all strangelove days
so it goes! so it goes!
we cry as
we ride the tiger down
down down down
to the ground
whooping and laughing
as it all
falls
apart
strangelove days
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strangelove days
everything falls apart — a serial
Photo by Sergei Vasilenko on Unsplash, design by michael raven [Jul 30, 01:13] Email — MikroMachine
From: MikroMachine@[withheld].com To: Alice.Donovan.73@[withheld].com Date: 30 Jul, 01:13:02 -0500 Subject: Apologies and...
Hey Alice,
Hope you don’t mind me reaching out to you via the email you use to comment with, but I wanted to apologize for Dan’s (DK) asshole behavior. He’s usually an ok kind of guy, even fun to be around at times IRL. Except when he’s drunk. Well, a couple of nights ago he had been drinking again. He’s an old friend of my buddy I’ve known since high school, Ekul. I knew DK too, but didn’t. If that makes any sense. We were never close friends or anything. We just end up hanging out because of Ekul.
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everything falls apart — a serial
Hei, skogkatter — 06oct26
I’ve been lax in both taking photos and in doing updates on the two Norwegian Forest cats we adopted, not because they are not now important parts of my life, but because I am not much of a photographer when it comes to daily activities and talking too much about kittens felt performative after a point.
Both are doing very well on a number of fronts and go in this morning to get altered so we don’t have frustrated male cats doing what frustrated male cats do. And microchipped.
Grendel, the bigger by far, crested 9.5 pounds a week ago at just over 5 months of age. Grímnir is just over 8.25 pounds. For reference, most cats are 5-7 pounds at this age. They are starting to look less like kittens, and are harder to pick out in low light as the two new additions.
Grendel went from being “meh” about treats to being highly treat motivated, which means I’ve been able to teach him the following commands with some success: come, sit, up, down, “boop” (he puts his nose to my finger for a treat), “high five”, “five”, and lay down. He is less interested in getting down from something for a treat, but will do it and is starting to understand “no.” He is recognizing his name — whether he responds as expected is another thing. He is the clown and goof of the two and will do silly things just because he feels like being silly.
Grímnir is less adept at commands, which surprises me, as he is the more serious of the two and is puzzle-centric. He does up/down, sit, “boop” and “up” in a sitting context where he reaches up for fingers. He can’t seem to figure out lay down, and is struggling with five and high five. He’s become the bigger puppydog of the two and likes playing with toys on his own.
I’ll admit, I am nervous about today’s operation after what happened to Ghost a few years back (five? wow). Ghost was my Maine Coon kitten who had a reaction to the anesthetic and suffered severe brain damage because of the time it took before they could resuscitate him. This is a different clinic that feels better equipped to handle such emergencies, but I always get nervous after my experience with Ghost, whether the operation is for teeth, taking a tissue sample or any other standard procedure that requires sedation. I know what happened to Ghost was extremely rare, but I can’t help but be nervous.
Anyway, wish the boys luck. About to put them in their carriers and go…
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Hei, skogkatter — 06oct26
everything falls apart — a serial
Photo by Sergei Vasilenko on Unsplash, design by michael raven [Jul 28, 14:23] Blog — MikroMachine
[Note: I’ll let the record speak for itself, adding only descriptions of what I found or context that seems relevant. Longer notes beyond descriptions are signed “a_boojum”. If you see that handle elsewhere online, it isn’t me; I use it only for Alice’s story.
This is the first real trace of Alice I could find, and the thread that led me to the code that unlocked her phone. ~a_boojum]
Everything Falls Apart, #Two Found
by MikroMachine
Category: Ancient History
Tags: EFA, 80s ‘zines, minneapolis, the scene, music, aurora records
[Image: the front cover of a 1984 Minneapolis punk fanzine titled “E F A” in heavy distressed cutout block lettering across the top, subtitled “everything falls apart” in smaller typewriter font.
The ‘zine image is in high-contrast black-and-white Xerox. Grainy black-and-white live photo of a sweaty hardcore punk vocalist shouting into a corded microphone in a packed, dark basement club.
Crooked paste-up typewriter clippings mounted on torn slips: “Review: Are you ready for a Hootenanny?”, “RIFLE SPORT: fully loaded”, “What took the punk out of the ‘burbs?”, and “Subterranean scene. Page 14”. Bottom margin typewriter text: “$1.00 — or free at Aurora Records”.]
Wow! This brings back memories. I found a stack of these sitting in the bottom of a box in ma’s attic — not because she was an avid collector, but because we all forgot about that box of my shit I left behind when I went off to college.
We had grand aspirations at the time when we slapped this together. The model was the “Your Flesh” ‘zine, but we probably expected too much for people to pay us a full dollar at the time (as you can tell from our free distribution at the local record store).
Needless to say, in spite of Ekul’s many attempts to drum up advertising dollars, we just couldn’t get the breakthrough in revenue to keep it up. I think we got out a solid six bimonthly issue (a full year!) before we folded. Pretty good for a couple of sixteen-year-old shits back in ’84.
We gave out a shit-ton of this issue at one of the after-hours basement parties at the Aurora, which is why we had so many copies left.
Didn’t help, LOL.
Let me know if you want a pristine archive copy for your own collection. Give me your details with $4 postage and handling on Venmo, and I’ll send you a copy while supplies last.
I expect remaining supplies will last for about five years, so don’t rush me all at once.
[Image of a Venmo QR Code]
COMMENTS:
Alice.Donovan.73 replied:
For real? I totally forgot about EFA. my brother used to let me read them when mom and dad werent home. (to be fair, dad was never home) mom said that stuff would rot my brain.
page 14 brings back memories. Kyle used to tell me about the after-hours parties that leaked down in the tunnels beneath the old aurora. i mean, he did until he stopped going.
Those parties ended right before they tore that place down in 90. By then, my brother had quit and they wouldn’t let me in because I was still underage.
Wish i had been able to see them. The stories he told were pretty wild about waht they found down there.DK replied:
building still stands. They moved one of the theaters on the way to 1st (forget which) in 91 and demo’d Block E, but that one stayed. people get that shit wrong all the time.
MikroMachine replied:
Play nice, Kennedy. Alice is good people. Unlike your sorry ass.
DK replied:
😝 I’ll behave. Promise. Maybe.
DK replied:
It weren’t in 90 either. I went to the “demolition party” to give city council a piece of my mind via a middle finger. Worst. Decision. Ever.
It was october 18 1988. My arrest record can tell no lies.
Alice.Donovan.73 replied:
That’s right! My bestie played with her school jazz band her freshman year at the demo. That would have been 88 alright.
I wonder if you can still get into the tunnels from Aurora. I’d pay someone , they could get me a peek at Kyle’s old stomping grounds. Kinda need it, if it can happen.
DK replied:
sealed the motherfuckers up when they renovated Eblock.
Alice.Donovan.73 replied:
Damn…
kali.nótt replied:
There’s still egress.
DK replied:
@kali, U sure bout that? I heard they welded it up tighter than a coffin.
kali.nótt replied:
🤨 Really DK? You have to ask?
DK replied:
@Alice, knew a Donovan back the day. Went by Grendel. He your brother?
Alice.Donovan.73 replied:
🙂 Yeah. Did you hang with him?
DK replied:
I knew him, ran a different crowd.
He was a dick and poseur. Sorry, if that’s news to you.
re: those tunnels: leave it alone. you dont want to know.
MikroMachine replied:
@DK 🤦♂️
[This post and its comments were deleted after I captured them. MikroMachine answered one email with a version of DK’s “leave it,” and hasn’t replied since. ~a_boojum]
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everything falls apart — a serial
carnivory; et tu?
I have thought of dropping away
A leaf in the blustery changefilled winds
This is brown of me
This is orange of me
Sometime this is redpurple of me
Come the gritdry eyes of air
My flesh feeds of them
Come
Them tangled of me
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carnivory; et tu?
everything falls apart — a serial
Photo by Sergei Vasilenko on Unsplash, design by michael raven Foreword III
Saturday morning — well, closer to afternoon than morning by the time I dragged myself out of bed. There was that phone with the clock moving slowly across the screen like a new toy for the bored house cat that I was.
I tapped the screen to life and gave a good long look at Miss Alice before the screen faded to black. I tapped the cracked surface again, glad that the spiderwebs were localized on Mister Handsome, with only a stray fissure touching Alice’s shoulder.
Something about her eyes as they looked into the camera made me want to know more about someone who would abandon both car and phone. She didn’t have the look of someone who would just go with that kind of flow.
Alice Donovan.
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everything falls apart — a serial
gasping
I can’t help but feeling a past has been stolen as the memories are further stained and fixed, put to slide, and transferred to meme.
These memories are not my memories. Except when they are. With mendacity at every turn, what remains to be believed?
Turn to left. Turn to the right. Beep beep. My vandal feet forget the steps, lose the center and free-fall once again.
Where did we stow the missing link? Under the desks when we ducked and covered? Behind a flag carried from the alter? Listening at staircases, trying to stay undercover?
Where did we stash that part?
At lake bottoms, all of me sank — some never came up for air.
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gasping
realize empty
I’m not quite sure what the point is anymore.
What can you call it when you seek invisibility from yourself?
Maybe there is only asking the moon before she covers her face behind Night’s wings.
And then her only reply is to laugh.
Cutting myself on get sickle edge, you then realize.
empty
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realize empty
hidden in the crowd
a glance,
hidden in the crowd
you saw nothing
i, everything
i turned my face
and let myself fade
awayTo like, click comments or:
hidden in the crowd
old things, these
slow touch the mirror
broke silvered peeling
stained memories
grey to curl
languish these hours
waiting for a light
to turn bare to glow
swinging with
bruised-wrist attics
clotted in dustTo like, click comments or:
old things, these
