linkmachinego.com
21 January 2002
[tv] Go on, Take a Pop — interview with Pop Idol’s Simon Cowell … ‘He seems much more vulnerable than when we first met. I tell him that he surprised me when he said not much in life has made him happy. “I am quite miserable because I’m never satisfied with what I’ve got. You’re always looking for that next high, and that is what I would define as happiness. I go through mood swings and the highs don’t last very long.” He says he gets bored and dissatisfied easily – with women, with work, with life.’
[books] First Chapter of The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen‘She was looking for a letter that had come by Registered mail some days ago. Alfred had heard the mailman knock on the door and had shouted, “Enid! Enid!” so loudly that he couldn’t hear her shouting back, “Al, I’m getting it!” He’d continued to shout her name, coming closer and closer, and because the sender of the letter was the Axon Corporation, 24 East Industrial Serpentine, Schwenksville, PA, and because there were aspects of the Axon situation that Enid knew about and hoped that Alfred didn’t, she’d quickly stashed the letter somewhere within fifteen feet of the front door. Alfred had emerged from the basement bellowing like a piece of earth-moving equipment, “There’s somebody at the door!” and she’d fairly screamed, “The mailman! The mailman!” and he’d shaken his head at the complexity of it all.’
20 January 2002
[politics] Hey, I’m Doing My Best — Christopher Hitchens on George Bush’s first year … ‘The moral and political universe turns on the axis of 11 September. And that date is a day that Bush would no doubt like to have back again. Unlike any of his predecessors in a time of disaster, he was actually live on camera when the news hit. We saw him squatting on a small chair in a Florida schoolroom, smirking condescendingly at a junior class, when his chief of staff came hurrying in. And then we saw him no more, as the stupid doomsday routines of ‘national security’ hid him. The official excuse for this – that he had been overruled by his guards – was more panicky and pathetic than the reality. So the Mayor of New York became leader of the free world for a whole week.’
19 January 2002
[comics] John Buscema Obit from The Independent … ‘His professional career was launched in April 1948 at Timely Comics, later better known as Marvel Comics, home of Spider-Man. Hired as an artist at a salary of $75 a week by the editor Stan Lee, he joined a small army of artists and writers churning out a stream of five-to-eight-page stories. In 1950 disaster struck: a forgotten storage cupboard disgorged a mountain of unpublished stories and artwork in the Timely offices, whereupon the entire artistic staff was sacked. Over the next eight years, as a freelance comic artist, Buscema was to turn his drawing hand to stories in every genre (except, ironically, superheroes) for a legion of comics publishers.’
18 January 2002
[movies] Are you having a good war, Ewen? … profile of Ewen Bremner. ‘In moments of panic, of which Black Hawk Down has plenty, Ewen Bremner’s brow folds into a deep and spectacular crease, which raises his eyebrows into his hairline, lifts his chin into his mouth, and seems to hollow out his already emaciated face. No, since you asked, he doesn’t look like a movie star. He is the first to admit it. Of his role in Pearl Harbor, in which he played a goofball with a speech impediment, he has remarked: “I’m just making Ben Affleck look good.”‘
[distractions] Destiny’s Alf‘…coz I depend on meat…’
[quotables] Ali’s words speak for themselves … Muhammad Ali — the quotes. On Life: ‘I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.’
17 January 2002
[blogs] Pumpkin Publog returns‘A rolling review of pubs in and around the London area, punctuated by thoughts, musings and crap about pub-life.’
[comics] Vertigo PR on Morrison’s ‘The Filth’‘[The Filth is a] twisted super-thriller in which Morrison takes the reader on a psychedelic roller coaster ride through a maelstrom of extra-dimensional espionage, disease pathology, sex and violence, prosthetically-equipped dolphins, indolent nano-technology, co-opted reality and the notion of identity itself. Loaded with febrile imagery and Byzantine plot twists, The Filth is a mind-wrenching journey where nothing is exactly what it seems.’ [via Newsarama]
[anti-porn] The Marmot Anti Porno Page — the internet needs more pages like this … ‘I took great care to ensure that this particular marmot wasn’t being chain cocked by the Village People.’ [via Blogjam]
16 January 2002
[comics] DC Comics have put Batman: The 10-Cent Adventure online‘The 10-CENT ADVENTURE follows a night in the life of Batman, a night that ends with terrible finality. When Batman responds to a series of crimes, little does he know that a crime is occurring in the one place in the world he considers safe.’
[distractions] Big Money — yet another incredibly addictive webgame … ‘Your Current Rank: PAUPER’ [via Charlie Chu]
[911] A Blind Spot Called Iraq — review of a book which analyses if Saddam Hussein is behind the attacks on America … ‘Mylroie’s conclusion, reached by relentless forensic analysis of a huge array of human and documentary sources, is that the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing did not, as the Clinton administration claimed at the time, signal the emergence of a ‘new kind of terrorism’ by ‘loose networks’ of Muslim extremists.Instead, it was the first skirmish in ‘a new kind of war’ – sponsored, like old-style wars, by a hostile state, Iraq. Planned as the world’s worst terrorist attack, in which one of the towers would have collapsed into the other amid a cloud of cyanide, the plot’s Iraqi directors simply made use of a little Islamist muscle, stooges who were meant to be caught, in order to conceal its real origin.’
15 January 2002
[blogs] Nick Jordan or Nick Jordan? Would the real Nick Jordan please stand up? [via Nick Jordan]
[comics] Warren Ellis’ Artbomb Launches… From the FAQ: ‘ARTBOMB is about broadening the appeal of diverse comic books and graphic novels. We hope to demonstrate that comics can offer an entertainment value that many people currently enjoy in film or television or prose. This a storytelling medium that has a lot of dynamic voices with mainstream and adult appeal. It’s our mission to help promote their works to new audiences.’ [Related: WEF, Ellis Website]
14 January 2002
[quotables] ‘C’mon, let’s do it! White Riot. Stand Down Margaret. I’m a child of recession, I’ve got hate in my eyes. Ask for me tomorrow and I’ll be gone cause I’ve got a one-way ticket to oblivion and I’m going to raise hell getting there!’ – Rik, The Young Ones.
[blogs] Dutchbint is back‘And now this site is pretty much finished. It’s probably still riddled with little teething problems, but I feel it’s ready enough to open the doors and let the world in. I’ll just curse and sweat quietly while fixing things in the background.’
[distractions] Cutie Quake‘The Rules Are Simple: 1) Shoot Anything That Moves. 2) Don’t Get Shot.’ [via Grammarporn]
[comics] Love That Hate — interview with Peter Bagge. ‘The odd thing is this: Buddy is always a reflection of where I was ten years ago. And for some reason that went over really well when `Buddy’ was in his early 20’s, but as `he’ gets older comic readers become more resistant to him or bored of him, which poses a lot of questions, such as: 1 Do my readers-or comix readers in general-simply move away from comix as they get older? and 2 Do people simply not want to read about the adventures and concerns of an older and more mature character?’ [Related: Girl Talk with Lisa and Valerie]
13 January 2002
[quotables] ‘There’ll be plenty of chicks for these tigers on the road to the promised land! Who cares about Thatcher and unemployment? We can do just exactly whatever we want to do! And do you know why? Because we’re Young Ones! Bachelor Boys! Wild eyed big bottomed anarchists! LOOK OUT!! CLLLLLIIIIIFFFF!!’ – Rik, The Young Ones.
12 January 2002
[test] Which Male Kevin Smith Character are you? … [via plasticbag.org]

You have a genius intellect and an awesome sense of humor. You can sarcastically put someone in their place without batting an eye. Your only problems seem to be that you have trouble acknowledging your true feelings and you may use your humor as a defense to hide what you are really feeling. But, your godliness overpowers any insignificant flaws you may have. Even if you tend to pass gas during very inconvenient moments.

“What kind of man are you anyways? I’m talking comics and you bring up chicks and romance.” — Brodie
11 January 2002
[reviews] There were a few interesting articles in today’s Guardian…

  • You can’t diddle with the truth — another interview with Ridley Scott on his film Black Hawk Down. ‘The teams on the ground get lost under fire in Mogadishu’s narrow streets, as directions are relayed to them by the helicopters. “The Black Hawks are orbiting in a pattern, clockwise or anti-clockwise, and they can’t diverge from this or they will fly into each other.” This, in his view, “was the real juice of the film”, the place where plot enacted theme – theme being the complexities of intervention in a country like Somalia. “It was like a three-layer chess game.”‘
  • So lonely I could cry — Cameron Crowe writes about his film Vanilla Sky‘Within weeks of finishing this screenplay, there we were on Times Square, an early Sunday morning in November. Tom Cruise as David Aames was racing through the most famous geography on the globe. Utterly alone. Watching the shot as it happened on a video monitor, the whole world of Vanilla Sky was still ahead of us. Lonely. Scary. Promising. Inevitable.’
  • Interview with Adam Ant‘Anyone over 30 belongs to me. Bisexual, male, female, gay, whatever.’
  • Ageless, peerless, Douglas — update on Kirk Douglas‘I see Kirk Douglas still isn’t dead. Remarkably, he’s preparing his next movie, Smack in the Puss, a family affair starring his son Michael, with whom his relationship has always been fiercely competitive, and the next sprig on the dynastic tree, grandson Cameron. The man will never stop, it seems. These days, at 86, bowed and speech-impaired by strokes, and having collapsed again recently on the golf course, he still radiates that fanatical, spartacist determination to live life right into the last ditch, or at least the last water hazard.’

[thanks to whoever left their entire copy of the Guardian on the tube for me today]
[royalty] Will he, won’t he? … Does Prince William want to be King? ‘It’s a good question: why won’t we let him be a normal person? We certainly could: constitutionally, the throne could pass, after his father, to his younger brother, Harry, who seems much happier in the limelight. Yet William’s pre-emptive abdication would deliver a clear blow to the monarchy. If he accompanied his resignation with a damning public statement making it clear that raising another child in the uniquely cruel goldfish bowl of the British monarchy would be intolerable, he could bankrupt the entire “Royal Firm” for ever.’ [via Wherever You Are]
10 January 2002
[blogs] Digitaltrickery is back‘So, what’s pissing me off today?’
[blogs] Premium Blogger … as reported on Ukbloggers by Neil McIntosh‘Evan plans to start building up a premium service: in the next few hours, he’ll launch a $30-a-year membership scheme, which will offer faster and more reliable service. The free Blogger will remain, but other – quite compelling – premium services will be rolled out quick-fire after that.’

Blogsticker -- Veni Vedi Blog

[via kookymojo]
[comics] Marvel’s ‘Nuff Said … and the script for Grant Morrison’s New X-Men #121. ‘Frame 4. Jean has been swept into the ultimate original memory – Xavier’s DNA recall. Surprised, she’s diving down towards us through a 3-D explosion of swimming seed as it heads for destiny. The sperm in foreground have intricate delicate glass heads filled with coils of information. Jean looks like she’s diving with some exotic species of incredible luminous deep-sea jellyfish.’
9 January 2002
[interview] You Ask the Questions… With Nigel Planer. ‘Q: What was your most memorable Young Ones moment? A: The final episode, when we were on the bus just before it goes over the cliff. Rick says, “We are wide-bottomed anarchists”, and Neil is playing an electric guitar at last and wearing cool shades. It was that moment of elation, just before disaster.’
[cams] Webcam World — a Google Image Search for webcam32.jpg… [via Kottke]
[books] The Digested Read covers The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking‘Apparently, a large number of the many millions who bought A Brief History of Time got stuck on page one. Oh dear. I expected more of my readers.’