LinkMachineGo

[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]

[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…’

[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…’

[life] Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far … blog postcard project similar to Post Secret … ‘Everyone is someone else’s Weirdo’ [link]

[politics] Twitter / DowningStreet … Gordon Brown – the British Prime Minister – has a Twitter Feed (it seems to be produced by Civil Servants in his office) …

[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…’

[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!]

[comics] Alan Moore on BBC TV’s Inside Out East … [via Blah Blah Flowers]

[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…’

[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…’

[tv] Every Single Sopranos Death … absolute bloody mayhem (contains serious spoilers) … [more…]

[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.’

[gm] The Fauves: Tortured Soul … long clip of the Grant Morrison on lead vocals with his band the Fauves back in 1988 … [more…]

[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.’

[comics] Wertham was right… [taken from Scans_Daily]

[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…’

[tv] Dangers of being a TV reporter … compilation of great live TV News bloopers … ‘Yeah, put that on the news!’

[space] YouTube: Buzz Aldrin punches Lunar Landing Conspiracy Theorist Bart Sibrel in the Face.

[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.

[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]

[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.’

[fun] How to Win at Monopoly® – a Surefire Strategy … ‘Always buy Railroads; never buy Utilities (at full price).’ [via Robot Wisdom]

[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.’

[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…’

[weird] File Under Wrong: Most. Distrubing. Teddy Bear. Ever. [via Sore Eyes]

[films] Recovering Reality … More from Errol Morris on Abu Ghraib … [via Kottke]

‘When Brent Pack talks about [Gilligan’s treatment] as being standard operating procedure, I find that a powerful and odd moment. He’s sincere, he’s not a bad guy, and yet he’s telling us something that is actually surreal and disturbing-even more so because he’s not a bad guy, because he’s being sincere. Or just seeing Lyndie England and how devastated she was by all of this. I’m moved by it. Call me crazy, but I am. She gives this final speech, which to me is so sad, about how maybe the whole world is just backstabbing and lying. You’ve got all of these players caught in this strange drama. The perversity of it all.’

[funny] YouTube – 24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot … see Young Jack Bauer fight international terrorism with 1994’s technology … ‘Lycos is dry… trying Encarta now.’

[comics] The Art of Gerhard … great site looking at the non-comics work of Gerhard – the amazing background artist on Dave Sim’s Cerebus. [via meowwcat]

[movies] From hell … Joe Queenan on the worst movies of all time … ‘While it may disappoint those who welcome my occasionally unconventional opinions, I am firmly in the camp that believes that Heaven’s Gate is the worst movie ever made. For my money, none of these other films can hold a candle to Michael Cimino’s 1980 apocalyptic disaster. This is a movie that destroyed the director’s career. This is a movie that lost so much money it literally drove a major American studio out of business. This is a movie about Harvard-educated gunslingers who face off against eastern European sodbusters in an epic struggle for the soul of America. This is a movie that stars Isabelle Huppert as a shotgun-toting cowgirl. This is a movie in which Jeff Bridges pukes while mounted on roller skates. This is a movie that has five minutes of uninterrupted fiddle-playing by a fiddler who is also mounted on roller skates. This is a movie that defies belief.’

[blogs] Civil Serf blogger faces disciplinary action … ‘The unnamed civil servant at the heart of the controversy is said to be a fast-track civil servant who, on her blog, said that she was “just senior enough in my department to really know what’s going on, but not senior enough to attract suspicion from my blogging”. […] Followed closely by political observers, the blog attracted an influential following and was the subject of an investigation to discover its source. Last week the blog went off-line and a civil servant was reported to have been confronted and admitted authorship. She has been suspended, according to reports.’

[fun] HEMA – Online Store … Watch and wait for a couple of seconds as this great flash animation turns an online store into a Rube Goldberg device.

[records] The 8 Least Impressive Guinness World Records … a list of some real stinkers … On the largest collection of traffic cones: ‘David has a collection of 137 different, presumably stolen, traffic cones. Based on the picture, this includes “The orange conical one”, the “off-orange conical one” and the rare “yellow pointy one that someone drew a penis on the side of.”David owns approximately two thirds of all the types of traffic cones ever made, which is more impressive when you realize that means someone out there is actually a traffic cone historian and can thus validate the scope of his collection.’

[movies] Errol Morris talks with Werner Herzog … ‘If everything was planned, it would be dreadful. If everything was unplanned, it would be equally dreadful. Cinema exists because there are elements of both in everything. There are elements of both in documentary. There are elements of both in feature filmmaking. It’s what makes, I think, photography and filmmaking of interest. Despite all of our efforts to control something, the world is much, much more powerful than us, and more deranged even than us.’

[comics] Comics Artists at Work on YouTube: Dave Gibbons and Travis Charest … John Buscema and Bill Sienkiewicz … John Romita and Joe Kubert. [via Metafilter]

[movies] Standard Operating Procedure — trailer for a new documentary from Errol Morris about the events in Abu Ghraib prison. [via Kottke]

[politics] The Boris Johnson Generator … a web page which creates a Boris Johnson speech automatically … ‘My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters I love tennis with a passion. I challenged Boris Becker to a match once and he said he was up for it but he never called back. I bet I could make him run around. Watermelon smiles Sorry.’ [via qwghlm]

[comics] Rogues’ Gallery of the 1968 Marvel Bullpen … this is worth checking out just for the photo of Jim Steranko alone. [See also: Rolling Stone on Marvel in 1971]

[tech] Therapist Emulator Eliza discusses the death of her creator Joseph Weizenbaum …

* Are you sad that Joseph died? Don't you care? > Perhaps in your fantasies I am sad that Joseph died? Don't me care? * I would like to think that you would be sad. > We were discussing you, not me.

[underground] Cooling the Tube … interesting look at the issues surrounding cooling the train carriages and stations on the London Underground … ‘When an underground train tunnel is first constructed, it’s at the native soil temperature of around 14°C. Temperature problems start to show up 20-30 years later; this timescale has been seen over and over again in different lines/metro systems throughout the world. Basically the tunnel is a closed environment with a lot of energy sources. The soil around the tunnel gradually dries out and becomes a much better insulator – they’ve measured this on the Victoria line and found that the soil is dried out for several metres’ distance from the tunnel.’

[life] Spyware another Weapon for Domestic Abuse … ‘Safe computing has joined finding safe housing as a list of requirements for people fleeing abusive relationships.’

[books] The 100 Best Last Lines from Novels … ‘P.S. Sorry I forgot to give you the mayonnaise. -Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America (1967)’ [via Kottke]

[comics] “…He sure as hell is angry, but he does have moves.” … Progressive Ruin looks at the issue of Denny O’Neil’s The Question where he teams up with Rorschach … ‘Moore and Gibbons aren’t credited at the beginning of the comic with anything in this issue, but they are given a special “thank you.” I wonder if either of them were even aware Rorschach went walkies into this book, and out of their control. Anyway, Vic and his ’80s hair start reading, and it’s apparently compelling reading since he immediately nods off.’

[comics] The Daily Batman … ‘A Batman a day keeps the doctor away.’

[comics] Flipped!: David Welsh Presents His Current Favorite Manga Series … interesting list of Manga to lookout for… ‘If your comics reading list doesn’t include any sexy pulp, may I humbly suggest that you’re cheating yourself?’

[people] The Obituary of Count Gottfried von Bismarck … ‘When not clad in the lederhosen of his homeland, he cultivated an air of sophisticated complexity by appearing in women’s clothes, set off by lipstick and fishnet stockings. This aura of dangerous “glamour” charmed a large circle of friends and acquaintances drawn from the jeunesse dorée of the age; many of them knew him at Oxford, where he made friends such as Darius Guppy and Viscount Althorp and became an enthusiastic, rubber-clad member of the Piers Gaveston Society and the drink-fuelled Bullingdon and Loders clubs. Perhaps unsurprisingly he managed only a Third in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.’ [via Metafilter]

[tv] The Fonz Jumps the Shark … from YouTube – the origin of the phrase Jumping the Shark … ‘The phrase reached the height of its influence in the early 21st century. As it became more widely known, many fans began to consider the phrase over used. In particular, the phrase has become used by some to describe any development which they don’t like on a show. This has caused some viewers to conclude that “jump the shark” has itself jumped the shark.’

[comics] The Further Adventures of Li’l Bruce Wayne … Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog on a long forgotten Batman comic … ‘It is notable, however, as being the first published comic book work of writer/artist Frank Miller.’

[42] What on earth is 42? … BBC News on the Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything … ‘The answer can be interpreted in two ways. One is that it is a bad joke, implying that there simply is no answer, no meaning, no sense in the universe, and you would be no worse off if you jumped into the nearest black hole. But the other interpretation is that the joke was wise. It shows that seeking numerical answers to questions of meaning is itself the problem. Digits, like a four and a two, can no more do it than a string of digits could represent the poetry of Shakespeare.’

[life] Possessed – fascinating online documentary about obsessive hoarders … ”POSSESSED’ enters the complicated worlds of four hoarders; people whose lives are dominated by their relationship to possessions. The film questions whether hoarding is a symptom of mental illness or a revolt against the material recklessness of consumerism. When does collecting become hoarding and why do possessions exert such an influence on our lives?’ [via Waxy]

[conspiracy] Or perhaps: New Theories Suggest Kennedy Wasn’t Shot … ‘After 11 years of painstaking research, Musashi uncovered testimony from anonymous eyewitnesses who claimed that unopened packets of duck sauce and soy sauce were hastily removed from Air Force One after the assassination. According to the book’s findings, the extremely high levels of monosodium glutamate combined with the stress of mediating an intense international ballistic-missile crisis caused Kennedy’s systolic pressure to mount to the point where the right rear quarter of his cranium “shot clean off.”‘

[funny] The Onion on Kennedy’s Assassination … ‘Kennedy slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons – President Shot 129 Times…’

[comics] Big Brother With a Bleeding Heart — interesting blog post critically looking at Alan Moore’s work on V for Vendetta and Watchmen … ‘Rereading this really crystallized for me what I think is the biggest problem with Moore’s writing — his weakness (to paraphrase Borges) for appearing to be a genius. Moore’s an extremely smart writer and plotter, and he fancies himself a metaphysician and political seer. As a writer, he tends to have all the answers, and while that can look pretty amazing when enmeshed in the story, when you take a step back, the discordant cacophony of all the begged questions starts to get a little irritating. Evie occasionally yells at V and tells him he’s a pompous asshole who cares more about puzzles and quotations than about human beings. Of course, Evie always backs down and accepts that V only tortured her because he loves her…but it’s hard not to feel that Moore is loading the dice. It’s Moore, after all, who sits behind that mask; it’s him who’s rigged the game.’

[apollo] The Moon Museum — Apparently, there is a small museum of art on the Moon hidden in the leg of the Apollo 12 lander … ‘[Andy] Warhol’s contribution, which is obscured by the thumb above, is described as “a calligraphic squiggle made up of the initials of his signature. Actually, it’s a drawing of a penis.’ [via Kottke]

[wikipedia] Nicholson Baker on The Charms of Wikipedia … ‘Without the kooks and the insulters and the spray-can taggers, Wikipedia would just be the most useful encyclopedia ever made. Instead it’s a fast-paced game of paintball. Not only does Wikipedia need its vandals-up to a point-the vandals need an orderly Wikipedia, too. Without order, their culture-jamming lacks a context.’ [via Metafilter]

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