[LMG]LMG RSS Feed 
[Search][Projects]A Moment Of MooreMe and Belle de Jour TimeMachineGo Evening Standard Headline Pictures [UK Bloggers]
London Bloggers [Comic Blogs][Other Blogs] | 20 February 2005
[tv] Trendies twitch over a TV Tease — the Sunday Times covers Nathan Barley. Chris Morris: ‘Hoxton types are just a subset of Nathans. Before writing, we became Barley twitchers, spotting Nathans in Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, and Penzance. Hosegate is not Hoxton — it’s a fictional construct in response to the fact that Nathans are absolutely bloody everywhere. This is worse than bird flu.’
19 February 2005
[politics] Bloggers will rescue the Right — Iain Duncan Smith wonders if weblogging will be the saviour of the Conservative Party … ‘[Blogs] should put the fear of God into the metropolitan elites. For years there have been widening gaps between the governing class and the governed and between the publicly funded broadcasters and the broadcasted to. Until now voters, viewers and service users have not had easy mechanisms by which to expose officialdom’s errors and inefficiencies. But, because of the internet, the masses beyond the metropolitan fringe will soon be on the move.’
[web] net.history: Was this the first image on the Web? [via Waxy]
18 February 2005
[comics] Ask Metafilter: What’s Your Favourite Webcomic?
[gladwell] How to Start a Revolution — a digested version of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell … ‘What must underlie successful epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus. Tipping Points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action. Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push; just in the right place; it can be tipped.’ [Related: More Gladwell Links]
17 February 2005
16 February 2005
[blog] French Picture Blog: 09h09 … ‘Every day a self-portrait at 9:9am’
15 February 2005
[comics] New take on life in Bradford — the Guardian looks at Grant Morrison’s new comic Vimanarama. ‘…the story is primarily a ripping yarn, with Ali and Sofia discovering a subterranean world beneath Bradford when a crate of turkish delight cracks open a hidden entrance in one of the family’s shops. Promotional material from DC Comics sums up the plot as “a modern-day Arabian Nights in the form of a Bollywood romantic comedy set on a celestial stage”.’
14 February 2005
[blog] Another UKBlog: linkbunnies.org … ‘Interesting Web Stuff for Short Attention Spans’
[tv] So Was It “Well Weapon”? — the Londonist blog reviews Nathan Barley … ‘… the concept itself feels a bit less red hot. Since Nathan Barley emerged on Brooker’s (now defunct) TV Go Home website, something over five years ago, the dot-com boom has bust and, rather than being an apparently emergent master-race, its illegitimate Carhartt-wearing children now seem automatically self-mocking. That’s not to say that Nathan and his ilk aren’t funny on screen. They are. But they are also funny off screen, which means that Nathan Barley is not the vitriolic weapons-grade satire C**T was, and is instead more of a freakshow.’
11 February 2005
[advert] Golf GTI commercial and Elsewhere — Kottke interviews one of the dancers behind the Gene Kelly Golf GTI advert … ‘The sound stage was cold and we had to dance under artificial rain for hours. To avoid freezing we wore wet suits under our already thick, tight costumes. This restricted my movement a lot. My shoes were quite uncomfortable and fake flooring we danced on was soft and spongy. I had to keep my head up and smile constantly which was very unnatural for me.’
[books] Neal Stephenson’s Past, Present, and Future — Reason Magazine interview the author of the Baroque Cycle … ‘It has been the case for quite a while that the cultural left distrusted geeks and their works; the depiction of technical sorts in popular culture has been overwhelmingly negative for at least a generation now. More recently, the cultural right has apparently decided that it doesn’t care for some of what scientists have to say. So the technical class is caught in a pincer between these two wings of the so-called culture war. Of course the broad mass of people don’t belong to one wing or the other. But science is all about diligence, hard sustained work over long stretches of time, sweating the details, and abstract thinking, none of which is really being fostered by mainstream culture.’
10 February 2005
8 February 2005
[buy] Cocoon for Men … ‘It’s a big scary world out there, full of responsibilities, difficult situations and death. But you simply don’t want to face it. If you’d rather have kids toys delivered direct to your door and spend your weekends playing with remote controlled AV technology, you’ve come to the right place!’
[comics] The Craft — yet another Alan Moore interview … ‘We obviously have, as a species, a number of problems at this current time. The only way I can see for us to get round them is thinking our way round them — I can’t see us spending our way round them, we’re not going to be able to bomb our way around them. I could be wrong, maybe we can spend and bomb our way around them, but I would say on balance that if we’re gonna get round them at all, we’re gonna have to think our way around them, and that is gonna need new forms of thinking. I don’t know what they are, but I’d just say let’s try some of the options, and see if anything interesting comes up.’
7 February 2005
[coffee] Latte Nerve! — article on the gridlock caused by Starbucks offering wi-fi in their coffee shops … ‘Alex Jacobson, a 32-year-old Internet developer who spends 40 hours a week at the Union Square branch of the ubiquitous coffeehouse. “Working in my apartment became very isolating, so when Starbucks rolled out wireless, I started working here.” The advantages are manifold: For the price of two decafs a day, his new office space offers a short walk to work (he lives above the store), high-caliber eye candy (“lots of models come here in the afternoon for meetings”) and friendly co-workers (the informal network of fellow Starbucks surfers who also run their virtual empires from Javaville). The only real disadvantage: He has to take his computer with him to the bathroom.’ [via Feeling Listless]
6 February 2005
[blogs] Jon Ronson on Jonathan King: ‘Apparently JK is walking around prison with a t-shirt that reads “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”.’ [Previously: The Fall of a Pop Impresario]
[comics] The Sinister Ducks — a flash animation of the song by Alan Moore … ‘What are they doing at night in the park? Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack! Think of them waddling about in the dark. Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack! Sneering and whispering and stealing your cars, Reading pornography, smoking cigars. Ducks, Ducks! Quack, Quack! Quack, Quack!’ [Previously: March of the Sinister Ducks – MP3 Download]
3 February 2005
[comics] London Crumb — the Londonist blog covers a bunch of upcoming events about Robert Crumb in London during March … ‘All we need now is for Chris Ware to come back to London and we will be in geek heaven.’
2 February 2005
[tv] Cleaning Coinage with Cillet BANG! … ‘I, like all Brits love the Cillet BANG advert. It’s cleverly shot, presented and produced. Its a modern day classic, which I hope to remember as long as the J.R. Hartley ad. But is the new revolutionary product really as good as Barry Scott will have us believe? Can we trust TV? Would my life improve if my pockets were full of sparkling coins?’ [via Grayblog]
[prison] US Prison Overalls, Bright Orange – £37.50 — as modelled by inmates in Guantanamo Bay … ‘These jumpsuits, coveralls, whatever you want to call them are the genuine artical imported from the US from the main supplier to US correctional institutions.’ [thanks Phil]
1 February 2005
[blog] New UKBlog: Rising Slowly — The UK Weather Blog.
[advert] Blingin’ in the Rain — the Guardian covers Volkswagen’s remix of Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain … ‘The 60-second advert was filmed on the same set at Shepperton Studios where the 60s musical Oliver was filmed and recreates the early part of the sequence showing Kelly singing and dancing in the rain but then breaks into the 21st century with a club mix of the song. The dancers wore prosthetic face masks and wigs and were filmed many times to replicate as closely as possible the moves that Kelly made and his face has been digitally added to the film.’ [Previously: Singing in the Rain – the Original Updated]
[spam] Interview with a link spammer — The Register meets a Blog Comments Spammer. ‘…he’s confident he’ll stay in what is primly called the “search engine optimisation” business for a while yet. Why? Because the demand exists. “The reality is that people purchase Viagra, they require porn, they gamble online. When people do that, there’s money being made.” And if this sounds suspiciously like an “ends justify means” argument to you – it does to us too.’
31 January 2005
[tv] Trashbat.co.ck — trailers for Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris’s TV comedy Nathan Barley.
29 January 2005
[advert] Gene Kelly Singing in the Rain – the original updated — an quicktime advert for the new VW Golf GTI but amazing nonetheless. [via Ben Hammersley]
28 January 2005
[comics] Stewart Lee interviews Alan Moore — on Radio 4’s Chain Reaction … ‘For the working classes British comics were just something you had like Rickets…’ [Update: Alan Moore “Chain Reaction” Interview Transcript … On Swamp Thing: ‘The whole thing that the book hinged upon was there was this tragic individual who is basically like Hamlet covered in snot. (audience laughs) He just walks around feeling sorry for himself. That’s understandable, I mean I would too…’]
27 January 2005
[codes] Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers … ‘Alexander d’Agapeyeff wrote an elementary book on cryptography in 1939, entitled “Codes and Ciphers.” In the first edition, he included a challenge cipher. Nobody’s solved it, and he embarrassedly admitted later that he no longer knew how he’d encrypted it. It was left out of the second and later editions. Some think it was botched, and many think it could still be solved despite that. It has lots of “phenomena” noted, but nothing close to a crack.’
26 January 2005
[blogs] The Law West of Ealing Broadway — anonymous blog from a UK Magistrate. ‘…a colleague, faced with sentencing a Living on Immoral Earnings charge, whispered to the Clerk “How much do you give a ponce?”. “Never more than a tenner, sir” came the deadpan reply.’ [via The Policeman’s Blog]
25 January 2005
[mac] Kottke: Video of Jobs introducing the Macintosh in 1984 … ‘Hello, I am Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag! Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I’d like to share with you a maxim I thought of the first time I met an IBM mainframe: Never trust a computer that you can’t lift!’
[ebay] eBay People — Steve Bowbrick on buying from eBay … ‘eBay people are people people. Grumpy, impatient people needn’t apply – they can’t be bothered to lovingly package and despatch hundreds of low cost items, manage feedback and handle dozens of trivial customer queries. Only nice people do this, so buying something on eBay is almost always a pleasant experience.’
24 January 2005
[wikipedia] Unusual articles in Wikipedia … ‘This page is for Wikipedians to list articles that seem a bit unusual. These articles are valuable contributions to the encyclopedia, but are somewhat odd, whimsical, or… well, something you wouldn’t expect to find in Encyclopedia Britannica.’
23 January 2005
[religion] I have an Image of Jesus on my Penis — amusing posting on Craig’s List … ‘My girlfriend is a devout Christian, who, when she first saw this apparition, dropped to her knees, exclaiming, “Jesus Christ”, which I at first arrogantly misinterpreted as an exaggerated compliment on my manhood. Needless to say, I was more than a little disappointed to learn the true reason for her impulsive ejaculation. She has now taken to worshiping daily at this makeshift “shrine”, which is OK, I suppose, but she no longer wants to have sex with me for fear of offending the real Jesus. She even brought her entire womens’ church group over…’
21 January 2005
[bdj] Tracking BDJ — the Book Club Blog is doing a much better job than me at following news about Belle de Jour. Amusing comment from Mil Millington: ‘…Belle De Jour happens to share an editor and a former agent with me, but that is purely because she got in touch with me, and I put her in touch with the two people in London I trusted. We have had email contact, but I have never met Belle in person. Honest! That was a fun moment, having to tell Margret, “Dear, you are going to read something in the newspapers tomorrow about me and a prostitute. Now, put that hammer down…”‘
20 January 2005
[speccy] Jet Set Willy Remakes — old-ish page covering new versions of Jet Set Willy for the ZX Spectrum … ‘Jet Set Willy isn’t a matter of life and death. It’s much more important than that.’ [via The Coffee Grounds]
19 January 2005
[words] Cliché Finder … ‘A chain is only as strong as it’s weakest LINK.’ [via linkbunnies.org]
18 January 2005
[support] Blow the Dust out of the Connector — some useful advice for people who do Tech Support from Raymond Chen. ‘…Say “Okay, sometimes the connection gets a little dusty and the connection gets weak. Could you unplug the connector, blow into it to get the dust out, then plug it back in?” They will then crawl under the desk, find that they forgot to plug it in (or plugged it into the wrong port), blow out the dust, plug it in, and reply, “Um, yeah, that fixed it, thanks.”‘
[comics] Six Degrees of Snapper Carr — I would have guessed that the Kevin Bacon of comics is Rick Jones but what do I know? … ‘You can play the Six Degrees game in comics by linking a character via a chain of acquaintanceship to Snapper Carr. Scrooge McDuck is Donald Duck’s uncle. (Many, many Disney duck stories.) Donald Duck was a partner with Daffy Duck in an entertainment act (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) Daffy Duck has met Batman (Superman v. Bugs Bunny miniseries) Batman knows Snapper Carr.’ [Related: Captain America Wins Superhero Networking Crown]
17 January 2005
[books] Digested Read: The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl by Belle de Jour … ‘The first thing you should know is that I am a whore. Prostitution is steady work. I open my legs. And then I close them. It beats working in an office.’
[funny] Some Amusing Classified Ads …
 Update: Sick Children, Genocide and other Funny Stuff — a number of readers have pointed out these ads were created by Jimmy Carr — I got them from a viral email doing the rounds … ‘The “other stuff” section of this year’s show sees Carr read from small ads that he has placed in various unsuspecting buying-and-selling publications. “They’re just quirky little things,” he says. ” ‘For sale: bonsai tree – large.’ There’s another advert in which I’m selling some rubber sheets for £40; £45 clean. Which is quite funny, but I’m doing that in the watersports section of Loot, which I think is a joy.”‘ 16 January 2005
[mac] How the Mac was born, and other Tales — interview with Andy Hertzfeld regarding his new book Revolution in the Valley … ‘I had a talk with [Steve Jobs] about a year ago where I was telling him, “Hey, there’s this huge opportunity, things are shifting.” And he kind of said, “No, they’re not. Windows is going to be dominant for at least the next 10 years.” I said something like, “Is it going to be the rest of our lives?” He said, “Depends on how long you live.”‘
[royalty] Harry’s Crew — The Observer profiles Prince Harry’s social circle … ‘At Cotswold Costumes, Harry had tried on an SS costume only to find it was too small.’ [via Memex 1.1]
15 January 2005
[linky] “So what’s so cool about del.icio.us? I don’t get it.” — Metafilter discusses del.icio.us … ‘[I] love just watching the main feed. It’s like this waterfall of transient reference needs, online velleities and obsessions.’
[bdj] Review of Belle de Jour — from the New Statesman … ‘What Belle does best is reveal the scant, prosaic motivations of men who pay for sex; and it is this lack of embellishment that finally convinces you of the authenticity of her strangely banal document. As she asks one client, a bestselling author: “Wasn’t it Dashiell Hammett who said you don’t pay a call girl to do what she does, you pay her to leave afterwards?” Her customers are not losers, and rarely are they kinky. Mostly, they just want the same things all men want, only quickly, effortlessly, without all that risotto and Sauvignon, without any clever talk or gooey eye contact. I suppose what I am saying is that the sex in The Intimate Adventures is – well, of course it is – transactional.’ [thanks Tom]
14 January 2005
[bdj] Belle de Jour Answers your Questions — from the Guardian’s Newsblog …
‘Guardian: Which do you miss more, blogging or your work as a call girl? 13 January 2005
[death] Watery Grave — article about dead bodies found in the Thames and some of the stories behind them … ‘I must must have walked along, over and indeed under the River Thames hundreds of times. A bald and astounding police statistic comes back to me every time I look into its steely waters: along the 213-mile long Thames, a body is retrieved from the river on average every week. The majority (39 last year) are found in the London area.’
12 January 2005
[blogs] Blogger sacked for sounding off — UK Blogger sacked by Waterstones for entries on his blog … ‘On one occasion, he ranted about his “sandal-wearing” manager he nicknamed “Evil Boss”, which he said was a caricature like the “Pointy Haired Boss” in the Dilbert cartoons. In another posting, Mr Gordon joked about “Bastardstone’s”. After he was suspended pending an investigation into his blog, he was called before a formal disciplinary meeting and sacked last week. “The book trade can only exist with freedom of speech and information,” he said last night.’
10 January 2005
[comics] This will be a good comic… good enough? — Metafilter discusses All-Star Batman and Superman … ‘Warren Ellis penned a column in 2000 regarding why Ultimate Marvel was a good idea and the logic holds for All-Star DC. Writers don’t want to be handicapped by decades of backstory. The fans that slavishly want icons frozen in narrative stasis are a miniscule, but loud voice, and they really should be ignored.’ [via Feeling Listless]
[books] It Pays to Trust Your Gut — Wired reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Blink … ‘[This is] Gladwell’s point: People make instant decisions, and it is possible to learn how to make them good ones. He’s not saying that snap judgments are always good. Instead, he says, when they are backed by experience and knowledge, they can be good.’
9 January 2005
[flash] The Duel — Duelling Banjos as performed by a squirel and a penguin. Co-starring some pigs, the Dukes of Hazzard, the RSPCA and a cameo appearance by Burt Reynolds.
[history] Desperate Lucan Dreamt of Fascist Coup — great article looking at Lord Lucan’s fascist tendencies as he cracked-up before murdering his children’s nanny … ‘…One [Lucan] biographer, Patrick Marnham, said: ‘Seen from the Clermont Club [Lucan’s favourite gambling haunt], the country was starting to resemble the less stable years of the Weimar Republic. Sir James Goldsmith began to develop his theory of “the Communist infiltration of the Western media”. Over the smoked salmon and lamb cutlets, the talk turned to the pros and cons of a British military coup.’ It may seem difficult to believe now, nearly eight years into the most secure Labour government in British history, but across the country pockets of the traditional ruling class were preparing for military action.’
7 January 2005
[bdj] Belle de Jour Spotted in Oxford Street …on the shelf at Waterstones.
6 January 2005
[linky] Recent Links culled from my del.icio.us …
5 January 2005
[blogs] Six Apart to buy Live Journal … ‘Six Apart, the parent company behind hosted blogging service TypePad, and Moveable Type is about to acquire Live Journal, for an undisclosed amount. The deal is a mix of stock and cash, and could be announced sometime later this month, according to those close to the two companies. If the deal goes through, then Six Apart will become one of the largest weblog companies in the world, with nearly 6.5 million users.’ [via Kottke’s Links]
4 January 2005
[documentaries] True Films — a list of documentaries recommended by Kevin Kelly. On The Thin Blue Line: ‘The film hypnotically plays out his alleged murder of a cop over and over, each time according to different witnesses, until the “evidence” of the crime collapses under the tainted weight of so many versions. This was a new form of nonfiction film and it helped free an innocent man from prison. How many films can claim that?’
|
