Valarie Smith
@valarie.bsky.social
Welcome, book lovers! 💙📚
Probably rereading Woolf’s The Waves or listening to the Backlisted podcast. Also a fan of Sam Shepard, Kerouac, Dickens, Steinbeck, Willy Vlautin, Donna Tartt, film noir, Twin Peaks, Elliott Smith, Grimm & folklore. Portland, OR
Probably rereading Woolf’s The Waves or listening to the Backlisted podcast. Also a fan of Sam Shepard, Kerouac, Dickens, Steinbeck, Willy Vlautin, Donna Tartt, film noir, Twin Peaks, Elliott Smith, Grimm & folklore. Portland, OR
Ever since my parents died, it’s felt as though I’m living in exile from my beloved childhood home. If you’ve ever felt similarly, this week’s INVENTORY is a must-read. It is a stunning piece on childhood and loss.
A new instalment of INVENTORY is available now via the @backlisted.bsky.social Patreon. Sign up as a Locklistener today, read about the Clientele and the ‘suburban uncanny’, support the podcast. @theclientele.bsky.social
This week: God Save the Clientele.
www.patreon.com/backlisted
This week: God Save the Clientele.
www.patreon.com/backlisted
November 27, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Ever since my parents died, it’s felt as though I’m living in exile from my beloved childhood home. If you’ve ever felt similarly, this week’s INVENTORY is a must-read. It is a stunning piece on childhood and loss.
Reposted by Valarie Smith
when I think about how exhausting it is to be a woman, I can forget that it’s equally exhausting (and equally ridiculous) to perform masculinity.
So many men go through life like that. You can play poker because it's right-coded, you can't enjoy fruity alcoholic drinks because they're women-coded, you can't lick an ice cream cone because it's gay-coded. All day, every day, choosing and judging things based on coding for narrow norms.
November 26, 2025 at 5:34 PM
when I think about how exhausting it is to be a woman, I can forget that it’s equally exhausting (and equally ridiculous) to perform masculinity.
Reposted by Valarie Smith
“Meep meep” over the bench the teenagers usual gather at to smoke.
November 26, 2025 at 6:32 PM
“Meep meep” over the bench the teenagers usual gather at to smoke.
Reposted by Valarie Smith
Oregon Public Broadcasting has a new YouTube series called Slow TV, and if you need me this morning, I’ll be on a Columbia River barge. youtu.be/3oeub6lgDmo?...
Journey through the Columbia River Gorge on a barge in 4K 60fps — OPB’s Slow TV
YouTube video by Oregon Public Broadcasting
youtu.be
November 26, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Oregon Public Broadcasting has a new YouTube series called Slow TV, and if you need me this morning, I’ll be on a Columbia River barge. youtu.be/3oeub6lgDmo?...
Am I only the person who struggled with Orbital? It was only 206 pages and felt like my own test of endurance.
November 26, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Am I only the person who struggled with Orbital? It was only 206 pages and felt like my own test of endurance.
Share a 90s movie you believe needs more love.
November 25, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Share a 90s movie you believe needs more love.
Reposted by Valarie Smith
Discovering that Muriel Spark adopted Patricia Highsmith's cat, Spider, is all I needed to make a dull day better.
Some trivia: The cat Spark’s holding on the cover was named Spider; she’d adopted him from Patricia Highsmith. Spider was a fan of fireworks - he found that their booms tended to stun the nearby lizards, making them easy for him to hunt down and kill. I imagine Spark admired this display of cunning…
November 25, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Discovering that Muriel Spark adopted Patricia Highsmith's cat, Spider, is all I needed to make a dull day better.
Reposted by Valarie Smith
Watch this...
"My mentor always tells me, 'Kim, dogs don’t bark at parked cars." They’re coming after critical race theory, 1619, intersectionality because these ideas mobilized people. They gave them the language to actually articulate what they were seeing with their own eyes," says Kimberlé Crenshaw.
November 25, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Watch this...
The US Bookshop.org email arrives in my inbox: Nothing interests me and I don't click through anything.
The UK Bookshop.org email arrives in my inbox: I click through almost everything and add 65% of it to my 'Books to Buy' list.
The UK Bookshop.org email arrives in my inbox: I click through almost everything and add 65% of it to my 'Books to Buy' list.
November 24, 2025 at 6:17 AM
The US Bookshop.org email arrives in my inbox: Nothing interests me and I don't click through anything.
The UK Bookshop.org email arrives in my inbox: I click through almost everything and add 65% of it to my 'Books to Buy' list.
The UK Bookshop.org email arrives in my inbox: I click through almost everything and add 65% of it to my 'Books to Buy' list.
Reposted by Valarie Smith
Columbo in his first episode looks like a dog that's just come back from the groomer
October 14, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Columbo in his first episode looks like a dog that's just come back from the groomer
He says My Own Private Idaho was the first film he’d ever done in America. 😭
November 24, 2025 at 3:55 AM
He says My Own Private Idaho was the first film he’d ever done in America. 😭
Only Keanu and Michael Parker (far right) left now
November 24, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Only Keanu and Michael Parker (far right) left now
Nice review of Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves matter, because even if we don't live up to them we know deep down we should. That we should try
So it's a good thing that the vicious, racist, bullies are shown up for weaklings
It's good that strength is shown to go along with quiet decency
10/11
So it's a good thing that the vicious, racist, bullies are shown up for weaklings
It's good that strength is shown to go along with quiet decency
10/11
November 24, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Nice review of Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Reposted by Valarie Smith
I watch this every time I am feeling a bit miserable and want to remind myself what humans are capable of. He plays with effortless swing and grace, pinching cymbals like he’s picking daisies and harmonising so sweetly it’s as if he’s dragging Ian Brown back into key. youtu.be/4PBU_N5x4ls
Stone Roses - Waterfall 2013 Made of Stone HD
YouTube video by ManicStreet69
youtu.be
November 23, 2025 at 9:49 PM
I watch this every time I am feeling a bit miserable and want to remind myself what humans are capable of. He plays with effortless swing and grace, pinching cymbals like he’s picking daisies and harmonising so sweetly it’s as if he’s dragging Ian Brown back into key. youtu.be/4PBU_N5x4ls
Reposted by Valarie Smith
My hot take is that over the next 10 years, we're going to see more emphasis on and investment in the humanities at Ivy League and other fancy schools just as state schools and small privates continue to decimate and even eliminate the humanities.
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
"The humanities really are a resource — a confidence for living in our times.” Dean Sara Guyer on the modern utility of humanities degrees
This interview originally appeared on the Division of Arts
bit.ly
November 23, 2025 at 4:13 PM
My hot take is that over the next 10 years, we're going to see more emphasis on and investment in the humanities at Ivy League and other fancy schools just as state schools and small privates continue to decimate and even eliminate the humanities.
Not only are there more David Lynch items, but there are a “screen-used” Crow T Robot and Tom Servo as well!
November 23, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Not only are there more David Lynch items, but there are a “screen-used” Crow T Robot and Tom Servo as well!
This screed against Portland’s rich “centrists” is life-giving.
“Keep fighting for your neighbors and Portland. And if a local millionaire is suddenly patting you on the back? Be on the lookout for a knife.”
Excellent work, @wmstevenhumphrey.bsky.social.
“Keep fighting for your neighbors and Portland. And if a local millionaire is suddenly patting you on the back? Be on the lookout for a knife.”
Excellent work, @wmstevenhumphrey.bsky.social.
Kudos to the Mercury for keeping track of who works for the oligarchs who've run Portland since the beginning. www.portlandmercury.com/opinion/2025...
Wm. Steven Humphrey's Adventures in Newspapering
[What follows is one of the many merry articles in the Mercury's Winter Guide 2025. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you're feeling generous this holiday seas...
www.portlandmercury.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:48 PM
This screed against Portland’s rich “centrists” is life-giving.
“Keep fighting for your neighbors and Portland. And if a local millionaire is suddenly patting you on the back? Be on the lookout for a knife.”
Excellent work, @wmstevenhumphrey.bsky.social.
“Keep fighting for your neighbors and Portland. And if a local millionaire is suddenly patting you on the back? Be on the lookout for a knife.”
Excellent work, @wmstevenhumphrey.bsky.social.
Reposted by Valarie Smith
Today I learned…
November 23, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Today I learned…
The neighborhood’s Little Free Library really kicked it up a notch today.
November 23, 2025 at 9:15 AM
The neighborhood’s Little Free Library really kicked it up a notch today.
Excited to welcome this into my extensive Twin Peaks/Lynch collection. Thanks @thetaooftwinpeaks.bsky.social!
November 22, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Excited to welcome this into my extensive Twin Peaks/Lynch collection. Thanks @thetaooftwinpeaks.bsky.social!
Damn it, where’s the new Donna Tartt?
a judge is sitting at a desk in front of an american flag and pointing .
Alt: a judge is sitting at a desk in front of an american flag and impatiently slapping her desk and pointing at her wrist to indicate time is being wasted.
media.tenor.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Damn it, where’s the new Donna Tartt?
Reposted by Valarie Smith
Li Bai, tr. Arthur Cooper
November 22, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Li Bai, tr. Arthur Cooper
MTG is resigning and Trump is crushing on Mamdani and I don’t really understand anything that’s happened today.
November 22, 2025 at 2:02 AM
MTG is resigning and Trump is crushing on Mamdani and I don’t really understand anything that’s happened today.
Reposted by Valarie Smith
All is never quite well when Grace Zabriskie turns up in a movie, but the nature of the unease is deliciously unpredictable. Those eyes have seen everything, believe in nothing, have cast a thousand spells.
“Remember the number—10.” - Juana
#WildAtHeart
#WildAtHeart
November 20, 2025 at 9:17 PM
All is never quite well when Grace Zabriskie turns up in a movie, but the nature of the unease is deliciously unpredictable. Those eyes have seen everything, believe in nothing, have cast a thousand spells.
Reposted by Valarie Smith
Yes Mamdani is charming but the reason someone like Trump can walk away feeling good about him after a conversation is because you can tell his politics is rooted in a deep love for the people and when communicated effectively, that’s disarming even for those who disagree. Sincerity is irreplaceable
November 21, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Yes Mamdani is charming but the reason someone like Trump can walk away feeling good about him after a conversation is because you can tell his politics is rooted in a deep love for the people and when communicated effectively, that’s disarming even for those who disagree. Sincerity is irreplaceable