Michael Leviton

I’m a writer, musician, and photographer in NY ————- I wrote the memoir TO BE HONEST and created the storytelling series THE TELL

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

I wrote a memoir about my family’s tragic love affair with honesty called TO BE HONEST. It’s out now from @ABRAMSbooks Here’s the book trailer by Lee Peterkin with music by me!

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

@kiradavis @katyabram I'm not empathizing or sympathizing with them...I hate this behavior. But the face value just feels false to me, like a cover story. He hopes to appear that he thinks he's the main character because he feels like a silent character in the background.

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

@kiradavis @katyabram I think some people feel ignored and like the sense of importance they get from being listened to or accommodated. As kids, they only felt noticed if they made annoying noise or got in the way. It's why they stand in the middle of the subway stairwell or buy loud car alarms.

[Rory McCarthy @roryisconfused]

Beach Boys falls into that category of songs you try to learn on guitar early on, thinking it’ll be straightforward 3 chord stuff, only to find that it’s operating out on some other compositional plane. How did he make these movements into seamless pop music?

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

@rosemarieho_ AI simulates human writing perfectly in one regard: because AI doesn't mean anything it's writing or care about its subjects, AI criticism is indistinguishable from human criticism, a genre largely defined by how little the writer cares or means what they say

[feral @ncrmalpeople]

supriya ganesh photographed by michael leviton

[feral @ncrmalpeople]

she is just soooooooooooo beautiful

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

I love when an article is behind a paywall because it gives me a reason to rethink my decision to read something stupid.

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

And worse, the fake laughs tricked them into laughing! I was horrified. Over the years, I got used to it and forgot my horror. When this kid brought it up, I remembered, told him what my Dad had said. He didn't care, was just excited to be old enough to watch laughing shows.

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

A 7-year-old ukulele student asked me if I watched "laughing shows." I asked if he meant comedies. He insisted, "the shows grownups watch where everyone is always laughing." It took me a while but I figured out he meant shows with laugh tracks.

[Jenn Jordan (she/her) @jennlynnjordan]

My niece Phoebe (2.5) has been talking about a “mermaid store” for weeks, to everyone’s befuddlement. Finally last week she points and yells in the car, “MERMAID STORE, MERMAID STORE”!!”

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

Dad told me people weren't as sure it was funny without others laughing. Even worse, the laugh tracks were often fake. I lost it. "Everybody knows if they think something's funny because they can't stop from laughing!" They shouldn't need a laugh track to know when to laugh!

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

What does it mean if you feel sorry for 99.99999% of the population?

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

Discomfort food

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

Even if you fake your own death, that only gets you a vision of how everyone would react if you died now. I need to see the reaction after the whole thing!

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

The thing that bothers me most about death is that we don't get to watch our own funerals. The way everybody reacts to one's death is one of the great legacies of one's life and we don't get to witness it!

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

I like people getting in touch with how they want to be treated. If that thought process is disconnected from your own values about how you're going to treat others, it's just weird. They're in such a state of self-protection that they don't really believe other people exist.

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

When I hear someone announce that they'll no longer tolerate mistreatment from others, I can sense they will still tolerate their own mistreatment of others. And when they encounter someone who won't tolerate being mistreated by them, they will react only with rage and contempt.

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

It reminds me of how often people who talk about having good boundaries really only mean they expect their own boundaries to be respected. They will consider others' boundaries to be unreasonable and will immediately cross them as a matter of policy.

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

What joker named the highest level of romance "serious?" Am I the only one who associates that word with illness? When someone asks about a dating situation, "Is it serious?" my brain has the impulse to say "Yes, very serious. Maybe even terminal." Any other examples of this?

[Michael Leviton @Michael_Leviton]

Sometimes idioms involve word choices that feel like they must intentionally ironic. Who wanted the positive dating phrase "settle down" to include both "settling" and "down" as if to define the whole idea as lowering expectations, taking a step down, giving up what you want?