into that.
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Migrating from Substack to self-hosted Ghost: the details: In case you want to move your newsletter off of Substack (some background on why you might want to), Ghost is the way to go. If you’re not technical at all, they offer a hosted solution just like Substack. If you’re more like Molly White, you can host it yourself, as well - Ghost is open source and non-profit. You should check it out.
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Should I leave Substack?: As I was researching Substack alternatives, I came across this article that does a deeper rundown on the alternatives, including Beehiiv, which I would put as the third option aside from Substack and Ghost (I’m partial to Ghost if that wasn’t clear).
Watch & Listen #
- Wrap Drinks Ep. #033 - Cinematographer David Mullen: This is an almost 3-hour podcast (on YouTube), but it’s fascinating background listening if you get any joy from the way movies are made. Lots of segments in there that are amazing. If you can’t handle the 3 hours, there are some shorts from the episode that are fascinating.
Code & Tools #
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Croissant: I use Croissant to cross-post to mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads when I want to post something broadly.
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Newsblur: I know it’s not as popular these days, but RSS still exists and is still supported by many publishers out there. If you’re looking for a different way to get news without having to go to multiple news sites, don’t discount using an RSS reader. Newsblur is the one I use. It’s a paid app, but I find it worth it to support an independent software creator who isn’t going to be tempted to build an ad network or make the product worse in order to “scale.” If this isn’t for you, there’s a decent thread at HN with other options.
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The creators of Twitterrific are making an app to read (almost) anything on the web: This is a year old, but I did support this Kickstarter and have access to the betas. It’s an interesting take on this problem. I haven’t switched over to it fully, but I’m enjoying it alongside the main feeds of the apps I do use.