From The Morgue

This has actually been getting a lot of mainstream press attention. That means Marvel plan on sticking with it for, oh, at least a year. [More seriously, it’s an attempt by the Marvel Comics lads to emulate the legacy hero thing they have going at DC, where they’re on to their fourth or so Flash and Green Lantern by now. It won’t work, even if it’s a serious attempt, because the next group in charge will want to spike sales and will bring Cap back to do so.]
I used to read Captain America. I read it when he gave up his identity because he lost faith in America. And when he lost his job because the government wanted to control him. And when he turned into a werewolf. And when he was drawing his own comic book adventures for Marvel Comics. And when he almost went transgender thanks to a villainous feminizing process. And when he got very sick and, er, died. (He got better.) Once upon a time I would have cared about this. But now? Now I just don’t care.
What is surprising to me is that many other people actually do. I’ve come across lengthy impassioned discussions online where hundreds of people who never read comics weigh in on the horrors of Captain America’s death while Osama bin Laden is still threatening our freedom or whatever. The news made a big deal of it all over the world and the event has the great and the good in pointy-headed comics lit circles talking. (Warren Ellis, Heidi Mac, Dirk Deppey etc over at the Engine, frex.)
How did this get to be a major media event? I mean, Does anyone read superhero comics any more that isn’t already an initiate? Seriously. Anyone? Young folk love superheroes (see the movies – heck, even the Fantastic Four movie was a hit), and they love comics (see the suggess of manga – where the real sequential art action is these days) so why don’t they love superhero comics?
(Well, there are lots of reasons, and they are all boring – price rises, competing media, distribution issues, etc. About a decade ago, Marvel began a surprisingly good attempt to go mainstream, with some cutting-edge creators doing very good work and some solid, if failure-prone, attempts to broaden the market. 2003’s Trouble was a late example of this; intended to recreate the romance comic market for teenage girls, with a story about a girl getting unexpectedly pregnant; unfortunately it was sold in comic shops, so the photos of teen girls in swimsuit on the covers were somewhat recontextualised . It also wasn’t particularly good, by all accounts. Superhero connection – this was how Spider-Man was conceived. Yes, wrap your brain around that True Believer, Marvel released a miniseries about how Spidey’s mum and dad conceived him. This was the death knell of Marvel’s attempt to take supers stuff to the mainstream.)
It just makes me think of Mark Gruenwald. He’s the guy who loved comics so much that when he died, they put his ashes in the printing ink of a collection of his best work and sold it to comics geeks all over the world (not me). He wrote Captain America for 10 years, longer than anyone else. I think he wouldn’t have liked this plot development too much.
I guess there is no point to this blog entry then. I just wanted to write about superhero comics for once and this was an excuse. Go figure.

Scottish machinima production outfit Strange Company have recently produced a couple of short films on the subject of fair trade, as part of their .Fair Game initiative.
There are two: one, made in The Sims 2 and developed in conjunction with a local high school, is a nice short piece, and the other is an elaborate World of Warcraft riff that I only barely followed since I don’t play World of Warcraft. If you have the WoW bug, then that one’s for you.
Download or stream them here.
What are machinima? In a nutshell, short animated films made inside computer games. It’s a developing field and I’m lucky enough to have one of the co-authors of Machinima for Dummies on my blogroll; he should be along to correct my nutshell description and any other misconceptions in this post before long. Whereupon I will harrass him for wedding photos, thus bringing everything back into balance.
Anyway, it’s great to see companies getting in behind the Fair Trade effort. (It is a much bigger thing in the UK than it is in New Zealand, sadly for us Kiwis.)
(Also of note: only a bit over a year out of Scotland and my ability to interpret the accent is fading… had to listen to the first line of the Sims film three times before I understand what he was saying…)

A lot of the blogosphere is talking about Conservapedia, a new alternative to Wikipedia that takes as its rationale for existence the presumption that Wikipedia is hopelessly biased in a left-wing and un-Christian way. (Cue “the facts have a liberal bias” wisecracks.)
It is oh-so-easy to mock. The whole project is ridiculous for attempting to promote one controversial belief system in, er, a wiki. That anyone can edit. Yes, anyone. Which gave rise to the following info on the page about dinosaurs:

Since 565 A.D. there are reports about the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie by birth), a large Monster living in Loch Ness, near Inverness, Scotland, where one of the best curry restaurants in the area can be found (beware the chicken Madras). People who saw Nessie described the Monster as it would look similar to a dinosaur. This information, along with a hazy picture of a black shadow, was released as a joint venture by the Inverness Tourism and Sheep-shearing Quality Control Board along with the Xinjiang Department of Tourism and Bad English Signage’s dinosaur-like monster reported sightings. So far the initiative appears to have been unsuccessful as not many Scots appear to have found their way to Xinjian, nor have many Chinese been spotted in the Inverness area.

Due to claims of dinosaur and human coexistence, that page was always going to be a target for outsiders. I didn’t find my way there because I was looking for laffs, however. My brush with Conservapedia began from wondering what it had to say about the sometimes-controversial game Dungeons & Dragons, and the dinosaur link was the second on the list of search results. (Conservapedia’s D&D entry is quite good, FWIW.)
I started thinking that perhaps, despite its many flaws, once we’re done making fun of the Southern Baptists, we outsiders should consider using Conservapedia as a communications tool? Instead of using it for mockery, we could take it seriously, embrace it, and try to embed within it ideas of multiculturalism, gender equality, and other liberal causes? If conservatives are going to use Conservapedia, surely we should try and get some good information in there?
Looking at the discussion page for dinosaurs soured me on that notion. Check this out:

Why is the word “evolved” in inverted commas in the second sentence?
–Horace 20:27, 22 February 2007 (EST)
Note Horace’s use above of the Britishism “inverted commas” instead of the proper American “quotation marks”. This shibboleth makes his contributions look rather suspiciously like the work of a Wikipedia agitator. Dr. Richard Paley 17:21, 23 February 2007 (EST)

I’ve really got nothing to add to that. Sorry, Conservapedia. You are a joke to me, and I hereby renounce any attempts to find a different way of engaging with you. It’s for the best. (The Pope is the antichrist. Conservapedia says it so it must be true! Sorry, conservative Catholics, Conservapedia isn’t *for* you.)

Well, unsurprisingly, the Hot Fuzz NZ premiere was a delight. Peter Jackson said he respected the guys because they made movies for the right reasons. Simon Pegg gave a shout-out to the gig he’d done ten years before in the tiny Bats theatre over the road. Nick Frost said coming here had given him a chance to see a sister in Auckland, who he hadn’t seen for 20 years. Edgar Wright said that the Embassy theatre was lovely and that was the whole reason why they were there.
There were doughnuts. They were crazy. I ate one and then felt full for the next 24 hours.
And, somehow, only 300 of the 400 free tickets went. The word just didn’t get around very far, it seemed. I met Jonathan P, who was co-ordinating the whole thing, the following night and he acknowledged that they were still learning how powerful the online word-of-mouth thing is.
Speaking of meetings, I ran into Tom of WellUrban, meaning that once again I have a real-world acquaintance with everyone on my blogroll. Ha! (Although rumour has it another blogger on the list at right spotted Mr Beard later that evening, but was too shy to make his acquaintance…)
The movie itself was loads of fun. I was impressed by how tight the material was – sometimes you’d have gag + setup + payoff + character revelation + plot advancement all in the same four-word line. The economy and pace of it was great. Structurally it was a bit wonky, not quite sustaining its energy through the middle, but once it worked its way through to the climax, man, that climax delivered. Timothy Dalton was a delight, as well.
Anyone know who played Janine?

(special message for non-Wellingtonians at conclusion of post)
Wellingtonians!
As noted a week ago on my LJ, there will be a MySpace related sneak preview of Hot Fuzz tonight. Hot Fuzz is the new film by the Shaun of the Dead guys, and has been getting wonderful chatter from the UK.
Also, it is presented by Peter Jackson, who has a cameo in the film.
Also, the Shaun of the Dead guys (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Edgar Wright) will all be in attendance.
Also, the preview is free. Just turn up.
Queues will be tolerated from 4pm. Session starts at 6.30. Venue is, of course, the Embassy. Get along! More info here.
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Non-Wellingtonians!
Don’t you wish you were in Wellington?

This is my 500th post.
Post 400 was [mediawatch] The Nuclear Fanatic, an excoriation of a dreadful syndicated article about the supposed clear and present threat from Iran. Sept 5, 2006 was the post date.

This kind of propaganda stands in the way of clear understanding; it most certainly stands in the way of any potential for peace… It’s worth picking bits of it apart. You can see how the system operates – the premises underlying this piece aren’t examined, they’re taken as read, and these premises are what is truly communicated in the piece.

Post 300 was Sometimes It Writes Itself, a silly tale of my past posted on Feb 13, 2006.

I walked up to her and said… “I can see myself in your pants.”

Post 200 was Assigned Further Reading, where I linked to some damn cool stuff, and which should all be read now by you, yes, you. Follow the linky, and when you’ve done that, follow the linkies. That was from Feb 11, 2005.
Post 100 was A Plant Bit Me And Ran Away, in which I have a minor gardening mishap, back on July 10, 2004.

Wow. I’d forgotten plants could do that.

There was no Post 0.

Everybody love Mr T. I sure did love him when I was young and talked my parents into letting me watch the A-Team even though there was guns. Because there was also Inventing, in the sense that every week the A-Team would be locked in a workshop surrounded by goons and they would have to invent something with which to bust out of the workshop and take down the goons. (Usually they would invent a tank.)
But, did you know:

• Mr T provided the impetus for one of the very first internet memes, the Ate My Balls phenomenon of 1996-1998. The original Mr T ate my balls website is still around, as is a Salon article on the phenomenon.
• Mr T partnered with Hulk Hogan in a tag team match in the first Wrestlemania. Watch Mr T whale on some famous wrestler dudes here.
• Mr T’s legendary rap number “Treat Your Mother Right” was ghostwritten by Ice T. Seriously. Okay, I’ve never found confirmation, but it has to be true. Watch T rap and mothers dance here. ‘Treat Your Mother Right” was from T’s renowned video, Be Somebody or Be Somebody’s Fool.
• Mr T had a supporting role in the legendary cult oddity Freaked, as a Bearded Lady. He was playing alongside an uncredited Keanu Reeves, who covered his face in hair for the entire film. I love this movie always.
• One of the Onion’s best ever articles was driven by our man Mr T: “Mr T Announces Pity List for 1986”. It features Mr T announcing “This year I pity the following fools…”
• This is all the Alligator’s fault, dammit, I should be working. Check out more Mr T awesome, here and here.

The other big noise around NZ lately has been the progress of Green MP Sue Bradford’s “anti-smacking bill”, which essentially outlaws the physical disciplining of children.
This has, predictably, kicked up a righteous hullaballoo. The hardcore fundy Christians hate the attack on their God-imposed responsibility to smack their children into obedience and love. Libertarians are upset that the state is going to tell them how they have to raise their children. Everyone agrees that, for those parents who kill their children, this legislation isn’t going to provide much disincentive.
I support the bill. I don’t have kids, so I can’t speak to the difficulties of parenting and discipline. But I know this – I have on many occasions watched as some mother or father laid down a mighty load of smacking on a misbehaving child. Furious, stressed parents at the end of their tether, trying to just get through their shopping and go home, who smack down their children, hard. Every time I have witnessed this kind of display, I have felt sickened, and also helpless.
This kind of treatment is unacceptable. If the bill passes into law, then it will also be illegal.
The other issues are sideshows. The real concern is this kind of physical beating of unruly children, which happens every day, all over this country. I welcome this legislation as a step in pushing such behaviour beyond the pale, where it belongs.
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This is turning into “issues week”. Gosh, which pressing ethical conundrum shall I glibly solve tomorrow?

(For the overseas crew, for context…) The New Zealand media has been dominated over the last few days with the outcome of a major trial. Three police, including the current Assistant Commissioner, were accused of a very unpleasant group sexual assault some 20 years ago. They were found not guilty. The same three men were recently found not guilty of another, similar, sexual assault. It has come out since the verdict that two of the accused were already in prison, serving time for a third (similar) sexual assault for which they had been convicted.
The legal system is not designed to protect women. It is designed to protect everyone.
It sucks that it has to be this way, but on the evidence I’ve seen, Clint Rickards should be walking free. The evidence of guilt is simply not strong enough to be beyond reasonable doubt.
Allegations of sexual assault and of rape are always hard to prosecute. Such allegations often come down to contrary versions of events (“It was rape” vs. “It was consensual”). Choosing between them is a conundrum the legal system is ill-equipped to solve.
The law has to look after everyone. Its fundamental workings must generalise across every kind of transgression and still deliver acceptable results. It is wrongheaded to be disappointed in the legal system for failing the complainants in these cases. As far as I’m concerned, the system worked admirably. The verdict may taste unpleasant, but it indicates that our legal system is doing exactly what it needs to be doing.

Some stuff I’ve been liking this week and last week and whenever the heck.
d3vo explains that boys have secret crushes, with a diagram. (Your diagram, d, or did you lift it from somewhere?)
Sam reminisces about the bakery cult. Before I proselytised for Leon, there was this.
My girlfriend is eaten by a spider
Good Magazine’s ‘best magazines ever’. They single out the editorial period when the magazine was at its best. Half are from and about New York, but still fascinating.
homeperm points out silver linings to Wellington’s commuter chaos
Heather continues to be bloody entertaining. Every day I get people finding my blog using the search term ‘funniest thing on the internet’, which is how I described the H-blog. And you know, it still is.
Indie video games! Courtesy hix.
The always-engaging Spanblather was kind enough to link to me during her regular link roundups; go check out the full Linky Love linkorama yourselves. There is lots of awesome there.
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In case you were wondering, progress is being made on RtB, yesthankyouyes.