It's been far too long! Thank you for waiting around for me to get it together. Let's go over a bit of housekeeping first…

I moved from Substack to Buttondown. My former distribution platform has some, ahem, questionable policies, so I'm leaving in search of greener pastures.

Also, Aes Cult is now README.TXT. It's a new day, refreshing the publication felt right, so here we are.

So What’s New Around Here?

My intention with this iteration of the newsletter is to change up the format a bit. We’ll be focusing on my “media diet” of late — what we’ve been listening to, watching, reading, and doing IRL.

As always, thanks so much for taking the time to read and engage with my writing. It means the world to me, and I’ll do my best to make it worth your while.

Finally, I’m looking into whether this project can help me pay my bills. It’s hard out here for all of us, so thank you for anything you can contribute!

• Donate to the cassette tape purchasing fund

Shut Up and Play the Hits!

Here’s some of my favorite albums from 2025

• Dub reggae: Scientist In Dub, Prince Far I & The Arabs: Crytuff Dub Encounter
• Plastikman x Chilly Gonzales: Consumed In Key
• Beats In Space, streams free on Apple Music Club every Thursday at 7PM Pacific.
• Marie Davidson, City Of Clowns
• Lowrider Magazine Soundtrack, Vol. 2. Found this one via rewatching The Social Network. Worth a watch, IMHO. The "party" scene led me to discover this interesting album.
• Kissen, Homesick. Thanks @theberlinermag
• Junipero - Huerta
• Ora the Molecule, Dance Therapy

What have you been listening to?

What We’re Watching, etc.

Watched Mr. Robot, it holds up!

I can recommend seriesgraph.com as useful website for evaluating whether to watch a tv series.

Watched 'Saturday Night Fever', very weird in retrospect. Pacing, ending. Lots of casual misogyny and racism.

Read More Books

I've been reading more. Since we're catching up, let's start with the list of books I read in 2025 along with some notes for each.

One that deserves a small feature:

Fashion Climbing — I learned about Bill Cunningham aka William J from a fashion blog this year so decided to read his memoir on a whim. It was unexpectedly great! If you like fashion or want to read about being a young person in 1950s-1960s New York City, you could do a lot worse. He’s an icon and the book was quite a romp!

Also read: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It was pretty interesting! I found it well-structured, an easy read IMHO. fits well with Aurora (Kim Stanley Robinson) and the Silver series (Linda Nagata). Plenty of commentary on humanity and our ways, our legacy. Interesting perspective. Thanks to my friend Lisa for the suggestion.

What are you reading? What do you think about it?

Hit These Hyperlinks

If a Tree Falls, by Rosa Lyster

The trial of the Sycamore Gap killers

Such a nice article about a famous tree and tree law...

It touches on old lore about people protecting trees, which I think speaks to a part of us. For me, that part says, "wouldn't it be nice if people vigorously defended the trees and the forest? It would make sense if we did!"

ChatGPT tried to make me dress like a manosphere influencer | British GQ

AI can write you a decent cover letter, sure. Turns out it doesn’t understand menswear one bit

amusing how just a few prompts will shift the vibe of a chatbot. also illustrates how the bots don't usually ask questions (e.g. what is your style) before giving advice, and so the advice tends to be generic.

Scrolling Alone - by Andrew Trousdale and Erik J Larson

A brief history of the trade-off between convenience and connection in America

“time poverty” — the chronic feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it — is increasing and hits affluent knowledge workers hardest. They use time-saving tools not to free up social or leisure time, but to take on more work commitments.

This made me wonder, how can I add more IRL socialization to more days per week?

I hope our phones are touching in the Faraday pouch

we built a world where you can work, shop, eat, exercise, learn, and socialize without ever leaving your home, where work and leisure are increasingly things we do alone in front of screens. In other words, we’ve allowed social interaction to become more optional than ever.

Notes: analog lifestyle choices. slowing down yr life. reducing screen time is not enough.

connection requires action and effort, and that this action and effort is part of what makes connection fulfilling in the first place.

well said!

On a lighter note…

skipthe.tips game was fun!

Also fun: gradient.horse

What One-Winged Squids Can Teach The Airship Renaissance | Hackaday

It’s a blustery January day outside Lakehurst, New Jersey. The East Coast of North America is experiencing its worst weather in decades, and all civilian aircraft have been grounded the past four d…

Cool art about blimps, advantages versus airships. Fascinating! I hear an airship renaissance is … right around the corner?

The ‘Mind Control Latina’ Who Relays Messages From an Invisible Orb

Brain rot reversion of the MK Ultra program, harmless qigong-coded ASMR, or total nonsense? We interviewed Cristina Méndez to find out.

amusing new-age vibes, good ideas for starting your own cult