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jmcdaid.bsky.social
jmcdaid
@jmcdaid.bsky.social
530 followers 540 following 500 posts
science fiction writer, folk/filk singer-songwriter, theatre critic, adjunct professor of media ecology. SFWA, ATCA. he/him johnmcdaid.bandcamp.com Opinions mine.
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jmcdaid.bsky.social
This weekend, the festival is real! And check out this lineup. So chuffed to be on the bill with all these great songwriters and musicians.
Festival of the Living Rooms Dec 12-14 Register at fotlr.org Times EST Friday 7:00 Beth Kinderman 8:00 Capplor 8:30 Rhiannon’s Lark 9:00 Circle Saturday 1:00 The Future of FOTLR. Led by BLC. 2:00 Halo Quin 3:00 Hallie Dolin 4:00 The Faithful Sidekicks 5:00 Cheshire Moon 6:00 Blind Lemming Chiffon 6:30 Daniel Kelly 7:30 Jonathan Housh 8:00 Mary Bertke 9:00 Circle Sunday 1:00 Non-filk singer-songwriter memorial circle 3:00 Callie Hills and Rebecca Newman 4:00 Don Neill 5:00 Roberta Rogow 6:00 Griff the Filker 7:00 Brett Glass 8:00 John McDaid 9:00 Harold Feld 9:30 Circle
December 12, 2025 at 10:26 AM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Proverb 82 knows that the holidays can be stressful times. Like we needed more of that :)
A sepia-toned card with a ghostly, spiderwebby organic scribbled half image all around the edges. All text is in an idiosyncratic handwritten font. At the top, the title, "New Proverbs of Hell," and at the bottom, the number 82. Proverb: "Proverb: Remember, we live in a "uni" verse." Exegesis: "Fight like hell for the living, but find time to remember that we're all parts of one thing, like old Marcus Aurelius used to say."
December 11, 2025 at 12:17 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Latest review up at BroadwayWorld.
Review: Crisp, Bracing 'OCTET' at Wilbury Theatre Group
What did our critic think of CRISP, BRACING 'OCTET' AT THE WILBURY at Wilbury Theatre Group?Crisp, Bracing 'OCTET' at Wilbury Theatre Group: Quirky a cappella musical takes on our digital obsessions
www.broadwayworld.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:03 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Pirate Cove Music Fest opens with Laconia Order’s vantablack-and-chrome menace, if you survive Pancreas Awareness Month’s MRI chaos. Saturday brings The Entitlement Junkies’ catharsis pit (steel toes advised). Sunday’s Enduring Welcome shimmers, plus Mother Gives You and Someone Should Start A Band.
A colorful poster for a music festival headlined by the bands Laconia Order, The Entitlement Junkies and Enduring Welcome. If you like this sort of bite-sized absurdism, check out "A Year of Weekends," which collects all the 2024 band posters. Free download pdf, https://bit.ly/AYOW24 Or, you can order a deluxe trade paperback at Lulu.com, https://bit.ly/AYOW_lulu Album cover for the band “Laconia Order.” At the top, their name appears in bright green pixelated text on a black rectangular banner. The background is a hazy, high-contrast grayscale field resembling the fog of war overlaid with thin metallic crosshair-like lines. At the bottom, the album title “the new colossus” appears in a minimalist, rounded black font.
December 5, 2025 at 12:23 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Proverb 81 recalls that Auden said "poetry makes nothing happen."
A sepia-toned card with a ghostly, spiderwebby organic scribbled half image all around the edges. All text is in an idiosyncratic handwritten font. At the top, the title, "New Proverbs of Hell," and at the bottom, the number 81. Proverb: "Prompting with poetry won’t help you make a nuclear weapon." Exegesis: "Making nukes is just physics, and any college student can tell you how. OTOH, actually producing one is not something either ChatGPT (nor, all of Nazi Germany) could possibly execute."
December 4, 2025 at 1:01 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Proverb 80 reminds us that the medium is the message.
A sepia-toned card with a ghostly, spiderwebby organic scribbled half image all around the edges. All text is in an idiosyncratic handwritten font. At the top, the title, "New Proverbs of Hell," and at the bottom, the number 80. Proverb: "If you ask an LLM for a "correct" answer and complain that it hallucinates, you are blaming your toaster for not making a good frozen daiquiri." Exegesis: "An LLM is built to generate language, not facts."
December 2, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by jmcdaid
radiofreetom.bsky.social
Posting stupid memes after being accused of murder is the response of a sneering, spoiled punk who has been caught doing wrong and is now daring the local fuzz to take him in and risk the anger of his rich dad—a role fulfilled by Donald Trump, in this case.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Pete Hegseth Needs to Go—Now
A man with such contempt for the military should not run the Pentagon.
www.theatlantic.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:02 AM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Nothing like final edits on your page proofs—and the only correx are three soft hyphens. Whew. Looking forward to reading the fantastic pieces in this this scholarly collection, "Marshall McLuhan: Then And Now," coming in March 2026 from Büchner, Eds. Lars C. Grabbe, Andrew McLuhan, and Tobias Held.
Photo of a marked-up page proof for an article headlined "Toward a Unified Sensorium: McLuhan's Media Ecology and the Posthuman Turn." Book cover of Marshall McLuhan: Then and Now, from Büchner, Lars C. Grabbe, Andrew McLuhan, and Tobias Held, Eds. The image is a negative image of McLuhan, hands behind his head, with a set of VR goggles superimposed over his eyes.
November 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
PCMF enters biohazard mode this week. Anticipated Comorbidity opens with DSM-5 musique concrète, Subclade K brings lays down a deep time hot-lab groove, and The Anamorphic Assets close with mind-bending avant-perlin noise. Bring sunscreen, a HIPAA release, and a working model of atmospheric forcing.
A colorful poster for a music festival headlined by the bands Anticipated comorbidity, Subclade K, and The Anamorphic Assets. If you like this sort of bite-sized absurdism, check out "A Year of Weekends," which collects all the 2024 band posters. Free download pdf, https://bit.ly/AYOW24 Or, you can order a deluxe trade paperback at Lulu.com, https://bit.ly/AYOW_lulu
November 28, 2025 at 2:04 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Proverb 79 would prefer not to step on any of them in the dark.
A sepia-toned card with a ghostly, spiderwebby organic scribbled half image all around the edges. All text is in an idiosyncratic handwritten font. At the top, the title, "New Proverbs of Hell," and at the bottom, the number 79. Proverb: "Proverb: Every human who ever lived could have 9.4 pieces of Lego." Exegesis: "There have been about 117 billion homo sapiens since we speciated, and assuming they all lined up at ToysRUs, each could start out with a handful. Evenly distributed to current humans, everybody gets 140."
November 27, 2025 at 10:49 AM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Proverb 78 reminds everyone that violence can be metaphorical. Alles klar? But also, remember that the best iterated Prisoner's Dilemma strategy is benevolent tit-for-tat, so don't push your luck.
A sepia-toned card with a ghostly, spiderwebby organic scribbled half image all around the edges. All text is in an idiosyncratic handwritten font. At the top, the title, "New Proverbs of Hell," and at the bottom, the number 78. Proverb: "You're not really part of a group until you make your first enemy." Exegesis: "It's all bonhomie and friends in common and favorite pho places until somebody's ox gets gored, and then, it's Connor MacLeod time and out comes the sword until only one remains."
November 25, 2025 at 2:05 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
PCMF kicks off with the unstoppable riot grrrl energy of Quiet Piggy. Leave your hammers at the box. Saturday’s Bone Saw Bingo brings unhinged chaos and sick beats, and Sunday’s Supine In A Bog drifts through anaerobic synth soundscapes. Surströmming will be available at the concession stand. Enjoy?
A colorful poster for a music festival headlined by the bands Quiet Piggy, Bone Saw Bingo, and Supine In A Bog. If you like this sort of bite-sized absurdism, check out "A Year of Weekends," which collects all the 2024 band posters. Free download pdf, https://bit.ly/AYOW24 Or, you can order a deluxe trade paperback at Lulu.com, https://bit.ly/AYOW_lulu
November 21, 2025 at 12:21 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Latest review up at Medium. "Thotbot Implantation Center," A delightfully quirky post-apocalyptic multimedia performance in Somerville, MA by @getthotbot.bsky.social
A theatrical evening at the “Thotbot Implantation Center”
A retrofuturist multimedia exploration of the ongoing technological apocalypse, with sick beats.
medium.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:36 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Proverb 77 tests its code in production.
A sepia-toned card with a ghostly, spiderwebby organic scribbled half image all around the edges. All text is in an idiosyncratic handwritten font. At the top, the title, "New Proverbs of Hell," and at the bottom, the number 77. Proverb: "Beware the load-bearing coconut." Exegesis: "Validate inputs. Tolerate faults. Handle exceptions. And please please please, trace dependencies. Good advice whether you're AWS, CrowdStrike, Boeing, Knight Capital, or the USS Yorktown."
November 18, 2025 at 2:09 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Pirate Cove Music Fest goes full color-cathode-ray retro! Edith Keeler Must Die leads Friday’s trek, Paul Lynde To Block unleashes glitter-cannon game-show chaos, and And What About Naomi? brings earnest, paranoid variety-hour gorilla suit vibes. UHF-limbo undercard included. Willoughby, next stop.
A colorful poster for a music festival headlined by the bands Edith Keeler Must Die, Paul Lynde To Block, and And What About Naomi? If you like this sort of bite-sized absurdism, check out "A Year of Weekends," which collects all the 2024 band posters. Free download pdf, https://bit.ly/AYOW24 Or, you can order a deluxe trade paperback at Lulu.com, https://bit.ly/AYOW_lulu
November 14, 2025 at 11:13 AM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
I swear Proverb 76 is not a reaction to any one particular show we recently saw.
A sepia-toned card with a ghostly, spiderwebby organic scribbled half image all around the edges. All text is in an idiosyncratic handwritten font. At the top, the title, "New Proverbs of Hell," and at the bottom, the number 76. Proverb: "Never get too big to edit." Exegesis: "While some artists thrive on creative freedom, the risk of producing a highly polished work of utter cringetastic banality cannot be overstated. And we need all voices."
November 13, 2025 at 3:07 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
“Seat of Your Pants” composer and playwright Ethan Lipton, discusses adapting Thornton Wilder’s “Skin of Our Teeth” with D.R. Lewis at the American Theater Critics/Journalists Conference. At the Public, opens 11/13. Get tickets now before the reviews hit; this is the best show we’ve seen this season
Two people sit on a stage talking. Playbill for “The Seat of Our Pants,” with the opening act set — a bare carpet with a fire pit in the center—visible in the background. Playbill for “The Baker’s Wife,” with the set, a French village square in the background
November 9, 2025 at 3:42 AM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
We have spun the Alamo. Downtown at the Public for the ATCA conference today and seeing “Seat of our Pants” (the musical of “Skin of our Teeth) and “The Baker’s Wife”
Two folks with gray hair stand in front of the sculpture “The Alamo” in Greenwich Village
November 8, 2025 at 2:15 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
I am about to see the future.
Playbill for “This World of Tomorrow” with the stage in the background; the set is a series of square columns in dim lighting.
November 7, 2025 at 11:37 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Joel Kirk of “Discovering Broadway” talks about the importance of supporting artists. “Recklessly invest in the people you believe in.” With ATCA’s Lou Harry, and composer Zoe Saldana.
Panelists Zoe Saldana and Joel Kirk talk with ATCA’s Lou Harry.
November 7, 2025 at 8:51 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Panel on the new Broadway play “Liberation” at the American Theater Critics/Journalists conference, NY
Panel at the American Theater Critics/Journalists conference, featuring actors and creative from the new Broadway play “Liberation.”
November 7, 2025 at 6:17 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
PCMF: Tonight: The Noperthedron busts open math rock touring their monster debut album ¡No Pasaran! Saturday, Lethal Kinetic Strike unleashes death metal from above. Sunday, Surprise Bidet brings avant-surf chaos of which one must be silent. And don't miss S09.90XA's PCMF debut! Free on the beach.
A colorful poster for a music festival headlined by the bands The Noperthedron, Lethal Kinetic Strike, and Surprise Bidet. If you like this sort of bite-sized absurdism, check out "A Year of Weekends," which collects all the 2024 band posters. Free download pdf, https://bit.ly/AYOW24 Or, you can order a deluxe trade paperback at Lulu.com, https://bit.ly/AYOW_lulu
November 7, 2025 at 2:17 PM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Proverb 75 sez turn those speakers up full blast...
cf: rockhall.com/inductees/wa...
A sepia-toned card with a ghostly, spiderwebby organic scribbled half image all around the edges. All text is in an idiosyncratic handwritten font. At the top, the title, "New Proverbs of Hell," and at the bottom, the number 75. Proverb: "Play it all night long." Exegesis: "Celebrating the long overdue induction of the songwriting genius Warren Zevon into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
November 6, 2025 at 11:07 AM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
ngl teared up a little
November 5, 2025 at 2:55 AM
jmcdaid.bsky.social
Proverb 74 reminds you to also consider density altitude.
A sepia-toned card with a ghostly, spiderwebby organic scribbled half image all around the edges. All text is in an idiosyncratic handwritten font. At the top, the title, "New Proverbs of Hell," and at the bottom, the number 74. Proverb: "Never fly down the center of a canyon." Exegesis: "Always pick a side so you can turn around if things get hairy."
November 4, 2025 at 12:41 PM