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To May 10, 2006

And the online Canadian Indy music store Zunior has a ZuniorCast going now that I am looking forward to listening to shortly.

And Salon has a Podcast that I also look forward to listening to

I'm looking for a good podcast of New Zealand indie stuff. Will I find it here?

The Dalek Chronicles via Scanarama yahoo group.

Most farted. Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding using their hi-tech thermal ghost detecting gizmo to measure farts. Not really that funny, so don't bother watching it unless you care more about this show than you should.

Future reading: Michael Moorcock on authoritarian scifi and fantasy via Jog The Blog

Jay has posted a link to some seriously disturbing Japanese monsters from a 70's TV show The Phantom Army on his blog Monsterama:

The first one is some kind of gas mutant; the second a mold mutant.

I go through periodic Morrissey 'in' and 'out' phases. I think I'm in an 'in' phase again. I watched this documentary the other night, and was kind of suprised that j.k. Rowling is a big fan:

and then this (some nostalgia for the Kill Uncle days):

and this; Morrissey, Marr and Sandie Shaw on some British Kids show in 1984:

I could post more, but I won't because I'm beginning to wonder what it all means.

From Inspiration Grab Bag, some scans of Disney Storybook pages. I remember the Peter Pan and Pinnochio ones:

To April 26, 2006

Interesting essay on Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut by cartoonist Tim Kreider, whose cartoons I'm not familiar with but are pretty funny. This is a panel from Things I Learned from the Bush Administration:

There's also this article about Barry Lyndon. I've often wondered why more period films don't use candlelight. And this about how The Shining was intended as an allegory for the genocide of Native Americans.

I haven't read that much of Polly and Her Pals but the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog has a couple of nice scans up. It's amazing how funny variations on one theme can work so well, as with these Belles and Wedding Bells support strip which are hilarious (but maybe you have to be married to appreciate them fully?):

And there's something I find really satisfying about the drawing and design of this panel. See, if this had been me that had drawn this, I would have probably wasted a good half hour admiring my handiwork and patting myself on the back; Sterret, on the other hand probably would've been too busy thinking about how he was going to finish the three remaining panels, not to mention the six other daily strips he'd have to start working on as soon as he was done this one.

Planetary Socitey blog update on current missions: "Venus Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are settling in to their orbits and won't be sending back new data for a while. New Horizons, MESSENGER, and Rosetta are cruising along, en route for Jupiter, Venus, and Mars flybys, respectively. Cassini is puttering on at Saturn, presently in between Titan flybys. Mars Express, Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Odyssey continue their steady return of data, as does SMART-1 at the Moon. Opportunity is still driving and driving across Meridiani Planum, en route to Victoria Crater, but is now in restricted sols so progress has slowed. (Victoria is still 1,500 meters away; it's going to be a while.) And Spirit -- well, there's news about Spirit, but it's hardly urgent. They seem to have found a parking spot for Spirit to weather the Martian winter. Get used to this view of Home Plate and Husband Hill, because Spirit will be seeing a lot of it over the next 8 months, whenever power levels permit the rover to eke a little bit of science activity out of the day."

To April 8, 2006

Blog to read: http://www.retrocrush.com/

Paul Karasik's blog makes me laugh a lot:

I made the mistake about bragging to some of my Florentine friends that I had been invited to attend the comics festival (from now on referred to as “Comicon”) in Naples and I am now qualified to write the guide book on why not to go there for a visit.

Florentine checklist:
In Naples:
DO be very, very careful whom you talk to.
DO look both ways and make sure your insurance is paid up before crossing the street.
DO accept directions from nobody, especially anyone in a uniform. (You will note that this last directive is a double-negative, or a double-positive, or something. I could not remember anything else that anybody told me to do that was draped in a positive tone.)

In Naples:
DON’T wear a Rolex.
DON’T accept opera tickets from a stranger because he will then know that you are out of your hotel room from 8-11 and take everything that is not bolted down, but they usually bring bolt-cutters, too.
DON’T forget to count your change.

My neighbor summed it up when he heard I was going by putting his hand gravely on my shoulder and explaining to me in terms that an American might understand that Naples is, ‘like the Wild West”.

The one thing that everyone begrudgingly admitted was that in Naples they do know how to make pizza, sort of.

Momus on filesharing:

Or, you know, one of these downloaders may have sex with me, or give me a column in a magazine, or ask me to come and give a talk at an art school, or collaborate on a project, and that will lead to, you know, marriage, or a surprise twist in the career path, or something equally amazing. "Peer-to-peer" can mean much more than just sharing music. To the RIAA, a "peer" is simply a freeloading customer, a source of monetary loss. But to me a peer is a person, the source of all sorts of possible gains, quantifiable or not. To the RIAA, with a business agenda but no human agenda, that peer engaging in P2P can only mean the loss of dollars. To me it can mean the possibility of barter (the theme of artist Carolina Caycedo's work), but also friendship, communication, and a million other human possibilities.

and:

I do think buying CDs is virtuous, but it won't always seem that way if the people selling them appear as vicious as the RIAA currently does. We pirates have a proverb: if your boat is sinking, don't sue the water.
There's no high moral ground when you're at sea, but if you want this whole thing in landlubber language, nobody puts it better than Saint Matthew, apostle and evangelist: "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Some inspirational drawings for various cartoons from Van Eaton Galleries:

Mary Blair

Eyvind Earle

A beautiful drawing from Disney's The Old Mill

I really like this one too, from something I don't know what

And Kate Hepburn, as Little Bo Beep. I've 99.9% sure I've seen what this is from but can't remember what it is (On Golden Pond?)

To April 5, 2006

In Our Time has had a couple of discussions I've found really interesting. One on the Golden Age of Islam, the enlightened reign of THE ABBASID CALIPHS, and another episode about NEGATIVE NUMBERS that sort of relates actually, in that an understanding of how they could be applied came about as a result of Arab Mathematics spread to Europe by way of Islamic Spain, and this understanding help lead to a breakthrough in figuring out what the square root of negative 1 is (which is one of the foundations of modern mathematics dontcha know).

Dogmatika Blog via The Comics Reporter

Dash Shaw comic I like. Also via The Comics Reporter

And I found this site while trying to bring up Lambiek and I thought it was pretty funny (and kind of myserious, as the site appears to have no other purpose):

To April 4, 2006

A simulated fly through of Mars' Valles Marineris created by JPL via The Planetary Society Blog

The Guardian on the Guillemots, who I haven't listened to before but it sounds like I might like:
"There's ghost things involved," shudders Stewart, who, for reasons unknown, prefers to be known as Rican Caol. "This building's haunted and there's definitely something in the back room of the studio. I've felt it twice."Their website, where you can download tracks: http://www.guillemots.com/

Wessex Archaeology Podcast: Excavations on Cranborne Chase in Dorset, England, where the Wessex Archaeology team led by Martin Green are running a Practical Archaeology Course. I've listened to this one about the technology for carving flint tools, which may come in useful one day, who knows?

Radioopensource.com. This panel podcast discussion about what our relationship with computers and robots is doing to our psychology featuring and inspired by Sherry Turkle, author of The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (Which I've just requested from the library). The discussion was quite long and in depth and I'm looking forward to listening to this one about secrecy.

Quite enjoying the MP3 blog Take Your Medicine, which is on to its third podcast. Some bands and stuff that I'm liking include: Oppenheimer, Ornament (kind of Fourtetish), Robots In Love and Morton Valence.

And Cartoon Modern has had some excellent stuff recently, including Mary Blair Week. As a kid my hatred of It's A Small World was always directly proportionate to my sister Kate's love for it. But this stuff is beautiful:

And he also has some interesting stuff to say about one of my favourite Disney films (which I think is pretty valid, when I think about it):

The costliest mistake was that Walt Disney granted an inexperienced animation artist like Earle so much control over the look of the film. When Earle was made the film’s art director in 1955, his total experience in animation totalled less than four years. He failed to understand the nature of animation production, which demands a creative give-and-take between competing artistic visions. Instead, Earle insisted that everybody follow his unwavering artistic ideas, not recognizing that his vision wasn’t expansive enough to carry an entire animated feature on its own. He ended up alienating himself from the animation crew, and didn’t pay attention to how his backgrounds worked in context of the character designs, animation and storytelling. Perhaps that’s one reason why people frequently describe the film’s look as ‘cold.’

To March 20, 2006

Panels and Pixels Blog

Peter Fowler via Juxtapoz

Arf Lovers Blog

The Hall of Best Knowledge Via Kempa.com

The lecture podcasts that I've listened to on IT Conversations so far have been consistently great. Blog here.

First Seconds Books Blog via Comics Reporter

Move Your Feet via TCJ

http://newbodega.blogspot.com/ via Scott Mccloud

Digital Funnies: Comics Preservation by Jonathan Barli via Kempa.com

When I was a kid this show filled me with a perfect melancholic joy:

DJ Compilation of the Month: The Incorrect Music Companion 2001

P.E.I. looks to wind power

Nearly 100, LSD's Father Ponders His 'Problem Child'

Dr. Toy's 100 Best Toys of 2005

I have conquered IRC! Scanlations of the rest of Hanaotoko and other stuff for 'leeching' courtesy of 'Manga Penis'

To January 1, 2006

Some band recommendations by Anton Newcombe that I came across on The High Dials’ site (they also have a tour blog) and want to remember to check out:

Dimmer from New Zealand
Dungen from Sweden
Singapore Sling
Dead Meadow from Washington DC
A Place to Bury Strangers from New York

And here's somewhere Somewhere I have to go to if I ever make an Abba pilgrimage to Stockholm (more likely than you might think):  

And now the Tiki Room is open Wednesday to Saturday the year round! The drinks, many of the old Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic classics, as well new masterful inventions by Jeff Berrey and of course some of our own concoctions, all expertly made and served as their supposed to. We also serve some great Polynesian inspired dishes. If someone would have told me that in a few years time you will actually have built a Tiki Bar in Sweden, I would have laughed. Even though I‚d love to build one the idea would be to bizarre for anyone to ever sponsor. But here we are now and the fruits of dreams are have a sweet nectar indeed. So, if you're ever find yourself in Stockholm, you know where to go. Welcome!

And speaking of Sweden, I watched this Swedish comedy Together a couple of weeks ago about a hippy commune and I liked it a lot, especially the fact that it unabashedly used an Abba number as its theme song. As Anton says "Fooking sweden i looove ya!!!"

Book to remember to get someday: Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

Funny: Animated version of Jonathan Goldstein story about Joseph

Fifties animation design: http://cartoonmodern.blogsome.com

and Alvin Lustig via Drawn.ca

Other books to remember to read in 30 odd years when I retire: John O’Donohue was on Ideas a few weeks ago and I liked what he had to say.

Coop's blog: http://positiveapeindex.blogspot.com/

Links to December 5 2005