PicoBlog

My guy Eugene from work goes into an elaborate routine every time he sees me. He squints his eyes as they track me across the Chicago Bulls media workroom. He furrows his brows and scrunches his nose when our eyes connect. He sniffs twice. “I smell money!” Eugene says. Without fail, I smile and shoot back the retort Eugene loves hearing. “I’m broke, baby! I ain’t got no money!” Our scripted exchange comes from the 2002 classic movie, “Paid in Full.

Here’s The Thing is an advice column/newsletter where I mostly beg people to either stop dating someone or to ask their crush out. Or I talk about weird things that came to my mind that no one is paying me to write about. I can never decide if I should capitalize the “the” in Here’s The Thing or not; apologies on lack of consistency.  I'm in a really great relationship of 3 years with my first love and only serious partner.

The headline says it all, big news: I now own 100% of Vlambeer, the studio I co-founded with Rami Ismail back in 2010. You might know Vlambeer from indie games such as Nuclear Throne, Ridiculous Fishing, LUFTRAUSERS, Super Crate Box, GUN GODZ, and uhhh, Serious Sam: the Random Encounter. Or this logo of an extremely chill bear who’s also on fire. Here’s what this acquisition means: After my current unannounced project is done, Vlambeer’s arcade shooter ULTRABUGS will see its long-anticipated release!

One of the food-related things I often say is “I think just about anything can be improved by lightly pickling it.” As for the classic pickle pick (cucumber pickles), I’m a fan. I’m even growing my own cucumbers this summer and quick-pickling them myself. But alas, my cucumbers grow slowly. So I was delighted to find out that HelloFresh (the company known for its meal kits) was offering a Pickle Box for a limited time.

As first announced by Hollywood Reporter, I will be writing a new Toxic Avenger comic book for Ahoy based on the cult classic Troma movies, debuting this Fall. I’m collaborating with artist Fred Harper, whose great and grotesque take on Toxie you can see below. We are combining elements of the movies with the 1991 cartoon Toxic Crusaders to create an entirely new story that blends mutant gore and environmental satire.

Gastral Weeks: Beginning Weight (July 14): 230 lbs. Weight at Start of Week #2: 222 Weight at Start of Week #3: 218.4 Weight at Start of Week #4: 215.3 Weight at Start of Week #5: 215.1 Weight at Start of Week #6: 211.2 Weight at Start of Week #7: 208.1 Weight at Start of Week #8: 204.3 Weight at Start of Week #9: 201.9 Weight at Start of Week #10: 199

In an effort to be all about the in-person interview as much as possible on the podcast, I flew out to Minneapolis to hang with bassist, podcaster and educator Ian Martin Allison this past weekend. We talked about the very contrasting ways in which we use the Line6 HX Stomp, touring as a sideman vs musical director, how being a parent changes everything, and what it's like to transition from freelance musician to artist.

Among the copious piles of mid-century ephemera that I’ve collected (and am still in the process of unpacking in my new home, after many months) is this brochure for the Ice Capades of 1952. Founded in 1940, Ice Capades was a traveling theatrical ice skating show that for over fifty years was known as the pinnacle of kitsch, or “America’s most glorious ice carnival” in the words of one Slate writer. Drawing on vaudeville, it began as a halftime show: a Pittsburgh rink owner noticed that hockey crowds “swelled when he booked a figure skater to perform between periods.

The most consequential decision Robert Kolker made in "Bad Art Friend" was telling it out of order. Kolker's version appears to be chronological, but he withholds crucial information until the third act. As a result, the internet has spent days debating who the titular B.A.F. of the story is. Because I have a big project due this week, I spent those days in a procrastinatory frenzy, reading as many Dorland v.