bijan
banner
bijan.bsky.social
bijan
@bijan.bsky.social
haunted

writer @compulsiongames.bsky.social, music critic @thenation.com, playing characters on @funcityventures.bsky.social

bijanstephen.blog/about
after careful consideration, deliberation, and focus groups, ive decided to call this the “chris kyle”
got the new special at the bar. think this is definitely gonna hit the spot
November 23, 2025 at 6:11 AM
got the new special at the bar. think this is definitely gonna hit the spot
November 23, 2025 at 3:30 AM
too stubborn to die without trying it first
What’s the lore behind choosing your career path ?
November 23, 2025 at 1:25 AM
[wojak pointing meme]
November 22, 2025 at 11:55 PM
love seeing the melody that lets you know you’re gonna be ok
November 22, 2025 at 1:42 AM
cuomo could never have pulled this off, ya gotta admit
I think this clip is the key to understanding why Trump acted the way he did with Mamdani. His world revolves around TV ratings.

"I tell you, the press has eaten this thing up."
November 21, 2025 at 10:29 PM
game devs: i'm looking for resources on storytelling in different genres for my own personal edification. anyone got anything they'd rec?
November 21, 2025 at 8:25 PM
checking in on my heritage tabs (tabs i've had open for more than a month)
November 21, 2025 at 6:53 PM
man 2025 is crazy i just learned theyre still making fmv games
November 20, 2025 at 9:30 PM
happy international men’s day
November 20, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Reposted by bijan
November 19, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by bijan
A few months ago @thelocal.to got a promising pitch from a writer with bylines in whole bunch of reputable publications—The Cut, The Guardian, Dwell, Architectural Digest, etc. Then I started investigating. Here's a story about fabulists in journalism's AI slop era. thelocal.to/investigatin...
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
thelocal.to
November 19, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by bijan
I missed this study (anyone have a link?) but I'm not sure why we're supposed to be surprised. Average person prefers a Hallmark card to poetry, bland hotel art to challenging contemporary art, and paint-by-numbers fiction to anyone trying to do something new. I would expect this result.
Discussion on here this morning about 1)whether Gemini is good at "creative writing" and 2)a study showing people preferred AI imitations of writers to the writers themselves. I come back to my trusty all-purpose question: What problem are we solving when we outsource "creative writing"?
November 19, 2025 at 2:39 PM
man these guys really seem to hate free speech. wonder why
New: Reuters has tallied job losses, suspensions and investigations stemming from the reaction to Charlie Kirk's Sept. 10 assassination. Its findings: More than 600 Americans have been punished, and the figure is likely to be an under-count.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
November 19, 2025 at 12:46 PM
bro shout out to editors. was one for a while but holy shit i never had to lift this kind of weight
November 18, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by bijan
November 17, 2025 at 2:12 AM
bald emma stone really putting the bug in bugonia
November 15, 2025 at 1:26 AM
exact same way i felt about pandemic graffiti. environmental storytelling is just Like That
Again, to every videogame writer who wrote funny emails to read in an immersive sim/etc. where I rolled my eyes and said out loud, "lol like anyone would ever email something this on the nose", again, sorry, I was wrong, life sucks, you nailed it
November 12, 2025 at 10:56 PM
one of the most horrifying things i've ever read
November 11, 2025 at 9:32 PM
really excellent piece from amanda on ulta, which is fascinating
For the cover of Businessweek’s December issue, I wrote about the reigning queen of America’s strip malls: Ulta Beauty, the country’s biggest beauty retailer (yes, bigger than Sephora) and quietly one of the more fascinating retailers in the country. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
How Beauty Behemoth Ulta Conquered the American Strip Mall
The retailer built an $11 billion business by acting more like Home Depot than like Sephora.
www.bloomberg.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:08 PM
excellent piece on tolkien, the changing faces of d&d, and the history of ~fantasy racism~. good shit in here
The far right is obsessed with Lord of the Rings and Musk keeps posting about "hobbits" because modern scientific racism owes more to fantasy worlds and gaming systems than genetic science, and they see both as effective mediums for right-wing propaganda www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Why Elon Musk Needs Dungeons and Dragons to Be Racist
The fantastical roots of “scientific racism”
www.theatlantic.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:09 PM
ah but it was always a dream. you see bond was the fading dream of an empire that had just realized it too could die
James Bond’s death in No Time to Die is causing a nightmare for the next film. Writers are stuck because Bond “was blown to pieces.”

Anthony Horowitz, author of three 007 novels, says:

“You can't have him wake up in shower and saying it was all a dream."

radaronline.com/p/james-bond...
November 11, 2025 at 2:43 PM
happening RIGHT NOW! tune in, if ya dare
The Starfriends Kickstarter ends in 48 hours! We're closing it out with a mini-tournament stream feat. various legends facing off for honor, glory, and a custom Starfriend drawn live during a special Buchla synth set by Nick Sylvester. Join our discord now to save the date: starfriends.online/stream
November 11, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Reposted by bijan
A fine day to remember Jim Harbaugh's unique relationship with "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" and the remarkable interpretive work that his and other football brains have done on this important text. (This is a gift link; I believe this news must be shared widely.) defector.com/the-edmund-f...
The Edmund Fitzgerald Is Inspiring Jim Harbaugh And Michigan Football To Achieve "Lake Mindset" | Defector
The popular culture of the 1970s is almost impossible to parse in retrospect. The people making the movies and music and television of the era were horny and ambitious and earnest, they were ingesting...
defector.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by bijan
I’m streaming tomorrow with pals!
@robdubbin.bsky.social @bijan.bsky.social @garrett.bsky.social @teddydief.com
Join the discord now to save the date: starfriends.online/stream
November 10, 2025 at 6:20 AM