FEBRUARY - Is this really love or just a game?

Here's a reminder: we have a preoccupation with the past. We study it, we celebrate it, we make sweet love to it. And not just the Freddy flicks and Froot Loops - we have our own personal past that we embrace & idealize & learn from. And in our lusting and learn-ding, we're able to pontificate & conceptualize & recognize patterns and threads -- and one pattern we've been able to unfold is this: February bites.

This typically has very little to do with the invasive holiday, the mediocre movie theater options, or seasonal depression. All superstition aside, February has, for decades, statistically brought us death and destruction - and every time we try to attribute it to superstition, circumstances prove us wrong. But to reiterate: we embrace and idealize; we find beauty in the chaos. There's an exquisite (though pointed) irony in the contrast of red hearts and gray skies, as well as a familiar comfort in the unity of love and sorrow. After all, any month that opens the door to festive candy and cardboard wall decorations is gonna continually get a second chance from us (and third, and fourth, and on and on...). In other words, we're gonna make the most of it...

Which brings us to the point of this sob story: our "theme" for the coming month. And that theme is: Games!

"Games?" you may ask without any specific inflection. Yes, games. Y'know: humanity's greatest distraction, notorious killer of time. The word itself carries a different concept for everyone: Video games? Board games? Sports? Role playing? Cards? Trivia? Well, we'll go ahead and validate your first reaction with a noncommittal 'yes' to all. There'll certainly be some obvious endeavors during the month, but there should be some surprises that we don't wanna spoil. 

Rest assured, however dumb this sounds, we will predictably showcase the artistic merits of our choices. But all pretentious stuff aside, the whole point is that we are going to enjoy ourselves this month, and you're gonna goddamn join in the fun.

- p&j

P.S. We had numerous options for the banner image for this update. In fact, the choice was so hard that we're just gonna go ahead and give you the rest of 'em...