Breaking Bad Recap: Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Alex

I read a news story last week about a Chinese couple who upon returning home thought that their house had been turned upside down by robbers – an overturned table, possessions rifled. When Xu Xianmin and his wife investigated they discovered that it was not thieves that had broken in but that it was a giant catfish who had ransacked their home. Strangely, the couple lives in a residential neighbourhood nowhere near water. The reason I tell this story is to relate how incredible animals are, how they can do anything and how we must never underestimate them. Take the time a raccoon stole my friend's wallet. Or the time Mike zip-tied Walt to a radiator. Animals, driven by their ingenuity and desperation, find a way. Walt has become that cornered animal, previously thought harmless (although the viewer has long known better), the cornered animal not defending his life, freedom or young but instead defending his empire.

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Flying Lotus: "See Thru To U" Ft Erykah Badu Posted by Alex

A dreamy, groovy song for a Saturday:

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Breaking Bad Recap: Arrival of a Train at the Station By Alex

First of all, I've been watching a lot of The X-Files lately (mostly because of Baby) and who should show up as a plucky US Marshall but Uncle Hank! Pretty exciting! Also a bit of an x-file how Dean Norris has not aged at all since at least 1994. Spooky. 

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One Thought on Julian Assange Before I Lose My Goddamn Mind and Start Weeping in a Corner Because Preserving Rape Culture is More Important Than Anything, EVER by Alex

Perhaps I am still too much of an optimist, or something, too naive maybe, but if the message of Wikileaks is that transparency must and will exist in government and military communications and operations, and freedom of speech, and democracy, and accountability, and the people vs the man, then isn't it a bit hinderance to place so much importance on Julian Assange alone? Will Wikileaks fall if he's tried and found guilty of rape? Does the organization consist only of him? I realize that he is the director and founder and editor-in-chief, but is he completely irreplaceable? Is he completely above the law? What if he was brought up on murder charges? Pedophilia? What is the line?

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Baby Saga: A Happy, Sad, Happy Story by Alex

This is Baby.

Keepin' it casual

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A$AP Rocky: 'Ridin' (Feat. Lana Del Rey) Posted by Alex

It's been a year since Lana Del Rey unleashed Video Games on the internet and a year since the internet unleashed its concentrated mean girl vitriol back at her. Next time you know a kid getting bullied (or maybe the next time you get bullied?) just remember Lana and how it only took a year for the constant barrage of venom to subside. A year is nothing, guys! You might live to be 90! Or 100! Drink lots of water! Besides, now she's doing tracks with some of the hottest players in the game. And there was speculation that she was dating Axel Rose. All right, nice! Just kidding, I'm pretty sure that is Dante's 10th circle of hell (Dating).

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Breaking Bad Recap: The Fair Ophelia! Be All My Sins Remembered By Alex

Ok, you are all probably going to think less of me but there was a time in my life when I was young and foolish and just had kind of questionable taste overall (I drank a lot of Southern Comfort and thought nothing of making out with brothers – not at the same time but still, brothers!) but I once thought that Aztecs were sort of ok. That's terrible, right? Nah, I'm totally kidding! Fooled you! Never thought they were cool! Certainly not because you had the option of attaching a tent to the back. A tent, guys, to the back of your car! But, no, Aztecs are totally uncool... Just camp outside. On the ground. Make it easy for the bears. I also once wanted nothing more than to own and drive a Jeep. Yep.

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Olympians to Know: Gabby Douglas by Alex

Gabby Douglas is the first African-American woman to win the all-round title in women's gymnastics. The first  Black woman in history. Amazing. The 16-year-old won gold in both the individual and team events. Watch this video of all her routines from the US Olympic team trials. She is flawless. And so super charming I want to be best friends with her. That smile!

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(Major) Minor Victories by Rebekah

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Olympians to Know: Damien Hooper by Alex

At the beginning of the olympics, a tweet made the rounds both on Twitter and on Tumblr that neatly dissected Britain's brutal history of colonization and the irony of so many of those colonized nations coming back to the motherland to compete:

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Friday Fiction: Real Talk by Alex

I don't read a lot of non-fiction. Since 2006, I've read 28 non-fiction books. A few memoirs, a couple essay collections, some on history, some on nature. Once I was even bamboozled into reading a book called Undertaking by Thomas Lynch that turned out to somehow be super anti-choice which wasn't revealed until the very end. Blah blah life is sacred, whatever, undertaker. There are the usual suspects in there as read by every White kid in their early 20's (Hunter S Thompson and Dave Eggers) plus Mary Roach, Gay Talese, John Krakauer, Sarah Vowell. You know, the non-fiction writers. But I never read any Gore Vidal. I read some letters that Jane Bowles wrote to him. And some she wrote to Tennessee Williams in which she mentions him. And I bought one of his books (Empire) and I have every intention of reading it some day. But now he's passed and he's another writer that I mourn without fully grasping the gravity of the loss, which is why I'm dedicating this week's Friday Fiction to the five non-fiction books I've read this year, in honour of Gore Vidal. His books might not be on the list but he, along with Tom Wolfe and Gay Talese (and I'm sure some other people who were never published), helped pioneer the creative non-fiction genre. For that, I'm thankful. RIP Gore. 

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Breaking Bad Recap: Dead Mackerel Eyes, Full Hearts Can't Lose by Alex

Are there people out there who are watching Breaking Bad and thinking, "yeah, I'd like to see Walt as the last man standing. I'd like to see him take out Hank and Mike and Jesse and live out his years caring about nothing but treats and snoozing by Don Eladio's pool"? Are there? People who are like, "Walt is awesome and I want him to win all the money and power and fuck Skyler and Walt Jr and baby Holly and family breakfast". I'm just curious because Walt has reached such levels of villainy that he makes ol' Tony Soprano look like Andy Griffith. This switch from anti-hero-hero to villain is pretty brilliant. It's like watching the Bachelor and despising one of the bachelorettes, argh, so, so, so much but not enough to want her sent home – she's the life of the party, yo – but that bitch better not get the final rose or diamond or Hawaiian honeymoon or whatever prize one gets when she's the last lady standing in the Thunderdome. Basically, Walt has become Boston Rob.

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The Echo-Friendly: 'Same Mistakes' Posted by Alex

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Friday Fiction: You Don't Know Me by Alex Snider

There was an episode of The Hills where Lauren Conrad, the ox-eyed heroine of the series, was confronted by wannabe megalomaniac villain Spencer's sister at a club. "You don't know me!" Lauren declared emphatically to sneering Stephanie, sibling to he of the flesh-coloured beard. It was an incredible moment in the series because it showed Conrad doing something other than rolling her eyes. Indeed, much like a fish, long since thought of as dead, that begins flopping around the bottom of the boat (before it gets a few whacks with a paddle), Lauren Conrad showed life that episode. It was beautiful. And who doesn't want to say that to someone in the heat of a confrontation? You don't know me! Real talk. End scene. Drop the mic.

You know who else could say that? All the anonymous narrators/protagonists in this week's Friday Fiction round-up. You know, because they're anonymous.

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Doris and Mona Put a Hot Air Balloon On It (As Related by Wes Anderson) by Alex and Allison

Doris and Mona is a segment brought to you by Alex and her friend Allison and accessories and props from the store they work at. These are the displays they make, and these are their stories. 

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