Sunday, November 29, 2009

"you thought that you could outrun sorrow"


em 26
Originally uploaded by juniperbug
If all good things must come to an end, then all bad things must come to an end too, right? Otherwise there wouldn't be balance in the universe. I'm not saying that the bimonthly-for-a-year series of Elephant Mess was good or bad - you'll have to conclude that for yourself - but I am saying that it's ending. Issue 26 is the last of 6, and it may even be the last of 26. Twelve years is probably enough. It may even be twelve years too many. Who knows? I can't really say for sure at this point. Either way, the 26th issue is now complete and ready for dissemination. In this issue, I filled a bunch of pages with lots of sentences and paragraphs and I used words like metamorphosis, unruly, sultry, and maudlin. I also referenced slag heaps and Canada (but not slag heaps in Canada). Lyrics of songs were basically used as filler. Oh, and I included the centerfold artwork of an inmate. Is that good enough for you? If so, send a dollar or stamps or a trade or cualquiera to:

Dan Murphy
PO Box 363
Edwardsville IL 62025
USA

Don't be sad. There are better days ahead.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

"eating pizza is really great..."

"...so is destroying everything you hate." -Be Your Own Pet

It's official, I am now writing reviews for the Syndicated Zine Reviews website. If you haven't had a chance to check out the site, do it. Not because I'm writing reviews, but because it's a great site.

Also, have you seen the documentary Food, Inc., yet? If not, you should definitely check it out. It just came out on DVD last week. It's all about how messed up our food system is these days. It's pretty disturbing at times, but it ends on a hopeful note, and it's important to know where your food comes from as well as being aware of all the absurdity and corruption that abounds in the industry. Here's a quote from the movie. It comes from one of the more positive scenes featuring food hero, Joel Salatin, of Polyface Farms.

"It is in that honoring and respecting the pigness of the pig and its distinctiveness that creates the philosophical building block for honoring and respecting your gifts and talents or even another culture's gifts and talents. [A] culture that just views a pig as a pile of protoplasmic, inanimate structure to be manipulated by whatever creative design the human can foist on that critter will probably view individuals within its community and other cultures in the community of nations with the same type of disdain and disrespect and controlling type mentality."

Bonus quote from Joel from an episode of Nightline:
"In our culture today - our western, reductionist, Greco-Roman, linear, fragmented, disconnected, systematized, all-parts oriented culture - we don't ask how to make a pig happy, we ask how do we grow them faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper, and that's not a noble goal."

Thursday, November 05, 2009

"i might wear black for a year straight"

The dreaded Yankees won their 27th World Series (in their 40th World Series appearance) last night. The 2009 Major League Baseball season has come to a close. It's a sad day indeed. Mostly what's sad is watching the same few teams win over and over again. I've always been one to root for the underdog. Maybe that's why I usually end up being disappointed. But I don't care; It's all in good fun. Either way, just once I'd like to see the tables turn. So, I'm offering to you my vision of the teams that I'd like to see in next year's MLB playoffs (even though I'm well aware of the unlikelihood of this happening). I picked these teams, not because they are all underdogs, but because they are teams that I like. Certainly there are other teams that have worse histories than some of these teams (like the Chicago Cubs for example).

For the National League:
-West division: Arizona Diamondbacks
-Central division: Pittsburgh Pirates
-East division: Washington Nationals
-Wild Card: Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants, or Cincinnati Reds

For the American League:
-West division: Seattle Mariners
-Central division: Detroit Tigers
-East division: Toronto Blue Jays
-Wild Card: Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals, or Oakland Athletics

Ideally, the World Series would feature the Seattle Mariners and the Washington Nationals because they are two of the three teams that have never even played in a World Series (the third team being the Texas Rangers). Ultimately I'd want the winner to be the Mariners of course, but seeing either team in the Series would be a very pivotal moment for me and certainly for anyone else who roots for and believes in the underdogs.