December 31, 2001
[comics] January 2002 Previews from Comics Worth Reading … On The Copybook Tales:‘What joy! This series, one of my all-time favorites, is coming back into print in an omnibus volume. Contrasting modern-day young men with their earlier teenage selves, this series explored growing up and the conflicts it brings, including the conflicts between dreams and realism and enthusiasm and discouragement. J. Torres (ALISON DARE) wrote; Tim Levins (GOTHAM ADVENTURES) drew. If you can only order one book this month, get this. It’s a must-read for any comics fan.’
December 30, 2001
[quotables] What they said in 2001 from The Observer…
‘Osama bin Laden? Typical middle child. He’s twenty-sixth out of 51′ — Overheard in New York theatre
‘Replace capitalism with something nicer’ — Banner at May Day anti-globalisation protest
‘Osama bin Laden? Typical middle child. He’s twenty-sixth out of 51′ — Overheard in New York theatre
‘Replace capitalism with something nicer’ — Banner at May Day anti-globalisation protest
[books] Ellroy’s Kafka Routine — interview with James Ellroy …‘The essential contention of the Underworld USA trilogy volume one, American Tabloid, volume two, The Cold Six Thousand, is that America was never innocent. Here’s the lineage: America was founded on a bedrock of racism, slaughter of the indigenous people, slavery, religious lunacy …and nations are never innocent. Let alone nations as powerful as our beloved fatherland.’
December 29, 2001
[911 comment] History is back with a capital H — Naomi Klien on the End of History and ObL …‘It’s an idea we’ve heard from many quarters since September 11, a return of the great narrative: chosen men, evil empires, master plans, and great battles. All are ferociously back in style. The Bible, the Koran, The Clash of Civilizations, Lord of the Rings – all of them suddenly playing out “in these days, in our times.” This grand redemption narrative is our most persistent myth, and it has a dangerous flip side. When a few men decide to live their myths, to be larger than life, it can’t help but have an impact on all the lives that unfold in regular sizes. People suddenly look insignificant by comparison, easy to sacrifice in the name of some greater purpose. When the Berlin Wall fell, it was supposed to have buried this epic narrative in its rubble. This was capitalism’s decisive victory. Ideology is dead, let’s go shopping.’ [via Wood s Lot]
[comics] Excellent interview with Joe Matt …‘The scene in The Poor Bastard where the squirrel’s on my lap, I’m feeding a squirrel in the park and it climbs right up into my lap, and I’m yelling, `Get it off!’ It’s something that really happened, and I know it can be funny because my character’s part of me, but the only reason I would put something like that in there is, it sounds pretentious, but to me that’s symbolic of a relationship forcing itself onto me, and me not wanting it, or something.’
December 28, 2001
[comics] Ultimate interview Team-Up — interview with Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Mahfood … Bendis on the Internet:‘I’m sick of these cowardly little weasels on the Internet, that are spewing hate towards books that they probably haven’t read in the first place, or have some agenda. That shouldn’t part of our job to deal with this. [..] We are the first generation of comic book creators that have the Internet to deal with. Could you imagine the shit that Watchmen would had to have taken if the Internet was around then? All the nonsense and whining about the series, when in reality it would have been only twelve guys saying those things…’
[comment] Is Bin Laden a Pisces – or is he Cancer? …‘So far there has been comparitively little debate about the fact that all the world’s astrologers appear to have missed any auspices pointing towards cataclysmic events and vast numbers of dead on a day which, it seems to be generally agreed, changed the course of history. While the security services were immediately condemned for their ignorance, the reputation of astrologers, who have no need of Arabic, bravery or subterfuge to interpret their celestial hints, has escaped intact, not even faintly stained by this awesome demonstration of occult incompetence. While the astrologers’ failure will not surprise anyone acquainted with the essential idiocy of their occupation, or deter the millions who rushed out to buy the predictions of Nostradamus after September 11, you might think it would lead to a little self-examination among practitioners. Not a bit.’
December 27, 2001
[xmas] plasticbag.org:‘The world outside Norfolk can go fuck itself for one week.’
[911] All change? … Has the world changed in the wake of September 11th?‘The question is, did that day cut a line through history? Were the days that came before it, as Blake Morrison wrote in the Guardian later that week, “the last week of the world as it was”? In other words, will it be a day like September 3 1939, or August 4 1914: all change, and no going back. Or a day like June 28 1914, when a Serbian nationalist knocked off the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, and for a month Vienna and Berlin debated what to do? Or merely a day like April 12 1912, when the Titanic went down, 1,500 dead? Many people, especially writers and other preachers, chose to see the last as a massive symbol of hubris, God or fate teaching over-confident “western civilisation” a lesson, rather than as – the true case – a marine accident which changed nothing other than safety regulations for ships and the career of Leonardo DiCaprio.’
December 24, 2001
[linkmachineSTOP] Happy Christmas. Next update will be when I’m bored of it all — probably just after The Great Escape finishes on Christmas Day… 
[Related: Great Escape on IMDB]
[Related: Great Escape on IMDB] [tvgohome] Charlie Brooker’s alternative Christmas Day TV listings…’9.30 I Love the Succession of Glittering Images Which Distract and Amuse Yet Ultimately Do Little to Quell the Boundless Sadness at My Core.’
[quote]“What’ll it be next? Choice extracts from the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations? Trotting out the Nietzsche and the Shelley to dignify some old costumed claptrap? Probably. Sometimes you wonder, in an interconnected universe, who’s dreaming who?” — Grant Morrison (1989)
December 23, 2001
[wtc] Only Love and then Oblivion — Ian McEwan on 911 …‘If the hijackers had been able to imagine themselves into the thoughts and feelings of the passengers, they would have been unable to proceed. It is hard to be cruel once you permit yourself to enter the mind of your victim. Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality. The hijackers used fanatical certainty, misplaced religious faith, and dehumanising hatred to purge themselves of the human instinct for empathy. Among their crimes was a failure of the imagination.’
[2001] The Observer reviews 2001 …‘On 10 September, 2001, the front page of London’s Evening Standard was filled with the news that Kate Winslet had denied canoodling with someone somewhere. On that same day, the headline in the New York Daily News was “Kips Bay Tenants Say: We’ve Got Killer Mold”.’
[war] Suddenly, he was gone — Where in the world is Osama bin Laden?‘Getting information about bin Laden’s movements is not difficult. Getting reliable information is the problem. ‘There’s one [report] every day, or many every day. It’s like Elvis sightings,’ said one exasperated US intelligence official.’
December 22, 2001
[comment] In the ruins of the future — Don DeLillo on 911.‘Technology is our fate, our truth. It is what we mean when we call ourselves the only superpower on the planet. The materials and methods we devise make it possible for us to claim our future. We don’t have to depend on God or the prophets or other astonishments. We are the astonishment. The miracle is what we ourselves produce, the systems and networks that change the way we live and think. But whatever great skeins of technology lie ahead, ever more complex, connective, precise, micro-fractional, the future has yielded, for now, to medieval expedience, to the old slow furies of cut-throat religion. Kill the enemy and pluck out his heart.’
December 21, 2001
[tv] What I’ve Learned — the wit and wisdom of Homer J. Simpson …‘What kind of fool would leave a pie on a windowsill, anyway? ‘ [via Sore Eyes]
[xmas] Check out Marcia’s Crappy Crimbo Cards …‘Bah, humbug.’
[war] Coming to a Mall Near You: Just War …‘We don’t manufacture much of anything; just war. We don’t concern ourselves with education; just war. We don’t attend to the 40 million Americans without health coverage; just war. We don’t focus on the 30 million American children living in poverty; just war. We don’t support the arts; just war. Even though a multitude of human needs were in existence prior to September 11, and have only increased since then, we continue to direct our attention and our resources into what we do best: war. Just war.’ [via Haddock]
December 20, 2001
[comics] Reining in a Dark Horse — long, interesting interview with Diana Schutz … On Dave Sim:‘What do I believe? I believe that Dave is an extraordinary human being, extremely talented and that means that he deviates from the norm. Is he fucking nuts? Any more than any other artist? I don’t know. I think he’s very, very serious about his interests and his beliefs. When he focuses on something, it tends to consume him. [...] Even back in the day when I was talking to Dave on a regular basis, his thoughts moved in very different ways from most people. Not necessarily wrong, just differently. Which is often a sign of genius. I’m not a psychologist. I have no idea. I think he’s a remarkable person, extremely different from the norm, which makes him both unusual and interesting. Is he fucking nuts? Got me.’ [via Cerebus Mailing List]
[movies] A couple of distracting film trailers –
- Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter [Low Bandwith | High Bandwidth]‘The second coming is upon us, and Jesus has returned to earth. But before he can get down to the serious business of judging the living and the dead, he has to contend with an army of vampires that can walk in the daylight.’ [via I Love Everything via Kookymojo]
- Austin Powers: Goldmember [Teaser Trailer]“I shall call him… Mini-Me!” [via Haddock]
December 19, 2001
[comics] Moore and Hayter Talk About Watchmen — brief mention of discussion regarding a proposed Watchmen Film … Moore:‘Watchmen was designed as a showcase of things that comics are capable of but aren’t so easy to achieve in any other medium. [...] With a comic, you can take as much time as you want in absorbing that background detail, noticing little things that we might have planted there.You can also flip back a few pages relatively easily to see where a certain image connects with a line of dialogue from a few pages ago. But in a film, by the nature of the medium, you’re being dragged through it at 24 frames per second.’
December 18, 2001
[comics] Time Magazine on the Best Comics of 2001 … On The Golem’s Mighty Swing:‘Astonishingly, the book feels like the best baseball games: a seat-gripping drama made up of little dramas, all of which add up to something greater than just a game. Nostalgic without being saccharine, the art has the look of old baseball cards put together to tell a story.’ [via Warren Ellis Forum]
[comics] The Canny ‘X’ Men‘”Was he not an alcoholic?” Morrison interjects. “I always thought he was called Iron Man because he had an iron liver. But that’s what I’m doing with the X Men. Taking them back to the basics. For example, Cyclops, Wolverine, you can tell what these people are just by their names.” Millar agrees. “That’s all I’ve tried to do is make things what they were. I’ve tried to strip them back…” “Naked X-Men!” says Morrison. “Eww. Would Cyclops’ eye beam out of anywhere else?” ponders Millar. “His arse? Arseclops?”‘ [via I Love Everything]
December 17, 2001
[war] Bin Laden trail goes cold …‘Commander Zeman insisted the ground forces attacking al-Qaida had located the terrorist overlord’s cave. When asked what it looked like, he replied: “It looked like a cave.”‘
[wtf] John Walker — American Taliban and Comic Collector …‘Everything is mint condition except for the What If 23, and Daredevil 318 which are slightly bent in the lower right corners. These are the asking prices, but I will consider any reasonable offers.’ [Related: DD #318 and What If #23 on GCD]
December 16, 2001
[comics] Grant Morrison talks about his plans for the New X-Men in 2002 … Morrison on issue #121 :‘As you probably know, this sees Jean and Emma venture together into the brain of Cassandra Nova… where Charles Xavier’s consciousness is imprisoned in a symbolic landscape. Frank’s work is breathtaking… some sequences are like watching animation unfold on the page. Frank has an early-Disney-gone-bad element to his style which I love and this issue was written to really highlight that. Every page is a masterpiece of design and drawing. PLUS: Emma’s naked in this ish! AND Jean Grey is covered in sperm. And before the inevitable outcry, I hasten to add that Jean’s immersion in semen is entirely tasteful and essential to the storyline…’ [via Barbelith]
[war] Al-Qaeda loses itself in dream world — brief look at the “dream world” of a terrorist network.‘… the dreams of bin Laden’s followers are more rooted in a perverted surrealism than the study of Islamic history or tradition. While the surrealists used dreams to enrich reality, the fundamentalists pursue their dreams to abandon it altogether. For bin Laden and company the reality of the modern world is a chaos where soccer, aircraft, skyscrapers, moonlight deserts and pilots converge. They reject it to build a new ontological structure, this time made of bits of modernity and antiquity, nature and artifice; magical realism and a fascination with gadgetry.’
December 15, 2001
[distraction] Osama Smoking Gun Video — the latest translations …‘UBL: Phil’s nowhere to be seen and Peggy’s left to run the Queen Vic Over Christmas.’ [via Metafilter]
December 14, 2001
[tv] Dom Joly talks about his Home Entertainment …‘We used to look at all those CCTV cameras and wonder who watched them, so we did things in front of them like mock executions of dogs. It wasn’t very funny so we slo-mo’d it, to give it pathos, then we put Passengers by U2 and Pavarotti on it and it worked. The music gives Trigger Happy totally undeserved depth – we can even drag a tear out of someone occasionally.’
[comics] Following on from an earlier post… the official transcript of the Newsnight Review on Jimmy Corrigan … Miranda Sawyer:‘I like the pictures.’ [via Bugpowder]
[comics] Reefer madness — The Furry Freak Brothers Strike Back …‘…they live in a state of blissful torpor relieved only by bursts of paranoia or stimulant-induced frenzy. As such, theirs is a world as edenic as anything imagined by Wodehouse, albeit with references to the Birch Society, Richard Nixon, and other 1970s cultural signifiers. They age at one-fifth of the rate the outside world does, yet by the end of this volume they are already dinosaurs, grumbling with distaste at the punk rockers who mock them as stupid old farts.’
December 13, 2001
[tv] When Louis met Granny — the Guardian on Louis Theroux and Christine Hamilton’s Mum …‘”I don’t like it. You want to make money from the media, but not in this sleazy manner,” said Christine’s mother to her daughter (she barely spoke to Neil at all, except to denigrate his spoken English). “It might be good for them,” interjected Theroux. “It’s good for you, it’s not good for them,” she flashed back.’ [Related: www.neil-hamilton-is-innocent.com]
[comics] Scott McCloud’s 24 Hour Comic Site — an old comic project finds a home on the web …‘To create a complete 24 page comic book in 24 continuous hours. That means everything: Story, finished art, lettering, colors (if you want ‘em), paste-up, everything! Once pen hits paper, the clock starts ticking. 24 hours later, the pen lifts off the paper, never to descend again.’ [via WEF]
[nyc] Tom Wolfe on the City of Change …‘The case could be made that any post-9/11 federal appropriations to prop up business in New York should go first to the places where you can get Chilean sea bass with a Georgia plum marmalade glaze on a bed of mashed Hayman potatoes laced with leeks, broccoli rabe and emulsion of braised Vidalia onions infused with Marsala vinegar.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
December 12, 2001
[war] Broken al-Qaida driven from their last fortress — Another report from Rory McCarthy… this time from Tora Bora.‘To one side lay a large sheet of American metal marked “Dispenser and bomb, aircraft CBU 87B/B”, the casing for the cluster bomb unit which levelled this ridgeline. A handful of desperate mojahedin soldiers scavenged for scraps of metal among the dozens of unexploded, yellow, cylindrical anti-personnel bomblets scattered across the hillside. On a second sheet of green metal casing nearby an American soldier named Gary had scribbled his own brief marking before loading the cluster bomb into the hold of one of the B-52s. “For those whose dreams were taken,” he wrote, “here are a few nightmares. This is gonna shine like a diamond in a goat’s ass”.’
[tv] Nancy Banks-Smith on Lynne and Gary’s Marriage in Eastenders …‘This was the first really funny EastEnders – an astonishing novelty. Of course, little Mo was being raped and Jane was dying of cancer and Pauline was giving us her Widow Twankey, but you have to take the rough with the smooth. Gary was marrying Lynne. Their first wedding was called off when Lynne’s sister slit her wrists. This time they got as far as the registrar’s, when who should arrive but Beppe, a barely intelligible Italian with a complicated beard. Beppe usually sounds like a cough drops ad, but love gave him lucidity: “Lynne, Lynne! Don’t do this! Marry him and everybody ends up unhappy!” Everybody, in fact, ended up in the ladies loo.’
December 11, 2001
[tv] Something weird about Louis — Gyles Brandreth interviews Louis Theroux …‘Why did Louis decide to make a film about the Hamiltons? “For a start, I thought they’d agree, which is quite important. And I’m interested in people who invent or reinvent themselves through the media. The Hamiltons have gone from being a serious politician and his wife to being media caricatures. Also, I thought there was something more, something going on under the surface.” As he says this, Louis is pulling a strange face, making saucer eyes at me. I raise an enquiring eyebrow. He hesitates. “Possibly,” he mutters, “some mysterious dimension to their relationship . . .possibly sexual in nature.”‘
[comics] Warren Ellis on Friends Reunited [login required] …‘Just got back from San Francisco on a speaking gig, narrowly missing 9-11 (decided to head straight home via Chicago instead of heading into NYC to see some people — touched down at Heathrow just as the first airliner hit the WTC).’
December 10, 2001
[cartoon] Weblog Angst …‘Hmm. Actually, this snot tastes pretty good.’
[email] Excellent post on the life-cycle of a mailing list. Stage Five:‘Discomfort with diversity (the number of messages increases dramatically; not every thread is fascinating to every reader; people start complaining about the signal-to-noise ratio; person 1 threatens to quit if *other* people don’t limit discussion to person 1′s pet topic; person 2 agrees with person 1; person 3 tells 1 & 2 to lighten up; more bandwidth is wasted complaining about off-topic threads than is used for the threads themselves; everyone gets annoyed)’
[celeb] Happy Camper — Independent profile of Julian Clary …‘He’s done quite a few lengthy profiles over the years and I wonder how it feels, picking up a newspaper or magazine and reading all about yourself. “I always get bored halfway through. It’s a formula, isn’t it. You start with: ‘Julian turns up wearing an expensive-looking jumper and too much jewellery.’ Then it’s the potted history, which is when I glaze over, and then there might be an interesting bit at the end.” “That does sound slightly familiar,” I concede. “Change the formula,” he says. “How?” “I dunno.” “Ho-hum. That’s a nice jumper you’re wearing, Julian. Expensive?” “Yes. And rather hot.”‘
[comics] First there were storTroopers… then blogTroopers… now comes various Micro Heroes and Villians. [via Neilalien] More:December 9, 2001
[photoshop] Something Awful photoshops Bin Laden’s Mountain Fortress …‘Wow, Osama is like a villain in a James Bond movie… except that he doesn’t speak English and doesn’t have any sexy female underlings because he thinks the sight of a woman’s bared ankle will scorch his retinas.’
[comics] The genius of Jimmy — Raymond Briggs on Jimmy Corrigan …‘Jonathan Cape also publish Rushdie, Amis, McEwan and Barnes, so can this mean that the modest Mr F C Ware has got a foot in the door of this pantheon? After all, his book is thicker and more expensive than theirs. Full colour throughout! And does it mean that we will live to see an ancient Dame Posy Simmonds go tottering by? ‘
Bugpowder posts a transcript of a Late Show Review of Corrigan between Tom Paulin, Dominic Lawson, Craig Brown and Miranda Sawyer. Paulin:‘…the colours are dreadful, it’s like looking at a bottle of Domestos or Harpic or Ajax. Awful bleak colours, revolting to look at, it’s on it’s way to the Oxfam shop.’
Bugpowder posts a transcript of a Late Show Review of Corrigan between Tom Paulin, Dominic Lawson, Craig Brown and Miranda Sawyer. Paulin:‘…the colours are dreadful, it’s like looking at a bottle of Domestos or Harpic or Ajax. Awful bleak colours, revolting to look at, it’s on it’s way to the Oxfam shop.’
December 8, 2001
[profiles] First Among Gonzos — yet another Louis Theroux profile…‘There have been moments when the Theroux charm hasn’t worked. “I’ve been surprised at some of the animosity,” says Clifford. “I had to take Westlife to a hospital which Louis was supposed to film. But the hospital said, ‘We don’t like the programme. We don’t want him to be there’. I suppose it’s because people think he’s taking the piss.” Although Theroux is friendly to his subjects to the point of deference, he does put some backs up. He was once found to be on a Combat 18 hit-list, proving in the nasty post-Dando world that anything is possible for a high-profile personality.’
[reading] DK2 …‘Kids, these days. Can’t tell the difference between just plain old and classic.’
December 7, 2001
[reaction] Heartbreaking Work — interview with Dave Eggers on his reaction to 911 …‘They made 6,000 people, all with families and loves and dreams, into one amorphous symbol. The challenge now is for us to refrain from the same thing. Those lost do not, I don’t think, symbolize anything, nor does the attack. No act of murder can be symbolic–it’s always barbaric and should never be dignified in any such way at all. Six thousand individuals were murdered, and the best way to dignify the victims is to resist making sense of a mass murder.’ [via Bitstream]
[comics] I still have overwhelming doubt about my ability — an interview with Chris Ware from The Guardian today…‘Purposelessness. Ware likes this, the fact that the art-school snobs think his work is trivial. It strengthens his faith in the crooked path, the unorthodox way. For example, in the book, the story is interrupted by cute little sections to cut out and make into 3-D sets. Ware doesn’t imagine that anyone will actually do this. But he put them in anyway. “They hold the promise of enjoyment through lonely activity, which I like. And I’ve always thought there’s something very delicate and innocent about paper assemblage.”‘ [Related: ACME Novelty Toy Gallery]
[comics] Graphic novel wins First Book Award — Chris Ware wins the Guardian First Book Award for 2001 with Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth.‘Claire Armitstead, chair of the judges and literary editor of the Guardian, said: “Jimmy Corrigan is a fantastic winner, because it so clearly shows what the Guardian First Book Award is about – originality and energy and star quality, both in imagination and in execution. Chris Ware has produced a book as beautiful as any published this year, but also one which challenges us to think again about what literature is and where it is going at the start of the 21st century.”‘
December 6, 2001
[comics] Passnotes #1,967: Bobby Fischer …‘[Q] Why does he hate the US? [A] Fischer, who was born in Brooklyn, believes it is part of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to destroy him. He is being pursued for back taxes; the FBI issued an arrest warrant for playing a match against Boris Spassky in outlawed Serbia in 1992; and, worst of all, the government raided a storage depot in Pasadena and confiscated his possessions, including a large collection of comics and a signed photograph of President Nixon.’
[columbine] I’m Full of Hate and I Love It — The Secret Diary of Eric Harris…‘Right now I’m trying to get fucked and trying to finish off these time bombs. Why the fuck can’t I get any? I mean, I’m nice and considerate and all that shit, but nooooo… [...] I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no, don’t fucking say, ‘Well, that’s your fault’ because it isn’t, you people had my phone #, and I asked and all, but no no no no no don’t let the weird looking Eric kid come along, oooh fucking nooo.” That is how the journal ends — not with the howl of the wolf-god, but the whine of the pathetic geek who can’t land a prom date. And decides everybody deserves to die.’ [via Metafilter]
December 5, 2001
[weblogs] Watch the UK Bloggers update… Recently Updated GBlogs is back and is vastly improved — it cycles through the list of 369 GBlogs every thirty minutes to find out what has changed… [Related: Jezuk's Version]
[comics] Great Frank Miller interview from the Onion AV Club …‘I remember opening up this Batman comic and just basically falling into it. I can’t tell you which one it was or anything, but I just remember, the way the city was drawn, and the fact that this guy was dressed like a bat, just took my breath away. When I was doing Dark Knight, I was essentially trying to evoke that same feeling, but to an older and more sophisticated audience. Of course, the guy dresses like a bat — what kind of guy would do that? He’s got to be kind of strange.’ [via I Love Everything]
[politics] The Guardian has the inside story on the Tory Leadership race from Ken Clarke’s campaign manager …‘The party I joined was full of nice old people; today, it is full of nasty old people. Their hatred of gays, blacks, successful women and the European Union is as extraordinary as it is offensive. [..] They cannot be reasoned with.’
[celebs] Cruise speaks out on Cruz — Tom Cruise on Penelope Cruz and Scientology…‘The actor vigorously defended his religion, Scientology, which he said had kept him on the straight and narrow since he was 24 years old. “I started reading books on it and I thought “God, this makes sense’,” he said.’
Who is Xenu? …described as the core belief of Scientology by Operation Clambake.‘Once upon a time (75 million years ago to be more precise) there was an alien galactic ruler named Xenu. Xenu was in charge of all the planets in this part of the galaxy including our own planet Earth, except in those days it was called Teegeeack.’
Who is Xenu? …described as the core belief of Scientology by Operation Clambake.‘Once upon a time (75 million years ago to be more precise) there was an alien galactic ruler named Xenu. Xenu was in charge of all the planets in this part of the galaxy including our own planet Earth, except in those days it was called Teegeeack.’
December 4, 2001
[comics] UK TV Advert for the first issue Prog of 2000AD from 1977.‘Greetings! I am Tharg!’ [via Bugpowder]
[distraction] Addictive Car Game — Yet another frustrating and addictive game… [via Bifurcated Rivets]
[comics] Classic Spider-Man Television Series 1967-1970 — New Real Audio episode every Saturday…‘This is a true icon of television and it captures the spirit, the feel and the smell of the 1960′s Lee / Ditko / Romita era of our favorite wallcrawler.’
December 3, 2001
[watching] True Romance …‘Wanna see what Spiderman number one looks like?’
[blogs] Who or what is the Orbyt Collective?‘So, if you, the “readership” think that Team Orbyt are a bunch of twatsticks and chimneyfuckers, tell us what you’d do differently. Prove wrong the theory that weblogging occupies the time of those unable to write and those unable to edit. Make us better.’
[web] A Cunt Compendium … The Nathan Barley Extravaganza — All your favourite Cunts in one place.‘The continuing adventures of a total wank stain.’ [Related: TVGoHome]
December 2, 2001
[evil] Honestly, you haven’t Changed a Bit … an Observer Journalist meets her first love and profiles Friends Reunited …‘…others take a darker view [of Friends Reunited]. ‘The majority of people leave school feeling like a failure,’ says Oliver James, clinical psychologist and author of Britain on the Couch . ‘They’ve failed academically, or on the sports field, or sexually. That’s why so many people have recurring dreams about school examinations – it’s a way of managing anxiety. These people may desire to return to the past, but this time they want it to be a different experience, a more positive one. To be given the opportunity to do that is obviously very attractive.’ Hence all the biographies on the FriendsReunited site in which people refer to the fact that they are no longer fat or spotty, and boast that they are happily married with two gorgeous children. These people are bolstering their self-esteem, something that school – and especially the horrid little beasts in the playground – singularly failed to do.’
December 1, 2001
[film] This is so me… [via Meg]
 | If I was a James Bond villain, I would be Francisco Scaramanga. I enjoy good food, monopolising the world’s energy supplies, and sex before assassinating people. I am played by Christopher Lee in The Man with the Golden Gun. Who would you be? James Bond Villain Personality Test |
[king] The Fall of a Pop Impresario [Part 1 | Part 2] … Jon Ronson takes a break from the secret rulers of the world and spends a while with Jonathan King.‘In mid-October 2001, I have coffee with Jonathan King’s brother, Andy. He’s just visited Jonathan in Belmarsh for the first time. “How is Jonathan doing?” I ask. “Great,” says Andy. “He seems really cheerful. Talking 10 to a dozen.” “Really?” I ask. “He’s wearing pink pyjamas as a silent protest,” Andy tells me. “He says it’s aesthetically reminiscent of the way gays were treated under the Nazis.”‘
November 30, 2001
[film] My life as a scumbag … Iranian-British comedian Omid Djalili on what it’s like to be cast as a middle-eastern villian all the time.‘And thus it all started, taking in all manner of Arab scumbag roles, the highlight of course having my genitalia manhandled by the late, great Ollie Reed in Gladiator in my favourite scene: “You sold me queer giraffes.” Of course, type-casting will always be a concern, but I did pop up in the last Bond film, The World Is Not Enough, in a ground-breaking role as an Azerbaijani oilpipe foreman – a major departure.’
[war] Bin Laden could be Time’s Person of the Year …‘Matthew Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs said: “Previous choices have taught us not to attach moral value to the term ‘man.’ There is a reason Time does not use the term ‘Gentleman of the Year.’ Man of the Year is not an honor so much as it is a title; it doesn’t require an honorable person be named. Some years the biggest noise is applause ? some years it’s weeping. This choice would reflect that.” The historically significant men have been a motley crew since Time started naming them in 1927. Hitler was named Man of the Year in 1938. Joseph Stalin made the cover in 1939 and 1942, and Ayatollah Khomeini was on the front in 1979.’
[war] More from Luke Harding in the Guardian…
- Allies direct the death rites of trapped Taliban fighters …‘Last night a small group of up to 40 volunteers were still holed up in a house in the corner of the castle’s rambling compound. They signalled their presence with firework-like bursts of gunfire, just to remind their enemies crouching on the shadowy ramparts above them that they were not yet dead. After spending years killing their fellow Muslims, the Taliban’s Arab and Pakistani fighters have finally got the jihad they were looking for. The foreign volunteers – who surrendered on Saturday only to overpower their guards the following day – know they have hours to live.’
- A tank roared in. It fired four rounds. Then there was silence in the fort …‘Three Pakistani Taliban escaped from the 19th century fort on Monday night by scrambling out of a water channel. Two were shot dead immediately, but a third got as far as the nearby mud-walled village of Sar-i-Pool. There local people discovered him and killed him. He had some bread in his pocket, they said.’
[comics] Attack of the Condensed Comics Classics! Judge Dredd:‘CITIZEN: Hello! (Fires Lawgiver into obvious perp twenty-five times) DREDD: Sometimes I feel bad about the fascist regime I perpetuate. (Fires Lawgiver into obvious perp twenty-five more times) DREDD: Sometimes I don’t.’
Hellblazer:‘CONSTANTINE: Time for some cigs and a pint! DEMON FROM HELL: Hsst! Snarl! CONSTANTINE: Fuck, there goes another girlfriend.’
Hellblazer:‘CONSTANTINE: Time for some cigs and a pint! DEMON FROM HELL: Hsst! Snarl! CONSTANTINE: Fuck, there goes another girlfriend.’
November 29, 2001
[war] Dead Lie Crushed or Shot, in the Dust, in Ditches, Amid the Willows — Luke Harding’s reports from the massacre in Mazar-i-Sharif have been excellent over the last couple of days …‘Beyond the gazebo, next to where the Taliban had set up a makeshift mortar factory, were the corpses of several well-off Arab volunteers. Unlike their Pakistani counterparts, dressed in flimsy salwar kameezes, the Arabs wore expensive fleece jackets and trousers. One Talib corpse sported a San Francisco 49ers football sweatshirt; another a zip-up Dolce & Gabbana top. Osama bin Laden’s fighters may have rejected the west’s relativist ideology, but not its fashions.’
[books] The Digested Read — Madonna by Andrew Morton …‘Surprise success of first album – some songs weak, shock horror – then effortless meteoric rise to superstardom. Control freak, more failed affairs – “she’s very needy, she never stops ringing you” – abortions, Sean Penn, more albums, loads of celebs, sex. Did I mention she was a control freak? Career nosedives, resurrected by Norman Mailer, desperate to be Evita, desperate to be loved, more failed love – “she wasn’t very adventurous in bed” – more albums. Clunk, clunk, clunk.’
November 28, 2001
[comics] Photoshop this comic book cover … from Oddball Comics. [via Haddock]
‘Y’know, I’ve heard the term “sportin’ a woody” before — but this… this… this is just plain ridiculous! And the expressions on the faces of Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford just make things worse — or at least, funnier!’ [MORE]
‘Y’know, I’ve heard the term “sportin’ a woody” before — but this… this… this is just plain ridiculous! And the expressions on the faces of Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford just make things worse — or at least, funnier!’ [MORE]
November 27, 2001
[school] Foe’s Reunited … confirms my feeling that Friends Reunited is evil and wrong.‘Man’s greatest joy is to slay his enemy, plunder his riches, ride his steeds, see the tears of his loved ones and embrace his women.” – Genghis Khan’ [via Parallax View via Dutchbint]
[comics] The Dave Sim Memorial Note From The President Archive … has moved to a new home on the Cerebus Fangirl site. Example… Sim jousts with Judy:‘She kept it up for a good long while, snappy repartee, brushing her boobs against my upper arm. As I told her, it was like trying to pick up lint with a magnet. A magnet is a very powerful attractor, but it is of no use if you want to get lint off your jacket. Finally, her eyes blazing, she looked me square in the eye and said, “Any man who is afraid of women is a wimp!” I looked her square in the eye and said, “Any man who isn’t wary of women is a fool.” I left shortly after.’
[911] New York may be a modern-day Babylon – but it doesn’t deserve the wrath of God — commentary based on Robert Crumb apparently thinking that the other buildings around Ground Zero should collapse into it and a farm should be built on the remains.‘Crumb, who chose to retreat from his American Babylon to the French countryside, is not, so far as I know, a religious fundamentalist. His philosophy is a peculiar and wholly subjective patchwork of frustrated sexual fantasies, zany misanthropy, and 1960s hippy-dippy iconoclasm. But his anti-urban bias is shared by fundamentalists of various kinds. And so, possibly, are some of his frustrations. The ancient idea of the city as a harlot, as Sodom and Gomorrah, suggests a deep attraction as well as revulsion. It is perhaps not so very odd that some of the hijackers of September 11 caroused in Las Vegas before seeking their martyrdom.’
November 26, 2001
[film] The Cold Shoulder — great interview with Thora Birch.‘I fit in one more question before she signals it is time for me to go. I ask if movie acting feeds her soul. Somewhat chillingly, she answers, “They feed off each other.” I never get to meet her dad (‘He’s too busy’), nor do I get to use her lavatory (‘No, um. . . No. . . Our plumbing isn’t. . . it’s not good’). The urgency with which she wants me to go actually frightens me a little.’
[film] Great review of Apocalypse Now Redux…‘What passion this film has – what mad daring, what ambition. And what have we got now? CGI. Apocalypse Now is supposed to be a film you grow out of. I can only say it’s time to grow back into it again.’
‘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.’
‘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.’
November 25, 2001
[conspiracy] 911: What Now? … Nicely wrapped together collection of 911 conspiracy theories.‘Ask yourself: “Who benefits? Who gains?” Well,” says David Icke, “The Illuminati want a world government and army, a world currency and centralized global financial dictatorship and control. They want micro-chipped people and a society based on constant surveillance of all kinds at all times. And they want a frightened, docile, subservient, people who give their power away to the authorities who can save them from what they have been manipulated to fear.” That pretty well nails it down.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
[tv] Richard and Judy: The Golden Couple — The Indepedent profiles Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan…‘When Richard Madeley ejaculates he prefers to rest his “equipment” for 25 minutes before attempting to make love with Judy Finnegan again. Or so he told the world in 1995. He has had a vasectomy, and her painful, irregular periods were the cause of a hysterectomy three years ago. This may be much more information than you need, but it represents only the tiniest sample of the personal details Richard and Judy have disclosed to the viewing public since they began presenting a live television programme called This Morning in 1988. There is nothing they won’t talk about on air, except her weight and the eight-year age gap between them. Richard is sleek, fastidious, endowed with long, shiny hair, and 45. His wife is 53, and frankly she looks it alongside her clean-cut, mane-tossing husband. She is also by far the sexier of the two.’
[comics] Big in Graphic Novels … reviews of some recently published GN’s. On Akira:‘…Katsuhiro Otomo’s 2,000-page apocalyptic epic. Originally published in 1983 and still the finest example of the manga form, Akira ‘s vast, elaborate plot, destructive fetishism and realistic illustrative style contrast sharply with the cute, juvenile caricatures of earlier Japanese comic books.’
[humour] How to DRIVE FAST on DRUGS while getting your WING-WANG SQUEEZED and not SPILL YOUR DRINK by P.J. O’Rourke with illustrations by George Perez (?!) …‘Name me, if you can, a better feeling than the one you get when you’re half a bottle of Chivas in the bag with a gram of coke up your nose, and a teen-age lovely pulling off her tube top in the next seat over while you’re going a hundred miles an hour down a suburban sidestreet. You’d have to watch the entire Mexican air force crash-land in a liquid petroleum gas storage facility to match this kind of thrill.’ [via Everlasting Blort]
November 24, 2001
[cartoons] 3AM Magazine interviews Steve Bell and Martin Rowson … Rowson:‘There’s a journalist, Christopher Hitchens, whom I greatly admire. Generally because the gaudiness of his prose matches his subject matter which is what we do as cartoonist. It’s very visceral. Very immediate. There’s a wonderful line which I take as my guiding star a wonderful line of overblown journalism which he wrote in his biography of Henry Kissinger ‘ One can never eat enough to vomit enough when one thinks about Henry Kissinger.’ I met Hitchens once and went over to him and said ‘let me shake your hand for that line.’ It’s that visceral response that as a cartoonist is what I am looking for. It’s what we should do. We have to go the extra leap. The extra five yards or whatever. Say the unacceptable.’ [via Feeling Listless]
[books] The Grip that Death could not Loosen … the mad incestuous attic stories of Virginia Andrews.‘So, back to the attic children who have just had sex – they are both the spawn of sibling incest and engaged in sibling incest. Oh, and the widow has decided to poison them with arsenic, which makes them very pale, but still extremely attractive to one another. They realise their peril and escape, with one younger sibling (the other has died). They lead a full and unhappy life of mistreatment and suchlike. A rogue doctor has an affair with the girl sibling – it results in a pregnancy, he performs a quick DIY abortion and keeps the foetus in a jar on his desk for a laugh. In the end, the siblings marry at the age of about 50 – they pretend they are unrelated, of course. No good comes of it.’
November 23, 2001
[comics] Guardian Books previews Jimmy Corrigan …‘Bought up as an only child by an over-protective mother, with only his fantasies about superheroes for company, Jimmy is now a middle-aged loner working as an office dogsbody in Chicago. He has just received a letter from his estranged father, inviting him to spend Thanksgiving with him.’ [via Barbelith Underground]
[distractions] Check out:
- What happens when you’re not looking at your game of Pong. [via Brainsluice]
- Buffy’s Swearing Keyboard …‘zebra bastard zebra zebra zebra zebra fucker’. [via My 2p]
November 22, 2001
[comics] ACME Novelty Toy Gallery — photo gallery full of Chris Ware’s paper toys …‘The nosecone later fell off and could not be found.’ [via Cheesedip]
[referrer] Lots of people searching for info about Jonathan King… here’s a link to his website. From the personal section:‘I have a load of family and friends. Nothing too close, thank God. No appalling wives or children. They are so expensive and make a lot of unnecessary noise.’
November 21, 2001
[tv] The Lady and the Vamp — beginners guide to Buffy …‘…take a 16-year-old girl having sex with her boyfriend, whom she loves beyond measure, for the first time – so far, so Hollyoaks. Then factor in that the boyfriend is a vampire whose human soul has been restored by a Gypsy curse; also, that one moment’s perfect happiness (making lurve, say) will break the curse and turn him back into a vampire; that once he’s turned back into a vampire, he’ll be in possession of the blackest heart Vampworld has ever seen; that his first endeavour will be to kill the girl, in the cruellest manner he can dream up; and that he, alone among the undead, has the power to open the door between good and evil.’
[comics] Great Comic Panels #1: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. [Related: DK2 -- DC's PR Site for Dark Knight Strikes Back]
‘You sold us out, Clark. You gave them the power that should have been ours. Just like your parents taught you. My parents taught me a different lesson…lying on this street… shaking in deep shock… dying for no reason at all. They showed me that the world only makes sense when you force it to.’
‘You sold us out, Clark. You gave them the power that should have been ours. Just like your parents taught you. My parents taught me a different lesson…lying on this street… shaking in deep shock… dying for no reason at all. They showed me that the world only makes sense when you force it to.’
November 20, 2001
[war] Afghans Taste Freedom — Smokehammer reports from Kabul.‘…children play happily in the dust. Half an hour ago I helped an excited group skin a dead taliban fighter and turn him into a kite.’ [via As Above]
[tv] PopBitch vs. Trisha …‘Following last week’s Diary entry on Popbitch regulars terrorising the Trisha Online message board for the emotionally vulnerable, events have taken a sinister turn. Hacked off with the pranksters pretending to be potential daytime-TV fodder, Anglia TV webmeisters threatened to call the police. They then traced some of the imposters’ email addresses, got in touch with their employers and warned them that they were using company time to mess with the minds of important chat show people. Which all seems more than a little heavy-handed and unnecessary.’ [Related: Trisha Message Board]
November 19, 2001
[war] Why we must show the dead — Media Guardian on publishing pictures of war victims …‘Sometimes you publish a picture to prove that something has happened. The saddest, most powerful picture I ever helped to get into the paper was of a dead woman hanging from a tree in Bosnia. There she was in everyday clothing, as though she had stepped straight out of Marks & Spencer, hanging from a branch. What struck me most was how normal she looked.’
November 18, 2001
[war] Black Hawk Down — excellent documentary website covering the journalism on which the book and film are based …‘The Battle of Mogadishu is known today in Somalia as Ma-alinti Rangers, or the Day of the Rangers. It pitted the world’s most sophisticated military power against a mob of civilians and Somalian irregulars. It was the biggest single firefight involving American soldiers since the Vietnam War.’
November 17, 2001
[books] Top 10 literary hoaxes …’10. The Hitler diaries — In 1983 a German magazine bought 62 volumes of the ‘lost diaries’ of Adolf Hitler. These had supposedly been discovered by farmers after the plane in which the diaries had been dispatched, shortly before Hitler’s suicide, crashed. They contained such fascinating snippets of Hitler’s domestic life as “on my feet all day long” and “must not forget to get tickets for the Olympic Games for Eva Braun.”‘
[war] John Simpson: The first man of Kabul — Martin Bell profiles the “liberator of Kabul”.‘As for John Simpson’s politics, I have no idea (and should not have) what they are. I’d guess they are ever-so-slightly right of center. Unlike so many war zone wanderers, he is not a natural-born rebel and iconoclast. Indeed, I once shared a platform with him at the Cheltenham literary festival, where he described himself as an “establishment creep”. That’s another of his qualities: an ability to disarm his critics with self-deprecation. It’s quite common among the big beasts of TV news, and an excellent defence mechanism. I used to use it. “Dad”, asked my daughter Catherine one day, “Why do you put yourself down so much?” “Quite simple,” I answered. “I do it myself, because if I don’t there are plenty of others who will do it for me”.’
November 16, 2001
[books] I Want to Go Ahead and Do It — old NY Times review of The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer …‘[Schiller] …watches as Gary Gilmore’s ashes are let loose from a plastic bag to blow over Provo. The bag surprises Schiller. The bag is a bread bag, “with the printing from the bread company clearly on it . . . a 59-cent loaf of bread.”‘
November 15, 2001
[comics] Not a Hoax! Not a Dream! Not an Imaginary Story! Dr Doom’s reaction to 911…
[via I Love Everything]
[via I Love Everything]
[profile] Sir Paul McCartney: Give War A Chance — McCartney on his reaction to 911:‘It’s like we used to live with this thing every Christmas in London, where the IRA would say, “We’re doing a bombing campaign.” And we’d go, “How irksome, I hope it doesn’t hit me when I’m shopping.” After the New York attack, my attitude was like, screw you man, just screw you. I’ve got kids living in London. Are you gonna do a bombing campaign? How dare you? If you want to take my kids out — well, screw you. Come and talk about it, right in my face baby.’
November 14, 2001
[history] Inspired by Tom… here is some of my Internet History…
- Usenet: Voting yes to the creation of rec.arts.comics.alternative in 1994. [This is the earliest thing I can find... always the comic geek!]
- More Usenet: I admit to liking Punisher Vs. Archie in 1995…
- First Webpage: Grant Morrison Comixography on Wraithspace. [The archived page is from 1999 but I started to compile the list in 1995]
- First Website: The Grant Morrison Comixography. 1996-2000. Requiescat In Pace. Later became TimeMachineGo.
- First attempt at a Weblog: Vision Thing in 1999. [Lasted two days!]
- First Useful Website: Recently Updated UK Weblogs. Later merged into GBlogs.
[war] Simpson of Kabul — the Guardian profiles at John Simpson and does a brief history of war correpondants such as Max Hastings…‘Hastings, then a 38-year-old reporter for the Evening Standard, single-handedly “took” Port Stanley when he walked alone through the British lines on the last day of the Falklands war. Hastings, son of the war correspondent Macdonald Hastings, said: “I thought, if I can walk up that road and get there first and survive and not get shot, I can bore everybody to death for the next 20 years talking about it.” Other correspondents called him “an insufferably pompous, bumptious egotist”.’ [Related: Steve Bell on John Simpson]
[reaction] Oliver Stone’s Chaos Theory — Stone discusses 911 and a film on terrorism….‘You show the Arab side and the American side in a chase film with a ‘French Connection’ urgency, where you track people by satellite, like in ‘Enemy of the State.’ My movie would have the C.I.A. guys and the F.B.I. guys, but they blow it. They’re a bunch of drunks from World War II who haven’t recovered from the disasters of the sixties?the Kennedy assassination and Vietnam. My movie would show the new heroes of security, the people who really get the job done, who know where the secrets are.” And who would that be? His eyes roamed, searching and sad. “I don’t know yet.”‘
November 13, 2001
[war] The Liberation of Kabul … eyewitness report from John Simpson.‘As we walked into Kabul city we found no problems around us, only people that were friendly and, I am afraid, chanting “kill the Taleban” – although as we understand it there are not going to be that many Taleban around. It felt extraordinarily exhilarating – to be liberating a city which had suffered so much under a cruel and stifling regime. It was 0753 local time (0323 GMT) and Kabul was a free city, after five years of perhaps the most extreme religious system anywhere on earth.’
[books] The lost children — more on Philip Pullman from the Sunday Times.‘…he can’t say all the classic children’s books perpetuate unblemished childhood. What about Enid Blyton’s Famous Five who often unearthed adult wrongdoing? Here, Pullman makes a remarkable confession: such realism is taboo today. “You can’t have your heroes and heroines going off by themselves to camp on an island. The publishers wouldn’t let you do it. There are all sorts of health and safety problems, paedophiles and goodness knows what else. The fear is that children are so stupid they’ll copy what they see in books. “So in order to give children adventures now, you either have to set it in the past when that sort of thing was allowed, or in another world where the rules are different. But you can’t do it realistically.”‘ [via Haddock]
[film] Hollywood’s hottest fifty-something — an interview with Terry Zwigoff …‘This woman called me last week from New York. She said, “We’re doing an ad for Gap, and we want you to be in it.” I said, “To be in it? What do you mean? You want me to direct?” “No, we want you to be on the billboard, wearing Gap clothes. We’re doing this series of hip young film-makers.” I’m thinking, are they trying to make fun of me? Do they know what I look like? So I said, “I’m not young, I’m 53! I don’t wear a backwards baseball cap, I’ve got white hair on my arms! I’m about as unhip as they come!”‘
[profile] Leader of the pack — brief profile of American journalist Seymour Hersh …‘Why aren’t there more reports like Hersh’s? “I don’t know,” he says. “You know, after September 11 Washington is a very unhappy and increasingly anxious town. We’ve got a very acute strategic problem. When they took out the World Trade Centre we had to get the response right and we didn’t get it right. The word for Washington now is ‘scary’ – it’s impossible not to get something for a story here.”‘ [Related: Escape and Evasion by Hersh]
November 12, 2001
[comics] Excellent interview with Neil Gaiman in January Magazine … On Sandman:‘At the time that I was doing it, I was very much hoping that it would change things for the medium of comics. Looking back on it, I don’t think an awful lot. It did an awful lot for Sandman in that graphic novels are still out there, they still sell 80,000-odd a year, year in, year out in America alone. But what I was definitely hoping would happen was the same kind of thing that happened when I read Alan Moore was doing on The Swamp Thing. I went: Well, hang on. Here is someone writing stuff for adults and writing stuff with as much imagination and verve and depth as anything else out there: any other medium out there. I wasn’t going: Oh, I want to write Swamp Thing. I was going: Oh, I want to create my own one of these. It will be interesting to see if in a few years time, the generation that was raised on Sandman do actually start creating more literary and more interesting comics.’ [Related: Gaiman's Website, link via Sore Eyes]
[distraction] Swear-o-Tron — takes the strain out of verbal abuse …‘…big dog’s cock…’ [via Pete's Weblog]
[film] Shallow Hal — Salon previews the next Farrelly Brothers film …‘Hal (Jack Black) is a pudgy, not overly good-looking guy who, after taking the advice of his dying dad, nevertheless thinks he’s entitled to the most gorgeous babes. He and his pal Mauricio (Jason Alexander) spend most of their time comparing notes on which women are most perfectly suited to enter their dazzling orbit. They succeed with virtually none of them, of course, and can’t accept what they have on the rare occasions when they do. (Mauricio rejects his knockout of a girlfriend because her second toe is longer than her big one — this from a man who tries to disguise his baldness with what looks like a yarmulke of iron shavings.)’
November 11, 2001
[war] Things that jumped out at me while reading the Observer today …
Two months on, the new battles at Ground Zero —‘…Ground Zero is all crooked, cruel ruins bayoneted on to steel mesh. Under the harsh glare of floodlights, the arm of a heavy crane lifts another limb of incinerated steel from the dunes of rubble. There is a flare, a burst of flame – for the buried fire still burns white-hot – and a pall of ghastly black smoke rises into the night, blocking the view of the illuminated Empire State Building. The stench of the plume is sickly-sweet; everyone knows what it is but no one says so. Only: “this is how Auschwitz must have stunk only diluted,” as one police forensic scientist remarked. “Fifteen hundred degrees down there,” says a fireman, “and still burning”.’
Bin Laden taunts the West: ‘I’m ready to die’ —‘The full transcript of their discussions has yet to be released but it is clear they were wide-ranging. Bin Laden was, according to Mir yesterday, in “high spirits”. “He’s very healthy and he laughs a lot. Previously he was very softly spoken. Now he speaks like an experienced orator, he is very hard-hitting… There’s a big change in that man.”‘
Britain placed under state of emergency —‘…will pave the way for indefinite imprisonment of foreign nationals who the Government suspects are terrorists, and comes less than 24 hours after warnings from America that Britain is a top target for Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network. The move reveals the seriousness the Government places on the threat to Britain. Such orders can be used only in times of war or when there has been an event that puts the security of the nation at risk. Whitehall sources said the order would not be reviewed ‘for at least a year’.’
Two months on, the new battles at Ground Zero —‘…Ground Zero is all crooked, cruel ruins bayoneted on to steel mesh. Under the harsh glare of floodlights, the arm of a heavy crane lifts another limb of incinerated steel from the dunes of rubble. There is a flare, a burst of flame – for the buried fire still burns white-hot – and a pall of ghastly black smoke rises into the night, blocking the view of the illuminated Empire State Building. The stench of the plume is sickly-sweet; everyone knows what it is but no one says so. Only: “this is how Auschwitz must have stunk only diluted,” as one police forensic scientist remarked. “Fifteen hundred degrees down there,” says a fireman, “and still burning”.’
Bin Laden taunts the West: ‘I’m ready to die’ —‘The full transcript of their discussions has yet to be released but it is clear they were wide-ranging. Bin Laden was, according to Mir yesterday, in “high spirits”. “He’s very healthy and he laughs a lot. Previously he was very softly spoken. Now he speaks like an experienced orator, he is very hard-hitting… There’s a big change in that man.”‘
Britain placed under state of emergency —‘…will pave the way for indefinite imprisonment of foreign nationals who the Government suspects are terrorists, and comes less than 24 hours after warnings from America that Britain is a top target for Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network. The move reveals the seriousness the Government places on the threat to Britain. Such orders can be used only in times of war or when there has been an event that puts the security of the nation at risk. Whitehall sources said the order would not be reviewed ‘for at least a year’.’
[furthur]“We are all doomed to spend our lives watching a movie of our lives – we are always acting on what has just finished. It happened at least 1/30th of a second ago. We think we’re in the present, but we aren’t. The present we know is only a movie of the past, and we will really never be able to control the present through ordinary means.” — Tom Wolfe quoting Ken Kesey’s philosophy in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. [Related: Author and hippie icon Kesey dies]
November 10, 2001
[comics] Jack The Ripper: From Hell … a Master Mason comments on From Hell — the film and comic.‘As unlikely as it may seem, From Hell is not simply a product of Hollywood greed or opportunism. It is based on a remarkable “graphic novel,” of the same name, by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell. Graphic novels, a fairly new phenomenon, are pricey novel-length comics, most often published in quality paperback format and usually aimed at a teen or adult audience. From Hell, an engrossing retelling of the Jack the Ripper chronology, is possibly the most prominent graphic novel yet published. It weighs in at over 500 pages of a detailed story, with an additional 42 pages of notes and annotations, where Moore explains some of the more obscure details of Ripper history and gives reasons for choosing among the dozens of competing theories of who did what when. This is important to note because, despite the reputation of comic books for shallow plots and characters, From Hell, the graphic novel, is a multi-layered story that is more akin to the complex novels of Thomas Pynchon than to the simple comics of Walt Disney.’ [via I Love Everything]
[books] Driven by daemons — excellent profile and interview of Philip Pullman …‘He is emotionally involved. He sits in the shed and makes it up and he weeps, yes, weeps copiously at the tragedies that unfold. He frightens himself and upsets himself and makes himself laugh. If the story evangelises, it isn’t him that’s doing it. It is merely his nature to admire qualities such as courage, kindness, intellectual curiosity, inclusiveness and open-mindedness, and to deplore cruelty, intolerance and fanatical zealotry, but he wouldn’t dream of writing stories to promote that world-view. If stories teach, that is not his conscious intention. “It’s craftsmanship. Your aim must be to tell a story as well as you can, shaping it and bringing the emotional currents to their… peak of emotional swishing about. You turn the raw materials, and all those loose bits of imagination and experience and memory, into something that stands up like a table with four legs and that doesn’t fall over when you put your elbows on it.”‘
November 9, 2001
[school] Bullies Reunited …‘Bullies Reunited is a site for those of us who spent our schooldays tormenting, ridiculing and psychologically disturbing other children who were smaller, weirder, younger, poorer – or, indeed, richer than ourselves. Kids who wore glasses. Kids who walked a bit funny. Kids who needed go to the toilet too often.’ [via I Love Everything]
[tv] Turner’s Lost Love, CNN, Has A Doomsday Plan in the Can — great story on Ted Turner and CNN’s “end-of-the-world video”…‘Turner, it seems, has been a doom-and-gloom kind of guy from the very day in June 1980 when he launched the cable network. He said then, as only he could, “We gonna go on air June 1, and we gonna stay on until the end of the world. When that time comes, we’ll cover it, play ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee,’ and sign off.” Ten years later, I’m told, Turner used CNN production facilities to create what he called his “end-of-the-world” video. Sources tell me it consists of a recording of “Nearer, My God,” over footage of a waving American flag. Turner is said to have ordered the tape locked away until it was determined that the world was about to end. “It was like a sign-off tape that you often see in the middle of the night,” says one source. “But to Ted, it was a sign-off forever.”‘ [via Follow Me Here]
[film] Go Ahead, Pinko Liberals, Make My Day … Guardian interview with John Milius.‘The second world war has replaced the western as a morality play, as a venue where these things exist. The western is no longer the western; we’ve changed our attitude towards the Indians, the frontier, the open spaces. So the second world war is a much better place to say, “Here’s what you should measure up to be.” It’s no longer Shane. It’s Sergeant Rock.’
November 8, 2001
[tv] A Taxi Ride to Success — interview with Rob Brydon from Marion and Geoff …‘Marion and Geoff was a series of exquisite ten-minute monologues delivered by Brydon in the character of Keith Barrat, a Welsh minicab driver. Keith spoke to us via a video camera mounted on the passenger side of his dashboard – mostly about his wife, Marion, his two children, Alun and Rhys (‘little smashers’), and his wife’s new partner, Geoff, the pharmaceutical salesman of the year. In the face of dreadful domestic and professional disappointment, Keith was endlessly optimistic – which only seemed to confirm the depths of his despair. “Beautiful day,” he would announce brightly, before looking up through the windscreen at the sky and adding, “Bit overcast. But Mr Bluebird’s on my shoulder.”‘
[tea] Stupid Christmas Gift Ideas from LinkMachineGo… for the tea drinker in your family.‘Your favorite sipping spot isn’t always equipped with a place to park your soggy tea bags. This 12 oz. ceramic mug has a built-in bag holder. use it to carry your fresh tea bag to a favorite spot, brew your tea, then tuck used bag into pocket and sip your tea while its hot.’ [via The Daily Chump]