Time for your daily missive from Zed Land. I get up to way too many shenanigans.
Dorking out with Chuck Klosterman.
Writing
On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of attending the Toronto launch of I Wear the Black Hat, the new collection of essays about villains and villainy by Chuck Klosterman. After an excellent interview conducted by Stuart Berman, Klosterman took questions from the audience, and so I was able to ask whether he thought whether our cultural notions of good and evil were in fact closer to the D&D alignments chaotic and neutral. We then went down a rabbit hole wherein he explained to me how he was able to play a chatoic Cavalier, which blew my d20-rolling mind.
Today, Toronto Standard published my review of I Wear The Black Hat, which looks at the way that comment sections have become the real villain of the present moment, and whether or not you would actually be rooting for Batman if you knew nothing of his back story and were only aware of him via Twitter trending topics and Fox news.
Loud Noises
The mighty Carcass will soon release Surgical Steel, their first record since 1996’s Swansong, On September 17th 2013, and it is one of the most glorious and triumphant returns that any heavy band has ever made. They’ve recently released a single from the forthcoming record, “Captive Bolt Pistol,” and it is glorious.
Reading
Tricia Lockwood’s poem, “Rape Joke,” was just published in the Awl and it is one of those rare pieces of writing that will absolutely rip your guys out.
Sprots
Hotdogpocalypse
Last night, I went to an ill-fated Jays game (after blowing a lead being tied at the end of the 9th inning, they somehow gave up an astonishing 5 runs in the 10th and finally lost to the Dodgers, 98-3) with James Keast, editor-in-cheif at Exclaim. We talked about metal and ritualized male behaviour. Also I ate this hot dog, so it wasn’t a total loss.
