PicoBlog

The criminalization of speech is a recurring theme in my writing. While the media covers immigration, healthcare, Ukraine, and other topics breathlessly, very little coverage is given to the government criminalizing speech. In 2019, I covered the story of Ted Taupier from Connecticut, who spent over two years in jail for an email. Here is what Ted said in that email. {Judge Elizabeth} Bozzuto lives in Watertown with her boys and Na!

I’ve been wanting to interview John Nolte about his sublime and brilliant book, Borrowed Time ever since I read it. Well, the day has finally arrived. We chatted for about an hour about his book, his life, how he got into writing, what gave him the idea for his book, and why he may never write another one, and of course, our favorite topic, what happened to culture on the Left.

Yames is an indie horror developer whose games tend to build on themes of posthumanism, Lovecraftian and body horror, and religious terror. I sat down to talk with him about his game Growing My Grandpa! and his work in general. Alex: Tell us a bit about your newest project, Growing My Grandpa!, which was recently released on itch.io and Steam. Yames: Growing My Grandpa! is a narrative-driven point-and-click horror game with virtual pet elements, the virtual pet being your Grandpa, or the thing you know as Grandpa.

What follows is an introduction I was asked to give for Jacques Rivette’s Out 1 (1971) in February 2016 at The Cinematheque in Vancouver occasioned by the film’s restoration and long anticipated commercial release. By coincidence, the screening took place one week after Rivette’s death. I had been unable to see the film despite years of wishing to and although I was offered a screener to watch ahead of the screening, I could not pass up the opportunity to see it first on the big screen along with everyone else.

How have I spent my two weeks in quarantine you ask? By binge-watching parodies, film criticism, startup history and viral videos on Bilibili. What is Bilibili? Grossly simplified, it's the Chinese equivalent of Youtube. Except it's not. It's like if Youtube, Twitch, Steam, Patreon, TokyoPop and Netflix had a CRISPR-baby, and that baby was a weeb, but that weeb is also super down with Chinese Gen Z and is listed on the Nasdaq with a market cap of $15bn.

[This blog will always be free to read, but it’s also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And yes, I do speaking engagements.] On Monday, a photo of the Illinois State Fair Butter Cow — that is, a cow presented as “sculpted out of butter” — went viral after the shocking revelation that it’s a wire-and-steel-mesh frame sculpted in the likeness of a cow that has simply been covered in slabs of yellow spread.

Compass Travel Center - Photos by Staff ReportersDEMOTTE - Travelers and local residents have another option for fuel off of Interstate 65 and Indiana 10. The newly opened Compass Travel Center is not just a fueling station, but inside you will find a Dunkin Donuts, an upscale American-European grill, a travelers lounge, and a semi-truck showroom. The Compass Travel Center recently had a soft opening and is starting to serve customers.

When The Tortured Poets Department dropped, I was not impressed. Since then, I’ve grown slightly in my estimation of the album (it has some of her most interesting lyrics, but also largely a lot of cliché lyrics and regurgitated themes, and I’m ultimately tired of her collaboration with Jack Antonoff). Since then, we’ve also reviewed the album on Keep It: I feel it’s now the appropriate time to drop my rankings of Taylor Swift albums (“absolutely deranged” as it’s been referred to on Twitter!

Old Fashioned Week is coming to an end.  Before it’s over, however, I want to celebrate with one of my favorite, lesser-known Old Fashioned variations — a pleasingly complex, easy-drinking riff that involves multiple bottles of scotch, a tiny bit of dark rum, and honey syrup. It’s sweet, smoky, and vaguely nautical without quite coming off as pirate-y, which is fitting, since it was the drink of choice for one Charles Horatio "