Rob Sheridan

@rob-sheridan.com

57324 Followers 1010 Following

Creative Director. Artist. Writer. Dad. Glitch Pioneer. Meme Grandpa. Skeleton Influencer. Currently: Working on my first art book (preorder: http://kck.st/4nhjjmO ) Previously: Pearl Jam, NIN, Naughty Dog, Vertigo Comics, HTDA, Beats Music

There's been a question hanging over the amorphous blob of platforms, media formats, and personalities we now call "entertainment" since COVID. And it's question more average people are asking with more intensity than ever. And it's actually a fairly simple one: Why do things feel worse now? Why do good TV shows, good movies, good songs teel so rare? Why does everything feel so stale and so boring? And I think the lost millennial decade has a lot to do with it. Making art, making culture, has always involved some sort of dark deal with the infernal machinery of capital, but the rise of big tech and venture capital in the early 2010s changed the terms of the deal. Culture stopped being something the consumer paid for and cultural industries became kindling for digital furnaces that only wanted to monetize our data anyways. An entire generation of young creatives were paid to dump terabytes of posts and videos in a black hole, trying to entertain users long enough to be surveilled and train Al. And not only do they have nothing to show for it professionally, they have nothing to show for it creatively, as well. And so, ultimately, I think the answer to the question "why do things feel worse now?" is also quite simple: You always get what you pay for.
Jimothy /X-Files art on computer monitors in my office. From the wallpaper pack at https://www.patreon.com/robsheridan/posts/wallpaper-pack-164424597/
T-shirt: JIMOTHY in X-Files font with a grainy black-and-white "cryptic sighting" image of Jimothy the raccoon. Available at https://robsheridan.threadless.com/collections/memes
A t-shirt from my shop Glitch Goods that says "JIMOTHY" in X-Files font with a grainy black-and-white cryptic-sighting style image of Jimothy the raccoon. Available at https://robsheridan.threadless.com/collections/memes
Man wearing a shirt that says NAZI LIVES DONT MATTER
A burly man with a shaved head and a biker vest with various patches like FUCK TRUMP, FUCK MAGA, FUCK ICE, PROTECT TRANS KIDS, and baphomet
Jennifer Finch from my 2019 video for L7’s “Stadium West”
The Black Queen “Fever Daydream” 10th anniversary online-exclusive holographic sticker designed by Rob Sheridan.
Our son snuggling up with his Mama as she plays Assassin’s Creed and he cheerleads her stealth kills
Two skeletons having drinks on our patio bathed in orange from the orange wildfire skies in 2020
Screenshot of the "You Wouldn't Download..." section of my Glitch Goods apparel shop, highlighting some of my t-shirts themed around the "You Wouldn't Download" anti-piracy campaign of the early 2000s. https://robsheridan.threadless.com/collections/you-wouldnt-download
By this time, around 2011, What.CD had become the largest archive of music in human history. Taking the hard-earned lessons from their predecessor, the tracker had stayed under the radar of four-letter agencies. While operational security and potential legal action was always top of mind for staff, Brian says that during his tenure on the team, their largest perceived threat was a brief scare from the ).D. Salinger estate. On What.CD, one of their most popular functions was the request system, a member-led bounty economy driven by the incentive of gaining valuable upload ratio. If a user wanted something that wasn't already available on the website, they could create a "request" for it, offering a portion of their own upload credits to whoever was able to fulfill it. Typically, these requests could be filled by spending around $20 on Amazon or iTunes and uploading the files. For highly-sought after releases yet to hit shelves, other users chipped in on the bounty, creating a massive reward for whichever record store employee was willing to "borrow" a copy from the backroom before the release date, resulting in the website frequently becoming the originating source of album leaks online. The largest request on the website was for "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls, an unpublished short story by Salinger only known to exist in a locked room of the Princeton Library, where it was available by appointment to read under the strict supervision of staff. "It was basically like a long running joke that it would never get filled," Brian laughs. "And then somebody fucking did it." In November of 2013, a What.CD user tracked down one of the 25 copies of the manuscript allegedly printed in 1999 in order to fill the request. The unexpected leak made headlines around the world, and the torrent file was quickly pulled. "It was known that the Salinger estate was very legally motivated, very litigious. It would never be allowed to actually be on the website, so the hand was forced.
Screenshots from https://www.pigeonsandplanes.com/read/music-piracy-what-cd-oink-nine-inch-nails-streaming of Pigeons & Planes music magazine article: "The Lost Joy of Music Piracy. What.CD, Oink, and the banalities of streaming." With included photo of me in my office wearing my "HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC" t-shirt from glitchgoods.com
GAME PLAY COUNSELOR PROFILES Brian Anderson Became GPC: January, 1989 Hobbies: Drawing, Water Skiing. Playing Soccer, Listening to Van Halen, Tossin' Frisbees Best NES Accomplishment: I've Mastered over 250 games. Favorite NES Game: Castlevania III Kirk Starr Became GPC: October, 1989 Hobbies: Listening to Music, Water Skiing. Playing Guitar Best NES Accomplishment: Finished Mega, Man 2 with one man. Favorite NES Game: Mega Man 2 Lee Douglas Became GPC: October, 1989 Hobbies: Swimming, Playing Basketball and Video Games. Watching Classic Movies Best NES Accomplishment: Finished Legacy of the Wizard in 38 minutes with no codes. Favorite NES Game: Legacy of the Wizard Shaun Bloom Became GPC: July, 1989 Hobbies: Listening to Music, Playing Bass, Playing Video Games, Making Movies, Riding Bikes Best NES Accomplishment: Finished Zelda II: The Adventure of Link with one man. Favorite NES Game: Final Fantasy Powerline to the Pros 206-885-7529 We're always corning up with ways to help you play a winning game. Our "powerline" to the Nintendo game counselors is one of our best ideas yet. In fact, we have so many video game fans calling that we're putting more game experts on the team. So be patient while we gear up to take more calls and answer more of your questions than ever. Get tips from the pros by calling 206-885-7529 (that's 885-PLAY) Monday through Saturday: •7am to 11pm Eastern time •6am to 10pm Central time • 4am to 8pm Pacific time I's a powerful connection!
Facebook post by Mike Callahan: "When I worked at Sears in the early 90's, the people there built entire lives off those jobs. The guy running appliances had three kids, coached little league every weekend, and retired after 32 years with a pension. One of the women in customer service bought her first house working full-time there, and the older guy in hardware took the same vacation to the Ozarks every summer because he could actually afford to unplug for a week. The managers knew everybody by name, the Christmas bonuses actually meant something, and the store was packed every holiday season because business was booming. Nobody thought they were "stuck" working retail - it was honest work that paid enough to live with dignity. Somewhere along the way, corporations started making record profits while the people keeping the place running could barely afford rent. When exactly did a steady fuil-time job stop being enough to build a normal life?"
„pr Meet 'Project 2029' — and its war on the annoyance economy Remember Project 2025? Democrats are building their own governing blueprint, and one proposal takes aim at the "annoyance economy": robocalls, endless hold times, hidden fees and other everyday frustrations. Greg Rosalsky • July 07, 2026 06:30 AM EDT
Some people down the street from me having a big sidewalk fire pit fireworks party where they offered us Roman candles to shoot with them when we walked by, and then they all started shooting huge Roman candles into the sky on the street in our densely populated neighborhood as explosions ring out from all directions from other street fireworks around the area
It is our 12ft skeleton wearing a shiny American flag skirt. A big menacing garish plastic symbol of death felt appropriate for America’s 250th birthday.
It is our cat who sleep-splatted hard on a comforter in a way that makes his body shaped like a crescent moon.
Exterior of typical-looking office building with a sign on it that says “GOTH & COMPANY” in formal font. Pic snapped by my wife in Edmonton, Alberta
Screenshot of photos of Stephen Pollard, who is 61 years old and looks like the guy who everyone else at the office turns around and bails if they walk into the break room and he’s the only person in there (and he’s ALWAYS in there, for the entirety of lunch, very slowly eating his little tuna salad sandwich on white bread with the crusts cut off, the same one he has every day, that he brings in a little paper bag from home, and it makes the whole break room smell like cat food. And if you absolutely need to get something out of the fridge, if you can’t turn around and say “screw it i’ll do lunch out today,” then he will almost certainly trap you in some griping conversation, which he will instigate without awareness of or concern for every social cue you could possibly be projecting to indicate that you do not want to talk. He talks at you with hot cat food breath through the wet open-mouth mastication of his tuna sandwich, for if he were to wait until he finished his bite to begin speaking, you would already be gone, and he knows it. He does not begin with any greetings or pleasantries, and he does not care if you are someone he works with regularly or someone he has never even met; he just launches straight into some sort of uncomfortable complaint about a fellow co-worker that has done some minor thing that annoys him, or someone he perceives is getting away with some workplace violations; it’s almost always a woman. He is the type of man who is so disliked by his coworkers that after you finally escape his break room whinging, if you saw anyone else in the hall heading that way you would tell them, “be careful, I just got Stephened in there” and they would know exactly what you meant, thank you for the warning, and promptly reverse course.
Clips of Mario64 gameplay glitched into oblivion by yours truly.
It is me being a casual goth dad at the community pool wearing my SUMMER GOTH (Retro) t-shirt from glitchgoods.com
Footage of me in my studio using analog glitch hardware to create visual effects with tactile controllers. Text: Glitching Gunship x John Carpenter with analog buttons, knobs, joysticks, and CRT televisions.
A big old Cadillac parked outside the Reptile Show. Its license plate says “SNAKES” and it has a snake hood ornament and it has a snakeskin roof
It is me holding a big ol’ snake at the reptile show with my son
The post about shark potatoes is followed by a post from @kojamf.bsky.social of a shark potato (a cat floating in a pool wearing a shark life jacket)
Franklin Falls, WA, succumbing to glitch. Music: Boards of Canada, “Father and Son”
It is my kid on a tree swing blasting through a wall of cardboard bricks in our backyard. He said “Wow Dad you build great towers for someone who is supposed to be working!” 🙄
The incident, which took place on a call open to thousands of employees, reflects growing frustration inside the company's Applied Al team, which was formed in March to support the work of Al researchers at Meta Superintelligence Labs. Three current employees tell WIRED there is widespread dissatisfaction with how Meta assembled the unit of about 6,500 engineers and product managers and the drudgework they allege they have been assigned to improve Al models. Each spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. "It's literally the gulag" one of the employees claims. "You have zero purpose in life all of a sudden, you barely interact with anyone, you just have these tasks every week." Another employee describes some of the tasks-generating puzzles to test how reliably Al models from Meta and other companies can solve them—as easy compared to the software development work they had been doing previously. But the new projects feel menial and "almost all" employees seem unhappy, they say. "Most people find the work soul-crushing" the third employee says. Meta declined to comment for this story.
It is my SUMMER GOTH t-shirt, which features a skull wearing sunglasses that is staring at the sun smiling gleefully as it melts. Available on t-shirts, tanks, and more in a variety of styles - and even colors other than black, for the posers! - at https://robsheridan.threadless.com
The Black Queen performing at AM/FM in Dallas, 6 June 2026, with lightning overhead. Stage visuals by Rob Sheridan
Our large son, who just turned four, holding an adult bowling ball, preparing to throw it violently onto the lane and then watch it slowly roll down and maybe knock over one pin, but still declare himself the winner because all the Dads are calling him hulk now
It's the screw worm from the quoted skeet but with a lil top hat and a monocle to match his dapper mustache. He's got class, he's got style, he's truly a new screw worm for a new world. "That's MISTER New World Screw Worm to you, sir!"
Still from A Perfect Circle “Starless” video. Shapes of human forms distorted by analog glitch effects, by Rob Sheridan. “Starless” official visualizer: https://youtu.be/0is_VwWU3EE?si=GivmgAVYnXXnQgTH Edited by Rizz Analog glitch VFX by Rob Sheridan Additional content by Justin Mohlman
iPod screen with albums by the artist “Mix CD,” a series of unlabeled rips of CD-R mixtapes
Nine Inch Nails “The Hand That Feeds” music video, 2005, directed by me, playing on my iPod Video from 2005. The screen is glitched from age, which feels appropriate.
It is my old iPod video, on my lap in an airplane, with an Airfly Bluetooth audio attachment. The iPod screen has a charming scar of a line across it, burned in from years of use.
Rob Sheridan Productions newsletter header
The Black Queen live in Cleveland May 29 2026, with my stage visuals behind them. Photo by Ryan Brewer via https://lightroom.adobe.com/shares/26eb8730ff594a4296ca0c82181012e1
Abstract visual resembling a liquid spine. Made with ferrofluid and light (no CGI). Music: The Black Queen - "Taman Shud."
It is my 10th anniversary poster for The Black Queen’s “Fever Daydream,” hanging in my print room above a box containing the other 99 copies. I am taking these to Dallas tomorrow to get them signed by the whole band and myself.
Big chunky buttons on a vintage General Electric stovetop
THE BLACK QUEEN . FEVER DAYDREAM 10TH ANNIVERSARY 2016 - 2026 . Poster by Rob Sheridan . The Black Queen logo in front of an eye. The album track listing and credits at the bottom.
Artist proof print of my poster for The Black Queen Fever Day Dream 10th Anniversary 2026 tour, signed by me.
It is my four year old son watching the 1990s Nickelodeon TV show “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” which we suggested after he watched all three seasons of the 1980s Cryptkeeper cartoon several times over. My man loves kids horror TV from 30-40 years ago.
Blank Cassette Mixtape t-shirt by Rob Sheridan. Tapes with blank labels you can write on with a Sharpie. Available at https://robsheridan.threadless.com/designs/blank-cassette-mixtape-write-your-own/mens/t-shirt/regular
A case of audio cassettes, presumably one person’s collection, with artists such as Pink Floyd, Pantera, Beck, Bruce Springsteen, Jane’s Addiction, Bob Marley, The Doors, Jeff Beck, Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Primus, Rush, Black Sabbath, Meat Loaf, The Offspring, and of course, The Beavis & Butt-head Experience.
Rob Sheridan Productions newsletter header
What hands fashioned The Skull of Doom? Does it bring death?
A lil bird skeleton
It is our son, now four years old somehow, wearing his GRAVE DIGGER t-shirt, dutifully cutting a plastic scalpel into the gelatin-like orange transparent goo flesh of a plastic model snake skeleton
It is a selfie of me doing some Very Serious Brooding in my cyber cave of neon skeletons. I am wearing a black t-shirt that says "CASUAL GOTH"
Our dog Momo placing his paw on my wife Steph’s pregnant belly, May 2022.
Text from my wife Steph: “FYI I dont know if he told you this is one of the monsters in his head so we're doing great” with a photo of a drawing by our almost-4 year old, portraying a tall figure with a small head and maybe lots of eyes. Definitely something that stands at the foot of your bed in the middle of the night, its red eyes burrowing into your soul.
It is my wife Steph and me standing on stage immediately following Pearl Jam's final show in Pittsburgh, 18 May 2025.
It is our cat Jean-Luc making it known that he would like to come inside by death-staring through the frosted glass door, creating an ominous shape like a horror movie about a vampire cat
It is our son dancing in the cinema at a screening of SCHOOL OF ROCK