A Gilded Planet

s n u u s p e a r o su ne ous pra nesu pra ous prasu neou s suous nepra The little man comes along into this mess The little man who studies Brazil not Brazilian himself su ousne pra He says to himself sune praous Says he to himself: "Where do all these pieces go?" su ous pra ne – "Supreousne!" The little man wearing mirror spectacles… ...thought it not quite right yet supreousne supreousne supeousrne He dipped his quill supreciously Dipped his quill did he in a gleaming ink pot soon he wrote "supraneously" supraneous adjective : characterized by the vertiginous replication of mutated iterations of a particular aesthetic form First known use: 2011

Christian stoners united around a polymorphic Book of Hours Sick cattle in Devonshire Rainstorm on the outskirts of Bangkok War in Equinoctial Kesh These Christian stoners will go just about anywhere carrying Bibles and bags of Cheetos Hernia Outbreak in Tripplehorn County? you best believe Christian stoners got there already playing their lutes laughing in tongues Spreading the good word about the nature of that universe there "Who are they?" ask the newsmen "Are they in cahoots with cartels?” question the cops "Why don't they go back where they came from" bark the troglodytes A fad that will pass or a scene that lasts Christian stoners will carry the day A joint for your troubles A crucifix bong for the suffering the unlimited suffering of strips of tortured flesh thick sluggish blood pain that grows greater with each choice so take another rip and munch His body

A version of this article I wrote 9 months ago was originally published in the zine Connect the Dots. The online supplement to Connect the Dots can be found  here. We know of a remote arcade in Berkeley. Every Friday night, games are played there. Down an unlit street in the southern reaches of town, one may find an unmarked blue door with an ornate knocker at its center. When the intrepid soul enters for the first time, bathed in the ethereal glow emanating from dozens of seemingly ancient pinball machines, one is likely to be struck with an astonishing sense of rapture. Just like falling down the rabbit hole, stepping into this enigmatic House of Games almost seems like entering another world filled with curious amusements – Egghead, Trade Winds, Magic City, Cover Girl, Gottlieb’s Two-Player Surfside, Gottlieb’s Four-Player Masquerade, Rotospin and dozens more, glittering with midcentury light, ringing and echoing caustically about every win and loss, haunted by fun until th...

This fear seems awful silly now, this acid belly flood when Dan the piano man says how he found your money blood We talked and talked like fans of Bird so many weeks ago of antics Dan had played absurd it was not just a show Some creeps on this side of the night are not so very bad but when he followed her with fright they knew they had been had

“In the land of Janaki, there exists a tall cylindrical edifice covered in alabaster that serves as both a tomb and a monastery for fertile academic minds. First built in the decades following the ill-fated Keshite invasion, it did not become a tomb until centuries later. The insectivorious King Grimmage III committed his life to quiet study in the building and when he died he left strict instructions to be buried in the structure that was from that day forth to be known as Grimmage Tower. “Grimmage Tower developed a reputation as the most prestigious refuge for those citizens of Janaki blessed with enormous gifts of scientific, analytic, artistic or literary character. To be invited to Grimmage Tower is a great honor, and many of Janaki’s brightest lights spend years working in its catacomb cells before eventually being buried in its mausoleum. The admission of an individual working in a field heretofore unrepresented inside Grimmage signals a new respectability for that endeavor, a...

Robots and Monsters huddle around the embers of our campfire fiends gnashing their teeth in your unimagined paradise with the Red Army here and the Blue Army there a tremendous wiggle loosed on the lot Guillermo Credenza that most magical bishop yields before the developing world of business disasters wishing most earnestly to be described as ursine How to react to these foreseen machinations? drink my laughs you old plate of soup before we prepare for murders Monsters must burn Robots must burst When Credenza sings "The Maltese Jew" at Christmastime Sweet Jumpin' Christmas Time! Oh how we feel ready to carry out his dark designs