July 31st, 2006
Wherez the Beef

Dear Mingus Tourette,

I have noticed that your entries from the last month consist of links to other people's books. The question is: what are you writing these days?

That is to say; where is your next book, you silly chav? I need the money you'll pay me to write the foreword.

Love,
Marvin Gander

July 26th, 2006
Therefore Repent!

Looks like Jim Munroe, founder of the Perpetual Motion Roadshow has a new book out called Therefore Repent! - and it's a comic! I particularly like his comments on it:

In the tradition of The Book of Revelations, it’s a pretty wild dark fantasy tale filled with demons and swords and blood. I’ve always been a fan of the kookier parts of the bible, being able to understand that it’s a story rich with symbolism rather than literal truth. But kind of like the people who learn Klingon and quote Kirk in episode 22, Christian fundamentalists take the bible way too seriously and ruin it for the rest of us. The difference is, instead of gathering harmlessly at Star Trek conventions, the fundies have taken over the White House and are trying to control people’s lives.


Check it out. Or check out the 24 page prequel to it that he has linked (for free & online). Pretty rad.

July 20th, 2006
Theszka Looming

My pal Ian Daffern is coming in from Toronto. He has never seen E-Ville before. Or the West. It is imperative that he enjoy some fine local cuisine, drink some draught beer and enjoy our finest karaoke, perhaps after a drinking walk in the river valley.

Especially since he will be reeling from the exposure to sundry cowboy sodomites from the Stampede.

For those who don't know him - he did the sweet-ass Zed story on the WTN Tour. And, he once made out with Kirsten Dunst. And, does a MEAN Alanis Morrisette on the mic.

Saturday night. Anyone in?

July 19th, 2006
The Minister's New Book

Minister Faust's new book is looming on the horizon. Check out the cover.

And the copy says:

They’re Earth’s mightiest super-team. And dysfunctional as hell.

Having survived arch-criminal assaults in the 1950s, intergalactic aggression in the 1960s, affirmative action battles in the 1970s, and finally defeating all its arch-enemies in a battle global in the 1980s, the Fantastic Order Of Justice finds itself in a peaceful world without super villains--and thus bereft of a mandate.

Without external foes, the phenomenal F*O*O*Jsters are reduced to waging toxic office politics rife with their own arcane idiosyncrasies, bizarre perversions, mutual contempt and explosive neuroses, leading to what must sooner or later be a workplace super-powered civil war.

Only one woman can save them from themselves: Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman, AKA Doctor Brain, the world's leading therapist for the extraordinarily-abled.

But when the planet's most hallowed hero dies unexpectedly, career-ending depression descends, accusations fly and conspiracy theories boil--is the age of heroes truly over, or has an old foe returned to exact revenge on them all? Can the F*O*O*J survive its two greatest threats: assassination and group therapy?

---

Whattaya think?

July 11th, 2006
Mingus Tourette Wins Literary Competition for the First Time Ever

From the official blog of Edmonton Journal web editor & local reporter, Larry Johnsrude:

Edmonton poet Mingus Tourette is the winner of our playoff poetry contest for his poem Blood on the Ice.

His was one of 13 poems I received after asking readers for inspirational verse about their favourite hockey team during the playoffs. All entries were excellent. But Journal editor-in-chief Allan Mayer, who judged the poetry contest, thought Tourette’s spoke loudest about our human need to celebrate danger and glory through the lives of others.

He wins our grand prize, the Journal book Edmonton Oilers: Celebrating 25 Years in the Heartland of Hockey, by hockey writer Ray Turchansky.

Hell yeah. That's what I'm talking about. It almost eases the Game 7 loss pain.

But not really.

But what will?

Here's the winning poem, for those who missed it:


Blood on the Ice

In Germany
they clap for pilots
after a good landing

here
we scream thank you

at the bus drivers
after proper steerage
through the salt-stained slush.

But then
we have Ice in our blood
thick, coppery,
self-lubricating.
Keeps us
screaming when
the blood on the ice

isn't ours.

Yes. God Bless you, Fernando.
This is your crusade.
Ours.

Rubber in the Net.
Oil in the Cup.
Blood on the Ice.

Whatever it takes.

July 10th, 2006
Magazines

If you've been following the Mingus Tourette vs. the Critic Bouchard saga in SEE magazine, you should pick up last Thursday's issue before it disappears. Check the Letters section. Looks like the final chapter. For now.

July 6th, 2006
Dog Killer!

It's official. Edmonton's favourite transplanted American son has a new book out. His fifth. It's called Dog Killer. It's big enough to get reviews in Publishers Weekly and BookList, and it's super illustrated!

That's right. New! Always funny! Bob the Angry Flower. Believe it. If you don't, check out his latest comic - Scrotoss! It's nuts! Buy it!

PS. Ignore the Pub Weekly review. Check the Booklist. Believe it or not, Pub Weekly still has anonymous reviews. Which I believe is complete bullshit. BookList gives Dog Killer an amiable thumbs up:

"Notley's syndicated Bob the Angry Flower exemplifies the new science-fiction comics... Energetically drawn, top-drawer madness."

So there. And look at the other funnies. Web Shit! Evangelion! Oilers! Dog Killer!

July 4th, 2006
Happy Canada Day

One of my longtime best friends in the world is a soldier. Last week, he found out that he is going to Afghanistan in a month. Platoon Commander. For six months.

This is what he wants, so I am happy for him for that. The war is the story that he's been seeking. It will incredible and horrifying, unmistakably. I don't think he has any illusions about it. He goes willingly, knowingly.

But it will be tense news-reading every time there's a casualty. Every time, I'll be hoping like fuck it's someone else's name. If I prayed, I would. But I don't. So I won't, but say one thing.

Do whatever you gotta do to stay alive, brother. You're one of my oldest friends and irreplaceable, so you try like fucking everything to make it home safe. That's it.





But What Happened Last Month? By God, Find Out Here!

Copyright © 2006 Mingus Tourette