The Dredge Cycle

A Few Props

This week­end I’ll be migrat­ing the blog again. I don’t know if you’re much famil­iar with GoDaddy – I’m sure you’ve seen the ads – I’ve been honk­ing their horn since 2004. But their sex­ism bor­ders on misog­yny, and their ser­vice is sub-​​par. It’s time to move on, move on.

Terrible News

UPDATED: I mis­heard the report from a friend yes­ter­day, and con­fused Shira Erlich­man for Sheila Siob­han. For those con­cerned, please know Shira is, to the best of my knowl­edge, fine! I’m so sorry for any con­fu­sion, grief, and/​or any other prob­lems my mis-​​understanding has caused.

At this point I’m so thor­oughly unsure of what’s accu­rate, I’m pulling this post’s con­tent. Please leave any infor­ma­tion you have in the comments.

It's the Quantum Biologist's birthday!

If you haven’t yet seen The Quan­tum Biol­o­gist, you’re miss­ing some of the best, and strangest, fun in this sharp cor­ner of the inter­net. Weird plants, weirder ani­mals, and their extra­or­di­nary evo­lu­tion­ary paths show up week to week, in an enter­tain­ing and lov­ingly acces­si­ble tax­on­omy. And it’s dude’s birth­day. So go on and leave a note.

Our Traumatized Generation

How many times have you seen an old Car­son sketch and thought, “Oh, it was all so inno­cent back then!” I’m curi­ous about extreme com­edy. Not black humor –  that shit’s sacred. I mean the stuff only writ­ten to shock.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Here’s hop­ing you and your sweetie enjoy a glo­ri­ous com­fort­able silence. I’ve got a beast of a post on the spit for tomor­row. But today, let’s do some­thing unmit­i­gat­edly sweet, cour­tesy of Neruda, my favorite playboy.

UPDATED: Meanwhile, Holy Shit

If you haven’t heard about AZ Con­gress­woman Gabrielle Gif­fords (D), she and six oth­ers, accord­ing to the county sheriff’s office, were shot at a Tuc­son Safe­way. The con­gress­woman was shot in the head while hold­ing a con­stituency meet-​​​​and-​​​​greet. If that shooter has any­thing to do with the Tea Party, some­one high on the totem has to step up and stop these lunatics. Appar­ently not. But it appears Sarah Palin has removed her infa­mous “Don’t retweet, reload” mes­sage, but an assort­ment of other murky imagery is still making…

Who Needs Big Brother?

Last night I talked to a good friend about leav­ing Face­book. We got to talk­ing about the future of social net­work­ing. She asked what I think Face­book is pre­fig­ur­ing, and I had to say… telescreens.

Election Day

Vote vote vote! Google Maps will help you find your vot­ing loca­tion right here. For his­tory! For anti-​​​​fascism! For some­thing not-​​​​the-​​​​opposite-​​​​of-​​​​accountability!

Recovery

The last few weeks have been dark, as it goes with grief. The book has moved so pro­foundly off the main burner I’m not sure there’s a pilot light under it. I’ve spent a lot of time try­ing to re-​​​​imagine the next year, and the years com­ing, with­out my one-​​​​woman sup­port net­work. Essen­tially, I’m blank. And still heartily con­fused. But there are a few clear signs, like the work I’m begin­ning with Tan­ger­ine Café, and the copy of City of Cough­ing and Dead Radi­a­tors that…