29 Years Ago
This photo reminded me of a little road trip I took one Labor Day weekend…
Tuesday, 3 September 1996
Labor Day weekend draws to a close. I managed to extend mine by one day because I agreed to work on Saturday and Sunday a week ago. I was originally supposed to get both last Thursday and Friday off in exchange for my effort, but since I only actually worked about 8 hours over the whole weekend I didn’t feel right taking two days and it was obvious by Wednesday that the job I was involved with wasn’t going to get finished if I didn’t work at least part of the day on Friday, I opted instead for splitting the minute my work was finished on Friday (around 3 p.m.) and taking all of today off.
I did get out of town however, and it was a lot of fun. I’ve been wanting to see Mono Lake for the longest time, so I decided to pack an overnight bag and head over the mountains to see it. The trip entailed driving through Yosemite, a place I’d never really had any desire to visit. That immediately changed once I was in the park. Next time, Yosemite is going to be the end, instead of a means to an end. I can’t say how many times I rounded a corner and gasped, “Oh ma god!” It was absolutely incredible! I shot almost three rolls of film, and I didn’t even go down into Yosemite Valley. This will definitely require further investigation at a later date.
I was kind of disappointed with Mono Lake. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t what I encountered. I’d believed that most of the thing had already dried up, leaving miles and miles of “tufa” towers to explore. Not so. And I should have brought my swim trunks, because swimming was definitely allowed. Another “next time”, I suppose.
My original plans were to stay overnight in Lee Vining, the small town just to the west of the Lake. Well, when I got there, I didn’t exactly like the look of the place, and the Best Western looked way more expensive than what I wanted to spend, so I kind of left everything up in the air while I went out to explore the “tufa” at the southern part of the lake.
Several hours later, I decided I better start thinking about what I wanted to do about overnight accommodations. I looked in my Motel 6 guide, and discovered there was a place about 25 miles south in Mammoth Lakes. I drove down there only to discover that it was full. I returned to Lee Vining (it was around 6:30 at this point) and discovered that not only the Best Western, but all the motels in town were full. I called Michael and told him not to panic if he heard the garage door go up at 2 a.m.; I was heading home. The drive back was horrendous. Because of the fires in Yosemite, the first part of the trip was like driving through red fog. By the time I got past that area and onto highway 108 or whatever, it was nearly dark, and I was now faced with driving the next sixty or so miles on a road which consisted of continuous hairpins and switchbacks, limiting my top speed to around 25 miles per hour. Add to that, this was a road I was totally unfamiliar with.
If there is any place in California, however, where an alien abduction is possible, it’s on that road. I passed maybe five or six cars during the entire journey, and half expected to round a corner and see a UFO in the sitting in the middle of the road. Alas, no missing time, no UFOs. Not even so much as an anomalous light in the sky. Bummer, dude.
I did stop and pulled off at one point because the stars were screaming out at me. I got out, listened to the various sounds of the nighttime forest (hoping a bear wasn’t eyeing me as a midnight snack) and set up my camera and tripod. I snapped several time exposures of the sky.* I hope at least some of them will turn out, because it’s very hard to put into words the wonder of that experience. The Milky Way was out in force and the sky wasn’t even completely dark yet. Jupiter in the south in Sagittarius was like a beacon, and through binoculars, it’s moons were clearly visible.
After I finally got out of the mountains and back into “civilization” I stopped at McDonalds and grabbed a bite to eat around 11. I’d been driving almost non-stop for 14 hours at that point and I was beginning to feel very, very tired. I knew I had to do something if I expected to make it home and not kill myself and someone else on the road. It was just the break I needed, and I continued on my way much refreshed.
*I don’t know what had happened, but the roll of film these pictures were on was nowhere to be found . I know I rewound the film and removed the canister from the camera after I’d taken the photos and—so I thought—dropped it in my bag in the trunk. (It as so dark I didn’t actually see it go in, but I emptied the bag completely and tore the trunk apart when I got home and it was nowhere to be found.) All I can figure out is that I must’ve dropped it on the road, but I think I would’ve heard it hit the pavement if that had been the case.
Or maybe aliens abducted the film, but not me…
In any case, it remains one of the great mysteries of my life, and that’s why photos like the one above resonate so deeply with me because that’s exactly what the sky looked like on that dark, lonely mountain road.
It’s The Hypocrisy, Stupid!
Viva La Revolución
Another Excellent Series Killed Off By Netflix
Honestly, I don’t know why I even bother any more. It seems we find an excellent series on Netflix and as we’re finishing up season one, we check to see if it’s been renewed. Nope. Gone forever. And the final episode is—of course—a cliffhanger.
Case in point: KAOS.
From SCREENRANT:
Why Netflix Canceled Kaos After Only 1 Season
Season 1 had a generally favorable reception, with a 76% critic score and 83% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Many reviews praised the performances, including Goldblum’s depiction of Zeus, and applauded the series’ dark comedy and social satire. Kaos season 1’s endingbrought many of the storylines to a satisfying conclusion, but it also set the stage for a second season. Unfortunately, Kaos won’t be able to deliver on that promise, despite the series’ largely positive reviews.
Kaos Reportedly Didn’t Accumulate Enough Viewership Numbers After Premiering On Netflix
This Happened Despite An Impressive Run In Netflix’s Top 10 Chart
According to Variety, Kaos was canceled because it didn’t hit Netflix’s viewership benchmarks in the weeks following its August 29 debut. Kaos received the most views during the September 2-8 period — the show’s second week on Netflix — accumulating 5.9 million views and landing the third spot on Netflix‘s Global Top 10 chart. Kaos stayed in Netflix’s top 10 for four consecutive weeks before dropping out the week of September 23-29. However, this streak was deemed insufficient to renew Kaos for season 2.
Despite four consecutive weeks in the Global Top 10 and three consecutive weeks in the top five, Kaos‘ viewership did not reach the heights of some of the other series it was competing against. This included Nicole Kidman’s The Perfect Couple, which reached 21.9 million views in its second week; Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which garnered 19.5 million views in its second week; and Emily in Paris, with 11.5 million views in its fifth week. Netflix has become increasingly selective about the series it chooses to renew, requiring dominant streaming numbers to warrant continuing one.
Kaos’ Cancelation Continues A Disappointing Netflix Trend
Too Many Shows, Especially With Strong LGBTQIA+ Storylines, Have Been Canceled After One Season
Kaos‘ cancelation continues Netflix’s disappointing trend of canceling well-received series after a single season. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, The Society, 1899, and Lockwood & Co. are among the many favorably reviewed series in recent years that have suffered similar fates. In the cases of 1899 and Kaos, they were both canceled less than two months after they debuted, with Netflix prematurely ending the shows before they could reach more audiences. Kaos‘ biggest unanswered questions and mysteries will now go unaddressed without the next stages of the rebellion against Zeus being shown.
Another disappointing trend continued by Kaos‘ cancelation is Netflix ending series featuring LGBTQIA+ storylines. From Caeneus (Misia Butler) being a transgender man to Charon (Ramon Tikaram) and Prometheus’ love story, queer representation was at the forefront of Kaos. Instead of continuing to tell a story with important representation, Netflix instead canceled Kaos, just as the streamer canceled I Am Not Okay With This, Uncoupled, Shadow and Bone, and other shows with prominent LGBTQIA+ storylines after one season.
What Kaos’ Cast & Crew Have Said About The Show’s Cancelation
Aurora Perrineau Shared An Emotional Message About It
Most of Kaos’ cast and crew have not publicly shared their thoughts on the show’s cancelation yet. However, on Instagram, Perrineau shared a heartfelt post in which she expressed her immense gratitude for playing Riddy and her disappointment at seeing the series canceled. Perrineau explained that the cancelation “hurts“ and that, while working on Kaos, she realized, “For one of the first times in my life, I have found myself really proud.” The actor also noted, “When I got cast, I couldn’t believe that someone SAW me. A girl who’s not only a minority but also a survivor of SA.”
View this post on Instagram
Perrineau went on emphasize, “We made something weird, dark, hilarious, deranged and absolutely tragic — something entirely human. THIS is a feeling I plan to take with me.” She had an active presence on social media after Kaos’ release and continually encouraged audiences to continue streaming it in order to make season 2 happen. Despite being one of 2024’s most creative, well-made, and entertaining series to watch, Kaos has become another victim of Netflix ending promising series after a single season.
I’m just happy we got the chance to experience what we did. It was truly an outstanding series, but we live in a time when only corporate profits matter. Not art, not storytelling, nothing more than the shareholders’ wallets.
Grandpa Takes A Poo
This…
Reminds me of this:
This Week In Stupid
as another stupid week comes to a close here in America, let’s look back at the dumbest fucking shit that happened.
monday: tik me no toks
apparently, Donny Convict’s handlers got the bright idea to start up a tiktok account for Dear Leader — because these days, all the cool fascists musthave one.
here’s Donny’s first post. there’s no actual need to watch it. it’s twenty-seven seconds of who the fuck even cares.
instead, let’s take a look at what happened next: people started commenting.
and they commented some more.
they kept right on commenting — and all anyone wanted to talk about was Donny’s close, personal relationship with his dead pedo bestie.
as of right now, there are over 49,000 comments under that video. I’m guessing that about 48,945 of them are about you-know-what.
hey Donny, how’s your cover-up going? not well, I’d say.
uesday: I see dead voters
New Jersey congressman Jeff Van Drew has a wee bit of an ectoplasm problem.
“people who were passed away, these are real people. I spoke to large numbers of them.”
dude, I’m contractually obligated to ask: are these ‘large numbers of people whom you’ve spoken to who have passed away’ in the room with is right now? I’m guessing they are, and you’re the only one who can see them.
now, normally I’d be advising Rep. Van Drew to be dialing 1-800-GHOSTBUSTERS.
but I’m hearing that Kristi Noem’s conscripted them into ICE to help deport undocumented demons back to Carpathia.
wednesday: verily, I whine unto you
MAGA preacher Hank Kunneman has a bone to pick with his evidently unfaithful flock. he seems to have mortgaged himself up to his eyeballs on the expectation he’d be able to fleece his way out of it — and it ain’t happening.
“I’m not saying this to be mad. I’m saying this because I feel like I’m going to go to my advocate Jesus. I have $400,000 to pay — and the only reason I took a line of credit is that I could have this, and we wouldn’t have to wait, potentially— can you imagine still being in there, and this sanctuary done, and we don’t have the money to pay for the AV, so now we’ve got to sit there for a year, because that’s how long it would have taken. and I said, well, can I get a line of credit? I didn’t know what else to do. ‘shouldn’t have borrowed’? oh, well tell that to the prophet who said to the widow, go get some vessels, go get some vases, and borrow not a few.”
come on, widows, do a bro a solid. why the fuck aren’t you out there, rounding up those vessels, right now?
seriously, what’s the point of even being an evangelist if you can’t depend on the rubes to finance your obscenely opulent lifestyle?
oh, and that thing about the widows and the vessels? that’s from 2 Kings 4, where the Big Guy in the Sky commits a miracle in order to help a widow deal with her own debts. it’s not about underwriting the greed of some numb-nuts preacher who’s shit at grifting.
pray harder, bro.
thursday: no, it’s pull yourself up by your own bootstraps
here comes Sean Duffy, the reality-show-has-been who grew up to become Donny’s Secretary Of Planes Falling Out Of The Sky, to demonstrate that there’s physical fitness, and then there’s whatever the fuck this is.
Sean, are you fucking kidding me? on what planet is that considered a legit pull-up? the Fox News flunkie who’s helping you is expending more energy that you are.
we absolutely need to gif this shit for posterity’s sake.
also, I have it on good authority from Rick Santorum that two men working out like this leads to people marrying their dogs.
slippery slope, my dudes. just saying.
friday: a day in the life
on Friday, some fucking idiot meandered into the Oval Office. befuddled and disheveled, the fucking idiot wore a stupid hat and an even stupider expression.
he fucking idiot’s right hand was, as usual, all fucked to shit from god-knows-what procedure — because as usual, the fucking idiot’s health is a huge State Secret.
the fucking idiot proudly showed off a photo of the despot bestie whose warm embrace he so desperately pines for.
“I’m going to sign this for him. I was sent one. I thought you’d all like to see it. it’s a man named Vladimir Putin, who I believe will be coming, depending on what happens. he may be coming and he may not. depending on what happens. we have a lot of things happening over the next couple of weeks. but I thought it was a nice picture. of him. okay of me, but nice of him. so that was very nice that it was sent.”
the fucking idiot blithered about gold.
“you see the way this is looking? look. I can’t tell you how much that gold costs, a lotta money. there’s nothing like gold and there’s nothing like solid gold, but this, this beautiful office needed it.”
the fucking idiot then hallucinated about ‘beautiful African-American ladies’ who are begging him to come to Chicago and do a fascism.
“Chicago is a mess. and we’ll straighten that one out probably next … African Americans ladies, beautiful ladies, are saying ‘please President Trump, come to Chicago.’”
the fucking idiot then wandered over to the Kennedy Center, where he gibbered incoherently about ‘the cubes with the doors.’
“they built these rooms nobody’s gonna use. rooms underground. and I’ve often wondered what are the big cubes they have outside that block the view. the cubes with the door in them so that people can get down to rooms that nobody is going to use. and it’s a shame. it’s a shame.”
and then the fucking idiot blithered about ‘these cubes’ a second time.
“I can’t use bad language, but it’s been so badly run. and they built these cubes outside, these cubes. and there’s stairways that go down to little rooms that nobody uses. it’s so crazy what they did. they spend hundreds of millions of dollars. it’s like throwing money out the window. they built cubes. all it does is block off the view. you know, they go down to little stages, but nobody uses them. and we’re taking care of our big, beautiful stages that people really want.”
and the fucking idiot didn’t get 25th Amendmented on the spot. how fucking idiotic is that?
saturday: ?
hey, it’s still morning as I sit here writing this — but give it time, I guarantee you that some dipshit wingnut is going to do something stupid before the day is over. you can set your watch to it.
this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:
practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.
to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.
we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.
Released 43 Years Ago Today
Yaz: Upstairs At Eric’s (1982)
365 Days Of UNF: August 23rd
Hot Dogs!
Boys Will Be Boys
NO LIE DETECTED.
🤣 🤣 🤣
I Am Incorrigible
I see these photos and immediately think Rosemary’s Baby. You?
A Gentle Reminder In These Difficult Times
They Think We’re ALL As Stupid As Felon45
Nope, It’s Not
And Not A Drag Queen In Sight
Texas megachurch founder Robert Morris indicted on charges of lewd acts with a child
The founder of a Texas megachurch who resigned as senior pastor last year after he admitted “inappropriate sexual behavior” in the 1980s has been indicted on five criminal counts involving a child, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday.
Robert Morris, 63, who founded Gateway Church in Southlake, is charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
The abuse began in December 1982 when Morris was visiting the Hominy, Oklahoma, home of the victim, the attorney general’s office alleged. He was 21 and she was 12 at the time.
It continued for four years, the office said.
Gateway Church in Southlake, which is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is the one of the largest megachurches in the United States.
In June, after Cindy Clemishire came forward to accuse Morris of sexually abusing her as a child, Morris said he engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying” in a statement to the evangelical news site The Christian Post.
But Wait! There’s More!
Las Vegas pastor thought he was meeting 14-year-old boy for sex: police
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Police and federal officials arrested a Las Vegas pastor as he prepared to meet a person he believed was a teenage boy for sex, according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained Monday.
Neal Creecy, 46, faces a charge of luring or attempting to lure a child or mentally ill person with the use of computer technology to engage in sexual conduct, records said.
https://arrestedpastor.com/neal-harrison-creecy
At this point, I see “pastor,” or especially “youth pastor” and I automatically think, PEDOPHILE. Always.
And again…not a drag queen in sight. Imagine that!
Tiedrich Friday
yesterday, the California Legislature passed, and Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law, the Texas Can Go Fuck Itself Act of 2025.
the legislation will enable a special election to be held on November 4th that will ask voters to grant final approval to newly drawn congressional districts in order to shitcan five Republican seats in the US House of Representatives. current polling indicates that voters favor the shit out of this plan.
California, fuck yeah.
“we got here because the president of the United States is struggling. we got here because the president of the United States is one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history. we got here because he recognizes that he will lose the election and Congress will go back into the hands of the Democratic Party next November. we got here because of his failed policies. those are being exposed hour by hour, reinforced today by Walmart announcing they’ll be raising prices, because of the tax increases. because of the tariffs. we’re reminded every day by a slowing economy, growing mistrust, distrust, all across this nation, across the board, he is failing. he recognizes that, and that’s why he made a phone call to Greg Abbott, asking for five seats. he can’t win by playing by traditional sets of rules. he plays by no rules. I remind you all the time: it’s not the Rule of Law, it’s the Rule of Don — and we’re standing up to that. we’re responding to that.”
it cannot be stressed enough that it shouldn’t have to be this way. California shouldn’t have to do fuckery to counter Texas’ fuckery.
in a sanely-run country, every state’s maps would be mandated by an independent commission that would divvy everything up in a fair and non-partisan way. y’know, true representational government. none of these fucked-up amoeba-shaped districts like the one that enables the shouty half-dressed degenerate wrestling coach Jim Jordan to be reelected over and over in perpetuity, despite being one of the most-useless pantloads ever to stalk the halls of Congress.
but we don’t live in a sanely-run country. we live in the United States of the Stupidest Bullshit Ever, where every fucking thing has to be a battle.
it’s the dumbest possible way to run a country.
but this is a battle the Republican Party started — because they know their policies fucking suck, and they can’t win free and fair elections. so they’re allthe hell with playing fair, let’s just cheat our way to victory. it’s the Donny Convict way.
you want a battle? fine. go fuck yourselves. we’re going to do things the Untouchables way.
here’s another stupid hyper-partisan battle our country should not have to be fighting right now: is the current president a drooling imbecile, or what? — because fucking duh, he absolutely is.
this is an actual thing that happened yesterday: Donny phoned into one of these MAGAfied hate-radio programs, and proudly announced that he was going to personally patrol the ‘dangerous’ streets of DC that very night, like some fucked-up geriatric Batman.
I’m going to be going out tonight with the police and with the military, of course,” Trump told conservative host Todd Starnes. Trump has previously described the national capital as riddled with “crime” and “dangerous.”
here’s what happened next: Donny waddled over to the U.S. Park Police operations center and gibbered like a maniac for half an hour, about all the usual nonsense the demented old fuck obsesses over — like grass.
“one of the things will be redoing is your parks. I’m very good at grass, ’cause I have a lot of golf courses all over the place. I know more about grass than any human being I think anywhere in the world. and we’re going to be regrassing all your parks, all brand-new sprinkler systems, the best that you can buy, like Augusta. no, it’ll look like Augusta. it’ll look like, more importantly, Trump National Golf Club, that’s even better. but we’re gonna look, we’re gonna have all brand-new beautiful grass. you know like everything else, grass has a life. do you know that? grass has a life. you know, we have a life and grass has a life. and the grass here died about 40 years ago.”
what the fuck? what grass? who gives a shit about grass? where are these parks that Donny’s so horny to turn into shittier versions of his shitty golf motels? above all, why is the president of the United States wasting one second of his time on grass? doesn’t he have a real job?
oh wait — no, he doesn’t. Nosferatu McGoebbels is actually running the country, leaving Donny all the time in the world to regrass all our parks.
I guess this is a good place to remind everyone that my What The Fuck Is Wrong With You Challenge is now in its 1,950th day.
also, I’m pretty sure I know one guy who’s better at grass than Preznit Fuckwit.
so, how did Donny’s patrolling of the streets of DC go last night?
it never fucking happened.
after Donny’s blither-session at the Parks Police HQ, he waddled back to the White House, and that was that. Donny presumably spent the rest of his day flopped on a couch, watching himself on TV.
once again, America’s Mad King goes completely off the rails — makes a huge boast about how he’s going to personally patrol the streets, does a crazypants speech, and then disappears without doing one second of “patrolling” — and everybody just shrugs and goes ‘yeah, that happened.’
none of this is normal — and once again, we’re all numbed by the firehose of insanity.
and now here’s what might just be the dumbest imaginary battle ever, because it’s over a corporate logo.
“sparking some ire” is really underplaying what actually happened: the worst fucking people on the planet completely lost their shit.
“In college, I worked at @CrackerBarrel in Tallahassee. I even gave my life to Christ in their parking lot. Their logo was iconic and their unique restaurants were a fixture of American culture. No one asked for this woke rebrand. It’s time to Make Cracker Barrel Great Again.”
dude gave his life to Christ in a Cracker Barrel parking lot.
bro, you might want to ask Christ for it back — because you desperately need to get a life, if this is the kind of nonsense you’re getting all worked up over.
also, Byron — are you sure that was Christ? are you sure you didn’t get mugged by a junkie? because I’ve seen a lot of skeevy longhaired dudes in parking lots in my life — and none of them turned out to be Jesus.
here’s the new logo, and yeah, it sucks. it’s charmless and sterile, but so what?
and how it is woke? I can’t figure it out. Charlotte Clymer can’t figure it out.
They believe someone like me—a progressive trans woman—is cheering on the new logo change, which I find very confusing. I’m genuinely confused.
Tragically, I am something of an expert on anti-woke propaganda—which is an incredibly sad and pathetic area of expertise—and my hand to god, I honestly don’t know why rightwing influencers think I should be happy about the logo change.
does MAGA really need to turn every fucking thing, no matter how insignificant, into a culture war battle? it’s a corporate logo. of course it’s sterile, that’s been the trend in logo design for a over hundred years.
MAGA was so up in arms over the logo change, that Cracker Barrel stock plunged right into the shitter.
Cracker Barrel shed almost $100 million in market value after its stock plunged Thursday following the release of a new logo. The new design eliminates a longstanding drawing of an overall-clad man leaning against a barrel, in favor of a cleaner logo featuring just the chain’s name.
Christ in a Cracker Barrel, how incomprehensibly idiotic is that?
free clue for MAGA: normal people don’t obsess over shit this stupid. normal people don’t see everything as an ideological battle to be fought tooth and nail. normal people don’t glue their identities to a corporate logo. corporations don’t give a fuck about you. just like Dear Leader. he doesn’t give a fuck about you, either.
look, MAGA — if you hate the new Cracker Barrel logo, maybe you’ll like this one better.
because seriously, the only thing you need to know about this whole made up controversy over a fucking corporate logo is that Donny’s name is on every page of the Epstein Files.
this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:
practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.
to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.
we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.
365 Days Of UNF: August 22nd
“Fine Art Prints”
Dat ‘Stache!
Right?!
And Neelix Was Last Seen Floating Out The Airlock
Oopsie!
Because It’s True
The More You Know
