linkmachinego.com
5 August 2003
[film] American Splendor Trailer — Quicktime Trailer for a film about comic-book writer Harvey Pekar‘Ordinary Life is pretty complex stuff!’ [Related: American Splendor Official Site]
4 August 2003
[books] Something Might Plummet. Something Might Soar — an excerpt from Dave Egger’s new novella … ‘Mrs Gunderson. Whahaooaoooa. Mrs Gunderson. This is about Mrs Gunderson and it gets dirty. You know she’s got to be in her fifties but whahaooaoooa, what is it about her that’s got you thinking?’
3 August 2003
[blogs] The WeBLOG of Austin Mitchell — another politician has a weblog … ‘Kellyland is our Westland. Not the kiss of death (except for the Blair-Campbell marriage) but the knell of change, and like Westland, so complex it needs exegisis, barrister skills and the collective IQ of the columnist class, most of whom are now going abroad to rest overheated brains.’ [via Conservative Commentary]
2 August 2003
[god] Over Three Hundred Proofs of God’s Existence … [via As Above]

‘305. ARGUMENT FROM MONTY PYTHON
(1) Graham Chapman appeared in a film that made fun of Jesus.
(2) Graham Chapman died of a horrible, incurable disease.
(3) Therefore, God exists.
(3a) And has no sense of humor.’

1 August 2003
[film] Shinto Daydreams — Nick Park on Hayao Miyazaki and ‘Spirited Away’ … ‘Miyazaki’s work is reminiscent of Tintin. His simple graphic style and attention to detail reveal great imagination: the smallest movement on the girl’s face conveys a whole series of emotions. When Tintin creator Hergé drew cars, ships or planes, you could see a love for the subject itself. You see that with Spirited Away. There is a love of the process of animation. Each shot is composed and looks gorgeous.’ [Related: Official Site, Spirited Away Trailer]
[comics] Teaser Art from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. Three … Comments from Kevin O’Neill: ‘… the third volume will jump to the year 1920 and will feature new League members, although Mina will still be around. “We’ll also go back and jump forward as well, around the 1950s,” O’Neill said. “Alan has some dazzling ideas. It’s going to be sexier than earlier volumes.” O’Neill said there will be a break between the second and third volumes. “Alan’s promised to continue with the League,” O’Neill said.’ [Related: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Annotations | via Barbelith]
31 July 2003
[politics] Don’t Mention The Whatever-It-Is — Simon Hoggart sketch of the press conference Tony Blair gave yesterday … ‘Outside in Downing Street it was drizzling gently, but inside it was hot and sticky. My ideal “top-down incentivised improvement” would have been to take my shirt off. We began to nod gently.’ [Related: Simon Hoggart on Byliner]
[politics] Tony Blair for President! — Blair 2004! … ‘Between the babbling of George W. Bush on the right, the blathering of the anti-war left, and the cluck-clucking of media hens everywhere, stands Tony Blair, articulate and principled. Many Americans understand and support Iraqi Freedom because of the leadership provided by Mr. Blair, and many of us would feel much safer if Mr. Blair occupied the White House.’ [via Guardian Weblog]
30 July 2003
[iraq] Salam Pax visits Saddam Hussein’s home town: ‘I can not really say it was very wise to go to Tikrit with foreigners two days after the death of Uday and Qusay was confirmed. They are not very friendly up there in Saddam’s home town at the best of times, and now they border on the hostile. I am now Salam “the spy” Pax in Aujah.’
[comics] Grant Morrison at San Deigo Gossip from Rich Johson …

‘…the rumour, mentioned by a slew of people, over the shouting match that went down at San Diego Comic Con between Joe Quesada and Grant Morrison. Or rather from Joe to Grant, one phrase “You owe me!” being the most repeated on the convention floor the day after. Quesada had found out about the DC exclusive deal and he took it out on Grant with expletives that were definitely MAX labelled.

Reports indicate that Grant kind of shut down and went into a mini-coma, but did give out one response “Fuck You, Fuck your company, and Fuck your boss who’s the biggest arsehole I’ve ever met.”‘

29 July 2003
[comics] Batman: Dead End [Quicktime: Large File | Larger File] – a short Batman Movie …

image of the joker from Batman: Dead End


[Related: Ain’t it Cool News backgrounder on the Film | Barbelith Comments]
28 July 2003
[flash mob] London Flash Mob — Where = Soho, When = August 7th … ‘Flash Mobs are seemingly unplanned gatherings of large groups of people that converge in public (or semipublic) places for brief periods of time. All members of a Flash Mob simultaneously converge to form the mob and then quickly disperse again at a given time, all members departing in different directions.’ [via Voidstar]
[comedy] And For Your Encore, Mr Bin Laden? — Jon Ronson meets the Comedy Terrorist who gatecrashed Prince William’s 21st. Birthday Party‘…in the days after the hijack, he seemed to have vanished. So I called his friends. “What’s Aaron like?” I asked the comedy promoter Geoff Whiting. “I can’t lie,” said Geoff. “He’s – shall we say – complex. I don’t want to say more than that. There’s something of the David Icke and the Uri Geller about him. He works on a completely different level to most people. He’s always saying, ‘I’m going to revolutionise comedy.’ He’s a maverick.” “Is Aaron funny?” I asked Geoff. There was a silence…’
25 July 2003
[star wars kid] Star Wars Video Prompts Lawsuit — BBC News update on the Star Wars Kid‘Since the original was posted on the Kazaa file-sharing system, it has been downloaded and passed around to millions of people and Mr Raza’s story has been featured in newspapers all over the world. Now there are about 38 versions of the original video that add all kinds of effects to his stick twirling tricks or mock Mr Raza.’
[tv] The Princess and the Pea-Brain — Nancy Banks-Smith reviews Channel 4’s James Hewitt: Confessions of a Cad‘Charm is nature’s Teflon and Hewitt is very charming. It is quite easy to feel sorry for him and the pretty pickle he finds himself in. Emma Stewardson, a girlfriend he ran in tandem with Princess Diana, still looks after his old wolfhound, Tess. Hewitt keeps her picture in pride of place. Tess, that is, not Emma.’
24 July 2003
[comics] SDCC’S Grant Morrison Panel — fuller report from GM’s panel at the San Diego Comicon‘[Morrison] went on to talk about how he’s not entirely thrilled with realistic comics. Realistic characters, yes, but once you put superheroes in the real world; they seem more than a bit silly. Morrison said that you couldn’t drag the gods to Earth and keep them as gods. “Realistically, the Flash would be able to take care of every super-villain everywhere over his lunch break, but how much fun is that?”‘
23 July 2003
[comics] Wired has a couple of items about comics:

  • Reliving Comics’ Days of Infamy‘Sen. Estes Kefauver, the ambitious committee chairman, showed Gaines a cover of a comic book and threw this when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife-style comment hardball: “This seems to be a man with a bloody ax holding a woman’s head up, which has been severed from her body. Do you think that is in good taste?”‘
  • Coloring the Comic Books‘Women, meanwhile, ran the gamut from the masochistic 1940s-era Wonder Woman (who spent way too much time being tied up) to the vapid Invisible Girl of the Fantastic Four in the 1960s. In one early comic book, she chirped: “I can’t wait to surprise Reed with the new miniskirt costume I’ve been designing!” But Invisible Girl later morphed into Invisible Woman, a sharp character who now runs the Fantastic Four corporation…’

22 July 2003
[comics] Mobfraction Futurephone … [Related: Matt Fraction.com]

picture of a 'fuck team comics' badge

[bb4] Jon Tickle.com — the official website … One of Tickle’s most amusing moments: ‘…was during the Cub Scout task. As the camera focused on Jon, pottering round the cub scout tent, treble checking every guy rope and peg; Marcus Bentley’s voiceover drily commented: “One hour and thirty two minutes into the tent task. The task was successfully completed thirty minutes ago…”‘
21 July 2003
[space] The Moon, July 21st. 1969

‘The lunar module curved gently down over the Sea of Tranquility, the drama heightened by the calm, almost casual voices of the astronauts and the mission controller at Houston.The casualness was deceptive: from 500 ft. above the surface and all too aware that an error could lead to irretrievable disaster, Aldrin brought the spacecraft down under Armstrong’s direction. At the moment of approach Armstrong’s heartbeat rose from its normal 70 to 156. Yet his voice was calm and flat: “Contact light: engines stopped? The Eagle has landed.” The landing was perfect.’

[comics] Grant Morrison at the San Diego Comic-Con:

  • Grant Morrison Exclusive To DC‘DC Comics has just announced that Grant Morrison has just signed a two-year exclusive contract with them. There is no news on how this affects his existing Marvel work. The superstar writer is supposed to be working on a Vertigo project with Frank Quitely which will be announced officially in Chicago. He’s also working on a DC Universe book…’
  • Comments at Morrison’s Panel from Comic Book Resources: ‘The conversation inevitably shifted to “New X-Men,” which Morrison will be leaving as of #154 and will be destroying the Marvel Universe in issue #150 and #151! He also says that his final issue can be seen as the end of the X-Men if one so wishes.’
  • Comments on Barbelith about GM’s Plans: ‘Marvel’s going quite rapidly to shit, innit?’

18 July 2003
[quote] ‘For today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths.

image from apple's 1984 advert for macintosh


‘Our Unification of Thought is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people. With one will. One resolve. One cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death. And we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!’
17 July 2003
[politics] Political blogs: a brief guide — a list of blogs about politics based in the UK … On Tom Watson’s Blog: ‘The Labour MP for West Bromwich made a New Year’s resolution to spend half an hour each day on online business, and has so far been doing well, updating the site every morning at the crack of dawn and often throughout the day as well.’ [via Slugger O’Toole]
16 July 2003
[comics] The Comic Genius Who Made Superheroes Human — BBC News profiles Stan Lee … ‘Stan Lee maintains links with Marvel, even though he is involved in a “friendly” lawsuit with them over royalty payments. Marvel reportedly pays him $1 million a year for promotional work at lectures and conventions.’
15 July 2003
[politics] Bloggers at Westminster:
  • Notes from Vox Politics Event‘[The] blogging ‘community’ are broadband users while the citizenry of the internet use dial-up… interested to see how this will develop. [I think this is total bollocks, personally]’
  • Euan Semple was blogging from the UK Houses of Parliament‘I’m sitting in the Grand Committee room in the Houses Of Parliament using the first ever wifi network allowed in the building.’
  • Sashinka: ‘What is The Palace of Westminster like inside? Quite a lot like a cross between an ever-so-slightly run down private school and the rather English headhunting firm I lasted at for less than a year: lots of green and cream paint, old oak, and the desire, if only the governors could raise the finance, to repurpose parts of the building in a more contemporary way. Lots of people in suits having conversations in corridors.’
  • Gavin’s Blog .com‘Packed room and lots of laptops with wifi!’
  • Blatant Optimism‘The most notable soundbite: Weblogs are going to be politicising rather than democratising.’
  • Parliament goes Wireless for Bloggers’ Summit‘[It is] believed to be the first time any national parliament has set up a wi-fi zone, although the security implications mean that the wireless internet zone will be dismantled after the meeting.’

14 July 2003
[blogs] Wi-Fi toting bloggers invade Parliament — another predictably nasty commentary from Andrew Orlowski about blogs prompted by a meeting about blogs within the UK Parliament. ‘…evangelists for a specific mode or incarnation of a technology, or, if you like, fetishists for a particular kind of tool, usually get filed, quite rightly, alongside members of the tinfoil hat army. Sad, but true. If you can’t get laid without your ‘tool’ – and blog-lobbyists seem to be a bunch of people who can’t get laid without showing off their weblog credentials (perhaps they never meet other people except through weblogging?) then the scene does have a bit of a foul hum about it.’
[web] Simon Hoggart on Byliner — nice index tracking all Simon Hoggart’s recent columns. He recently encountered Margaret Thatcher: ‘At one point she began vigorously wiping down an occasional table for no apparent reason. This kind of thing used to be endearing or infuriating, according to your point of view. Now it looks sad, like an old lady not quite sure of what she should do with herself or her hands.’
13 July 2003
[london] Going Underground’s Blog — weblog about the London Underground‘ Got rather trashed last night and had to put the auto tube pilot into gear. Got on at Leicester Square at about five to minight, then fell asleep. Did my auto wake up at Turnham Green and amazingly the next District Line was going to Richmond.’
11 July 2003
[blogs] ‘Joke’s on you,’ says the Westminster Blogger — BBC News covers Labour MP Tom Watson’s weblog‘Mr Watson, who believes weblogs can play a crucial role in politics, says he’s getting around 10,000 hits a week, while if you stick “Labour MP” into the Google search engine, it’s him – not Tony Blair – who comes out on top.’
10 July 2003
[end-of-free] This is the Future of Online Newspapers — the Guardian will start charging for some online content‘The Guardian was at pains to point out that all the stories (including its archive) will remain free. It will charge annual subscriptions though for its email digests – one at the beginning of the day that cover the day’s papers and one at lunchtime that covers breaking news – as well as for crosswords, an ad-free version of the site and a new digital facsimile service.’