Brent Cunningham
@brentecunningham.bsky.social
Writer. Reviser. Re-writer. Burn it. Start again.
Kafka: A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
Me (writing): I'm trying but it keeps coming out like a noodle, not an axe.
Kafka: It has to be an axe.
Me: It can't be a noodle for the frozen sea inside us?
Kafka: It cannot.
Me (writing): I'm trying but it keeps coming out like a noodle, not an axe.
Kafka: It has to be an axe.
Me: It can't be a noodle for the frozen sea inside us?
Kafka: It cannot.
January 27, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Kafka: A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
Me (writing): I'm trying but it keeps coming out like a noodle, not an axe.
Kafka: It has to be an axe.
Me: It can't be a noodle for the frozen sea inside us?
Kafka: It cannot.
Me (writing): I'm trying but it keeps coming out like a noodle, not an axe.
Kafka: It has to be an axe.
Me: It can't be a noodle for the frozen sea inside us?
Kafka: It cannot.
Thanks to the Internet Concern over at McSweeney's for wanting to publish my list of clever writing solutions: www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/twe...
Twenty Solutions to Common Story Problems
1.
Problem: The story you are writing has plot holes.
Solution: Unreliable narrator.
- - -2.
Problem: The story you are writing has severe, glaring...
www.mcsweeneys.net
January 23, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Thanks to the Internet Concern over at McSweeney's for wanting to publish my list of clever writing solutions: www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/twe...
Donald "I only care about peace for the prize money" Trump
January 19, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Donald "I only care about peace for the prize money" Trump
Reposted by Brent Cunningham
"He said he saw guards choking Lunas Campos and heard Lunas Campos repeatedly saying, 'No puedo respirar' — Spanish for 'I can’t breathe'..."
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
Medical examiner believes death of man in ICE custody was homicide, recording says
A fellow detainee says he witnessed Geraldo Lunas Campos being choked to death by guards at the ICE detention center in Texas on Jan. 3.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 16, 2026 at 1:10 AM
"He said he saw guards choking Lunas Campos and heard Lunas Campos repeatedly saying, 'No puedo respirar' — Spanish for 'I can’t breathe'..."
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
story idea: decorated military captain with 7 children hires governess who forbids singing in the house, makes children read Schopenhaur, and guides them into careers in the skilled trades. Captain falls for her BUT hippies invade & the family must flee over the hills to the financial district....
January 2, 2026 at 7:20 AM
story idea: decorated military captain with 7 children hires governess who forbids singing in the house, makes children read Schopenhaur, and guides them into careers in the skilled trades. Captain falls for her BUT hippies invade & the family must flee over the hills to the financial district....
I find it amusing that the last time Robert Duncan's adoptive family used esoteric astrological readings to make major life decisions was when the stars told them to move to Bakersfield (when Duncan was 7). "That's quite enough of that," they probably said.
December 30, 2025 at 4:10 PM
I find it amusing that the last time Robert Duncan's adoptive family used esoteric astrological readings to make major life decisions was when the stars told them to move to Bakersfield (when Duncan was 7). "That's quite enough of that," they probably said.
When you read a lot of excerpts from Booker prize longlisted novels it can start to feel, with some of them, like maybe modernism and postmodernism forgot to happen.
November 13, 2025 at 4:41 PM
When you read a lot of excerpts from Booker prize longlisted novels it can start to feel, with some of them, like maybe modernism and postmodernism forgot to happen.
This is the govt entity in charge of keeping the food supply safe for all Americans posting a bald faced lie. These are the people we are need to trust during an e-coli, listeria, or salmonella outbreak. This level of partisan manipulation is really bad for everybody in the US, physically bad.
October 27, 2025 at 5:32 AM
This is the govt entity in charge of keeping the food supply safe for all Americans posting a bald faced lie. These are the people we are need to trust during an e-coli, listeria, or salmonella outbreak. This level of partisan manipulation is really bad for everybody in the US, physically bad.
Here is the Uhaul from last night's action at the entrance to Coast Guard Island being driven out of the scene.
October 24, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Here is the Uhaul from last night's action at the entrance to Coast Guard Island being driven out of the scene.
So this happened right next to my work. Scene, including my work, shut down as FBI investigates. www.ktvu.com/news/coast-g...
Coast Guard fires at U-Haul in Alameda, 2 struck after daylong immigration protest
The FBI is investigating a shooting that occurred late Thursday night near the entrance to Coast Guard Island in Alameda — the same location where a day-long protest against a called-off federal immig...
www.ktvu.com
October 24, 2025 at 2:33 PM
So this happened right next to my work. Scene, including my work, shut down as FBI investigates. www.ktvu.com/news/coast-g...
Coast Guard seems to have given up for the moment on Coast Guard Island. Great work Oakland! I stand corrected on the tear gas, it was a pepper bomb. And flashbangs.
October 23, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Coast Guard seems to have given up for the moment on Coast Guard Island. Great work Oakland! I stand corrected on the tear gas, it was a pepper bomb. And flashbangs.
Coast Guard Island in Alameda shut down for now. Some tear gas and flashbangs have been used. No idea why these idiots decided ICE HQs in the Bay Area should be located at a spot with one entry/exit point, easily closed by just a few protesters.
October 23, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Coast Guard Island in Alameda shut down for now. Some tear gas and flashbangs have been used. No idea why these idiots decided ICE HQs in the Bay Area should be located at a spot with one entry/exit point, easily closed by just a few protesters.
Reminder email from Jules's middle school not to door dash your kid some food...apparently that's happening?
August 26, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reminder email from Jules's middle school not to door dash your kid some food...apparently that's happening?
Reposted by Brent Cunningham
For those not following the drama earlier, it's for sharing this piece advocating for nonviolence (but not being judgy about how targeted people respond either). And saying some things about governmental/ institutional violence.
Some Notes on the City of Angels and the Nature of Violence
I think maybe it's begun, the bigger fiercer backlash against the Trump Administration which is itself a violent backlash against every good thing that's happened over the past several decades – the a...
www.meditationsinanemergency.com
June 11, 2025 at 9:43 AM
For those not following the drama earlier, it's for sharing this piece advocating for nonviolence (but not being judgy about how targeted people respond either). And saying some things about governmental/ institutional violence.
I feel like a lot of philosophers have a lot riding on my ability to imagine a perfect circle.
June 7, 2025 at 8:28 PM
I feel like a lot of philosophers have a lot riding on my ability to imagine a perfect circle.
I can only hear Trump's "Vladamir, STOP!" in Parker Posey's White Lotus voice.
April 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM
I can only hear Trump's "Vladamir, STOP!" in Parker Posey's White Lotus voice.
Easily the most under-quoted line from Allen Ginsberg's Howl: "Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles!"
April 24, 2025 at 6:17 AM
Easily the most under-quoted line from Allen Ginsberg's Howl: "Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles!"
in the chat group How to Defeat Godzilla: "hey guys who is GZ?"
March 26, 2025 at 1:13 AM
in the chat group How to Defeat Godzilla: "hey guys who is GZ?"
Day #80 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "Consciousness is just a more alert masochism."
March 23, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Day #80 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "Consciousness is just a more alert masochism."
Day #79 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "Maintain a lie for fifteen years and a generation will call it the scenery."
March 21, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Day #79 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "Maintain a lie for fifteen years and a generation will call it the scenery."
Day #78 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "If people could accurately judge their prospects there wouldn't be any."
March 20, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Day #78 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "If people could accurately judge their prospects there wouldn't be any."
Day #77 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "Nobody wins at porcupine frisbee."
March 19, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Day #77 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "Nobody wins at porcupine frisbee."
Day #76 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "It's never summer in a snow globe."
March 18, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Day #76 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "It's never summer in a snow globe."
Day #75 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "Anticipation is the pleasurable absence of nostalgia, dread is the suspicion nostalgia lies."
March 17, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Day #75 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "Anticipation is the pleasurable absence of nostalgia, dread is the suspicion nostalgia lies."
Day #74 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "You won't find Cinderella at the Clown Shoes Ball."
March 16, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Day #74 of inventing new aphorisms until one catches on: "You won't find Cinderella at the Clown Shoes Ball."