And now linky

Did you check out all the amazing linky people added in comments last week? So much good stuff there. I haven’t even got to the end of the list myself. Go back and see. And hey, it’s not too late to add yours…

But the grind of linky is eternal and unceasing, so here be more:

The Content Farm, which shows how one good joke executed flawlessly can be all you need.

Data about infographics, presented as an infographic.

What a personality cult actually is (I found this quite enlightening)

Forbes fictional rich list

Star Wars the musical from 1996! This is an unlicensed adaptation of Star Wars performed by high-schoolers, with new Star Wars lyrics to famous songs. The bits I watched work surprisingly well – it’s heaps of fun. (This is what I hoped Glee the TV show would be like.) Here’s a sample, the rest at the link:

Star Wars the Musical: Act 1, Part 1 from Funny Farm Films on Vimeo.

Office supply art

Automated voicemail transcription service is asked to transcribe the poem Ozymandias. Fascinating. Found art as mashup?

Photos of 1800s theatre stars. Also in 1800s photography: Lewis Carroll’s photos.

60 completely unusable stock photos

Relive your adolescent frustration with this compilation of game deaths:

And finally, via Dangerous Minds of course, the stylings of the Eminems of Ayn Rand, the Vanilla Ice Tea of the Tea Party, yes it’s the conservative movement’s rap duo: The Young Cons. Swoon!

Fools Linky

PITY THE APRIL FOOL: Kids dressed like Mr T

So hey – it’s my birthday tomorrow. Give me a birthday gift of an interesting link to an essay, video, picture, whatever. Pop it in the comments, and I’ll open them tomorrow! Hurrah!

This one’s been all over. From its origins until the late 80s, Schulz’s strip Peanuts used a four-panel format. (It then changed to three panels with more formal experimentation.) 3eanuts takes those strips and removes the fourth panel. The rhythm still works because 3-panel strips are more common these days, but without Schulz’s bitter/redemptive final panel gags the tone is… well. Lets just say it’s one more sign that Peanuts was a really really weird strip to be globally famous. It’s not exactly Garfield.

From Alastair G, since seen everywhere: 20 sad etsy boyfriends

Mills & Boon covers recreated – first saw this via Jenni

Mike U pointed out these political/philosophical reviews of the Mr Men books

Police vs Clowns, locked in time:

William Burroughs on Led Zeppelin

“Do you LIKE HIM like him?” That’s contrastive reduplication.

Meant to do this one last year: an American writer reviews and compares the first episodes of NZ’s Outrageous Fortune, and the US remake Scoundrels. In the comments, OF co-creator James Griffin sounds off. Great stuff for people curious about why TV some shows work & some don’t.

A channel featuring the worst of YouTube

Fantasy travel posters

Via Warren Ellis, one heck of a short film (a wee bit disturbing)

I linked this on Facebook aaaaaages ago, but think it never made it to a Friday linky: Pictures of Muslims wearing things

Evie found this neato diagrammatic version of Hamlet.

Spider-Man wants you to vote! And drink vitamin C! And use contraception!

There’re a lot of lipsync videos on YouTube. This is the most impressive one you’ll ever see.

Bad postcards


EC Segar’s Raiders of the Lost Ark

From the Smithsonian – Top 10 consequences of having evolved (via Monsieur Bartok)

Greatest letter ever printed on sportsteam letterhead

Trailer for fanfilm adaptation of Lovecraft’s Whisperer in Darkness – this has been in my list for months and months, come out already film!

Yoga – not as old as you think

Why are easy decisions so hard? (via gnat)

And finally… Iron Crocodile

Birthday & Akira

Facebook just reminded me that it’s my birthday shortly. I was genuinely surprised.

In past years I’ve asked people to gift me with a favourite quote, or indeed with any old quote, and add it in comments.

This year I’m going to ask you to contribute a link on Friday, to the usual Friday Linky post. Together, we will cast a magic spell of procrastination that will ensorcel offices throughout the world. So keep your eyes peeled for potential linky goodness.

Here’s one you can’t use because I got it first: Prince Gomolvilas’s vid about the white boy’s Akira that I posted about last week.

Immune Linky

Baby Willa has had 3-month immunisation jabs this morning. All good. Some concentrated linky to immunise you against the internets:

From the Alligator: now this is a boot

For the Alligator, and everyone else with impeccable taste: Where’s Randy Savage?

Now here is a Liz Taylor movie I would sit down to watch: The Drivers Seat (1974). Knifeman, I presume you have heard of this film? Viewing party!

Recycling a bottle, flashmob style:

And a social norm breaking experiment that is also basically a flashmob (I will restrain myself from talking at length about how this is a dumb way to do a normbreaking learning exercise):

The British Library is collecting and recording children’s games from around the world – another wonderful resource from the BL who do amazing stuff, and I hope they don’t lose much capacity under the Cameron govt…

Via Hamish Ritchie, all the spoilers (um, spoilers for everything)

Via David Ritchie, Withnail & I meets Star Wars

An appreciation of Bulwer-Lytton, whose name is now on that ghastly bad-first-lines contest, poor devil.

On The Fundy Post, an island that’s basically straight out of Lovecraft. (Cthulhu gamers, here is your next adventure setting.)

The great Milton Bradley boardgame Heroquest, as a free-download computer game.

And finally… please forgive me… the YOGA FARMER

Laptop Back Linky

Over a month since it went off to Computer Hospital, my laptop has come home. Yay! No more stealing strong_light’s computer when she isn’t looking! So far it seems to be working beautifully, and (touch wood) no bluescreens so far when I try the actions that used to trigger them. (Bluescreens can be software-related – who knew?)

So, heedless of the world where there are a number of awful, awful situations unfolding, here are some linky.

Via George L – Mario as indie film! (from SXSW)

It’s a good companion to the Ferris-Bueller-as-indie-film that’s been doing the rounds:

Timely: are you prepared? (via Seth Green, funnily enough)

30th anniversary of the ZX81! I remember downhill ski racing on my grandfather’s ZX81 way back then.

I twittered about this a few weeks back – the US military publicly advertised for a company to arrange fake online identities they could use. They’ve chosen a contractor now, and the Guardian has the details.

Have you seen that clip of the UCLA undergrad sounding off about the offensive Asians in the library who don’t understand American manners? Even if you haven’t, you want to see this wonderful, wonderful response.

Why Borders failed and Barnes & Noble didn’t. (NZ buyers for Whitcoulls & Borders here – take note…)

What Dr Seuss books were really about

Kate Beaton comics redialogued by Japanese kids.

Sperm whales may have names (via Allan Varney)

From Jack – a pic of the orcas in our harbour. (Anyone have a link to other good pics?)

Dude who worked on Inspector Gadget cartoon shares sketches, notes, storyboards, and other details.

Every job interview ever. (This kind of thing is actually what academia’s discourse analysts do for real.)

Visual map of history of science-fiction – a great infographic, and the subject matter is pretty fascinating too

Letters of note has this gem from Rik Mayall (via Paul Stock)

And finally… via Dangerous Minds of course… the Careless Whisper guy:

Battletruck Linky

Have I mentioned Battletruck enough lately? The answer to this question is always NO. Last night I found out that a friend and colleague with a long history in the NZ film industry was the chap who designed the epnoymous truck de battle, and in fact drove it in many of the film’s scenes. I was reduced to gibbering fanboy. Hell yes. So here are some links: battletruck. BattleTruck. BATTLETRUCK!
Bonus Battletruck Spoilers:

Now, on other links containing fewer trucks and less battling:

Kodak’s test colour film footage from 1922

A lovely poetic microfilm, How to be alone:

Infographic of all the time travelling in Doctor Who. Also from DW: interesting solo-play game.

The Perfect Body – diversity in the figures of Olympic athletes. Love this.

More about political messaging: What is conservatism and what is wrong with it?

Tearjerking story of Danny and Annie:

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Batman explains it all

Interview with China Miéville from an urban design perspective.

And finally… Wikipedia’s article on Hatebeak

Once again, Friday is Linky

Some linky for your Friday.

Old photos recreated with the same people. (from Dylan H and Emily P, I think)

David Lynch’s 1984 movie Dune had some weird kids activity books. (from Meredith at Coilhouse)

Cat laser bowling:

NZ is now in an election year, so it’s time to take a look at this one – been sitting on it for a while. It’s about providing a new frame for media coverage of an election, using the organizing principle of a citizen’s agenda. Worth talking about, maybe worth fighting for. At the very least, worth reading to remind you of the limits inherent in how we talk about elections in the media right now. (from George Darroch)

21 creepy babies in film (from the AV Club)

True life Donald Rumsfeld memo is… as you’d expect really.

Transformation decks – turning decks of cards into works of art!

Star Wars, told in iconography.

Filament linked to this about a month ago, and I found it interesting: I made out with a pick-up artist, then interviewed him

And finally… this. Contains male bottoms, so exercise discretion in the workplace.

UnRecent Linky

Digging through the backlog of linky suspects. Hopefully none of these have been linked before.

Pixel art cartooning demonstrates how much nuance in you can get in pixelart, using Star Trek characters

Great panels from vintage comics

Classic early 20th-c sci-fi artist Frank R Paul

Great essay from the Columbia Journalism Review (via the DimPost I think, it’s been a while) about being a young woman journo moving into the new media (Gawker!), or more generally, about what was (is) going on in journalism.

Cookie Monster trains IBM sales staff in 1967

Evan Dorkin’s FUN strips. Hilarious. Inappropriate. Not nearly as well-known as they should be. (Dude writes for Yo Gabba Gabba now, parents! See the horrible truth behind his child-friendly exterior!)

David Lynch’s interview project. Lynch went around the US interviewing random people. I haven’t watched any of these but one day I will. I kinda imagine it’ll be like The Straight Story, but real.

A song from Rambo: The Musical


Journo goes undercover at a gay-to-straight conversion camp
.

Photo: Aleister Crowley and Fernando Pessoa playing chess.

NERD RAGE, in rap form

And finally…
David Mitchell with pizza

Already Linky

Week gone too quick for blog. Ahhh. Also, not happy that laptop destined to go for repair shop AGAIN. Still under warranty at least!

Interview with international comic-shop guy & friend of this blog, Andrew Salmond, about comics retail and comics community.

Marie sent this aggro pro-literacy fight song:

Photographer asks strangers on the street to get cosy. Results are good photos.

Right-wing nuts guide to Egypt (from Gawker) – just barely still relevant!

Dylan Horrocks blogs about discovering the geek side of the Egypt protests.

Everyone, including me, links to the Malcolm-Gladwell-mockery that has been a welcome side effect of the Egypt protests.

Counter Gladwell’s shallow pseudo-intellectualism with this fantastic, pragmatic analysis: 20 reasons why it’s kicking off everywhere. I’d wager it has been linked more than it has actually been read, because it’s a big block of text, but it really is great.

And you’ve seen this, right? THE MOST ILLEGAL THING in the history of professional wrestling:

From Hannah C, the delightful Compton Cricket Club

In time for Valentine’s Day, the best romances in comics

Ethics and tech: “an ethical iPhone would be too expensive”

And finally… women laughing alone with salad