What Penguindrum Means to Me

“If everything is already set in stone by fate, then why are we even born? There are those born wealthy, those born of beautiful mothers, and those born into war or poverty. If everything is caused by fate, then God must be incredibly unfair and cruel.

Because, ever since that day, none of us had a future. The only thing we knew was that we would never amount to anything.“

The Perils of Transgender Essentialism – 14 Theses on Detransition

I. Both transition and detransition are legitimate modes of self-expression. Individuals should be encouraged to attempt self-discovery and improvement of their embodied subjectivity within healthy bounds, and both transition and detransition are included within that.

The Division Between Headcanons and Readings

What separates a headcanon from a reading? Technically speaking, there’s little difference between the definitions of these two words. A headcanon is one’s imaginative interpretation of a work, one not confirmed by the text itself. A reading is an interpretation of a work, drawing upon the text itself but doing so with a particular lens or perspective. Yet, obviously, these two words do not have the same meaning in practice. What constitutes the difference between them, then, and is it a legitimate distinction in the first place?

The Postponed Communist Eschaton in Disco Elysium

This post was written with this song in mind.

The extent to which Disco Elysium occupies my thoughts tends to correlate with how optimistic I am about the ongoing political situation. A month ago, when the largest uprising in decades was ongoing, it didn’t come up at all. Now, as the movement for black liberation has been recuperated by capital as far as is possible, and the communist horizon has once again passed into the distance, its melancholic portrayal of a world strangled by history resonates once more.

Simple Fried Chicken Sandwich Recipe – Full Recipe on Patreon

So, I’ve wanted to post recipes for dishes I’ve really worked out for quite some time now, and I figured what better way to do it than post it on Patreon! I don’t feel particularly bad about locking this off, because while I rate it rather highly, it isn’t something I think a ton of people need to see. Nevertheless, I put a lot work into getting this right, and I hope those of you interested look at it. While not a Southerner, I’m fairly confident in a number of my Southern dishes, and fried chicken probably tops that list.

I know it’s a bit annoying, but I’d like to explain how I developed this recipe before giving it, if only for credit’s sake. I’d like to say that it’s a variation on a family recipe, but while it is inspired but the way my Nana makes fried chicken, I’ve never made it with her. The biggest influence on this, in terms of technique, is J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, though this diverges quite a bit from his. Additionally, my spice mix is heavily inspired by, though not the same as, many popular ideas of KFC’s.

This recipe is a work-in-progress still, and almost certainly won’t be how I fry chicken a year from now. Still, it’s the result of over a dozen different attempts to get it right, and I think I’m pretty close. If anyone does decide to make this, please let me know. I’d be incredibly interested in hearing how it turns out.

You can find the recipe itself on Patreon, starting at $3.