The Strange Seduction of the Demonic Burger King

Consider this a warning: Burger King may be currently under the influence of a cthonic entity from beyond space and time.

Even now, its cult is rising up out of the strange backwaters of our world to strike at humanity through the most powerful tool any strange being from out-of-space might have: our food. The Burger King in Yellow is the most bizarre and eerily creepy corporate mascot ever, but it may yet be the instrumental guise for this creature. Already there have been masks produced to mimic its unholy visage released for a Hallow'een takeover--thankfully I saw none of these terrible things on Mill.

This creature has even been seen in the Super Bowl advertisements, grooming its cultists to create a virgin sacrifice of choreographic dancers (likely virgins) who cast themselves as condiments and pieces of a hamburger, and then threw themselves together into a pile (creating the burger), presumably so that the Burger King could then devour them off camera.

Do not be fooled!

The warning signs are all here -- this certainly is no end time, but the danger may be great. Creepy advertising may be attention getting, but ... why risk it?

For those so invested, thou might want to check out a parody story that I wrote about Vex Harrow's own encounter with the Burger King in Yellow in No, I Do Not Want Fries With That.

Technorati Tags: Burger King, Run For Your Lives, Vexations

Podcasts - Because I feel like it.

Okay, so I figured that I needed to put this one out there for people, but I have found some awesome podcats in my recent foray into that culture.

One that I love in particular is The Ungodly Hour. Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls. I mean that. Visit that link and subscribe. They play a beautiful mixture of Gothic, Industrial, EBM, and other elements that I find extremely worthwhile. I found them looking for Gothy podcasts so that I could fulfill my music quota for the long, boring days.

I cannot give enough props to these guys. Each show is about three hours long, between the music they hold sessions of real, interesting talk -- so far about the news and other extremely fun babble.

Technorati Tags: Podcast

Mill Avenue Vexations Volume 2 Now in Print

Mill Avenue Vexations News wrote:

Mill Avenue Vexations Volume 2: The Calm Before has officially been released to print!

Fifty copies will be available starting tonight to first come, first serve on Mill Avenue and wherever the author and helpers can be found trotting around ASU and Tempe proper. Back cover by Kyt Dotson, and the front cover done by our newest cover artist, Megan Lee Beals. The back cover also contains a quip about the Tempe Government Building, and inside I have included an article on Mill Avenue culture.

And that's the news! Volume 2 has hit the streets and is going to be trotted out to the sweaty masses. No big news yet on exactly when I will be able to get out there, but I assure that I'll be carrying at least twenty copies with me. I may not be able to burn through them all in one night.

That's what Drum Circle is for.

This particular print has been a little less in quality than the others. I think that I should really be aiming for card stock covers, but I don't care at the moment. It increases the cost just a little bit, but it really helps with making them coheasive as booklets.

And that's the news.

Technorati Tags: Kyt Dotson, Vexations, Mill Avenue

Vexations Volume 2 to Print

As of this morning, Vexations Volume 2 went to print. I am doing fifty (50) copies as usual, and they will be available by tomorrow evening. I might start distributing them immidiately--you can expect to find them, and me, on Mill Avenue when I can, finding people to give them to. There are a limited number, so if you don't think you can make it out there you will have to leave a comment (or email me) and I will earmark one for you.

Some copies are already earmarked for people, such as the cover artist, and a few other fans--those who I can physically hand them to.

Once the print copies are in my hand I'll post again, it will probably be quoting off of the Vexations web page, but it'll be a good milestone to know that the prints are in the wild at that point.

Technorati Tags: Kyt Dotson, Vexations, Mill Avenue

Saint Harlequin's Day - February 15th

Hey everyone, it's time to get hot and bothered--once again, as it is yearly, St. Harlequin's Day is upon us.

Forget flowers, forget chocolate, do not pass GO, do not collect $200 (unless you didn't get paid last payday,) and instead head straight for the whiskey and 'shine. Today isn't a time to spend wasting on thy fellow kin, it's a day to be angry about all the things that are unfair in this world--anything that is unfair for anyone. In fact, anything that pissed thee off yesterday, why not vent it all today. Glare, growl, and let the bugbears have it! All in the name of the day. Today is a day to rant, rave, and carry on like someone is listening.

Go ahead and be mad as hell, and don't take it anymore.

Though, today isn't completely about violence catharsis, it is about all of those people who shouldn't be bottling it up. Who suffered quietly through the gentle and annoying ministrations of Hallmark's cupid cronies the day before, who have taken their fill of papercuts from cards, sleepless nights from the sounds next door, and just want to strangle someone in a fit of rage. It's about how badly life has treated thee, how the market for romance is a dried up pond with fish flopping at the bottom. No more tears--but those shining tears of anger.

Life's wit is sharper than any irony and cuts more deeply than any drama. And yet, today, we can cut it down with our own vices and billowing frustratios. Don't take Harlequin's Day sitting down, unless its cominga long with a very deep glass of a very strong liqeur.

Swear up a storm, knock back a firey spirit, and be willing to be filled up with all the resonance of that long supressed and languishing roar.

Technorati Tags: Harlequin, Saint Harlequin's Day, Valentine's Day

Who Do You Work For?

Royal Rave wrote:

Hawthorne wrote:
Screw improper uses. We're writers. It's like Mistress Prairie makes up words because she's a Webster -- in all frankness, when it comes to language rules writers should be both the gaurdians and the worst offenders

Isn't that like robbing the bank you work for?

We don't work for language; language works for us. We work for our communities, our audiences, culture, and literature as an expression and an artform itself.

When non-writers change and shift language they do so with the bearing of their own mass-minds, they smooth over gaps left by previous changes, steal words from other languages, and produce hodgepodges for the pure utility of communication.

When we break the rules we do so because it's beautiful, because it gets our point across, because it gives new meaning or new bearing to the language--language is constantly growing and changing, predictably and unpredictably and as writers its almost a civic duty to constantly test its boundaries and either sand down the rough edges or limn them.