// Category Archive for: Current Faves

Fun With Fandom: Q & A with Artist Emmy Cicierega

Intro by Less Lee Moore
Harry Potter questions by Hanna
Art questions by Sandy

One day, while checking the Fatal Farm website, I saw some amazing Lasagna Cat fanart from someone named Emmy Cicierega. Intrigued, I looked her up on deviantART. I was impressed, amazed, and amused by her wicked talent and sense of humor. She graciously consented to answering some questions about her art and involvement with Harry Potter fandom (via her participation in her brother Neil’s Potter Puppet Pals creation).
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Being Marginalized Is a Blessing: An Interview with Author Dan Kennedy

Interviewed by Less Lee Moore

A few weeks ago, I saw Dan Kennedy on our local morning TV show talking about his new book, Rock On: An Office Power Ballad. I’d never heard of him, but the book, detailing his 18-month tour of duty and disillusionment at a major record label, sounded amazing. And despite the fact that it was freezing outside and quite early in the morning, Dan’s great sense of humor was obvious. So I requested a copy of the book and an interview from Dan’s publicist and amazingly, it worked!
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The Reinactors, Directed By David Markey

By Hanna

For Hanna’s interview with Dave Markey, click here.

The Reinactors follows the lives of a group of Hollywood Boulevard reinactors—those who impersonate well-known movie industry characters on the street, posing for photos and entertaining tourists—for a span of two years. Most of them are homeless or living in mobile homes; some of them are part-time actors in Hollywood or just aspiring to it, but they are all stars in their minds.
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I Am In Here: A David Foster Wallace Obsession

By Christian Lipski

It’s kind of fitting to be discussing obsession and David Foster Wallace, since obsession plays a large part in a number of his works. He’s got an amazing way of describing exactly how it feels to be obsessed with something or someone, and while I may not be clinically (or more importantly, legally) obsessed with DFW (as he is often abbreviated), I do feel the need to collect all of his books and both read them and read about them [1].
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Q & A with Fatal Farm

Interviewed by Less Lee Moore

If you frequently troll YouTube for weird videos or subscribe to WFMU’s Beware of the Blog, you may have already heard of Lasagna Cat, video mashups of well-known songs with three-panel Garfield comics.

If you haven’t, then you should probably watch one immediately.
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The Death of the Mix

By Christian Lipski

Photo © Richard Jones

I used to make mix tapes all the time when I was growing up. I liked the idea of creating a single object or concept by combining existing songs, like making a quilt or a collage. When I was done, the tape was to be taken as a cohesive whole, not as individual tracks; that was the ultimate goal.

When recordable CDs became affordable, I was excited to begin a new phase in mix-making. CDs were more durable than cassettes after all, and computer software would allow you to assemble mixes even more efficiently than before. Or so I thought. It’s true that sound-editing programs provide the ability to make creative, cleaner-sounding mixes, but the flip side is that now there are too many possibilities, and that has killed the mix for me.
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Q & A with Bedtime for Toys

Interviewed by Lisa Haviland (via email)

Close your eyes; beddy bye, tin soldier.
Mommy says that it’s time for sleep.
If my folks were wiser and older,
They’d know kids and toys don’t need sleep.

Don’t be bad little cotton dolly.
See how nice Mickey Mouse sleeps now?
Even my brass drummer boy has stopped all his noise,
‘Cause he knows it’s past bedtime for toys.
Stevie Wonder, “Bedtime for Toys”

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Talk Derby to Me: Part One

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Bodice Roses, Mac, and Crack: or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Ren Faire

By Jessica Melusine

The Renaissance Faire phenomenon seems to be trickling slowly into the cultural milieu: from being snuggled away as a craft fair in the woods to an excuse to watch jousting or a chance to go play pretend with a parking lot of cars outside. In Notorious C.H.O. Margaret Cho asks “What’s this weird connection between fans of Star Trek, S&M, and the Renaissance Faire?” King of the Hill has done a jolly episode featuring Peggy Hill versus the evil king of the Arlen Faire (the always dazzling Alan Rickman). People share Faire pictures on Flickr and even The Simpsons has a chuckle that it is [sic] “where those chubby nerd couples go on dates.”
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