Valarie Smith

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Valarie Smith

@valarie.bsky.social

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Probably wondering if I should reread Woolf’s “The Waves” yet again. Also a fan of Sam Shepard, Kerouac, Willy Vlautin, Donna Tartt, Elliott Smith, film noir, folklore and the Backlisted podcast. Lifetime member of the Boyd Crowder Fan Club. Portland, OR.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 13 hr
Just a reminder: Trump inherited the lowest homicide rate of any president in 50 years. He was the first president in 30 years to leave office with a higher homicide rate than when he entered. And the rate has dropped every year since he left. www.foxnews.com/video/635815...
RNC day 2 to focus on crime and safety as victims' families speak out | Fox News Videowww.foxnews.com Erin Rachwal, who lost her son to fentanyl poisoning and Sheri and Aaron Sparks, who lost their son in the Waukesha parade attack, on the need to hold criminals accountable and stop the influx of illi...
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Tom Kimmerer, PhD @tomkimmerer.bsky.social · 18 hr
We've all seen the meme recommending we "touch grass." The grass in the left photo is at a surface temperature of 109F/43C. You don't want to touch that. The woodland pasture on the right with a large blue ash had a surface temperature of 78F/25.6C at the same air temperature. Make your choice!
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · a day
“What is horse girl folk horror?” This question of Andy’s leads into probably the most interesting guest intro ever. Great episode for a book I knew nothing about and is now on its way to me.
Avatar Backlisted Podcast @backlisted.bsky.social · a day
New episode up now. Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr, with guests Rachael King @rachaelking70.bsky.social and Richard Blandford @rblandford.bsky.social. www.backlisted.fm/episodes/au0...
216. Catherine Storr - Marianne Dreams — Backlistedwww.backlisted.fm
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 2 days
“Such a good morning’s writing I’d planned, & wasted the cream of my brain on the telephone.” - Virginia Woolf in her 4/20/1920 diary entry
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 5 days
I was once a subway messenger who picked up packages at the top of the old World Trade Center without a thought. Now, because of chronic vertigo, I don't even feel stable walking around in bookstores anymore. Thanks to Oregon Humanities for letting me tell my story.
Balancing Actswww.oregonhumanities.org Valarie Smith writes about getting comfortable with the uncertainty of living with chronic vertigo.
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 5 days
I was once a subway messenger who picked up packages at the top of the old World Trade Center without a thought. Now, because of chronic vertigo, I don't even feel stable walking around in bookstores anymore. Thanks to Oregon Humanities for letting me tell my story.
Balancing Actswww.oregonhumanities.org Valarie Smith writes about getting comfortable with the uncertainty of living with chronic vertigo.
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 5 days
Wild: Cincinnati built two miles of subway in the 1920s before abandoning it. It's all still there and "its derelict tunnels and stations make up the largest abandoned subway tunnel system in the United States." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinn...
Cincinnati Subway - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 5 days
My turn to do the icebreaker question at work today, so I asked everyone who was the most interesting people they knew. There were great stories, but most were about older relatives. I realized: millennials and younger have to focus on getting careers so fast they have no time to do weird things.
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 5 days
John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands were in a contemporary version of The Tempest?! How did I not know this?
Criterion Collection on Instagram: "Evening viewing recommendation? On the Criterion Channel, watch Paul Mazursky's TEMPEST (1982) in our Pop Shakespeare collection! 🖤 Mazursky updates the Bard in thi...www.instagram.com 1,252 likes, 17 comments - criterioncollection on July 11, 2024: "Evening viewing recommendation? On the Criterion Channel, watch Paul Mazursky's TEMPEST (1982) in our Pop Shakespeare collection! 🖤 Ma...
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Gregory Crosby @monostich.bsky.social · 6 days
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Paperback Paradise @paperbackparadise.bsky.social · 7 days
Book
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 7 days
@iammilliam.bsky.social I’m sure this is the last thing you feel like dealing with, but are you aware the Backlisted.fm About page is out of date? I’m guessing you’d be delighted to delete the Anita Brookner question. www.backlisted.fm/about
About — Backlistedwww.backlisted.fm
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 7 days
Backlisted listeners scouring the internet for a copy of Joan Barfoot’s Gaining Ground for under $40
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 8 days
Recently watched Northern Exposure and realized I completely forgot about their Twin Peaks parody. I don’t know what’s funnier - that they did this at all (it shows up very randomly in the episode) or that it’s now only available on YouTube in Hungarian with no subtitles. youtu.be/1C1AfNIjHio?...
Northern_Exposure_meets_Twin_Peaks (hungarian)youtu.be Hommage a Twin Peaks.„This is a very picturesque place, Holling.Make a lovely holiday card. "Greetings from the Netherworid."-I'm stymied, Joel. Normally thi...
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 9 days
I’m so tired.
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 9 days
The sixth house on my astrological chart
Avatar Rural Indexing Project @ruralindexing.bsky.social · 12 days
Supreme House of Cheese Toluca, IL
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 9 days
Güero, everyone's favorite torta shop, has a bird club! You read correctly. They have guided outings in the mornings AND evenings, complete with a binocular library to borrow from, and also have a fun and educational Substack to subscribe to. I haven't attended yet, but hope to! #Portland #pdx
Güero Bird Club Newsletter! July!guerobirdclub.substack.com superpotent uropygial preen serum for medium to plumulaceous feather types
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Gregory Crosby @monostich.bsky.social · 11 days
Sam Shepard.
Avatar Neglected Books @neglectedbooks.bsky.social · 11 days
If you could give any writer a volume in the Library of America, who would you choose?
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 12 days
Wishing a hearty congratulations to my British friends! I know the results aren’t perfect, but they never are. I hope you’re a harbinger of things to come for us a few months from now. 🇬🇧🥂
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 13 days
Hey #birds fans, have any of you dealt with trichomoniasis? This is my first year as a birder; a few days ago I saw a HUGE finch and took down my feeders & bath as a precaution. It breaks my heart to see them looking for them, though, esp water during a heat wave. Any advice?
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 13 days
Watched the astonishing 1964 film I Am Cuba tonight. It's sort of like Godard directs a German Expressionist film about the Cuban Revolution. Stunning cinematography and innovative film techniques, although the political plotline hits closer to home than I might like. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwEa...
I Am Cuba Trailer 4K Restoration!www.youtube.com Started only a week after the Cuban missile crisis and designed to be Cuba's answer to both Sergei Eisenstein's propaganda masterpiece, Potemkin and Jean-Luc...
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Colossal @thisiscolossal.com · 13 days
Artist Hitomi Terasawa drew a meticulous cross-sectioned rendering of Hong Kong's infamous Kowloon Walled City before it was razed in 1994. Now we have rare scans revealing the inner workings of the labyrinth-like metropolis. www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/07/kowl...
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Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · 13 days
Robert Lax
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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 14 days
Two shots from last week of the light and shadow at our favorite cabin, near Terrebonne, Oregon.
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 14 days
First day back at work after a ten-day vacation: solid 7
Avatar Gayle J. Greenlea @gjgreenlea.bsky.social · 1 yr
With thanks to Titania: Which medieval owl are you today? 🦉
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 15 days
Women’s March but against the Supreme Court
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 15 days
New-to-me Sam Shepard releases are rare, but I’m excited to get this copy of photos and stories from the documentary Shepard and Dark. The doc is tough at times, thanks to Shepard’s mercurial, flinty self, but every step closer to Sam feels like I’m closer to the truth of something.
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 15 days
My top ten books for the year so far, in order, starting with the electric Girl, Woman, Other as #1. (Why did I wait so long to read it?) Funny, but I’m reading much more slowly this year compared to last, but also truly loving far more books.
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 15 days
Using MOVIE as an acronym, recommend 5 films. My picks: M - The Missing Pieces (Lynch, for Twin Peaks diehards) O - Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone) V - Vertigo (Hitchcock) I - Infernal Affairs (Lau and Mak) E - Erie (Everson)
Avatar Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 16 days
M - Murder, My Sweet O - Old Boy V - The Virgin Suicides I - I Am Cuba E - The Emperor and the Assassin
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Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 16 days
“This is the water and this is the well. Drink full and descend.” - the Woodsman in Twin Peaks: The Return “The water is in the thirst. It is necessary to enter the well itself.” - Pablo d’Ors in Biography of Silence