#wolf in the white van
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[From a 2014 article by John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. He's talking about how a random spam email ended up inspiring a part of his book Wolf in White Van. Later, in 2020, the album Getting Into Knives came out, and I think it inspired its artwork too.]
"It took years for me to be able to just reflexively delete spam, or filter it so that I never see it at all. I blame the spammers for this; the quality of their work took a sharp nosedive at some point. But during whatever period of the internet’s growth you’d call the early 2000s, it seemed like you’d still get some winners: things that had been typed up by a person, sent out to a bunch of email addresses they’d bought or rented for 5 or 10 bucks from the only guy who was ever going to make any money in this particular exchange. Most of them went directly, if manually, into the trash; but once in a while, there’d be one that seemed to earn, at the very least, the minute it’d take me to read it.
The one I’m remembering here was subject-lined SUPPLY OF KNIVES. [...] The subject line opened on an all-caps email that boasted, in ornate, antiquated English appealing to the reader’s more refined sensibilities, about the high quality of the knives on offer at an external website. You shouldn’t click on links in spam email. I live my life on the razor’s edge! I clicked the link.
I want to tell you about these knives: They were beautiful. They were weird. They had elaborate designs in the handles, moons or stars of wolf heads, and special grips, and a variety of points. They were made from metals whose pedigrees were described lovingly, and had been struck — smithed? wrought? — via processes I knew absolutely nothing about, but that sounded fantastic, difficult, arcane. It’s the joy of specialized language: When you’re an outsider to it, it can’t help but sound cool.
Of course this is the whole idea of any operation like this. SUPPLY OF KNIVES could well have been, and probably was, a company in Ohio who’d stumbled across an old warehouse full of knives, and knew enough about sales to describe these things in the most exotic terms they could find. I’m pretty immune to pitches: Who likes to feel like he’s being pitched? But somebody involved with SUPPLY OF KNIVES had had just enough authorial flair — that, or true faith — to caption each knife’s mysterious, blurry accompanying JPEG with a description whose constant recourse to specialized vocabularies seemed to say, “You’re not even reading this unless you already know about this sort of thing. Let us therefore speak like the fellow travelers we are.”
It was like a trade catalog for roadside bandits in need of knives.
I can’t speak for everybody, but I know that when I was a child the life of the roadside bandit seemed like a pretty romantic way to go. I looked at all these knives and read the descriptions and was just generally delighted about the whole thing, so I saved the email in a “memorable spam” folder I used to keep that had maybe two other emails in it. A few years later, Apple came out with this robotic-arm-screen iMac you never see any more, and we were long overdue for a new computer so we got that; and then, after a while, I got myself a laptop, because I was traveling all the time, and eventually both the old iMacs ended up in the basement, and they were both asleep but alive until fairly recently, as far as I knew.
But when I went to check for the email, it was gone. The old blue iMac is dead, bricked, lifeless. Searches on the term “supply of knives” on this laptop and on good old robot-arm-screen find nothing. The backup CD for the blue iMac drive is probably in a drawer around here somewhere, but that’s like saying, “The coin I had in my swim trunks’ pocket is probably somewhere in the ocean.” There is no SUPPLY OF KNIVES. There’s only the memory."
[source]
And this is the wonderful cover art of Getting Into Knives. Back cover and promo material below. Note that "Knives International" and "Knives Wordwide" are not real companies, they appear to be a callback to that elusive spam email.
#not that I'm particularly into TMG#but it's interesting#trs#The Mountain Goats#John Darnielle#Getting Into Knives#Wolf in White Van#only knives left#tools of the trade#bandit#prison ballads#tangentially
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Head North
#thinking about wolf in white van again... i need to reread it... or listen to JD read it himself...#sketchbook#acrylic paint#colour pencil#fantasy art#landscape#mildly surreal art#illustration#artists on tumblr#my art
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Photo
. https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/749330404739334144?source=share
https://x.com/ThisIsGSage23/status/1827007380359381105
https://x.com/lfcsabrina/status/1685987188968996864
yeah♥
. https://x.com/faheysversion/status/1697612080231170558 & https://x.com/faheysversion/status/1698338126261830137
https://twitter.com/ThisIsGSage23/status/1642939607770710041?s=20
https://twitter.com/crcwsss/status/1644713449182642181?s=20
♥
https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/737760005188681728/yeah
https://www.tumblr.com/yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere/740830916723769344/this-post-wesper-and-firsprince-together-my-4?source=share
#malec#wesper#soc#six of crows#shadow and bone#kit young#jesper fahey#jack wolfe#jesper x wylan#wylan van eck#Magnus Bane#Alec Lightwood#shadowhunters#bi#bisexual#FirstPrince#alex claremont diaz#henry fox#taylor zakhar perez#nicholas galitzine#rwrb movie#red white and royal blue#alex x henry#bisexual x gay#gay x bisexual#chaotic bisexual#bi people#bi bi bi#bisexuality#mlm
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WHO GAVE THEM THE RIGHT TO POST THESE ON THE SAME DAY AS IF MY HEART CAN HANDLE IT
#waking up to these was a heart test for me and my arab ancestors are so disappointed in me fawning over white men#plus the fact that cal is PUBLISHING A BOOK?!?!?!#my never-ending tbr just became one book longer oop#sab cast#calahan skogman#matthias helvar#jack wolfe#wylan van eck#wylan my beloved#six of crows#crooked kingdom#grishaverse#shadow and bone#shadow and bone season two#shadow and bone season three#six of crows spin off
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Clueless (1995)
Gossip Girl (2007 - 2012)
Scarface (1983)
White Chicks (2004)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Legally Blonde (2001)
Pretty Little Liars (2010 - 2017)
H2O: Just Add Water (2006 - 2010)
#Clueless#legally blonde#scarface#pretty little Liars#gossip girl#h2o just add water#the wolf of wall street#white chicks#serena van der woodsen#cher#dionne#margot robbie#elle woods#spencer#naomi#y2k#2000s movies#90s movies
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Harper's Bazaar November 1954
Jean Patchett in a luxurious Jasmine EMBA white mink coat by Ritter Bros., turquoise and diamond jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels.
Jean Patchett dans un luxueux manteau de vison blanc Jasmine EMBA de Ritter Bros., bijoux turquoise et diamants de Van Cleef & Arpels.
Photo de Louise Dahl-Wolfe
#harper's bazaar#november 1954#fashion 50s#1954-55#fall/winter#automne/hiver#ritter bros#jean patchett#louise dahl wolfe#van cleef & arpels#emba#mink coat#manteau de vison#white mink#vison blanc
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SDCC teaser poster for The Man in the White Van! In theaters December 13th!
#legion m#warren skeels#the man in the white van#sean astin#ali larter#madison wolfe#brec bassinger#gavin warren#skai jackson#movies#true crime#thriller
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pgs 131 - 150
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This was the most difficult chapter to draw by far. The fight scene on top of the White Forest... waugh. On the plus side, though, the space in-between is a lot of fun to draw. Even if it killed at least two of my pens.
#Game Kids need their own tag#fire and wolf#fire and wolf: game kids book 1#dante vicario#petel vitayev#paige philips#abraham van helsing iv#frank ernest#vektor ketziah#my art#Shiranui (the White Wolf)
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"no fear"
the actor playing kuwei/tailored wylan being ignored at best and shit on at worst because he's getting in the way of the fandom's favourite white boy being on screen
"one fear"
#six of crows#shadow and bone#kuwei yul bo#wylan van eck#and this from someone whose favourite white boy is jack wolfe btw
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It’s disability pride month and that means it’s time for me to talk about Wolf In White Van again.
For all its storytelling, what really jumps out to me is the lack of proper endpoints. The people in the movies and books and rock albums are doomed. But for Sean, he didn’t end up where he was meant to. For the theme of being lost in violent fiction in childhood, to him, the only way forward is to repeat it— where fiction bleeds into reality, reality lies bleeding on the floor.
And then he survives.
Wolf in White Van is told in reverse chronological order, so when things end, we know how they end, and that sucks all the dramatic tension out of the story. Lance and Carrie’s trial leads to nothing for anyone. Sean’s suicide attempt doesn’t kill him, and there was no concrete rationale behind it. Not that Sean could see, looking back, anyway. Perfectly normal parents, perfectly normal life.
Nothing has a highest point of tension and then resolves to never have a significant problem again. In real life, people come out of the climax wounded, and the story keeps dragging on.
Try as you might to weave your loose ends into a coherent narrative with an appropriate end, an explanation for all your broken bits and a fate you find comfort in, you never will. You will never breach the Trace, only rest your hands against its cold inner walls.
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lead singer of the mountain goats just accepted my goadreads friend request??
#the mountain goats#tmg#ik i’ve reviewed wolf in white van on there#i think the review was good#aaaaahhh#not gonna check tho i gotta do me john
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GERALT OF RIVIA ▸ Gothic Monster Hunter!AU aesthetic board
#aka. geralt van helsing 🦇 I'm so in love with this idea#the witcher#tv#geralt of rivia#henry cavill#moodboard by ria#Geralt z Rivii#Andrzej Sapkowski#Wiedźmin#White Wolf#Gwynbleidd#White One#Butcher of Blaviken#Ravix of Fourhorn#Geralt Roger Eric du Haute Bellegarde#geralt moodboard#geralt edit#witcher edit#witcher moodboard#henry cavill edit#henry cavill moodboard
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The Man in the White Van starring Sean Astin, Ali Larter, Madison Wolfe, Skai Jackson and Brec Bassinger premieres at the Newport Beach Film Festival, October 14.
“In a quaint little town in 1974 Florida, an ominous white van stalks a young girl, while her parents’ skepticism leads to a terrifying Halloween nightmare.”
#sean astin#ali larter#brec bassinger#madison wolfe#skai jackson#man in the white van#Newport Beach film festival
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THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN Reviews of true-crime Halloween thriller - plus clip
‘If the engine’s running… you should be too.” The Man in the White Van is a 2023 thriller about a young girl being stalked while her parents’ disbelief leads to a nightmare. Produced and directed by Warren Skeels from a screenplay co-written with Sharon Y. Cobb. Produced by Terri Lubaroff and Anne Marie Gillen. Executive Produced by Gary Kompothecras, Michael Nole, Paul Scanlan, Jeff Annison,…
#2023#Ali Larter#Brec Bassinger#Gavin Warren#Halloween#Madison Wolfe#movie film#review reviews#Sean Astin#Skai Jackson#The Man in the White Van#thriller#Warren Skeels
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been meeting a lot of nice normal people lately and when they ask about the music i like i have to restrain myself from allowing them to see the Mountain Goats Madness in my eyes
#“haha yeah they're my favorite band”#If You Don't Listen You Don't Get It#also i read wolf in white van and it was so good#theres a certain kind of desolation you have to have seen to really like tmg#the abyss and all that
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