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1 April 2008
[weird] File Under Wrong: Most. Distrubing. Teddy Bear. Ever. [via Sore Eyes]
2 April 2008
[books] The Return of Neal Stephenson‘Stephenson, author of Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc., you know who he is, has a new novel out this September. It’s called Anathem…’
3 April 2008
[movies] Spaced Duo Savour Sweet Taste of Success‘[Edgar] Wright, 33, is working on two films in the US: Scott Pilgrim vs The World and an adaptation of the Marvel comic book character Ant-Man.’
4 April 2008
[fun] How to Win at Monopoly® – a Surefire Strategy‘Always buy Railroads; never buy Utilities (at full price).’ [via Robot Wisdom]
5 April 2008
[tv] How to make… Mad Men … amusing list from TV Critic Jim Shelley … ‘2. Light another cigarette and mix yourself a large Manhattan. That’s breakfast done.’
6 April 2008
[movies] Throwing bones in the air as 2001 turns 40 … looking back at Kubrick’s 2001 … Roger Ebert: ‘The fascinating thing about this film is that it fails on the human level but succeeds magnificently on a cosmic scale.’ [via Metafilter]
7 April 2008
[comics] The Alan Moore Primer … a beginners guide to Mr. Moore … [via Robot Wisdom]

The tangled history of Miracleman-from its origins as a British derivation of the 1940s Captain Marvel character to its current status as the source of a seemingly bottomless legal quagmire-is a Primer unto itself. Moore’s run on the title stretched from its 1982 revival as a feature in Warrior through 16 issues. It begins with the middle-aged Micky Moran remembering he has the ability to transform into a superhero with the use of a magic word, and it ends with Moran’s alter ego becoming a god on earth. In between, Moore teases out the troubling implications always present in the genre. What do these power fantasies mean, and, if left unchecked, where would they take us? Can the gulf between humanity and superhumanity ever be closed? “His emotions are so pure,” Moran tells his wife early in the run, “when he loves you it’s gigantic. His love is so strong and clean… When I love you it’s all tangled up with who’s not doing their share of the washing up and twisted neurotic things like that.” By the end of Moore’s story, the part of Moran that asks such questions is gone.

8 April 2008
[space] YouTube: Buzz Aldrin punches Lunar Landing Conspiracy Theorist Bart Sibrel in the Face.
9 April 2008
[tv] Dangers of being a TV reporter … compilation of great live TV News bloopers … ‘Yeah, put that on the news!’
10 April 2008
[web] And the Web Moved On … Steve Bowbrick on Ted Nelson and Xanadu‘For Nelson, the whole messy ecosystem of the actual existing net and the web and those thousands of apps and millions of blogs and billions of users is just a big, ignorant snub to the totalising glory of Xanadu (which still isn’t finished). So, really, the whole thing was too sad. Xanadu and Nelson are perfect and unworldly. The web is imperfect and worldly. Xanadu can never ship because that would compromise its perfection…’
11 April 2008
[comics] Wertham was right… [taken from Scans_Daily]

batman, robin and a leather thong

12 April 2008
[movies] Standard Operating Procedure … the web site for Errol Morris’ new documentary about Abu Ghraib‘The one thing that can be said conclusively about Abu Ghraib is it was entirely a violation of the Geneva Conventions. All of it.’
14 April 2008
[gm] The Fauves: Tortured Soul … long clip of the Grant Morrison on lead vocals with his band the Fauves back in 1988 … (more…)
15 April 2008
[apollo] Hollywood Hunts Star to Play First Man on the Moon‘[Neil] Armstrong was 38 when he and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. Matt Damon, star of the Bourne trilogy, will be 38 this year, while Eric Bana, whose credits include Hulk and the next Star Trek movie, is 39. Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jake Gyllenhaal could also be in the running.’
17 April 2008
[tv] Every Single Sopranos Death … absolute bloody mayhem (contains serious spoilers) … (more…)
18 April 2008
[comics] Comic Book resources interviews Grant Morrison on Final Crisis, Batman and All Star Superman‘I had sent in a big pitch for something called ‘Hypercrisis’ and it would have included some of the ideas I have about Hypertime and DC’s higher dimensions and such. It was a huge storyline, 12 issues, all number ones to launch new series and all connecting to make one big epic. The first page opened with them all standing at Captain Marvel’s grave and Superman saying, ‘Marvel is dead.’ And that’s how it was going to open…’
19 April 2008
[comics] More on Grant Morrison: Metafilter discuss Final Crisis and Zoids‘Holy shit, that Zoids comic is a hilariously Morrisonesque hijacking. Thanks! I had no idea such a thing existed. My favorite part is when Zoidzilla steps through that silvery liquid into the Hyperverse of the Mind…’
21 April 2008
[comics] Alan Moore on BBC TV’s Inside Out East … [via Blah Blah Flowers]


[comics] Grant Morrison Interview … this time from the Daily Cross Hatch‘This was just the meat and drink of my life-superheroes, fashion, British television, because there was some really great British cult TV from the 60s and 70s, so all of that was influential to me, and I would have put that material out, wherever I found it. So if it’s Superman, I’m trying to think of the character as if he were a British television drama, what he would be like.’ [via ¡Journalista!]
22 April 2008
[comics] Transcript of Grant Morrison’s Panel at NYCC ’08‘The lights went down for the presentation, and a screen came up saying “Fuck,’ which then changed to “time,” and the introduction for Morrison, with a slideshow of his work, and a reading of a statement from Morrison about the nature of life and fiction. Morrison came onstage to raucous applause and screamed “Lend me some sugar! I am your neighbor!” And then right away through open the floor to questions…’
23 April 2008
[politics] Twitter / DowningStreet … Gordon Brown – the British Prime Minister – has a Twitter Feed (it seems to be produced by Civil Servants in his office) …

prime ministers twitter feed

24 April 2008
[life] Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far … blog postcard project similar to Post Secret‘Everyone is someone else’s Weirdo’ [link]
26 April 2008
[life] The John Harris Files … a Guardian journalist uses the Data Protection act to request information that companies hold on him and reports on the experience … ‘The AA, bless them, sent me the full transcript of a conversation I had in June 2007 with an operative called Julie (an illustrative excerpt: “We’re at home and our car won’t start. I assume it’s the battery”; “Right, smashing. We’ll get some help to you there.”) This is what happens when you make a list of the companies and organisations with whom you regularly deal and put in subject access requests – an opportunity afforded by the 1998 Data Protection Act…’
27 April 2008
[comics] Invisible Girls and Phantom Ladies: How far have we come? … a scanned Alan Moore essay on women and sexism in comics from 1983 … Moore on being a teenager: ‘From what I can remember of my own time spent in that frenzied, pimply nightmare-world almost anything is likely to become grist to the mill of the adolescent’s deranged fantasies. Me, I was nuts about Hayley Mills…’
28 April 2008
[comics] Alan Moore’s Outbreak of Violets‘In 1995 Alan Moore wrote the text for a set of 24 cards, called Outbreak of Violets, which were given away at the MTV Europe Music Awards 1995, and have since become something of a Holy Grail for fanatical Alan Moore completists. Like me. The last time a set came up on eBay I bowed out of the bidding at £200, and the item eventually sold for £800, if I remember correctly…’ [via meowwcat]
29 April 2008
[windows] Superior Alternatives to Crappy Windows Software‘We’re still so traumatized about RealPlayer’s repeated takeover of our PC back in 2004 we’re seeing a special doctor that’s killing that part of our memory.’
30 April 2008
[dna] My 23andMe DNA Results … Michael Arrington has his DNA analysed and blogs the results … ‘Some of the information is just for fun – I have “wet earwax,” for example, and don’t have the “alcohol flush” gene that turns people’s faces red when they drink. I don’t detect odors as well as some people.’
[comics] The Flash outruns the reaper 23 years after saving universe and dying … The Return of Barry Allen? …

Many fans had come to like the character better dead than alive after he was disintegrated saving the universe.

“That’s the point of comics – they don’t have to die, because they’re fictional creations,” said Grant Morrison, one of the writers behind the comeback.

“We can do anything with them, and we can make them come back and make them defy death,” Morrison said. “And that’s why people read comics, to get away from the way life works, which is quite cruel and unheroic and ends in death.”