David Erik Nelson's Blog, page 28

This isn’t antisemitism—but, straight talk: It’s really hard to argue that Ann Arbor gives a shit about its Jews

This vexes me. Antisemitic messages were found written over a Pride Month painting on a rock near the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor this weekend. A nearby synagogue has been the scene of weekly anti-Israel protests featuring antisemitic rhetoric for many years. ->https://t.co/WX18io4WHO pic.twitter.com/5kZoYc0LA3— Combat Antisemitism (@CombatASemitism) June 6, 2021 Just for the record...

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Working Music: “Fire in the Hole”

There Was No Sound of Thunder I listen to music basically whenever I write, often as a simple practical matter (I have a wife, a barky-bary-bark, two school-age kids at home, and a house that backs up to an apartment parking lot). What I’m listening to during a given period often seeps into what I’m writing. I listened to Steely Dan’s “Fire in the Hole” every morning while working on the middle...

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Why Bulletproof Hoodies and Backpacks are Bullshit

This video isn’t about “bulletproof backpacks” and “bulletproof hoodies” and all the other misery-profiteering school products out there—but it illustrates an important point, which is that this shit isn’t a +4 magic shield; you have to stop the projectile, and you have to do something with the force it’s exerted, and you have to be able to get up and get moving to avoid getting shot in the face...

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“Overcome Stress By Visualizing It As A Greedy, Hook-Nosed Race Of Creatures”

Timely! (see also this swastika and this other swastika and all the little swastikas raining down all around me like a gentle, glittering, beautiful snow storm whisking me straight up Heaven’s Chimney!

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Offered w/o further commentary: Tex Avery’s Burlesque Animal Gags

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Bigots: Please Use Punctuation!

I’ve got no clue if your message is the command “KIKE: FREE PALESTINE 卐!” or the wish for a “KIKE-FREE PALESTINE 卐”, and that’s driving me nuts. Please, parents: Don’t just teach your children to hate Jews; teach them to use hyphens and colons properly! [This message brought to you by British Vandals for a Kike-Free Palestine, and the Letter 卐] Straight talk, though: If you’re vandalizing a...

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Kinda weird, but it seems that a non-dark ROBOT CHICKEN is actually *more* disturbing than a standard skit…

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Go Watch Tim Egan’s Short Horror Film CURVE! (UPDATED: fixed embed/link)

Why I bring this to your attention today: Unlike a lot of very short horror films, this one actually constitutes a complete horror story worthy your time, not a set-up for a jump-scare or splatterAs is often the case with the horror that really catches my eye (“like a fishhook in an open eye“), this is a female-led meditation on how one processes traumaI like any film where the real...

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One Upside to the Pandemic Bankruptcy of Chuck E. Cheese…

was that we all got to learn about “concept unification”: (source) A fantastic corporate euphemism that yielded the following corporate training videos, which are simply astounding found-footage horror flicks waiting to happen. If this isn’t the origin of the Five Nights at Freddy’s video game series, then nothing makes sense anymore.

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Holy moly, JUUL is Remarkably Evil™

I knew about some of this (like the JUUL school presentations—which, as a former teacher and admin, struck me as a stunning professional dereliction that somehow managed to dwarf the enormous amoral grossness of JUUL’s marketing department; well done, fellow educators!), but other bits (like the nicotine salts) were news to me. An elucidating 3mins. Watch.

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