linkmachinego.com

1 February 2001
[comics] SFX Magazine interviews Warren Ellis — Part One, Part Two.‘…Marvels trying to make a bit of money, bless ’em. They’re in business and that’s what they are there for, but no-one really needs a Ghost Rider film. It’s not important. Its not going to be a life changing event for anyone and its not going to a life changing event for comics. You are not going to come out of Blade or the X-Men and say “Bugger me, I’ve got to get the Yellow Pages and find a comic shop and buy loads of comics, because this was really good”. It’s more “That was alright, now down the pub.”‘
[weblogs] Tom wins Best European and GLBT weblog at the 2001 Bloggies… Congratulations Tom.
[our reptile rulers] David Icke publishes conclusive proof that Prince Charles is a shape-changing lizard.
2 February 2001
[blogger] Long, involved post on Metafilter about the breakup of Blogger. Matt Haughey: ‘Thousands of young and old alike, beginner and expert started using their website to communicate their voice, build a brand, feed an ego, and spread their ideas through weblogs. At the center of it all, was Blogger.com, and it showed no signs of stopping. But backstage, things were falling apart…’ [Related Links: Evhead, Haughey, Saturn, Megnut on Blogger]
[nose] For anybody who comes to LMG for pictures of Danniela Westbrooke’s Nose: Gak Attack. ‘It’s class A Entertainment’
3 February 2001
[comics] Another of those Previews Guides to the comics coming out in April 2001 this time from popImage. What I’ll be purchasing… Ministry Of Space #1 and the following collections: Jar of Fools, Soundtracks by Jessica Abel, and the complete edition of Box Office Poison.
[buffy] The Edible Buffy… you’re probably thinking it’s some nasty fan site dedicated to Buffy Fan Fiction but you could not be more wrong… ‘There are already a bazillion Buffy sites on the Internet, some specifically devoted to episode synopsis and analysis, the stars, the villains, and even the show’s philosophy. I figured I’d make my site slightly less redundant by exploring a heretofore untouched aspect of BtVS: the food.’
[cock] Flame of the week over at the Register: ‘And quit writing the word “cock” on every page of the register! It makes you sound like peanut eating jizz mopers! It’s bad enough that you write about lesbian disabled porn in between mastubatory frenzies, but having cock thrust upon each page is disgusting!’
4 February 2001
[imitation] The Coffee GroundsAnd now in the style of LinkMachineGo… :)
[comics] Nice Evan Dorkin fan page with lots of scans of his work from Dork!
[norfolk] According to to the Sunday Times Norfolk is new playground of the rich. ‘But the north Norfolk coast is emerging as the rural retreat of choice for the monied classes, providing for London’s elite what the Hamptons of Long Island offers New Yorkers. Drawn to the bracing sea air, quaint villages and fresh seafood, the urban wealthy are colonising the area, sending house prices soaring and spawning a proliferation of designer boutiques and delicatessens. Indeed, the lure of Blakeney, Wells-next-the-Sea and Burnham Market has become so strong that some of America’s glitterati have forsaken the Hamptons for a trip to Norfolk.’
[fraud] A reckoning at the Russia house, SW16. Fascinating look at a massive credit card fraud operation run by a Russian in London… ‘Confident they now had enough information, officers carried out dawn raids on addresses across London, including those of the two main suspects, but even they were surprised by what was found at Tanov’s home. The 33-year-old Russian had turned a small bedroom into a credit card factory, at a cost of no more than £3,000, complete with computers, embossers and hologram making equipment, capable of producing near perfect replicas of Visa, Amex and Master Card.’ [via Beesley]
5 February 2001
[comics] Long, fascinating behind the scenes expose of the formation of Image comics in the early 90’s from The Comics Journal. ‘The story he wants to tell is, in the final analysis, not the Story of Comics but the Story of Todd McFarlane. “The comic-book world could blow up tomorrow,” he told the Journal. “I’m taken care of. The guy you got to worry about the least is Todd McFarlane. I’m bulletproof. I will make no apologies for anything Image has done. I left Marvel to be free. Eight years later, is Todd free? You’re fucking right he is. I can’t even envision the day when I would go back to the plantation and do Spider-Man or Heroes Reborn. I’m free, goddamn it! I’ve got everything I want!”‘
[infinite fanboys] I have not got the time to investigate this archive of Internet Fan Fiction… but it looks pretty comprehensive. If you find any amusing / sick / insightful fan fiction let me know
6 February 2001
[rap] Eminem: Courting controversy, Public Eminem No1 — BBC News and the Sunday Times on Eminem. ‘”I would quite genuinely shoot the little bastard,” said Julie Bindel, founder of the action group Justice for Women and a researcher at the child and women abuse department at North London University. “He is misogynist scum who will influence some women and men. Rather than censor him, though, I wish someone who took offence at his lyrics would leave him in a coma.”‘
[morrison] Grant Morrison updates his website and has published good news for sad, lonely, fanboys everywhere: ‘”Sex is out of the question for me” admits once-promising Olympian John with a chuckle. “When you add my spinal injuries and other morbid disabilities to the obesity I’ve suffered since the accident well, you have the chemical combination for loneliness right there in the palm of your hand. That’s mostly why I started putting aside my spare time for poring over lists and charts and I can assure fans that 2001 will be be a hard and horny one for comics enthusiasts worldwide.”‘
[LMG] I’m all blogged out… taking a break for a couple of days. Not taking my laptop with me… just a Rio, a Colour Gameboy… and a few books. :) LMG returns at the weekend.
11 February 2001
[comics] Brief reviews of London Comic Shops… the top three are the best shops in London… Gosh: ‘Fight through the superheroes on the ground floor and head for the stairs at the back of the shop. The lead to a basement full of alternative & independent stuff. Usually a couple of shelves of self-published bits.’
[LMG] My underpant secrets revealed via Disturbing Search Requests
12 February 2001
[magic] Guardian Unlimited interviews Paul Daniels (I think there is a Louis Theroux TV interview with him next week)… ‘Daniels’ autobiography, Under No Illusions, published last year, little endeared him to an already wary public. It was thick with bumptious notations (“No, it’s not a trick photograph. I was trading in the Bentley on the left for the one on the right. Now there’s posh!”) and toe-curling sexual detail (“Once I got upstairs, Debbie was lying stark naked on the bed – eat your heart out fellas! She was wearing the sort of sleeping blindfold you get on long-haul flights. Printed on it was Do Not Disturb. But further down her body she had a sign that said Disturb!”) He also alleged that he had slept with more than 300 women.’
[aids] Excellent website with lots of information on the controversial / disturbing theory that AIDS origins lie in a early polio vaccines contaminated with viruses from chimpanzee kidneys. [Related Links: Scientists rule out polio link to Aids]
[comics] Interesting page about an unpublished Vertigo comic from Grant Morrison, Pete Milligan and Jamie Hewlett — Bizarre Boys. ‘BIZARRE BOYS, VERTIGO VOICES’ most irreverent title, is a story within a story within a story. It’s about some fictional characters called the Bizarre Boys, and about the writers who write them, and about the writers who are writing about the writers… There are two voices telling the tale of BIZARRE BOYS, and they don’t agree with each other at all. BIZARRE BOYS is a comic about a comic and about the process of putting together a comic. It’s a sparkling tapestry of post-modernism and a fast- moving breathless chase across time and space.’ [via the Warren Ellis Forum]
[year] Guardian Unlimited explains… Why we hate February. ‘The dullest, wettest, cruellest month is upon us. Oh well, at least it’s short.’
13 February 2001
[weblogs] A quick runthru of all the Barbelith Underground blogs — Plasticbag, Venusberg, shey.network, Kooky Mojo, Fridge Poet, Ms Woo, The Collective, Zenith, Rosa, Kali, Rollo, Kirk Nice, Haggar, Grant, Jack Fear, Dayglo, Bizmunth and finally LinkMachineGo. ‘I’m not entirely sure what kind of world will exist when I have fininshed, but I know it will be better for everyone. If I have any faith, I have faith in the unexpected, the unpredictable.’— Niles Caulder, just before he gets his head ripped off by the Candlemaker, Doom Patrol #57.
[internet] Disturbing report on the BBC’s Panorama about an internet community of paedophiles called Wonderland… Here’s a transcript of the TV programme. ‘The first thing anyone does when they get online is go looking for the porn, it’s just one of those things. And I found that fairly easily and within 24 hours I’d found the child porn as well. I didn’t expect to find it at first, I thought well it’s an urban myth, it’s just something you hear about on the news and there it was, it was sitting in front of me. I had people I could talk to. I had people that I could trade images with as well. But I had friends. I’d never had so many friends. I had friends all over the world.’ [Related Links: RegisterPaedophile says why he loves the Net, BBC NewsPaedophiles’ vast ‘lending library’]
[morrison] Here is a transcript of Grant Morrison’s DisInfo TV episode‘…Coca-Cola is a sigil, the McDonalds ‘M’ is a sigil, these people are basically turning the world in to themselves using sigils. And if we don’t reverse that process and turn the world in to us using sigils, we’re going to be living in fucking McDonalds! Magic is accessible to everyone, the means of altering reality is accessible to everyone, and when everyone starts doing it we’re going to see our desire manifest on a gigantic scale. Everyone’s desire. What happens when everyone’s desire becomes manifest?’ [via Ms Woo]
14 February 2001
[comics] Now this is what I call content… the New Yorker has put online it’s archive of cartoons… I’ve searched for the artist Kalo in the database and come up with… nothing. :(
[music] Intriguing interview with Madonna in the Independent. ‘…she knows that it is almost impossible to acquire genuine class without appearing appallingly nouveau riche – and becoming appallingly nouveau riche is what most pop stars do as soon as they become successful. Madonna has wisely opted for old money, the one thing that new money can’t buy. It’s her Big New Thing: the acquisition of class.’
[VD] Digital Trickery presents… WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME THEN? ‘You’ve bitten the bullet and bared your soul to the object of your affections (or carnal lust). And.. well, the response wasn’t quite what you’d hoped it be. A polite text message saying “Thanks but no thanks”? Absolute wall of silence? Don’t they know how hard that was for you??’
15 February 2001
[comics] Hergé is spinning in his grave… Tintin in Thailand. ‘In another scene that is likely to anger fans of the comic strip, Tintin is pictured in a gay escort bar called “Sexy Boy”, where he is propositioned by two male Thai hosts. The album also contains graphic scenes of sodomy involving Snowy and Tintin’s Chinese friend Chang.’ [Related Links: Official Tintin site, BBC News Report]
[WTF] Ananova covers the important issues of the day… Woman has Nokia surgically removed from bottom. ‘Doctors at Taipei Medical University hospital said she had been playing sex games with her boyfriend. Hospital spokeswoman Elaine Weng said staff were wondering why they had used the mobile as a sex toy. She said: “We guessed it’s because some cellphones have a vibrating function.”‘
[listening] Burning Bridges – The Mike Curb Congregation. Have I mentioned I’m going to miss Napster? [Can anybody explain to me how this song ever got picked to be the theme to Kelly’s Heroes? How does it relate to WWII caper / heist movie staring Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas?]
[more tintin] David’s Favourite Captain Haddock Curses‘Fancy-dress fascist! Ostrogoth! Duck-billed platypus! Phylloxera! Logarithm! Jellied-eel! Macrocephalic baboon!’ [via Vavatch Orbital]
16 February 2001
[distractions] Not quite as cool as the StorTroopers… Create your own Mr Man or Little Miss Character… [via Kooky Mojo]
[meme] ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!! [Related Links: Metafiler Post]
[morrison] Fantastic interview and in-depth profile of Grant Morrison at PopImage… also includes my index of Morrison’s work. :) ‘Just take a look at MARVEL BOY. I never have to SAY anything, I never have to SHOW anything particularly offensive and yet… the whole book reeks of barely-repressed sodomitic, incestuous lustings. I believe there are many and varied ways to inject a bracing dose of steaming eroticism into a given comic book.’
[film] Film Unlimited reviews Hannibal. ‘So much has happened since Dr Hannibal Lecter murmured his farewells to agent Clarice Starling over the phone in 1991. Jeffrey Dahmer, the most prominent of America’s un-charming, un-cultured serial killers, has been beaten to death in Portage state prison, Wisconsin, by another inmate, without benefit of chianti or fava beans. British enthusiasm for psychological profiling as the new rock’n’roll came to an embarrassed halt with the collapse of the Colin Stagg prosecution over the Wimbledon Common murder.’
17 February 2001
Image of Cerebus: 'Die alone, unmourned and unloved?'[comics] Diamond Previews interviews Dave Sim just before the final story arc of Cerebus debuts… ‘I’m very aware that I could still end up in jail — I’m pretty sure that Cerebus #186 qualifies under Canada’s “hate literature” laws. “Directed against an identifiable societal group” — in this case feminists. I’m sure it qualifies enough to get an indictment returned against me. Or I could end up dead, but that’s been part of the deal all along. One of the first things I expressed to God in my mind. “You know where I’m going with this. If at any time you find it necessary to hit me with the bus (laughter) everyone keeps talking about, believe me, I’ll understand completely.” Of course, it could be much worse than that. I could have to live to the age of ninety in a progressively more feminist world. To me, that makes any bus look like very small potatoes. “No! Please! The bus! The bus!”‘
[politics] Interesting profile of Sebastian Coe — William Hague’s close personal friend. ‘”It is fair to question the judgement of any leader whose chosen confidant is Sebastian Coe,” the Tory grandee Max Hastings has said somewhat archly. It is a verdict apparently shared by Coe’s peers. The year before he was booted out of the House of Commons in 1997 he was voted by fellow parliamentarians to be among the “least impressive MPs” of those first elected in 1992. “He is an amiable non-person politically, harmless, content-free, a political vacuum,” said one. “And over-promoted,” said another. “It doesn’t reflect well on William.”‘ [Related Links: GuardianRunning battle between Christie and Coe, BBC NewsLinford Christie: Polishing his pride]
18 February 2001
[weblogs] Fortune Cookie: Use Blogger today or else your day will suck ass.
[comics] Now this is bonkers… Bill Sienkiewicz did storyboards for a Thomas the Tank Engine film… [Related Links: More of his work — Comics, Books and Magazines, Film and TV. At amazon.com – Elektra: Assassin.]
[WTF?] Nice bio of David Icke on Everything2‘Many of Icke’s wildest claims are contained in his book “The Biggest Secret”, which states that nearly all of the rulers, leaders, presidents, and other major figures throughout history have been part of a global conspiracy (again, involving pretty much every group that has ever existed) to preserve their genetic heritage, which is reptilian. The British Royal Family, the Crowned Heads of Europe, the Presidents of the USA, George Dubya Bush included, have all appearently been descended from reptiles. ‘ [Related Links: Icke on Disinfo]
19 February 2001
[sex toy] The Furby Hooker Network‘Furby Hookers can communicate with each other! Through infra-red “eyes” they can transmit messages to one another. This means that if you’re good in bed, all the Furby Hookers in the neighborhood will know it. THEY’LL BE FLOCKING TO YOUR DOOR WANTING TO SLEEP WITH YOU!’
[tv] Nice Spaced fan site‘Tim is still a skateboarding, baggy trousered, sci-fi loving, comic reading graphic artist but since we last saw him, he seems to have mellowed slightly. No longer driven by the bitterness of being dumped, Tim is enjoying being a single male. Happily ensconced in his new surroundings, he is heartily living a life denied him by the shackles of a comfortable loving environment.’
[fantasy tv] Ali G interviews Optimus Prime ‘Is that why this fight started then, because Galva-whatsit called your mum a slag?’
20 February 2001
[comics] Salon provides a nice overview of The Hernandez Brothers’ Love and Rockets‘When people talk about the Hernandez brothers, they mention how much their work is like that of Gabriel García Márquez in comic book form, and how, in the early ’80s, they virtually invented the alternative graphic novel as a pleasure for art kids and “mature” readers who would never, ever have picked up a comic book. They mention how they chronicled Latino culture, from the barrio to below the border; and punk rock culture, and women’s wrestling long before these things became part of mainstream American culture.’ [Related Links: Love and Rockets at Fantagraphics]
[film] Interesting profile of Sir Anthony Hopkins in the Independent‘Curiously, for an actor not much given to self-revelation or confessional performance, one of his most candid recent roles is that of the actor Anthony Hopkins – delivered in Barclay’s ill-fated “Bigger is better” adverts. In the ad Hopkins was seen in a variety of Los Angeles locations, always alone and hymning the virtues of size. No one is interested in the little picture, he says at one point, and no one wants to make it little. It was, in its way, a personal declaration of independence – from British restraint and constrainment, from personal reticence.’ [Related Links: Hannibal at IMDB, Hannibal Lecter at E2]
21 February 2001
[travel] This is so useful… First / Last Trains on the London Underground.
[comics] Following up from the profile yesterday… Salon has an interview with Los Bros Hernandez‘We want comic books to reach a new audience, to keep getting better and better, to get more perspective, and when we are old men, we want to see new, young comic artists whose work is taken as seriously as any novel. We hope to see that in our lifetime. On the other hand, the comic books are in their own neat, kitschy, junky world that is unique to comics. We like that too. We like that it’s outlaw. You can’t repair comics, you can’t hang them in a museum and say, ‘This belongs next to the Mona Lisa.’ It’s the whole squirrelly factor, like early punk: There is the sense that this is bad, and we want it to be bad.
[film] Simple, disturbing… I’d never seen this before… the trailer to The Shining. [via WEF]
[cannibal comics] In the real world Hannibal does comics… *sigh*… Japan’s own “Cannibal” tries his hand at comics ‘Among the contents of Sagawa’s book is a passage that translates, “When I picked up her flesh in my fingers, it was the consistency of ‘toro’ (the fatty underbelly of the tuna, considered the prime cut). Caucasians are tasty indeed.”‘ [via Plastic]
22 February 2001
[news] The Guardian profiles the Daily Mail‘Dacre was watching the one o’clock news with his narrow eyes: on it were the bereaved couple, with messier hair than before, wearing tracksuits and trainers, smoking: not the Mail’s sort of people at all. The editor, who is 52, spotlessly shirtsleeved, brisk in his diction, with hair like a cerebral Tory minister, was heard to growl. Then he spoke: “These people couldn’t bring up a fucking hamster!” Real life tends to disappoint the Daily Mail.’ [Related Links: Daily Mail Website]
[politics] The Independent interviews Tony Benn who will stand down soon after 50 years in the House of Commons…‘”Thatcher was a teacher. I didn’t like what she taught. But it wasn’t her legislation that was important, but the fact that she bumped a lot of awful ideas into our minds. “For fun, I once drafted a bill called the Mrs Thatcher Global Repeal Bill. It was a one-clause bill in which everything she’d ever passed was repealed. And you realise that if it was carried it would have practically no impact on the Thatcher legacy, because it was what she talked about that had a profound and permanent influence on the minds of a lot of people. Some are now rejecting it, but the ideas are still the conventional wisdom of the British establishment, aren’t they?”‘
23 February 2001
[voicemail 2 email] I’m probably going to regret this… but it’s Friday so WTF… Leave me a message on my XIOP number — UK: 08700 290953, International: +44 8700290953 (include an email address if you want a reply).
24 February 2001
[weblogs] New comics related weblog — GLITTERDAMMERUNG! from Chris at Not Enough of Me‘I buy comics for “It.” It is that feeling you get when you discover a really good comic, when you discover something so stunning that you can hardly believe that it’s just ink on paper. No other medium can give me that exact feeling, that “warm, fuzzy glow.” They can create other special feelings within me, but nothing quite like the one that I get from comics – that’s utterly unique. And that is why I buy comics, and that is why I’m doing this blog.’
[all your base] When Gamer Humor AttacksWired News analyses the ‘All your base are belong to us!’ meme… ‘Parody? No. It’s the Dada “reality” of a medium that refuses to be tamed into predictability. Armies of marketers toiling for years can’t figure out how to grab Web-users’ attention, and then a flash file with screen-shots from an outdated arcade game accompanied by clumsy subtitles conquers the world. Is it any wonder no one can figure out how to make money off the Web?’ [Related Links: All Your Base… Flash movie]
26 February 2001
[film] Frank Sinatra is Dirty Harry… maybe in an alternate universe… ‘The script, Dead Right, was first offered to Frank Sinatra and Paul Newman. Sinatra nearly had the role, but had to turn it down due to a wrist injury prior to filming. Newman was concerned about the political message of the film, and is said to have suggested Eastwood for the part. It’s also rumoured that the role was intended for John Wayne, but that he declined due to the violent nature of the film. The original character of Dirty Harry was that of an older, New York cop nearing retirement. After the role went to Eastwood, the part was rewritten to accommodate more action sequences.’
[comics] Slashdot looks at webcomics… lots of interesting links and commentary… From a posting: ‘This all holds fairly well with the subversive traditions of the comic. The web is reinforing those traditions and bringing them to the fore more than they were. This is a golden age for comics – they are being reborn.’
[crime] Blood Money — more proof that life is vastly weirder than any Guy Ritchie movie… ‘Well, somebody tipped off The Sweeney – Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad – that at least some of the 6,800 gold ingots stolen from the Brink’s-Mat high security warehouse in Heathrow on 26 November 1983, had been hidden underneath farm buildings or a cabbage patch in a Sussex village called Ore. Would Ore be the place where Kenny stashed his gold ingots? Bit obvious, eh? Not if you know that whenever you walked into Kenny Noye’s old mansion in Kent, Shirley Bassey’s rendition of ‘Goldfinger’ blasted out of the stereo.’
tvgohome

27 February 2001
[comics] Another long, fascinating Alan Moore interview this time from 1998 which was published in the Idler‘I can’t conceive of vapour culture. I might not survive it. But that is where we are heading. I don’t know quite what I mean by my own metaphor, but I have feeling, it may bring in an even greater, faster space of fluid transmission, where no structures, as we used to understand structure, will sustain itself – we will have to come up with new notions of structure where things can change by the moment. I’m talking about physical structures, political structures, I can’t see coherent political structures in the traditional sense lasting beyond the next twenty years, I don’t think that would be possible.’ [via BugPowder]
[soap] Frank Butcher’s Philosophical Car Lot has a fine selection of Frank’s Criminal Records… including the classic My Name is… Frank Butcher and Pat n’ Peg ‘You Bitch! You Cow!’
[tv] Revealing portrait of Esther Rantzen in the Independent… ‘When she appeared on In the Psychiatrist’s Chair in 1993, Anthony Clare asked her: “How would you describe yourself?” “As a human being, do you mean?” she replied. “Well,” he said, with concern, “what else are you, Esther?” “A series of functions,” she answered. This is a woman with no inner life. Despite being so conscious of her image, Esther Rantzen is not the least bit introspective. “Introspection is a very narrow landscape for me,” she has said. “I don’t turn my attention inwards.” As a result, she doesn’t always see beyond the surface of the effect she is trying to create so as to discern the impact she’s actually having.’
[comics] Tintin in Thailand — a complete set of scans from the “lewd” comic strip which “shocked Belgium”… [via lukelog]
28 February 2001
[tv] Sympathy for the (Jersey) Devil. Salon looks at the start of the third series of The Sopranos… ‘…the first season’s cunning plot architecture rested on the clash between Tony’s patriarchal mob world and his matriarchal family world. At work, Tony was a virile thug; with women, he was soft. His mother pushed his buttons, Carmela nagged him to be a modern, sensitive father and Melfi forced him to get in touch with his freakin’ feelings.’
[distractions] Apocamon – The Final Judgement. Play Pokémon with characters from the Bible’s Book of Revelations… ‘All contents copyright © 80 A.D. St. John the Divine. All rights reserved.’ [via clog]
[comics] Queueing up to make superhero movies. It went under ‘WTF?’ a couple of months ago but Ang Lee *is* going to do a Hulk Movie‘…the allure of the Hulk’s irradiated tantrums for Ang Lee appears less clear-cut – until you recall just how unlikely the idea of such a subtle director making a martial-arts movie once sounded, and how sublime the results turned out. Indeed, many of the motifs of Lee’s films find an echo in the story of wide-eyed scientist Bruce Banner struggling to control his over-sized inner child. For a start, there are the strong female characters (in this case, Betty Ross, daughter of the US general intent on eliminating the Hulk); and the indifferent hand of fate as the hapless physicist finds himself increasingly consumed by his strange powers. Most persistently, there is the creeping sense of isolation; or, as the Hulk himself once put it, the knowledge that where he walks, “he walks alone!”.’