about

a small blog & newsletter for stories, poetry, and cultural commentary.

despite the name, there might be some photos too.

what

why are we stuck writing essays on an app for photos. why is my search for art and novelty mediated by some nerds in palo alto who only want me to click on their ads.

they say: post enough, and you'll achieve reach! they cry out, we're pulling some levers so friends will see your fucking posts at last!

still we boringly flatten our language, sharp edges trimmed for the temperamental algorithm. we build castles of creative work on platforms of sand — subscribe to my lubshack! — platforms that will be gone in a few years, once the venture funding dries up.

my ai therapist says change is inevitable; whether i like it or not, new revolutions in technology are coming our way, and in due time, enough new york times writers will cream their pants over it to make it a thing that eventually comes up in real life human conversation, when you're just trying to have a nice meal or something.

so what are you to do?

start a blog, i guess.

...

so i'm using write.as, an app i made, to publish this. it is my warm personality inserted into cold, unfeeling code forming a writing tool that tries to get out of your way so that you'll write more and share it with the world.

and since it's me making it, there's none of that tracking shit, and unlike slubstack, i have a button to block nazis that i employ liberally.

try it out if you wanna — unlike my parents' support for my unconventional lifestyle, it's free.

if you like emails, you can enter your address here to get posts in your inbox. you can even reply to them if you like, and we can chat over email.

you can even subscribe via subslack, if you're into that kinda thing. add this site to your reader by copying and pasting in this rss feed url: https://not.photos/feed/ — see these instructions for more.

thanks for stopping by

- matt