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February 28, 2009
[comics] Livejournal Kills Scans_Daily … ‘The community has been dedicated to posting scans of new and classic comics for comment and critique (and yes, sometimes ridicule), although most scans are limited to a few pages by the community’s rules. Comics luminaries such as Warren Ellis and Gail Simone spent time there regularly, and Ellis once gave a year’s worth of paid time to the comm. A common theme among disappointed fans tonight is how S_D got them into reading comics.’
Update: Peter David Kills Scans_Daily
[watchmen] The Visceral Horrors of ‘Watchmen’ Movie Merchandise … On a Comedian Costume: ‘So, how many people are going to wear this without realizing that they’re dressed as a serial rapist who shot a pregnant woman in the face?’
February 26, 2009
[mail] Return to sender: Artist puts Royal Mail to the test … nicely done envelopes addressed with artistic brain-teasers … 
February 24, 2009
[funny] Sasha Obama Keeps Seeing Creepy Bush Twins While Riding Tricycle Through White House … ‘As disturbing as her encounters have been, Sasha claimed that the sounds of incessant typing emanating from the Oval Office in recent days are what worry her the most.’
February 23, 2009
[comics] Reading The Watchmen: Ten Entrance Points Into The Esteemed Graphic Novel … Tom Spurgeon on Watchmen … ‘One thing the film trailers have reminded us is how gob-smackingly weird and lurid and intense Dave Gibbons’ visual interpretation of Moore’s script was in the original graphic novel. All those oranges and browns and yellows set against mostly somber grays and blues. And then the squid shows up.’
February 22, 2009
[smile] A design for Life … Jon Savage on the Smiley Face symbol … ‘It may seem weird that such a bland symbol should be used to convey emotion, in such a way that creates as much distance as real empathy. But then there is something powerfully archetypal about an image of a happy face that resembles the sun. Infantilisation or greater communication, joy or horror: the Smiley can encompass everything.’
February 20, 2009
[comics] BeaucoupKevin(dot)com: Why I will not be seeing Watchmen … ‘The more I see of the film version of Watchmen, the less I like it, and perhaps more importantly, the more I dislike what it represents: the dumbing-down of something greater for the sake of a false “authenticity” that’s apparent only to those shallowest of readers of the source material.’
[movies] How accurate was Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” about the future? … from Currybetdotnet … On Leonard Rossiter: ‘The problem is that, 6 years before ‘Rising Damp’ hit British television, Leonard Rossiter is basically playing a Russian scientist as if he were Rupert Rigsby…’
February 19, 2009
[movies] The Universe According to Kaufman … profile of Charlie Kaufman … On Synecdoche: ‘Near the film’s end Caden is confronted by a sea of Post-it notes that stretch toward the horizon, each signifying a part of a larger whole. He takes in the expanse and says, “I don’t know why I make it so complicated”.’
February 18, 2009
[history] The greatest motivational poster ever? … BBC News on the Keep Calm and Carry On Poster … ‘One company has given it a twist, replacing the original slogan with “Now Panic and Freak Out”.’
[comics] British Comic Creators: The Heroes of UK Comics … interesting list from Paul Gravett but missing out John Wagner? FAIL. ‘I don’t intend to get too flag-wavingly patriotic here, but it has to be said that British comics creators stand amongst the greatest in the world…’ [via Metafilter]
February 17, 2009
[comics] The Collector – ‘Profits of Doom’ Photostrip story … ancient Alan Moore photo comic story from Eagle in 1982.
February 16, 2009
[quotes] The words of Mickey Rourke, actor, 56 … On his early days in Hollywood: ‘I was bouncing at a transvestite nightclub… and back then all the transvestites were on this shit called Angel Dust, so you’d hit them over the head with a baseball bat but they’d keep on coming…’
February 15, 2009
[funny] The Tiger Mike Memos … amusingly controlling management memos from an oil company in the 70′s … 
February 13, 2009
[facebook] 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know … ‘I figured that many people would benefit from a thorough overview on how to protect your privacy on Facebook. Below is a step by step process for protecting your privacy…’ [via Metafilter]
[movies] A List Of Mindfuck Movies … On 2001: A Space Odyssey: Yes, it’s a meticulously crafted and imminently rational three-course meal of a film. For the first two hours, anyhow. And then, in the final 30 minutes, it serves up a steaming bowl of WTF for dessert.
February 12, 2009
[murder] My father’s murder: Taking his life in my hands … the sad story of a man facing up to his father’s murder and sexually murky past … ‘I sifted the contents of his house for another five months. After the trial I finally felt strong enough to empty it: the furniture, his clothes, my mother’s clothes, the nine video machines, the bamboo canes and the leather paddles and the blackboard. Then I started stripping and cleaning. I told myself it would help sell the flat. How could anyone think of buying it? But I also imagined that if I cleaned long enough and hard enough, the dull patina of dried blood that seemed to cling to every surface would finally go. I hoped that if I emptied the flat of its objects, and pared back its contents to nothing, I would uncover the place that I grew up in, before Ivor was the old man, before he was a legend. I couldn’t find that place, and I didn’t think I would find it in the boxes and among the papers either.’
[tv] The Sopranos, Uncensored … ‘This is every single curse, from every single episode of the sopranos, ever.’
February 11, 2009
[shopping] Stuck in the Lidl with you … a Guardian journalist on shopping at Lidl … ‘If walking into Sainsbury’s is like walking into the middle of a massive children’s party, which it is, especially at the weekend, then walking into Lidl is like being mugged by the guy who makes balloon animals.’
February 10, 2009
[comics] Todd Klein on Dave Gibbons Cover and Logo Design for Watchmen … ‘To begin with, Dave (and all the design work here was by Dave Gibbons, with some help from DC’s Richard Bruning at the final stages) decided to use a simple, very bold sans-serif font for the logo, and run it up the side of the cover rather than across the top. This allowed the logo to be large and striking, while still leaving lots of room for the art…’ [via Neilalien]
February 9, 2009
[fun] London Bus Slogan Generator … Freedom Is Surrender To Darkseid: 
[knowledge] Clive Thompson on How More Info Leads to Less Knowledge … ‘Normally, we expect society to progress, amassing deeper scientific understanding and basic facts every year. Knowledge only increases, right? Robert Proctor doesn’t think so. A historian of science at Stanford, Proctor points out that when it comes to many contentious subjects, our usual relationship to information is reversed: Ignorance increases. He has developed a word inspired by this trend: agnotology. Derived from the Greek root agnosis, it is “the study of culturally constructed ignorance.” As Proctor argues, when society doesn’t know something, it’s often because special interests work hard to create confusion…’
February 7, 2009
[apple] Hacking the Apple TV … how-to from the Register … ‘Apple continues to describe its Apple TV set-top box as a “hobby” project: it’ll continue to develop the platform, but it’s not making any money out of it yet. The gadget’s a hobby project for a lot of other folk too. They want to gain access to this closed but surprisingly powerful system to make it more useful. We’ve had an Apple TV unit for a while now, and we decided it was time to dig a little deeper into its foundations…’
February 6, 2009
[twitter] Jon Ronson is on Twitter … ‘Hitler had a special cow commissioned. A master cow.’ [link]
February 5, 2009
[tv] Adam West: Behind the mask … 2005 profile of the Batman actor … “Batman was comedy,” West says, “let’s face it. What I loved about Batman was his total lack of awareness when it came to his interaction with the outside world. He actually believed nobody could recognise him on the phone, when he was being Bruce Wayne, even though he made no attempt to disguise his voice.”
“In the same way that Inspector Clouseau never notices his accent,” I suggest, “when everybody around him is also French.”
“That’s right. In the first episode, Batman goes into a nightclub in the cowl, cape and bat gloves. When the maître d’ says: ‘Ringside table, Batman?’ he replies, ‘No thank you – I’ll stand at the bar. I would not wish to be conspicuous.’”
February 4, 2009
[comics] Comics Lettering Grammar and Tradition … fascinating (okay, to me at least) look at the overlooked craft of comics lettering. [via Daring Fireball] 
February 2, 2009
[comics] Forthcoming Work by Alan Moore for 2009 (and Beyond..) … from Glycon’s Livejournal … ‘Saga of the Swamp Thing, Book 1: The first volume of Moore’s run on Swamp Thing, collected in hardback for the first time, and including Saga of the Swamp Thing #20, never previously reprinted.’ [via Forbidden Planet's Blog]
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