My daughter just turned on How It’s Made, and it’s about making a fur coat.
This shit is disgusting. Food for sustenance is one thing; we have things that work better than fur now.
What a fucking disgrace.
Target: 1300 words
Written: 1505 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: Dead To The World, Charlaine Harris
Comics: Team Youngblood 7-8, Brigade v2 8, Bloodstrike 9
Music: Whiskey On A Sunday, Flogging MollyGood lord. Watching Reba’s new show and all I can think is (and I never watched her old show, but the bits I’ve seen seem about the same)…
How fucking stupid do they think people are?
And what happened to all the good writers out there? So many are supposedly struggling, where the fuck were they when this shit was made?
Good Christ, fuck.
Target: 1000 words
Written: 836 words, comic: Western Cradle #3
Read: Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
Comics: Preacher 34-36, Preacher: One Man's War 1
Music: NYPD Blue Soundtrack, Various (I mean, how the fuck did this happen? And why is everything awful today?)Why isn’t this a show on HBO yet?
Other than maybe Y: The Last Man, I’ve never read anything that doesn’t so perfectly beg to be made into something onscreen.
Of course, they fucked up Y: The Last Man apparently, because it was cancelled after one season, but hey, gender identity politics do kind of make that a tough sell in the current climate. Dichotomy was sort of the thing before; spectrum doesn’t really play to the story as well.
But still.
100 Bullets.
Are you fucking kidding me?
GET IT DONE.
Target: 900 words
Written: 983 words, novella: The Mungk
Read: The Hepatitis Bathtub And Other Stories, NOFX
Comics: 100 Bullets 97-100
Music: A New Kind Of Army, Anti-FlagI’m back to it – the non-Molly Parker, plus-Marta Kristen version, in which I don’t understand the infatuation with the latter.
I mean, she’s beautiful and all, but she’s window dressing most of the time in the show, like her mother. Nice to look at, but ultimately, boring.
In the Netflix version, Judy and Maureen were anything but (and I would be lying if I didn’t have an unnatural attraction to Molly Parker’s Maureen). Strong women are wonderful.
Flirty and light can be fun, but when the chips are down, I prefer a woman who engages, not one who demures.
Long term, superficial is unsustainable. But the depths of a strong woman?
They can feel so big, you get lost in them.
(In a good way, an endless exploration way, not a strong woman subsumes a weak man, though certainly, in any gender context, strong personalities do have a tendency to swallow the meeker, and that’s something to explore as well, but not in this particular instance. Men who wish their women are weaker are, well, sad and pathetic).
Anyway, so be it. I am married to a strong woman, of that there is no doubt. I’ll be the John to her Maureen any day.
Target: 900 words
Written: 992 words, novella: The Mungk
Read: The Wishsong Of Shannara, Terry Brooks
Comics: Once And Future 20-22, Die 20
Music: Nearly Lost You, Screaming Trees (Mark Lanegan, historically, so underrated)I mean that literally. It’s possible for someone to just die from lack of sleep, right?
Like, too many half-nights, no naps, no drowsing in the recliner while watching Frasier or the latest Yellowstone, right?
(By the way, how great is Kelly Reilly? Whatever one might think about her character’s behaviour, one must recognize what a terrific character it is, and what a great job she’s doing with it. The show can meander a little bit and doesn’t always seem to have an organic forward purpose, but capturing the endless anger of the tragically damaged, and how that can simultaneously mix with little bits of good, and absolutely vindictive evil, she does a great job.)
Anyway, dying from lack of sleep and heartburn. That’s me.
Over here.
Dying.
Target: 700 words
Written: 916 words, novella: The Mungk
Read: The Elfstones Of Shannara, Terry Brooks
Comics: Symmetry 7, Postal 15, Eden's Fall 2, Romulus 1
Music: Under Attack (B-Sides), Linkin ParkMy wife was a big fan of the original series; I was more of a Star Trek/Doctor Who guy growing up. My dad always looked down on Lost In Space. If we watched something from that era, it was Captain Kirk or Adam West.
That said, I adore the new one from Netflix and wish it went on much longer. Molly Parker and Parker Posey are two of my favourite actresses and they are terrific in this. I also have a visceral attraction to Molly Parker; I don’t know what it is, but man, she just does it for me.
Anyways, the point is that I recently started watching the original series, as a nod to my wife (sorry about the Molly Parker thing, honey), and I have to admit, I’m in. They do a good job of creating tension and doing that writerly thing of “keep them in danger”, even if it’s outlandish in the actual science part (as, admittedly, was Star Trek).
And Jonathan Harris, what can I say? Every time he shows up on screen, all I can think is “this motherfucker“, so I guess he’s doing what he’s supposed to do, in creating a perpetually evil villain. I suspect there’s a redemption arc for him, but I’m not that far into the series. Certainly, there was for Parker Posey’s Smith, who was also terrific, as she always is.
Anyway, out, bitches (and please picture that said in Parker Posey’s Dazed and Confused character), maybe followed by a stumbling “fuck all of you”, with some middle fingers and shit.
Target: 700 words
Written: 84 words, novella: The Mungk
Read: The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau
Comics: Saga 45-48
Music: Out Of Time, R.E.M. (Jesus, I forgot what an incredible album this was - one of the greatest all time. I used to play it on repeat when it first came out, back when I was first losing my religion, literally.)I love the absurd. More specifically, I love absurd that knows it’s absurd and leans into it. I don’t like weird for weird; people being weird but taking themselves seriously over it.
But absurd and knowing it? Not caring and laughing along? Leaning into it?
It’s why movies like Evil Dead 2 and Army Of Darkness were so brilliant. It’s why once Legends Of Tomorrow realized how ridiculous they were, the show got infinitely better, contributing one of the single best season finales I’ve seen on any show ever. Beebo, anyone?
It’s why Airplane, The Naked Gun and Major League were instant classics. It’s why Monty Python works. It’s the basis for Seinfeld and Community.
To embrace the absurd is to embrace ourselves, our foibles, our fuck-ups, our downright stupidity. It’s to understand the utter ridiculousness of the human mind and human condition and find a way to laugh along with it. Humanity is exposed by comedy; our self-importance is flayed by absurdity.
There is no one more at peace than the one who is not only perfectly comfortable being absurd, but perfectly aware of how absurd they are.
Target: 200 words
Written: 389 words, comic: Romance #1
Read: Get It Done When You're Depressed, Julie Fast
Comics: Mind The Gap 5-8
Music: Quadrophenia, Discs 1 and 2, The Who