Hey, if you’ve bought something from my Redbubble shop, like, ever–thank you. You’ve helped me buy groceries or gas or takeout lately, and I really appreciate it. I didn’t expect very much to come of selling stickers on the Internet, but in the past couple of months I made enough pocket money from them that I felt like I could buy a frivolous thing or two for myself. So, yeah, hold that thought.
Last fall at a meeting of Tape Club (which is, by the way, exactly what it sounds like: a gathering of people playing entertainment roulette with a trash bag full of unlabeled VHS tapes) I encountered an unusual object.
On the bedside table in the home of our host was a stuffed gorilla (sort of) with the head of a rooster. It bore a tag that said, “My name is Bernard. I love to eat corned beef sandwiches.” It radiated chaotic energy.
Since I was rapidly losing interest in our current tape (an hour-long instructional video about excel spreadsheets), I decided to look up Bernard’s origins as stated on his tag. I found the website of a creative Young Frankenstein, a local middle schooler who specializes in “giving homeless stuffed animals a new life!” by decapitating them and sewing their heads onto other decapitated stuffed animal bodies. I got terribly distracted from the Excel spreadsheet video looking at her amalgamated creatures and their names and occupations.
For example.
There are a lot of them and they are all great. My favorite by far was a creature named Denise, a vulture/cat hybrid who mysteriously bore no description. I considered buying her, but I didn’t know if spending ten dollars on a weird object was the right decision, financially, so I put off my purchase. After a few days of thinking it over I assured myself she would find a home eventually.
Last week I ran into the person who had hosted Tape Club so many months ago, and it reminded me of my encounter with Bernard, and also of Denise. I went home that evening (fine, it was closer to 3:00am) and found that she was miraculously still listed on the Wild and Wacky Pets website. I could think of no better way to support local business while also getting a bizarre gryphon-like creature (which was especially fitting) in the process.
She arrived in the mail two days ago and frankly I was even more delighted to receive her than I was my recent shipment of earthworms, which is saying something (perhaps it is saying a lot of things, at least about me and my interests).
Anyway, this is Denise and she loves baklava and showtunes.
Denise was our mascot at online trivia tonight so I drew a picture of her:
On this day, 18 December 1874 Anna Rasputin, Russian revolutionary and member of the Combat Organisation of the Socialist-Revolutionaries was born. She was executed with six comrades in 1908 near St Petersburg in an event which became well-known from the Russian story “The Seven Who Were Hanged” by Leonid Andreyev. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1610279772490500/?type=3
on the upside: i am experiencing a wholesome old-fashioned tearing-up emotional ‘omg look what we humans did holy fuck we’re not all bad’ reaction to photographs of the Actual Vaccine. trucks pulling out! crates being opened! planes being loaded! vials steaming gently as the lid is lifted! first shot going into first ICU nurse arm! 😭😭😭😍😍😍✨💪💗 i fucking love science, etc., etc.
Don’t forget a black woman was instrumental in the making of this vaccine!
This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
If you don't like Left Wing political thought and philosophy, all things related to horror, the supernatural, the grotesque, guns or the strange, then get the fuck out. I just warned you.
