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London Bloggers [Comic Blogs][Other Blogs] | 3 October 2002
[blogs] Get Your Metafilter On … ‘Best. Mefi. Post. Ever.’
[books] The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith — The Digested Read … ‘Jesus, thought Alex-Li as he checked his messages. I must have booked a flight to New York while I was out of it. Still, it will go down well with US readers. He phoned Ads. “I’m off to New York.” “You’ll miss Esther’s heart operation.” “Hmm. That adds some pathos.”‘
2 October 2002
[blogs] Bloggers of the Left, Unite! — New Stateman article on the supposed right-wing hijacking of weblogging … ‘…this is the blogger’s way: like raptors, they hunt in packs, gain momentum, pick enemies, vent spleen, and never, ever, hold back. These blogs do not have large direct readerships: InstaPundit clocks only 40,000 readers a day. But many readers run their own blogs; others are political or media professionals. So a growing community is aware of whatever most irritated Sullivan today. This in turn creates what the legal theorist Cass Sunstein calls “cybercascades”, reaching millions of readers with ideas, in this case associated almost exclusively with the right. They are democratic dynamite: private networks of information, unchecked by sensible debate.’ [via Haddock]
[politics] A couple more links about the Currie / Major Affair …
1 October 2002
[politics] ‘If only we had known back then’ — Steve Bell on Edwina Currie and John Major … ‘It’s not often that I actually gurgle with delight, but I must confess that is exactly what happened when I awoke to the news of Edwina Currie’s affair with John Major. Having spent so many years drawing Major as a hapless gawk with his Aertex Y-fronts always worn outside his dull, charcoal-grey suit I was faced with the fact that he was also a sex-romping superstud who could keep it up for at least three hours (according to the News of the World).’
[tv] Funny Business — profile of Ricky Gervais / David Brent … ‘Brent might initially appear to be one of a long line of characters frustrated by their circumstances, from Hancock through Basil Fawlty to Partridge. Even the gentle surrealism of Father Ted offered the decent, eternally trapped Ted Crilly. But Brent is no mere barrel of neuroses. Rather, he’s a well-meaning buffoon, insecure rather than unsatisfied, forever debasing himself in a vain attempt to curry favour amongst his long suffering minions. “He’s confused popularity — not that he is popular — with respect,” says Gervais, clearly fond of his excruciating creation.’ [Related: The Office]
30 September 2002
[distraction] Poo Price — find out how much going to the toilet costs your employers … ‘Why not try and squeeze one out right now ?? All you need to tell us is how much you earn a year and how long your working day is (we won’t record this, we don’t really care). As soon as you leave for your poo click Start, then when you’re back click Stop.’ [via UKBloggers]
[stars] Osama Bin Laden’s Star Bio Horoscope … ‘Few things bring you greater happiness than a successful, close, personal relationship. You have an innate understanding of the interconnectedness and interdependence of all forms of life. Empathy, compassion and emotional rapport can be your strongest virtues. However, not many people are ready to merge the way you are. Learn to recognize and respect other peoples’ boundaries.’ [kinda, sorta via Dave Gorman]
29 September 2002
[sundays] A couple of interesting articles from the Observer …
28 September 2002
[comics] Alan Moore in Egomania #2: ‘”Approaching forty […] I was also starting to become more and more fascinated by the big taboo question of creativity, which also leads on to the big taboo question of consciousness, namely, “What is it and how does it work?” And also, of course, “How can I profit from it, move to Peterborough and live like a king?”‘ [via WEF]
[tv] Johnny Vegas sells wedding pics to Viz for £1 … ‘A spread of pictures in the adult comic show the couple walking, sitting on a bench and kissing. Johnny and Cath met in London early this year and married after a whirlwind romance. He said: “The glossies aren’t for me. Now I’ll just invest Viz’s quid and live off the interest.”‘ [via Haddock]
27 September 2002
[comics] Public Heroes — Newarama on the use of public domain characters in comics (concentrating mainly on Alan Moore’s work) … ‘Like many of the comic characters created in the 1940s, the heroes of the Standard line weren’t copyrighted. It wasn’t necessarily a careless move by the publisher, just a simple business decision. Remember – this was in the days before the phrase “intellectual property” was even coined, and comic book characters were disposable commodities. One was created in order to sell comics to boys, and when its sales started to slip, another was created to take its place.’ [Related: Slashdot Thread]
[911] Failsafe — intriguing article about Flight 93 contrasting the events on board with American Defense Policy … ‘It may be worth taking note of the fact that the hijackers themselves correctly foresaw that the threat to their mission would come from the passengers and not from a military source external to the plane. The terrorists left behind them multiple copies of a manual, five pages in Arabic. The manual does not tell the terrorists what to do if an F-15 or F-16 approaches the planes they have seized. It instead gives elaborate instruction on what to do if passengers offer resistance. We should not ordinarily let ourselves be schooled by terrorists. But terrorists who seek to carry out a mission successfully have to know what the greatest threat to their mission will be.’ [via Red Rock Eater Digest]
26 September 2002
[bbb2002] Guardian’s Best British Blogs 2002 — as many of you know I was a runner-up. :) Congratulations to Scary Duck … [Related: Metafilter Thread]
[comics] Probably the best individual comic panel ever? (St. Swithin’s Day by Grant Morrison and Paul Grist, click picture to enlarge) …
 ‘I can only dance to one song – “There She Goes” – and only in the bathroom. I don’t even need a record player. Sometimes I can just shut my eyes and HEAR it. Guitars like church bells. And then the drums start. And the singing comes in and I want to cry. And I’m going to die. I’m going to die tommorrow. I’m going to die and I don’t care. I’M GOING TO DIE! You know what they say – You’re only young once. And that was it.’ 25 September 2002
[rant] Trouble when Tweed Comes to Town — Will Self rants about the Countryside March … ‘Yes, Countryside Alliance, you’re the Tories who can’t stand the free market; you’re the libertarians who can’t handle homosexual rights or decriminalising drugs; you’re the defenders of Fortress Britain who get bankrolled by Brussels. You aren’t old MacDonald – you’re bloody senile.’ [via Guardian Weblog]
[blogs] Blog Drone Unit #0189837 — automatic blogging … [via Dutchbint] …
‘Anyway she was a figure of poise and everything until the registrar told her that she needed an fna. She was a calligraphy enthusiast with a slight overbite and hair the color of strained peaches. In junior high but yesterday he said she was his gf from 7th to 9th grade if they were together the whole time thats a damn long time. One interesting thing about that is that i was working my way through the events of my junior high years when i remembered an old buddy from back then. We went back to dancing and i got my groove on with some fools that were therethis one guy was totally hot :* After the boat we went back to lizs in the limo.’ 24 September 2002
[tv] A Star in Geek’s Clothing — profile of Mackenzie Crook (Gareth from The Office) … ‘Crook modestly plays down his character’s part in the second series — “Gareth would be happy with the status quo and so it’s right that he doesn’t develop as much as other characters” — and then lets slip a storyline development that will surely cause many guffaws (as well buttock-clenching moments of embarrassment) this time around. “He becomes a bit of a ladies’ man — women I’m sure he meets down Chasers nightclub — and the others wonder if he’s making it up. It’s excruciating but there are poignant moments as well.”‘
[comics] Grant Morrison updates his website. From Come Ride My Column: ‘How would you feel if a seemingly unlikely sex kitten like Brian Michael Bendis, say, or Alan Moore actually turned out out to be an utterly convincing and feminine seductress, able to “pass” as a refined and sophisticated lady? Let’s face it, careers could be hurt but this could be a very interesting and genuinely upsetting experiment. So I say once more. Let’s see some A-list comics pros got up as tarts! Fellow professionals, make your sexiest shots public – nothing seedy mind. Strictly glamour, lads, no hardcore.’
23 September 2002
[film] Back With A Vengeance — update on Tarantino and Kill Bill …
 ‘Yohei Taneda, the production designer for the film’s Asian sequences, tried to explain the look of the film and the experience of working with Tarantino. “There is a reality to Kill Bill, but it is not the reality of the world,” he says. “It is the reality of Quentin’s world, and that is a somewhat different place. We are in Tokyo, we are in Okinawa, we are in a Chinese temple, but at all times, really we are in the world of Quentin.”‘
[director] Triumphs that cannot Soothe a Troubled Soul — profile of Sam Mendes … ‘ Can it be coincidence, for example, that the then-bachelor Mendes, emerging from a series of broken relationships in his early thirties and hung up about marriage, chose five years ago to direct the Sondheim musical Company, which is about, er, a bachelor in his early thirties emerging from a series of broken relationships and who is hung up about marriage?’
22 September 2002
[film] This Much I Know – Robert Evans … ‘It’s irreverence that makes things sizzle. It’s irreverence that gives you a shot at touching magic.’
[books] Philip Pullman Reaches the Garden — interview with the author of the His Dark Materials Trilogy … Pullman: ‘It’s a curious thing: we have to be told how to fall in love. We don’t do it automatically. Somebody made the point that if there were no stories about love, nobody would ever fall in love. We wouldn’t know how to do it.’ [via Interconnected]
21 September 2002
[comics] The Philosophy of Art — interview with Eddie Campbell … ‘I love history. I’m very interested in the history of everything but when I hear terms like “Golden age”, I actually have a mechanism in my legs, called a “fuck-off mechanism”. It makes me automatically walk at great speed, and fuck off in the opposite direction when I hear those words. The comics business has its own peculiar imaginary history. Which is all right up to a point, but I prefer to see comics as part of a bigger history of art…’
20 September 2002
[comics] Alan Moore interviewed by Gary Groth — More audio interviews from the Comics Journal … ‘Moore, fresh off of his success with Watchmen (and subsequent break with DC Comics), had just embarked upon an experiment in self-publishing with the Bill Sienkiewicz-drawn mini-series Big Numbers. In these excerpts, conducted by telephone, Moore discusses some of the other projects he had been working on (Miracleman, A Small Killing and The Lost Girls) before settling into an extended dialogue concerning From Hell…’ [via Bugpowder]
[web] The Online Life of Bigplaty47 — from upsideclown …
‘call_me_katy: why weren’t you there???? say something!!!!! 19 September 2002
[books] Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington — his new book looks interesting … ‘Millington’s customarily whimsical take on contemporary gender relations is, of course, much in evidence but some of the sharper comedy here actually occurs beyond the familial settings. In certain respects the book has possibly more in common with the wry, mild-mannered satire of the Ealing films or David Nobbs’ Reginald Perrin than the novels of Tony Parsons, Nick Hornby and co.’ [Buy: UK | US]
[numbers] LinkMachineGo is Evil … ‘This number, when read backwards, gives 00438. This, written in octal, gives 666 – the number of the Beast. Enough said – QED.’ [via Dutchbint]
18 September 2002
[another distraction] Mecha Breakout — the classic arcade game in your web browser.
17 September 2002
[distraction] Lego Theorists — Judith Butler, Anthony Giddens, Angela McRobbie and Michel Foucault as Lego … ‘The Lego Michel Foucault comes with a Parisian Library for younger children, or with the Lego San Francisco S&M Dungeon for older boys and girls.’
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