David Vienna's Blog, page 12
April 4, 2025
Trump is the White Lotus season 3 of presidents.
Trump is the White Lotus season 3 of presidents.
“I read so people will leave me alone.”
𝔞𝔟𝔬𝔲𝔫𝔡𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔩𝔦𝔣𝔢
‘We read to know we are not alone” - C.S. Lewis
“I read so people will leave me alone.”
—me
Welp. Business is booming at the mistake factory
Welp. Business is booming at the mistake factory
do you still perchance have the stories about the man eating slugs
Probably. Somewhere. I have boxes of journals packed away and it's likely in one of those.
If you care, I once did a recap of what I could remember of the story in an older post, so I pasted it here along with the reason I never perused publishing the whole thing anywhere.
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A small-town sheriff is called to the house where the elderly tenant has been found mostly eaten. The only clue? Slimy residue!
The sheriff teams with a scientist to try to determine what in the gooey heck happened. As the scientist studies the slime, the sheriff gets a call. Another body was found.
Anyway, this goes on for a while, I really racked up the body count (even kids and pets) and I totally went full-tilt boogie into the gore of it all. Anyway, then the scientist, who’s stumped by the slime… uh, I think her assistant or something mentions his vegetable garden and that he’s always dealing with snails… something like that.
The scientist, who’s been thinking the slime was some sort of man-made chemical used in the murders, has an epiphany. She conducts more tests and — voilà! — she proves the slime is slug trails. (Hey, I never claimed this story was smart.)
By now, the slugs are getting more bloodthirsty, more brazen. Rather than waiting for people to sleep, they start attacking during the day. If I remember correctly, they slowly eat their way through a school at one point because the kids somehow got trapped in there or something.
The sheriff and his deputies confront the horde, but all they have are guns, so they only pick off a few before a couple of the deputies are overrun and eaten. The scientist says they have to kill the horde of slugs all at once. The sheriff comes up with the plan — they’ll use themselves and a few other people as bait to draw the slugs into the abandoned mine in the mountain that looms over the town.
They pack the mine with explosives, draw the slugs slowly up the mountain, and escape through a side tunnel. (I think I had a whole thing in which they couldn’t get out initially, y’know, just to make it more tense.) Then, they blow the mine up, sending a shower of rocks and slug bits down on the town below.
As the sheriff, the scientist, and the remaining townsfolk celebrate their victory, unseen in the woods on the outskirts of town, a snail rises up and attacks a cat. And so a new horror begins.
The end.
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I don’t think I ever explained why the slugs suddenly started eating people.
The whole thing was handwritten and done in one- or two-page installments over the course of a year. After that, I attempted to do a werewolf story, but halfway through I realized I was just rewriting Cycle of the Werewolf and bailed on it.
I never did anything with the story because years later I found out horror author Shaun Hutson had written a book in 1982 (predating my story by about 6 years) with pretty much the exact same premise called Slugs. It was also turned into a movie.
April 3, 2025
May You Have The Day Economy You Voted For: Liberation Day Edition
The guy bankrupted multiple casinos. What the fuck did you expect would happen?
Like, I know almost nothing about tariffs, yet I’m now positive I know more about tariffs than Trump.
April 2, 2025
I just finished How To Ru(i)n A Record Label, Larry Livermore’s first-hand account of the rise and…
I just finished How To Ru(i)n A Record Label, Larry Livermore’s first-hand account of the rise and fall of legendary East Bay punk label Lookout Records, which he cofounded and, among many other bands, gave the world Green Day.
I’m not a massive nonfiction fan, but Livermore’s voice and brutally honest accounts of major and minor events made this a great read, not just for fans of pop punk music, but those who like a good story well told.
I was introduced to Lookout Records by my roommate at the start of my freshman year of college when he loaned me Energy by Operation Ivy. I couldn’t stop listening to it. It was my gateway to Green Day, Screeching Weasel, Mr. T Experience, Pansy Division, and so many more awesome bands.
I loved Lookout’s releases so much, it became one of two labels from which I would buy a new release even of I didn’t know the band. The other was 4AD, home of the Pixies.
And my love of the East Bay pop punk sound led to me see Green Day play a small club in Richmond, VA about a year before they signed with a major label. The second time I saw Green Day was last year at SoFi Stadium in L.A. Quite the change.
(It’s also worth mentioning Richmond, VA’s own Avail became one of the few non-East Bay bands on Lookout.)
Anyway, if you’re a music fan, an old punk, or just like a good memoir about a historic moment in music created by a handful of outcasts and misfits, check out the book.
Run, you fucking dip-shit coward.
Run, you fucking dip-shit coward.
thulium:
jkottke:
Hands Off! A bunch of big organizations...
See you in DC.
April 1, 2025
“Everything looks like a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works.”
“Everything looks like a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works.”
—Nina Jankowicz, author of How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict
Infertility is no joke. So, to anyone thinking of posting a fake pregnancy announcement for April…
Infertility is no joke. So, to anyone thinking of posting a fake pregnancy announcement for April Fool’s Day…
