Newsreel
PETA copywriters continued punching above their weight.
Twitter divided itself between fans of WW3 and an eternal Russian Imperium.
A serial murderer killed twenty thousand fewer homeless people than institutional apathy.
Eric Adams ended the long tyranny of lobbying disclosure.
States rolled back measures to whateveritscalled, leading to spikes in that thing.
Interest rates are going up, which only impacts you if you already knew.
War Journal
Do you like diss tracks? I like diss tracks. I could spin a deep parallel between them and Juvenalian satire, but I think I just enjoy verbal bloodsports. There’s something about two reputations walking in and one leaving that I can’t look away from.
That said, I did write a thesis comparing Juvenalian satire to diss tracks. This was in undergrad, so it will never see the light of day. I didn’t write a decent sentence until I could rent a car.
As for my favorites, I’ve always had a soft spot for “Acknowledge” by Masta Ace, particularly because it was triggered by a misunderstanding. A better person might note a lesson about conflict there. But my favorite–some of you will hate this–is “Nail in the Coffin” by Eminem. It’s a river dance on the grave of someone’s dignity.
Anyway, conflict’s unpredictable. Until it actually happened, anyone would assume Meek Mill would incinerate Drake in a diss exchange. That’s not how things went down. It’s why I’m generally polite off the page.
The Present
On Weeaboo Hell, we continued the Uzumakiad with some of the best action and worst exposition so far. This marks the halfway point of this feature, so we’re pretty proud of ourselves.
*
I had this riff run in The New Yorker.
*
I’m not done patting myself on the back for this long-form Batman joke.
The Past
Have a bit of format-bending fiction. Probably my most widely-read release of the MFA years.
The Future
How many plugs for one book can one man write? I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. You can preorder Everything Abridged here.
*
One pranks stalled, another’s had a bit of early progress. We’ll see how this race ends.
*
The documentary tiptoes towards the finish line.
*
I’m finally starting either a Patreon or a Substack this week. Ink isn’t cheap, and I’d like to keep the pranks going.
One Sentence Reviews
Demon Slayer (Season 2): It kills. (4.5/5)
Sleep: Elusive, but charming. (3/5)
Spinal Tap: Fun for most, a grim parable on trend-chasing for me. (4/5)
Elden Ring (PC): Optimized with air. (PleaseWork/5)
Signing off
Thanks for reading Extra Evil, the newsletter reborn in fire.
-DD