Ants In Your Plants of 1939

Don't worry, they can't see you. Just take your time.

2012-02-10T12:05:00.000-05:00

The latest in computer aided literary studies - Brian Joseph Davis is taking descriptions of fictional characters from their source texts and running them through software designed for law enforcement composite sketching.

I have just realized that Cate Blanchett really should play Emma Bovary (number four in the lineup, there).

Trailer Parking

2012-02-02T12:09:00.001-05:00

A couple of films that are coming out:

The trailer for the new Wes Anderson film looks exactly like a trailer for a new Wes Anderson film. Make of that what you will:

Under African Skies is a documentary marking the 25th anniversary of Paul Simon's Graceland album. When the album came out, I was a bit conflicted about the politics of it (I got the impression that Simon was in some ways deliberately exploitive of the situation, and in other ways an odd combination of defensive and naive). I purchased the thing nevertheless and think it does hold up as a good album - but I am quite interested in how it is looked back on.

Great moments in fictional bears

2012-01-30T12:30:00.003-05:00

Coming at me sideways from Tardis Eruditorum:

That said, this basic aesthetic of 2000 AD is perhaps better summarized by the strip that replaced Flesh - a sixteen issue job that is rarely mentioned as one of the absolute classics of 2000 AD, despite being absolutely fantastic in every regard. I am speaking, of course, of Shako. Shako tells the story of a particularly homicidal polar bear who has swallowed some vital military hardware and is being chased by government agents. It is, in practice, nothing more than sixteen short strips of a polar bear violently slaughtering people in improbable and needlessly imaginative ways. Though really, little needs to be said about Shako beyond its tagline: Shako! The Only Bear on the CIA Death List!

And so a quick google later and I find a spiffy overview here:

The Americans are goal-orientated and tech-savvy but fail to accommodate the difficulties and nuances of the environment in which they are battling. Could Shako be the first Vietnam analogy involving a polar bear? Perhaps. Meanwhile The Russians are blinded by unthinking subservience to dogma and the need to best the Americans. Initially they don’t know why the polar bear is of note they only know that the Yanks want it so they capture it and take it aboard their Whaling ship cum KGB spy ship. This turns out quite badly. In fact, so disputed does the bemused bear become that a nuclear interaction is only narrowly avoided. Could Shako be the first Cuban Missile crisis analogy involving a polar bear? Perhaps.

Finally a panel that I imagine has been grabbed and repurposed by many before me, but is irresistible so here it is:

wild Up - A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left (Andrew Bird cove...

2012-01-26T09:57:00.000-05:00

This could be fun.

2012-01-25T14:25:00.000-05:00

Legal thriller looms as Sherlock takes his caseload to New York

The part that caught my eye:

Sue Vertue, Sherlock Executive Producer at Hartswood Films, said: "We understand that CBS are doing their own version of an updated Sherlock Holmes. It's interesting, as they approached us a while back about remaking our show. At the time, they made great assurances about their integrity, so we have to assume that their modernised Sherlock Holmes doesn't resemble ours in any way, as that would be extremely worrying."

As the "unusual" and thus "protectable" elements of the current BBC series includes "modern settings and characters" as well as the use of laptops and smartphones, I think that we ought to get ready for a rumble.

I also am willing to wager that whatever legal wrangling happens, it will be far more interesting and entertaining than the American version is in any way likely to be.

I am not the Walrus, I am not the Boss

2012-01-13T11:12:00.000-05:00

Static

2012-01-13T09:51:00.000-05:00

I've found that having the "dynamic view" as a default for the blog has caused the links to individual posts to stop working. So I am back to the old school template.

If you miss the dynamic view, you can turn it back on manually by hitting this link.

Leaping from my old notebook:

2012-01-13T09:28:00.000-05:00

This was something that I overheard and wrote down verbatim. I have no idea where or when I heard it, but I am guessing it was a couple of years ago and perhaps on the subway.

"So he had a stack of three chickens and they were just folded epicly. So I said 'dude, these chickens are epic! Can you do lambs?' and he was like 'later dude.'"

I add value to my iPhone

2012-01-12T15:17:00.002-05:00

Lifehacker has informed me about Urge. This is an iPhone app to help you keep track of all the little bits of savings that you can get by, say, not getting that second cup of coffee.

The way it works is this: every time you don't spend money, you open up the app and tell it how much the thing you didn't purchase costs. The app then keeps track of how much money you have saved.

It costs two bucks. I have not purchased it. Thus I have saved two bucks.

I imagine that proponents of the app will argue that the potential savings that would come from using the app would be more than two bucks.

I respond by not purchasing a 300 foot yacht. I have now saved another $150,000,000. This brings my savings to $150,000,002. What a good day! I think I will knock off early.

I am still not adding value to the internet!

2012-01-12T14:14:00.002-05:00

Just trying something.

No worries.

From a random page of my private journal:

2012-01-12T14:10:00.002-05:00

11:41pm. Went out for mexican food. Slow waiter. Guys at the table next to us couldn't get a grip on Mexican food "it's all like onions and peppers and tortillas. They want us to starve." Then they noticed that there were burgers on the menu and cheered right up.

-8/31/09

I am not adding value to the internet

2012-01-12T09:16:00.002-05:00

Something is not working quite right so I am just putting up a post to test something.

And how are you doing, the internet?

Globe Theatre, you have your remit!

2012-01-11T11:25:00.001-05:00

It used to be thought that the “bear’ was a man in costume. But scholars have now focused on the fact that two polar bear cubs were brought back from the waters off Greenland in 1609, that they were turned over to Philip Henslowe’s bear collection (hard by the Globe theater), and that polar bears show up in three productions of the 1610-1611 theatrical season….Polar bears become fierce at pubescence and were relegated to bear baiting, but the cubs were apparently still trainable in their young state.”

via

Every time it rains, it rains...Rain!

2012-01-09T16:29:00.000-05:00

Lester Bangs, birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom

2012-01-09T10:15:00.001-05:00

[in spring 1980] Peter Buck and Michael Stipe planned to start a band of their own, and they drove to New York following their friends in Pylon to check out the scene. They were hungry, they barely had the gas money to get back home, and they were disappointed that Moline had nothing to eat but cheesecake and jelly beans.
"I had read all of Lester Bangs's stuff in Creem and thought he was the greatest thing in the world." Buck said fifteen years later. "Now here we were at this party, filling up on birthday cake and jelly beans. Lester was standing there, and every time someone walked by--it was like a mantra--he'd have something to say to them. He called me a rotten cocksucker. . . . I was like: 'That's Lester Bangs! That's so cool!'"

--DeRogatis: Let it Blurt pp 189-90

"This camera adds a touch of 1984 to any social network."

2011-12-14T10:33:00.000-05:00

Announcement: The Hipstamatic D-Series - bringing analog back, one exposure at a time:

Greetings Dynamic Readers!

2011-12-11T16:12:00.001-05:00

I've just activated Dynamic View to the blog. I've been holding off on it because it makes the side link stuff go away.

I'm thinking about how to accomodate this.

In the meantime: Here is a picture of a keyboard. These dynamic views encourage the visuals, you see.

great moments in wikipedia .. oh hell it's on wikipedia, people

2011-09-26T23:23:00.001-04:00

"on one occasion ("about six years ago") Kinkade became drunk at a Siegfried & Roy magic show in Las Vegas and began shouting "Codpiece! Codpiece!" at the performers. Eventually he was calmed by his mother."

wikipedia

via

Great moments in Wikipedia album art history.

2011-08-04T17:30:00.000-04:00

"[Laura] Nyro’s original plan for the cover was to have several ducks at her feet. This plan was scratched when she discovered that the photographer she hired was afraid of ducks."

via [Citation Needed]

The New Yorker volunteers to pick up my slack!

2011-05-27T12:31:00.001-04:00

"What do Chrysler, Rolls Royce, and girdles have in common? They've all been advertised in The New Yorker throughout the magazine's eighty-six year history. This week, our Back Issues blog débuts a new column of our vintage ads."

They even start off with an ad celebrating interesting people wearing interesting pants! I say good for them. And lucky for me getting a kick in my own non-interesting pants to start blogging more often. And also lucky for me as I now have another excuse to post this:

“I can see it now: me sitting out by the fire, my trusty space squid by my side…”

2011-05-14T20:15:00.000-04:00

yep.

Wuthering Heights: The Role Playing Game

2011-05-04T06:54:00.001-04:00

Translated from the original French.

Disclaimer:

"In all the rules, the male gender (he, his, etc.) will be used for our examples. This of course implies the game is not suited for the feeble minds of our ladies. This work deals with such themes as suicide, despair, homosexuality and socialism for the sole purpose of entertainment."

lets go to the rules:

Suicide
Once Despair reaches 90 or above, the Persona must Murder himself.
If he fails, he loses 1d10 Rage.
Mania
If Despair reaches 10 or below, the Persona is happy and spends the days doing useless but funny things.
After that, he gains back 1d10 Despair.

Oh no!:

"Some original rules were not translated; in the French version, you'll find rules about large battles, psionic powers, vampyres, martial arts and more ... "

"The Most Important Film of Our Time is Norwegian"

2011-04-26T17:00:00.000-04:00

Love it or Argue with it?

2011-04-25T12:09:00.000-04:00

Map of Literary Britain and Northern Ireland

I'll do both. But the more I look at it the less arguing is merited. Clever little map.

Astonishingly that worked.

2011-04-24T22:54:00.001-04:00

I am testing out some software and can't delete the previous post.

So I am going to leave it.

You are welcome, the Internet!