Category: Mindless Diversions
Sunday! “Germinal” by Émile Zola
Germinal by Émile Zola, meanwhile, is a sort of fever dream of hell on earth that still hits hard, even if you’ve never set foot in a coal mine.
Saturday Morning Gaming: Demon’s Tilt
Epic Game Store’s free game this week is a sprawling pixel-based pinball game: Demon’s Tilt
Weekend Plans Post: The only thing worse than Jury Duty
“It’s not that great,” I told him. “I’m going to get jury duty in a couple of months.” Sure enough: I did.
Weekend Plans Post: Catching Up On Musical Theater
I’m now old enough to know that the musical is something that I should snicker at but I was nowhere near that age at the time…
Sunday Morning! “They” by Kay Dick
This recently-rediscovered novella is a chilling anomaly in dystopian fiction: here the censorious “they” feel no need to explain, justify, or announce themselves. We know them only by their hatreds.
Saturday Morning Gaming: Cities Skylines
Cities Skylines is the Epic Game Store’s free game this week. I’d never played it before. Let’s change that.
Weekend Plans Post: The Radio Stations that Went Away
All of my radio stations have changed format. The DJs for the new station are professionals. They never make mistakes. Sigh.
Sunday Morning! “Butcher’s Crossing” by John Williams
In John Williams great work of Western Noir, the one-big-heist goes wrong and flawed men become most fully themselves in failure, like all of us
Saturday Morning Gaming: Not For Broadcast and Unintentionally Educational Games
On the surface, it’s a game where you play the guy in the control booth. If you go deeper? It’s a deconstruction of television itself.
Weekend Plans Post: The Candy that You Can’t Get Here
I understand that there are regional candybars (and snacks, I guess) as well. Tastycakes finally made it to Colorado a few years ago as well as Abba-Zabba
Sunday Morning! “Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted” by Gary Barwin
Gary Barwin is a writer of seemingly boundless energy and invention, and it does admittedly get a bit overwhelming at times.
Saturday Morning Gaming: Death and Taxes
The joys of judging people and following (or not following) the rules.
Weekend Plans Post: February is the Longest Month
Most every month of the year has me say “I can’t believe this month is almost over!”
February always has me say “I can’t believe it’s still February!”
Sunday Morning! “How I Became One of the Invisible” by David Rattray
David Rattray believed that poetry is a mystical language and the poet is a coyote smuggling us into the world of the spirit.
Saturday Morning Gaming: Games for Math Club Kids vs. Games for Theater Kids
“Debatable” is a party game that targets an underserved population. Well, underserved in the gaming world, anyway.
There is an AFL-NFC Championship Game today. This is its open thread.
Are you ready for some football?
Sunday Morning! “New Animal” by Ella Baxter
In this debut novel, “New Animal” by Ella Baxter, a mortuary artist deals with all of the messy unruliness of bodies and grief.
