The Devil is a Part-Timer!
Episodes are on Netflix, but you can find them in the usual free places online. They're only 20 minutes long, so unless you're binge-watching it doesn't take a lot out of your day to enjoy one or two.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
The Lord of the Fries
I just discovered this delightfully fun anime where Satan, who turns out to be not such a bad guy (except that he's totally hell-bent on conquering the world), gets stuck on Earth, has to trade his demonic castle for a one-bedroom apartment, and has to work part-time at a fast-food joint to survive. Oh, and he's being pursued by his nemesis...who also has to take a minimum wage job to make ends meet.
Episodes are on Netflix, but you can find them in the usual free places online. They're only 20 minutes long, so unless you're binge-watching it doesn't take a lot out of your day to enjoy one or two.
Episodes are on Netflix, but you can find them in the usual free places online. They're only 20 minutes long, so unless you're binge-watching it doesn't take a lot out of your day to enjoy one or two.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Support for Margot Wallström
You're a foreign minister for a progressive country and you stand up for women's rights, pointing out the complete hypocrisy of dealing with Saudi Arabia. Will your government support you? How about weapons exporters, a major contributor to your country's economy?
Money vs. Conscience. Which do you think wins?
Money vs. Conscience. Which do you think wins?
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Stories You Should Read - A Partridge in a Pear Tree
A Partridge in a Pear Tree by Rachel Rodman
This is horror in its truest sense--not some gore soaked slasher story or pseudo-psychotic self-referential dream-scape.
No, this is the baby at the moment she falls over the railing.
It's the kind of story that you read and you see it unfolding on the page and you know it's all going tragically wrong and you simply can't stop because it's such a beautifully composed piece of literature that simply watching the mechanism working flawlessly from end to end is worth the pain of watching it self destruct as you keep devouring word after word. This is the kind of story that you realize is only one step to the left from where you are right now, far enough away that you can wave it off as pure fiction but close enough that a single "what if" means it's real. It's the kind of story that keeps you up at night, not because of the monster in the closet or under the bed, but because of the monster inside you.
This is horror in its truest sense--not some gore soaked slasher story or pseudo-psychotic self-referential dream-scape.
No, this is the baby at the moment she falls over the railing.
It's the kind of story that you read and you see it unfolding on the page and you know it's all going tragically wrong and you simply can't stop because it's such a beautifully composed piece of literature that simply watching the mechanism working flawlessly from end to end is worth the pain of watching it self destruct as you keep devouring word after word. This is the kind of story that you realize is only one step to the left from where you are right now, far enough away that you can wave it off as pure fiction but close enough that a single "what if" means it's real. It's the kind of story that keeps you up at night, not because of the monster in the closet or under the bed, but because of the monster inside you.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Senorita Kitty's
Hey. You want to go to Senorita Kitty's Mexican Tea Room "Home of the Enchi-la-di-da"?
Shut up. Why do you do that?
What's wrong with Senorita Kitty's Mexican Tea Room "Home of the Enchi-la-di-da"?
Nothing. You don't have to say the whole thing all the time.
What whole thing all the time?
ANY whole thing. You can just say the first part. Just say Senorita Kitty's.
But their sign says Senorita Kitty's Mexican Tea Room "Home of the Enchi-la-di-da".
You can leave off most of that. It's not like anyone's going to get confused.
But someone might want the Enchi-la-di-da.
So.
He might go to Senorita Kitty's Mexican Tea Room "Home of the Earl Grey Taco".
What?
Senorita Kitty's Mexican Tea Room "Home of the Earl Grey Taco" is not the home of the Enchi-la-di-da.
There's only one Senorita Kitty's in town. There's got to be only one Senorita Kitty's in the whole world...in the entire universe. And, you know what, it is the home...the only home...of the Enchi-la-di-da, and the Earl Grey taco, AND the cucumber finger chalupa, and EVEN the poblano scone-dita with Devonshire clotted cream cheese.
Why are you angry?
Shut. Up.
Do you want to go there?
Yeah. Let's go.
Shut up. Why do you do that?
What's wrong with Senorita Kitty's Mexican Tea Room "Home of the Enchi-la-di-da"?
Nothing. You don't have to say the whole thing all the time.
What whole thing all the time?
ANY whole thing. You can just say the first part. Just say Senorita Kitty's.
But their sign says Senorita Kitty's Mexican Tea Room "Home of the Enchi-la-di-da".
You can leave off most of that. It's not like anyone's going to get confused.
But someone might want the Enchi-la-di-da.
So.
He might go to Senorita Kitty's Mexican Tea Room "Home of the Earl Grey Taco".
What?
Senorita Kitty's Mexican Tea Room "Home of the Earl Grey Taco" is not the home of the Enchi-la-di-da.
There's only one Senorita Kitty's in town. There's got to be only one Senorita Kitty's in the whole world...in the entire universe. And, you know what, it is the home...the only home...of the Enchi-la-di-da, and the Earl Grey taco, AND the cucumber finger chalupa, and EVEN the poblano scone-dita with Devonshire clotted cream cheese.
Why are you angry?
Shut. Up.
Do you want to go there?
Yeah. Let's go.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Randomly Generated Surrealism
~Sein und Werden~
Summer 2014 issue
This issue's theme revolved around an Internet oracle called the random surrealism generator. Contributors could write anything they wanted, as long as the title came from this source.
Go ahead, click the link. Reload the page a few times. Let it sink in a moment.
You get it, right? Unusually long, nonsensical phrases, at times opaque, at times unintentionally hilarious. Seriously, what would you create if it had to be titled, "Is it true that you can play scrabble against fluff-covered black puddings? Surely it's a recipe for disaster, or at least farce.
What actually developed is a sublime collection of eerie and evocative material.
Certainly, all the stories, poetry and artwork in the Summer 2014 issue dive headfirst into the surreal, but the collection encompasses disparate genres from humor to horror, and each of the authors took the challenge seriously despite the absurd source of inspiration.
Imagine working with the title "DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT EMPTY!" Russ Bickerstaff drew this lot and in return delved into a world turned inside out by inquisitive toddlers, where everything is somewhere else, but the important question is, why do you avoid being a child? Rachel Rodman was saddled with the ominous phrase, "ATTENTION TAPEWORMS! You are pigs. Nothing but statuesque pigs. You think you're Tibetan, but you're not." I shudder to think what would have come from my brain if I fed it that title, but Rodman delivered a concept of the cyclical of life and death mutated by the alchemical power of spoken word, and also made me identify with tapeworms (as characters, of course). Michael Prihoda deftly donned the black mascara when he penned "I want to apply Goth make-up to your fax machine until it's frigid," a moody poem that (emotively) returned me straight to a telemarketing job I took under duress in the 90s.
The artwork includes crafty interpretations of the surrealism generator's wisdom such as, "Is that a tarpon outside your window or are you a Venusian," Rick Hutchinson's delightful portrait or a doubly masked alien (and the titular tarpon), and Alan M. Clark's irridescent "Don't manhadle me! Not with that rhythmical Sony walkman! Use the violent web!" which is full of textures reminiscent of wings and abalone shells.
After reading this, you must think Summer 2014 has got to be the most madcap issue of Sein und Werden ever, but it's far from zany. It's as if the contributors took all the crazy they found in the titles and bent it to their will, creating work that is simultaneously cohesive and uncanny and eloquent and well worth the read.
Summer 2014 issue
This issue's theme revolved around an Internet oracle called the random surrealism generator. Contributors could write anything they wanted, as long as the title came from this source.
Go ahead, click the link. Reload the page a few times. Let it sink in a moment.
You get it, right? Unusually long, nonsensical phrases, at times opaque, at times unintentionally hilarious. Seriously, what would you create if it had to be titled, "Is it true that you can play scrabble against fluff-covered black puddings? Surely it's a recipe for disaster, or at least farce.
What actually developed is a sublime collection of eerie and evocative material.
Certainly, all the stories, poetry and artwork in the Summer 2014 issue dive headfirst into the surreal, but the collection encompasses disparate genres from humor to horror, and each of the authors took the challenge seriously despite the absurd source of inspiration.
Imagine working with the title "DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT EMPTY!" Russ Bickerstaff drew this lot and in return delved into a world turned inside out by inquisitive toddlers, where everything is somewhere else, but the important question is, why do you avoid being a child? Rachel Rodman was saddled with the ominous phrase, "ATTENTION TAPEWORMS! You are pigs. Nothing but statuesque pigs. You think you're Tibetan, but you're not." I shudder to think what would have come from my brain if I fed it that title, but Rodman delivered a concept of the cyclical of life and death mutated by the alchemical power of spoken word, and also made me identify with tapeworms (as characters, of course). Michael Prihoda deftly donned the black mascara when he penned "I want to apply Goth make-up to your fax machine until it's frigid," a moody poem that (emotively) returned me straight to a telemarketing job I took under duress in the 90s.
The artwork includes crafty interpretations of the surrealism generator's wisdom such as, "Is that a tarpon outside your window or are you a Venusian," Rick Hutchinson's delightful portrait or a doubly masked alien (and the titular tarpon), and Alan M. Clark's irridescent "Don't manhadle me! Not with that rhythmical Sony walkman! Use the violent web!" which is full of textures reminiscent of wings and abalone shells.
After reading this, you must think Summer 2014 has got to be the most madcap issue of Sein und Werden ever, but it's far from zany. It's as if the contributors took all the crazy they found in the titles and bent it to their will, creating work that is simultaneously cohesive and uncanny and eloquent and well worth the read.
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