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Illustrator Laura Park has been journaling her life in sketchbooks for years. From documenting her love of food for Saveur to drawing adorable pictures of her pug, Park isn’t afraid to show off both her silly side and her vulnerable side. When Park was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2012, she continued sketching her experience, taking a candid approach to her journaling. Mixing dark humor with honesty, Park goes in depth about what it’s like to be an uninsured person (pre-Obamacare) with cancer. “There is a set narrative to cancer,” she writes. “You either die or ‘really’ start living. I barely feel like I exist.” You can pick up her latest mini comic, Do Not Disturb My Waking Dream, via Uncivilized Books. |
| Recommended by The Absolute Staff | Wednesday, July 30th, 2014 | No Comments » |
Veteran slam poet Rachel Wiley performed her very not-safe-for-work piece “10 Honest Thoughts on Being Loved by a Skinny Boy” at the 2013 National Poetry Slam in Boston. The poem is a heartfelt look at Wiley’s experiences when dating someone who is thinner than she is and the fatphobia that surrounds her relationships. From being on the receiving end of glares from perfect strangers who feel that Wiley doesn’t “deserve” to have a skinny boyfriend to learning to love her body, the poem will touch any man or woman who has ever had self-esteem problems due to society’s obsession with being thin.
With humor and fire in her eyes, Wiley points out that she, and all the other women like her, are more than just numbers on the scale. Just because they are heavier than what society believes is a “healthy weight” does not mean that they are not deserving of love and respect. By the end of “10 Honest Thoughts on Being Loved by a Skinny Boy,“ every viewer will have a new respect for Wiley and a better appreciation for their own bodies—including its flaws.
| Recommended by Amanda Ferris | Wednesday, July 30th, 2014 | No Comments » |
Seven Handle Circus admits on their Facebook page, “Okay, so maybe we aren’t really a bluegrass band…” as if they’ve been caught red-handed trying to fool us. This disclaimer responds to the assumption one would make about a six-member band with banjos, mandolins, and a fiddle. But rather than a true bluegrass band, the Atlanta-based band is more like an indie pop band wearing a bluegrass costume. By using the instrumentation and vocal arrangements of bluegrass music, their music stands out a bit more. It adds a depth and excitement to their songs that would be missing with synths and electric guitars. You can really hear that on their latest track, “And We Danced.” On the previous Whiskey Still and Sleeping Pills EP, much of the songwriting fit the idiom well, but for “And We Danced,” the first track from the band’s upcoming full-length Shadows On The Wall, you can easily picture the song as a straightforward dance-pop track. It’s the dynamic arrangement, though, that makes the song work so well.
Shadows On The Wall will be released on October 20, but you can buy “And We Danced” now on iTunes.
| Recommended by Scott Interrante | Wednesday, July 30th, 2014 | No Comments » |
It’s a little audacious to write a recommendation for a game that hasn’t released so much as a beta yet, but Jenny LeClue has got me so excited that I’m jumping the gun. Kid detective, female protagonist, gripping murder mystery, adventure game? Oh my god sign me up I’m so there.
The biggest lesson Jenny has to learn at the start of the game is be careful what you wish for. Bored with the standard lame mysteries she has to solve, Jenny wishes more than anything else that things could get a little more interesting. Then her mother is accused of murder and, in the process of trying to clear her name, Jenny learns that a small, sleepy town can hold more secrets in its dark heart than she could ever have dreamed.
And, oh man, check out that art and look at that cast. If you like what you see, then head over to Kickstarter and click FUND.
| Recommended by Melody Lee | Wednesday, July 30th, 2014 | No Comments » |
In a time when commercials are considered the ultimate form of “selling out,” it’s no surprise that most critically acclaimed directors shun the practice. However, director David Lynch sees commercial work differently: “The money’s good, and the added bonus is that I get to use and learn about the latest technology.”
With more than a decade of weird ass commercials under his belt, it was no surprise when Playstation approached him back in 2000 to promote the new Playstation 2 in Europe. Based on an 18-month consumer research study, “The Third Place” campaign was designed to appeal to the imagination of early technology adopters. But in the end all it did was confuse the hell out of them (in typical Lynchian fashion, of course). In the campaign, “the third place” is explained as an additional sensory experience that goes beyond what one typically experiences. You can watch the entire campaign here. Don’t forget to watch the making of video, too.
| Recommended by The Absolute Staff | Wednesday, July 30th, 2014 | No Comments » |
In Neely Tucker’s The Ways of the Dead, newspaper reporter Sully Carter believes that there’s far more to the gruesome murder of a young teenaged girl named Sarah Reese. With Sarah’s father being a prominent judge in Washington D.C, the police are quick to arrest three young teenaged boys, but Sully thinks the case is connected to a string of cold cases the police ignored back in the day. Determined to avenge Sarah, Sully fights against his bosses, who think he’s too unstable and too much of an alcoholic, to figure out who the real murderer is before it’s too late.
| Recommended by Amanda Ferris | Wednesday, July 30th, 2014 | No Comments » |
Remember when you were a kid and all your friends would always end up hanging out at the same house? Maybe it was your house. But why did we always end up at the same kids’ house? On the new Air Traffic Controller track, singer Dave Munro questions, “Was it the house or was it the gang or a phenomenon no one can explain?” Realistically it’s probably because your family was the first to get a PS2 or something. But the Boston indie-pop quartet dip into this nostalgia with their whimsical anthem telling the story of how their (presumably brothers Dave and Richie Munro) house was that house, even after their mom remarried and moved them into a new house. Produced by Bleu, the track shines with a power-pop gloss and contains a chorus too catchy to get out of your head.
“The House” is available on iTunes starting today, so grab it while we wait for the follow up to 2012′s Nordo.
| Recommended by Scott Interrante | Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 | No Comments » |
