Because nothing soothes the throat like linky.
Archive of gay-themed paperback covers. I love the cover copy on the eponymous book: “Back when men were men… more or less.”
Did I ever post this? The Bourne Identity was a TV series in the 60s called Coronet Blue. Well, near enough. See also Wikipedia entry for the series. That’s the kind of classic oddity I’d like to see on DVD.
Awkward Family Photos!
Sexist advertisements from when those womenfolk knew their place
From svend via talula: Things you should have seen on the net. Which means I have finally seen this agonizing clip:Boom goes the dynamite. Oh, man.
And finally… the BoHe-Man Rhapsody
Month: May 2009
Frustration Post (2)
I am pleased to report that after many hours of restarts, installs, uninstalls, variant drivers, permissions settings, IT addresses and cable connections, I have successfully restored my computer to the functionality it had before I tried to make the scanner work.
Hurrah! Who really needs a scanner anyway!
(No I haven’t given up on the scanner. I have given up on the manufacturer’s standard driver software, which seems to be clashing with some other setting somewhere. Pondering next step.)
Man, I’m really blogging like it’s hot this week. Ooh yeah.
Frustration Post
8pm: “Hmm. That’s interesting. The scanner gives me an error message and doesn’t operate. I wonder why?”
10pm: “What do you mean my printer/scanner model number doesn’t exist? I’m reading it right off the plastic casing!”
1am: “What do you mean you can’t see the printer any more? It’s right there in the other window!”
3am: “What do you mean you can’t shut down? How can a computer forget how to shut down?”
*deep breaths*
Battle will be resumed this evening.
Man on Wire (2008)
This post is to encourage you: do not hesitate. When the chance arises, watch this film.
This film is about a dude who walked on a high wire between the Twin Towers in NYC back in the 70s. It’s one a lot of people have been talking about, and it has been universally praised. I’m joining in that chorus of good words. And I say this knowing that the overwhelming thumbs-up completely failed to motivate me to watch this film. It was Cal who brought it home to watch when she wasn’t feeling well, and only then did I realize how true the positive word had been.
I was talking about it afterwards (the thing about this film is that you have to talk about it afterwards, it’s hard not to) and the person I was talking too wondered how such a thing could be done; how you could move from the roof of the tallest building in the world, to shift your weight on to a wire above empty space. How could you possibly take that first step?
The first step is talked about vividly in the film – the wire-walker remembers it very clearly. But the bigger question of how he could take that step, he doesn’t address, in fact none of those involved do, not outright. But this question animates the film. Everything you see and hear contributes to a comprehensive answer. By the end, you understand exactly how he could take that step; in fact, you realize that there’s no way he could not.
So: seek this fillum out and give it a good, solid watch. It’s hilarious and hair-raising and it will hook you. It’s great. And afterwards you’ll want to talk about it.
Writing Update – April into May
Plan to write twelve short stories this year is, predictably, falling behind the curve, but not fatally so.
Two stories completed to a point I can send them places without significant shame.
One completed to a point that I think it is unsalvageable and probably need to pretend it never happened.
One completed to a good draft stage, need to type it up and fire it out to helpful volunteer readers.
One in progress.
Comic meetings are still happening. That is taking a very long time though.
(In fact, major writing project at present = thank-you cards…)
[Last writing update]
Doomed Linky
Trek: photos from 70s Trek conventions. The audio commentary for each photo is worth listening to.
Trek: make customized paper stand-ups of Star Trek characters, Intended for roleplayers but just fun to play with!
Print ads for classic computers. Great! (Trek: Shatner with grinning endorsement in several ads.)
Boys know that girls like puppies. But what breed of puppy has the most pulling power? Here is a handy graph. Full details of the experiment are here but I can’t bring myself to watch the videos because I think this is likely to be creepier than I want it to be.
Helen R linkied this a while back: the baby name wizard, which tracks the use of names in the U.S. since 1880, by gender. My name, Morgan, runs at a relatively constant frequency for boys – but it doesn’t show up as a girl’s name until the ’70s, then explodes to massively outnumber the boy Morgans. This is why.
And finally… how the heck have I never seen the demented genius that is the DOOM comic? Encyc Dramatica is, of course, all over it, featuring a mind-blowing/mind-numbing dramatic reading of the comic. RIP AND TEAR! RIP AND TEAR!
[edited – last minute update linky:] Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas: the Board Game!
You might as well know
I’ve been sprung as an operative for the Illuminati.
I’ll have to wait for my Bavarian masters to get back to me about how to handle things from here. Perhaps, since I think the war is won, we can shed our outer skins and walk around as proud reptiles at last?
And following up my previous claim (in comments) that scientists who don’t accept the AGW hypothesis are outliers: this survey of over 10,000 geoscientists showed over 80% support for AGW. More nuance in the article:
climatologists who are active in research showed the strongest consensus on the causes of global warming, with 97 percent agreeing humans play a role. Petroleum geologists and meteorologists were among the biggest doubters, with only 47 and 64 percent respectively believing in human involvement. Doran compared their responses to a recent poll showing only 58 percent of the public thinks human activity contributes to global warming.
Filament – the thinking woman’s crumpet
[I’m advertising at you again – what can I say, except that friends are doing cool stuff.]
My friend Suraya is launching a print magazine. This, in itself, is a sign of madness in today’s world, but thankfully hers is a beautiful madness, and a clever one too.
Filament magazine is “72 quarterly pages of intelligent thought and beautiful men”. It offers smart articles and sexy pictures aimed at straight women. Here’s the website, which is worksafe provided your work doesn’t mind topless men and the word “erotic”.
It’s likely not gonna be available in shops (unless some enterprising indie mag shops chase Suraya down and ask to carry it, I guess) – but you can grab it easily using Paypal. Looksee. And if you act fast you can pick it up cheap! Reduced prices until the end of Wednesday (U.K. time?)!
It sounds like a great idea for a mag to me (speaking as someone who thinks an awful lot about the magazine as medium but is profoundly disappointed whenever he stands in front of a magazine sales rack). I’ve put my money where my mouth is and signed up for a copy, even though (as the alert among you may have noticed) i’d be a pretty poor excuse for a straight woman. But don’t take my word for it: terrifying internet prophet Warren Ellis has also lent his support.
If it sounds like your flavour of crumpet, you know what to do.
Race Issues
Last few months have been awash in race issues. Going to note ’em down here, for my own reference as much as anything else. There are no conclusions.
Pocket God controversy: an iPod game called Pocket God comes to broad notice for its depiction of primitive and stupid islanders, which borrows imagery from stereotypes of pacific islanders (with a dash of other “primitives” imagery thrown in). Pasifika people are not happy; anthropologists dissect the representations used; the makers make respond with some token changes. Most fans of the game don’t see what is the big deal.
Eskimo candy controversy: Canadian tourist in NZ calls out our iconic “Eskimo” lolly for using an offensive term for the Inuit people. The company announces it has no plans to make any changes. New Zealanders are outspoken in their venom towards this PC-gone-mad tourist. Canadian media is bemused, even though the expert on the term says it’s offensive.
People of Colour and SF/Fantasy: an epic, sprawling argument over depiction of people of colour in genre fiction; became known as Racefail. Good summary here. More recently, a new alt-history book proposes an alternate history of America where the native Americans have never existed. Comment thread about the book explodes as native Americans express concern about being removed from history. Somewhere in the chaos, people note that a common assumption is that the SF/F audience is pretty much white, leading to much sarcastic self-identification as “unicorns” by PoC fans of the genre. This leads to a “Wild unicorn herd check-in” where PoC genre fans by the hundred raise their hands and announce their existence. (Been following this one mostly through the coverage of Bruce Baugh, who draws some good conclusions from this speaking as a white creator).
Melissa Lee: Government wunderkind bye-election candidate Melissa Lee, who is Asian, causes a huge storm by suggesting that heavily-Polynesian South Auckland is full of criminals who are… there’s a motorway… actually, it doesn’t make any sense, so don’t worry about the detail, or check out the Gordon Campbell report. Race is not overtly mentioned here but sits just under the surface. A commenter on the Aotearoa Ethnic Network mailing list cheekily applauds the government’s racial progress in successfully bringing the wealthy elite of all ethnic groups together through their shared fear of the underclass.
Hmm. There have been other prominent race-related stories in the media, although curiously Obama has not been any of them. Feel free to add your own in the comments.
Eat This Linky
This is neat:
Cynical C chooses classic works of film and literature (Alien, The Sound of Music, Homer’s Odyssey…) and then finds reviewers on Amazon who gave them one-star reviews.
Find your new timewaster: Whitechapel thread on webcomics. I’ve only made it through the first two pages – heaps and heaps of stuff here.
Ten-minute horror movie. Warning: may give you nightmares. (Via Pearce, of course.)
Keetra Dean Dixon shows her installation art. The anonymous hug wall is fun, and the blood pillows made me smile.
And finally… interactive hot tub girl! It’s… well. Yeah.