Hobbits, lawyers, boardgames and space

Broken Pencil has launched The Nub in conjunction with GeistMatrix, subTerrain, and Taddle Creek. It’s a new app for iPhone and Android that collects indie arts and culture articles, short stories, review, comics, interviews and a bunch of other neat sounding stuff.

I know this because they’ve e-mailed me about it like three times in the past two days. Still, it’s free and it sounds cool. I’ve downloaded it.

The Montreal Gazette asks where are the female reviewers? I’m right here! Hire me!

CWILA launched in June of 2012 with numbers from 2011. It will be interesting to see if/how various publications have changed in 2012.

  • Save the gargoyles!
  • An in-depth analysis of the contract between Bilbo and the dwarves in The Hobbit. It’s pretty great.
  • Even if The Hobbit is seeped in masculinist medievalism and almost completely devoid of women.
  • Chad Pelley talks to himself and four other writers on why they publish with small presses.
  • The Story of Menstruation, as told by Disney for Kotex in 1946. No, seriously.
  • There is an art to losing your shit in public.
  • It’s been a while since I’ve hosted a games night, but these 10 literary board games kinda make me want to schedule another. An Umberto Eco board game…who knew?
  • Print books are beautiful, and print will never truly die. Of course real books printed on real paper with real pages will endure. I mean, just look at Captain Picard, still reading paper books in the 24th century, and he had access to tablets. These kind of articles are sweet in their earnestness, but who is it that still needs convincing?
  • Stephen Marche’s terrible Esquire interview with Megan Fox is making headlines for his gross objectification of her body. The article is littered with bizarre quotes from Fox about leprechauns and aliens, provided without context or analysis. Vice pulls choice quotes and calls it “the worst thing ever written.”  Slate.com calls it insane, and offers suggestions on how a better writer may have tackled it. In short, it’s a perfect example of how not to write about women.
  • Transphobia is stupid, but it acquires an even greater level of stupidity when it comes from the mouths and keyboards of otherwise celebrated feminists. Here’s a great response from Laurie Penny.

Finally, the website we’ve all been waiting for: HowManyPeopleAreInSpaceRightNow.com. Awesome.

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