Niall O'Sullivan
LightNews LightNews
banner
rustyniall.bsky.social
Niall O'Sullivan
@rustyniall.bsky.social
350 followers 110 following 340 posts
(in no particular order…) poet, essayist, lecturer, gamer, dad

buttondown.com/niall
niall.garden
Posts Replies Media Videos
rustyniall.bsky.social
Just waiting for the red arrows. Any moment now...
Balding man with glasses with a big 50 balloon obscuring his face. Text below reads: Not one to normally share birthday related stuff online but today's a bit of a biggie. If you'd asked me 5 years ago I would have been all about having a big gig or something extravagant but today will be a posh cinema visit with Mrs O'Sullivan and my favourite Italian to restaurant with my little family tonight. To any friends that see this, I probably owe you a reply text or email, possibly from about five years ago or longer. I've not been very good at that kind of thing of late but I'll see if I can work through that backlog soon. Much love to everyone that's helped make the first half century something worth smiling about. Much love, Niall X
October 10, 2025 at 7:47 AM
rustyniall.bsky.social
I like setting alternate versions of Frank O'Hara's POEM (Lana Turner had Collapsed) as a writing exercise for my students but keep writing them myself because they're the perfect way of ingesting pop culture and spitting it out again. Read more stuff here: niall.garden
POEM (Dwayne Johnson has lost 60lbs) –⁠ after Frank O'Hara I was contemplating the subtle late August/early September shift as I counted four squished slugs on the narrow path to the big Sainsburys –⁠ how I couldn’t quite pin that shift down, whether it was a quality of the light or a thinness in the air or whether it was actually me as I shifted into the Autumn of my life; how my recent embrace of the term’ “late summer” was a sign of me being in denial? But then I saw a headline in an algorithmic feed –⁠ DWAYNE JOHNSON HAS LOST 60LBS! The melange of influencers, the celebrity commentariat and wrestling dirt sheets was ablaze with takes: He’s going for serious roles now! He did it for Scorcese! A man in his fifties can’t carry that much muscle, it’s a burden that the heart cannot bear! I just wondered where that 60lbs of Dwayne Johnson had gone. Is Dwayne Johnson a variation of the ship of Theseus where a plank is shed at every port and never replaced? Maybe a tiny, 60lb Dwayne Johnson will show up and declare that he is actually the true, essential Dwayne Johnson and the bigger Dwayne Johnson is actually the shell that he cast aside? You might say that Dwayne’s brain could only live in one vessel but what if his hemispheres were also split during the great shedding? But if that was the case, only one of them would have the gift/curse of language and the only way to truly tell them apart would be to place them in opposing kitchens and smell what they are cooking. I can’t even recognise my own authentic selfhood, let alone choose from two from a fractal of voices and vantages that claim to be the essential Niall. I once dropped my phone in the toilet but I never managed to drop 60lbs. Oh Dwaynes, we love you, pair up!
September 28, 2025 at 6:16 PM
rustyniall.bsky.social
Just managed to buy Silksong via the Humble Store instead as I saw that the Steam keys had been replenished.
September 4, 2025 at 4:19 PM
rustyniall.bsky.social
Whenever I see someone's ultimate productivity desk setup, I think of Eric "Concernedape" Barone's setup from when he made Stardew Valley. They should rebuild it in a museum somewhere but health and safety probably wouldn't allow it. Glorious.
Two images of Eric Barone's desk setup. The present day one on the left looks unremarkable enough but the one on the right is from when he made Stardew Valley and is a massive disasterpiece. It appears to be an improvised standing desk with the monitor perched at the top of a long, narrow cardboard box. The keyboard is resting atop the speakers.
August 15, 2025 at 8:11 PM
rustyniall.bsky.social
This made me chuckle, but it also reminds me of this real poetry book with the most unfortunate title.
Cover of the poetry book by Joan Margarit, entitled "Tugs in the Fog"
July 7, 2025 at 3:49 PM
rustyniall.bsky.social
Also, if I'm going to write an essay defending long, baroque sentences and comparing them to the level design of Sonic the Hedgehog, then there's only one strategy to take for the final paragraphs...
Text from the end of my essay that says: More than that, I like how the long sentence challenges the necessities of function and understanding: stacking up colons, semi-colons, dashes, parentheses, clauses and sub-clauses to a point where the whole thing threatens to tip over in a sudden calamity that slows down the reader’s comprehension (in the same way that all those lost golden rings slowed down the frame rate of the Sega Megadrive console) –⁠ losing itself as it grinds onwards and becomes more of a thing in itself; an aesthetic monstrosity that, in its audaciousness, opens up new avenues for understanding, communication and (above all) fun. Or something.
May 16, 2025 at 3:15 PM
rustyniall.bsky.social
Mosseri whenever a social media app is about to die.
January 19, 2025 at 9:46 PM
rustyniall.bsky.social
Isn't that how it normally works?
TFL information page saying that the cable car service is suspended.
December 7, 2024 at 8:11 AM