The fall of Brushed Metal, first presaged last autumn, enters a grittier, more desperate phase.
All posts by Dan
Queen of Wands
A little while back, Chris noted his discovery of the excellent Questionable Content, one of my long-time favorites, on his LiveJournal. This led to a discussion of webcomics in general, and Chris wound up pointing me at Queen of Wands, of which I was sadly unaware. It’s a solid story, well-told, and if it occasionally threatens to stray into soap-opera territory, it displays flashes of outright genius often enough that I find myself not minding too much.
I have two all-time favorites. The first takes an idle thought I periodically have during allergy season — “Plant sperm! We’re being inundated in plant sperm!” — and runs with it. The second introduces a variation on a song from The Lion King that you’ll be hard-pressed to get out of your head for the rest of the day.
Klingon Personal Ads
You know, there was a time when I’d have considered these ridiculously over the top.
Like the man said, “There was a time, but it’s long gone. “
Charlie Stross dares call it conspiracy
Charlie Stross makes a compelling case that “liberal” and “conservative” as we have come to know them are temporary aberrations, distortions in the fabric of history caused by the mass of the Cold War. Now that it’s over, he argues, things are in some ways returning to their old conformation — or maybe it’s all a vast conspiracy.
Overheard at Lunch
“Emotionally speaking, I’m feeling a bit like a Superfund site.”
“Yeah, well, our job is to get the ‘d’ out of there.”
Fun With Uncle Kridley
I had lunch with Dirk, which was fun as always, today at Maria Elena’s. (Toward the end, it was not merely fun, but exciting, as something went seriously wrong with the electrical lines in the area, causing a series of loud explosions, at least one downed cable, and a pervasive reek of ozone and burnt insulation. Good times, good times.)
Dirk also felt obliged to point out that the stories on Anacrusis are not merely extremely short, but exactly one hundred and one words long, no more and no less. I hadn’t realized that they obeyed such a strict form; the knowledge only inspires additional respect for the author.
Anacrusis
Dirk sent me a link to Anacrusis, a collection of short, short fiction, a while back, and I had the Devil’s own time finding it again. To ensure that that doesn’t happen a second time, I’m saving it here for future reference. “Bridget” is still my favorite for the nonce, but I’ve a lot of catching-up to do.
Pope Palpatine I
“Mommy, the Vicar of Christ on Earth is scaring the shit out of me.”
The Corner
“It’s a nice place to visit…” Or something.
It is claimed that this is an actual unretouched photograph.
How To Eat Sushi
This fabulously weird tutorial video is so understatedly done that you could be forgiven for thinking it’s serious — right up until the point where it starts talking about protected species, anyway.