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10 July 2001
[comics] Girls And Comics – Oil And Water — a for real Comic Book Guy?! ‘I am a keen observer of human behavior and the attitude of a girl in a comic shop is like that of a Vulcan amongst Ferengi. They think they are so much better than comics. Those girls don’t think I’m watching them from my stool behind the counter as I bag and board comics. But I am. I see them in their little belly-shirts acting like they are so above comics. The reality is that girls lack the imagination of boys and cannot comprehend the bold archetypes portrayed in our (boys?) sequential art-form.’ [via Comic Geek]
[politics] Another long, interesting political profile of Michael Portillo. ‘Moving the political battle on to cultural grounds exposes another division among Conservatives, between authoritarians and liberals. The people who encouraged John Major to go “back to basics” and William Hague to portray Conservatives as “the party of the family” are genuinely shocked that Portillo can suggest it is an area where neither the party nor the state has a role. “None of my colleagues understand the real game,” he complained to friends recently. Intellectual, arrogant, a man who holidays in Bayreuth for the Wagner and Morocco for the ruins, a man viewed with suspicion by most of his political colleagues, his only hold on the party is their desperation to win.’ [ Related: Official Portillo Site]
11 July 2001
[comics] Great interview with Eddie Campbell mainly about the From Hell movie at Ain’t it Cool News… ‘Alan said that, “We all know that serial murderers are not like this. They’re horrible nasty little men with bad hair-cuts!” So with Gull, we’ve created this colossal figure of evil. I hope we haven’t made him attractive. I actually have much admiration for the original Dr. Gull, who was the man who wrote the paper and gave the name to anorexia nervosa. And his name still pops up if you’re reading on thyroid conditions. He wrote the original medical papers on one or two subjects that are still very relevant today.’
[wtf?!] Evil Edna’s Top Ten Heart-Warming Moments “3. An atheist sees God in a burning bush. Dragging him to safety, the atheist is given the greatest gift of all…. faith.”Basil Brush’s Top Twenty-six Ways to Die ’16. Clive Barker’s favourite, having snakes made from a lunatic’s shit animated by an evil magician and invading your every orifice. Let’s hear it for Clive Barker, eh? 17. That magic flesh eating bacteria (nature beats Clive Barker).’ [via Seethru]
[politics] Tension mounts, the votes are in and, er … everyone’s a winner — Simon Hoggart on the Tory Leadership election process. ‘The press amused themselves by insulting passing Tories. Someone offered Peter Lilley a spliff. “Only on Sundays,” he said. Nicholas Soames insulted us. “Why isn’t that man wearing a tie?” he demanded of a hack. “I have it in my pocket,” the fellow quavered. “Well, PUT IT ON!”. Ann Widdecombe rolled towards us. “Ancram!” she shouted at the massed questors for truth. “Ancram, Ancram, Ancram!” As she left the room, she barked: “Still Ancram!”‘
[politics] Think Tory, Think Iain — Matthew Parris on your typical Tory and what it means for the current leadership battle… ‘Take Margaret Thatcher herself. [ … ] Far from being extreme or right wing in her origins, she was a progressive woman of the 1950s — one who actually went to university. She voted for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, a radical idea in the 1960s. She married a divorcé. She went out to work while her children were still young. Her equivalent in the Tory party today would be quite prepared to contemplate relaxing the law on cannabis, and most younger Conservatives are.’ [ Related: electportillo.com, voteids.com]
12 July 2001
[stuff] Linkage: - Lots of First Chapters of Books… Trilobite!, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and House of Leaves.
- Lucky Man Lyrics… ‘But how many corners do I have to turn? How many times do I have to learn All the love I have is in my mind? I hope you understand.’
- A very brief distraction — Dancing Dots. ‘Boy, oh boy, is this one completely useless!’
- Weblog at Everything2 Vs. Weblog at Interconnected.
- Random Link from my Favourites: Hessian Love… ‘I’m a metal dude with long hair and tats who loves to party at all hour of the night. i am 6’4” 210# long (to my ass) hair, played in sf bands for 13 years. i have 5 ozzy tats and 2 dio tats. what can i say, i luv sabbath. new in la , saw your add for more info and photo pleez wright back. we need to hook up and get shitfaced. did i mention i’m hung like tommy lee?’
- Yesterday on filepile.org… #1, #2, #3.
[celebrity] Fame is the Spur — Gyles Brandreth looks back on his obsession with celebrity…. ‘I have been following the trial of Barry George, the simple-minded fantasist and loner found guilty last week of murdering Jill Dando, and I noticed that every one of the star names with whom George was apparently obsessed – Freddie Mercury, Gary Glitter, Jill Dando, Anthea Turner, Diana, Princess of Wales – also features in the roll-call of those that, now and again, I like to boast of having met.’
[tech] Cap’n Crunch’s Homepage… includes the infamous article from Esquire on phone phreaking…. ‘I ask him who this Captain Crunch person is.”Oh. The Captain. He’s probably the most legendary phone phreak. He calls himself Captain Crunch after the notorious Cap’n Crunch 2600 whistle.” (Several years ago, Gilbertson explains, the makers of Cap’n Crunch breakfast cereal offered a toy-whistle prize in every box as a treat for the Cap’n Crunch set. Somehow a phone phreak discovered that the toy whistle just happened to produce a perfect 2600-cycle tone. When the man who calls himself Captain Crunch was transferred overseas to England with his Air Force unit, he would receive scores of calls from his friends and “mute” them — make them free of charge to them — by blowing his Cap’n Crunch whistle into his end.)’ [thanks Phil]
13 July 2001
[tv] Louis Theroux and Ann Widdecombe…. TV doesn’t get any better than that! ‘Ms Widdecombe later said it was what she called the “perfectly sensible” interview Theroux conducted with Paul Daniels that persuaded her to take part. “He has a slightly zany approach but I can cope with that,” she said.’
[comics] Another first chapter… The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. ‘In Sammy’s closet were stacked dozens of pads of coarse newsprint, filled with horses, Indians, football heroes, sentient apes, Fokkers, nymphs, moon rockets, buckaroos, Saracens, tropic jungles, grizzlies, studies of the folds in women’s clothing, the dents in men’s hats, the lights in human irises, clouds in the western sky. His grasp of perspective was tenuous, his knowledge of human anatomy dubious, his line often sketchy – but he was an enterprising thief. He clipped favorite pages and panels out of newspapers and comic books and pasted them into a fat notebook: a thousand different exemplary poses and styles. He had made extensive use of his bible of clippings in concocting a counterfeit Terry and the Pirates strip called South China Sea, drawn in faithful imitation of the great Caniff. He had knocked off Raymond in something he called Pimpernel of the Planets and Chester Gould in a lockjawed G-man strip called Knuckle Duster Doyle. He had tried swiping from Hogarth and Lee Falk, from George Herriman, Harold Gray, and Elzie Segar.’
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14 July 2001
[media] Neurosis in Print — Polly Toynbee wonders if the Daily Mail is a spent political force… ‘Why has the Mail lost its influence, despite its sales? Because its editor, Paul Dacre, imposes his own neurotic vision of society upon his paper. It is neither coherent nor consistent but a Toytown world of nice white folk inside gated communities, fearful of everything outside (especially the gypsies in the woods), pining for a golden era that never was. It is John Major’s fantasy world of spinsters bicycling to church, Tory squires downing warm beer in the saloon, plebs in the public bar, all deference and homogeneity, caste and class in their place. Above all the holy Oxo family is the Mail’s guiding star – pure, uncomplicated, eternal.’ [via Venusberg]
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[comics] Popimage provides a look through comics to be released in Sept 2001… especially looking forward to Atlas by Dylan Horrocks and Campbell and Moore’s Snakes and Ladders… ‘Atlas is a long, sprawling saga of comics, cartography and magic, revisiting two landscapes introduced in Hicksville: the eponymous comics-obsessed town and the mysterious Cornucopia. Along the way, it will explore the nature of comics, the politics of the new millennium, the frailty of love and the secret to mapping the sky…’
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15 July 2001
[quote] ‘He was, in fact, characteristic of the best type of dominant male in the world at this time. He was fifty-five years old, tough, shrewd, unburdened by the complicated ethical ambiguities which puzzle intellectuals, and had long ago decided that the world was a mean son-of-a-bitch in which only the most cunning and ruthless can survive. He was also as kind as was possible for one holding that ultra-Darwinian philosophy; and he genuinely loved children and dogs, unless they were on the site of something that had to be bombed in the National Interest. He still retained some sense of humor, despite the burdens of his almost godly office, and, although he had been impotent with his wife for nearly ten years now, he generally achieved orgasm in the mouth of a skilled prostitute within 1.5 minutes. He took amphetamine pep pills to keep going on his grueling twenty-hour day, with the result that his vision of the world was somewhat skewed in a paranoid direction, and he took tranquilizers to keep from worrying too much, with the result that his detachment sometimes bordered on the schizophrenic; but most of the time his innate shrewdness gave him a fingernail grip on reality. In short, he was much like the rulers of Russia and China.’
16 July 2001
[comics] Marvel provide an interview with Grant Morrison on the New X-Men…. What we can expect from his time on X-Men: ‘High-impact comics: big drama, new threats, new ideas, engrossing soap opera, pain, fear, romance, and some startling new insights into mutant life and culture. Stories will last no more than three or four issues, and no subplot will be left hanging for more than a year. There will be no more narrative captions or interior thought monologues. Readers will have to work out characters and motivations by judging their actions, not by seeing into their heads. Basically, the book will be about the same people, but it will feel very different and show those people from angles we may not have seen often before.’ [via Plasticbag]
[tv] Hi, I’m Big Brother — behind the scenes at the Big Brother 2 Studio… ‘On the wall are instructions on how to be Big Brother. “Always be calm, dispassionate and businesslike,” says one. “Don’t offer solutions,” reads another. “Don’t refer to things we’ve seen. Wait until they mention it.” A separate posting instructs them on how to react in the case of a threatened walk out: “1. Show understanding. 2. Dwell on the positive experiences. 3. Tell them they are strong. We think they can cope. 4. Suggest talking to the housemates.”‘
[books] Stand up for literature — interview with Stewart Lee regarding his new novel The Perfect Fool…. ‘For the past three years Stewart Lee has lived in Stoke Newington, a fashionable north London suburb, in a maisonette furnished in studenty style and dominated by his huge record collection. “I’ve been buying vinyl since I was about 11 – I remember the first CD I bought was in about ’92. Writing the book has helped me realise that maybe there’s something else going on there, that it’s a sort of displacement activity. I think that being interested in things, for men, often is, and in the book the characters have to address that. So that will all be going now. Once the book’s out, I’ll be able to shed it – like skin off a lizard!”‘
17 July 2001
[tv] Jon Ronson’s web site has been vastly improved…. ‘One thing you quickly learn about [extremists] is that they really don’t like being called extremists. In fact they often tell me that we are the real extremists. They say that the western liberal cosmopolitan establishment is itself a fanatical, depraved belief system. I like it when they say this because it makes me feel as if I have a belief system.’
[comics] Comic Genius — review in the Guardian of Preacher from Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon. ‘Preacher, while happily dipping into the ersatz mythological/ supernatural hinterland that forgivably pretentious comic artists have found so convenient – God, the devil, angels, the Grail, vampires, Illuminati-inspired conspiracy theories, and millennial tension – uses them as a means of meditation on more human and timeless themes: friendship, masculinity, honour, love. That Ennis’s feelings on this subject tend to be a tad cornball is fine, as he has taken such an extraordinary route to reach them. A tale in which someone actually gets to shoot at God is extraordinary, no?’ [via Bugpowder]
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18 July 2001
[stuff] Linkage: - Livia Soprano: ‘Why does everything have to have a purpose? The world is a jungle! And if you want my advice, Anthony, don’t expect happiness. You won’t get it — people let you down … and I’m not naming ANY names — but in the end, you die in your own arms’ [from Sopranos Sounds]
- Dylan Horrocks… Sketchbook and Website.
- Displacement Activity — ‘An activity shown by an animal that appears to be irrelevant to its situation. Displacement activities are frequently observed when there is conflict between opposing drives. For example, birds in aggressive situations, in which there are simultaneous drives to attack and to flee, may preen their feathers as a displacement activity.’
- Atari Lives! — Great article about how the Atari 2600 console lives on 24 years after it’s release…. ‘The programmers stretched the hardware to limits unintended and unimaginable even by the hardware designers! A lot of times while I’m programming, I’ll throw on some disco music, pretend it’s 1979 and imagine what the designers had to work with.’
- Last two days of MP3’s on Filepile…
[politics] Welcome to the House of Usher — Simon Hoggart on the Tory Leadership Contest. ‘We will come out of this stronger and more united than ever!” Mr Ancram said. Oh, give it a rest, I thought. Only a hour or so ago, Nick Soames bellowed “F*** off!” at Michael Fallon. One Tory wife accused her husband – voting the wrong way, she thought – of “going through a midlife crisis and plunging his party into total oblivion”. There’s enough bitterness, wormwood and gall in the Tories now to keep an illegal absinthe distiller going for decades. And they haven’t even had the final round.’
[comics] Long, fascinating interview with Bill Sienkiewicz… ‘I wanted to paint Elektra: Assassin at all costs. I wanted to do it so badly, that the rate for the coloring was like $40 a page. They didn’t have a painted page rate at the time. So I was doing all that work for essentially nothing because I needed to do it, I wanted to do it. From working with Frank’s scripts to laughing my head off to being inspired and excited and knowing that whatever he was going to throw back at me was going to inspire me further. It really helped to make it about the work… because it all got turned back into the storyline. It was a very creative environment.’ [ Related: Sienkiewicz’s Website]
19 July 2001
[movies] The trailer for Apocalypse Now Redux is up at the Apple Trailers Site. ‘Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right. Unless you were goin’ all the way. Kurtz got off the boat. He split from the whole fuckin’ program.’ [Related: Quotes, Apocalypse Now Tribute Site]
[politics] Hats off to Ken — The Guardian analyses Ken Clarke’s sense of fashion… ‘Yet it is precisely Clarke’s lack of fashionableness that may well prove to be his strength. Despite the horrified cry of Loaded’s Adrian Clarke – “Surely he should have an adviser to help him with these matters?” – this hat exemplifies the lack of spin in Clarke’s image. It is worn, pure and simply, to keep the rain off his head. ‘
20 July 2001
[comics] Uncle Joe loved a good joke — Stalin’s Politburo liked to doodle cartoons during meetings… ‘. Uncle Joe himself may have been a mass murderer, tyrant and scheming paranoiac, but he had his jocular side as well, even if his sense of humour was typically brutal. As revealed by an extraordinary buff folder marked Top Secret, containing drawings by senior Bolsheviks, he appreciated a good political cartoon as much as the next man.’
[politics] The judge’s every word dripped with loathing and contempt — Simon Hoggart on the Archer Verdict. ‘Then the sentence and a speech from the judge which surely smashed into him as hard as the prison term. It must have been like being hosed down with sewage. Every word dripped with loathing and contempt: “As serious an offence of perjury as I have experience of, and as serious as I have been able to find in the books”. The judge spoke of the way he had preyed upon the weak and vulnerable to concoct his alibis; the way he had hurried along the original libel trial in order to tell his lies and spin his fabrications. It was a short speech, but lethal. Mr Justice Potts was about to take away his liberty, but first he wanted to strip off what shreds were left of his reputation.’ [ Related: Archer’s Greasy Pole]
[drinks] This sounds like an interesting drink — The Turbo Shandy. ‘Drink half the lager, empy smirnoff ice into recently vacated space, and enjoy…’ [via Boney Baloney]
[politics] A On-line Petition: To Mr Big, Please make Lord Archer your Bitch. ‘Who’s the Daddy Now?’ [via Haddock]
22 July 2001
[politics] The Undoing of a Bold Pretender — a postmortem on Michael Portillo’s Tory leadership campaign… ‘…after the final ballot last Tuesday, when most of the other MPs had gone to crack open Champagne or commiserate with colleagues, one senior figure in the party hung back. “The thing about Portillo is that he is arrogant, politically ambivalent and unaware of what the Conservatives really wanted or needed,” he said, a smile playing around his lips. Around the corner a new entrant to the Commons at the last election was not so sure. “We may have made the worst mistake this party has ever made,” he said, staring woefully at the floor. “And I didn’t even support Portillo.”‘
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23 July 2001
[stuff] Linkage:
- I wonder what sort of Big Brother 2 housemate Paul from Digital Trickery would be? ‘The less I hear about this pleb-pleasing triviafest the better. I mean, why does anyone give a flying toss about it? ‘
- Adventure for the Atari 2600 — one of my favourite computer games ever… ‘Adventure also contained the first Easter Egg (hidden surprise) in a video game, which in this case was the author’s signature hidden in a secret room.’
- Friday’s Media Nugget was Ghost World. ‘Few movies have expressed the transition from teen to adult with such farcical honesty. An adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name by Daniel Clowes (who co-wrote the film), Ghost World beautifully retains the style and attitude of its comic book forebear. ‘
- New Order Website… True Faith Video. ‘When I was a very small boy Very small boys talked to me. Now that we’ve grown up together They’re afraid of what they see. That’s the price that we all pay And the value of destiny comes to nothing. I can’t tell you where we’re going I guess there was just no way of knowing.’
- Friday Night expressed as a link.
- Profile of Iain Duncan Smith…. ‘In background and style Tebbit and Duncan Smith could hardly have been more different, but they both held fast to key tenets of the Thatcherite canon – principally the supremacy of the nation state. Asked while electioneering what he thought of foxhunting, Duncan Smith was prevented from replying by Tebbit, who pointed to his colleague’s mouth and said: “Madam, these are the teeth of a killer. This man must have meat or die.”‘
 [comics] Daddy, I Hardly Knew You — review of Chris Ware’s graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth…. ‘This is a finely crafted, complex book that gets better with every chapter: Ware seems to have matured both as an artist and a person in the years it took to complete. While so many similar projects are little more than strings of striking images, Jimmy Corrigan forces you to pause, flick back a few pages and read again, rewarding you with another insight, another overdue connection. It is a rare and uplifting example of an artistic vision pushed to the limits.’ [via Bugpowder]
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[politics] And Mother Makes Two — Old, slightly revealing interview of Ann Widdecombe by Gyles Brandreth… ‘Let’s face it, we are not a happier society as a result of the liberalisation of the Seventies. We have record rates of divorce, record rates of suicide, record rates of teenage pregnancy, record rates of youth crime, record rates of underage sex. We should invite people to recognise that the Great Experiment has failed. You cannot have happiness without restraint.’ [via Blogadoon]
24 July 2001
[tv] The Life of Chris — the Guardian profiles Chris Morris’ career.. ‘The animal rights campaigner Carla Lane is still disgusted, four years after her encounter with Morris (“Prison’s not good enough” for animal abusers, she told him. Morris replied: “Prison’s too good. So what about jail?”) “These trendy people seem to think what they do is very funny,” Lane says today, “but most of it is beyond the 40-year-olds who are looking for Only Fools And Horses or Are You Being Served.”‘ [ Related: Cook’d and Bomb’d]
[linkage] I’ve just noticed that the Sunday Times has finally put articles from it’s glossy magazine on the website…
Bullitt over Broadway [ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3] Brief study of Steve McQueen… ‘He grew more insecure with each film. “He wasn”t sure of what he was doing – and he wanted to do a really good job. He wanted order. If a director showed weakness, he would be replaced. And he was very possessive,” remembers Claxton. “He was like a child – at lunch he would order way over what he needed: two cheeseburgers, three chocolate milkshakes, two bags of fries. His attitude was, “Get it while you can, before they take it away from you.” He purposely didn’t carry any money around; he was very tight. He wouldn’t even tip baggage handlers at airports. He’d say, “No – they need to learn that life is tough.” ‘
The Hot Ticket [ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3] Article about Tony Blair just before the last election… ‘Flying back from the Labour party spring conference in Glasgow, I am seated next to Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, almost entirely deaf. He holds his nose and blows hard, instructing me to follow his step-by-step example. ‘No, no, no, not like that, like this.’I fear bursting an eardrum. He shrugs; his view is that unless you push on with a project it’s hardly worth bothering.’
The Talented Mr Ridley [ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3] Interview with Ridley Scott… ‘He had not won the Oscar for best director. That had gone to Steven Soderbergh for Traffic. Ridley had been there before, with Thelma & Louise, losing on that occasion to Jonathan Demme, the director of The Silence of the Lambs. This time, he said, he had two flash moments, the first being relief that he would not have to do his acceptance speech, the second disappointment at having come so close again. Then he thought, oh bugger, he’d have a vodka instead.’
25 July 2001
[intersection] Journey’s End — was Michael Portillo’s political career ruined by Big Brother? ‘”Michael was very struck by Big Brother,” reveals a Tory frontbencher who supported his bid for the party leadership. “We discussed it at length. His whole speech to last year’s Tory party conference was inspired by it. “The thing about that programme was the people. Young people, easy-going in their attitudes. They seemed to be the face of apolitical modern Britain. Michael knew immediately that we had to reach out to people like that. Britain isn’t reactionary any more.” Maybe. But large sections of the Tory party are.’
[comics] Comics From The Underground — The New Yorker profiles Dan Clowes… ‘Clowes scowled. “I really hate this shit,” he said. Then he noticed a 1951 “Space Squadron”: on the cover was a squat red rocket and spacemen floating in bulbous suits. “That’s so great,” he said, and his huge gray eyes seemed to glow. “That unthreatening quaintness, that X factor of weird old men trying to draw for children. It’ll be panel after panel of inexplicably strange Freudian dogma.” Gesturing at the “Black Widow” and “Hellblazer” graphic novels below, he said, “This crap looks like it was airbrushed on the side of a van in 1973 by some surly young creep.”‘ [via Robot Wisdom]
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26 July 2001
[intersection] I Am Jack’s Younger Self — the unmistakable connection between Fight Club and Calvin and Hobbes… ‘Within the safety of the panel, Calvin is perpetually eight years old, terrible things can never happen, and no matter how crazy a stunt he pulls, everything always returns to status quo. Because of this, our hero is free to do as he wishes, free to chase his dreams as wildly as he desires, never having to worry about tomorrow because there essentially will never BE one — unless it’s part of a continuing storyline. This makes the reality of Fight Club all the bleaker, because it depicts what happens when you take someone weaned on dreams and limitless possibilities and jam him into a cramped cage confined by rules and regulations’ [via Metafilter]
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[comics] The Disappearing Comic Book — Why are comic books in trouble when comic book characters are strong in other mediums? ‘During the last 30 years, comics have become ghettoized, Munson says, turned into specialty items sold in persnickety little shops, located one per town, if that, and sold only to those who know the secret word. (Los Angeles, with dozens of shops and some of the best, is an exception.) A few popular titles are available at chain bookstores, but I had to squat and look beneath the bottom shelf on a Barnes & Noble magazine rack to find a copy of “Wolverine’.
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27 July 2001
[recession] Economics? It’s a piece of cake — are we heading for a recession? The Guardian does a number of totally unscientific tests to find out… ‘…Budd’s scientific method for testing the economic climate was to stand in the Lakeside shopping centre in Essex counting shoppers – fatally, he was fooled by their numbers into believing recovery was on the way, not noticing their sad noses pressed up against the glass gazing forlornly at the things they couldn’t afford.’
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[comics] Salon has A Conversation With Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes… ‘Collectors like us are usually all really troubled people who find solace in their dank apartments filled with decaying old stuff, and they’re often a trial to deal with. Of course, I live in my own little sanctum/sanatorium with all my books covered with Mylar. I collected a lot of sleazy ’50s and ’60s sex paperbacks and recently found one from 1968 called “Ding-a-Ling Broad.” It has the dumbest-looking woman that I’ve ever seen on the cover. It’s something that is an endless source of joy for me.’ [ Related: Ghost World Movie Site, Salon Review, GW at IMDB, link via Seething Hatred]
[politics] Time to reveal my “other” website: Darius Von Daniken Shrubsole says “I’m proud to be a Tory!” ‘If you are a conservative and you like my page, maybe we can be friends! Why not email me with your personal details. We can correspond about anything – I’m interested in more than politics. I like listening to Music (particularly Radio 2) and shopping for fashionable clothes at the Lakeside Shopping Center, which also has some marvellous architectural features. Of course I’ll only respond if you are voting for William on June 7th!.’ [via Clog]
28 July 2001
[mindfucking] Taming the multiverse — New Scientist on Parallel Universes… ‘In classical physics, [Deutsch] says, there is no such thing as “if”; the future is determined absolutely by the past. So there can be no free will. In the multiverse, however, there are alternatives; the quantum possibilities really happen. Free will might have a sensible definition, Deutsch thinks, because the alternatives don’t have to occur within equally large slices of the multiverse. “By making good choices, doing the right thing, we thicken the stack of universes in which versions of us live reasonable lives,” he says. “When you succeed, all the copies of you who made the same decision succeed too. What you do for the better increases the portion of the multiverse where good things happen.”‘ [ NOT Related: Crisis On Infinite Earths]
[profile] The Independent profiles Heather Mills and wonders what exactly is it about her that people find unsettling? ‘What is it then, that causes us to hang back, to pause a little? The answer is Mills herself. There is something about her that is almost frightening. She seems too perfect, her story too colourful, too dramatic. Few people, say her critics, are as driven, as single-minded, as strong-willed as she. And we find that unsettling, hard to cope with. When her father comes out to say his daughter is not a gold-digger who hunts down rich men, there are some who wonder if he protests too much.’
29 July 2001
[internet] Taming the Wild, Wild Web — interesting article on Big Corporations growing discontent with the “unreliable, uncontrollable, unruly” Internet… ‘The business world’s discontent has increased as the Internet economy has unraveled over the last year. That’s not surprising, given that the network was first mapped out more than 30 years ago, when it was devised as a coast-to-coast system connecting universities working on projects financed by government grants. “The Internet is an important cultural phenomenon, but that doesn’t excuse its failure to comply with basic economic laws,” said Thomas Nolle, a New Jersey telecommunications consultant. “The problem is that it was devised by a bunch of hippie anarchists who didn’t have a strong profit motive. But this is a business, not a government-sponsored network.”‘ [via Digital Trickery]
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[profile] Prophet of the new child order — Sunday Times profile of Michael Lewis… ‘It seems a curious moment to introduce his theory that technological advance is rocketing ahead too fast for most of us. Virtual reality is mostly stuck in amusement arcades, e-mail use is declining, dotcom companies are still on the ropes and silicon chips report falling profits. All this is irrelevant to the changes that are taking place under our noses, he claims. “The profit-making potential of the internet has been overrated and the social effects of the internet were presumed to be overrated. But they weren’t.”‘
Thank God for the Internet — Another article on Lewis at Salon. On Bill Joy’s view of technological change: ‘…what bothered me was that he had a political interest in reining in this process. Stopping it. Stopping change. This just seemed the height of hypocrisy to me. This is a man whose status in the society derives entirely from the society’s willingness to be very liberal in its attitudes toward technology and change and development and now that he’s on top he wants to control it. It just reeked to me of status anxiety.’
30 July 2001
[profile] Mum, this is my porn empire… The Independent profiles Benjamin Cohen — a young “dot.com whizz”. ‘He shows me his bedroom, where it all began. It is lime and turquoise, with a sweet little single bed and, still, Winnie the Pooh books in the bookcase. Have you had sex, Benjamin? “I’m not telling you that.” “Why not?” “Because I’m just not.” Benjamin, by the way, is a Tory, an admirer of William Hague who, yes, would one day like to get into politics himself. “Do you think the porn thing will be a hurdle?” he asks.’
[must read] Salon reviews James Ellroy’s The Cold Six Thousand … ‘Ellroy once called himself “the greatest crime novelist who ever lived,” and then wrote books like “The Black Dahlia,” “The Big Nowhere” and “L.A. Confidential” to prove it. Now he wants to sit with the grown-ups, and if they don’t make room at the table he’s going to tip it over. One way or another, he means to make it, and on his own terms. “Fuck being a crime novelist when you can be a flat-out great novelist,” he once told me — there never being a doubt in his mind that being either one was merely a matter of choice, of will. Ellroy took risks.’ [ Related: Cold Six Thousand at Amazon]
31 July 2001
[comics] Pulp fiction — Guardian review of Comic Book Nation … ‘According to the New York Times , one in four magazines shipped to US troops during the second world war was a comic book. The superheroes fought the war, too, but they had to find excuses for not winning it immediately. Fortunately Clark Kent failed his eye test, so Superman could credibly remain on the home front.’ [thanks to John at LinkWorthy]
[politics] Extreme? I’ll tell you what’s extreme… — Profile of Iain Duncan Smith in the Independent … ‘The latest polls reflect Mr Duncan Smith’s strong appeal to the Tory core. But Mr Clarke is still more highly rated by non-activist Tories, and still more so by the electorate at large. Taunted as “William Hague’s dad”, Iain Duncan Smith comes across as a tribute to the ordered, proscriptive world of 1950s Britain.’
[comics] A couple of articles about Neil Gaiman …. From the Telegraph — Bitten By The Fantasy Bug and from CNN — Gaiman: ‘I enjoy not being famous’ … ‘The Sandman stands as a key text of the Nineties. In it, Gaiman drew together many of the currents that bubbled below the surface of the times: a millennial preoccupation with alternative spiritualities, a New Age interest in dreams and archetypes, a postmodern fascination with mythologies and storytelling. A decade later, these currents are no longer below the surface. Indeed, it looks very much as though The Sandman presaged our present pop cultural landscape, for today’s biggest stories – from Harry Potter to Buffy the Vampire Slayer – exist in spaces it charted first.’ [ Related: Gaiman’s Web Journal]
[distractions] Feed The Tango Inside … ‘Oh no! You’re not still seeing her, are you? You’ve been wanting to get out of this relationship for years, and now the mother speaks of marriage? You must do something drastic my friend. Make a pass at her father! Go on… just give his knee a little squeeze…’
1 August 2001
[comics] Borderline the new PDF format magazine about comics launches… Two versions are available: High Resolution / Low Resolution … It contains news, reviews, articles and an interview with Bryan Talbot… ‘Borderline is the result of a renaissance in British fan circles during the last two years but with the use of the internet for delivery we hope to offer something with points of interest to readers of comics anywhere in the world.’
[pop] Make your mind up, M’lud — Amusing article about the the court battle between Bobby G from Bucks Fizz and David Van Day from Dollar over who has rights to the name Bucks Fizz. ‘If all this sounds like a particularly bitter lover’s tiff, it is because the two men are former friends and colleagues. Van Day was one of the best-known bubblegum pop stars of the early 80s in his own right as one half of Dollar, an equally peroxide-heavy act which had 14 hits including Oh L’Amour and Mirror Mirror between 1978 and 1983. “We were fifth in a recent TV programme on the world’s top 10 duos,” he says. “Underneath us were people like Ike and Tina Turner.” ‘
[medicine] ickle tackles painkillers … and allows me to dispose of this link I’ve had sitting in my “Must Blog” Folder for ages… the history of aspirin — Rise of the 1p wonder. ‘The trouble for the drug firms is that so many of them make aspirin, and it is so cheap to produce, they make no profit from it. Instead, they are intensively trying to develop so-called ‘super-aspirins’ which are more powerful and can be patented to ensure that they make money. ‘If something is found as a successor to aspirin, it is likely to be expensive. The market is huge – a goldmine,’ said Elwood. But the reason the drug companies don’t like the common aspirin is why patients and doctors do. It’s almost as cheap as chalk – about 1p a pill – and tackles all the big killers: heart disease, stroke and cancer.’
[tags: Health][ permalink][ Comments Off on Ickle on Painkillers / The History Of Aspirin]
2 August 2001
 [movies] Interesting review of Apocalypse Now Redux … ‘Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall), the surfing-obsessed, napalm-crazy Air Cav honcho, the additional minutes are more than a madness bonus. They excavate contradictions in his character that were glimpsed only briefly in the ’79 cut, and make him seem both more monstrous and more human–more monstrous because he is more human. His interest in acid-tripping California surf god Lance Johnson (Sam Bottoms) now seems less like a middle-aged man’s power-juiced nostalgia trip than a prepubescent’s obsessive male crush. Kilgore dotes on this fair-haired visitor, monitoring his needs the way an old-school movie producer might pamper a star, and Lance–like Kilgore, a fancy cipher in ’79–responds with a stoner’s sense of privilege. (Refusing to surf in artillery-pounded waters, he says: "I’m an artist.")’ [via Robot Wisdom]
[comics] Long, fascinating interview with Grant Morrison over at Disinformation … ‘What I want to see is people doing their own experience and their own life without trying to be clever or trying to be hip or fashionable. If you do what’s in your own head it’ll always be cool because no one else will have thought of it.’ [via Plasticbag]
3 August 2001
[tv] The inside story on Elizabeth from Big Brother … ‘On Friday morning, after Elizabeth’s eviction , Druitt’s mobile phone is almost constantly engaged. The horror on her face at her exit interview, when nude pictures from the Star flashed on the screen, was, says Druitt, a big sham. “She loved those pictures.”‘ [via Popbitch]
[mp3] Top 10 Bootleg Napster MP3’s. Eminenya is well worth downloading … ‘The lush celtic strings of Sail Away clash with the vocal from the Real Slim Shady, speeded up by a factor of about three. A nightmare within a dream.’ [via Popbitch]
[comics] Scott Shaw’s Oddball Comics … A collection of pointers to world’s weirdest comics. Some classic comics including Jack Kirby at his nuttiest… 2001: A Space Odyssey ‘”White Zero” is the fictional identity given to mild Harvey Norton in simulated superhero “sequences” artificially created in the high-tech chambers of “Comicsville, Inc.” But during one of his synthetic “adventures”, Norton unexpectedly encounters a floating monolith similar to “the one they found on the MOON in 2001 A,D.” When his manufactured exploit goes awry, Norton’s enthusiasm for superheroics dwindles: Another Comicsville Inc. patron observes: “Man, if you can’t make it in COMICSVILLE, you may as well try KNITTING sweaters!”‘ [ Related: Oddball Comics Archive, Gone and Forgotten]
4 August 2001
[intersection] Adrian Mole and Big Brother 2 … ‘I lay awake pondering yet again on the true nature of my sexuality. Did I vote for Brian out of gay solidarity or because he is a semi-erudite Irish eccentric? I garnered the evidence: a) I like Kylie Minogue; b) I sleep with a lavender pillow; c) I am no good at sex with women; d) I am very fussy about my sheets, pillowcases and towels.’
[lists] Five good films I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never watched: - The Conversation … ‘I’m not afraid of death, but I am afraid of murder.’
- Paths of Glory … ‘BOMBSHELL! the roll of the drums… the click of the rifle-bolts… the last cigarette… and then… the shattering impact of this story… perhaps the most explosive motion picture in 25 years!’
- The Deer Hunter … ‘Stanley, see this? This is this. This ain’t something else, this is this!’
- The Night of the Hunter … ‘The wedding night, the anticipation, the kiss, the knife, BUT ABOVE ALL… THE SUSPENSE!’
- Dog Day Afternoon … ‘The robbery should have taken 10 minutes. 4 hours later, the bank was like a circus sideshow. 8 hours later, it was the hottest thing on live T.V. 12 hours later, it was all history. And it’s all true’
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[movies] The From Hell Movie Trailer is available at Apple’s Trailer Site. ‘I made it all up, and it all came true anyway. That’s the funny part.’ [requires Quicktime 5, link via WEF]
5 August 2001
[lists] Five awful films I’m embarrassed to say I’ve watched:
[movies] The Walken Shtick, Creepy . . . and Cool … great interview / profile of Christopher Walken. ‘Walken looks like if he sat next to you on the subway, you’d probably move to another seat. His longish brown hair is slicked back, and he wears a scraggly beard. His pale blue irises have an eerie intensity, and he seems to have trouble maintaining eye contact. There’s a halting rhythm to his speech that has inspired countless impersonators, including, famously, Kevin Spacey and comedian Jay Mohr. Walken paces his words like this: It’s as, if, he’s . . . following. The punctuation rules, of another . . . galaxy.’ [via Fark]
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6 August 2001
[movies] retroCRUSH Christopher Walken Audio Library … ‘The way your dad looked at it, this watch was your birthright. He’d be damned if any of the slopes were gonna get their greasy yellow hands on his boy’s birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable piece of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.’ [via Metafilter]
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[comics] Anticipating a ‘Ghost World’ — Time on Clowes and Zwigoff’s Ghost World … ‘…most importantly the Clowes sensibility has successfully made it into movie theaters. It’s too bad that it takes a movie to expose vast numbers of people to Clowes’ pessimistic universe of the lummoxes, schlubs, and dorks who made the Wendy’s foodchain possible and who write “comix” review columns on “the web.”‘ [via Comic Geek]
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[profile] Johnny Vegas Laid Bare — another profile from the Independent … ‘Johnny isn’t Michael’s invention in the way that, say, Alan Partridge is Steve Coogan’s invention. Johnny is Michael, magnified. Or Johnny is comprised of the bits of Michael — the pain, the rejections — that Michael has hived off, to save himself from the Priory and, possibly, out-and-out alcoholism. Johnny, the stand-up, is Michael at his most brilliantly hurt and resentful.’ [ Related: Johnny Vegas Website, link via I Love Everything]
7 August 2001
[stuff] Metafilter is on holiday so I’ve decided to mine the archives …
[quote] ‘You’ve become a significant threat to the national security structure. They would have killed you already but you got a lot of light on you. Instead they’re trying to destroy your credibility. They already have in many circles in this town. Be honest, your only chance is to come up with a case. Something, anything. Make arrests, stir the shit storm, hope to reach a point of critical mass that’ll start a chain reaction of people coming forward, then the government will crack. Remember, fundamentally people are suckers for the truth — and the truth is on your side, Bubba.’
[weblog] Pop Quiz, Hot Shot — Marcia wants to know about blogging styles … LMG is unashamedly: ‘hunt around other weblogs for a few interesting links so you at least have something to post?’.
8 August 2001
[70’s pulp fiction] Sextacular! — the Guardian profiles the life and books of Jacqueline Susann. ‘…The result was Valley of the Dolls, “the sensational truth about the glamour set on a pill kick”, a careening, gossipy, salacious ride of a read about three women trying to make it, hampered by cads and drugs. She satirised [Ethel] Merman as a blowsy has-been, and based an actress-singer battling with weight and drugs on Judy Garland. Thanks to years of listening at dressing-room doors, her dialogue was irresistible. Caked in kohl, tripping on hairspray (as well as sleeping pills, diet pills and amphetamines), in her Pucci print frocks and lacquered wigs, she rose at dawn to serve truck drivers breakfast – to make sure they’d get her books out in time – then schmoozed booksellers all day, and stayed up late partying with the glitterati.’
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[comics] Roger Ebert on Ghost World … ‘Seymour and Enid are too similar to fall in love; they both specialize in complex personal lifestyles that send messages no one is receiving. Enid even offers to try to fix up Seymour, but he sees himself as a bad candidate for a woman: “I don’t want to meet someone who shares my interests. I hate my interests.”‘ [via Link Worthy]
9 August 2001
[wtf?] Okay, Swingin’ Chicks of the ’60’s — spot the odd one out: Angie Dickinson, Marianne Faithfull, Sharon Tate and…. Truman Capote?! ‘…in that same book Truman also declares what should be inscribed on his tombstone, “an excuse, a phrase I use about almost any commitment: I TRIED TO GET OUT OF IT, BUT I COULDN’T.”‘
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[comics] Quick profile of Dan Clowes … ‘Time spent with his book “Ghost World” — now a film that opened here Friday — leaves you with the sense that the gentleman responsible for it must be some frustratingly inaccessible, enervated, neurotic ogre. But Clowes looks like David Hyde Pierce with a more keyed-down demeanor. If Clowes is a dork, it’s from the inside out, his geek sensibility being something he shares with those who read him. Otherwise, he appears to be surrounded by outer peace.’ [via Comic Geek]
10 August 2001
[weblogs] Tom has some interesting comments from Keith Waterhouse about how to do a good column in a newspaper. Much of it applies equally well to weblogs … ’13) I is 106 years since Jerome K Jerome related his difficulties in trying to open a tin of pineapple in Three Men In A Boat. Unless you can improve this classic account, keep your problems with packaging to yourself.’
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[quote] Tinned Pineapple. ‘…I took the tin off myself, and hammered at it with the mast till I was worn out and sick at heart, whereupon Harris took it in hand. We beat it out flat; we beat it back square; we battered it into every form known to geometry – but we could not make a hole in it. Then George went at it, and knocked it into a shape, so strange, so weird, so unearthly in its wild hideousness, that he got frightened and threw away the mast.’ [ Related: Project Gutenberg Etext of Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome]
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[books] First chapter of Sonic Boom — a book about Napster, MP3’s and the future of music … ‘From that moment forward, Fanning would appear frequently dressed in a Metallica T-shirt, most famously as a presenter at the MTV Music Awards, where Ulrich sat in the audience looking sick. It was difficult to say whether the Beavis and Butthead like fashion statement was meant to be mocking or merely the honest expression of a fan laced with a little irony. Whatever the case, Ulrich made clear that, as far as he was concerned, being a Napster user and a Metallica fan were incompatible: on television and the Internet, he directly told fans who used Napster that the band didn’t want their types.’
[comics] Grendels and Mages — an interview with Matt Wagner from Sequential Tart … ‘Seriously, I view Hunter [Rose] as one of those flash inspirations – one that almost creates itself. Greg Rucka claims that Hunter is my Athena, that he sprang fully formed and armed from the labyrinthine recesses of my brain. He also claims that no one other than me should ever write a Hunter story and, I must admit, I think he’s right.’
11 August 2001
[comics] No Laughing Matter — Salon covers Gary Groth’s views on Scott McCloud’s Reinventing Comics … ‘Faced with a dwindling comic book readership, distribution centered on hobby shops and the depressing news that market leader Marvel is still struggling to emerge from bankruptcy, comic artists and publishers are in a vulnerable state. The Net, like a tornado heading for a trailer, is bound to have some effect, good or bad. “It’s like opera,” says Steve Conley, creator of Astounding Space Thrills, a daily adventure webcomic. “The fighting is so fierce because the stakes are so small. No other industry could have this kind of debate because no other industry is so small and close-knit.”‘ [ Related: McCloud Cuckoo-Land ( Part 1) ( Part 2) — Groth rebuffs McCloud’s Reinventing Comics. McCloud responds… McCloud in Stable Condition Following Review, Groth Still at Large]
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12 August 2001
[teeth] Something Rotten — William Leith on his teeth… an extract from his book British Teeth. ‘He put his drill down, picked up another tool, a hooked needle, and loomed over me again. He poked the new tool deep into the open roots of my tooth. He was looking at something. The wadding! He had found the wadding. Godzinski dipped the needle into the hole in my jaw. Then he removed the needle from my mouth and sniffed at it. Some of the purulent wadding was on the end of the needle. Godzinski offered the needle to his nurse, as if it were a special treat. “Smell that abscess,” he said.’
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[web] Something I’ve just noticed — Google’s cache is really up to date at the moment … LMG, or if you prefer … Haddock or NotsoSoft or Plasticbag.
13 August 2001
![[random image] Back of a beermat -- because sometimes LMG needs a picture and to remind me of a weird Saturday...](https://i0.wp.com/www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/images/beermat.jpg?resize=188%2C188) [theroux] ‘The girl is hallucinating or it is a fabrication’ … Christine Hamilton: No, I only know what a swingers’ party is because I recently met Mr Louis Theroux who made a programme about them and I understand from him that a swingers’ party is a wife or husband-swapping party.
[music] Northern Rock — Miranda Sawyer profiles and interviews New Order. ‘…everything collapsed. New Order came out owing £600,000. Then, in the midst of the carnage, someone found a piece of paper signed by the Factory directors that read: “The musicians own the music and we own nothing.” Which meant that the bands could sign huge publishing deals for all the tunes they’d already written, as well as recording contracts for future music. London records stepped in to claim New Order, “like the cavalry”, says Sumner. Chaos all round. The piece of paper effectively whisked Factory’s only assets away from the hands of the debtees. Sumner remembers going up in front of the liquidators. “They just couldn’t believe this piece of paper existed. But it did. No contract, just this bit of paper. They tried to make out that we’d written it a couple of days earlier, but honest to God we didn’t. But,” he grins, “if it hadn’t existed, we would have written it…”‘
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[comics] Fisher Price Theatre Presents… Catcher in the Rye [ Part 1 | Part 2] by Evan Dorkin. ”If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and that David Coperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.’ [via Venusberg]
14 August 2001
[media] The Man Who Killed the Media … Media Guardian profile/interview with Michael Wolff. ‘…Wolff’s view is that the world’s media barons are less powerful than they were in the days of Henry Luce or when Americans could watch only three television channels. He calls the combination of America Online and Time Warner “a bit of ridiculousness”, indicative of the media industry’s desperation to find new ways of making money. He is dismissive of the industry’s current vogue to own distribution networks such as cable and television channels, for example. “They’re trying to turn themselves into utilities. They go from one grail or shibboleth to another. They are hustlers and charlatans all,” he says with some relish.’
[stuff] Linkage: - Tom and Vaughan both mention the impossibility of buying property in London. They could try — Mortgage Sharing [which is working sucessfully for me].
- Top 100 Comics of August 2001. ‘1) New X-Men #117’
- Unsurprisingly, Doom is GameSpy’s Top 50 Game of all Time … ‘It’s a testament to Doom’s superior design and longetivity that it still has a thriving community today, building modifications, maps, and utilities as if it were 1994. What’s more, since id Software released the game’s source code a few years back, a number of “source ports” have appeared, which extend the game’s features and capabilities into the 21st century. ‘ [Related: ZDoom — best updated Source Port]
- Slashdot covers Groth Vs. McCloud on Digital Comics … ‘Really now, what is the advantage of using flash for a static image comic (other than zooming)? 3 advantages: KAPOW! BLAM! BIFF!’
- Last Big Brother link of 2001 — Oh my God! It’s Helen’s hair — This is London visits Classy Cutz …‘We move to a seat by reception; the phone rings non-stop; every other call is a hoax; dirty calls, hang-ups, laughing down the phone. One man calls and says he’s an old friend of Helen’s and do they have a contact number for her? “I don’t think so,” he is told matter-of-factly.’
[random] Pass Notes covers The Girl from Ipanema … ‘It seems the widow of Antonio Carlos Jobim is still disgruntled about her husband leching after the foxy Brazilian lovely. The heirs to the songwriters’ fortunes say the gently swaying, golden Heloisa has no right to call her shop The Girl from Ipanema.’
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15 August 2001
[weblogs] Wacky Brit has done an updated list of the Most Popular Links on UK Weblogs. [ Related: Blogdex continues to improve — it’s well worth a look.]
[distraction] Prison Inmate Population Information Search — find out if you have a namesake locked up in New York State… ‘NO INMATE ON FILE BEARING THE NAME SHRUBXXXX’ [thanks, Andy]
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16 August 2001
[lorem ipsum] What does the filler text “lorem ipsum” mean? ‘Lorem ipsum was part of a passage from Cicero, specifically De finibus bonorum et malorum, a treatise on the theory of ethics written in 45 BC. The original reads, Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit . . . (“There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain . . .”). McClintock recalled having seen lorem ipsum in a book of early metal type samples, which commonly used extracts from the classics. “What I find remarkable,” he told B&A, “is that this text has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since some printer in the 1500s took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book; it has survived not only four centuries of letter-by-letter resetting but even the leap into electronic typesetting, essentially unchanged.” So much for the transitory nature of content in the information age.’ [ Related: loremipsum.org, thanks to Marcia]
[books] You ask the questions: Peter Ackroyd. On genuinely disturbing parts of London: ‘There are a couple of spots of London that have always interested me. One of them is a small area known as Angel Street by the old wall of Newgate Prison, which has been a haunted spot for many centuries. It was here that the black dog of Newgate used to be seen in spectral form — certainly not a place for the faint hearted. Stew Lane is another spot. It’s a little-known alley that leads from the river upwards to Upper Thames Street. It’s dark and narrow — I’ve never known why it’s called Stew Lane or what happened there, but it is a curiously uncomfortable place.’
17 August 2001
[movies] Various celeb quotes and stories on Christopher Walken … ‘I was riding in a car with Christopher and some other people, going to our location. [while filming Communion] It was a fairly long drive, through beautiful countryside, and it started to get too quiet, so Christopher started singing “Mac The Knife” in Yiddish!’ [via Fark]
![[not so random image] Christopher Walken -- 'You get me in a vendetta kind of mood, you tell the angels in heaven you never seen evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you. My name is Vincent Coccotti.'](https://i0.wp.com/www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego/images2/walken.jpg?resize=171%2C208) [politics] Me? A member of the liberal elite? — The Guardian tries to find some members of the Liberal Elite … ‘”A Home Office minister said to me,” says John Wadham, the Liberty chairman, sitting by a fan in his windowless office, “that the more we complain about civil liberties disappearing, the more the government like it, because it plays well with the Daily Mail.” He does not even bother to look disappointed. In his scuffed Doctor Martens shoes and small rimless glasses, he could pass for a defeated radical activist from the early 80s. It is probably just as well that his office does not have a view. Within sight of the Liberty headquarters, there are at least two CCTV cameras.’
[politics] Are you a Woolly Liberal? ‘Walking home late at night, a man accosts you and snatches your wallet. Later, you fantasise about: Ann Widdecombe in Downing Street working to put more bobbies on the beat.’ [via Meg]
[weblogs] Recommended for bloggers using Windows… blogBuddy. ‘blogBuddy is a small application written in Delphi which enables remote control of blogs on blogger.com. Using blogBuddy you can post new entries as well as edit existing post. Template control is also available.’
18 August 2001
[web] Top Quotes on DoomWorld IRC — wit and wisdom on a VAST scale … ‘my spanking will revolutionize the way all u people function as individuals’ [via NTK]
19 August 2001
[movies] That Loving Felon [ Part 1 | Part 2] — interview with Ray Liotta … ‘It strikes me that Ray Liotta is probably capable of unconditional love himself. I found an extraordinary sweetness in him, sometimes accompanied by his too-much-information type of honesty. What makes him seem maniacal are his eyes, but they are also what make him seem angelic. There’s an amazing play of hard and soft, and people like that. Women like that homicidal lunatic that is dangerous but also tame and sweet. He shrugs: ‘I guess. When you play a bad guy, there’s never just one note. Even killers want to be loved.”
[profile] Salon profiles Robert Ballard (the discoverer of Titanic) … ‘In “Eternal Darkness,” Ballard describes what he saw: “Warm water shimmered up from cracks in the lava flows. It was turning a cloudy blue as manganese and other minerals, carried from deep within the seafloor, precipitated out of solution to form a solid coating on the cooler surrounding rocks. But that was not all. The seafloor was teeming with life.” For several days, Ballard explored the hydrothermal vents, taking specimens and preserving them in Russian vodka purchased at port in Panama. In other words: Been there, done it, mapped it, sampled it and pickled it in vodka.’
[wtf?] A Child Molester’s Choice — Creative Loafing looks at Chemical Castration … ‘Roys is not an advocate of the treatment. She prefers intensive, confrontational counseling and medications such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft. Roys also says that even when taken properly, the female hormones can have little effect. “We had one offender that we had on Depo[-Provera] for a very long time,” Roys says. “His [male] hormone levels were way down. And he still was having intercourse with his dog.”‘
20 August 2001
[distraction] Conclusive proof that NASA faked the Moon Landings … ‘It is almost insulting to think that NASA could get away with this obvious howler!’ [via Brainsluice]
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[books] Philip Pullman: A winner – if he gets his evil way — interesting profile of the childrens author … ‘His novel, The Amber Spyglass, is unusual. It’s a magnificent piece of storytelling that, unlike self-consciously difficult literary novels, is sinfully sweet to devour. Despite its bulk, it isn’t a stand-alone book, but the culmination of a trilogy. Most pertinently, it’s a novel for children, albeit one that can be enjoyed with equal intensity by adults, who are more likely to pick up on its allusions.’
[comics] You cannot resist him! Evan Dorkin’s Devil Puppet in all his mesmeric glory… [from The House Of Fun]
21 August 2001
[film] In the Driving Seat — interview with Sigourney Weaver by William Leith … ‘THE first, overwhelming impression you get of Sigourney Weaver is that, unlike most film stars, she is even taller than you imagined – 6ft 2in, or possibly even 6ft 3in in her high heels. She once said that her career had been defined by the fact that most producers were short, and that she was not their ideal sexual fantasy. She is the sort of woman who, I imagine, would terrify a short man.’
[comics] Warren Ellis Recommends… books, comics and music. ‘I’d just like to take the opportunity to say that Lee Van Cleef always had the best hat.’
[film] ‘Silent’ Partnership — NY Post acticle on Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back … ‘Having briefly met [Jason] Mewes on the set of “Jay and Silent Bob” earlier this year, I can attest that this outrageous motormouth is the most incongruous of potential movie stars. Having a coherent conversation with the man is impossible. “He doesn’t know how to talk about movies or himself, because he doesn’t think it’s a big deal,” Smith said. “He makes movies because he likes getting free breakfast burritos for 60 days, $200 a day in cash for spending money and free T-shirts.”‘
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22 August 2001
[books] Kids’ stuff — Guardian interview with Philip Pullman … Pullman: ‘Traditionally, children are seen as beautiful, innocent beings; then comes adulthood and they become corrupt. That’s the CS Lewis view. My view is that the coming of experience and sexuality and self-consciousness is a thing to be welcomed, because it’s the beginning of true understanding, of wisdom. My book tells children that you’re going to grow up and it’s going to be painful but it’s going to be good too.’
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[comics] Sophie Crumb, sketching her own artistic ‘World’ — USA Today on Robert Crumb’s daughter Sophie … ”’Last night, this guy, a fire juggler I met on the street, was looking at something I did and he said, ‘This looks like R. Crumb.’ I said, ‘That’s my dad!’ Crumb, who doesn’t see the resemblance to her father’s work, hopes to avoid cashing in on his fame and plans to pursue a career illustrating children’s books. ”I wish my last name would have nothing to do with it,” she says. ”I thought that Crumb was a common name in Kansas.” She pauses. ”I have to get married to a French guy soon.”’ [via Comic Geek]
23 August 2001
[politics] Anne Widdecombe? The voice of reason?! ‘Lady Thatcher became prime minister 21 years ago. It is time to move on.’
24 August 2001
[comics] Cartoon strip seeks to be first of the first books — Jimmy Corrigan in shortlist for this year’s Guardian First Book Award. ‘Ware has won rave reviews for his subtle, innovative book with its dark portrayal of alienated wage slaves and dysfunctional family relationships. The title character is an introverted office dogsbody whose awkward reunion with his long-lost father brings him further confusion and pain. The author is already being championed by last year’s First Book Award winner. “He should win immediately – I don’t even care what else is on it,” declared novelist Zadie Smith. “It’s a work of genius.” The author Nick Hornby is another fan, who said Jimmy Corrigan was “too beautiful to take anywhere”.’ [ Related: Buy Jimmy Corrigan at Amazon, Chris Ware at Fantagraphics]
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[distraction] Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s public book reviews on Amazon. ‘Rogul’s book is a fascinating guide to the phenomenon of alien abduction, and as an abductee myself I was staggered by how similar my experiences were to the examples he cites in his book. I too was whisked up to the mothership where a group of 7 or 8 humanoids with enlarged craniums and black oval eyes subjected me to intense examination, lavishing particular scrutiny on my […], which they probed with a glass-like instrument which emitted a blue glow. ‘ [via Barbelith Underground]
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25 August 2001
[comics] Mad Magazine Vs. J. Edgar Hoover — the FBI investigated Mad Magazine after J. Edgar Hoover was mentioned in the magazine … ‘Several complaints have been made to the Bureau concerning the Mad comic book, which at one time presented the horror of war to readers. Various comic books of this nature were brought to the attention of the Justice Department, which rendered the decision that such books did not constitute a violation of the Sedition Statutes.’ [via Comic Geek]
[profile] Vaughan Again — Johnny Vaughan interview / profile in the Telegraph … ‘Mnemonists are, Vaughan explains, “Guys who you might think are highly intelligent but actually just have a good selection of freakish memories. I read that,” Vaughan remembers, “and I thought ‘Oh dear. . .’ and the worst thing is, I remembered it.” He shrugs ruefully, “And if I remembered it, I definitely am it.”‘
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[wtf?] Marvel’s Next Hollywood Connection? Celebrity comic writers — the next big thing in mainstream comics… ‘…Freddie Prinze Jr. – maybe the busiest young actor working today – wants to try his hand at writing comic books in the coming months, while he takes a break from acting.’What next… Perhaps Robert Downey Jr. will write Wonder Woman? ‘Police also found a Wonder Woman costume in Downey’s hotel closet, which authorities believe may have been worn by a woman who had been in his room before police arrived.’
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26 August 2001
[distractions] Ask Professor Yaffle … ‘Nyek, nyek, nyek. Good day to you, young seekers of enlightenment. I, Professor Yaffle, have been specially invited here as an acknowledged expert on many topics, in the hope that I may serve as a source of wisdom to those less informed than myself; to whit, the viewing public. I believe that several people have already written in with questions of great import, upon which they wish to seek my humble opinion. ‘ [ Related: Profiles of Professor Yaffle and Bagpuss. Link via Found]
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