4 April 2001
[movies] Trailers for the Ghost World Movie (Modem, Broadband) from Dan Clowes and Terry Zwigoff. [via Comic Geek]
5 April 2001
[blog] Weblogs.com is back along with Recently Updated UK Weblogs. Incidentally — I just noticed this neat Updated UK Weblogs sidebar for Netscape and IE from Jez at the Coffee Grounds…
6 April 2001
[piracy] Science Friction — Harlan Ellison goes after the fans who post his work on-line… ‘…Robertson is an archetypal member of science fiction fandom, an intensely loyal and active community of readers. For decades, sci-fi fans communicated through mimeographed zines and at annual conventions. When the Net came along, with its chat rooms, fan sites and file swapping, it was as if they’d finally made contact with the mothership. But Ellison is underwhelmed by such devotion, especially when it involves trading his stories. “At some point,” says Ellison, “you just look around and say, ‘Mother of God, the gene pool is just polluted and we really ought to turn it over to the cockroaches if we can’t do any better than this!”‘ [via WEF]
[books] She is beautiful and very young — ever read a Wilbur Smith novel? I’d assumed he was dead but it turns out that Wilbur just married his 4th wife, a woman half his age from Russia…. ‘With so many children around, he says they don’t need any of their own. “We have discussed it, but the jury is out. I don’t want children. Why should I let some strange little monster into my life to destroy what to me is a perfect set-up?” Chauvinism on this scale, in these times, is almost heroic. Smith may be hamming it up, but there is no doubt that he envies the heroes of his books their absolute authority.’
[soap] The Guardian reviews last night’s Eastenders…. On Lisa: ‘She is pregnant, and you consider with horror the frightful future fruit of Lisa’s womb and Phil’s loins. It will not, you suspect, be the nicer kind of child.’ [Related Link: BBC Episode Update]
[queen] Press row envelops Queen. ‘Officials insisted that reports of the Queen’s annoyance were overplayed. “She doesn’t do furious – she is supremely detached,” said one.’
7 April 2001
[lizards] Beset By Lizards [Part 1] [Part 2] — Jon Ronson on David Icke. ‘…so far, to the coalition’s bafflement, Mulroney had declined to initiate legal action. Indeed, every individual accused of reptilian paedophilia by David Icke had so far failed to sue, including Bob Hope, George Bush, George Bush Jr, Ted Heath, the Rothschild family, Boxcar Willie, the Queen of England, the Queen Mother, Prince Philip, Kris Kristofferson, Al Gore and the steering committee of the Bilderberg Group. “Why do you think that is?” David Icke had asked me when I interviewed him about this matter in London. Then he turned to my notepad and thundered, “Come on, Ted Heath! Sue me if you’ve got nothing to hide! Come on, George Bush! I’m ready! Sue me! I’m naming names! Come on, Jon? Why are they refusing to sue me?” There was a silence. “Because they are twelve-foot lizards?” I suggested, smally. “Yes!” said David. “Exactly!”‘
[crime] Only in America… Henry Hill has his own website — Henry is the gangster Ray Liotta played in Good Fellas. Unsurprisingly, his website includes a Threat of the Week section… ‘How does it feel to be a stool pigeon, you rat bastard?’
8 April 2001
[books] Louis Theroux reviews Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson. ‘As the book progresses, what emerges is the degree to which the real-life Bilderberg Group and the researchers who campaign against it are negatives of each other. Intentionally or not, the alleged bodies of world domination do create suspicion and resentment with their cloak-and-dagger mentality, their self-importance and their alarmism. It is no surprise to learn that some Bilderbergers quite like the idea that they are secretly running the world: it flatters their vanity.’ [Related Link: Them at Amazon]
[paranoia] More from Jon Ronson…. Paranoid London – from A-Z ”P is for Prince Philip’s home (Buckingham Palace) …LaRouche adds that Prince Philip secretly determines government policy in the UK. Foot and mouth, furthermore, is a manufactured front designed to terrify the British public into joining the satanic European Union. And Prince Philip’s well-documented foot-in-mouth disease? Another front. He is not dim. He is an evil genius.’ [via Digital Trickery]
9 April 2001
[666] Is Prince Charles a 12 foot tall telepathic Lizard? No. He is the Anti-Christ. ‘And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.’ [thanks Phil]
[murder] Interesting profile of Jeremy Bamber from a few weeks back…. ‘Jeremy Bamber was sentenced to life in 1986 for the murder of five family members in their Essex farmhouse – his adopted parents, his adoptive sister and her six-year-old twins. Last week his case was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the criminal cases review commission. If the three appeal judges are more impressed by new evidence concerning a bloodstained gun silencer than they are by Bamber’s audacious website, the man who was accused of coolly plotting “the perfect crime” could be free before Christmas.’ [Related Link: Bamber’s Website via the power of Google’s Cache]
10 April 2001
[redmond rose] This lady really wants to help Bill Gates… ‘My Angel want’s Bill Gates to leave Microsoft. He is trying to protect you Bill. He want me to help you, but I need to get paid. Remember when I did the satellite research for you? I am just the porthole–the messenger. He doesn’t like the company and friends you keep. I’ve been channeling for you for 10 years. I told you–Microsoft is haunted. That is the real reason for the Moebius in your software. We need to put some of these ghost to rest. That is why I’m here. All you have to do to end this is apologize and pay restitution.’ [cheers, PB]
[comics] Brian Michael Bendis interviewed from an Australian comic convention… ‘…so to come to a convention and see a room full of people all that just love comics, it makes you feel good about comics, it makes you feel like comics will always be around, there?s too many people around that want them for it to be otherwise. Also, in America, conventions can get a little? ?smelly?, whereas at this one everyone was clean, there wasn?t a lot of crazy people, it was very nice. People with jobs, futures, spouses, and there were kids at the show too, which you don?t get much of that in America, so that?s nice.’
11 April 2001
[politics] Alastair Campbell on the Royal Family… ‘Prince Edward would not normally be allowed house room in a column which likes to deal with serious subjects, and Majesty magazine would not normally be allowed across the Campbell threshold. But some statements are so mind-blowing they cannot be ignored. I quote from the said prince in the said magazine: “In this country we’re always looking down, always looking in, trying to belittle ourselves. All this constant thing about class, for instance, which is the worst thing in the world Marx ever invented.” Invented!! Can you believe he said that?’
[tv] You ask the Questions to… David Soul. ‘There’s a classic moment in the credits of Starsky & Hutch when I come running down some stairs, step on to a wall and do a “seat-drop” on top of my car. It is, without a doubt, the stupidest, most painful self-inflicted stunt I ever did. No stuntman would have been that stupid. Two years later, it cost me back surgery. Big price for the sake of a little ego.’
[comics] A nice one page comic from Adrian Tomine…. First Date Signals.
12 April 2001
[sex] Norman Mailer on sex, love, ethics and pornography… ‘I think most of us aren’t good enough for love. I think self-pity is probably the most rewarding single emotion in the world for masturbators, which is one of the reasons, I suppose, I’m opposed to masturbation, because it encourages other vices to collect around you. Self-pity is one of the first. You lie in bed, pull off, and say to yourself, I have such wonderful, beautiful, tender, sweet, deep, romantic, exciting and sensual emotions, why is it that no woman can appreciate how absolutely fabulous I am? Why can’t I offer these emotions to someone else? Self-pity comes rolling in, and cuts us off from recognizing that love is a reward. Love is not something that is going to come up and solve your problems.’ Hmmm. [via Metascene]
[meme] Orbyn wonders… Who is Christian Goldman?
[comics] Dave Sim’s final word on gender issues…. Tangent. Discussion about Sim and Tangent is going on here. ‘I think he’s out of his mind, but it’s kind of fascinating. I think Dave should ditch the aardvark and do Chick-style comics, like the Crusaders. He could draw himself and Gerhard as agents for the top-secret Government team, T.A.N.G.E.N.T, trying to cripple the feminist/homosexualist axis before it takes control of society, by rallying all the Men in the world who want to defend their right to smack the ol’ lady around a little if she stops bringing those beers every 15 minutes during the NASCAR marathon. Ger could be depicted as a black “street-dude”, lending cred at Dave’s side and helping him sacrifice all the homos, dog-fuckers, and ugly virgins that come their way. And all this before breakfast!’ — Eric Reynolds on Sim.
[wtf?] Only on the Internet… ‘I’m not a Nazi’ Swastika Gallery. ‘The Swastikas in this gallery are related to Buddhists, ancient Greeks, Native Americans, Boy Scouts, street gangs, Nazis, homosexuals, and more… what a great variety of people to invite to a party! So why include Nazi Swastikas? As insane and dangerous as the Nazis were, you gotta admit they looked cool! They lost the war, but they won the fashion show. What other army’s officers wore full length black leather trench coats, high black boots and riding crops?’ [via Hate Male]
13 April 2001
[comics] Great gallery of literary figures from various comic artists. Some favourites… H.P. Lovecraft by Chris Bachalo, Terry Southern by Bob Fingerman, Yossarian by Keith Giffen, and Stephen King by Ken Meyer Jr.
14 April 2001
[tv] Slightly revealing profile of Chris Evans… ‘Not all women were impressed by the Evans persona. The commentator Emma Forrest wrote in The Independent: “He is, when you come down to it, a classic insecure ugly man, which is why so much of his air time is taken up telling us which models and which blonde assistants he has shagged. The worst segments on TFI are ‘Ugly Bloke’ and ‘Fat Lookalikes’. That he feels he is in enough of a position of power to sit behind his desk, looking how he does, and get ‘ugly’ people to humiliate themselves in front of millions, is astounding.”‘
15 April 2001
[nasty profiles] One of the pleasures of reading newspapers is seeing bitter journalists take pot-shots at celebrities in the form of a so-called profile …. here is one of Heather Mills from the Sunday Times. On Paul McCartney: ‘Even before the two were itemised, she was confiding in the tabloids about her new friend. In a neat reversal of Mrs Merton’s famous question to Debbie McGee (“So what attracted you to millionaire Paul Daniels?”), Mills declared: “Paul is such a caring, thoughtful and compassionate man. I suppose that must be the reason he was drawn to me”.’ [Related Links: About Heather Mills]
[comics] McCloud Cuckoo-Land — Gary Groth looks at Scott McCloud’s Reinventing Comics. ‘What is most deficient about the 113-page section devoted to comics and the Internet is the level of critical intelligence on display, which is embarrassingly superficial: McCloud embraces all Internet and digital technology without reservation. The bibliography doesn’t allow for any books remotely questioning of the new world order. Every book about computers or the Internet (and there aren’t many, at that) is basically by a well-known cheerleader for the industry; no dissidents are allowed in the McCloudian world view. In McCloud’s jolly and affirmative presentation, the Internet is an instrument of comics’ (not to say the world’s) salvation and skeptics are dismissed as “cynics,” to whom McCloud may as well hang a “Do Not Enter” sign on the cover of the book.’
16 April 2001
[blogs] Two unrelated links: Trellix and Blogger do a deal …. not.so.soft is thinking.
[tank man] The Unknown Rebel — Time profiles China’s Tank Man… ‘Almost nobody knew his name. Nobody outside his immediate neighborhood had read his words or heard him speak. Nobody knows what happened to him even one hour after his moment in the world’s living rooms. But the man who stood before a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square–June 5, 1989–may have impressed his image on the global memory more vividly, more intimately than even Sun Yat-sen did. Almost certainly he was seen in his moment of self-transcendence by more people than ever laid eyes on Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and James Joyce combined.’
17 April 2001
[comics] Interesting interview with Kyle Baker at Silver Bullet Comics… ‘Television is designed for one thing: To sell advertising time. Television by necessity celebrates and incubates materialism. The goal of a television writer is to put an audience in a frame of mind favorable to buying the advertiser’s product. As writers, we are clearly instructed to avoid writing anything which may offend anyone. Phrases or situations that may seem tame or realistic to us are routinely cut from scripts because conservatives in the Midwest may be disturbed, and therefore may not buy detergent from the sponsor.’ [via Pete@Bugpowder]
[blogs] Dan has some interesting comments on the Barbelith / UKBloggers cross-over — I’ve noticed a number of UKBloggers have joined the Underground and there are plenty of Barbelith bloggers… (if you’re reading this post late look at Dan’s blog for 15/4/01). ‘Still, as microcultures both are absolutely fascinating. I for one am looking forward to the increasingly inevitable joint meeting, given Tom’s deitic status within both and the increasing cross-pollination from one to the other.’
18 April 2001
[comics] After Tangent there can only be…. Dave Sim’s Guide To Getting Chicks! ‘I’ve found that, with a little practice, it’s easy to go without sex entirely. Now that you’ve tamed that female, let her go. She’s under the mental size limit. It’s catch and release at the ol’ Sim fishin’ hole. I’m perfectly happy doing my puzzle books and lots and lots of push-ups. In fact, I’ve found that by going celibate and not masturbating, the sexual urge is like a rash that goes away on its own. A dirty, sinful, bad rash. It’s ugly. I hate it! I scrub and scrub but the filth just won’t. come. OFF.’
[distractions] Another site I’ve been meaning to blog for ages — Notes & Queries. Important profound examples: What is the point of pubic hair? Why do Magpies collect shiny objects? How can I become a charismatic, likeable, well-connected and wealthy person with the least amount of effort? What is the most effective way to start an urban myth? [reminded by Tom]
[politics] Proof that the Tory Party is indeed The Dogs Bollocks… [thanks to Meg — blogging via proxy!]
[confession time meme] Tom: ‘Come to think of it, teenage fetishes have a lot to answer for.’ Okay, time to be honest — for me it was…. urm… Carly Simon and Catwoman… and later I had ‘feelings’ for… Servalan from Blake Seven. But Carly was my first pointless crush of many… :)
19 April 2001
[tv] The Independent profiles Dom Joly… ‘he has decided to abandon his trademark giant mobile phone and hunker down to other projects that involve less public humiliation.”I don’t want to become the nation’s prankster,” he reflects. “Because they tend to be arses, really.” And also, maybe, because the prankster’s moment of hubris cannot be deferred indefinitely. “I had this terrible thought yesterday when I was taking my baby daughter for a walk in her stroller. I did a joke in the first series where a baby gets pulled into the air by a balloon. And I just thought, what if someone runs over the stroller in a car, and leers out the window and shouts ‘Aha! You don’t fool me!’ It would be dreadful. And I’d deserve it.”‘
[comics] Matt Wagner has a new “official website”.
[distractions] Internet Killed the Video Star. [via Yungee]
[music] Carly Simon gets asked this question a lot…. Who is You’re So Vain about? ‘It always strikes me as funny. That people would be THAT into what I was thinking about, that’s the greatest ego trip anybody could have….that they would be THAT interested in what you were thinking about when you wrote a song. And for that very reason, of course, I can never give it away.’ [Related: Lyrics to You’re So Vain]
20 April 2001
[books] Out of the Dark — The Guardian interviews James Ellroy. ‘Confusing the writer with his work is a dangerous game, of course, and Ellroy expresses surprise that he is often portrayed as a tough guy when, in truth, he had no stomach for serious crime or violence even as he lived a disordered and profligate life. “I was pathetic, physically weak, drug and booze debilitated, a buffoon, and scared of my own shadow. But you know what? My shadow was something to be scared of. I saw the enemy and it was me.” ‘ [Related: My Dark Places — probably my favourite book.]
21 April 2001
[books] The Secret Diary of a Provincial Man — Adrian Mole continues in the Guardian every Saturday… ‘Pamela came round with an egg-decorating kit. William’s eggs were a riot of primary colours; Glenn’s depicted Jesus on the cross. He wrote a bubble out of Jesus’s mouth, “Father, why hast thou forsaken me?”, which disturbed Pamela: “For God’s sake, Glenn lighten up. It’s Easter!” Later, while William played with the packing of his Barbie egg and Glenn watched The Greatest Story Ever Told, she led me to my room and gave an erotic Easter egg, the centre of which contained a pair of edible knickers. She was keen for me to break it open and retrieve them. I was less keen: a glance at the ingredients told me they were choc-a-bloc with obscure chemicals and multisyllable flavourings.’
[comics] Custody Battle — Interesting article on Joe Simon and his legal fight to take back Captain America from Marvel Comics (who have claimed ownership since 1940). ‘Back in his day, Simon and his colleagues, writers and artists plying their trade in smoky office buildings, knew their audience: 12-year-old boys. They knew what they wanted: good guys in tights beating up the bad guys, who most often looked a lot like a guy named Adolf. But now, Simon says from his one-room apartment in Manhattan, “comic books are for, I dunno, the masturbation generation.” His laugh sounds like a train in the distance; his is a deep, New York voice that suggests a much younger man of sharp mind and sound body. “They all look alike–little boys with big guns and little girls with big boobs,” he says, and it’s hard to tell if he’s amused or disgusted.’ [via ComicGeek]
22 April 2001
[comics] Warren Ellis is interviewed by Fandom about the comic book industry and some new books he’s working on… ‘Patrick Stewart. Patrick bloody Stewart. Not really interested in comics, doesn`t know much about them other than the usual. Someone at his production company says take these, these two things you might be interested in. Now you can`t pry FROM HELL out of his hand and he`s written the introduction to the next TRANSMET trade paperback. Three years ago there wasn`t a comic in his house. He`s the audience we`re not reaching – an intelligent person who just wants to read something that makes his nerve endings crackle.’ [Related: Warren Ellis Website, Ordering Comics Site]
[news] The Observer profiles Timothy McVeigh’s last days… ‘It has always puzzled investigators why McVeigh would leave such a trail behind him, including using his own name at a motel the night before the blast and using the same card when ordering the fertiliser and fuel. “I have never caught Tim out on a lie,” insists Michel. “Strange as that may sound, he is very proud of what he has done. Talking of it, he has the enthusiasm of a high-school kid describing a science project he has just completed.” Michel quotes McVeigh as telling him: “Because the truth is, I blew up the Murrah building and isn’t it kind of scary that one man could reap this kind of hell?”‘
[drink] The Ultimate Hangover Cure… ‘3 Nurofen 1 vitamin C tablet 1 Alka Seltzer 1 can Coca-Cola (not diet) 1 greasy breakfast from office canteen. The next day trying to recover from the effect of some stealthy margaritas, I tried it and it worked a treat; the vitamin C made me feel healthy, the Alka Seltzer with all the buzzing and fizzing perked me up; the breakfast – important to remember the baked beans – filled me up and the Coke… well. I’ve never really known what Coke does but it always feels good the day after the night before. The cardinal rule of hangover cures is that they all include a can of Coke. That is my basic recommendation. But for something with a bit of kick and a more rapid result, the Adam Edwards Hangover Cure is the Exocet missile of remedies; tried, tested, recommended.’
23 April 2001
[nostalgia] 101 Things We Don’t Miss… ‘Pickled eggs. In Wales, where pickled eggs are still a foodstuff of choice, they buy them with a bag of prawn cocktail crisps, then they scrunch the egg up in the crisps and eat the offending egg with a carapace of crisp around it, for flavour. If that doesn’t say all there is to say about how noxious the things are, I can’t think what does.’ [Guilty Secret: I love pickled eggs… here’s a recipe.]
[tv] My Mobster Days Are Over — interview with James Gandolfini from The Sopranos. ‘Although the Soprano family is a fictional one, its doings are closely monitored by its non-fiction counterparts, who do not hesitate to pass their verdicts on the show and let the actors know if their behaviour does not ring true. “I talk to some gentlemen who have friends who are these poeple and most of them enjoy the show,” says Gandolfini. “They get a good laugh out of it, although once when I wore shorts in a barbecue scene it was relayed to me that it was not something these gentlemen would do, even at a barbecue.”‘
24 April 2001
[music] Christopher Walken + Spike Jonze + Fatboy Slim = An Amazing Video… [link via Metafilter — but T mentioned this to me first.]
[blogs] The Coffee Grounds has a new version of the Updated UK Blogs page available. It takes the list of names to check from Gblogs whichs means you can watch pretty much every UK Blog as they update…
[profiles] Barry Norman: Films ain’t what they used to be — the Independent profiles the film critic… On why he’s retiring: ‘”It’s not as much fun as it used to be,” he says. “The film industry has changed, and I find it slightly depressing that almost all the big movies coming out of Hollywood next year are based on comic books. Even Ang Lee’s doing one. Also, the one person who’s always been low on the totem pole in the movie industry, the writer, is now lower than ever before.”‘
[confession] Darren is wearing provocatively threadbare underwear. [via Brainsluice]
25 April 2001
[dad] Becoming like your Father — every man’s worst nightmare? ‘…what men really fear is turning into someone they said they would never ever resemble. I might be a Guardian-reading Old Labour hack living in Highbury, but my dad is a Telegraph-reading former farmer who regards Ian Paisley as a moderating influence on the Northern Ireland peace process. Farmers have never been the most optimistic of people, and I have never been more grateful than now that I didn’t follow my father’s footsteps in that regard. Yet every so often, I come out with a sentiment that sounds just like my dad, such as advising Nicola not to put a window box on that ledge in case it falls on someone in the street and we are sued.’
[movies] Movie Mistakes…. Massive list of mistakes in Titanic include: ‘One of the misconceptions about the upper class and steerage passengers is that they were separated solely due to class reasons. First and I believe second class passengers had medical certificates that say they were free of disease, so they didn’t have to pass through any kind of port check when they landed. One way of guaranteeing this was to keep them totally separated. This was common practice on the ocean liners of the time. Jack’s being able to get into first class wasn’t just improbable it was potentially dangerous.’ [via Chris]
26 April 2001
[comics] Grant Morrison updates his site… new column… New X-Men details… ‘The work should speak for itself I think but I hope people will enjoy the effort we?ve put into this posthuman soap romp. The series is very shiny and takes the X-Men to new places and to NEW extremes of body and mind. Brutal, fantastic and driven by cosmic angst…We?re emphasising some of the dormant hardcore elements of the Claremont/Byrne era and pumping them up to full volume. Ultra-violet light. Weird cruelty. Mental torture. Transformation. Alien empires. Stress. That kind of thing. I?ve tried to be very faithful to the ever-present darker undercurrents of my favourite X-Men era.’
[cyberpunk] The Guardian previews a new documentary about the life and work of William Gibson… ‘”He’ll talk until the cows come home about literature,” explains Neale. “But the stuff he hasn’t gone on the record about in the past, things like the loss of his parents, his dodging of the draft and taking drugs took a long time to get out of him. I had to go back and ask him those things several times. But drug culture was such a big part of his life. “He decided to go on the record in a way that he has very deliberately avoided for a long time. Bits and pieces of his story have come out in interviews over the years, but the full story hasn’t been told in its entirety. I suppose he has always been a bit of a recluse”.’
[fubar] I have been fascinated by Sam Sloan since I discovered his site…. How can you not respect a man who sued Richard Nixon? Or a man who is willing to ponder the big questions in his life — Am I the father of this child? ‘The sexual freedom movement of the late 1960s produced few children because women had been newly liberated by the pill, which had just become widely available. Because women were free from the possible consequences of child birth for the first time, wild and rampant sex orgies became fashionable. One product of these sex orgies is the woman here, who was born in 1969. She believes that I may be her father.’ [Related: Cranks Dot Net]
27 April 2001
[comics] Wonder Woman’s Powers — the Washington Post (WTF?) covers Phil Jiminez, Wonder Woman and her long dead creator William Moulton Marston. ‘When it comes to deconstructing Wonder Woman, how much of the day can anyone (should anyone) spend thinking only about her power cleavage, or being helpless in the cinch of her kinky golden lasso? Where else to begin? With a pencil. First, he sketches her face, then neck, bare shoulders. He then moves down to the double-W’s emblazoned across her thrust-out chest. For reference, Phil Jimenez keeps handy a three-ring binder of pages clipped from women’s lingerie catalogues and lady bodybuilder magazines. As the current illustrator and co-writer of DC Comics’ monthly Wonder Woman comic book, Jimenez comes to the task understanding, as a gay man, that his heroine is ultimately about so much more than her ta-tas.’ [via Haddock]
[blog] David is walking across London… and it’s being blogged LIVE here via “cyber-Boswell” Ian. ‘Hopefully he’s going to stop for a cup of coffee; this pace is killing me. (At this rate he’ll be at Heathrow by dusk!)’
[more blogs] It had to happen… after a year or so of me talking at my flatmate about blogs he has gone and bitten the bullet and done one himself… Wanderers Weblog. All I can say is: Thank God it’s not a personal one.
[questions] The Independent’s You Ask The Questions… does Martin Amis. ‘Do you ever worry about turning into your father, Kingsley? This question cannot but sound sinisterly comic to me. If the Kingsley we are referring to is the Kingsley of his last years, then I could naturally do without the physical metamorphosis for at least the time being. Probably the suggestion is: am I worried about inheriting his political curve, worried about waking up one morning as the apoplectic reactionary he would sometimes (morosely but playfully) impersonate? No. Our political histories are antithetical. I have always been pallidly left-of-centre. In our more vituperative disagreements (about nuclear weapons, for example), I used to counter-attack by saying that he was the politically excitable being, not me (my father served as an active Communist for much of his twenties). In other ways, I wouldn’t mind turning into Kingsley. I would like to maintain such lifelong affections with all my children. And I wouldn’t mind writing a novel as good as The Old Devils, when I’m 64.’
28 April 2001
[comics] Starman is wrapping up after seven years and eighty issues… Fandom has an interesting retrospective. ‘One of the best throughlines of the entire series that ties the past to the present, of course, was Jack?s relationship with his father, Ted Knight, the original Starman. The two began as near-opposites, but grew to like, respect, and finally love one another. It was, up until it?s end ? and even beyond, one of the most well-rounded father-son relationships in comics. Through Jack?s relationship with Ted, the elder Starman became a fully fleshed out character, rather than another suit from the ?40s. Ted had ambitions, flaws, dreams, and hopes. Resonating slightly throughout the Jack-Ted relationship was some of the relationship Robinson had with his mentor in comics, and original Starman editor, Archie Goodwin. Goodwin?s death in 1998 hit Robinson hard, and for a time, he was unsure if he would be able to finish what he had begun in Starman.’ [via GLITTERDAMMERUNG!]
29 April 2001
[more comics] Tim Bisley’s list of Top Ten Collected Comics… ‘Those are my fave reads of the moment. Whenever I get a coffee break from serving the great unwashed at Fantasy Bazaar, those are the books I take into the bog. However if I do not need the loo, I go into the storeroom and mutilate Jar Jar Binks dolls.’
[profile] The Independent profiles Ken Livingstone after a year of being Mayor of London. ‘After Labour’s triumphant election in 1997, he predicted a recession and suggested that Gordon Brown should be sacked. When the recession did not arrive he claimed, with a mischievous smile, that this was because the Chancellor had adopted his policies. Mr Brown did not reciprocate with a smile. In the 1980s, Mr Livingstone similarly fought against Neil Kinnock’s policy reforms. At a meeting of Labour’s national executive in 1988, he is said to have declared with a hint of self-pity: “I won’t be silenced by the party machine.” Mr Kinnock responded by saying: “Silenced? You have been on every bloody media outlet for the last 24 hours.”‘
30 April 2001
[comics] A couple of Pages from Grant Morrison’s X-Men have appeared on the internet — Page #1, Page #2 — discussion about it is going on here. ‘Sunspot Activity. Manic Depressive mood swings; I feel like a Hindu Sex God, Jean.’ [via Plasticbag]
[distractions] I don’t want to turn LMG into That’s Life but here’s a really rude bus….*
* The WPA has struck. You can tell can’t you? I’m even linking to “odd odes” by Cyril Fletcher….
1 May 2001
[domains] UH! TEARS BABY — Tom’s reaction to losing the Freaky Trigger domain… ‘…this afternoon, freakytrigger.com’s new owner scented money and wrote to me – somebody had offered him $200 for the site and of course he wanted to see if I was interested first. After all, I had “previous involvement” with freakytrigger.com. I was, obviously, not interested: I wish this person joy in making cash out of the domain name because I certainly never did, but he’s not getting a penny from me.’
[comics] Frank Miller’s Harvey Awards Speech — excellent stuff on the Comics industry, Wizard Magazine and the Movie Industry. ‘One TV guy I met, full of hyperactive disdain, he sniped at me, “I don’t read comic books. I read scripts.” You’re lost pal. They don’t read comic books, they read Wizard Magazine! Or at least the publishers think they do. Either way the result is the same. For all the disgust you’ll hear about Wizard and its shoddy practices when you talk to publishers and marketing folks—and I have yet to hear a single good word from anybody about this thing that ought to come on a roll—for all of that, the publishers kow-tow. Even though this tree killer here regularly cheapens and poisons our field. Aesthetically and ethically, they grovel. Even though this monthly vulgarity [rips off front cover] reinforces all the prejudice people hold about comics [rips out pages] they cry to all the world that we’re as cheap and stupid and trashy as they think we are, we sponsor this assault. We pay for the goddamn privilege. But really, when will we finally get around to flushing this thing, this load of crap, once and for all [tosses torn magazine into a trash can onstage. Applause]’ [via Comic Geek]
2 May 2001
[luck] The Unluckiest Couple in Britain… what happens when you lose a winning lottery ticket. ‘The Totts have been caught in the contradiction that makes the lottery function – the insistence that it’s all just a bit of fun, a moment’s relief from the daily grind, overlain with the unspoken riposte: yes, but it could change everything forever. It was the former thought that explained why they didn’t check their ticket that week in September – “after seven years, you just think well, I buy a ticket, but I’m never going to win a blooming thing” – but it was the latter that got them hoping.’
[comics] Interesting interview with Kevin Smith about comics mainly… ‘It’s so sad that there are people who feel that comics’ salvation lies in mainstream acceptance, because it implies that comics are a dying artform. They’re not. Comics don’t need to be saved. Comics aren’t going anywhere. There will always be a comic book field, despite all the nay-saying braying of a group of Chicken Little’s, who feel like they have their finger on the pulse of a medium that’s been around far longer than their two-bit opinions of it. What fans/critics/pundits need to understand is that comics are a rarefied medium, and that they’ll never be able to compete with movies and television (or video games; or the internet; or even mimes). Just accept that and be happy with the audience that IS out there, and do your best to keep them entertained. Cater to them relentlessly with hero books and non-hero books alike. Hell, there are enough fans of both! But don’t slap them in the face by telling them constantly that they’re not enough. Heavens, love the one you’re with, you know? Besides, what kind of insecure soul would crave mainstream acceptance anyway? Aside from Warren Ellis?’
[cats] WTF? Cat Milk? ‘At 59p for 200ml, cat milk is just about the same price per litre as cheap white wine. It may or may not be true that destitute people sometimes resort to eating dog food, but putting cat milk in your coffee would be an extravagance. Not that you would want to. There is a weird off-whiteness to the stuff that actually makes you think twice about giving it to the cat. Test subject Kipper found it palatable enough at first, but ended up leaving most of it in the bowl. It’s hard to tell whether he thought it tasted too much like milk, or not enough. Kipper, it should be said, is an uncommonly stupid cat, and being hit by a car last year did nothing to raise his IQ. His opinion in this matter is almost worthless.’
3 May 2001
[wpa] MUST… BLOG… SOMETHING…
[century] The Guardian Century… 1990 – Thatcher Resigns (another posting about that joyous day): ‘For old time’s sake, she had a jolly good shout at Neil Kinnock. Before finally hanging up her handbag, she gave it one last swing at a few Labour backbenchers who strayed within range. And then Dennis Skinner engaged her in a double-act. Asked whether, in retirement, she would still oppose a European central bank, Mr Skinner fed her a line, shouting: “No, she’s goin’ to be the Guv’nor.” “What a good idea!” she cried, to swelling cheers. “I’m enjoying this,” she said, doing little bows. “Thank you. Thank you.” They have loved her never so much as when losing her.’ [discovered via Tom]
4 May 2001
[comics] Fascinating…. Neil Gaiman used to be a Scientologist…. ‘Neil Gaiman. Writer (sandman comics), former Scientologist. Declared SP in 1983. He was a Class VIII auditor, and ran the Birmingham org for a while. Son of David Gaiman. He was a case supervisor at the G.O. at the time of the CMO takeover of the G.O. and the transition to RTC/ OSA. – FAQ1.’ [via WEF]
[century] 1965 — The Guardian sums up after the death of Winston Churchill…. ‘It was his fate that in spite of his gifts he had only at exceptional moments the full confidence of his fellow-countrymen. This lack of trust cut across all parties. Labour feared what it called his class bias. Some Conservatives thought that he was not biased enough; they felt that, with his past, he was not a sound party man, and they did not like the warmth for his former associates, the Liberals, which he never wholly extinguished. A sentiment very widespread was that Churchill was to be kept only for great occasions: he was too incalculable – or dangerous – for politicians’ daily food.’
[distractions] You are… The Surrealist Link. ‘You are the most gutless cassock. Goodbye!’
5 May 2001
[nwo] Conspirators — Jon Ronson on Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing. ‘April 19 is holy day for anti-government activists and conspiracy theorists. On April 19, 1993, Federal agents ended the siege at Waco. David Koresh’s Branch Davidian church went up in flames. On April 19, 1775, 400 British government troops attempted to disarm the citizens of Lexington, Massachusetts. A hundred colonists shot back, the first shots of the American Revolution, the “shots heard around the world”. (When I visit American militias and patriots and neo-Nazis, they often ask me what I, a Brit, thinks of the Lexington uprising. I explain that I’m not au fait with the ins and outs. They are scandalised that our syllabus doesn’t teach this pivotal moment in British history.)’
[comics] Suck looks looks at why so many cartoonists are cranks (after Dave Sim’s Tangent). ‘Now, it’s not important whether you agree or disagree with Sim, just so you marvel at the sheer depth of his obsession. Jack Chick cuts the Pope more slack than Sim does women. Some might say it’s not women, but Feminist ideology ? but what’s that got to do with Sim leaving his dick alone? And it could be said that this is taking things out of context, but since the only context here is Sim, not the window dressing that there’s a real issue here, what difference does it make? Like Chick, Sim wants his word out. The inside back cover of Cerebus 265 makes “Tangents” a public domain property, one you should feel to distribute, as long as you do it in its entirety, unedited. Like any cartoonist crank, Sim wants it all his way.’ [Related: Discussion on Plastic about the Suck Article]
[century] 1974 – Nixon Resigns … ‘If Mr Nixon had been at his best last night, then he was at his worst this morning. Sometimes one wished that his agonized wife would take this wretched slobbering, spluttering man away by the arm and propel him into some windowless vehicle for transport to obscurity. But Pat Nixon, with Julie and Tricia and their grey-faced husbands beside them, allowed the man to proceed. It would have been worse, perhaps, if they had tried to stop him. “I remember my old man. They would have called him a common man… he was a street car motorman at first… my mother” – at this point he sobbed violently, his tears somehow eluding the gravitational pull and remaining shining in his eyes – “a saint. She will have no books written about her.”‘
6 May 2001
[comics] Ask Dave Sim: Relationship Expert ‘Mr. Sim, I find women to be completely illogical and beguiling, yet I also find myself irrationally attracted to them. Is this a problem, and is there a solution? William Spock, Vulcan ND’ [via John at Linkworthy]
[crime] He’s been getting away with it all his life Ronnie Biggs — A Sunday Times Profile. ‘How did a small-time crook come to occupy such a prominent place in the criminal iconography? Partly it is because many people saw the robbery as a bit of a “caper”. Although Jack Mills, the train driver who was hit over the head with an iron bar, never fully recovered from his injuries and died of leukaemia seven years later, the heist was amateurish by today’s standards. No guns were carried, for example. Then there was the classic battle of wits between Biggs and Superintendent Jack Slipper of Scotland Yard, in which Slipper, now 77 but suffering from cancer, always failed at the last minute to get his man.’ [Related: Ronnie Biggs Official Site]
[comics] Interesting interview with Alex Robinson the artist/writer behind Box Office Poison. ‘Box Office Poison is about the pros and cons of loyalty vs betrayal. There are two main stories: one deals with Sherman Davies, a bookstore clerk who wants to be a writer. The other is about Sherman’s friend, Ed, a cartoonist. They each get involved in a relationship–Sherman with a girl, Ed with his boss, an old cartoonist–that puts their loyalty to the test. Sherman’s girlfriend, Dorothy, is kind of crazy, while Ed’s boss, Irving Flavor, is cranky. Flavor created a superhero back in 1941 that made millions for his publisher, but he never saw a dime. Ed decides to help him remedy this. Plus, there’s cursing and nudity! That’s the one line way I’ve been describing the book: It’s like “Archie” but with cursing and nudity.’ [Related: Buy Box Office Poison at Amazon]
7 May 2001
[the joy of stats] Why I Will Never Have A Girlfriend. ‘…. I, for one, refuse to spend my life brooding over my lack of luck with women. While I’ll be the first to admit that my chances of ever entering into a meaningful relationship with someone special are practically non-existent, I staunchly refuse to admit that it has anything to do with some inherent problem with me. Instead, I am convinced that the situation can be readily explained in purely scientific terms, using nothing more than demographics and some elementary statistical calculus.’
[politics] Long, interesting profile of Tony Blair’s last four years as Prime Minister….. ‘The more disappointing Blair is manifest when he is controlled by the side of his nature which is cramped by calculation and caution. A female member of the Cabinet privately refers to him as ‘Mr Crab’ for scuttling away from difficult decisions. As time has stripped off the rhetorical varnishing, the Government emerges through the hyperbole for what it is: incrementally reforming, social democrat, with some illiberally socially authoritarian edges, which broadly sums up Blair himself. A couple of months ago, he gave an under-reported and remarkably candid speech self-dissecting the Government. He conceded that the ‘first phase of New Labour was essentially one of reassurance’. The overwhelming driver has been to prove they are safe hands, fit to run the country, especially its economy. Allied to that has been the obsession with re-election, ‘the most important thing’, as he put it to me in the garden of Number 10 in the spring of 1997.’
[comics] Pope Fiction. The Vatican approves a comic about Pope John II… Joe Quesada (Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics): ‘”Like Spider-Man, the Pope has incredible compassion for the human spirit,” he said. “It’s no secret that this pope has been in frail health for the last few years, yet much like Spider-Man, he perseveres through great adversity. It is the calling and trademark of the great hero!”‘
8 May 2001
[distraction] Excellent on-line gameboy emulator with a number of games… just like the real thing.
[tv] Big Brother goes digital. ‘The new series of Big Brother will run for up to 21 hours a day on digital network E4, Channel 4 has announced. Fans will be able to spy on the house on TV all day long, and many will be able to make their weekly eviction votes through their remote control.’
9 May 2001
[profile] Hey, look at me! Cool, or what? — The Independent profiles Nicky Haslam. ‘So far, so posh. But it would not be possible to listen to Nicky Haslam for very long without becoming aware that he is a most unusual sexagenarian. Here he is, for example, describing a recent social outing. “The other night I went to Catherine Guinness’s for drinks. I hadn’t been there for ages and ages, and I just didn’t know what to wear. All day I’d worn really, really filthy ripped Levi’s with oil all the way down them. The oil’s fake, you buy them like that. And I’d bought the new Converse sneakers that are pre-dirtied. I put on top of it a very chic pony-skin jacket that Jamiroquai had given me….’
[politics] Votémon — excellent children’s guide to the General Election from BBC Newsround. [via Interconnected]
10 May 2001
[comics] According to Comic Geek Jeff Smith has replied to Dave Sim in Cerebus #266… ‘Dear Dave, First you come into my home and insult my wife and I, then you publish a delusional and fictitious account of the event. Now, seven years later, you want to square all accounts by climbing into a boxing ring? Get stuffed. Yours truly, Jeff Smith.’ [Related: Earlier Posting on LMG]
[politics] Am I Electable or Not…. Who will lead us? Davros or Ann Widdecombe or Hunter S. Thompson?
[politics] Steve Bell kicks off the election with his first cartoon … ‘Please Sir – May I be excused? You’ve just bored my arse off!‘
[film] Viewaskew have produced an on-line Teaser Trailer for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back… (Not-So)Random Quote from Mallrats:‘You fuckers think just because a guy reads comics he can’t start some shit!?’ [Related: J+SBSB at Upcoming Movies]
11 May 2001
[photo] Only one woman scared me, says Helmut Newton. ‘Newton, one of the most famous fashion and portrait photographers, was speaking on the eve of a retrospective at the Barbican, London, marking his 80th birthday. He said he finally captured Mrs Thatcher in Los Angeles, on her first lecture tour after leaving office. After waiting for her in a hotel, breaking out in a cold sweat, he thought to buy roses: “All I could get were some wilted, awful things for an awful lot of money.” They did nothing to melt the ice. “She did not like her portrait,” he said, of the life size image now in the National Portrait Gallery. “She said, ‘one looks so disagreeable when one is not smiling’. But she is not unfrightening – she’s quite scary.”‘ [via Phil]
[politics] The Guardian profiles the Future Leader of the Tory Party… Anne Widdecombe. ‘…setbacks have not written off her hopes of winning the party leadership – and Miss Widdecombe may yet be the “second coming” of Thatcher – frustrating Michael Portillo’s hopes of taking the same job if William Hague fails to dismantle the Labour government’s majority at the next election. Her simple authoritarian appeal has a resonance among the grey-haired rank and file members who now dominate the shrunken Tory party and the increasingly rightwing and europhobic Tory MPs. Partly because of her operatic style, and partly because of her absolute commitment to hard-right views, she has risen in prominence and is arguably the only Tory frontbencher apart from Mr Hague and Mr Portillo most voters could name.’ [Related: Widdy Web]
12 May 2001
[film] Chosen — Ang Lee produces a six minute on-line film promo. ‘The Driver meets a ship carrying an eight-year-old Tibetan boy at a dark, deserted New York shipyard. But he?s not the only one waiting. Ang Lee, director of the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and star Clive Owen create a thrilling, yet beautiful, tale filled with mystery.’
[distractions] Comedy MP3… Craig David Vs Bagpuss. [via NTK]
[blogs] I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I started this Metafilter thread on the death of Douglas Adams which quickly decended into inappropriate internet posting hell. ‘…lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.’
13 May 2001
[politics] Sid, soothsayer of the suburbs — election commentary from The Observer. ‘Meet the first star of election 2001. He is Sidney, a retired salesman from Borehamwood, and he bestrides the Telegraph ‘s new focus group of floating voters like a glum colossus. Every time William Hague comes on the television ‘my wife says he’s a little weasel – and she’s a lifelong Tory’. The only guy who told the truth was that grey Major fellow. ‘It didn’t get him anywhere.’ And as for the prophet himself, doomed to constant invigilating by research company Live Strategy Ltd, well ‘we’ve got a long month of all this. I’m not looking forward to it at all’. Sidney speaks for Britain – and Fleet Street.’
[comics] Mile High Comics publishes a first look at Morrison and Quitely’s New X-Men… ‘But Ms. Nova …I’m only a Dentist’
14 May 2001
[my inner turmoil?] The Observer profiles Anthony Clare… ‘As he says, men are viewed today much as women were 100 years ago – as fragile, naturally ill members of the species who are prone to early death, vulnerable to the vicissitudes of random violence and disease, and who are riddled with self-doubt. ‘Freud got it spectacularly wrong,’ Clare says. ‘Women don’t envy the penis. And unlike them, men still can’t discuss their sexuality and resolve the problem. Every man, including myself, is ashamed of the size of his penis.”
15 May 2001
[politics] Amusing interview with Arthur Scargill in the Independent…. ‘Everything, with Arthur, has something to do with the class war. Even tea has something to do with the class war. “Do you know why they say you should put the milk in first?” he asks. No, I say. “Well, when tea was first imported it was very expensive so only the nobility could afford it, and they drank it from bone china. Now, if you pour boiling tea into bone china, it cracks it like crazy paving. But if you put milk in first, it doesn’t. So that’s why they did it and then, of course, the myth grew up that it’s the way you should do it.” Oh. “Although actually,” he continues, “it’s far better to put the tea in first because then you can see how much milk you want.” Truly, the ruling classes have a great deal to answer for.’
[blogs] Weblog Universe Collapses…. ‘During final weeks of the weblog universe, Günther Gerhardt – head of TUM’s department of interactive sociology – noted a sharp increase in the number of self-referential remarks and intra-weblog links. As this almost incestuous introspection increased, so did the strain on the fragile Berners-Lee fields which held the weblog universe together. According to Gerhardt, “This tragic self-referentialism. Each time a weblog mentioned another, it was as though Woden’s crows Hugin and Munin were tearing away bits of my flesh! The horror! The humanity!”‘ [via Swish Cottage]
[war] The Smoking Gun has a recently declassified report on Hitler’s leisure time and sexual activities… ‘Once Dr. Sedgwick asked him: “Why don’t you marry and fool your enemies?” Hitler answered: “Marriage is not for me and never will be. My only bride is my Motherland.” Then seemingly with no sequence of ideas he added: “There are two ways by which a man’s character may be judged, by the woman he marries, and then the way he dies.”‘ [via Clog]
[comics] Glasgow team brought in to revamp X-Men. Grant Morrison: ‘I’m going to be concentrating less on the supernatural powers and treating it as a bit more soap opera style, looking at what its like to be a mutant like the X-Men. We’re saying what their love life is like, what music they listen to, just looking at these characters a lot more than has been done in the past.’ [via Comic Geek]
16 May 2001
[comics] The Velvet Gloves Are Off — great excerpts from an interview with Dan Clowes. ‘CLOWES: I swear to God. Marvel Comics are at the end of their rope trying to figure out “What’s hip and now?” so they’re approaching guys like Pete Bagge, who they probably imagine sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Of course Bagge had literally never read a single Spider-Man comic in his life, much to his credit. He wants to do it like, “Joe Matt gets super powers,” basically [laughs]. My guess is that it’ll never… that once they see what he’s going to do, they’ll panic. I know he actually asked Crumb to do it. SILVIE: Of course Crumb said “No?” CLOWES: Crumb really considered it. SILVIE: Seriously? CLOWES: I guess so. SILVIE: Jesus!’ [Related: Ghost World — Film. Comic.]
[falling knob?] Urban Myth — Does C3PO have a “oversized penis” on A Star Wars trading card? ‘The current theory is that at the exact instant the photo was snapped, a piece fell off the Threepio costume, and just happened to line up in such a way as to suggest a bawdy image. The original contact sheets from the photo-shoot attests to this. They are not retouched in any way, yet still contain the same image.’ [via Fark]
17 May 2001
[comics] Sim City: Population 1. Interesting article on Dave Sim. Mirrors my own views to some extent… ‘…the quality of the actual stories hasn’t suffered too badly. I genuinely hope it stays that way, because it would be tragic if Sim got this close to completing his life’s work, twenty-five years of effort, and then blew it at the last moment. Even if we’re not really reading CEREBUS any more, we’d all like Sim to make it to the end. But when you read Sim’s ravings, you get the sinking feeling that it’s all going to go horribly wrong.’
[politics] Gary Younge profiles William Hague ‘This is Mr Hague’s challenge over the next three weeks. It goes beyond the physical to the political. Standing before a huge poster declaring “Keep The Pound” he looks less than the sum of his slogans. Now he has to grow in the public perception. He needs to think big. They have to imagine him at the top table with Jospin, Schröder, Putin and Bush; leading the country into battle in foreign parts or encapsulating the national mood after the death of a monarch. People have to imagine waking up on June 8 and seeing him wave from the steps of Downing Street. There are already many, although by no means enough, who say that is what they want to see. But polls suggest that when even they close their eyes they cannot picture it. In the public imagination, William Hague just keeps coming up short.’
18 May 2001
[comics] Comicon Newsarama has background on a couple interesting stories — Peter Bagge does Spiderman and Marvel dropping the Comic Code…. Joe Quesada: ‘It’s also ironic that the Code, as an organization made up of a group of companies that were attempting to show that comics aren’t just for kids, and aren’t this sort of niche medium. This press conference we’re having right here is the biggest publicity they’ve had in years. As far as the general public is concerned, I don’t even think that they know there is a code anymore.’ [via Link Worthy]
[blog] Dan asks the questions other blogs shy away from: ‘Have you ever wanted to shove a glass rod right up Nick Jordan’s cock?’ [Related: Nick’s Posting]
19 May 2001
[tv] Tony Soprano’s female trouble — excellent profile from Salon of The Sopranos. ‘If you haven’t seen “The Sopranos,” which this Sunday will conclude its third season, you’re missing something extraordinary. It’s arguably the cleverest and most entertaining extended drama that’s ever been on TV. Tony is expertly played with a gruff masculinity by Gandolfini; his emotionally and morally compromised wife, Carmela, is done to a ruined turn by the infinitely expressive Edie Falco; mother Livia, now departed with the death of actress Nancy Marchand, exhibited oceans of pain and scorn in a massive, equine face; proud and bitter Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), forced to cede power to his nephew Tony, is a study in aging gracelessly.’
[burchill] Sticks and a stone. ‘I’m not, by any means, some sort of sex-prude, but the rehabilitation of Wyman has been one of the true markers of the increasing sickness and hypocrisy of our society in the past 20 years: him, the whore-master Charles Windsor and schoolgirl-shagger Chris Woodhead; each scumbag now a well-respected man who dares to tell other people how they should be and what they should do. It’s true what those loony Telegraph writers say about shame no longer playing its useful role in civilising society. Look at John Profumo: one quick blowjob from Christine Keeler and he’s off down the East End kissing lepers till the end of his days.’
[politics] Great profile of William Hague in the Telegraph… ‘If politics is a perpetual state of war, then perhaps the enemy is best placed to weigh up the threat you pose. It was Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister’s notoriously tough press secretary, who first alerted his boss to the strength of the new Tory leader. Campbell had noticed the Yorkshireman’s incredible stamina. ‘He’s a sticker,’ Campbell warned Blair, ‘and the British are a nation of stickers.’ It was Campbell’s private view that one day New Labour would have to watch out for plain-speaking William Hague, but he added a crucial rider: ‘If he can survive his own party.”
[wtf?] Metafilter: Is it possible that Kaycee did not exist? ‘This is a really delicate thing here. Please be really thoughtful about this. I promise I am not trying to stir the shit without cause.’
20 May 2001
[distractions] The C Team. ‘In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. They promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire The Conservative Party.’ [via Tajmahal]
21 May 2001
[fiction] Metafilter — Kaycee did not exist. Here’s a summary of what happened… ‘Did anybody to do with this whole mess actually die on Monday?’