Colin McGowan
@csmcgowan.bsky.social
1.3K followers 130 following 1.2K posts
Used to write for lots of places. Now mostly at Flaming Hydra, a co-op newsletter: https://flaminghydra.com/contributor/colin-mcgowan/ DMs are fine // colinsilasmcgowan at gmail
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
csmcgowan.bsky.social
I think circa now culture's refusal (is it trending toward inability?) to separate art from artist also hurts him pretty badly. But also this artist went like 1-for-12 in Biggest Game of His Life-type spots so that conflation is even easier to make than it otherwise might be.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
Fist-pumping in the alley, high-fiving the liquor store clerk, doing finger guns at a guy on the street in a Cubs hat who is clearly doing the same thing I am.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
Another great thing about baseball is that if you're de-upholstering your couch while watching it on TV, you can just go for a long walk and catch the last couple innings on the radio.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
I go to Yelp mostly to be mortified.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
I like how this ad describes Shota as a brand ambassador for his own cologne. Like, yeah, I'd assume that responsibility falls on him.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
Splashed this on my pulse points. Feeling powerful.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
As far as I'm concerned, using an em-dash properly means digressing so expansively that your reader forgets what you were talking about in the first place.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
Walter Cronkite gravely elucidating the concerns of swirly eyed PTA moms as if there's been a bombing at the Pentagon.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
I don't care about cars, but I care about America as an idea. What in the fucking fuck is a Mustang SUV? Sorry, you can't tote kids to cello practice in something called a Mustang. That's heretical. A Mustang is an impractical coupe and you must be a young or divorced nihilist in order to own one.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
I assume it's some kind of "blizzard" aesthetic. Which is a vaguely cool idea until you realize that you obviously can't use these unis in a blizzard.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
The tear gas is dry ice but the actors really sell that they're being brutalized. This just might work.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
Thanks, man. Most of this is Novel Material that'll probably just live in a Google Doc until the early morning they find me dead on the side of a country road. But I've got the verve back; I'll do some articles too.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
I hadn't written in a while, out of cowardice and due to a depression that's Mythic Aegean in force, but I have kept up reading, struggling the whole time, and I'm gratified that the process still works, that my sensibility is still intact and has been operating on everything I've been taking in.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
A truck commercial that features PURE AMERICAN HORSEPOWER AND ENGINEERING idling in a Starbucks drive-thru, parking in a bike lane, destroying the retinas of a small child with its high beams.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
You idiots are losing hundreds placing bets at Luis Guzman's neighborhood sports bar. Meanwhile I'm gassing $3 High Lifes and asking about his experiences shooting The Limey and Boogie Nights.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
Carson Beck's whole vibe is a lot more 2001 NBA White Guy than I thought it would be.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
No more stores or bars or restaurants with ampersands in their names. We've hit capacity.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
Yes, yeah. He's great. I should clarify: American artists. Because there's always going to be some mild degree of disconnect with foreigners.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
This is a particularly good Hydra blog, about precarity and tipping and George Orwell living broke in between World Wars. flaminghydra.com/issue-368/#t...
Gratuitous gratuities
George Orwell’s days scrambling for tips, by Diana Moskovitz
flaminghydra.com
csmcgowan.bsky.social
Dropping a lamb meatball onto the kitchen floor, retrieving and popping it into my mouth in one motion, and casually flashing the "two down" hand sign.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
Dansby Swanson having the rare "he's heating up!" defensive performance.
csmcgowan.bsky.social
It would be wild if the Springsteen movie wasn't based on a true story. Like if it was about Bruce Springsteen running guns in Venezuela or inventing the personal computer.