Marissa Flaxbart

Tattooed Books

Penguin has a new line of books they're calling "Penguin Ink," and I have been lusting after them despite their paperback status and seemingly random title selection. They have tattoo-inspired covers that are pretty cool looking. In a moment of clarity, I came up with a cover suggestion all my own (I wouldn't be surprised if others have thought of this, but I thought I'd run with it before someone could spoil my fun). What do you think, Penguin?

Good Samaritan Vandalism

Back in high school, Kristynn and I both carried a pack of felt-tipped markers in our bags. She use hers mostly for drawing, but I occasionally put mine to work in a curiously devious manner: I would alter signs so that they were grammatically correct. Sometimes it was as simple as adding an "ly," but often it involved changing the size of a letter to cover up an errant apostrophe (few businesses in my hometown seemed to grasp the concept of pluralization). I called this nerdy Robin-Hooding "Good Samaritan Vandalism."

Until today, few people knew about this little secret of mine. One was my cousin Meghan, who recently reminded me of the practice, unknowingly making me feel nostalgic for the days when this practice was commonplace for me. So today, I broke out a simple ballpoint pen and changed an "e" to an "i." A little sloppy, perhaps, but I feel good about it.

Showchoir Doc update:

Only $2738 to go...in 32 days! Join in! Just click here: http://bit.ly/buCgBg

Small Town Thrift Store Gems

While I don't relish scrounging through piles of junk, I'll admit that it's a pleasure to discover something truly cool and funky among the ruins of lost time. There's a recenty relocated resale shop in my hometown (Chesterton, IN), and today I discovered two cool things there, right next to my twin desires for money and a place to put stuff.

The Jolly Roger cabinet was priced at $5. The gorgeous old Wurlitzer was $39.

show/choir is real.

I can't put it off any longer. I have to out myself as a documentarian. Specifically, a showchoir documentarian.

My years-hibernating documentary project has finally come out to feast, and it is really hungry! Excitingly enough, it was approved for Kickstarter.com, where you can now go and donate to help me finish, promote, premiere, and festivalize this very very cool, pro-school-music doc, which focuses on the showchoir at my alma mater, Chesterton High school.

 Please check it out, and help make it an (even realer) reality if you can! Thanks.

Two New Movie Reviews

I've got new reviews of two movies up on Cineplexus. 

Please Give (★★★★ of 5)

Cyrus (★★★½ of 5)

Things the movies have in common:

Catherine Keener

Kind of fat guys

Surprising realism

Directed by the writer(s)

There may be other things, but those are the biggies. Enjoy!