proclamation of links

AS I have done nothing all week but write briefing notes and letters of exquisite politeness to the hopeful, the hopeless, and someone who, despite functional illiteracy, chairs a music festival committee; and

AS the increase in bureaucratic writing, combined with a cold snap that has kept me indoors for a week to deal with restless cats and the constant sting of static electrical shocks, have worn me out and left me unwilling to write anything besides;

THEREFORE go read Jonathan Lethem’s article on plagiarism, which all the folks enjoy, regardless of demographic. But like the pirate said, “Hey, that’s a long article, so make sure to budget the appropriate amount of time before committing yourself to it”.

FURTHERMORE read the tragic and bebaffling tale of a woman who took the wrong bus and went missing for 25 years.

MOREOVER you want to check out the new album from Of Montreal with the totally non-pretentious title Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Featuring snappy-finger slap-happy pop tunes like the 12-minute “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal”. Al-right.*

AND ON TOPPA THAT SHIT comes my love for the innocuous and ubiquitous forms that junk up the landscape. Some time ago, designer Paul Lukas published a zine called Beer Frame: The Journal of Inconspicuous Consumption, which focused on strange goods found in hardware and grocery stores. Products doomed to a nanosecond shelf life. Products that should have vanished years ago but persist in their same old packaging. Specialized items that you will never use but long to own for the perfection of their design. The zine is gone, but you can visit the Inconspicuous Consumption website. Updates to the site appear to have died a few years ago, but there’s much chuckly material to go through. All I know is, I would never have known about Pork Brains in Milk Gravy otherwise. Or that Kraut Juice came in cans. Or in any container at all.

*I can’t seem to stop the mock today, but it’s a really good album.