The Tangential

Don't be boring. Don't suck.

  • Boston, Tragedy, and Time

    Boston, Tragedy, and Time

    When I think of Copley Square and the Back Bay of Boston, my first thought is of a night a few years ago, when I was dancing—silently—in the rain. There were dozens of us having an iPod dance party: we’d arranged via Facebook to meet with headphones and rock out in the plaza next to…

  • Our Dream Cast for a Live-Action Version of “Doug”

    Our Dream Cast for a Live-Action Version of “Doug”

    Doug = Shia Labeouf Patty Mayonnaise = Carey Mulligan Roger = Chris Owen Judy = Emma Stone               Skeeter = Maulik Pancholy Mr. Dink = Philip Seymour Hoffman Porkchop = Seth Rogen –Becky Lang, Grant Wilson, Stephanie O’Donnell, Brent Radeke 0 likes

  • Know Your Fucking History: Marriage

    Know Your Fucking History: Marriage

    In this installment of KYFH, we’re going to shed some light on the true history of a pretty controversial subject: holy matrimony. OK, so, about eleventy billion years ago, God said unto Adam and Eve: “Guys! I just invented marriage; you should try it! I mean I haven’t dabbled myself, what with being the non-corporeal…

  • Products to Accompany Google Glass and Smart Shoe

    Products to Accompany Google Glass and Smart Shoe

    Google Skin: This data-encrypted silicon is applied directly to the body, much like sunscreen. The silicon dries on contact and acts as an impenetrable shield for the entire person. Google Skin will interpret sensations of everyday living, such as change in temperature, texture and pressure, and advise you in the most appropriate reaction. Should you doze…

  • What You Brag About “Not Doing,” Translated

    What You Brag About “Not Doing,” Translated

    For individuals in this era, nothing is more interesting, and nothing is more authentically representative of self, than the things you simply don’t do. What you say you don’t do: “I don’t have a Facebook account.” Translation: “I am an invisible Facebook creeper who spends 11 minutes of each hour refreshing Twitter. Yesterday I pretended…

  • Too Much Sociology…or Not Enough?

    Too Much Sociology…or Not Enough?

    “I haven’t read this yet but I feel like you will have an opinion on this,” said Becky, posting an article to my Facebook wall. She was right—you don’t need to read an editorial titled “Too Much Sociology” to correctly guess that the guy who wrote Sociology for Dummies will have something to say about…

A short history of The Tangential

The Tangential is a pop culture and creative writing blog launched in 2011 by three writers living in Minneapolis: Becky Lang (now Radecki), Jay Gabler, and Katie Sisneros. That was a golden age of irreverent confessional blogging, and over the first couple years we built a national following. Notably, we gained over 120,000 followers on Tumblr, where we were often associated with the provocative, extremely online writers in the movement known as alt lit. We created spinoff blogs including The Sport Hole, The Party Whip, The Tangential Ruins Minneapolis, and Tan Genitals. We hosted Minneapolis events and published three books.

We were having so much fun, in fact, that we never got around to monetizing. Oops! Well, we did have a little income from the books and events, and we became an Amazon affiliate. (This is your official disclosure that we subsidize our hosting costs via revenue from partner links.) Eventually, though, the editors and contributors who fueled the site’s early years largely moved on to other projects.

Today, The Tangential is run by Jay, who continues to publish criticism and other writing as well as to maintain the site’s catalog of posts — if only for, as we’ve always said, “the good of society.”

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