Cult of Sundries

In which a soon-to-be legendary gathering of rock & roll bands plays a last-act corporate rave for our defunct channel platform San Francisco, CA, Aug. 31, 2019:  absolut clancy,  News Views   Guest Correspondent Rock 'n' roll hasn't saved the world yet. And it couldn't save Disqus channels as former followers scrambled around the interwebz this month to make new homes for their communities. In a gesture of solidarity with the dazed and confused Disqusers, a cadre of rock and pop musicians announced Channelpalooza, a one-time-only protest concert to bid farewell to channels and reprove Zeta Global and Disqus for their hapless surrender to trolling.  Here we were. Fuck you if you can't understand us. (Apologies to all those Clubhouse spies who thought they'd hacked an online child-sacrifice ritual meeting but found easy jocularity instead. It was social media .) Back to current events: News Views is onsite at Disqus channels as

Given that people's memories are short, and Tom Cruise even shorter, it wouldn't hurt if I  rebooted some of the old previously read articles. A new venue for a classic channel demands nothing less. Roy Batty has been on my mind lately, and if you have not noticed, the default avatar for the Cult is a classic Roy Batty image. [At this point some of you are wondering, "Just who the heck is Roy Batty, and why do I care?" ] Watching Blade Runner is required homework for the Cult, especially because they do not make sci-fi quite like that anymore.  Besides, it is a great movie—you'll just have to take my word for it. After that, you'll need to look up Rutger Hauer on your own. The movie plot goes something like this: It's the future, and a tech company has created replicants—androids that are almost human—and they have replaced or augmented humans in hazardous work environments (like mining), entertainment, and yes, pleasure. Things, however, go wrong

I was reading a district court decision for fun last night work and encountered an actual use of logical fallacies in the wild ( begging the question in this case). Now you can reassure your kids of the eventual utility of education when they cry plaintively, "Whyyyyy do I have to build my own trebuchet for science class? I'll never uuuuuse this in real life!"

I take it that everyone else here has been to an Oprah show in person?  You haven't?  Seriously? [Keels over in shock.] Well, if you cannot get to Oprah's show, she'll bring the show to you. At least, I think that's what happened in Virginia over the weekend. No, not everyone got a free car, it was something way better.  As some cerebral comedian once remarked, there are three stages in your life: You are born. You watch TV. You die. We can all agree that birth and death are not memorable, given that no one here remembers what it was to be born, and will not know what it'll be to be dead. But that middle part—that is what we all live for. Face it, without TV, you'd not even see Oprah handing out cars. Besides, no one wants a car anymore, right?  Those damn things guzzle gas, and the most they do is take you places. A TV on the other hand, while too heavy for just one hand, is a necessity. You can watch it, you can yell at people that appear on it

Hi new and returning Cultists, There are some of us whose lives are indelibly soundtracked by music. In one of my earliest memories I was standing next to our "high fidelity" system and trying to sing along with the Beatles, a favorite of my older brothers and our parents. The Beatles - Should Have Known Better If Moby's definition below is correct (and I think it is) music becomes an actual physical force describing our places in the universe at the time we hear it. It's not just passing by or through our ears; it's shaping the air around us. It might seem to last for only the space of a pop song - but the music's real, tangible connection to the moment could stay with us for the rest of our lives. I read somewhere that art is a sort of refutation of the laws of conservation of matter, because it makes something where nothing was before. We often resist change in our lives, but isn't making something where nothing was before one of the de

David Letterman once said that one must do the same crap on two different channels to be recognized as a success. Given that this is not my first rodeo, and I blew past two websites months ago, and mainly because Alexander wept like a sissy for there were no more worlds to conquer, I finally threw caution to the wind and decided to take our show on the road [1]. To be fair, I was led on by the treachery of others, notably my co-pilot (Clemency) who is busy flying a kite in the cockpit. So this being my third vain attempt, and hopefully not an attempt in vain, I figure I will have checked all the pre-filled boxes for guaranteed success. Soon Rear Admiral Ahab will have his whale I will have Pauly Shore. While the quest continues, however, I intend to re-form the cult. “Why, SK, why?” all y’all ask plaintively, “you have so little as it is.” I have it on good authority that I have good instincts. Sort of like a third sense , if you know what I mean. I also know that by gathe