by Garrett Faber

“Give me an obscene gesture any day.”
-Chuck Palahniuk

You know who Chuck Palahniuk is; he’s inspired a generation of fucked up outsiders and insiders alike. He lit the fuse that sent my imagination projecting forward towards creative bliss and artistic freedom. His reach extends so far that even if people don’t know his name, they at least know one of his works. Since Fight Club — his first published novel — Palahniuk has grown as a writer and his audience has grown with him, enjoying every second of this wild ride through the world’s dirty subconscious. He is the father of Tyler Durden. He blew Shannon McFarland’s jaw off. He gave us false messiahs and pre-op trannies. And we love him for it.

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by Damon Martin

“Can you tell me how to get…how to get to Sesame Street?”

According to the Republicans if you’re following Big Bird, you’re following a leftist liberal who will walk you straight into an abortion clinic while asking for government handouts.

Okay, yes that’s a bit extreme, but Republicans have once again set their sites on cutting spending within the government, while looking in all the wrong places. Much like the Republican House of Representatives before them, the newest legislature has again targeted the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for elimination, proposing to cut all funds supplied by the Federal Government.

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by Jay Hathaway

“I always design intending it to be 12 inches.”
-Conrad Keely

Over the past five years, Austin rockers … And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead have broken from Interscope, put out a series of increasingly challenging and complex albums, and started operating under their own imprint, Richter Scale Records. It’s been a tough ride for Trail of Dead, but it’s led them to their new LP, Tao of the Dead, which came together more easily than any record the band had ever done before. They finished it in just ten days.

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by Alex Deuben

“Expect generous servings of death to be doled out”-
– Adam Warren

Adam Warren has spent a large part of his career known as a “manga-influenced” comics artist. Nowadays that’s a meaningless term as comics, illustration and fine art have absorbed influences from Japan and elsewhere, but when Warren began his career in the late 1980s, it was very different. “The Dirty Pair” was based on a book series that Warren turned into comics series published by Eclipse Comics and later Dark Horse. Besides the many “Dirty Pair” books, Warren has done a lot of work for Marvel, DC and Wildstorm over the years, writing and drawing books like “Gen13,” “Livewires,” “Iron Man: Hypervelocity” and “Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone.”

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by Fred Topel

“I would draw naked pictures of my mom.”
– Jasika Nicole

A supporting character could easily slip into the background on a show like Fringe, but Jasika Nicole makes sure that doesn’t happen. She plays Astrid Farnsworth, lab assistant to Walter Bishop (John Noble). She’s there whenever Walter is explaining the crazy science of the week, and she serves as a trusted confidante for the eccentric scientist.

If you haven’t been following Fringe, here’s my best attempt to catch you up for the purposes of this interview. The Fringe team – Walter, Olivia (Anna Torv) and Peter (Joshua Jackson) – discovered an alternate universe. Over There, the other Bishop, dubbed Walternate, wants to destroy our universe. He sent Olivia from his world, Fauxlivia, to get close to our Peter, which she did. Now our Olivia is back to sort out the mess of cross-dimensional travel and Peter’s feelings. There’s also an Astrid Over There, and even some alternate copies of characters who died in our universe.

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by Brandon Perkins

In the previous installment of our futuristic fiction series, Please Use Rear Exit, Mikhail, who recently x-ed his GF (Katya), ventures out for his first major post-break up night on the tiles with the boys. Unable to cut the ties completely, and with reminders in the form of text messages still causing his phone and his emotions to vibrate, Mikhail recalls his first breakup with Katya a year ago after temptation moved into the next cubicle at work. Meanwhile, Katya is similarly “enjoying” a night out with the girls. Though she’s putting lot of effort into her “over it” front, beneath the thin veneer, as with Mikhail, her mind’s in turmoil.

The scene in front of the mirror was absurd. Just wanting to touch up her mascara, Katya was finding reflective real estate hard to come by. Nipples were being forced back into tube tops as breasts were pushed together and back out. Faces ducked in close to the glass and everyone clucked away in the background. Spectacularly bedecked fingernails flicked at specs of makeup gone astray. Elbows flailed with more fury than the numerous turns of various lipsticks. A plethora of squinting and straining smiles dominated the mirror, turning the would-be reflection of harsh fluorescent lights into a pitch-black sea of narcissism. Katya couldn’t find a space to look at herself. The commotion upset her stomach more than it already was; acid churned into the swills of Smirnoff and tonic. She searched hopelessly for a sliver of space, if only to make sure that there wasn’t anything in her teeth or hair.

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by Alex Dueben

“If I’m not having fun, I may as well go get a desk job.”
– Cherie Priest

Cherie Priest is one of those writers who became an overnight success after more than a decade of hard work. She has two book series going on right now. Her new book is “Bloodshot,” an urban fantasy novel featuring an obsessive compulsive vampire thief nicknamed “Chesire Red” who has an ex-Navy SEAL Cuban drag queen sidekick. It’s a great, fun read with a very different take on vampires than most books offer.

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