The Front

All Entries sorted by date posted

• Mindhole Premium News Service · 53 days ago

  Are you sick of objective journalism? Tired of hearing the facts? When the news appears as your own dreams, it will be entirely up to you to determine how to interpret it. Stand in the shower puzzling over the logic connecting the symbols. Spend all day pondering. Be informed.

• A Summarized Version of "The Spelling Progress Journal, June 1961" · 201 days ago

  Well that title is pretty God-damned self-explanatory, isn’t it?

• & · 201 days ago

  For people that like typography, here is a short history of the ampersand & a link to a blog devoted to its permutations.

• MhTV 1 · 203 days ago

  From around the world and straight to your tube, here are some of the finest music videos of the moment.

• The Discipline of DE · 203 days ago

  What if your life could be easier? It can.

  Based on a story by William Burroughs and directed by Gus van Sant, this instructional video will show you everything you need to know in order to make living your life as easy as possible. Behold:

• Hirudo Medicinalis · 203 days ago

  Leeches! Leeches! Everywhere leeches! On your legs! In your eyes! Behind your ears! Sucking your blood! In your medicine cabinet?

  

  Yes, thanks to the good people of the Blutegel company, you can now enjoy the convenience of medicinal leeches in your very own home…

• “Now I'll tell you how I was born...” · 204 days ago

  The little-known 20th century Russian writer Daniil Kharms has a cult following for his absurd and often violent short stories. Though mostly known as a writer of Dr. Suessian children’s poems, the works of Kharms became exceptionally angry and outstandingly ridiculous as his writing career progressed. Eventually the Soviet authorities deemed his works to be too strange for public consumption. He was arrested, and then placed into the psychiatric ward of a prison in Leningrad, where he starved to death during the Nazi blockade of the city. To commemorate the birth of this blog, we are happy to present one of his more coherent works – Kharms’ description of his own birth, in its first English translation. Enjoy:

  “Now I’ll tell you how I was born, how I grew up, and how they first discovered in me the signs of genius. I was born twice. It happened like this:”

• Something Rotten in the State of Denmark · 209 days ago
• Arthur Ganson's Machines · 222 days ago

  Arthur Ganson is a kinetic sculptor specializing in existentialist Rube Goldberg machines. That is to say, he builds very elaborate machines which don’t really have any obvious use. They do, however, have an obvious purpose, and that is to make us question why he would go through the trouble of building such a thing in the first place. If you click on his name in the youtube link, you will see that he has dozens of similar machines to show you. Some serve purposes (such as oiling themselves, or cleaning a violin), but many are totally useless, existing only as manifestations of Ganson’s ingenious sense of humor.

• Wiretap · 222 days ago

  The Canadian humorist Jonathan Goldstein, author of the occasionally hilarious books Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible and Lenny Bruce is Dead, now has a show on CBC radio called Wiretap. Though the CBC lists it as a “Drama” series, Goldstein thinks of himself as a humorist, which, according to his own definition, is “a comedian who doesn’t necessarily make you laugh.” Though actually, there is a good chance his show will make you laugh, but it’s not a simple sort of humor. It will also make you think. It might even make you sad, in a funny way.