Juxtaposition is a timeless literary trick. Placing negative and positive in opposition, creating muscular parallel sentences, or they as teach you in art school, aiming for the “strident” application of opposites is the hallmark of a master.
Poorly executed juxtaposition, on the other hand, is worse than passionate activity with inanimate objects. In literary form, it leaves one lifeless and limp.
The question of this review is, thus, whether the prequel to Pride and Predjudice and Zombies, the most successful literary mash-up of 2009, is DOA or a whole new trick. Or put another way, will Dawn of the Dreadfuls make you puke or pant for more?
Let us waffle for a moment.
On the one hand, we find the work to be the intellectual equivalent of a deviant fetish. On the the other hand, we find that very prurience appealing. It is written in a way that builds just enough dread to make you either kneel at prayer or beg for something really bad.
There is something, we dunno, positively dirty about this book.
So far.
In the spirit of full disclosure (and dreading a deadline here) we have not yet finished the work. Should you need to sate that passion immediately click right here.
While this is a bit of shameless self promotion, we think it is cool to be able to update your own business logo thematically, like Google does. Keep this type of treatment in mind for your own business when some corporate type expounds on the “process of design.” Forget the process. Have the fun.
Pictured is a t-shirt from the upcoming Rally for Personal Rights in Chicago during May. This cause is a protest (among other things) against mandatory vaccinations. Mandatory is not a very groovy word in any context. This t-shirt is another story. One has to stand for something or they’ll fall for a bad t-shirt. More here.
The latest craze in fast food is the gourmet burger joint. Well maybe not the latest craze, but judging from the rapid expansion of high-buck ($6.00 plus) freshly made hamburger joyntes’ around the country there is something going on. That includes ripping you off.
Last night we endured Smashburger. Why their trendy organization has decided to double down with a special burger that piles fake brick cheese on top of kerosene-oil based American cheese to hide a thin reed of real beef somewhere in a charred bun and charge a dollar more than their regular burgers is perplexing. Fail.
Try Five Guys instead. Think savory White Castles without the shots.
While Health Care is not a topic that conjures up “grooviness,” one questions where civilization would be without it. If we can’t stay healthy enough, then, well, we can’t bring ourselves to make posts about important things to buy. This billboard reminds us that good advertising can promise much but only people can deliver.
Got you eh? Being politically correct is the opposite of irreverent. While we have nothing to say about Jesus, we do have a great link to a very funny place to buy books. The site is called Quirk books and it packs a plethora of reference books that are well off the Barnes&Noble, Chronicle Books and even Phaidon (great place, still) path. It might even have a good compilation of Jesus Action figures and Catholic iconography but we’ve yet to see anything. Unlike that blinding light that hit us on the road to Detr…oh forget it.
As “Papa” always said, British Colonialism had its high points. It encouraged the preparation of all sorts of gin drinks that are with us to this day. I am quite sure, for example that Pimms No.1 cup was invented during this time. Pimms with a little gin, some lime juice and a large spritz of soda and tonic makes a fantastic late summer drink.
Which brings us to this post. In the British West Indies a tonic of a different kind was developed during the 1800s callled Royall Bay Rhum. This makes a great after shave, and makes your head tingle when you massage it into your hair. Hemingway (pictured) was a fan. For all we know it could be used as a shampoo. Or, if you are into derelict chic (as Will Ferrel showed us in Zoolander), an aperitif.
There is a small animal in Indonesia related to the Mongoose who ingests a certain kind of coffee bean. Once these beans have passed through the critter’s gastrointestinal tract and, um, expelled, they are packaged and sold as the world’s most exquisite and expensive coffee. While it occurs to us that the juxtaposition of our headline next to a picture of a Sumatran Kopi Luwak farmer (translated: coffee from weasel) might appear derogatory to fair-trade minded merchants may we remind our readers that we have never been treated as poorly as we have by fair trade minded businesspeople seeking our services. They really were full of it. Or maybe we’ve just had too much caffeine. Read about Kopi Luwak here.
This video tells you all about the latest in ski technology from Atomic. A young insider on the US Ski Team says that the racers swear by this doubledeck techology. Ski forums like Epic and Barking Bear are lukewarm on the idea. We’ll let the Atomic rep explain the philosophy of the “two ski in one” idea–for lack of a better term. I personally purchased a pair for this year. I hope the purchase does not blow up in my (Chris Birt’s) face. Sometimes that happens with Atomics, like the Metron B5s. (The video continues with a discussion of free skis and powder boards… the Giant Slalom (GS) race ski he shows is a great ski, at least, for Masters–i.e. older guy wide turn type–skiing.)
Someday, before I die, I will make a new wave, French style film on this very subject. While ostensibly it is of little interest to the general public, I believe this species of female, when captured “in-situ” with a said small communications tool glued like an appendage to their ear is responsible for many of the tectonic movements in society. For starters, I know of no other human being who spends quite as much time on the phone, not merely texting, but passionately speaking to another of the same species. Somewhere in their torrent of words, fashion trends, child rearing techniques and suburban migration patterns are established for the rest of us. I would write more, but alas, I can’t seem to get beyond the SUV in the parking lot. The contrast of black truck with blonde ponytail is leaving me blind.
Juxtaposition is a timeless literary trick. Placing negative and positive in opposition, creating muscular parallel sentences, or they as teach you in art school, aiming for the “strident” application of opposites is the hallmark of a master. 
