Good morning all,

It is nearly my birthday! As last year I am celebrating with a load of links to things that I like. I note that last year I made this all about saints, this year I am going hard lowbrow, I hope you like it.

I say “hard lowbrow”, but there is the obvious exception of Nicole Cliffe’s powerful erotic fan fiction, which is pretty much everything everyone wants from fiction I assume. Please enjoy this one, it’s about Benedict Cumberbatch:

REPORTER: But she refused to break her vows?

BENEDICT: I almost talked her into it that night. I said, “please, please, siren, lie down on this couch in my dressing room while the heat from our bodies melts the greasepaint on my angular, British form,” and then I kissed her.

REPORTER: That must have filled her with confusion and arousal.

http://the-toast.net/2014/04/02/benedict-cumberbatch-alternate-timeline-fan-fiction/

I am sure you are aware of the hip hop collective Turquoise Jeep and their songs Smang It and Treat Me Like A Pirate, but did you know they have added a female rapper to their ranks? She is called Moonrock and she has a list of demands. (DATA SCIENCE NOTE: people are more likely to click a video with a “play” button on it, which is why I put a “play” button on the link to this video. I am not about to let these important details slip just because it’s nearly my birthday!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVz-f1wavmM

In an act of what I can only describe as pandering, since it was such a hit last time, you may enjoy reacquainting yourself with McSweeney’s “If Women Wrote Men The Way Men Wrote Women”:

There is a particular look about a teenage boy that lets you know what kind of man he’ll be. A certain fullness of lips, a frank sensuality in his gaze. We all know what the word for that is, but it’s not polite to use it until he’s proven he’s that kind of boy.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/if-women-wrote-men-the-way-men-write-women

Happy Friday!

Alex.