1 May 2007
[blogs] Pole to Polar: The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive … ‘A Guide to Being A Mentally Interesting Girl Navigating the Labyrinth of the NHS Mental Health Services.’
2 May 2007
[comics] Revenge of the Dark Knight — profile of Frank Miller … ‘Miller got famous for fight scenes that played like ballet across comic book pages bounded by rooftop water towers and dingy alleyways of Hell’s Kitchen in New York. Now he is far from his New York world and getting further from comics, where he has been a beloved figure; if this Hollywood player’s romance is a passing affair, can he comfortably go back to just the small pages? “That’s the hardest question. I love that community and love the freedom I have had there and the success there and appreciation. But I’m on this new adventure right now.”‘
3 May 2007
[blogs] To The End Of The Line — another blog about the London Underground … ‘This is a hugely self-indulgent, yet also dangerously ambitious, undertaking. Namely, to document my visit to every single working station on the London Underground. It’ll take the best part of the year, so don’t except regular updates. It’ll also be far from objective, fairly presumptuous, and (hopefully) by no means earnest or exhausting.’ [via Feeling Listless]
4 May 2007
[comics] 52 weeks, 52 wonderful pieces of art – Metafilter discuss DC’s 52. ‘…the idea of an island filled with nothing but the DCU’s “mad scientists” was absolutely hilarious … until it became absolutely horrifying.’
5 May 2007
[books] Long Zoom: Interview with Steven Johnson — he discusses his book The Ghost Map amongst other things … ‘I called up my editor and he asked, “How’s it going?” I replied, “It’s kind of like Emergence, you know, if Emergence were a disease thriller.” And he said, “Yeah, it’s like Emergence if the slime molds started killing people in chapter four.” And that became my mantra as I was writing it: “Just think Emergence with killer slime molds and you’re golden.”’ [via Kottke]
6 May 2007
[funny] The Brain of Britain — amusing cutaway of what is in the brain of an Englishman … ‘BACKBONE!’
7 May 2007
[comics] 16 Panels That I Don’t Think Work All That Well … following on from Wally Wood. [via Do You Feel Loved]
8 May 2007
[web] YouTube: Everyone Knows Your Name … Just Remember – Think Before You Post.
9 May 2007
[comics] Matt Fraction on DC’s 52: ’52 threw all the comforts of safe storytelling out the window, for good or for ill, and tried to be something… well, if not “new” then at least ‘different’. Novelty was in its bones: characters were reborn and thrown into wildly inventive and over the top imaginative situations in a book that defies and denies conventional wisdom and practice. There were some big ideas going on here, some big thrills and some heavy duty weirdness both on the page and in them that, sometimes, in all their stoic grace and attitude, DC books miss. (Don’t believe me? Go pick up a SHOWCASE volume and compare it to its present day counterpart. See that mania that’s missing? I like that. It’s nice. 52 has that mania.) 52 was a DC comic with blood roaring in its ears and you could sense it.’
10 May 2007
[comics] Grant Morrison’s 52 Exit Interview … ‘If it compared to other media at all, 52 was more like a couple of long seasons of a TV show featuring stars you’ve barely heard of. We didn’t have the marquee names or the $100,000,000 budget, so as with, say, Lost or Heroes, we had to engage the audience straight away with characters and story. I think 52 was very human and accessible in that way. In the end it wasn’t about making pseudo-political points or staging yet another huge brawl between superheroes, it was about loss, and love and death and transcendence and the sprawling lives and emotions of people who just happened to have superpowers.’
[ebay] 18 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Find on Ebay … ‘Find Womens Sweat on eBay.’
11 May 2007
[comics] Getting Blair — Steve Bell on Drawing Tony Blair … ‘I was on the top deck of a Blackpool tram when I bumped into George Pope, a Labour party stalwart I’d not seen for some years. “I don’t think much of your Blair,” he said. “You haven’t got him yet, have you?” Moments like these are difficult for the sensitive professional. While I have no right to expect the world to fall at my feet, chortling gratefully at each new offering, this was impugning my professional integrity, which is like laughing at my penis, only worse. The trouble was he was right. Cartooning is a kind of performance art for furtive exhibitionists, and you’re only ever as good as your last performance.’
12 May 2007
14 May 2007
[blogs] What Would A Group Blog by Daily Telegraph Readers be Like? — a collection of Links and Quotes from Blah Blah Flowers … ‘So the UK entry for Eurovision was saved the ignominy of nil point by its few European friends left in Ireland & Malta… Cast Terry Wogan and the dead hands at the BBC aside and let another public broadcaster like Channel 4, or even Sky (yes Sky) be given the reigns to enhance the image of the UK in Europe.’
[balls] YouTube: Billy’s Balls 2 — Go Watch… a fun video from Youtube of a guy bouncing ping-pong balls into cups. (more…)
15 May 2007
[comics] Some Photographs From the Wedding of the Greatest Living Englishman and Melinda Perry Gebbie — Some photos of Alan Moore’s wedding by Neil Gaiman.
17 May 2007
18 May 2007
[books] Spoof Amazon Customer Reviews for Richard Littlejohn’s New Book: ‘After reading this searing deconstruction of our liberal, permissive society, I was almost blind with rage. And so I followed Littlejohnson’s example and did the only thing open to a red-blooded, patriotic Briton: I buggered off to America. Luckily, before I left I went out speeding one last time and managed to run over an immigrant, who I believe was also homosexual – as is my God-given right as an Englishman. God bless you, Littlejohnson, God bless you.’ [via qwghlm.co.uk]
[blogs] Cnet asks: Is Casey Serin the World’s most Hated Blogger? … ‘Financial exhibitionism, coupled with a lack of penitence for stiffing his creditors, has transformed the 24-year-old resident of this sleepy Sacramento suburb into a celebrity among fellow bloggers. But unlike other online celebrities, Serin’s stardom comes from a unique source: “haters” who patronize his blog solely to learn what financial missteps he’s made today. “A community formed overnight,” Serin said in an interview. “It wasn’t a very positive community.”‘ [via Pete Ashton]
21 May 2007
[internet] Ask Metafilter: Has thirteen years of WWW ruined my brain? … ‘At home, at work, whenever I can, I’m bouncing from website to website, ingesting these quick hits of information and moving on to the next site at the slighted twinge of boredom. Doing this for 2-3 hours a day since 1994 has left me unable to concentrate on anything that’s not absolutely scintillating to me — I get impatient with conversation with my wife, I can’t pay attention during meetings at work, and what’s worst, it’s very difficult to do my job, which is not interesting to me…’
22 May 2007
[funny] Funny List of Colemanballs… A Colemanball from Pat Glenn (a Weightlifting Commentator): ‘This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning and it was amazing.’ [via Informationally Overloaded]
23 May 2007
[funny] loltheorists: Thus Spake Zarathustra … ‘god iz ded. lol’ [via mondo a-go-go]
24 May 2007
[funny] The Philolsophers Pool … ‘eckzistenshulizm. chix dig it’ [again via mondo a-go-go]
25 May 2007
[comics] Blogdok — Modok (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing) has a blog… ‘Greetings, tiny-headed comic book (finger quotes) “FANATICS!” This is MODOK speaking! Refreshing your pitiful web browser is futile. Futile, I tell you!!! After many long decades of plotting (and calculating) silently in the shadows, I, MODOK!, have decided to take over the Interweb…’ [via Warren Ellis]
[comics] Alan Moore Downing Street E-Petition: ‘We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to award Alan Moore with an honour.’ [via Blah Blah Flowers]
26 May 2007
[games] Pac-man’s Skull — a photo of what a real Pac-man’s skull might look like.
27 May 2007
[web] Burst Culture — Warren Ellis on Boing Boing, magazines, blogs, tumblelogs, Ad-sense and more… ‘I love print. I love magazines that commit and pay for long articles and long fiction. The web rewards neither approach. It’s a packeted medium, a surf medium. Short bursts are the way to go. The web isn’t a replacement medium – it’s *another* medium.’
29 May 2007
31 May 2007
[comics] Welcome to Nerd Vegas: A Guide to Visiting and Enjoying Comic-Con International in San Diego, 2007! — nicely done guide from Tom Spurgeon … ‘A comic book convention is not a young-woman-with-her-first-job-in-the-big-city movie. If it were, you probably wouldn’t be the star. It’s best not to go assuming you’ll engage in long conversations with your favorite writers, powerful comic book editors will solicit your opinion on where to take their characters next, Pantheon and First Second will enter into a bidding war for your mini-comic, and you’ll cap off your evenings doing shots with the cast of Battlestar Galactica at J6Bar. It’s a convention, people are working, and you’re one of 130,000 people experiencing the moment. Enjoy the experience you’re having, not the experience you think you deserve.’
[bb8] Big Brother: A girly night in — Grace Dent on Big Brother 2008 … On Lesley: ‘Once upon a time, retired posh women used to trek the Andes for charity or make prize-winning marmalade; now they want to go on Big Brother and have a breakdown in public and let people they’ve never met watch them without make-up looking like a cadaver. I’ve no idea what possesses someone as sport-mistressy as Lesley to do this show. She seems to have one expression, which is: “Yes, you will do cross-country running in the sleet, young lady. Nowwwww!”…’