Sebastian Biot
LightNews LightNews
banner
viralata.bsky.social
Sebastian Biot
@viralata.bsky.social
86 followers 170 following 100 posts
Keeper of HyperEssays https://hyperessays.net/
Posts Replies Media Videos
viralata.bsky.social
Claudia Cardinale in Fellini’s 8½ (1963) Black and white still from the movie. Claudia is sitting on a door step, on a cobblestone street. She is wearing a black feather boa. Her head is bowed forward, her face hidden. Her pale legs stand out against the deep black of her outfit and the shadows around her.
September 24, 2025 at 1:02 AM
viralata.bsky.social
Still from “Portlandia“ season 7, episode 7. Peter (Fred Armisen), looking worried, turns to Nance (Carrie Brownstein, off-screen) and says “What if I’m Banksy?”
August 15, 2025 at 1:01 AM
viralata.bsky.social
Got some nice stickers in the mail today. Thanks, @athensindy.bsky.social! (I'd love to see you post more on Bluesky, btw 😬)

Don’t forget to support local journalism, wherever you are. In Athens, OH, it’s athensindependent.com/support-us/
Photograph of two stickers: the first, in black and white, says “Support Local Journalism”; the second, in pink, black, and green, shows the head of the Athens County Independent’s mascot—Scoop the possum—surrounded by flowers.
August 4, 2025 at 8:54 PM
viralata.bsky.social
Detail from Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait (1434, National Gallery, London): a convex mirror at the back of the room shows two small figures not otherwise visible to the viewer, one of whom may be van Eyck himself.
July 27, 2025 at 2:09 AM
viralata.bsky.social
“The discovery is doubly exceptional because it includes the most complete dermatoglyphic image identified to date…”

~43,000-year old Neanderthal fingerprint!
Close-up image of a reddish fingerprint impression on a pale, textured surface. The fingerprint shows clear ridge patterns arranged in a whorled formation, with fine details visible across the ridges.
May 27, 2025 at 2:51 PM
viralata.bsky.social
Escaramuza, the Poetics of Home
April 17 – August 23, 2025
Poetry Foundation (Chicago)

www.poetryfoundation.org/exhibitions/...
Portrait of a woman, with a gray hat, wearing a blue dress, both with flowers, appears against a yellow background. Photograph by Constance Jaeggi.
May 21, 2025 at 12:38 PM
viralata.bsky.social
Just another way to lard the basket brought to you by AI hallucinating meaning where there is none (yet).
Screenshot of a Google search for “lard the basket meaning” where Google’s AI Overview provides a likely explanation for the expression: “‘Lard the basket’ is an idiom, a figurative expression, rather than a literal description of filling a basket with lard. The idiom means to be extremely lazy, or to spend time doing nothing. It implies a state of idleness and lack of productivity.”
April 23, 2025 at 11:40 AM
viralata.bsky.social
And here’s his wife, my great-great-great-great-grandmother, born in 1790-91. This photo is from a separate set of family portraits taken later, maybe early 1860s? She died in 1868.
A sepia-toned photograph of an elderly woman seated in an ornate chair with a carved backrest. She is dressed in a long, dark gown and wears a bonnet with decorative ruffles and bows. The bonnet frames her face, and a patterned scarf with polka dots is tied neatly at her neck. She rests one hand on a small table with fringe trim. The floor beneath her is covered with a patterned carpet.
December 30, 2024 at 6:15 PM
viralata.bsky.social
This man is my great-great-great-great-grandfather: my paternal grandfather’s maternal grandmother’s paternal grandfather. He was born in 1785!

I don't know when this photo was taken, unfortunately. 1850s?
A sepia-toned photograph of an elderly man slouched in a high back chair, holding a long cane. The man has disheveled, white hair and wears a dark suit and a cravat. The background appears to be a simple wooden wall, and the floor is scattered with debris or dirt.
December 30, 2024 at 6:06 PM
viralata.bsky.social
A still from Jacques Tati’s “Mon Oncle” (1958): three characters—a boy, a formally dressed man in a gray suit and tie, and a woman in a dress—seated around a small outdoor table in a clean, geometric modernist environment, with a blue-striped wall and minimalistic metal chairs with red cushions.
November 21, 2024 at 2:02 AM
viralata.bsky.social
Raleigh flea market did not disappoint.
Two 1950s (?) casebound volumes of Michel de Montaigne’s Essays (George B. Ives’s translation), with slipcases.
November 17, 2024 at 5:53 PM
viralata.bsky.social
The Return of Martin Guerre, which is based on a real case of stolen identity tried in Toulouse, France, in 1560, includes a short scene in which Martin/Arnaud tells his family about meeting indigenous Brazilians who, he says, “eat their prisoners’ hearts.”
Still from The Return of Martin Guerre. Martin (played by Gérard Depardieu), on the right, tells his sister Jeanne (Chantal Deruaz), on the right: “The eat their prisoners’ hearts.” The scene takes place inside a peasant’s house. A fire and candles light the interior. Jeanne is stirring something.
July 9, 2024 at 3:43 AM
viralata.bsky.social
What Kambei said.
Black and white still from Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai.” In the foreground, one samurai (Kambei Shimada played by Takashi Shimura), his sword drawn, addresses a crowd of scared farmers: “By protecting others, you save yourself.” In the background, a younger samurai, Katsushiro, listens.
July 7, 2024 at 10:18 PM
viralata.bsky.social
Have these people never watched Seinfeld?!
Still from The Chicken Roaster (Seinfeld, season 8, episode 8) showing George Costanza wearing a grey ushanka (Russian fur hat) made of nutria.
April 8, 2024 at 12:34 PM
viralata.bsky.social
What I’ve been listening to this year, according to Apple Music:

Top artist: Prince
What else is new?

Top album: Marin Marais’s Deuxième livre de Pièces de viole
Lots of Baroque music this year

Top song: Blanket Hog by The Long Winters
It’s just very good
Top artist: Prince Top album: Marin Marais, Deuxième livre de pièces de viole Top song: Blanket Hog by The Long Winters
November 29, 2023 at 6:21 PM