Welcome to the Atelier
Album of the Day: Sunday August 31, 2025
Zero 7
Simple Things (2001)
Simple Things is the debut studio album by English duo Zero 7, released on 23 April 2001.
I Have Seen
Polaris
Destiny
Give It Away
Simple Things
Red Dust
Distractions
In the Waiting Line
Out of Town
This World
Likufanele
End Theme
Feature Presentation: Sunday August 31, 2025
Needful Things
(1993)
Needful Things is a cautionary tale about shopping locally. It takes place in a small town in Maine, which is never a good start. That’s where a new store opens up - Needful Things. From the outside, it looked harmless. From the inside, it looked… like a store. It’s run by a polite gentleman named Leland Gaunt. He offers every customer the one item they’ve always wanted most in life. A baseball card, a necklace, even a fishing rod. At first it seems like a dream come true. Like shopping at Amazon.com only in person. But there’s a catch. There’s always a catch. In this case, you have to pay him back - not with money, but with small pranks. ‘Put this here, break that there, spread a little gossip.’ Before you know it, the whole town is at each other’s throats like it’s 6 am at a Walmart on Black Friday. Church ladies are throwing punches, respectable citizens are setting each other’s houses on fire, and it all started because someone wanted a signed Mickey Mantle card. Eventually, the sheriff figures out what’s going on. He tries to stop Gaunt, but the townspeople are too busy tearing each other apart. In the end, Gaunt leaves town, smiling, promising to set up shop again somewhere else. Probably near a mall with decent walk up traffic.
Directed by Fraser C. Heston
Written by Stephen King & W.D. Richter
Staring
Max von Sydow as Leland Gaunt
Ed Harris as Sheriff Alan Pangborn
Bonnie Bedelia as Polly Chalmers
Midnight Movie: Saturday August 30, 2025
Motel Hell
1980
Motel Hell is a heartwarming film about family, small business, a touching story of Farmer Vincent, a man who runs a roadside inn with his sister, and the importance of eating locally sourced food. Farmer Vincent and his sister run a quaint little motel on the side of the highway. To the untrained eye, it looks like any other roadside stop—clean rooms, reasonable rates, and a meat smoker out back. They make their own brand of smoked meats. The slogan is simple: ‘It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent’s fritters.’ What they don’t mention is that sometimes the critters are… people. The process is fairly straightforward. Vincent kidnaps travelers, buries them in his garden up to their necks, and treats them like crops until it’s time to harvest. Then he turns them into sausage. Not exactly farm-to-table—more like interstate-to-table. You’ve probably stayed at motels before where the breakfast was questionable, but never to this degree. Things get complicated when Vincent falls for a young woman he rescues after a motorcycle accident. Between the romance, the secret garden full of buried heads, and a showdown involving a chainsaw and a pig’s head mask, it’s safe to say Motel Hell isn’t listed on AAA’s most recommended lodging. In the end, Vincent admits on his deathbed that his real crime wasn’t cannibalism, kidnapping, or mass murder. No, it was using preservatives. A shocking revelation, and one that makes you think twice about reading the ingredients on a package of sausage.
Directed by Kevin Connor
Written by Robert Jaffe & Steven-Charles Jaffe
Staring
Rory Calhoun as Vincent Smith
Paul Linke as Bruce Smith
Nancy Parsons as Ida Smith
Drink me: Thursty Thursday August 28, 2025
They’re Coming To Get You Barbara
Muddled berries and blended whiskey
blended whiskey, sweet vermouth, muddled blackberries, cranberry juice, and bitters
Alchemy: Saturday August 30, 2025
Urban Legend Chocolate Covered Strawberry Pop Rocks
Give it to Mikey, he’ll eat anything. Is it fancy? Is it candy? It’s like dreaming about eating champaign and strawberries at Willy Wonka’s. But if Robert Englund shows up with a Pepsi go for a nice glass of milk instead before you turn into Violet Beauregarde.
Alchemy: Friday August 29, 2025
South Park Elementary Fish Sticks
Yo, yo, hold up, hold up. Everybody keeps talkin’ ‘bout this fish sticks thing like it’s funny, like it’s a joke. Nah, see, y’all don’t understand the vision. Fish sticks ain’t some late-night cafeteria food - fish sticks are art. Golden. Crispy. Dipped in the sauce of creation itself. When I bite into a fish stick, I’m biting into destiny, into genius.
But every time I walk into a room, somebody wanna say, ‘Hey Kanye, you like fish dicks?’ NO. No, I don’t like fish dicks. I don’t even know why y’all keep saying that! I’m a creative prophet, I’m the voice of a generation, and you think I don’t know the difference between sticks and-? Man, stop playin’ with me!
Book of the Month: August 2025
The Daily Bugle, November 5, 1982 — Special Edition
"MUTANTS IN THE CROSSHAIRS”
TRUTH BEHIND Stryker’s CRUSADE
By Eddie Brock, Daily Bugle Staff Writer
In a chilling display of zealotry masked as faith, Reverend William Stryker—former military man turned televangelist—stands at the center of a rising wave of anti-mutant violence. Under the banner of his so-called “ministry,” Stryker has unleashed a campaign that’s part sermon, part witch hunt, and entirely dangerous.
Sources confirm that Stryker’s private forces—armed, trained, and disturbingly devout—were behind a series of coordinated abductions and attacks on known mutant civilians. His goal? Nothing short of genocide, carried out under the guise of "divine cleansing." This isn't a fringe movement…
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills
by Chris Claremont, Paul Smith, Brent Anderson, Frank Miller