Posted inAmbulations

Photos – Launch of Jan 12 Writing Pop Fiction MFA residency #shuwpf

Just a few random shots taken during tonight's opening orientation for the writer's residency at Seton Hill.  I was so caught up in conversations and greetings that I regret I neglected to take more photos.  I'll try to get more and post as the week progresses.  Workshops, classes, and thesis presentations will last till next Wednesday.  Tomorrow I teach a course in "Critiquing and Clarity" in addition to a module on pop culture theory, following an early morning discussion of the Mystery genre, using Jo Nesbo's book THE SNOWMAN to focus our discussion. 
January 7, 2012Posted inAmbulations
Posted inAmbulations Blather

Jumping the Zombie Shark!

I saw this (Zombie Sudoku) in a bookstore today.  Had to take a photograph and share with you all.  Sorry it's so blurry.  I was crying a tear for my genre. But really, I should have seen this coming when "hard" sudoku became superceded by "evil" sudoku in many puzzle books.  While technically, "satanic sudoku" should have come next, it was only a matter of time before "zombie sudoku" took the place of that. But I think it would have been much more challenging to release "parasitic sudoku" or maybe "bacterial infection sudoku" instead.  Or maybe just "leech sudoku".  Yeah,…
January 3, 2012Posted inAmbulations, Blather
Posted inData+Errata

“Eyebombing” – when the uncanny is cute

Here's the latest entry posted to my Popular Uncanny weblog, musing over the cutely weird meme known as "Eyebombing" (eyebombing.com) -- affixing googly eyes to inanimate objects in the public square -- and how it taps into feelings of strange familiarity.   "Eyebombing is the Fozzie-Bearification of the community property -- the Jim Hensoning of the public square. There is a return of the repressed invoked here, but it very well may a repressed belief in the power of folk art, which has been increasingly "surmounted" by technology..."
December 25, 2011Posted inData+Errata
Posted inSnippets of the Strange

Put this under your child’s pillow when they lose a baby tooth…

Don't put money under your child's pillow if they put their lost tooth there before bedtime. Put something like this under there, waiting for them to awaken in the morning... money better spent! Berkeley dollmaker Kerry Kate is doing some wonderfully macabre artwork with her collectable handmade doll series at October Effigies. Above is her Tooth Fairy Stuffed Print Doll from May 2010; I also found her "Wormbelly" doll quite disturbing. Visit her blog for the latest.
November 30, 2011Posted inSnippets of the Strange
Posted inArnzen News

Metal Distortions: New Photo Set Posted to Flickr

Check out "Metal Distortions" -- my latest photo set over on my flickr gallery.  I've just uploaded about ten distorted versions of rock concerts I've been to this year. I especially like the way the shots from the Judas Priest Epitaph tour turned out. The above shot is actually one I did NOT post to the flickr gallery, because it uses the same photo as another one I altered that is a bit cooler ("Metal on Metal").  But I like it...even if, for some reason, it reminds me of The Walking Dead comic series. Comments always welcome, anywhere on the…
November 27, 2011Posted inArnzen News