acid dreams: animated hallucinations on film and in cartoons 04.05.13

It was an episode of The Simpsons where Homer trips on a “Guatemalan pepper” that made me want to gather cartoon depictions of drug hallucinations. Of course that clip – like many – is unavailable online (outside a bad 15 second fragment). Still, animation seemed to me the perfect medium to conjure the phantasmagoric, wonky [...]

ebay-etsy: collecting the pics 03.17.13

I’ve spent hours upon hours looking at shit on Ebay and Etsy, and have collected various photographs from different auctions/sellers that I found appealing mostly for their unintentional awkwardness – some of which I find  aesthetically pleasing, others humorously abject. Anyway, here’s a sampling of that (ongoing) collection, enjoy!

words for 12.12.12 12.12.12

So here are some words I’ve collected that intrigue me largely for their instant visual and aural pleasure (as well as their usage/definitions). Call them high-caliber. Or as Janet Frame put it in Living in Maniototo (1979): “A word, which is exciting to look at and say and which doesn’t slop its meaning over the [...]

krampus: santa’s evil helper 12.09.12

Meet Krampus, the Anti-Santa.  Last year I got a little obsessed with this sinister Alpine folk hero (or is that villain, depends on your perspective, I suppose!) known for stealing, beating, and otherwise visiting hell upon bad little children in pre-Christian days. This pagan demon, whose name derives from the Old German word for claws, would tear [...]

fashion matters: anna piaggi, rei kawakubo, and my fantasy wish list for the fall 08.27.12

Thinking about Piaggi’s famous mix of high and low — ie. couture meets Canal Street in a penchant for vibrant colors and clashing patterns — I am reminded of my favorite Jean Genet quote from The Thief’s Journal (1949): “To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance.

in honor of black history month, i give you petey greene 02.21.11

In honor of Black History Month, I give you Ralph Waldo “Petey” Greene, Jr. Ultimate rabble-rouser and raconteur, tellin’ it like it is (the rare homophobic comment excluded, obviously). I’ve yet to see Don Cheadle’s portrayal of Greene in Talk to Me (2007), but plan to, even if I’m likely to feel like Under Cover Black Man, who [...]

great books never finished: david wallace-wells; barry schwabsky; david shapiro; jim lewis; luc sante; susan orlean; dale peck 01.05.11

“The era in which one person could ably cover the canon in one lifetime died with John Stuart Mill, I think…” – David Wallace-Wells, Editor, The Paris Review

our favorite broads: the original list from the bathroom wall 01.05.11

Open publication – Free publishing

fluorescent lighting: evil by design? 12.31.10

Well, at long last I put my fluorescent lighting theory to test, and alas, turns out it was not invented as a form of state control. Which doesn’t mean its not used for such. Still, the history of florescent lighting is quite innocuous, dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. For clarity’s sake, a fluorescent light [...]

a dying breed…..snake charmers in the 21st century 08.15.10

A BAD SNAKE CHARMER ALWAYS BLAMES HIS SNAKE. — Metropc commercial