Doug Messel
LightNews LightNews
banner
dougmessel.com
Doug Messel
@dougmessel.com
360 followers 390 following 2.8K posts
Current: writer, dad, and content marketer

Past: carhartt coverall and goose call enthusiast
Posts Replies Media Videos
dougmessel.com
Thanks to @maggieserota.bsky.social I was reminded about the glory of Son In Law. I’m describing it to Erin and it does not actually sound like a real film when the words come out of my mouth
November 28, 2025 at 3:33 AM
dougmessel.com
SCREAMING
Salt and pepper shakers that are hella fucking racist. Blackface. For $45.
November 28, 2025 at 2:19 AM
dougmessel.com
On the plus side we host Christmas so when one of my guests decides that they need to echo the color commentator I can just slink away to my basement lair to seethe
marissasays.bsky.social Riss @marissasays.bsky.social · 11h
The good news is they play on Christmas Day too so you can ruin your whole holiday season if you want
November 28, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Doug Messel
codyk.bsky.social
For the love of god, can we stop playing on holidays? Just ruins the entire day, even if they win. I’m sick of it
November 28, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Reposted by Doug Messel
baddestmamajama.bsky.social
Having seen this, I’ve got to say, the KPop Demon Hunter fans need to re-discover Final Fantasy X-2, where you play a girl band who changes fighting classes by changing dresses and has no less than two concerts on the way to saving the world from a giant weapon.
mudron.bsky.social Bill Mudron @mudron.bsky.social · 19h
Okay, the crowd going nuts like someone just scored a touchdown at the Super Bowl all *through* the KDH performance is a hell of a thing to see hear/see:
November 27, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Doug Messel
mpbreen21.bsky.social
“Ban all immigrants seeking refuge from persecution” is just a perfectly spot-on GOP Thanksgiving message
November 27, 2025 at 9:10 PM
dougmessel.com
The vibes are rancid this year. Traeger damn near caught on fire. Summer sausage is dry. Only one watchable non-bedroom TV in the house.
November 27, 2025 at 8:15 PM
dougmessel.com
Goddamn there is SO MUCH good stuff available this year.
brockwilbur.bsky.social Brock Wilbur @brockwilbur.bsky.social · 18h
Doing my annual viny fundraiser for those unhoused and hungry in the KC area. Rare/well-loved items up for sale through the Discogs website, and every dollar goes directly to area organizations. Looking for something for yourself/friend in the soundtrack/rock world? www.discogs.com/seller/riots...
Buy Vinyl Records and CDs from riotsmile at Discogs Marketplace
Check out our shop on Discogs, the biggest online music marketplace in the world, and add some gems to your collection!
www.discogs.com
November 27, 2025 at 6:54 PM
dougmessel.com
After Erin and I started dating and it was serious enough that I brought her home for a few weekends, Jean Messel wrote an entire cookbook longhand, explicitly noting this potato dish as my favorite. I’m making it today, and I always forget about this absolutely absurd cook time she included.
Jean Messel’s directions say to bake this dish for 45 minutes or an hour.
November 27, 2025 at 6:32 PM
dougmessel.com
Threads is incredible because no one posting over there has apparently watched the NBC parade broadcast in their lives and they’re all mad about the frontloaded performances
November 27, 2025 at 4:58 PM
dougmessel.com
Nothing says wholesome family entertainment like Shaggy going through his greatest hits about fucking good
November 27, 2025 at 4:08 PM
dougmessel.com
Damn this dude sucks at lip syncing
November 27, 2025 at 3:54 PM
dougmessel.com
HELL YEAH
November 27, 2025 at 4:38 AM
dougmessel.com
It IS a good book and made me immediately start outlining a novel I ended up not writing, which is honestly the highest praise I can give
November 27, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Reposted by Doug Messel
nedraggett.bsky.social
Hell with it, I'm just going to post the whole thing here via screencap and alt text. It's Kaleb Horton, man, his writing always deserves the second read, especially since it could have just easily been lost forever like so much else. Read it, share it.
A look at forgotten Hollywood landmarks By Kaleb Horton Let's say you come in from down south, and you're looking for an unsung movie landmark. So you fly in to LAX, rent a car, blow right past Hollywood, leave Los Angeles county heading north, go over the Grapevine, gape at the monumental hills and, wow, there really is a Smokey Bear Road, then you turn off the air conditioner when the sign tells you. Once you come down the grade too fast and see the world's loneliest Denny's, you're well on your way to what you're looking for – the middle of nowhere. You're going to Kern County to find the spot where Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of the greatest scenes in movie history, the crop duster sequence from "North by Northwest." It takes place in Indiana, of course, but the Indiana road sign and the imported corn field can't deceive this Bakersfield native. The parched and desolate heat of the scene feels too much like Kern County. The scene people know off-hand — Cary Grant running from an airplane — isn't why "North by Northwest" is a classic. The film's greatness, as was often the case for Hitchcock, lies in its build-up, its suspense, its mood. The plane moment is almost anticlimax. It is those five minutes before Grant's desperate escape that constitute a mathematically perfect suspense scene. So expert is Hitchcock's hand that he creates suspense, a slow burning dread, with no camera tricks and no music in broad daylight. Grant's character is a prototypical James Bond. His perfect suit, fast wit, high-alcohol tolerance and effortless charisma have got him out of every predicament so far. In the city, among people, he has powers. Take him away from people, put him nowhere, and he's just like us — totally helpless. He has no powers: His suit is no good out here; his million-dollar tailoring and perfect haircut is just vanity now. No amount of pretending can provide escape. Here, is the one place where he can die, and he gets by on the grace of God. All he can do is wait for what's coming. So when you seek the lost landmark of this scene, you're looking for an idea as much as a place. You're on Highway 99 now, going 30 miles north of Bakersfield, looking for an unassuming patch of dirt that carries spiritual weight. The scene was filmed neart Garces Highway to the west of Delano. You'll think there's a handy exit for it. There's not. You'll probably get lost in Delano, counting on a connection. You're at once a million miles from Hollywood and a hundred miles away. It's lonely. The horizon sprawls forever like there's nothing past it. There are broken down trucks on the side of the road, plumes of smoke from faraway fires. You'll find Garces eventually. You'll pass a bar called Rosy's Place, abandoned houses, an oil field, a prison, a cemetery, a sign that says "we clean headstones," and a whole lot of gold-on-brown punctuated by an occasional trailer or car going faster than you. You're looking for where Garces meets Corcoran Road. That's where this "North by Northwest" scene was filmed. You'll get a vague idea where it is but you'll never be exactly sure, since there's little impetus for clear signage 10 miles from a prison. Maybe Corcoran Road is unlabeled. Besides, that Indiana sign and the prop cornfield haven't been there in 56 years. If you're anything like me, you'll lose the light and call it a day, unsatisfied with the route you took. You return to I-5 northbound. From the 5, you'll meet Route 46, and go through a place called Lost Hills, then back in to the location from Corcoran Road instead. That's how Hitchcock probably did it. More intuitive. Still in the middle of nowhere, but on your way to Corcoran Road, you're right next to another Hollywood landmark: Blackwells Corner, James Dean's last stop. It's a glorified Texaco, and gas is 50 cents a gallon more than it should be. They sell Jelly Bellys and '50s kitsch artifacts — plates with Marilyn Monroe's face on them, and so forth. They really figured out how to cash in on death. You don't want to stop here. But I stopped. I asked the kid at the Blackwells Corner counter how to get to Corcoran Road. He gave me a look that said "there's no reason to go there," and then wearily told me where to go anyway. I was about 8 miles from the destination. Going there is a meditative experience. You're not just going to the middle of nowhere. You're going to the perfect nowhere. Going alone, in the hypnotic heat of the Central Calfiornia Valley, you might even forget what year it is. There is no reason to believe the road would be so well preserved for half a century, intimately tied to the career of an actor born in Bristol 111 years ago, but it has been. There's an abandoned house. A barn with a cross on it. But almost nothing has changed in 56 years. At some point new lines were added on the road. There's overgrowth where there didn't used to be overgrowth. A couple discarded Budweiser cans from who knows when, but mostly it's identical. This is the same sleepy loneliness that Alfred Hitchcock used to make great art in 1959. And that may sound dull, but tranquility is the point. You stand on that dirt and there's no distraction from what's in your soul. It's an inner destination, not an outer one. I told my grandma about it when I got back to Bakersfield. She told me her Uncle Harold thought it was the prettiest road in America. And she showed me a picture of a Corcoran grade school class posing in the dirt with Grant and Hitchcock. It's just a field trip picture. The kids are fidgeting, many with arms folded, some shielding their eyes from the sun, all with obedient smiles. They'd all be in their sixties now, but they'd remember where this road is. It emphasized the ugliness of James Dean's last stop becoming a place to sell T-shirts. It's about what we preserve, and what we don't, and what we remember, and what we don't. It's easy to find shrines to morbidity and hard to find meaningful places. For those, you have to go looking.
November 26, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Doug Messel
anamariecox.bsky.social
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
November 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
dougmessel.com
I love a good prompt.

Anime to get to know me:

Vampire Hunter D
Iria: Zeiram the Animation
Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
Wicked City
Lily CAT
Street Fighter II
Akira
Record of Lodoss War
Golgo 13: The Professional
Tokyo Revelation
Ninja Scroll
Sailor Moon
Rurouni Kenshin
Cowboy Bebop
Escaflowne
kaiserbeamz.bsky.social Possum A-ko @kaiserbeamz.bsky.social · 1d
Anime to get to know me

Slayers
Outlaw Star
Kino's Journey
Nichijou
Robot Carnival
Wicked City
Golgo 13: The Professional
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Giant Robo OVA
Project A-ko
Tenchi Muyo! OVA
Irreponsible Captain Tylor
HxH (2011)
Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad
Interstella 5555
Yu Yu Hakisho dub
fm-synth.bsky.social Red the Manslayer @fm-synth.bsky.social · 1d
Anime to get to know me

Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Ping Pong
Kaiba
Hokuto no Ken
VOTOMS
One Piece Movie 6 Omatsuri Island
Record of Lodoss War
Dungeon Meshi
Patlabor Movie 1
Giant Robo OVA
Armored Hunter Mellowlink
Giant Gorg
Shin Mazinger Z
Shin Getter Robo
Kodomo no Omocha
YuYu Hakusho dub
November 26, 2025 at 11:08 PM
dougmessel.com
Have fun voting for the radio man, I guess
November 26, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Doug Messel
internethippo.bsky.social
If you're mad that it's difficult to have an objective and nuanced conversation about the pros and cons of AI your beef is with the developers and promoters of this tech who deliberately made that impossible because they benefited from the irrational hype!
November 26, 2025 at 5:42 PM
dougmessel.com
As someone who thought Black was cool as hell in 2019-2021, it is very funny that my immediate thought is "that's just fewer opportunities for him to eat a pin"
November 26, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Doug Messel
emmakidwell.bsky.social
you know what i would be thankful for? if you looked at my new website, and said something nice to me 🔪
emmakidwell.bsky.social Emma Kidwell | Looking for work ✨ @emmakidwell.bsky.social · 6d
anyway new website just dropped, hire me: emmkid.info
(the eagle eyed will notice i'm using screenshots from my tga video spot because lol)
November 25, 2025 at 9:47 PM
dougmessel.com
you don't even have to remaster it but i would very gladly take a PC port of SotN
ikexpastel.bsky.social iKE PASTEL @ikexpastel.bsky.social · 1d
I would like to know! 🤓👾
November 26, 2025 at 4:12 PM
dougmessel.com
Loved to be cursed with the image of a cooked turkey shitting spaghetti and pure heartburn
mementomorty.bsky.social Memento (Aloof) Morty 🌙 @mementomorty.bsky.social · 2d
A lot of people don't know this, but in Cincinnati they stuff the Thanksgiving turkey with chili
November 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM
dougmessel.com
I dunno. My senior economics teacher loved the shit out of Trump and made The Apprentice appointment viewing as far back as 2005. In 2010, people commented on Facebook posts that he was smart and should be president. He's had fans for decades. They're just fundamentally stupid people.
piperformissouri.bsky.social Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · 3d
Trump never had a fan base.

He had an army of bots who sold his racism and misogyny and xenophobia to uneducated Americans who took voting advice from bald eagle profiles posting Tweets from Eastern Europe.

It’s as stupid as it sounds.
November 26, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Doug Messel
stuartp.bsky.social
reporting AI slop kids youtube channels I don't want to see
November 25, 2025 at 7:40 PM