Martha Bayne
@marthabayne.bsky.social
Writer, editor, dancer, souper. Coeditor of NOTHING COMPARES TO YOU: WHAT SINEAD O'CONNOR MEANS TO US. Various responsibilities @ University of Illinois Press, South Side Weekly, Theater Oobleck, Soup & Bread. Essays @ marthabayne.substack.com. .
Helllooooo Chicago! Great books, on sale now.
November 26, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Helllooooo Chicago! Great books, on sale now.
Reposted by Martha Bayne
[Judge Ellis] repeatedly found testimony by Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino... not credible. Bovino was evasive, either giving “cute” answers to attorney’s questions or outright lying, the judge said in her [233-page] ruling.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/25/f...
📝 @minabloom.bsky.social
blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/25/f...
📝 @minabloom.bsky.social
Feds Repeatedly Lied And Misled The Public During Chicago Immigration Crackdown, Federal Judge Rules
CHICAGO — For two months, federal immigration agents unleashed "indiscriminate" force on peaceful protesters and others across the Chicago area — and
blockclubchicago.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:14 PM
[Judge Ellis] repeatedly found testimony by Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino... not credible. Bovino was evasive, either giving “cute” answers to attorney’s questions or outright lying, the judge said in her [233-page] ruling.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/25/f...
📝 @minabloom.bsky.social
blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/25/f...
📝 @minabloom.bsky.social
Reposted by Martha Bayne
IT'S OUT!
Pick one up at @illinoispress.bsky.social or @bookshop.org or finer independent retailers near you.
"Every page a treasure"--No Depression
"Brilliantly written with a gonzo flavor to it"--Americana UK
"...a must read"--Glide Magazine
"It's not a squirrel"--my dog Gromit
#booksky #author
Pick one up at @illinoispress.bsky.social or @bookshop.org or finer independent retailers near you.
"Every page a treasure"--No Depression
"Brilliantly written with a gonzo flavor to it"--Americana UK
"...a must read"--Glide Magazine
"It's not a squirrel"--my dog Gromit
#booksky #author
November 25, 2025 at 10:36 PM
IT'S OUT!
Pick one up at @illinoispress.bsky.social or @bookshop.org or finer independent retailers near you.
"Every page a treasure"--No Depression
"Brilliantly written with a gonzo flavor to it"--Americana UK
"...a must read"--Glide Magazine
"It's not a squirrel"--my dog Gromit
#booksky #author
Pick one up at @illinoispress.bsky.social or @bookshop.org or finer independent retailers near you.
"Every page a treasure"--No Depression
"Brilliantly written with a gonzo flavor to it"--Americana UK
"...a must read"--Glide Magazine
"It's not a squirrel"--my dog Gromit
#booksky #author
Reposted by Martha Bayne
I feel like Nuzzi is the other side of this. pubs want mid level sloggers who are really ai slop...and then they want superstars who are celebrity sexploitation scandals. the demand for journalism at any level doesn't exist.
wrote about AI slop fraud in journalism, which is successful not because AI is magic superintelligence, but because journalism has already been hollowed out and turned into slop. www.everythingishorrible.net/p/journalist...
Journalists Have Been Turning Into AI Slop For Years
ChatGPT is the ideal employee
www.everythingishorrible.net
November 25, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I feel like Nuzzi is the other side of this. pubs want mid level sloggers who are really ai slop...and then they want superstars who are celebrity sexploitation scandals. the demand for journalism at any level doesn't exist.
Reposted by Martha Bayne
wrote about AI slop fraud in journalism, which is successful not because AI is magic superintelligence, but because journalism has already been hollowed out and turned into slop. www.everythingishorrible.net/p/journalist...
Journalists Have Been Turning Into AI Slop For Years
ChatGPT is the ideal employee
www.everythingishorrible.net
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
wrote about AI slop fraud in journalism, which is successful not because AI is magic superintelligence, but because journalism has already been hollowed out and turned into slop. www.everythingishorrible.net/p/journalist...
Reposted by Martha Bayne
In 1995, The Old 97's signed with Bloodshot Records, which released their album Wreck Your Life. This partnership helped launch the band into the burgeoning alt-country scene.
Ep. 817 - Chicago's Bloodshot Records with author Rob Miller
@millerscave.bsky.social
@officialold97s.bsky.social
Ep. 817 - Chicago's Bloodshot Records with author Rob Miller
@millerscave.bsky.social
@officialold97s.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 8:52 PM
In 1995, The Old 97's signed with Bloodshot Records, which released their album Wreck Your Life. This partnership helped launch the band into the burgeoning alt-country scene.
Ep. 817 - Chicago's Bloodshot Records with author Rob Miller
@millerscave.bsky.social
@officialold97s.bsky.social
Ep. 817 - Chicago's Bloodshot Records with author Rob Miller
@millerscave.bsky.social
@officialold97s.bsky.social
Happy pub day to @millerscave.bsky.social & THE HOURS ARE LONG! Rob & I have been working together on this book for 4 years. It is a labor of love, fueled by joy, and a celebration of the gloriously weird, undersung stuff found in the crevices of the music biz and in cities like Chicago.
A rollicking good review from "Americana Highways":
"...told with enthusiasm & nostalgia with an inspired delivery."
"Miller never holds back, & that’s what makes the entire effort delightful. It’s like he’s talking to you. "
#booksky #robmillerwriting
americanahighways.org/2025/11/24/b...
"...told with enthusiasm & nostalgia with an inspired delivery."
"Miller never holds back, & that’s what makes the entire effort delightful. It’s like he’s talking to you. "
#booksky #robmillerwriting
americanahighways.org/2025/11/24/b...
Book Review: “The Hours Are Long But The Pay Is Low: A Curious Life In Independent Music – Rob Miller” • Americana Highways
We review the new book by Bloodshot Records founder Rob Miller "The Hours Are Long But The Pay Is Low – A Curious Life In Independent Music."
americanahighways.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Happy pub day to @millerscave.bsky.social & THE HOURS ARE LONG! Rob & I have been working together on this book for 4 years. It is a labor of love, fueled by joy, and a celebration of the gloriously weird, undersung stuff found in the crevices of the music biz and in cities like Chicago.
hahahahahaha sob
that list of four potential peer reviewers you gave your acquisitions editor? one of them is retired, another is chairing their department and simply can't, the third is on leave and has an autoreply up for months, and the fourth replied within 20 seconds to say "no."
November 25, 2025 at 3:03 PM
hahahahahaha sob
I successfully resisted titling this “It’s Soup Season, Motherfuckers”
Now More Than Ever, It's Soup Season
Holiday commerce part 1
open.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:51 PM
I successfully resisted titling this “It’s Soup Season, Motherfuckers”
Reposted by Martha Bayne
this is very effective audio storytelling work, honestly.
Fear is contagious, but so is courage. I remain steadfast in my oath to the Constitution and am grateful to those across the nation who stand with us. Don't give up the ship.
November 25, 2025 at 12:49 AM
this is very effective audio storytelling work, honestly.
Went to a funeral today for a WWII vet, with a full military honor guard send off. I am a sucker for ritual but I was truly moved.
That's all.
That's all.
November 24, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Went to a funeral today for a WWII vet, with a full military honor guard send off. I am a sucker for ritual but I was truly moved.
That's all.
That's all.
And buy a t-shirt!
November 24, 2025 at 11:09 PM
And buy a t-shirt!
Soup & Bread kicks off its 17th season (!) 12/3 at the Hideout. Join us to fight fascism, one bowl of soup at a time. Donations benefit the Pilsen Food Pantry.
Soup & Bread
Soup & Bread Since 2009 Soup & Bread has been providing food and community to hungry Chicagoans, and has raised more than $110,000 for local food pantries. This winter, we’re bringing back our traditional community meals at the Hideout on the first Wednesday of the month, from 6-8 pm, from December through April. As ever, we will be marshaling teams of volunteer soup cooks to fill our crock pots and serving bread from our friends at Middlebrow and Publican Quality Bread. Each mo...
www.etix.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Soup & Bread kicks off its 17th season (!) 12/3 at the Hideout. Join us to fight fascism, one bowl of soup at a time. Donations benefit the Pilsen Food Pantry.
Reposted by Martha Bayne
this part!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At a certain point, all the Nuzzi/Lizza/RFK/Sanford/whatever stuff starts to feel like we're all being forced to participate in some weird fetish of the media elite.
November 24, 2025 at 8:22 PM
this part!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reposted by Martha Bayne
Comey and James cases dismissed. Because Lindsey Halligan.
No legitimate prosecutor would manufacture charges against Trump’s political enemies, and one willing to failed.
Authoritarian abuses don’t work without capable personnel. Or much deeper corruption of the courts, which they don’t have.
No legitimate prosecutor would manufacture charges against Trump’s political enemies, and one willing to failed.
Authoritarian abuses don’t work without capable personnel. Or much deeper corruption of the courts, which they don’t have.
NEWS: The criminal cases against James Comey and Letitia James are gone. A federal judge ruled that the appointment of Lindsey Halligan as the lead prosecutor was illegal.
DOJ could try again, but there are other headwinds.
w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
DOJ could try again, but there are other headwinds.
w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
November 24, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Comey and James cases dismissed. Because Lindsey Halligan.
No legitimate prosecutor would manufacture charges against Trump’s political enemies, and one willing to failed.
Authoritarian abuses don’t work without capable personnel. Or much deeper corruption of the courts, which they don’t have.
No legitimate prosecutor would manufacture charges against Trump’s political enemies, and one willing to failed.
Authoritarian abuses don’t work without capable personnel. Or much deeper corruption of the courts, which they don’t have.
Reposted by Martha Bayne
Since Bovino left it seems every day or every other day I hear of someone abducted by ICE agents. It’s slower, less flashy, but still happening.
“Rey Wences, senior director of deportation defense at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, noted that “abductions” continue happening “every day in both the city and the suburbs.”
November 24, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Since Bovino left it seems every day or every other day I hear of someone abducted by ICE agents. It’s slower, less flashy, but still happening.
Reposted by Martha Bayne
"As long as policymakers continue to flood money into AI, small press publishers will only grow in importance. The quality of the books they produce, driven by that creative, alternative thinking & integrative design focus is only set to become more in demand." www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
Don’t invest in AI, invest in the future of the book
Why the publishing industry must back small presses, rather than LLMs.
www.thebookseller.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:19 PM
"As long as policymakers continue to flood money into AI, small press publishers will only grow in importance. The quality of the books they produce, driven by that creative, alternative thinking & integrative design focus is only set to become more in demand." www.thebookseller.com/comment/dont...
Reposted by Martha Bayne
I wrote about the impact of seeing "The Harder They Come" in my new book:
"The spirituality and street-level urgency were an extension of what I was beginning to understand as “punk rock.” There were outsiders everywhere, and there was an uphill search for affirmation everywhere."
#jimmycliff
"The spirituality and street-level urgency were an extension of what I was beginning to understand as “punk rock.” There were outsiders everywhere, and there was an uphill search for affirmation everywhere."
#jimmycliff
November 24, 2025 at 3:21 PM
I wrote about the impact of seeing "The Harder They Come" in my new book:
"The spirituality and street-level urgency were an extension of what I was beginning to understand as “punk rock.” There were outsiders everywhere, and there was an uphill search for affirmation everywhere."
#jimmycliff
"The spirituality and street-level urgency were an extension of what I was beginning to understand as “punk rock.” There were outsiders everywhere, and there was an uphill search for affirmation everywhere."
#jimmycliff
I am very sad to have missed this event which, honestly, I forgot was happening yesterday. The perils of living outside the city I guess. Tony was always incredibly kind to me, and we chatted often during covid, when I would run into him feeding the ducks in the Humboldt Park lagoon.
Hundreds Pack The Metro — And Lakeview Streets — To Honor Tony Fitzpatrick: 'Tony Was Chicago'
The Chicago visual artist, poet and actor died in October at the age of 66. A Sunday "celebration of life" included a program at the Metro and parade through the neighborhood.
blockclubchicago.org
November 24, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I am very sad to have missed this event which, honestly, I forgot was happening yesterday. The perils of living outside the city I guess. Tony was always incredibly kind to me, and we chatted often during covid, when I would run into him feeding the ducks in the Humboldt Park lagoon.
Reposted by Martha Bayne
Reposting my 2018 piece about year end lists for anyone who needs it (me!). www.damemagazine.com/2018/12/19/i...
It’s Time to Reconsider the Best-Of List - Dame Magazine
The piles of books and galleys that clutter my apartment are overwhelming. This is not a humble brag—more of a cry for help. I’m a culture writer and critic who is deeply entrenched in the book world....
www.damemagazine.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposting my 2018 piece about year end lists for anyone who needs it (me!). www.damemagazine.com/2018/12/19/i...
Reposted by Martha Bayne
Yesterday my partner and I counted all the ads along Chicago's Brown Line for "Friend," a company selling an AI chatbot pendant, and tallied how many of those ads were defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
November 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Yesterday my partner and I counted all the ads along Chicago's Brown Line for "Friend," a company selling an AI chatbot pendant, and tallied how many of those ads were defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
A great cause but why does this story treat this one-off dance class for Parkinson's patients as sui generis? The 20-year old "Dance for PD" program run by the Mark Morris Dance Company has a branch at the Joffrey that offers these (invaluable) classes year round. I smell a publicist at work.
Parkinson’s patients get a little choreographic help from a dance captain of the Neil Diamond musical
The cast member from “A Beautiful Noise” led a movement workshop for Parkinson’s patients at the Rush University Medical Center.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:16 PM
A great cause but why does this story treat this one-off dance class for Parkinson's patients as sui generis? The 20-year old "Dance for PD" program run by the Mark Morris Dance Company has a branch at the Joffrey that offers these (invaluable) classes year round. I smell a publicist at work.
Anybody remember this?
Yeah I didn't think so.
Yeah I didn't think so.
Journalism Dreams
I wrote about the "Heat Index" scandal and why it may not matter
marthabayne.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Anybody remember this?
Yeah I didn't think so.
Yeah I didn't think so.
Reposted by Martha Bayne
AI is a massive boon to the fly-by-night vanity publishers and high-output KDP book content. Even big 5 publishing has embraced AI for covers for their republished fanfiction. It's more important than ever for real independent presses to stress the human-made, anti-algorithmic nature of our work.
This is the only sensible way forward. If people don't want to do the work, they should do something else. Thank you for holding the line against the slop.
November 23, 2025 at 6:39 PM
AI is a massive boon to the fly-by-night vanity publishers and high-output KDP book content. Even big 5 publishing has embraced AI for covers for their republished fanfiction. It's more important than ever for real independent presses to stress the human-made, anti-algorithmic nature of our work.
The only gift guide you need.
Soup Melts ICE: A Soup & Bread Fundraiser for the Illinois Coalition f
Soup Melts ICE: A Soup & Bread Fundraiser for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
pogo.undergroundshirts.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:50 PM
The only gift guide you need.