written by Patrick Gaughan
illustrated by Hanna S. Abi-Hanna

If Billy from Manor Drive came over, he would want to play wiffleball, and Jerry didn’t feel like chasing the ball around the yard all day.  Wiffleball’s no fun with two people.  Tom from four doors down might be home, but he was much more interested in playing police games with plastic guns.  They would run around Jerry’s brick house, their little mouths making laser sounds, “Pew!  Pew!  Pew!,” until the inevitable argument would ensue: “You’re dead – I shot you a thousand times!”  “No way, you missed me” and so on.  There was Charlie from school, who had invited Jerry to his first sleepover a few weeks ago, but Charlie liked monster movies and Jerry almost shat himself having to sleep in the dark that night.

FULL STORY

Tags: fiction short story
February 7, 2009 at 12:40pm

Photographer Morgan Levy’s images of Iceland

Tags: interviews photography travel
February 7, 2009 at 12:19pm

by Daniel Erenberg

For the second straight year, your intrepid reporter is going through a breakup during the New York Comic Con. So, for the second straight year, going into the Jacob Javits Center, I wasn’t excited. I was depressed. And not only about the breakup, mind you. Something sort of personal that had been building up for the last couple weeks came to a strong head this morning. So, on the way to the convention center, alternating between The Blow, Modest Mouse and The White Stripes on my iPod, I decided, “Fuck life.” It’s comics time.

Unfortunately, when I got to the Javits center, I thought it was the wrong day altogether. The huge sign out in front read, “New York Times Travel Convention.” I was stumped, but I went in anyway. It took me about a half hour to finally find the Press Room and, by this point, I was even more pissed off than I had been already. This was also causing me to be annoyed by the awkward fanboys walking about dressed as their favorite superheroes, something I’m usually quite charmed by. But I guess I learned that when I’m in a bad mood, a Green Lantern with back acne is not going to cheer me up. Dammit. Maybe a trip to the con floor would do the trick.

FULL ARTICLE

Tags: geeks jacob javits center new york comic con
February 7, 2009 at 1:31am

by Adam Hunter

The national debt is approaching 11 trillion dollars, and with all the money Congress is giving out during this economic crisis to just about any rich guy who asks for it, that figure is bound to skyrocket. With our government’s finances in worse shape than Jessica Simpson, how can we find the money to improve our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and fund the programs that are vital to a healthy, non-George-Bushy America? One solution is surprisingly simple.

FULL ARTICLE

Tags: non-George-Bushy america national lottery
February 3, 2009 at 11:21am

by Daniel Erenberg

Andrew Bird is a musician who, historically, has flitted between genres like a hummingbird. For a while there, with each record released, you never quite knew what to expect. So it’s a little bit dismaying that his new release, Noble Beast, sounds so much like an Andrew Bird record. All the signs are there that it is clearly him being himself: the ever-present whistling, the pizzicato violin, the abstract lyrics, often referencing science and history. Noble Beast is an Andrew Bird record to an almost distracting degree. But I guess it’s a good thing that Andrew Bird is so damn good at what he does. It still results in a fantastic record.

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February 2, 2009 at 5:37pm

by Danielle Berg



The Printed Blog, a new venture by Josh Karp, of Chicago, is taking blog posts across the Internet and putting them to print. A small team of (for now) volunteers is fighting the strong media current with a paddleboat, and as far as interest goes - it seems to be working.

It’s not that the Printed Blog is trying to change the direction of the current; they’re simply rowing in the opposite direction. The first issue isn’t perfect, but it’s fresh. Blog posts taken from various sources and times (some posts were written over a year ago) allow entires to escape expectations of time-sensitivity, and is a great addition to my Internet addiction.

FULL ARTICLE 

Tags: eighth husbands office habits the printed blog
January 31, 2009 at 7:58pm

by Daniel Erenberg

The new Marvel ongoing series, Dark Avengers, wisely plays off of the fascinating results of their big 2008 event series, Secret Invasion. Norman Osborn, the former Green Goblin, has wrested control of S.H.I.E.L.D., the world peace-keeping task force, away from Tony Stark, disbanded the whole thing and set up a new organization, which he calls H.A.M.M.E.R. (in this issue, he sets a colleague with the task of what the acronym will actually mean). In getting this honor from the President, Osborn also takes official control of the government-sponsored super-team, the Avengers. The only former Avengers that agree to stick around are the schizophrenic basket case, The Sentry, and Ares, the God of War. Osborn fills the rest of the team with such shady characters as Venom, Bullseye and Moonstone, fresh from the murderous Thunderbolts squad, Marvel Boy, plucked from a prison for super-powered individuals, and Wolverine’s insane son, Daken.

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January 26, 2009 at 7:55pm

by Daniel Erenberg

The Lodger was released in theaters on January 23^rd. It comes out on DVD on February 10^th. This is not usually a good sign for a film, but it seemed like The Lodger might have been different. It is billed as an homage to Alfred Hitchcock, complete with many of Hitchcock’s signature shots and set-ups, and it boasts a truly impressive cast, which includes interesting actors like Alfred Molina, Hope Davis, Donal Logue and TV’s The Mentalist, Simon Baker, in the title role. The film is a modern take on film noir, about a killer copycatting the murders of Jack the Ripper. This all sounds like it could have come together. It sounds like it could have been an interesting film.

The Lodger is not an interesting film. 

FULL REVIEW

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January 26, 2009 at 7:40pm

by Daniel Erenberg

 3-D technology can make anything cheesy. So a film that is meant solely to scare the shit out of you might not be the best choice for it. I can sort of see what they were going for though. The first killing in the movie pops an eyeball out at you, and later in the film a human heart goes flying out into the audience. But these shots should elicit more shock and less giggles. The only time I jumped in the entire film was when an ugly dog went running towards the camera, followed by a dwarf woman chasing after it. That freaked the shit out of me. Moments later, when the killer (a dude in a miner’s uniform) cut a naked lady’s chest open with a pickaxe? Didn’t react at all. 

Full Review

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January 24, 2009 at 2:01am

by Daniel Erenberg

I’ll give FOX the credit they deserve. Tim Roth is an inspired choice to headline a procedural dramedy, and the fact that the network was able to steer him away from the new Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds in order to appear in what is essentially House if they let Hugh Laurie be British is nothing short of remarkable. And Tim Roth does not let his network down. He earns what is sure to be his very large paycheck with an easy-going, no-frills star performance as the eccentric (aren’t they all?) Dr. Cal Lightman, a guy who specializes in telling whether or not people are lying. You might be wondering what the difference is between this and the similar-sounding CBS hit The Mentalist. Well, Tim Roth is a much better actor than Simon Baker, but that’s about it.

Full Review

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January 24, 2009 at 1:53am