D. Fennel

fennel @ 2009-12-14T15:23:00

2009-12-14T20:24:00Z

View Poll: Sentence acceptability judgment needed!

fennel @ 2009-12-13T22:21:00

2009-12-14T03:21:31Z

View Poll: #1498656

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2009-10-30T15:00:31Z

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originally uploaded by fennnnel.

Hidden behind the Van Gogh at Bob Slate's...

[books] Gary Drescher - Good And Real

2009-05-21T05:02:36Z

A book of science-inspired philosophy that suddenly starts to sound insane two-thirds of the way in. I retraced the argument and found the whole last section depended on a point covered VERY briefly, to wit:

Suppose the universe is deterministic. Now define the property P as being true at a given moment if and only if, were that state of the world run forward 100 years, some person on Earth would then be wearing two neckties at once.

Next, suppose that I decide it would be nice for property P to have been true 99 years and 364 days ago. All I have to do is wait a day and then put on two neckties. Presto! But my actions can't have caused property P to be true in 1909; causation as we understand it only works forward in time. Therefore, says Drescher, there is such a thing as an "acausal means-end link". And from there it's off to the races with a translucent-box version of Newcomb's Problem, which aaaaaagh never mind, the point is that I don't buy it.

I've run into "property P" before, and at first I thought this usage was obvious garbage-- just playing with words to make a future turn of events be "in the past". But of course, in a deterministic universe, property P really is a property of May 22, 1909, even if we have no way to evaluate it until tomorrow.

Anyway, there's a lot of relevant philosophical literature I haven't read, so I might be barking up the wrong tree. But I was not moved to make Drescher my guide on the topic.

boiled down

2009-03-17T15:18:47Z

One more new thing I'm trying with the mixes this year: a torrent of just my VERY favorites, for people with limited patience or time. If you try it out, let me know what you think.

[Edit: Fixed the link.]

Adult language warning: track 8.
Low bitrate source warning: 3, 7, 18, 26, 27.
Bitterness warning: 20, 24.
Sappy loud punks warning: 15.
NPR warning: 5, 12.
Khaela Maricich of The Blow saying "unh!" warning: 16.
Craigslist sex warning: 10.
LJ-drama lyrics warning: 20, 22.
AutoTune warning: 18.
Lead singer wears mystical armor onstage warning: 9.

01 - School Of Seven Bells - Half Asleep
02 - Why? - Fatalist Palmistry
03 - Hemme Fatale - Peryglus Lucifer
04 - The Kills - Cheap And Cheerful
05 - Thao With The Get Down Stay Down - Swimming Pools
06 - Mindless Self Indulgence - On It
07 - Mystery Jets - Young Love (The Shoes remix)
08 - Ssion - Street Jizz
09 - These New Puritans - Elvis
10 - Jay Brennan - Bowlegged & Starving
11 - A Weather - Pinky Toe
12 - Dar Williams - It's Alright
13 - Les Incompetents - Reunion
14 - The Chap - Fun And Interesting
15 - Half Hearted Hero - It's Cool, But The Fullblast Did It Already
16 - Kyle Fischer - Thousand Points of View
17 - Sambassadeur - Final Say
18 - The Cab - Take My Hand (Machine Shop Production) (f. Cassadee Pope)
19 - The LK - Private Life Of A Cat
20 - Graham Smith & KGW - High Tech Computer Magician
21 - Kylie Minogue - Wow
22 - Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
23 - Alphabeat - Fascination
24 - Bottomless Pit - Fish Eyes
25 - La Casa Azul - La Nueva Yma Sumac
26 - Late Of The Pier - Heartbeat, Flicker, Line
27 - Passion Pit - Tons Of Guns
28 - Big Dipper - Silentium
29 - Parts & Labor - Vision Of Repair
30 - Ruby Isle - One Trip

(These are ordered for listening, not ranked by how much I like them.)

I promised my friends in the log cabin I wouldn't talk to George Bush

2009-03-11T03:54:33Z

Last mix. This one, like the first, was sequenced to start with songs that sound like early morning to me and go on through the day. I have no idea if this is perceptible or interesting, but that's the intent. This one rushes through the day to get to a long night, after the fashion of Black Rock City. Total cliche! So sue me.

Download ZORBA THE LEOPARD presents AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY. The rest of this year's mixes are all now here. Tracks:

01 Parts & Labor - Wedding In A Wasteland
02 Jonatha Brooke - Taste of Danger
03 Black Francis - The Seus
04 Future Of The Left - Plague Of Onces
05 Professor Murder - Flex-It Formula
06 Easy Star All-Stars - Bed Of Rose
07 The Muslims - Nightlife
08 Douglas Armour - Fall Apart Again
09 Kelley Polar - Entropy Reigns (in the Celestial City)
10 To My Boy - Type 1 > Type 2
11 Ruby Isle - One Trip
12 You Love Her Coz She's Dead - Superheroes
13 The Presets - The Boy's In Love (Mashed 4 edit)
14 Bloc Party - Flux
15 Styrofoam - No Happy Ending (f. Erica Driscoll)
16 The Main Drag - A Jagged Gorgeous Winter
17 TV On The Radio - DLZ
18 Circus Devils - Get Me Extra!
19 Robyn Hitchcock - Because You're Over
20 Simon Bookish - Dwarf Documentary

Small print: [...]

* This is the last of eight mixes for 2008.
* Concept by M. Holloway.
* Revelation by D. Zebra, P. Beatrice and [...]

* Mix by
* your favorite signal failure,
* JJ Rackjobber.

* Come in, come in.

and there were conversations about what Breakfast Club character you'd be

2009-03-03T05:07:38Z

Here's to long roads. Whether it's a hundred-year journey or just a slog en masse down the disused train tracks to see some fireworks, it seems like you get farthest when you don't really have anywhere you need to go. I've never known what "good driving music" is; this is pretty good walking music.

And can anyone tell me if that's Khaela Maricich of The Blow going "uh!" on the Kyle Fischer song? It really sounds like her, and I know she did vocals elsewhere on the album. [Oh! Hey, it finally came out as a CD instead of just mp3s. I'll order it and see if the printed liner notes help.]

Download EVE CORIOLIS presents A FREE RIDE and catch up on past weeks here. Tracks:

01 Arthur Russell - Janine
02 Dar Williams - It's Alright
03 Sons & Daughters - This Gift
04 Les Incompetents - Reunion
05 Sister City - Happy Anniversary
06 Tokyo Police Club - Tessellate
07 Minus The Bear - We Are Not a Football Team
08 Los Campesinos! - We Are All Accelerated Readers
09 Stars - 14 Forever
10 Statuesque - Calling Nature's Bluff
11 The Chap - Fun And Interesting
12 Big Dipper - Silentium
13 The Decemberists - Raincoat Song
14 Kyle Fischer - Thousand Points of View
15 Thao With The Get Down Stay Down - Swimming Pools
16 Blitzen Trapper - Saturday Nite
17 Pull Tiger Tail - Animator
18 Irene - Looking For Love
19 The Salteens - We Can Go On
20 Sway - Black Stars
21 Voicst - A Year And A Bit
22 Fluid Ounces - The Burning Question
23 Hey Monday - Obvious
24 The Mountain Goats - Gojam Province 1968

Small print: The Arthur Russell, Big Dipper and Fluid Ounces songs are all from 2008 collections of unreleased older recordings. The Sister City, Salteens and Mountain Goats songs are from official free downloads at http://www.myspace.com/sistercityband, http://salteens.com and http://satanicmessiah.com, respectively. (Note that a donation is requested for the Mountain Goats one, but not required.) And the Pull Tiger Tail song may not be as new as I think it is.

* This is the seventh of eight mixes for 2008.
* Concept by M. Holloway.
* Direction by Heliotrope, W. Churchill and flan.

* Mix by
* your favorite sidewinder,
* JJ Rackjobber.

Pow pow pow pow rrraka-taka uh!

2009-02-19T19:00:46Z

A little late this week. Which is okay, as this mix is the odd one out-- in order to give the discs themes AND to get all my favorite songs of the year on them, there had to be one miscellaneous mix, and this is it. It's pretty Pitchforky.

Download NOOP, CHIEF OF OPERATIONS presents A LIKELY STORY and catch up on past weeks here. Tracks:

01 Blitzen Trapper - Country Caravan
02 Passion Pit - Tons Of Guns
03 Guillemots - Kriss Kross
04 Los Campesinos! - How I Taught Myself To Scream
05 Basement Jaxx - My Turn
06 No Kids - Bluster In The Air
07 Pretty & Nice - Tora, Tora, Tora
08 Stereo MC's - Show Your Light
09 Mirah - Don't!
10 The Dresden Dolls - Dear Jenny
11 Half Hearted Hero - It's Cool, But The Fullblast Did It Already
12 Crooked Still - Did You Sleep Well?
13 Fujiya & Miyagi - Pussyfooting
14 Hemme Fatale - Peryglus Lucifer
15 The Hush Sound - Medicine Man
16 Mahjongg - Those Birds Are Bats
17 Throw Me The Statue - Lolita
18 Of Montreal - For Our Elegant Caste
19 Cut Copy - Out There On The Ice
20 Sunset Rubdown - Idiot Heart
21 Cats In Paris - Foxes

Small print: "Tons Of Guns" disappeared from the Passion Pit EP sometime between its self-released version and the one on Frenchkiss. "How I Taught Myself To Scream" was free on the band's website for a while. "Peryglus Lucifer" and "It's Cool, But..." are both on the bands' respective MySpace pages and are awesome. "Idiot Heart" was recorded for a Daytrotter session (daytrotter.com) and will probably appear on the next SR album in a form even more recondite than this.

* This is the fifth of eight mixes for 2008.
* Concept by M. Holloway.
* Sharpening by Morgan Target, S-Proto-X and C. Clay.

* Mix by--
* no one twisting his arm--
* JJ Rackjobber.

mesdames et messieurs, please return to your cubicles

2009-02-11T03:51:13Z

A few people, confronted with a stack of CDs, have taken this one because of the name. Whoops. This isn't about romance, it's about high school. I used to live for Sunday night, when MTV ran its "alternative" program 120 Minutes; it was a fabulous and confounding combination of combat-boot canon, disoriented singer-songwriters, marketing misfires, veiled queerness, and nobody's-watching-anyway curveballs. (We, of course, gave any video bequeathed to us by Dave Kendall the benefit of the doubt, which is how I ended up with four CDs by Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, but anyway.)

This is my best impression of that.

Download THE OPTION presents A FIRST KISS and catch up on past weeks here. Tracks:

01 Bottomless Pit - Fish Eyes
02 Lesley Roy - I'm Gone, I'm Going
03 The Cure - Real Snow White
04 Wire - One Of Us
05 Situationists - We Are Weightless
07 Robots In Disguise - The Tears
08 Paul Kerschen - The Reverberator
08 R.E.M. - Horse To Water
09 The Killers - Spaceman
10 Xiu Xiu - White Nerd
11 BWO - Lay Your Love On Me
12 Retard-O-Bot - I Don't Think You Really Mean It (Proper)
13 Electric Six - Lovers Beware
14 Add - The Blitz
15 The Maccabees - Latchmere
16 The Assistants - Stop Dead
17 Absentee - Pips
18 School Of Seven Bells - Half Asleep
19 Esser - Long Arms
20 These New Puritans - Navigate, Navigate

Small print: Paul Kerschen's album is downloadable at (paulkerschen.com/oilandwater) and available on CD. Add's song, like all his music, is at actdead.com. The These New Puritans piece was apparently written for a fashion show and then released on vinyl and iTunes.

* This is the fourth of eight mixes for 2008.
* Concept by M. Holloway.
* Catalysis by F. Lynch, T. Horn and HTW.

* Mix by
* your favorite station bumper,
* JJ Rackjobber.

young man, you amaze me!

2009-02-04T04:55:46Z

New Year's Eve ought to be high-energy and low-stakes. I mean, good luck with that, huh? But we try. Indie-pop, mallpunk, occasional sophistication (especially that last song). Nothing too SERIOUS this week.

Download THE BOMBEATER presents A STANDING INVITATION. Tracks:

01 Graham Smith & KGW - High Tech Computer Magician
02 Milky Wimpshake - Milky Cliche
03 Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
04 Metronomy - My Heart Rate Rapid
05 The LK - Private Life Of A Cat
06 Parts & Labor - Vision Of Repair
07 P!nk - This Is How It Goes Down
08 Paramore - Decoy
09 Four Year Strong - Bada Bing! Wit' A Pipe!
10 MC Frontalot - Final Boss
11 The Cab - One Of THOSE Nights
12 Simon Bookish - Carbon
13 Tilly & The Wall - Falling Without Knowing
14 Wiley - If You're Going Out, I'm Going Out Too
15 Via Audio - Developing Active People
16 Portastatic - Trajectory
17 Ben Folds - Brainwashed
18 The Streets - On The Edge Of A Cliff
19 Pete And The Pirates - Bright Lights
20 The Sterns - All Saints
21 Sakert! - Vi Kommer Att Do Samtidigt
22 Mindless Self Indulgence - On It
23 Yelle - A Cause Des Garcons
24 Sambassadeur - Final Say

Small print: The KGW album is downloadable at kgw.me (free for 128kbps, $8 for lossless) and it's great. Several of these are from 2007: Via Audio, Yelle, The Sterns, Parts & Labor, Sakert. (Sakert is the Swedish-language band of Annika Norlin from Hello Saferide.) The Paramore song was on their last album, but only if you bought it at Hot Topic. "Trajectory" was a b-side only a few years ago, but I first heard it on 2008's mop-up compilation Some Small History.

* This is the third of eight mixes for 2008.
* Concept by M. Holloway.
* Ragged loyalty to M. Tree, Defect Ace and Entity #8A.

* Mix by
* your favorite host organism,
* JJ Rackjobber.

get 'em out of those bodies

2009-01-28T05:04:03Z

This is by far the Pitchforkiest of the mixes this year. And by my count, over half the songs are about monsters or other omnious/feared/projected-onto figures: Sasquatch, a serial killer, Republican senators, the urban poor, Jesus (twice), and several more unnamed. That wasn't entirely intentional.

Download ANTI-SONJA presents A NIGHT IN. Tracks:

01 A Weather - Pinky Toe
02 The Kills - Cheap And Cheerful
03 Food For Animals - Tween My Lips
04 Apes & Androids - We Don't Understand You
05 Wolf Parade - The Grey Estates
06 The Mountain Goats - Autoclave
07 The Mae Shi - Pwnd
08 The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose To Give It
09 Gates of Heaven - Mande Burung
10 Psapp - The Monster Song
11 Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians - The Drowning Church
12 These New Puritans - Elvis
13 Robert Pollard - Kiss The Quiet Man
14 Tricky - Council Estate
15 Chris Walla - Archer V. Light
16 The Hold Steady - Both Crosses
17 Brendan Canning - Hit The Wall
18 Dragons Of Zynth - Get Off
19 The Mars Volta - Conjugal Burns
20 Mike Doughty - Wednesday (Contra La Puerta)

Small print: The Robyn Hitchcock song is a reissue bonus track (from Fegmania) and the Dragons Of Zynth record came out in 2007. The rest are 2008 releases, as far as I know. Gates Of Heaven is partially Graham Smith; see http://gatesofheaven.bandcamp.mu for more.

* This is the second of eight mixes for 2008.
* Concept by M. Holloway.
* Protection by A.W. Sky, The Sentinel and N. Linker.

* Mix by
* your favorite private investigator,
* JJ Rackjobber.

or I could read a book or two about all the stuff I know

2009-01-21T04:07:15Z

My mixes are all numbered, and I've never posted one out of order before. But here it is Inauguration Day, and slated for today was #44, a wintry indie-rock mix about monsters at odds with all the exuberance people close to me are shining onto the internet. Then I realized that, on top of that, I had a party mix which began with a guy shouting "Welcome to the new administration!" and later on has a track titled "Requiem For A Neo-Con". I know, right?

So it's time for GEARBOXO! presents A FLAGRANT DISPLAY. Pop, hip-hop, genre revivals, remixes, AutoTune. Guest appearances by Neneh Cherry and Mary Baker Eddy. Torrent here. Tracks:

01 THE CAB Take My Hand (Machine Shop Production) (Welcome to the New Administration (Fall Out Boy mixtape))
02 BRAZILIAN GIRLS Good Time (New York City)
03 edIT The Game Is Not Over (f. J-Dilla, Phat Kat & Dabrye) (single)
04 WHITE PONY Shimmy Shimmy Ya (f. Josephine Philip) (myspace.com)
05 ROOTS MANUVA Well Alright (Slime And Reason)
06 ALPHABEAT Fascination (This Is Alphabeat)
07 LATE OF THE PIER Heartbeat, Flicker, Line (Space and The Woods single)
08 BLACK KIDS Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo) (Partie Traumatic)
09 VAST AIRE The Man With Out Fear (Dueces Wild)
10 CHRISTINE FELLOWS Saturday Night On Utopia Parkway (Nevertheless)
11 WHY? Fatalist Palmistry (Alopecia)
12 DAVID E. SUGAR To Yourself (12")
13 THE DO Tammie (A Mouthful)
14 SSION Street Jizz (Fool's Gold)
15 MYSTERY JETS Young Love (The Shoes remix) (Hideaway single)
16 MR. LIF Requiem For A Neo-Con (p. General Elektriks) (Sleepyheads 3)
17 HOT CHIP One Pure Thought (Made In The Dark)
18 KANO These MC's (f. Skepta) (140 Grime St.)
19 KLEERUP Forever (f. Neneh Cherry) (Kleerup)
20 CAGE Stargate (The Best & Worst Of Cage)
21 THE FAINT Fulcrum And Lever (Fasciinatiion)

Observations: Emma never said "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution" (but she was right); Erlend definitely said "Every party has a winner and a loser" (and he was right too). In dance clubs, as in Vegas, the house always wins-- but nobody on the floor seems to mind.

Small print: The Cab's remix is from a mixtape distributed free on the net to promote a Fall Out Boy album; the original version is on their album Whisper War. Late Of The Pier's song also appears, rerecorded, on their album Fantasy Black Channel. The Mystery Jets' remix is of a song originally found on their album Twenty One. Parents, be warned of the language on 3, 9, 16 and 20, plus possibly 4 (if you don't want your toddler singing "I like it raw") and 14 (if you don't want your toddler to learn the word "jizz").

* This is the sixth of eight mixes for 2008, posted second.
* Concept by M. Holloway.
* Celebratory spirit thanks to Polar Star, Juno First and Peter Segg.

* Mix by
* your favorite real horrowshow,
* JJ Rackjobber.

Adam Phillips, "The Soul Of Man Under Psychoanalysis"

2009-01-05T01:52:46Z

And it is perhaps incidentally of interest that Freud claimed to have got his idea of free-association as a therapeutic method from one of the favourite authors of his youth, Ludwig Borne. In 1823 Borne had written an essay entitled 'The Art of Becoming an Original Writer in Three Days', in which he wrote:

Take a few sheets of paper and for three days in succession write down, without any falsification or hypocrisy, everything that comes into your head. Write what you think of yourself, of your women, of the Turkish War, of Goethe... of the Last Judgement, of those senior to you in authority--and when the three days are over you will be amazed at what novel and startling thoughts have welled up in you. That is the art of becoming an original writer in three days.

Borne's list of what comes into one's mind is in itself revealing; free association is always a period piece.

fennel @ 2008-12-24T18:27:00

2008-12-24T23:28:48Z

View Poll: the Chicago (featuring Peter Cetera) Manual Of Style

taking a snow night

2008-12-19T23:03:41Z

I have projects to work on at home that I should probably do. But I love it when the world turns white, so I'm a little sad to stay in tonight. Is anything going on? [Comments screened.]

[food] recent food impressions

2008-12-17T19:57:15Z

+++ Zing! Pizza in Porter Square. These people are completely amazing-- the sort of nouveau pizza that I've wished for years would arrive closer to me than Emma's.* Don't bother with the plain, which is only okay; I don't think I've had a bad special yet. They just opened, so it's not clear if things like the smoked pumpkin & sage pizza will be seasonal or what. Latest great slice: Blushing Billy (beets, goat cheese, spinach). And supposedly they deliver in evenings.

++ New chef at Cambridge Brewing Company. I've had two amazing-but-overpriced comfort meals there; looking at other people's plates has made me think I might in part just be lucky, though. At any rate, the pumpkin ravioli and crab cakes both made me really happy.

+ White chocolate cranberry cheesecake ice cream at JP Licks. Note that the 'cheesecake' aspect includes both crust and filling. I guess this is no more components than a lot of Ben & Jerry's flavors, but it still felt awfully eventful for ice cream. It was like eating anime. I need to have this at least once more before it rotates out; does anyone know if the JP Licks "flavors of the month" actually go by calendar months?

-- Blue Shirt Cafe. How and why did they expand, given that most of their food is bad and usually nobody is inside? And why do I feel the need to go there one or twice a year to verify that it still is as bad as I think? The curried tuna I had last week was actually okay, which led to me recklessly getting a breakfast sandwich there this morning. It was awful. I never thought I would be this sad about a three-day suspension of Dunkin' Donuts service.

* Four places that are basically interesting, tasty and reliable but not quite good enough to have made me stop wishing: Cambridge 1 (ingredient list takes itself much too seriously, menu unchanged since opening six+ years ago), City Slicker (too oily, awful service, pizzas not actually that inventive), Za (WAY too oily, occasional calamities like the mac-&-cheese pizza or the wads of over-roasted garlic), and Veggie Planet (no alchemy-- it's just a pile of good ingredients on flatbread, which is very nice but not perfect). I've had Stone Hearth twice now and both times it was sadly a soggy mess with slightly weird flavors that seemed wrong instead of novel.

pastemob fiction #100 (fin)

2008-11-11T17:12:10Z

#100: To bind a spirit, first count its teeth. Circle it that many times with ribbons or dental floss. You may want to give it a nickname...

This is story #100; I cheated a little to make it actually be the hundredth one I wrote. It's also the last of the requests I got before I stopped writing fiction much in 2004, and is for a dear friend. So this seems like a good place to stop and rethink the project.

Yesterday I posted something grandiose about getting to 100, but then I erased it, because all I really meant was: "High five! Woo!"

pastemob fiction #104

2008-11-10T16:42:50Z

#104: Kiki had been spending most of her nights under a glowing sign that read "REDEMPTION" but not finding any. It was, to be fair, the best slot in the job rotation at the arcade she worked for.

I saw this sign in an arcade in Austin on a doomed family road trip in 1992 or 93. I don't think a "clever" first line was really the right thing here, but anyway, that's where it came from.

pastemob fiction #102 (and #103)

2008-11-03T17:30:39Z

Possibly I've been reading too much Hellboy, but I like this one much more than my last few attempts to do things in that vein.

#102: From an array of five test tubes, Pierrot Ain picked the second, then, fearful suddenly, replaced it and took the third...

(That's the first of the two pages I did yesterday. The second, #103, is linked from the main page but not here, because it is just that bad.) [Edited to add: Fixed some typos in #102 that made one sentence unintelligible.]

pastemob fiction #101

2008-11-02T20:16:08Z

Another set of words with a strong theme to them. I used to go far out of my way to resist "obvious" choices when faced with something like this, but I'm pleased to think there's another option.

#101: ... Supposedly, when Dario got there to check in for his summer program, the whole building had been replaced by a trash heap...

pastemob fiction #99

2008-10-30T18:02:06Z

Due to the, ah, subject matter, this one is dedicated to Rabbi Shammai.

#99: You will be asked about the origin of your clothes. You will be asked to trace out a trapezoid in dim light. ...

pastemob fiction #98

2008-10-28T18:15:47Z

Creeping up on #100!

#98: Home gets farther away every time I go back. I think it's geological. Every year the town slides another few inches into the past...

pastemob fiction #94-97

2008-10-23T16:04:11Z

Lately, whenever I do a bad improv, I get the feeling that I'm just repeating mistakes I used to make all the time. It's discouraging, since I'd like to think I'm improving. But after being disappointed with the first two of these, I actually went to read the old stories I thought they resembled, and the mistakes really aren't the same. Thus emboldened, I wrote another jarringly weak story (#96) and then finally one I like (#97).

#94: It took me two weeks just to find Monster Larry, during which time the Extreme Sports League of Southern California came to the conclusion that...
#95: Just like that, with a handshake, Aloysius Ross sold his entire company to the devil. The devil promptly vanished...
#96: It was in the new wing, they said. I had to come quickly. ...
#97: Living in a red-light district suited Mandy and Zvi. They could both sleep through police sirens, and...

pastemob fiction #91, 92, 93

2008-10-01T01:43:31Z

I've been thinking about putting these stories in the text of the post (and posting them one at a time) instead of posting links to them in batches. But when I did a test, each story ran to over a screenful-- about triple the average length of posts on my friendlist.

So, what do you think? Would you want to read my improv fiction if only you didn't have to click? Would you be annoyed at having a browser-filling post march up your screen? I suppose another option would be to post the first paragraph or two, with a link to the full story. For some reason that seems strange.

Anyway, three more stories, of varying readability; it's been years since I've thought so much about high school, Matt Damon, or Seattle, respectively. (N.B. The Matt Damon one was a mess.)

#91 | #92 | #93

pastemob fiction #89, 90

2008-09-18T18:12:44Z

I can't tell you if these two are good; I lean toward 'no', but maybe I'm just sad about falling back into old habits I meant to break. #89 is more of a typical path for me to take with an improv story and has some good bits; #90 just feels very, very half-baked.

#89 | #90