brandon brown
@cedarchromatic.bsky.social
270 followers 540 following 130 posts
writer, strange stories | winner, pen/dau | tinkering on stories, tabletop games | avatar by @angrycomics.bsky.social | they/them blog: brittlealmanac.com | words: BFS Journal, Split Lip Magazine, khōréō magazine
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cedarchromatic.bsky.social
Pinned post time! Hey, I'm brandon, here are a few important deets:

👩🏾‍🌾 Program Director, MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, Vermont College of Fine Arts
✍🏾 Writer (blog at brittlealmanac.com, words in @britfantasysoc.bsky.social + @splitlipthemag.bsky.social)
✨ Talk to me about TTRPGs!
Reposted by brandon brown
gwensnyder.bsky.social
And let me highlight the DISCIPLINE at play here and across the country, too.

They are trying to goad protestors into lighting a Reichstag fire and those efforts are being met with suggestive hip thrusts from a giant inflatable frog.

This is movement not taking the bait.
Reposted by brandon brown
gwensnyder.bsky.social
As a protest optics nerd love about the inflatables is how much they visually disrupt and pull focus from the fascist shock imagery Noem & Miller are trying to create.

So many of these photos now look like the world's silliest dance party, backgrounded by a bunch of guys in uniform looking awkward
cedarchromatic.bsky.social
when I started to think about doing a PhD this summer, I was on an interminable drive between Albuquerque and Denver, and I was listening to Games Studies Study Buddies—but also I immediately was like "Really, though?" because of who I was listening to. I probably will do it, but with my eyes open?
ckunzelman.bsky.social
truly the weirdest part of having made this show for X years is that there’s something like 10 people who have started / completed an advanced degree due in part to the show’s influence, which we partially started because of how fed up we were with academia
ondrejtrhon.bsky.social
Uh, something happened. Defence in December.

Also, Game Studies Study Buddies to Dissertation pipeline is real, thanks @ckunzelman.bsky.social & @ztul.bsky.social
Reposted by brandon brown
ckunzelman.bsky.social
Two conflicting thoughts about this:
1. Damn.
2. I think even with the best team and the most consistent thoughtful approach, Ubisoft would have handled this is a very weird way that would have been off putting at best.
stephentotilo.bsky.social
SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...
Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year
Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File
www.gamefile.news
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jackjenkins.me
Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.
(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.
Reposted by brandon brown
maggietokudahall.bsky.social
Not sure what to say? We have training for that. Want to connect with other creators who're sick of this shit? We have the meeting place for that. Feel like you could help others do a better job interfacing with legislators? Hop on in.

From brand new to veteran we need everyone.
Reposted by brandon brown
Reposted by brandon brown
casella.bsky.social
I've been seeing a lot of this even in books that seem like they should be more driven, pulpier, more plot & action-focused. What frustrates me about it—to be clear, I adore a contemplative lost-in-the-landscape literary meander—is when it seems to stem from a televisual concept of *time*.
readingtheend.bsky.social
I'm seeing a lot of this in the romantasy space! there are books with minimal story apart from the romance, so you end up with an iterative structure where the leads go to a series of locations or make a series of small advances on their MacGuffin quest, as set dressing for their escalating intimacy
mythcreants.bsky.social
A new thing we’re noticing is books where way less happens than you’d expect for their length because of worldbuilding info dumps or long scenes of explaining plans. You get through a 100,000 word novel and realize the whole story was spent picking up magic groceries.
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dieworkwear.bsky.social
this is the jacket's breast pocket lining pulled up to make it look like a pocket square
Stephen Miller in a gray suit, white shirt, and gray tie. A close-up of his breast pocket.
cedarchromatic.bsky.social
a lovely poem
readalittlepoem.bsky.social
Today’s poem is selected by Tomás Q. Morín as part of the 20th anniversary of Read A Little Poetry.

“Meditations in an Emergency” appeared in Dispatch by Cameron Awkward-Rich, published by Persea Books, 2019. Shared here with deep gratitude.
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lastpositivist.bsky.social
Ross incredulously pointing behind himself over his shoulder, where stands the revolutionary girl, Utena. Ross is exclaiming "Get a load of this gender!"
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bookjockeyalex.bsky.social
I'm not gonna hate on yalls movie. If you like it, I love it. But you will never convince me that Leo DiCaprio shouting while wearing a tatty bathrobe is the best movie of the year when Ryan Coogler was literally summoning the ancestors a few months ago.
Reposted by brandon brown
tacobellquarterly.org
We are now also the most official looking Taco Bell account on here and I would just like to let everyone know that eating Taco Bell makes you trans
cedarchromatic.bsky.social
i think i've cracked the idea i've been chewing on for this, god help me
cedarchromatic.bsky.social
thinking a lot about taylor swift because of @sillygoosepress.bsky.social and i'm angry. i'm seething about it. i'm thinking about girlhood and how reality is built and policed and i'm thinking about love. it's annoying
cedarchromatic.bsky.social
I did this last year and did not regret a second of it—they change a lot over the years, but there's really something to a lot of these flicks imo
cedarchromatic.bsky.social
It’s been a couple of weeks since my story came out in khōréō! Proud of this one. Check it out if you haven’t—it’s about cigarettes, shame, and grappling with atrocity 👀
khoreo.bsky.social
In "The Moon’s Forests Burn All Your Life" by @cedarchromatic.bsky.social, a woman slowly smokes herself to death to protest an atrocity. When her cigarette supply runs low, a local kid grappling with both the protest and the atrocity brings her a cigar. www.khoreomag.com/fiction/the-...
Reposted by brandon brown
maggietokudahall.bsky.social
I actually think it's worth listening to this interview. Coates does a really great job refusing to allow Klein to frame everything as in service to politics, and instead forcing him to meet Coates on the more essential ground of morality.

It's frustrating to listen to, but also instructive.
perrybaconjr.bsky.social
This was revealing. Worth reading. The basic demand is that Coates spend less time thinking/writing his true feelings and more time playing political strategist. Klein asks him over and over him to do Dem strategy; he says no, over and over. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...
Opinion | Ta-Nehisi Coates on Bridging Gaps vs. Drawing Lines
www.nytimes.com
cedarchromatic.bsky.social
if taylor swift hated someone a lot and then dated them……i don’t know, i just think that would be cool. the album would be rancid, but we’d all be riding high, like during the summer of not like us
cedarchromatic.bsky.social
are there any enemies-to-lovers pop albums?
cedarchromatic.bsky.social
thinking a lot about taylor swift because of @sillygoosepress.bsky.social and i'm angry. i'm seething about it. i'm thinking about girlhood and how reality is built and policed and i'm thinking about love. it's annoying
Reposted by brandon brown
joolia.bsky.social
Microsoft will no longer allow Israel to use its cloud services to enable its mass surveillance of occupied Palestinians – "the first known case of a US technology company withdrawing services provided to the Israeli military since the beginning of its war on Gaza"
Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians
Exclusive: Tech firm ends military unit’s access to AI and data services after Guardian reveals secret spy project
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by brandon brown
Reposted by brandon brown
maureenlangloss.bsky.social
Join us!!!
splitlipthemag.bsky.social
Applications are OPEN! Split Lip Magazine is looking for volunteer Flash & Fiction readers. Apply right here before October 1! buff.ly/X3932x5
SLM is looking for flash and fiction readers. Apply online September 24 to October 1. splitlip.submittable.com