Perhaps it's a sign of emerging obsessive-compulsive disorder, but I think we need to have twenty posts before this short month closes. As a prime number, nineteen is vaguely unsettling.We've filled this month with alarming posts about batshit crazy* politicians bent on slashing arts funding and resurrecting the culture wars. Thank you dear readers for being vigilant and responsive. The latest round in this fight is the proposal to "sweep" Cultural Trust funds into a general fund pool. I've seen the arts communty rise up in solidarity before, but this proposal seems to have hit a particularly sensitive nerve by betraying a public trust and changing established rules midstream. I trust that we've all flooded your representatives with our expressions of outrage politely expressed. Keep up the good work comrades.
If you have the opportunity to laze about on Sunday, may I recommend that you visit DreadWhimsy for a spot of amusement. I credit our friend Mead Hunter for pointing the way toward Professor DreadWhimsy's blog, which is comprised of oddball photographs captioned with delighfully offbeat short short stories. Here's how the Professor describes his site:
DreadWhimsy is a street clown caught in a terrorist attack screaming, "Jesus Christ! Somebody DO something!!"And that makes twenty. Goodnight.
It's walking in on your cat chopping vegetables with a sharp knife in your kitchen in the middle of the night.
It's the unwholesome stare from a red-headed child in a passing station wagon.
It shouldn't be funny.
But it is funny.
And you're wrong for laughing.
But I forgive you.
But not really.
* Also, this marks the sixth time my colleagues and I have labeled a post with the phrase "batshit crazy."
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4 comments:
MTC, I'm delighted you've been off to the see the Professor, especially at my behest. This feckless madman is destined to be the Next Big Thing in what we theater folk refer to off-handedly as "other media," so we're just beginning to benefit from his demented humors.
Only recently did the Professor add the "Following" option on the blog, so now's your opportunity to get in on the ground floor of fandom. I think I was the site's #3 Follower. While you're at it, how about becoming a Follower of Culture Shock?
Ah, so you see: "a moment's hesitation," my anthem for the new old age. I could have been #1 with the Prof, and now its too late.
As for CultureShock, I believe I was its very first follower, wasn't I? But the vagaries of the system can be puzzling. Recently I was asked by a pal why I had dropped him as a follower. I hadn't -- it was just some momentary blip in the system -- but the poor guy gave himself away by admitting, "It wasn't because of what I wrote about you, was it? I was only kidding." Which led to a journey of discovery he did not intend to happen.
All this tracking makes ersatz Raskolnikovs of us all!
Mead, we're honored to have counted you as a follower from early on. Your implicit endorsement of our endeavors is as valuable as it is invaluable.
My plea to be followed was directed to other readers and lurkers. Normally, I feign indifference as to the matter of whether anybody reads this drivel, telling myself, "I write this for myself." Now I confess (as long as we're being Raskolkovian) to feeling a frisson of excitement every time a new follower appears on our list. It's Sally Field's "You like me ... You really like me" all over again. Plus, with only a handful of followers, it is way too easy to notice when someone drops out--like being "defriended" on Facebook or shunned in the school cafeteria.
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