Gabriel Ricard takes on Scorsese and the latest Marvel spectacular in his latest Captain Canada column.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018); Being Two Isn’t Easy (1962); Andre the Giant (2018); The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling (2018); Pure Luck (1991)
COMICSMr. ButterchipsAlex Schumacher
Butterchips meets up with Rodolfo, the Happiest of Pills, in his latest adventure, written and illustrated by Alex Schumacher.
not all milkmen can know how the wretched can live off spoilage.
Ask me where to find need. I am ringmaster of my own sinkings.
I knew the Lord was testin me, but I also knew he had not abandoned me. I watched the trees grow shaggy and buds erupt. The colors and the insects returned. He was resurrecting the world yet again. And if he could do that, year after year after year, I knew I could go on.
Last winter I sat cross legged in the empty house at night.
I sing like crystal. I am perfectly cut Czechoslovakian glass.
The orchard is dying, the branches all charred with fire blight.
The sand in my hair,
the sand in my shoes near the satin-coco lining— a dolphin washed ashore,
your mouth the memory of a rooster on top a hanging silence…
We drove to Washington, DC, waving
our hands through the sage haze so we could
see the road, stretched our legs at the Museum of Tolerance
looking for whales.
It is terrible luck to carry a woman on a ship like this.
I carry this woman here, hidden, so there were two aboard.
The sail runs up, with a white flag, made of lace and satin,
tied at the neck with pearls and something blue.
An interview with actress Kathryn Prescott on her new short film, “Dear You”, which addresses the opioid epidemic.
She never imagined her father not being there, had never questioned his authority, but his illness made him less imposing. She had grown out of his shadow. Still, she surprised herself at how easy the truth came.
She’s saying something else, but I’m out of reasonable earshot, so it’s socially acceptable to pretend I don’t hear her now. It just so happens I did forget something, not capers, but a sauce for my spaghetti. I’m making dinner for Judy, my wife; she says I don’t surprise her enough. Tonight, I’m proving her wrong.
Revenge is one
of the first stories
my grandmother
read to me
when she warned my mother
I was a magnet for
impurities.
Jessica returned with Justin’s drink. Neither one of them noticed or seemed to care that Ruby was whimpering. I couldn’t wait to get out of that apartment, but knew that I had to repeat my instructions to Justin and Jessica.
I had a brother, an older brother,
who at ten years old was left at
the train station.
In front of a fireplace of mastodonic size
she stares at the shape she might create
but she finds difficulty solving this one
The riptide took a man today. You will find love.
I stood there yesterday, felt the muscle and teeth of water.
I still have bite marks.
I learned to cleave through the whirlwinds on his back
—unclaimed lacerations,
bullet holes gaping
on forsaken walls. Mercy
PODCASTOrdinary GraceRyan Roach
A podcast on spirituality & religion, hosted by the Founding Editor of Drunk Monkeys. This episode also features Ryan Roach, co-host of Drunk Monkeys Radio, talking about his Baptist upbringing, current atheism, and life in general.
Pam Jones’s Andermatt County: Two Parables revives the Southern Gothic tradition. The collection’s Ye Shall Be As Gods and Happy Birthday, Dear Bitsy are narrative and thematic polar opposites, but complement each other well. One follows a teenaged boy taken under a serial killer’s wing, while the other concerns a mother-daughter relationship and a doll-themed nightmare of a birthday party. Jones imbues her work with a certain charm, subtly mixing the beautiful with the horrific. Although some plot contrivances are not fully convincing, Jones’s period detail, idiosyncratic characters, and prose cadences envelop the reader’s senses. Flannery O’Connor would be proud.