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Evan Shively (Perseus271)

I recently went to Las Vegas for the first, and probably only, time in my life. I hadn't read this book in years, and previously, it hadn't even been my favorite Hunter S. Thompson work. Thompson is dearly missed by many people, and on a personal level, I miss him deeply. He spoke to a true astonishment at the complete, unrelenting fuckedupedness of America and her politics, and he did it with a bite that was deserved and unmatched. He probably could have been a very rich super-novelist of popular, uninspired filth. He probably could have been a brilliant novelist of any kind. But he chose to do what he did, and he did it better than any of his generation. Like Mark Twain, he chronicled American stupidity in the tongue of his generation, and he captured it perfectly, from the insanity of the drug experience to the depravity of American politics. For years, no work of his stood out to me as much as Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 or the Gonzo letters. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, to me, wasn't his best work. Then I went to Vegas. Suddenly, all the subtle differences between this and his other work made sense, and I realized that he had captured the true tackiness of the truest tacky city on the entire planet (though Dubai with their fucking Island fantasies are likely to take over soon). Fear &amp; Loathing in Las Vegas IS Las Vegas. It's a nightmare, a joke, a blunder of comical, cosmically-fucked proportions. It's not Sin City. It's where Sin goes to die when it's embarrassed for itself. It's where families go on vacations with ten-year-olds, children who get handed fliers for prostitutes. It's the living, pulsing, filthing embodiment of the Holy Dollar. It's sensory overload on a scale drugs can't equal, a place where you almost have to take a brimful of Valium and a pint of ether to feel normal and not feel utterly ashamed at the state of the human condition. It would make you want to blow your brains out if it weren't so goddamned fun, even if you're gay, you hate gambling and hookers make your brain itch. Yet you never, ever feel like it is evil or subversive or curious in any way. It's just about a buck, and every other blink reminds you of it. This is a place where Hunter S. Thompson could easily mingle with a law enforcement convention and not get noticed. This is a place where a lawyer could leave you with a hotel bill. This is a place where no questions get asked because no answers would make sense, and the only thing profound about any of it is that you know, on a gut level, that all the oil used to produce all the plastic used to build that city no doubt funded an island shaped like Australia that was built off the coast of the UAE over the weekend. This novel will never cease to be important, and one day, as a cultural artifact of a forgotten culture from a forgotten nation, it will be one of the most important anthropological pieces in existence. I wish he'd survived the Bush administration. We need this man.NC

Austrian playwright and novelist (1931-1989)

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980. Many of the tales within are retold in The Silmarillion, albeit in modified forms; the work also contains a summary of the events of The Lord of the Rings told from a less personal perspective.Unlike The Silmarillion, for which the narrative fragments were modified to connect into a consistent and coherent work, the Unfinished Tales are presented as Tolkien left them, with little more than names changed (the author having had a confusing habit of trying out different names for a character while writing a draft). Thus some of these are incomplete stories, while others are collections of information about Middle-earth. Each tale is followed by a long series of notes explaining inconsistencies and obscure points.

”One night I had a frightful dream in which I met my grandmother under the sea. She lived in a phosphorescent palace of many terraces, with gardens of strange leprous corals and grotesque brachiate efflorescences, and welcomed me with a warmth that may have been sardonic. She had changed--as those who take to the water change--and told me she had never died.”It might have been the uncertain light from the flickering fire casting deceptive shadows across my friend’s face or maybe it was the way the lush, aromatic smoke from our smoldering cigars circled around his head, but I could swear that I was seeing changes morphing the features of Robert’s face as he told me his tale.He showed me a piece of jewelry with grotesque depictions of insidious looking creatures engraved on its surface. I rubbed the engravings vigorously with my thumb as if I could smear the gold and blur their hideous features. “I’ve seen them.”I gave him a startled look. “You mean in your nightmares like the fantastical one about your grandmother.”He sighed and drained his glass of cognac and signaled into the darkness for another. “Jeffrey, you are my only hope. The only person I know who could even begin to fathom what I have seen, what I have experienced. Out of all my friends, you are the most likely to be able to set aside what you think are absolutes and allow me the courtesy of objectively considering that what I’m telling you could possibly be true.” I nestled back into the oxblood leather of my chair. I considered the set of his face as best I could. His eyes seemed larger suddenly, black as if the pupils had encroached outside of their normal sphere. A waiter appeared, dressed in dark colors, barely distinguishable from the surrounding darkness except for a white napkin tucked in his belt. He dropped off two more cognacs and evaporated back into the midnight recesses of the room. I’d barely touched the first, but I felt that this might be a fine time to add some fortification, given that I felt an uncontrollable, insane urge to grab one of the decorative shields from the wall of the room so that I would have something between me and the words that were about to be shared. I flicked a trembling hand in the air. My hand had a pale luminescence as if I were reaching for a torch burning under water. “I appreciate your faith in me, dear Robert, please do continue.”He flicked the piece of jewelry with his finger. “These images are mere stick figures gouged into a cave wall by an ancient man when one compares them to what they actually look like.””I think their predominant colour was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four.” “You’ve seen them yourself? If anyone else were describing these creatures to me, I’d think they’d been reading too many Penny Dreadfuls”“I nearly didn’t escape them.”He held up a hand to quiet the questions bubbling to my lips. “I discovered that this piece came from Innsmouth, Massachusetts. My curiosity was peaked as to the origin of the artwork. Little did I know that I was being pulled by more sinister forces than just my own natural interest in the extraordinary.”“What a peculiar statement, Robert. Are you saying that something was compelling you against your will to go to Innsmouth?”I watched his hand reach out for his glass. The fingers, as they wrapped around the round curve of the cup, were deformed. It took me a moment to ascertain that the fingers were misshapen by what appeared to be webbing.I gasped.“What’s the matter, Jeffrey?”I looked up at his face and then looked down at the hand again. Robert’s hand now looked as normal as my own. I laughed weakly. “Your tale of fantastical creatures has permeated my brain with disturbing apparitions.”Robert leaned forward. “Do I look alright?”He did, too pale, the standard problem with academics. We all began to look like cave creatures after long bouts of research. Whatever morphing I was seeing was merely my own hallucinations. I was starting to wonder if I’d ingested something that was unbalancing my vision. “You look fine, Robert.”“I’ve been seeing things in the mirror. The Innsmouth look as they say. It is as if something has been changing in me. I do wonder about my own sanity. I’ve been researching my family tree and have discovered that I am descended from a prominent Innsmouth family.”“What an odd coincidence that is," I exclaimed. “I’m beginning to believe that none of this has been happenstance, but more to do with predestination.” “More like morbid curiosity, my old friend,” I said, but doubt was beginning to hang a heavy stone around my own assurances. “I’m going back to Innsmouth. I do think that I will bring my uncle with me. You know the one that has been incarcerated for mental illness. I’ve been having thoughts of liberating him.”“Liberating the insane? Is that wise?” “Maybe he is not insane. Maybe he is just not where he is supposed to be.”“You are worrying me, Robert.”He sighed heavily. “It is all so complicated, but only because I keep denying what needs to be done. I’ve been keeping notes of my research and of my dreams. I’m leaving them with this scholar in Providence, Rhode Island, named H. P. Lovecraft. We’ve been corresponding for some time. A strange young man with a voracious appetite for anything I might know about these creatures.” After we parted that night, I never saw Robert Olmstead again. After months of hearing nothing from my old friend, I decided to take the train to Providence and see if this Lovecraft fellow had seen or heard anything. I knocked and battered at his door, but he refused to come out to see me. His windows were covered with what looked like sheets of metal. I found a place where a hole had been bored through the window frame. As I peered through the aperture, I was momentarily shocked to find myself looking eyeball to eyeball with him. His eye widened and then fell away from me. I heard this awful clatter followed by what sounded like terror induced moaning.I heard him scream something odd...something that sounded like Cthulhu. Though he screamed it several times, I’m still not sure I heard properly what he was calling out. After several more minutes of pounding on the door, extorting him, and menacing him with all forms of retribution for not helping me, I finally gave up. There was nothing for it. I was going to have to go to Innsmouth.The man who checked me into the hotel didn’t look right. ”He had a queer narrow head with a flat nose and bulgy, stary eyes that never seemed to shut. His skin was rough and scabby and the sides of his neck were shrivelled and creased up.” He had a half drowned, dropped on his head too many times look about him that sent a shiver up my spine. “Have you seen my friend, Robert Olmstead?” I gave him a brief description. He looked at me for longer than was necessary and finally shook his head. “Listen, you degenerate rogue, I can tell you are lying.” I slapped my hand on the counter for emphasis which made him jump back. The first look of mild intelligence crossed his amphibian features. He walked around the counter, picked up my valise, and started up the stairs. I weighed my options, but decided it was late and probably the best thing for me would be to rest and recuperate from the long hours spent on the train. ”It would perhaps have been easier to keep my thoughts from disturbing topics had the room not been so gruesomely musty. As it was, the lethal mustiness blended hideously with the town’s general fishy odour and persistently focussed one’s fancy on death and decay.” To further discombobulate my already acute discomfort, the bolt for the door was missing. I wedged a rickety chair under the door knob. The chair looked old enough that Captain John Smith may have put the grooves in the seat with his very own buttocks. I didn’t feel comfortable enough to undress or even pull my shoes off. I expected at any moment to have some horrendous beast burst through the door intent on my eminent destruction. I tossed and turned. The musty smell of the room and the general stuffiness of the high humidity was driving me to distraction. Finally out of desperation, I decided to leave the uncertain safety of my room for a brisk walk around the town. Few lights offered any help in determining a surefooted way. Luckily, the moon was full and illuminated a choice of paths. I decided that a walk down to the shoreline was probably my only hope of relaxation. The smell of the salt air did clear my head. I peered out at the water and thought about the stories that Robert had told me. They couldn’t possibly be true. My fear was that his mind was cracking and that the unfortunate circumstances of his uncle might be one he currently shared. I noticed that the waves were being disturbed, that something, possibly wreckage from some unfortunate vessel, was coming ashore.”For a closer glance I saw that the moonlit waters between the reef and the shore were far from empty. They were alive with a teeming horde of shapes swimming inward toward the town; and even at my vast distance and in my single moment of perception I could tell that the bobbing heads and flailing arms were alien and aberrant in a way scarcely to be expressed or consciously formulated.”Fear gripped my spine. I wanted to scream, but only an inhuman gurgle was able to traverse the constriction of my throat. My legs, fortunately, responded, and soon I was fleeing at a helter skelter pace up the pathway to the hotel. There were several of them waiting for me outside the hotel, but I flailed my way through them, shuddering every time my fist or my boot came in contact with their foul, nauseating flesh. I ran down the road and out of town. After my stamina began to fail, I crawled into a ditch and shivered all night long expecting at any moment for a webbed hand to reach for me. I must say, I feel no end of guilty torment over my decision, but I gave up on my quest to find Robert. Once back in civilisation, I returned to my books. I occasionally happened upon some mention of trouble at Innsmouth, but my eyes would always blur before I could read more than a few words. My hand refused to continue to hold the newspaper. I pined for my good friend, Olmstead, but I feared that if I ever did see him again, he would be a creature intent on making me immortal in the most grotesque of forms. If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.comI also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten

The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide; his ascent of Mount Purgatory and encounter with his dead love, Beatrice; and finally, his arrival in Heaven. Examining questions of faith, desire and enlightenment, the poem is a brilliantly nuanced and moving allegory of human redemption. Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 and belonged to a noble but impoverished family. His life was divided by political duties and poetry, the most of famous of which was inspired by his meeting with Bice Portinari, whom he called Beatrice,including La Vita Nuova and The Divine Comedy. He died in Ravenna in 1321.

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is a cult classic children’s book by Judi Barrett along with illustrations by Ron Barrett and it is about a magical town called Chewandswallow (chew and swallow, get it?) where food just falls from the sky and provides people with everything they need. But what happens when there is too much food falling from the sky? “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is definitely one unusual and creative book ever created for children!Judi Barrett has certainly done an excellent job at writing this story as it is full of creativity and excitement! I mean what other book talks about a town where food just falls from the sky and people just eat the food from the sky like nothing? That is what I really loved about this book since I never read a book about food falling from the sky and that proves just how imaginative Judi Barrett made this book from any other children’s book! Ron Barrett’s illustrations are extremely creative and gorgeous, especially when he illustrates the actual family’s life in black and white while the illustrations of the town of Chewandswallow is shown fully in color, which truly brings out the creativity of the make believe town. I also love the illustrations of the different kinds of food that falls from the sky, especially of the images of a dozen hamburgers falling from a storm cloud as it looked quite unusual.All in all, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is a truly brilliant book for children who are food lovers and just loves book about pure imagination! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the book might be too lengthy for smaller children and there are some intense scenes with the falling food covering the town that might scare younger children.\
  Did you watch this movie yet?\
Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

Dive into this classic from the singular mind of Edgar Allan Poe, who is widely regarded as the master of short horror fiction. "The Fall of the House of Usher" recounts the terrible events that befall the last remaining members of the once-illustrious Usher clan before it is -- quite literally -- rent asunder. With amazing economy, Poe plunges the reader into a state of deliciously agonizing suspense. It's a must-read for fans of the golden era of horror writing.

Published in 1850, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart is one of the best known and most memorable short stories ever written. Since there are dozens of commentaries and reviews here and elsewhere on the internet, in the spirit of freshness, I will take a particular focus: obsession with an eye or eyes and compare Poe’s tale with a few others. In The Painter of Eyes by Jean Richepin, we encounter an obscure artist who sells his soul to the Devil in order to paint at least one masterpiece. There is a bit of writing attached to the corner of his great painting that reads: “The Devil has informed me as to the secret of painting eyes. That secret consists of decanting the life from the models one wishes to represent and fixing that life on the canvas. In doing that, one slowly kills the people whose portrait one paints. It is sufficient for me to know that I have made this masterpiece. I commend my soul to the prayers, in case the Evil One does not leave me the time.” The writing ends abruptly since death strikes the artist in mid-sentence - his masterpiece is a self-portrait.In The Gaze another story by Jean Richepin, the narrator peers through the window of a cell at a madman holding his arms spread, head uplifted, transfixed by a point on a wall near the ceiling. The doctor-alienist relates to the narrator how this inmate is obsessed with the gaze of eyes from an artist's portrait. "For there was something in that gaze, believe me, that could trouble not only the already-enfeebled brain of a man afflicted with general paralysis, but even a sound and solid mind." Turns out, the narrator discovers the doctor is also driven mad by these eyes. So much so, the doctor took a scissors to the painting. We read: “In front of me, a fragment of a painting, cut out of a canvas with scissors, showed me a pair of eyes: the eyes of the portrait that the alienist said that he had lacerated, the eyes darting that famous gaze – in which, indeed, the very soul of gold was alive.”The Enigmatic Eye by Moacyr Scliar is a most imaginative tale of a wealthy old man who becomes infatuated with a portrait of an aristocratic gentleman in the town’s museum. And what makes this portrait so infatuating? Why, of course – the gaze of the right eye, which is truly enigmatic. The old man has his close friend steal the portrait from the museum so he can put it in his attic and sit in front of the painting, pondering the enigmatic gaze round the clock. The servants think the old man mad but he could care less – he has exactly what he wants – the portrait with its enigmatic eye right in his very own attic. Unfortunately, something unexpected happens. Due to the attic’s heat and light, the painting begins to fade and then, over time, vanishes. The old man concludes there is only one thing for him to do – he buys some brushes and oils and begins re-painting the portrait, starting with the enigmatic eye. Turning now to Poe’s tale, the narrator insists he should not be taken for a madman; rather, he is dreadfully nervous causing his senses, especially his sense of hearing, to be heightened and sharpened. He goes on to convey how once the idea of killing the old man of the house entered his brain, he was haunted by the idea day and night. And why would he want to kill this old man, a man who never wronged him? We read, “I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture – a pale blue eye, with a film over it.” What is it about a human eye, painted or real, when seen by someone who is mentally unstable? Perhaps part of the answer is given by contemporary Argentine author, Ernesto Sabato, when he says that hell is being the object of the gaze of another. Every one of Poe’s sentence is sheer perfection, building tension and suspense. For example, we read how the narrator, lantern in hand, secretly peers in at the sleeping old man at midnight. But then, one night, a noise wakes the old man and he sits bolt upright in bed. And what does the narrator do? We read, “I resolved to open a little – a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it – you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily – until, at length a single dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye. It was open – wide, wide open – and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness – all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow of my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man’s face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot.”Anybody familiar with the story knows the narrator’s actions and emotions escalate from this point. What I find particularly fascinating is how the narrator’s obsession and fixation with the eye, once there is no more eye to fixate upon, quickly shifts into a heightened sense of feeling and, of course, heightened hearing. What a tale; what an author – a masterpiece of suspense and horror.*The quotes from the two tales by Jean Richepin are taken from The Crazy Corner a collection of stories translated by Brian Stableford and published by Black Coat Press.

In Gustave Doré, one of the most prolific and successful book illustrators of the late 19h century, Edgar Allan Poe's renowned poem The Raven found perhaps its most perfect artistic interpreter. Doré's dreamlike, otherworldly style, tinged with melancholy, seems ideally matched to the bleak despair of Poe's celebrated work, among the most popular American poems ever written.This volume reprints all 26 of Doré's detailed, masterly engravings from a rare 19th-century edition of the poem. Relevant lines from the poem are printed on facing pages and the complete text is also included. Admirers of Doré will find ample evidence here of his characteristic ability to capture the mood and meaning of a work of literature in striking imagery; lovers of The Raven will delight in seeing its mournful musing on love and loss given dramatic pictorial form.

That The Illustrated Man has remained in print since being published in 1951 is fair testimony to the universal appeal of Ray Bradbury's work. Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival, later reworked into The October Country), it is a marvelous, if mostly dark, quilt of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now. --Stanley WiaterContents:· Prologue: The Illustrated Man · ss * · The Veldt [“The World the Children Made”] · ss The Saturday Evening Post Sep 23 ’50 · Kaleidoscope · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct ’49 · The Other Foot · ss New Story Magazine Mar ’51 · The Highway [as by Leonard Spalding] · ss Copy Spr ’50 · The Man · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Feb ’49 · The Long Rain [“Death-by-Rain”] · ss Planet Stories Sum ’50 · The Rocket Man · ss Maclean’s Mar 1 ’51 · The Fire Balloons [“‘In This Sign...’”] · ss Imagination Apr ’51 · The Last Night of the World · ss Esquire Feb ’51 · The Exiles [“The Mad Wizards of Mars”] · ss Maclean’s Sep 15 ’49; F&amp;SF Win ’50 · No Particular Night or Morning · ss * · The Fox and the Forest [“To the Future”] · ss Colliers May 13 ’50 · The Visitor · ss Startling Stories Nov ’48 · The Concrete Mixer · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Apr ’49 · Marionettes, Inc. [Marionettes, Inc.] · ss Startling Stories Mar ’49 · The City [“Purpose”] · ss Startling Stories Jul ’50 · Zero Hour · ss Planet Stories Fll ’47 · The Rocket [“Outcast of the Stars”] · ss Super Science Stories Mar ’50 · Epilogue · aw *

The Lesser Key of Solomon, also known as Clavicula Salomonis Regis or Lemegeton, is an anonymous grimoire on demonology. It was compiled in the mid-17th century, mostly from materials a couple of centuries older. It is divided into five books—the Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria.The Latin term goetia refers to the evocation of demons or evil spirits. It is derived from the Ancient Greek word γοητεία (goēteía) meaning "witchcraft" or "jugglery".In medieval and Renaissance Europe, goetia was generally considered evil and heretical, in contrast to theurgia (theurgy) and magia naturalis (natural magic), which were sometimes considered more noble. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, writes "Now the parts of ceremonial magic are goetia and theurgia. Goetia is unfortunate, by the commerces of unclean spirits made up of the rites of wicked curiosities, unlawful charms, and deprecations, and is abandoned and execrated by all laws."

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  Millie McDeevit screamed a screamSo loud it made her eyebrows steam.She screamed so loudHer jawbone broke,Her tongue caught fire,Her nostrils smoked...\
Poor Screamin' Millie is just one of the unforgettable characters in this wondrous new book of poems and drawings by the creator of Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic. Here you will also meet Allison Beals and her twenty-five eels; Danny O'Dare, the dancin' bear; the Human Balloon; and Headphone Harold.So come, wander through the Nose Garden, ride the Little Hoarse, eat in the Strange Restaurant, and let the magic of Shel Silverstein open your eyes and tickle your mind.

An extraordinary and surreal art book, this edition has been redesigned by the author and includes new illustrations. Ever since the Codex Seraphinianus was first published in 1981, the book has been recognized as one of the strangest and most beautiful art books ever made. This visual encyclopedia of an unknown world written in an unknown language has fueled much debate over its meaning. Written for the information age and addressing the import of coding and decoding in genetics, literary criticism, and computer science, the Codex confused, fascinated, and enchanted a generation.While its message may be unclear, its appeal is obvious: it is a most exquisite artifact. Blurring the distinction between art book and art object, this anniversary edition-redesigned by the author and featuring new illustrations-presents this unique work in a new, unparalleled light. With the advent of new media and forms of communication and continuous streams of information, the Codex is now more relevant and timely than ever. A special limited and numbered deluxe edition that includes a signed print is also available.

The brilliant, bestselling, landmark novel that tells the story of the Buendia family, and chronicles the irreconcilable conflict between the desire for solitude and the need for love—in rich, imaginative prose that has come to define an entire genre known as "magical realism."

The terrifyingly prophetic novel of a post-literate future.Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.The classic dystopian novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization’s enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.Bradbury’s powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which, decades on from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.--back cover

Last night while I lay thinking here Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear And pranced and partied all night long And sang their same old Whatif song: Whatif I flunk that test?Whatif green hair grows on my chest?Whatif nobody likes me?Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?...This 20th anniversary of Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic includes a CD of highlights from his Grammy Award-winning album.Here in the attic of Shel Silverstein you will find Backward Bill, Sour Face Ann, the Meehoo with an Exactlywatt, and the Polar Bear in the Frigidaire. You will talk with Broiled Face, and find out what happens when Somebody steals your knees, you get caught by the Quick-Digesting Gink, a Mountain snores, and They Put a Brassiere on the Camel.From the creator of the beloved poetry collections Where the Sidewalk Ends and Falling Up, here is another wondrous book of poems and drawings.

From the celebrated poet Yrsa Daley-Ward, a poignant collection of autobiographical poems about the heart, life, and the inner self.   Bone. Visceral. Close to. Stark.  The poems in Yrsa Daley-Ward's collection bone are exactly that: reflections on a particular life honed to their essence--so clear and pared-down, they become universal.  From navigating the oft competing worlds of religion and desire, to balancing society's expectations with the raw experience of being a woman in the world; from detailing the experiences of growing up as a first generation black British woman, to working through situations of dependence and abuse; from finding solace in the echoing caverns of depression and loss, to exploring the vulnerability and redemption in falling in love, each of the raw and immediate poems in Daley-Ward's bone resonate to the core of what it means to be human. "You will come away bruised. You will come away bruisedbut this will give you poetry." 

Featuring a deep mobster-driven narrative packed with both behind-the-wheel and on-foot action, Mafia 2 is the sequel fans have been clamoring for. Like the ori...

Noita is a platform roguelite game developed by Nolla Games. Players control a sorcerer that can create and cast spells in order to defeat enemies named after Finnish mythological creatures. The game takes place in a 2D world with procedurally generated areas where every pixel is physically simulated. It was released in early access for Microsoft Windows on 24 September 2019. Noita left early access as the 1.0 version was released on 15 October 2020.

One Finger Death Punch is a beat 'em up video game developed and produced by Canadian indie studio Silver Dollar Games. It was originally released for Xbox 360 on June 24, 2013 and Microsoft Windows on March 3, 2014, then was ported to Android on March 25, 2015 and ported to iOS on June 12, 2015. The game has two main modes; a campaign and survival mode. In the campaign, the player must navigate a map and beat all of the levels whilst the survival mode has the player fight as long as they can before dying.

Super Hexagon is a minimal action game by Terry Cavanagh, with music by Chipzel....

In Hand of Fate, players collect equipment, items, artifacts and enemies as in-game collectible cards in a card based RPG; then play their deck, bringing to vid...

[Metacritic's 2008 PS3 Game of the Year; Also known as "GTA IV"] What does the American Dream mean today? For Niko Belic, fresh off the boat from Europe. It's...

This category contains articles that have been rated as "Draft-Class" by the Video games WikiProject. Articles are automatically placed in the appropriate sub-category when a rating is given; please see the assessment instructions for more information.

Mini Metro is a strategy simulation game about designing a subway map for a growing city. Draw lines between stations and start your trains running. Keep your l...

Grow Home is an adventure platform video game developed by Ubisoft Reflections and published by Ubisoft. It was released for Microsoft Windows on February 4, 2015, and for PlayStation 4 on September 1, 2015. The game follows a robot named B.U.D., who is tasked with growing a plant that will oxygenate its home planet. Players explore an open world, moving B.U.D. and individually using each of its arms to climb and interact with objects.Initially developed by a small team at Ubisoft Reflections for internal release, the game became popular between co-workers and was eventually planned for official release, confirmed in a blog post by Ubisoft on January 22, 2015. It was created using the Unity game engine, and contains procedural animation and physics-based gameplay, which allow the player's movements to adapt to the game's environment.

Destroy All Humans! is based directly on the console game of the same name, starring the big-headed alien Crypto who has been sent to Earth with a singular miss...

As the sole survivor of Vault 111, you enter a world destroyed by nuclear war. Every second is a fight for survival, and every choice is yours. Only you can reb...

The Touhou Project (Japanese: 東方Project, Hepburn: Tōhō Purojekuto, lit. "Eastern Project"), often referred to simply as Touhou (東方), is a bullet hell shoot 'em up video game series created by one-man Japanese dōjin soft developer Team Shanghai Alice. Since 1995, Jun'ya "ZUN" Ōta has independently developed programming, graphics, writing, and music for the series, self-publishing 22 titles as of August 2019. In addition to the bullet hell games, Team Shanghai Alice has produced six official spin-off fighting games in collaboration with developer Twilight Frontier, as well as various related print works and music albums.The setting of the Touhou Project is Gensokyo, a "fantasy land" sealed from the outside world and primarily inhabited by humans and yōkai, legendary creatures from Japanese folklore. Reimu Hakurei, the main character of the series and the maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, is often tasked with resolving supernatural "incidents" caused by antagonistic yōkai and others. The first five titles were developed for the Japanese NEC PC-9800 computer series, with the first, Highly Responsive to Prayers, released in August 1997; danmaku (弾幕 "barrage", lit. "bullet curtain") mechanics were introduced in the second game, Story of Eastern Wonderland. The release of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil in August 2002 marked a shift to Microsoft Windows, bringing the series to a wider audience. Numerous sequels followed, including several spin-offs from the traditional bullet hell format.

Ib is a 2012 freeware horror video game published and developed by kouri for Microsoft Windows. Players control the titular character from a top-down perspective trapped in an eldritch art museum, later revealed to be titled the "Fabricated World", where they meet the characters Garry and Mary. Together, they make the goal of escaping the gallery and returning to the real world.

Half-Life combines great storytelling in the tradition of Stephen King with intense action and advanced technology to create a frighteningly realistic world whe...

Tetris (Russian: Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appropriation of the rights in the late 1980s. After a significant period of publication by Nintendo, the rights reverted to Pajitnov in 1996, who co-founded the Tetris Company with Henk Rogers to manage licensing.In Tetris, players complete lines by moving differently shaped pieces (tetrominoes), which descend onto the playing field. The completed lines disappear and grant the player points, and the player can proceed to fill the vacated spaces. The game ends when the uncleared lines reach the top of the playing field. The longer the player can delay this outcome, the higher their score will be. In multiplayer games, players must last longer than their opponents; in certain versions, players can inflict penalties on opponents by completing a significant number of lines. Some versions add variations on the rules, such as three-dimensional displays or a system for reserving pieces.

Ao Oni is a freeware horror game developed by "noprops". It was first released in Japan in November 2008. The game was later adapted into a series of light novels and manga by Kenji Kuroda.

Katamari Damacy is a third-person puzzle-action video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan in March 2004 and in North America in September 2004. Designer Keita Takahashi struggled to pitch the game to Namco's superiors, eventually seeking student aid from the Namco Digital Hollywood Game Laboratory to develop the project for less than US$ 1 million. As director, Takahashi emphasized concepts of novelty, ease of understanding, and enjoyment.

Lethal League is a competitive projectile fighting game where the goal is to launch a ball into the face of your opponent. Lethal League first gained notoriety...

After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.

A man afraid to fly must ensure that a plane lands safely after the pilots become sick.

King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.

Con artists plan to fleece an eccentric family using an accomplice who claims to be their long-lost uncle.

When a shy groom practices his wedding vows in the inadvertent presence of a deceased young woman, she rises from the grave assuming he has married her.

2005 British-American stop-motion-animated fantasy film

The discovery of a massive river of ectoplasm and a resurgence of spectral activity allows the staff of Ghostbusters to revive the business.

An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades.

Three former parapsychology professors set up shop as a unique ghost removal service.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy(sometimes referred to asHG2G,HHGTTG,H2G2, ortHGttG) is a comedy science fiction series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, including stage shows, novels, comic books, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 video game, and 2005 feature film.The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxyhas become an international multi-media phenomenon; the novels are the most widely distributed, having been translated into more than 30 languages by 2005. The first novel,The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy(1979), was ranked fourth on the BBC’s The Big Read poll. The sixth novel,And Another Thing, was written by Eoin Colfer with additional unpublished material by Douglas Adams. In 2017, BBC Radio 4 announced a 40th-anniversary celebration with Dirk Maggs, one of the original producers, in charge. The first of six new episodes was broadcast on 8 March 2018.

Three teens discover that their neighbor's house is really a living, breathing, scary monster.

Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.

1993 animated film directed by Henry Selick

When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.

2004 Japanese animated film by Hayao Miyazaki

A misunderstood boy takes on ghosts, zombies and grown-ups to save his town from a centuries-old curse.

An orphan who lives with his two cruel aunts befriends anthropomorphic bugs who live inside a giant peach, and they embark on a journey to New York City.

1996 animated film directed by Henry Selick

An adventurous 11-year-old girl finds another world that is a strangely idealized version of her frustrating home, but it has sinister secrets.

Set in Japan, Isle of Dogs follows a boy's odyssey in search of his lost dog.

In a small town in Massachusetts, a group of friends, fascinated by the internet lore of the Slender Man, attempt to prove that he doesn't actually exist - until one of them mysteriously goes missing.

In a dangerous post-apocalyptic world, an ailing father defends his son as they slowly travel to the sea.

In a corrupt, greed-fueled world, a powerful alchemist leads a messianic character and seven materialistic figures to the Holy Mountain, where they hope to achieve enlightenment.

A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.

This page lists past lineups for all past UK and US All Tomorrow's Parties music festivals, as well as other festivals the ATP organisation has been involved with such as the Pitchfork Music Festival and Primavera Sound. Unlike most music festivals, ATP lineups are chosen by a curator, usually an artist or musician.7-8-9/4/2000. Lineup:Aerial M, ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Alfie, Aphex Twin, Arab Strap, Bardo Pond, Bobby Gillespie's Hair, Clinic, Ganger, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Hood, Labradford + Pan American, Laika, Ligament, Mice Parade, Mogwai, Motor Life Co., Pan American, Plaid, Plone, Pram, Radar Bros., Scott 4, Shellac, Sigur Rós, Snow Patrol, Sonic Youth, Sophia, Stereolab, Super Furry Animals, Tarwater, Ten Benson, The Delgados, The For Carnation, The High Llamas, Two Dollar Guitar, Wire

"Under Pressure" is a song by the British rock band Queen and singer David Bowie. Originally released as a single in October 1981, it was later included on Queen's 1982 album Hot Space. The song reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Queen's second number-one hit in their home country (after 1975's "Bohemian Rhapsody", which topped the chart for nine weeks) and Bowie's third (after the 1975 reissue of "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes" in 1980). The song charted in the top 10 in more than ten countries around the world, and peaked at No. 29 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in January 1982.The song has been described as a "monster rock track that stood out" on the Hot Space album, as well as "an incredibly powerful and poignant pop song". It was listed at number 31 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s, and voted the second best collaboration of all time in a poll by Rolling Stone magazine. It was played live at every Queen concert from 1981 until the end of the band's touring career in 1986. Live recordings appear on the Queen live albums Queen Rock Montreal and Live at Wembley '86. The song was included on some editions of Queen's first Greatest Hits compilations, such as the original 1981 Elektra release in the US. It is included on the band's compilation albums Greatest Hits II, Classic Queen, and Absolute Greatest as well as Bowie compilations such as Best of Bowie (2002), The Platinum Collection (2005), Nothing Has Changed (2014), Legacy (2016), and Re:Call 3 (2017).

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard are an Australian rock band formed in 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria. The band's current lineup consists of Stu Mackenzie, Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Cook Craig, Joey Walker, Lucas Harwood and Michael Cavanagh. They are known for exploring multiple genres, staging energetic live shows and building a prolific discography, having released 23 studio albums, 14 live albums, three compilations and three EPs.Their second EP, Willoughby's Beach, and debut album, 12 Bar Bruise, primarily blended surf music and garage rock, and were released on Flightless, the band's own label. Their second album, a "psychedelic spaghetti western" titled Eyes Like the Sky, features spoken-word narration by Broderick Smith. Float Along – Fill Your Lungs, released later in the year, and the 2014 albums Oddments and I'm in Your Mind Fuzz, saw the band expand on their psychedelic sound. In 2015, they drew on elements of jazz fusion and progressive rock with Quarters!, and also released the folk-inspired Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, recorded almost entirely using acoustic instruments. Nonagon Infinity features nine interconnected tracks that form an infinite loop and won the ARIA Award for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album.

Robert Pickering "Bo" Burnham is an American comedian, musician, actor, and filmmaker. His work combines elements of filmmaking with comedy genres such as music, sketch, and stand-up, often with a dramatic or tragic twist.

Comedy Bang! Bang! is a weekly comedy audio podcast, which originally began airing as a radio show on May 1, 2009. Popularly known as Humanity's Podcast, it is hosted by writer and comedian Scott Aukerman, best known for his work on the 1990s HBO sketch comedy program Mr. Show with Bob and David, creating and hosting the Comedy Bang! Bang! TV series, and co-founding the weekly Comedy Death-Ray stage show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood.

The offbeat adventures of Courage, a cowardly dog who must overcome his own fears to heroically defend his unknowing farmer owners from all kinds of dangers, paranormal events and menaces that appear around their land.

American horror animated television series

Adventure Time is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (John DiMaggio)—a dog with the magical power to change size and shape at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, where they interact with Princess Bubblegum (Hynden Walch), the Ice King (Tom Kenny), Marceline (Olivia Olson), BMO (Niki Yang), and others. The series is based on a 2007 short film that aired on Nicktoons. After the short became a viral hit on the Internet, Nickelodeon's executives passed on its option before Cartoon Network commissioned a full-length series from Fred Seibert and Ward, which was previewed on March 11, 2010. The same year, the series premiered on Cartoon Network on April 5, and ended its eight-year run on September 3, 2018.

Xavier is a faun-like wanderer/seeker who is traveling across the land to find out the truth about his mysterious origin. Facing rednecks, inflicting righteousness and preaching about the 'strong, silent types' and morality, this her

Eric Andre tries to host a talk show in a bizarre environment, where he is sometimes the player of pranks and sometimes the victim.

Pop culture references fly thick and fast as stop-motion animation is featured in sketches lampooning everything from television movies to comic books.

American stop-motion animated comedy television series

In a surreal world, a large maximum security prison, which houses thousands of dangerous inmates is run by an eccentric warden and his equally odd staff.

The bizarre escapades of pseudo-heroic scientist Dr. Rusty Venture, his competent, high-strung bodyguard, and his two overenthusiastic sons.

Chronicles the bizarre lives and extended world of the residents of Free Country, USA, primarily a dim-witted athlete and a narcissistic wrestleman.

Camp Lazlo is an American animated television series created by Joe Murray for Cartoon Network. The series follows Lazlo, an anthropomorphic spider monkey that goes to a camp called "Camp Kidney", a Boy Scout-like summer camp in Pimpleback Mountains. Lazlo resides in the "Jelly Bean" cabin with his fellow Bean Scouts; Raj, an Indian elephant, and Clam, a pygmy rhinoceros. Lazlo is often at odds with his pessimistic camp leader, Scoutmaster Lumpus, but usually gets along well with the second-in-command, Slinkman and other campers. Camp Kidney sits just across the lake from Acorn Flats, which is home to the campsite of the all-female Squirrel Scouts. Camp Lazlo was one of the first Cartoon Network Studios series produced in a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, despite originally being broadcast in the full screen aspect ratio of 4:3.

A young Xiaolin monk named Omi with a giant yellow head leads a trio of other students to collect powerful items known as Shen Gong Wu while battling the evil Jack Spicer who is also after the artifacts

Toonami ( too-NAH-mee) is an American late-night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese anime and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment. The name is a portmanteau of the words "cartoon" and "tsunami". It currently broadcasts every Saturday night from 12 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. ET/PT.Toonami initially ran as an afternoon and evening block on Cartoon Network and was primarily aimed at boys aged 9–14. In its original run from 1997 to 2008, the block was known for showcasing action genre anime that became widely popular with American audiences. Toonami is recognized for its distinctive space-themed backdrop, anime music videos, drum and bass-flavored soundtrack, and its robot host named T.O.M. (short for Toonami Operations Module).

The adventures of a boy with a magic chalk stick that enables him to enter a world of chalk drawings and alter its reality at will.

A team of five teenaged superheroes save the world from many villains around their city while experiencing things normal teens face today.

Follow the adventures of Dave, one incredibly unusual barbarian, who's more interested in raising his family and cooking yummy gourmet meals than conquering new lands.

The off-the-wall, day-to-day life of three friends who have exactly the same name.

Canadian-American animated comedy television series

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy is an American animated television series created by Maxwell Atoms for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. It follows Billy, an extremely dimwitted, happy-go-lucky boy, and Mandy, a cynical, remorseless girl, who, after winning a limbo game to save Billy's pet hamster, gain Grim, the mighty Grim Reaper, as their "best friend forever". Grim, who is reluctant to serve the two children, has access to supernatural items, spells, and other abilities that often lead Billy and Mandy to interact with otherworldly environments, characters, or situations.Billy & Mandy began as a series of segments on Grim & Evil, from which it was a spin-off, along with sister series Evil Con Carne, on August 24, 2001. Although the 2003 episodes were produced for Grim & Evil, the show ran as a separate series from June 13, 2003, to November 9, 2007, on Cartoon Network. Two made-for-TV movies, Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, which aired on March 30, 2007, and Billy & Mandy: Wrath of the Spider Queen, which also aired on July 6, 2007. A crossover special with fellow Cartoon Network series, Codename: Kids Next Door, entitled "The Grim Adventures of the KND", aired on November 11, 2007. One more made-for-TV movie, Underfist: Halloween Bash, intended to serve as a pilot for a new spin-off series, aired on October 12, 2008. During its run, the series won two Emmy Awards and one Annie Award, with nominations for one Daytime Emmy Award, three Golden Reel Awards, and two other Annie Awards. Billy & Mandy has also been made into a video game as well as various licensed merchandise.

A foul-mouthed nerd reviews bad video games.

The staff of an Army hospital in the Korean War find that laughter is the best way to deal with their situation.

American TV series about the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital

Sight gags and non-sequiturs dominate this spoof of police dramas. The six episodes formed the basis for the very successful "Naked Gun" film franchise.

The original surreal sketch comedy showcase for the Monty Python troupe.

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