Hi 👋

I'm trying to get into the habbit of collecting the kinds of links that I would thoughtlessly throw at social media into posts on this blog. So, here's a first dump.

Little French Key Island

I recently completed my Open Water Diver certification and so of course I've been searching for additional diving opportunities. Little French Key Island, based entirely on their website, seems like a lux place to go. Seriously, just check out their website.

Flux Blog playlists

Flux Blog is home to so many great playlists that explore genres and periods in popular music. Matthew Perpetua is a prolific playlister, their site is a great place to find playlists for just about any mood.

Lazarus Corporation blog

I discovered Paul Watson through his superb Rituals & Declarations zine, which is sadly no longer produced. But Watson's website remains an excellent place to follow trends in modern esoterica¹, with the added bonus of having a strong indieweb ethos. For example, his recent Gothic Studies RSS Starter Pack.

Midnight Companions v2

Speaking of zines, the first volume of Midnight Companions was great, I'll definitely be ordering this one soon.

Lair and other cool audio plugins

I've recently been dabbling in making little synth songs on my laptop. Mostly dungeon-synth adjacent, maybe soundtracks for fictional horror films, that kind of thing. So I've been exploring the world of digital audio workstation plugins. Abberant DSP makes some of the coolest ones. Not merely fun audio tools, but with charming UIs to go along with them. Seriously, check out Lair and especially the video embedded there. A work of art all on its own.

Paintings of Mary Tonkin

A recent Tyler Crook post on Bluesky pointed me toward the paintings of Mary Tonkin. Dazzling stuff. I'd love to see her work in person.

Father's Day by Sefton Eisenhart | ★★★★★

I'm a fan of a certain kind of crime writing. Big-city organized crime? Sure, I'll take it. Urban low lifes eking out a living a la Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, not to mention the century of writers that influenced them? Yeah, I'm into that. But there's something special about the rural, small-potatoes crime stories that Sefton Eisenhart's latest story, Father's Day, embodies that appeals to me.

Maybe it's my small-town, midwest origins, having grown up around the kinds of people that populate stories like these, with their desperation mixed with a deep sense of pride, their fucked-up bonds to family and community.

Anyway, it's a brief foray into a world that I'd gladly spend more time in. I kept thinking back to Frank Bill's collection of Ohio River Valley miscreants in Crimes in Southern Indiana. Ida from Father's Day would have fit right in.

As a bonus, Nantucket Lit has published a lovely limited edition of Father's Day in chapbook format, typeset using a vintage electric typewriter. It lends the story a timeless quality, something from a world where the internet hasn't quite permeated. Read up on the typesetting on Nantucket Lit's website.

Buy Father's Day by Sefton Eisenhart on Nantucket Lit.

Tongues Vol. 1 by Anders Nilsen | ★★★★☆

I've only read one other Anders Nilsen comic, and it was more of a collection of sketches and shorter work. Tongues is on a much grander scale.

It feels sprawling at first as the narrative jumps around between seemingly unconnected characters, but the whole eventually takes shape. Sharply drawn and written, it's an impressive doorstop of a book. Vol. 1 ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, but does give the reader a few important reveals. I might have to pick up individual issues from now on.