Anthony R. Karnowski

Pornographic Fruit...

I found this at Neil Gaiman's website. Someone had sent it in to him and he posted it because, well, it's freaking hilarious. Here's a quote:

Students at a Catholic school complained about new Haribo sweet wrappers which they claim portray fruit having sex.

click here to see the candy wrappers in question and read the whole thing. It's pretty short but well worth your time.

KiDdIeS by Self

Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom

Everyone today suffers from the short attention
(Blah, blah, blah; blah, blah-blah)
Evereyone today suffers from a lack of interest
(Blah, blah, blah; blah-blah)

Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom

Everyone today is a drug-crazed maniac
(Blah, blah, blah; blah, blah-blah)
Poppin' Sudafed to calm the effects of the Prozac
(Blah, blah, blah; blah, blah-blah)
Everyone in the world is a squeemish psycho-active
(Blah, blah, blah; blah, blah-blah)
Everyone in the world is not instantly attractive
(Blah, blah, blah; blah, blah-blah)

Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom

Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom
Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom
Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom
Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom

Everyone today suffers from the short attention
(Blah, blah, blah; blah, blah-blah)
Evereyone today suffers from a lack of interest
(Blah, blah, blah)

Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom

Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Let's go Trick or Treatin' dressed up like Marilyn Manson
Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom

Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom
Snatch up all the kiddies and them hold them all for ransom

Well, October is almost on us, which means Halloween isn't too far away. And, because of this, I decided to start the season a little early by breaking out this tune. As is true of most of Matt Mahafey's lyrics, these aren't quite the same without the melody and music behind them, but they still crack me up. If you haven't by now, you should follow that little link to Matt's website and listen to some of the B-Sides from Self's as-yet-unreleased album, Ornament and Crime, which I am anxiously awaiting.

Anyway, the song above, KiDdIeS, can be found on the album Half-Baked Serenades. It may be a little hard to come by these days, but I would say a copy could be found on Half.com or some other, simliar site. It's worth it, and I promise you won't be disappointed by it!!!

Daily Beacon (Revisited)

As promised, here is the link to the Daily Beacon article. You can still read the scanned image below, but in case that isn't too easy on your eyes, you now have this option available as well.

Daily Beacon Article

The Ghost of Ronald Wilson

Hey everyone! Just wanted to drop a quick note here to let you all know that that band I'm a member of, you know, Citizen X, has just released its second album. The Ghost of Ronald Wilson is available here through CD Baby. There are samples of all of the songs that you can listen to, though I think they're only 30-seconds long. The album will also be available from iTunes, Napster, and most of the other online music retailers soon. I'll keep you posted on that.

I'm really happy with the way the album turned out. I think it is a large step forward for our composing and recording skills, not to mention our playing abilities.

Go give it a listen!

Reader Privacy

I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this, but the US Patriot Act, which was implemented after 9/11, has taken away several of our civil rights. One of these is the right to read whatever we want without the fear of our reading habits being monitored. Now, I don't know about you, but I really don't like the idea of this. Granted, I don't guess it will really matter if the CIA knows that I'm reading a lot of George R.R. Martin and Neil Gaiman, but what if I needed to check a "flagged" or "questionable" book out for research on a story I might be writing? or a paper for school? Should we really have our names flagged for checking out a book?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about stopping terrorism, but I have said this for a long time, and I will continue to say it: if we give up our rights in order to stop terrorism we're giving the factions that use terrorist methods what they want. How can we stand by and let the government (well, the current administration, anyway) strip us of our rights in the name of protecting them?

I am a member of several on-line activist groups including MoveOn.org. I believe that using the internet as a means of getting your beliefs and thoughts in front of your representatives is a wonderful thing, and I wish that everyone would get involved. It's amazingly easy, which (in my mind) means there's no excuse not to get involved.

But I digress. The whole point of this was to ask that anyone and everyone that believes we should have a right to read what we want without fear of having our choices tracked by the federal government should go here and sign this online petition. We don't have a whole lot of time (only about two weeks) before they take this before Congress, so please give it a look.

If it seems like something you can get behind, sign it and then ask other people you believe would be interested to take a look as well. We have to defend our rights or we'll lose them. We're already on a 1984-ish path as it is (what with the never-ending war on terror), and I want to keep it from getting any worse.

I hope you do, too.

Beacon...

I haven't been able to find the Daily Beacon interview on their website. They may not have updated it yet, and they may never. I'm posting a scanned image of it here, temporarily. I'm not 100% sure of the legality of this, but I think it's ok as long as I'm not making money from it.

Anyway, I hope it will be legible. If not, I'll see what I can do to fix that...

Notice the switching of the Trotters? It was actually Mark that did the cover, and Jason that did the website, but at least they got mentioned, right?

First Book Signing Scheduled

I just got off the phone with Mark from Hastings in Maryville. We have scheduled a book signing for Saturday, October the 9th from 4:00 to 6:00 PM.

I'll be printing flyers and posting them soon. Please tell everyone you know to plan on coming by!

Daily Beacon Interview

The lovely and talented Lindsay Moore just let me know (through the comments on the Blount Today entry) that the interview and review she wrote for UTK's The Daily Beacon is available today. You can pick up a copy around campus (I know they have them at the UC, but that's the only place I can say for sure) or wait for it to be posted to their website, which should happen later today or even tomorrow. I'll be sure to post a link to the article when its available.

Thanks again Lindsay!!!

Alien life?

Nothing too exciting to report right now, but I did receive this link from a friend today.

There is nothing concrete yet, but this could be the beginning of some cool stuff. Or it could just be some kind of super space gas.

You decide.

Blount Today Article

So, the article that came about as a result of the interview I did last week is now out and available to be read. I think the hard-copy magazine will be available tomorrow, though you can read it now by clicking here.

I noticed a few typos, and I'm a little disappointed that she called me Tony instead of Anthony, but that's just me being nit-picky. Overall I think she did a great job, and I'm very thankful for the press. There was one part where I'm afraid I might come off as a bit bitchy, but I guess that's fair, as I am a bit bitchy.

Anyway, there should be a review of the book and another interview in UTK's student paper, The Daily Beacon, sometime this week. I'm pretty sure it, too, will be posted on the website, so I'll be sure to link to it from here when it's available.

--UPDATE--

I just stopped by Blount Today's Website again, and they've got a picture of me up there along with the cover of the novel. I'm sorry to say it, but the picture took me a little off guard. It even scared me a little bit. I look more like a zombie in that pic than I did in Wes's zombie movie, Dead End...

Oh well...