Hope the holiday break was as reinvigorating for everyone else as it was for us. My computer took a shit and I had to get it fixed, hence the crickets and tumbleweeds over in this little corner of the internet for the past week or so. It was nice to step away for a bit, but I did get the feeling like the world was jogging away from me while I sat in a lawn chair and sipped hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps. Time to get off my ass! Time to get off your ass! Time to catch up with the world! Time to jog up to it and goose it as you run by it, then run backwards to face it and give it the two-fingers-to-the-eyes-I’m-watching-you move and then turn on the afterburners!

So what happened while we were away?

Someone came up with the best idea I’ve seen in a long time: Oprah, Read This [via]

Some people unleashed a final avalanche of year end lists and this guy made the definitive one. [via]

Some stuff got expensive.

Some big guns came to the aid of a Chinese writer.

Or wait, was this the definitive year-end list?

What else…um, some asshole set himself on fire on a plane, that blue cat alien movie made a shit-ton more money, and Rush Limbaugh didn’t die.

Some randomness from my week without cyber drugs:

Oh hey, Lexy. Who are you gchatting with?

Oh hey, Steve. Why’d you just close that gchat window?

Walking home from the store we found a park. I said it would be a perfect place to throw a ball or a ‘bee around. Magically, these were on the bench, waiting for us.

I lit off fireworks and danced on New Years Eve.

I drank but did not get drunk. While the ladies were inside dancing, the men leaned against a strangers car and talked about relationships. The first New Years where I felt old. I did not feel good or bad about being old. Just okay with it.

We bought fish. Not for keeping…

But for releasing.

To start the year off with some good karma.

In hindsight I realize this could potentially be environmentally irresponsible, releasing a goldfish into an ecosystem that isn’t used to it. I imagine I’d have a tsunami of bad karma coming my way if I destroyed an entire habitat.

Shit. Need to think these things through more.

Oh well. Here’s to hoping they don’t tip the balance too much.

Check out the hyper-natural work of environmental artist Jenny Kendler if you want to get in touch with your inner animal.

I made a new friend. Her name is Gianelle Gelpi. She arts here. I wanted an excuse to post the above image because I think it is amazing. Click the link and check her out. And don’t be scared to check out her side project Furry Fangs:

Wow!

Tent and chairs: check.

Keg of decent domestic beer: check.

Shadow puppets: check.

Magician: check.

All right, now we’re ready to have a party!

I’m usually too busy running around picking up cigarette butts and worrying about whether or not everyone is having a good time to take decent pics at these events that I throw so this won’t be the most comprehensive look at the Issue Five release party, but I’ll do my best.

Travis Winkler, mentalist/magician, kind of blew everyone away with his feats of psychic ability.

And I did a video reading and Polly helped me with the shadow puppet show. See? I told you this wasn’t that comprehensive.

“Hey, you guys are cute with your little puppets and all but we came here to do two things: Keg stands and kick ass…”

“…and it looks like we’re almost done with the keg stands.”

I can neither confirm nor deny that this is a picture of the esteemed editor of this magazine doing a keg stand.

Nick silently tolerated this childishness.

What would you call this? Reverse keg stand? Human stand?

I don’t know about yall but I had a blast. Thanks to everyone for coming out and making this the best release party we’ve ever had!

Hey! So we’re doing a new Twitter contest wherein we are giving away five free copies of Issue Five. How do you win? Well…

1) Go to the twitterspehere and follow us.

2) Throw up a tweet with an #Annalemma hashmark.

3) Kick your feet up and wait for your free copy to show up in the mail.

If you already have your copy and feel the need to possess another then you are more than welcome to enter. Is the uncertainty of winning killing you? You could just buy it now!

This contest ends 9/12/09.

Okay, so it’s pretty much a given that Satan is keeping a Choke Pear nice and glowing-hot for when Glenn Beck gets to Hell, but not for the reasons you’re thinking. Sure, whipping Fox News audiences into a fever storm of right wing fury that further polarizes our already fragile union (and making a shit ton of cash doing it) and refusing to take responsibility for his actions when it comes back to bite him in the ass, claiming it’s all entertainment and all in good fun, may seem like a damnable offense of the first degree. But what’s really earning him a red-hot goosing is his shitty book cover design.

What the fuck? You couldn’t get a real apple pie? Don’t you have art directors and production designers that cater to your every shitty whim? Couldn’t they at least make an apple pie out of resin and fiberglass or something? You of all people should know about things that may look nice on the outside but are actually filled with toxic chemicals. Instead of spending a few hundred dollars on production design you decided to stand there with your hands empty, mugging at the camera like an idiot. Then again, this is something you’re used to.

During a bit of research for BBCDW I came across this video of Nick Cave reading from his new novel, The Death of Bunny Munro. A funny and mildly disturbing vignette to bring you into the weekend. Enjoy.

p.s. The highlights come at 4:38 and 5:58.

p.p.s. Is it just me being influenced by the title or does Cave look and act like some sort of demented alternate-reality humanoid version of Bugs Bunny?

p.p.p.s. You thought the UK cover was wild. The NZ cover is out of control.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Issue #3 contributor and all around fantastic artist owleyes has exploded onto the blogosphere in the last few months with andiamonds. Certainly interesting to get a looksee into all the freaky things that influence his work.

Enjoy your freaky Friday and equally freaky weekend!