What cruel hand plopped you down
in a festering lake of blood
to plod incessantly behind the dead tree,
so near the cliff face?
How does it feel to have a life worth 11k runes?
FILM / Asteroid City (2023) : A Queer, Metamodernist Exploration of Midcentury Alienation / C. Show
The black-and-white framing device of Asteroid City (2023) provides the narrative of the play with context, specifically context surrounding artists, especially queer artists, and their anxieties embedded within their art.
FILM / I Can Feel This Body Dying All Around Me: Maiden, Mother, Crone Figures in The Last Unicorn (1982) / Shari Caplin
Returning to The Last Unicorn with my three-year-old daughter this year, I found that my love of it has not dimmed; my relationship to its symbolism and characters has evolved.
FILM / Superstar / Reece Gritzmacher
Call me Molly Shannon as Mary Catherine Gallagher. You may as well, Father. I'm that high school student with thick-framed glasses and an insatiable need for love and stardom.
Emily acted as guide, her arm around Nathan’s, until they sat opposite each other. Her eyes scanned the menu lazily, already knowing she would get the flauta plate and as many free margaritas as they’d serve her. Nathan’s eyes flickered up to her face then back down to his phone, fingers never ceasing the algorithm-perpetuated doom scroll.
For the 104 episodes before “Mindy Lahiri Is a White Man”, Mindy is established as a strong independent doctor who just happens to be a single mom. “…White Man” comes late in Season 5, just after some other mind-bending episodes. With only a dozen episodes after it, many shows would have been jumping the shark. As the episode starts loading, I realize that we are nearing the end of the run. And I’m already thinking about what show I will stream-binge next in the background.
Film / Captain Canada's Movie Rodeo / March 2024 / Gabriel Ricard
Gabe muses about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind turning 20 years old and reviews some films in the latest Captain Canada’s Movie Rodeo.
FILM / The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006): A Confession To My Chiaki / Jae Min Lee
Unlike myself, who was seemingly entrapped in a helpless limbo of awkward exchanges with my friend, Makoto reverses time to void Chiaki’s romantic confession to Makoto, as Chiaki’s confessions end up lost in a web of alternate timelines.
Three months after my 19th birthday, I was sent home from my freshman year of college for 2 weeks for some kind of virus going around. I spent those two weeks in blissful ignorance with my friends, waiting on an email with a return date from our colleges that would never come.
In addition to being a lovely person, my sister also possesses a great memory, meaning the slightest hint of something you might drop in discussion can turn up in a lovely gift at any time. Staring down at the gleaming rendition of Abe Lincoln I remembered how the last time we spoke I told her about how I was getting into coin collecting after reading an article about this one particular printing of penny that had just sold at an auction for an exorbitant price. This one didn’t have the defect that made that one so valuable, but it was rare nonetheless.
the patterns do not change __ __ __ __
they are misremembered __ __ __ __
cool hand __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
separate heat __ __ __ __ __ __
In Chicago again, but years after, from the airport with my bags all packed, clutching a small quilted pillow and a backpack, my passport and a ticket for Rome in my hand. Blow a kiss. Wave wildly. Say farewell. My grandmother with her butterscotch breath. With her Filipino kisses: her nose pressed to my cheek, one long sniff.
I put my pants on like everyone else: throwing my pants in the air mid-handstand the pastor preached to his congregation. Edward Fortyhands with the monkey’s paw the congregation preached back.
Sarah enters the castle. Carmen takes over and helps her get acclimated. Come to find out, she’s missing from the Center for Wayward Girls. Family died in a fire. A troubled kid bounced around in foster care homes.
What should I do? I know she met the judge. I mentioned him. She couldn’t stop shaking.
Be gentle don’t bump it I’ve got Andromeda centered
In the viewfinder but it will already have shifted slightly
Gliding its trillion stars and their moons in millimeters
Behind the local legends painted ancient on the dome
I arrive 15 minutes early because that is what the flier says to do. The address has brought me down an alleyway between a church and a nail salon. It’s dark and wet. A car pulls up and a man gets out. He is tall and has pecs that push through his t-shirt. He asks me if I’m here for the fitness class. I hold up the flier. He says his name is Derek and tells me to follow him.
but ask me again how much
I care about the other mouths
that could call my name.
My day began with a cup of coffee. A dash of caffeine was what I needed to kick start my day—a software engineer's job involved long hours of staring at the screen, making me susceptible to drowsiness. Lunch would comprise a sandwich filled with oodles of cheese, and dinner would be a burger, besides the alcohol at those local bars during happy hours.
We’d get home, and he’d go back to weaseling money out of Mom
and squandering it on things that were smokable or fit in a syringe,
on what wasn’t bread. The little money he made came from
selling our family’s things: Mom’s jewelry, TV and VCR
swallows actin’ drunk
swimmin’ overhead
chasin’ each other ‘round
like brand new lovers
stumblin’ out the bar at 2 am