PicoBlog

Just because he plays a character that smokes bales of marijuana, is functionally illiterate, hurls patio furniture, shoots at squirrels with handguns and goes to jail all the time doesn’t mean that Robb Wells, the actor who created the role of miscreant Ricky LaFleur in the Canadian comedy series “Trailer Park Boys,” shouldn’t be lauded with the same quantities of critical respect, artistic appreciation, and golden statuettes as Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts-type British dramatic twits like Benedict Cumberbatch or Eddie Redmayne.

The first time The Macs entered Seattle’s Triangle Recording studio in 1980, they recorded what proved to be two-thirds of their total recorded releases: sides A and B of a 45rpm single. It was the band’s first time in a studio. Back then, before Nirvana recorded Bleach there, and Mudhoney recorded “Touch Me I’m Sick” and turned the building into grunge holy ground, Triangle Recording was just a nondescript wood-sided wedge set on the corner where 6th Avenue branches off from Leary Way.

The Magic Shop by H G Wells was published in 1903. "The Magic Shop" is a fantasy short story about a little English boy named Gip who wanted his father to take him into a magic shop they found while walking. They don't know that what they're about to see in the magic shop will permanently change both of their lives. A whimsical story on a similar theme to a previous story we read out on The Classic Ghost Stories Podcast: The Door In The Wall.

Every once in a while an isekai (parallel world) title so long or so weird sticks out to me in a list that I have to click it. Even in a genre where these conventions are standard ways to get noticed, I just can’t help myself. Nine times out of ten, a clever title covers for an utterly boring mega-ultra-power fantasy, a self-insert character reading out his cheat playthrough of a nonexistent RPG he invented alongside the full instruction manual of that RPG.

Happy Thursday! In this issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, we’re talking about Roujin Z, a cult anime film from 1991. Roujin Z is hard to place. It was written by Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) and directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Blood: The Last Vampire). Satoshi Kon was a main member of the crew. The character designer was Hisashi Eguchi, a famous illustrator and manga artist. And the result is a story about a robotic hospital bed, the Z-001 unit, running amok in Japan.

Welcome to Micro-Chop, a newsletter dissecting beatmaking, DJing, music production, rapping, and sampling — written by me, Gino Sorcinelli. Micro-Chop publishes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for paid subscribers. Free subscribers receive Monday’s newsletter. Give feedback, send questions, or just say hi by emailing me at gino@bookshelfbeats.com. Long before he programmed one of the most-famous drum patterns in hip-hop history, Milk Dee started rhyming at a mere nine years old. A true pioneer, the Audio Two MC spit his first rhymes during a time when rap radio shows didn’t exist and young listeners hunted down their favorite artists on DJ mixes and bootlegs.

Sensational courtroom cases have long seized public attention, and Charlotte’s halls of justice are no exception. This week, in a special series only for Ledger members, The Charlotte Ledger examines spectacular trials that captivated local audiences. By Lindsey Banks Van Brett Watkins appeared irritated as he sat in the witness box of a Charlotte courtroom on Dec. 21, 2000. Defense attorney David Rudolf had just asked him if he was taking antipsychotic medication in jail.

A few Sundays ago, I was sitting in the back pew of an ordinary church in an ordinary Midwestern suburb. A friend of mine was standing behind the pulpit, and as I watched her I could see her gathering her strength before she preached: pulling it in, storing it up, before the powerful words flowed out of her female body. She preached with the assurance of one who is called, and also one who I had watched earlier that morning doing all the things: gathering up the kids for a children’s sermon, setting out chairs for the church picnic, collaborating with her male colleague on sacramental duties and glad-handing parishioners.

This week I'm speaking with Ray Blanchard, a psychologist, sexologist, who coined the term autogynephilia to describe those men that identify as women, often transitioning to live as women, who get a sexual excitement from imagining themselves as women. And of course, this has got him into trouble from trans extremists. When he praised a book The Man Who Would Be Queen by Michael Bailey he got into even more trouble.