Hi Caitlin, I'm Bob Pohl. The person who wrote the Literary Notes column and curated the weekly poetry page in the Buffalo News for nearly 38 years. Just wanted to tell you, as a boomer (lol!) and someone writing a "deaccelerationist poetics" (poetics in the Aristotelian sense), that this newsletter is my favorite and most useful Substack I subscribe to each week.
That said, have you read this NYT piece by Allie Rowbottom that was published this week? I don't know Allie Rowbottom personally, but she is a friend of a friend, and one of the most prominent literary "It" girls on the Brooklyn/Dime Square scene these days. Here's the link:
Hi Bob, small world! I actually subscribed to your newsletter just a couple weeks ago. I'm really interested in getting more involved in the Buffalo literary community -- maybe I'll email you directly about that. Anyway, thanks very much for the kind words.
And no, I've not read this yet -- immediately intrigued by the byline note "She created an A.I. girlfriend for this article." Will add to the reading list now ... thanks for flagging!!
I love(d) this newsletter - the Facebook party albums? What a throwback! I was definitely the girl with the digital camera who took all of the pictures, haha. As for the postscripts, the piece on deciphering the ancient scrolls of Pompeii was AWESOME!
"I am at an age and a point in my life where Facebook serves exactly one use: the acquisition of affordable second-hand home goods" this line spoke to me!
Wow, I’d almost forgotten about the party album. Thanks for dusting off that corner of the memory palace.
While facebook party albums were a novel means of distribution for those images, the tradition of drunken photos of friends doing nothing in particular stretches back to pre-internet days. But those pre-digital photos had to be developed on film, which had limiting factors of cost -- in addition to the limitations of audience because no one cared about the pics who wasn’t there, pre-FB.
The other special thing about the facebook party album was not just the means to share, but the intersection with advancements in digital photography that removed the economic limitations of photo development (after the cost of the digital camera itself). It was really the first moments where digital images were good quality and becoming more affordable, esp with improvements in iphone camera, etc. The quality of cell phone cameras pre-‘08 was pretty awful, so the documentation wasn’t appealing until digital cameras removed some obstacles.
Those are great points, and I think drive home what a brief PRECIOUS moment in time this was. I really associate the FB party album with that little gasp between when digital cameras got good ... and when iPhone cameras superseded them.
What a trip this was! Does an anyone still take candid snaps anymore? Or candid video, I guess? What I’ve loved about looking back at these old photos is how uncurated/unedited they all are. Though I guess this is how we learned to curate. Anyway, great newsletter!
I had lunch with my 21-year-old cousin just a couple hours after sending this, and he told me he and his friends do take candid party photos, but mostly on a Polaroid. One of their friends curates the best ones on a (literal, physical) wall. I love that. More private, less exclusionary? ... but same impulse.
Hi Caitlin, I'm Bob Pohl. The person who wrote the Literary Notes column and curated the weekly poetry page in the Buffalo News for nearly 38 years. Just wanted to tell you, as a boomer (lol!) and someone writing a "deaccelerationist poetics" (poetics in the Aristotelian sense), that this newsletter is my favorite and most useful Substack I subscribe to each week.
That said, have you read this NYT piece by Allie Rowbottom that was published this week? I don't know Allie Rowbottom personally, but she is a friend of a friend, and one of the most prominent literary "It" girls on the Brooklyn/Dime Square scene these days. Here's the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/style/technology-love-technosexuals.html
Hi Bob, small world! I actually subscribed to your newsletter just a couple weeks ago. I'm really interested in getting more involved in the Buffalo literary community -- maybe I'll email you directly about that. Anyway, thanks very much for the kind words.
And no, I've not read this yet -- immediately intrigued by the byline note "She created an A.I. girlfriend for this article." Will add to the reading list now ... thanks for flagging!!
I love(d) this newsletter - the Facebook party albums? What a throwback! I was definitely the girl with the digital camera who took all of the pictures, haha. As for the postscripts, the piece on deciphering the ancient scrolls of Pompeii was AWESOME!
Thank you!! I loved the Pompeii thing too -- one of those articles you find yourself compulsively telling other people about later.
"I am at an age and a point in my life where Facebook serves exactly one use: the acquisition of affordable second-hand home goods" this line spoke to me!
Wow, I’d almost forgotten about the party album. Thanks for dusting off that corner of the memory palace.
While facebook party albums were a novel means of distribution for those images, the tradition of drunken photos of friends doing nothing in particular stretches back to pre-internet days. But those pre-digital photos had to be developed on film, which had limiting factors of cost -- in addition to the limitations of audience because no one cared about the pics who wasn’t there, pre-FB.
The other special thing about the facebook party album was not just the means to share, but the intersection with advancements in digital photography that removed the economic limitations of photo development (after the cost of the digital camera itself). It was really the first moments where digital images were good quality and becoming more affordable, esp with improvements in iphone camera, etc. The quality of cell phone cameras pre-‘08 was pretty awful, so the documentation wasn’t appealing until digital cameras removed some obstacles.
Those are great points, and I think drive home what a brief PRECIOUS moment in time this was. I really associate the FB party album with that little gasp between when digital cameras got good ... and when iPhone cameras superseded them.
Pour one out for all those tiny-ended USB cables, and the brief era of plugging cameras into computers, lol
What a trip this was! Does an anyone still take candid snaps anymore? Or candid video, I guess? What I’ve loved about looking back at these old photos is how uncurated/unedited they all are. Though I guess this is how we learned to curate. Anyway, great newsletter!
I had lunch with my 21-year-old cousin just a couple hours after sending this, and he told me he and his friends do take candid party photos, but mostly on a Polaroid. One of their friends curates the best ones on a (literal, physical) wall. I love that. More private, less exclusionary? ... but same impulse.
Oh that’s amazing! And Polaroids no less. Hope for humanity after all!