New season at last!
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Special for Today
Jamilla VanDyke-Bailey offers up an essay and book review. Enjoy our beefed up Tuesday at Oddball Magazine.
Tall Order
CJ The Tall Poet appears with artwork by Edward Michael Supranowicz.
Happy Tuesday from Oddball Magazine.
This Week's Most Distinguished Network Name
It's amazing what people will name their online networks. I'm always trying to hijack Wi-Fi when I'm commuting, so I often come across a number of interesting names. Every Tuesday, I post the most impressive and/or cringe-inducing names.
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| Again, the world mocks my lack of public Wi-Fi where I live. |
Monday, September 14, 2026
Downgrade
Poet John Roche and artist Eric N. Peterson team up for a special Monday post at Oddball Magazine.
Tonight: The Contro-Verse Open Mic at Urban Media Arts in Malden with Keaton Howl
From 7:00 to 8:00 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM. At Urban Media Arts on
145 Pleasant Street in Malden, MA. Hosted by Anna Geoffroy and Ethan
Mackler. Click here for more information.
(Tap Tap Tap)
Anne Skove's latest comic of accomplishments is up now.
Read "She Who Laughs Lasts" is up now at Oddball Magazine.
This Series is Starting to Hurt
It's Later Now, Part Fifty-Three: Special Parking. Read it on my Patreon.
No Satisfying Click
Mike Mesterton-Gibbons slams the phone down on a recent AI battle to help kick off the week. Welcome to Monday with Oddball Magazine.
Missed Last Monday
I forgot to note last week that my poem "Phase" was published last Monday as part of "luckycreature" Shawn Scott Smith and his Mucky Mondays publication. Thanks to Shawn for the opportunity.
Get to the Tiny!
We all need an emergency cute injection for Monday, so here's Tiny (pronounced "teeny"), who I've seen quite a bit of this month.
Start the Monday with a Little Victory
I love that this graffiti from Big ⇡ 02130 is still up. Probably because with it's green Woodstock birds against the green backdrop it looks like it was part of the original design.
My Monday Morning Music
This week I'm focusing on songs that don't hit the way you hope they do. My inspiration came when I heard the chorus to "This Is It" by Kenny Loggins. It made me want to listen in the song in full. When I did, I was disappointed. Aside from the chorus, the song had nothing else going for it. We know Loggins wrote better, snappier songs in the years to come, but it's ironic that his one hit not based on a movie soundtrack is among his weakest.
Sunday, September 13, 2026
In Search of a Goat with a Vote
I would love to write something up about the Goat with a Vote group which was active in 2000. The above photo was taken from the debate at the first George W. Bush and Al Gore debate at UMass Boston on October 3, 2000, but I first encountered them during the Republican National Convention earlier that same year in July and August.
One of My Favorite Photos
One of my ongoing tasks has been to sort through documents and photos from the early 2000's. This was from the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. This image of the cop by the anarchist symbol and Mumia sticker had just the right amount of symbolism I could get behind. Sadly, I was sick and hospitalized before I could do anything with this material. I plan on coming back to this and other material from that event-filled year.
Saturday, September 12, 2026
My Saturday Haiku for Bluesky, 9-12-26
Saturday is just
one more morning where the sun
screams "Get back to work!"
Friday, September 11, 2026
My Friday Evening Music
"Old Cape Cod" by Patti Page is the only logical choice to end this week. The music and the soundtrack are worth your attention. RIP Anthony Bourdain.
The "Other" 9/11
Poet Luis Lázaro Tijerina recalls another thing that happened today more than twenty five years ago. Thank you for reading Oddball Magazine this week.
Annoying Thought of the Day
How long will it be today before THOSE Hulk Hogan photos are published?
Some of you know what I'm talking about.
What I Wrote in 2004
I was working at Legal Seafoods in 2001. Two years prior to that, I was swept up in Y2K mania. I did my damndest to get New Year's off, because, to probably misquote myself, "I don't want to be serving salmon at the end of the world." I ended up getting the holiday off and it felt great, even when it turned out I was worrying about nothing.
When 9/11 happened, I was pretty much broke and gearing to recover what I lost from apartment problems and vacationing with my girlfriend in spite of apartment problems (I have not taken a vacation for almost three years now, not wanting to repeat past mistakes). That Tuesday morning, I was training a new group of servers when the bartender came in with his bike and gave the news. I thought he was joking, of course. I changed my mind when I got to the TV just before the last Tower fell.
I had only one theory: someone was taking revenge for Timothy McVeigh being executed (read about The National Alliance, The Turner Diaries and how he's connected to them before you judge me as nuts).
But what was my first actual action? Going back to teach the class.
Going over the fine art of...serving salmon.
When the world ended.
At least as I knew it.
The boss actually had to stop me, I was so mindlessly loyal to a job and class/service system I hated with all my heart.
Yep, I Still Have This Issue Too
So much summed up in one cover by Tak Toyoshima for the post-9/11 issue of The Weekly Dig on September 19, 2001. Somehow, I also managed to hold on to the jpeg from the site back in the day.
Never Forget
The Weekly Dig had the best weekly comics page during the early 9/11 era Thanks to Tak Toyoshima. This was from the issue published on September 19, 2001.
Leopards Eating Faces Update!
Poor Maria Bartiromo. Not only is she the latest woman to be allegedly fired for loving Trump too much, but I had to skip her last week to cover the bigger monster Milo Yiannopoulos.
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Stone Soup Poetry All Open Mic, 9-9-26
From this week's online gathering. It's good to be back! More coming!
About Time We Have a Wave
Stone Soup returned! Thanks to everyone who showed up to last night's all-open mic. Hope to make some announcements very soon.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
We Are All Sisyphus
I'm really glad I wrote this piece. Check out my review of Coyote Vs. Acme over at The Ugly Monster.
Songless
Poet Savannah Manhattan and artist Kelly Sauvage Moyer close out Oddball Magazine this Wednesday. Thanks for reading us today. Please stay safe the rest of the week.
Pride Perspective
An essay by Asher Bomse with artwork by Robert Fleming kicks off Oddball Magazine the Wednesday before some kind of anniversary. I like how this day is shaping up.
School's In
The September issue of North of Oxford by Editors Diane Sahms and g emil reutter is fully loaded with poetry and reviews for your consideration.
Steffen Up
Hastings Room Reading Series Coordinator Michael Todd Steffen steps up for this week's Lyrical Somerville poet, up now at The Somerville Times.
New Graffiti
Spotted near the old Boomerangs location. I am both confused with the specifics of the message and impressed with the directness.
A Moment of Comics
Much of America is filled with seething anger over decades of having no clear-cut enemy to overwhelm from their armchairs. I've been thinking about that this week, and I've been thinking about a certain comic by Skip Williamson. Below is the final page from "Conflagration" in the Fantagraphics anthology Zero Zero.
American Haiku: Trump's Safe Space
When I started my Sarcastic Haiku series, I wrote my first American Haiku.
An American Haiku doesn't care about tradition, formality or history. it takes as long as it wants to make its point because America. You can read
others I've written since by clicking here and scrolling down.
September 9: Stone Soup Poetry Returns
Stone Soup returns with an all-open mic. Am I ready for the grind again? No. Am I doing it anyway? Yes. Am I hoping you join me? God, yes.
Join us on Wednesday, September 9, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM ET by clicking this link.
The meeting ID is 825 1058 4516
Password: stonesoup
Your Wednesday Morning Poetry
Because there's at least one anniversary this week that people are going to make about themselves, here's the late Amiri Baraka's infamous poem "Somebody Blew Up America," a poem targeted for calling out Irsael while overlooking when the poem brought up persecution of Jewish people. Given that a lot of writing after 9/11 hasn't aged well, this poem still merits a read. Thanks to the Black Agenda Report website for posting the poem.
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