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Dec. 24th, 2007 11:12 amNeil Gaiman won the 2007 Jim Henson Creativity Honor. A completely meaningless award, but one that makes me happy nonetheless.
(no subject)
Nov. 1st, 2007 02:57 amThings that make today a good day already:
Joss is making a new show. Starring Faithy-Schmaithy. This is the part where Siobhan gets very excited.
Someone more talented than I am carved a pumpkin to look like Death.
And one of my favorite Sesame Street clips is finally up on You Tube. I promise you, if you watch this all the way through "I-klahoma", you will smile.
Joss is making a new show. Starring Faithy-Schmaithy. This is the part where Siobhan gets very excited.
Someone more talented than I am carved a pumpkin to look like Death.
And one of my favorite Sesame Street clips is finally up on You Tube. I promise you, if you watch this all the way through "I-klahoma", you will smile.
(no subject)
Aug. 13th, 2007 01:30 pmHey, I didn't know that Berke Breathed had revived Lola Granola for his Opus strip! That's kinda cool. Sorry, I'm an old school Bloom County fan, despite its early tendencies to rip off Doonesbury. (Rhyming couplets about Caspar Weinberger? What's not good about that?)
Also, all humor involving leprechauns and underpants is inherently funny.
Also, all humor involving leprechauns and underpants is inherently funny.
NYC fashion police
Jul. 30th, 2007 04:00 pmSo. I've realized something that was cut from the fifth movie that's going to backfire in the seventh.
( Dungbombs...(spoilers) )
In other news, I have a t-shirt that's totally on its last legs. It's a Death t-shirt, circa "Time of Your Life", and it's way too big and basically crumbling. Not a flattering piece of clothing, but it's incredibly comfortable to just lounge around in, and I love the artwork on the front:
I've been thinking, though, that if I need to do another clothing purge before we move, I might have to chuck it. BUT NOT ANYMORE! Because today I went to the mailbox, and as I was bent over checking to make sure everything had been successfully deposited, I heard a quiet voice behind me say, "Nice Death shirt." It took me a second to realize the guy was talking to me, and as I stood up I said thank you, but he'd already walked on. And I was like, yes, it IS a nice Death shirt. And Death brings people together! (Like Moki, or Old Dirty Bastard.) So I'm keeping it, for now.
( Dungbombs...(spoilers) )
In other news, I have a t-shirt that's totally on its last legs. It's a Death t-shirt, circa "Time of Your Life", and it's way too big and basically crumbling. Not a flattering piece of clothing, but it's incredibly comfortable to just lounge around in, and I love the artwork on the front:
I've been thinking, though, that if I need to do another clothing purge before we move, I might have to chuck it. BUT NOT ANYMORE! Because today I went to the mailbox, and as I was bent over checking to make sure everything had been successfully deposited, I heard a quiet voice behind me say, "Nice Death shirt." It took me a second to realize the guy was talking to me, and as I stood up I said thank you, but he'd already walked on. And I was like, yes, it IS a nice Death shirt. And Death brings people together! (Like Moki, or Old Dirty Bastard.) So I'm keeping it, for now.
The end of window shopping
Oct. 22nd, 2006 05:19 pmTower Records recently filed for bankruptcy, again, and this time their stores are actually going out of business. I have a real soft spot for Tower Records. Unlike many music nerds, I did not learn about indie rock by going to some tiny store, flipping through vinyl and having some grungy clerk tell me about Television or XTC. I learned about music through a combination of a friend with a very hip older sister, subscriptions to Sassy and Spin, and a dad who would go with me to Tower and buy me a handful of CDs that I'd never heard before every time we went to Chicago. So the Tower Records on Clark is where I bulked up my knowledge along with my collection. Tower Records was also where I first bought a Sandman book. (There was also a comic book store downstairs where I bought my first Cerebus book, but that's neither here nor there.) When I lived in Chicago, trips outside of Hyde Park often revolved around going to Tower. I very specifically remember buying double albums by Tori and Trent on their first day of release my second year -- that took a bite out of my wallet! The last batch of CDs I ever bought at the Chicago Tower included an album by Mandalay that was in one of their listening stations, saying it was Madonna's new favorite album. It's a great, great record.
I never had the same connections with either of the Tower Records stores in New York, but in my first couple of years here the Tower by Lincoln Center was a fairly regular destination on my Upper West Side outings. So today, we decided to go down there and scout out their "Blowout Sale" to see if there were any remaining Battlestar Galactica DVDs to be had for cheap. MAN, was that place ever torn to shit. It was the dregs of popular culture to be had at that store today, though if you're looking for a copy of the Spielberg/Cruise War of the Worlds, you'd be in luck. And the prices weren't even that great! A blowout sale where almost everything is only 20% off? You could buy this stuff for cheaper any given day on Amazon!
But I realized, when Tower closes, and when Kim's inevitably closes (and it will soon, have no doubt), there will be hardly anywhere to buy DVDs in the city -- certainly nowhere with any decent selection. There are the Virgin megastores -- I haven't heard how they're doing. According to rumors floating around the Kim's staff, Blockbuster will soon be closing, so their paltry retail selection won't be available. Barnes and Noble sells DVDs at some of their stores, but their selection is small and expensive.
I buy the vast majority of my DVDs and books on Amazon. Their prices are the cheapest, and if you spend over $25, the shipping is free. (The free shipping may not work so well for people in more isolated areas, but in New York, it's actually faster than UPS.) So I realize I have personally contributed to the downfall of brick and mortar stores. I suddenly regret it. I will miss the ability to wander through a store, leisurely considering items and making impulse buys. Sure, I can (and often do -- beware late-night Ambien induced Amazon shopping, folks) accomplish the same thing online. But the depersonalization of it is suddenly very unsettling. As a matter of fact, I do almost all of my shopping online -- I hate trying on clothes in stores and would rather do it at home and then take back the things I don't like to the physical stores. I bought my new phone online. When I buy a new computer, I will likely do it online. I buy furniture and gadgets online. But I always did it with the understanding that if I wanted to go to a store and do it, I could. And soon, I won't be able to. I love shopping on the internet. I've never been a great window shopper. But I always reserved the right to window shop if I so desired. That's ending.
I never had the same connections with either of the Tower Records stores in New York, but in my first couple of years here the Tower by Lincoln Center was a fairly regular destination on my Upper West Side outings. So today, we decided to go down there and scout out their "Blowout Sale" to see if there were any remaining Battlestar Galactica DVDs to be had for cheap. MAN, was that place ever torn to shit. It was the dregs of popular culture to be had at that store today, though if you're looking for a copy of the Spielberg/Cruise War of the Worlds, you'd be in luck. And the prices weren't even that great! A blowout sale where almost everything is only 20% off? You could buy this stuff for cheaper any given day on Amazon!
But I realized, when Tower closes, and when Kim's inevitably closes (and it will soon, have no doubt), there will be hardly anywhere to buy DVDs in the city -- certainly nowhere with any decent selection. There are the Virgin megastores -- I haven't heard how they're doing. According to rumors floating around the Kim's staff, Blockbuster will soon be closing, so their paltry retail selection won't be available. Barnes and Noble sells DVDs at some of their stores, but their selection is small and expensive.
I buy the vast majority of my DVDs and books on Amazon. Their prices are the cheapest, and if you spend over $25, the shipping is free. (The free shipping may not work so well for people in more isolated areas, but in New York, it's actually faster than UPS.) So I realize I have personally contributed to the downfall of brick and mortar stores. I suddenly regret it. I will miss the ability to wander through a store, leisurely considering items and making impulse buys. Sure, I can (and often do -- beware late-night Ambien induced Amazon shopping, folks) accomplish the same thing online. But the depersonalization of it is suddenly very unsettling. As a matter of fact, I do almost all of my shopping online -- I hate trying on clothes in stores and would rather do it at home and then take back the things I don't like to the physical stores. I bought my new phone online. When I buy a new computer, I will likely do it online. I buy furniture and gadgets online. But I always did it with the understanding that if I wanted to go to a store and do it, I could. And soon, I won't be able to. I love shopping on the internet. I've never been a great window shopper. But I always reserved the right to window shop if I so desired. That's ending.
HE'S GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY!
Oct. 1st, 2006 04:19 pmI've added the newest Doonesbury book, "The War Years", to my books sidebar on Vox. It is actually just a compilation of two earlier books, "Peace Out Dawg" and "Got War", but it's all nice and hardcovery and shiny shiny. I like buying the Doonesbury books when they come out in larger format, as it...well, it just looks nicer on my shelf, and I am anal and obsessive compulsive like that. Why buy coffee table books if they're not going to look nice on your coffee table?
I think another reason I am invested in the large-format Doonesbury books is because that's how I first read the strip. My parents had a copy of the very first large-format Doonesbury book, "The Doonesbury Chronicles", when I was a child. Honestly, I think my mom got it as a present or something, because I never saw her reading it, but I picked it up at some point and loved it.
Of course, I only got half the jokes. I remember very specifically asking my mom "What's Turkish Hashish?" after reading one strip in particular. And "What's a honky?" So I've been invested in the strip for a long time. I think it goes through strong periods and fallow periods, though I'm pretty much always happy when it focuses on Alex, Mike's teenage daughter. She's been a hoot for years now, starting with calling her mother's boyfriend "Uncle Stupidhead". It's so dumb, and yet something about the way Trudeau phrases it every time makes me laugh.
A couple of years ago, B.D., one of the main characters since the very first strip, lost his leg in Iraq. I remember that I happened to read the strip online that day, even though I hadn't read it in months, and I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. And yet what was really shocking, and really hit home, wasn't that in the last frame his leg was missing. It was that his helmet, which you never saw him without, was off. It was just this incredibly fragile moment, rendered really beautifully, that was designed to particularly affect people who had been reading for years. And I was so afraid he was going to die. I really was. Trudeau hasn't killed off a character in quite some time, and given that he's been doing the strip since the late '60s and the characters, though their ages have certainly been fudged quite a bit, are firmly in middle age now, they're due to start dropping if the strip keeps going. The only people that have died are Andy, a very minor character who appeared briefly in the late '70s as the token gay character and was then brought back in the late '80s to die of AIDS, Lacey, the congresswoman who was in her 80s even when she first appeared, and Mark's father, who was probably around 80 in the strip when he died. No primary characters. I fear for Joanie -- she's about 70 now. Yikes. 70. That seems impossible, but I was just reading strips in the book from 2002 and she cops to being 66. So yeah, 70. I kinda dread the potential for total baby-boomer angst as these characters age even further, but it will be interesting to see what develops. In the meantime, I will continue to laugh at Uncle Stupidhead, Zonker, and even Duke, though his prominence irritates me a lot of the time.
I think another reason I am invested in the large-format Doonesbury books is because that's how I first read the strip. My parents had a copy of the very first large-format Doonesbury book, "The Doonesbury Chronicles", when I was a child. Honestly, I think my mom got it as a present or something, because I never saw her reading it, but I picked it up at some point and loved it.
A couple of years ago, B.D., one of the main characters since the very first strip, lost his leg in Iraq. I remember that I happened to read the strip online that day, even though I hadn't read it in months, and I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. And yet what was really shocking, and really hit home, wasn't that in the last frame his leg was missing. It was that his helmet, which you never saw him without, was off. It was just this incredibly fragile moment, rendered really beautifully, that was designed to particularly affect people who had been reading for years. And I was so afraid he was going to die. I really was. Trudeau hasn't killed off a character in quite some time, and given that he's been doing the strip since the late '60s and the characters, though their ages have certainly been fudged quite a bit, are firmly in middle age now, they're due to start dropping if the strip keeps going. The only people that have died are Andy, a very minor character who appeared briefly in the late '70s as the token gay character and was then brought back in the late '80s to die of AIDS, Lacey, the congresswoman who was in her 80s even when she first appeared, and Mark's father, who was probably around 80 in the strip when he died. No primary characters. I fear for Joanie -- she's about 70 now. Yikes. 70. That seems impossible, but I was just reading strips in the book from 2002 and she cops to being 66. So yeah, 70. I kinda dread the potential for total baby-boomer angst as these characters age even further, but it will be interesting to see what develops. In the meantime, I will continue to laugh at Uncle Stupidhead, Zonker, and even Duke, though his prominence irritates me a lot of the time.
(no subject)
Mar. 8th, 2005 01:22 amstella mccartney is designing a shirt with an r. crumb cartoon on it. this might be better than those ones with the horse's head. certainly better than the pineapples.
p.s.: these "ist" blogs are going nuts! there's a "londonist" now?
p.s.: these "ist" blogs are going nuts! there's a "londonist" now?
(no subject)
Sep. 9th, 2004 02:15 amman. they just had to go and make a morpheus companion to the death manga statue, didn't they?
(no subject)
Aug. 9th, 2004 03:48 pm
i may not always agree perfectly with mcgruder's rhetoric, but there's no denying the man is just friggin' hilarious.
(no subject)
Apr. 22nd, 2004 01:09 am
you know, i noticed the fact that he had hair before i noticed his leg.
so shocked. i've been reading doonesbury since i was about 8 years old. it's where i learned probably about a good 1/3 of my knowledge of political history. it's one of the things that made me want to go into the field i'm in. and, oh my god. his leg is gone.
i just can't let myself think that it's going to get any worse than that...
more of dave sim being a prick
Mar. 31st, 2004 04:15 pmmetafilter has links to the dave sim mysogyny page, his anti-feminist screed "tangents", and a new interview from the onion.
he's so full of himself. he thinks that no one, absolutely no one, can find fault with his logic, but they still thinks he's wrong. one of his choicer arguments is that as long as you're allowed to"fornicate" within marriage, men should be allowed to rape their wives. he also clings desperately, both in the onion article and in "tangents", that affermative action in this day and age is still about giving preference to women. uh, no. dumb shit.
i still find cerebus fascinating, though.
he's so full of himself. he thinks that no one, absolutely no one, can find fault with his logic, but they still thinks he's wrong. one of his choicer arguments is that as long as you're allowed to"fornicate" within marriage, men should be allowed to rape their wives. he also clings desperately, both in the onion article and in "tangents", that affermative action in this day and age is still about giving preference to women. uh, no. dumb shit.
i still find cerebus fascinating, though.
current faves and wants
Mar. 20th, 2004 01:12 amMOVIES:
-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. segev doesn't want to see it; he
says it's a rental. i think he's out of his mind. must see now.
-Dawn of the Dead. sarah polley in a cheesy horror flick. that's a night out.
TV:
-Deadwood. mostly i just want to see what david milch uncensored is like.
-Newlyweds. i love jessica totally irrationally, but i was sad nick didn't get
his husky puppies.
-Newsradio. i have them all on tape. don't you wish you did?
-The Daily Show. always and forever. jon's been getting rowdy lately. and
am i the only one who finds rob corddry vaguely...sexy? in a similar vein,
don't even get me started on the superhottness that is steven colbert!
VIDEO:
-School of Rock. i never got to see it, and i can't find my blockbuster card!
argh! i've grown slightly tired of jables, though.
-The Last Unicorn. just out on dvd.
MUSIC:
-N.E.R.D., Fly or Die. is ?uestlove drumming on this album like he did on
the last? i *heart* ?uestlove. and pharrell, i'm slightly ashamed to say, is
my secret boyfriend.
-"Take Me Out," Franz Ferdinand. EVERYBODY was just all "franz
ferdinand, franz ferdinand." i downloaded it a while ago, and i finally
gave in and listened to it. and my toes won't stop tapping.
-"They," Jem. I've had this for a couple months now, but the jump-ropey-
type chant is just beyond catchy. all the other songs on her ep are junk,
though. here's hoping for the new album.
-Afghan Whigs, 1965. greg dulli may have the sexiest voice ever. sorry,
maynard.
-Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism. i have gotten over my hatred for
their name and embraced the pretty.
-The Cure, Join the Dots. covet.
BOOKS:
-Dancing Barefoot, by Wil Wheaton. i really like his web page, and there's
good word of mouth on this book, which is only just out on amazon.
-Cremaster Cycles, Matthew Barney with essays by Nancy Spector. big and weird.
-Box Office Poison, by Alex Robinson. i ripped through this one and hated
when it ended.
-The Sandman: King of Dreams, by Alisa Kwitney. shiny. so so shiny.
-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. segev doesn't want to see it; he
says it's a rental. i think he's out of his mind. must see now.
-Dawn of the Dead. sarah polley in a cheesy horror flick. that's a night out.
TV:
-Deadwood. mostly i just want to see what david milch uncensored is like.
-Newlyweds. i love jessica totally irrationally, but i was sad nick didn't get
his husky puppies.
-Newsradio. i have them all on tape. don't you wish you did?
-The Daily Show. always and forever. jon's been getting rowdy lately. and
am i the only one who finds rob corddry vaguely...sexy? in a similar vein,
don't even get me started on the superhottness that is steven colbert!
VIDEO:
-School of Rock. i never got to see it, and i can't find my blockbuster card!
argh! i've grown slightly tired of jables, though.
-The Last Unicorn. just out on dvd.
MUSIC:
-N.E.R.D., Fly or Die. is ?uestlove drumming on this album like he did on
the last? i *heart* ?uestlove. and pharrell, i'm slightly ashamed to say, is
my secret boyfriend.
-"Take Me Out," Franz Ferdinand. EVERYBODY was just all "franz
ferdinand, franz ferdinand." i downloaded it a while ago, and i finally
gave in and listened to it. and my toes won't stop tapping.
-"They," Jem. I've had this for a couple months now, but the jump-ropey-
type chant is just beyond catchy. all the other songs on her ep are junk,
though. here's hoping for the new album.
-Afghan Whigs, 1965. greg dulli may have the sexiest voice ever. sorry,
maynard.
-Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism. i have gotten over my hatred for
their name and embraced the pretty.
-The Cure, Join the Dots. covet.
BOOKS:
-Dancing Barefoot, by Wil Wheaton. i really like his web page, and there's
good word of mouth on this book, which is only just out on amazon.
-Cremaster Cycles, Matthew Barney with essays by Nancy Spector. big and weird.
-Box Office Poison, by Alex Robinson. i ripped through this one and hated
when it ended.
-The Sandman: King of Dreams, by Alisa Kwitney. shiny. so so shiny.
(no subject)
Nov. 20th, 2003 05:11 pmoh and more ass -- i'm reading this article on berke breathed's new strip, opus, which i was really excited about -- and in the article it says that "the one and only place" to read it will be in newspapers. GAH! what? no livejournal feed every sunday? i don't GET a newspaper! and if i DID get a newspaper, it would be the times, which doesn't run comics. BAH! SNAH!
(no subject)
Oct. 14th, 2003 09:46 pmflipping back now through my copy of "endless nights," in response to receiving the newest sandman tie-in earlier today...i just noticed that delight, when she's talking to killalla -- her eyes are both the same color.
huh.
i wish segev would read my sandman books. i wish segev would read the harry potters i bought for him. i wish segev would read all of the books i set out on the table for him, some of my favorite books, because i wish that segev would read something other than physics. i think too much physics is hurting his brain.
huh.
i wish segev would read my sandman books. i wish segev would read the harry potters i bought for him. i wish segev would read all of the books i set out on the table for him, some of my favorite books, because i wish that segev would read something other than physics. i think too much physics is hurting his brain.
(no subject)
Sep. 26th, 2003 04:30 pmi've been watching a lot of roseanne lately. i'm finding myself increasingly identifying with roseanne, and all the pitfalls of adult life, and the fact that she suddenly become this GROWNUP and she doesn't know how the fuck it happened. there's one great line where roseanne asks jackie how old she feels, and jackie goes, "oh, i dunno, thirty...TWELVE, on a good day...SEVEN?" i like the show a lot better than i did as a kid because now i'm understanding where the parents are coming from. it's a weird paradigm shift.
i have also realized that sara gilbert was not that great an actress, nor were her kisses with johnny galecki PARTICULARLY convincing, but i don't care. my love for darlene continues unabated. the amount of sandman paraphernalia displayed on this show is astounding. i also noticed that, during the time right before becky runs off with mark, she has a couple of old REM posters on her wall -- there was definitely a Life's Rich Pageant one, and i think another one that i can't remember. so this was before REM really broke out, and i'm sitting here thinking "wow...becky was hip!" ebcause i'd totally always thought of her as this preppy little goody-two-shoes, the whole running-off-with-her-greaser-boyfriend thing notwithstanding. so i started to like becky, too. and, you know, of course, i ALWAYS thought john goodman was just the bees knees. so i'm pretty much down to only disliking DJ. and i doubt that will ever change.
i have also realized that sara gilbert was not that great an actress, nor were her kisses with johnny galecki PARTICULARLY convincing, but i don't care. my love for darlene continues unabated. the amount of sandman paraphernalia displayed on this show is astounding. i also noticed that, during the time right before becky runs off with mark, she has a couple of old REM posters on her wall -- there was definitely a Life's Rich Pageant one, and i think another one that i can't remember. so this was before REM really broke out, and i'm sitting here thinking "wow...becky was hip!" ebcause i'd totally always thought of her as this preppy little goody-two-shoes, the whole running-off-with-her-greaser-boyfriend thing notwithstanding. so i started to like becky, too. and, you know, of course, i ALWAYS thought john goodman was just the bees knees. so i'm pretty much down to only disliking DJ. and i doubt that will ever change.
