Mr. Samuel's Teatime Stories for Good Kids & Confused Adults is a short film in 4 parts by Yara Asmar, a musician, puppeteer, and filmmaker from Beirut. The creator describes it so: "In a wonky universe set within the fake walls of an old abandoned children's TV show, Mr Samuel and his friends -peculiar, ugly puppets navigating the strange thing that is time- attempt to make sense of it all through stories, songs and arduous loops of nonsensical chores."

Asmar continues: Zizek's book 'The Parallax View' begins with a description of the first use of modern art as a method of psychotechnic torture: French anarchist Laurencic's 'colored cells'. "The cells were as inspired by ideas of geometric abstraction and surrealism as they were by avant-garde art theories on the psychological properties of colors... the walls, which were curved and covered with mind-altering patterns of cubes, squares, straight lines, and spirals which utilized tricks of color, perspective, and scale to cause mental confusion and distress." Yes, it's a film in 4 parts, but the total running time is a hair under 30 minutes. This is focusing on a particular project of Asmar's, but look around her website; there's a lot of other things there. Here's an interview on her music. A short video analyzing the project by YouTuber Night Mind.

WaPo gift link: Inside the surreal world of $20,000 pet portraits THIS GETS EXTREMELY WEIRD, features Alan Tudyk getting ESPECIALLY weird with his choice of pet portraits. (Disclaimer: gory descriptions within.)

"We just wanted something that showed [the dogs] victorious over our idea of their enemies," Tudyk explained.... During walks with Lola, Aunt Clara and Raisin, he would envision that bloody scene in such detail that he is very clear on how, exactly, these tiny dogs would have subdued their much larger victims." Previously on Metafilter: guinea pig portraiture.

Gov. Kristi Noem suggested that President Biden should have euthanized the family dog, as she did. Animal experts said that such an option should be a last resort.

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The Clifford family of Edmond, Okla., tracked down an octopus for their son Cal, 9, who has been infatuated with the sea animals for years. What they didn’t expect were the 50 hatchlings.

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We want to hear from pet owners about their experiences taking their animals to the vet, and how they paid for their animals’ care.

© Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times