The Tangential

Things “WTF” Could Stand For Besides “Where They From”

What Trump Foams Who’s the Force? starring Tony Danza and Carrie Fisher Why Think First? What?! That’s Funky! Weiners Taste Funny Walk to France! Whoa! Torn Frenulum! What That Font? Why Thine Frown? Whereforeart Thou Felipe? Whales That Feel Wilt Thou Fondle? Wherefore Thy Finger Weapons That Fire! Widdle Tiny Fonzie Wishbone: The Film Wild Tarzan…

Jungle Theater’s “The Night Alive”: Warm Hearts, Cold Truths

“That was a good ending!” declared the man sitting in front of me as the lights went down at the conclusion of the Jungle Theater’s Wednesday night performance of The Night Alive. I wasn’t sure, though, that I agreed with him in either sense of that judgment. If he meant it was good in the…

“The Wizard of Oz”: CTC Recreates a Classic

Imagine an audience equally comprising young children and adults—all held captive for close to two hours, with the only sound being a young voice commenting excitedly on the action on stage. This is what I experienced when I attended The Wizard of Oz, currently playing at the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) in Minneapolis. I went with two of my…

“Peanuts Movie” Frees Charlie Brown From Charles Schulz

The Peanuts franchise has been relatively quiet since Charles Schulz’s death in 2000, so it’s been easy to forget just what a massive brand Charlie Brown and Snoopy were in their heyday. Millions of people around the world fell in love with Peanuts, and The Peanuts Movie serves as an amiable reminder of just how much there is to…

10 Hot New Spotify Playlists

Newsboy Hat Ding ding! It’s Mr. Sensitive biking by! Scat folk for the guy who knows what “pentameter” means. No Makeup Selfie Gurrrl power meets acoustic guitars in this anthemic playlist perfect for your lipstick-free duck lips. Abusing Benadryl Pop a couple allergy pills and prep for your deep sleep with some oddly rhythmic whale noises. African Safari Someday…

First Draft of Jason Derulo’s “Want To Want Me”

(Intro music) (Derulo…) It’s so hard to sleep I, Jason Derulo, got the sheets on the floor Listen to me, I’m Jason Derulo, And I, meaning me, Jason Derulo, can’t take it no more It’s a hundred degrees I, Jason Derulo, got one foot out the door Where are the keys that belong to Jason…

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.”