Four interviews this week, so I'm hopeful that April will be my last month of unemployment for awhile. One never can tell, and I remain optimistic! My newest ComicMix column is up; for whatever reason I decided to write about sports. Maybe because this shoulder thing feels like a weird sports injury. Glad I'm going to the doctor tomorrow! In the meantime, I'm going to refrain from playing human Breakout (via Mike at Left is Right). By the way, if you get all the way through a game you find out it's a Nokia viral ad, but it's still worth watching the "making of" portion of the site. The stop-motion video also includes the world's largest version of Snake, which I guess is a mobile phone game. No, it's not Grand Theft Auto Whatever; the women involved in this live. Just this once, everybody lives!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
It's Free Cone Day again at Ben & Jerry's, in case you want to check out a listing of participating scoop shops. Cookie Jill found a site that randomly generators a B&J flavor when you type in your name. My latest B&J passion is, I think, Vermonty Python.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Belated Everything Blogaround
The writing bug has been there, itching at me just as much as these stupid allergies. But the shoulder area sprain has really limited my computer time, so I've had to limit my time at keyboard in favor of giving my body a chance to recover a bit. Alas, this means I missed momentous events like Fair Pay for Women day (hey, right now I'm making about the same money as an unemployed man, and anyway I couldn't add to what PortlyDyke says anyway so there you go) and Marie's birthday and Lisa's birthday and even the nuptials of Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson (the perfect couple whom I didn't even know were a couple, that's how removed I am from the music scene). So here I go catching up, whee!:
• Congratulations to Jamal and Karine Igle on the birth of their beautiful daughter Catie!! I wish we didn't live two boroughs away, I can hardly wait to meet the li'l darlin'.
• I've been saving it for awhile but it still makes me giggle: the awful Bendis Doom dialogue (which I mentioned in my last blogaround) inspires the MightyGodKing.
• As Melissa Silverstein mentions when discussing her encounters with Obama-bots, this is not a post-feminist world. It's a sexist one. Another Melissa, namely McEwan, has had an amazing number of great feminist posts I've bookmarked these past couple weeks, incuding ones discussing the origins of her website's name (following on a post by Kate, who also authored a wonderful Obama-skeptical post); weighing in again on Clinton and misogyny; examining the place of frivolous and fun posting (hey, my specialty!) amidst all the sturm and drang; and positing the objectivity of sexism and critique thereof.
I'm not sure I entirely agree with the last one, but it's impossible to comment on there because Shakesville just gets so many comments that, by the time I get to the thread, it's already so laden that anything I had to say would get lost in the morass. Fortunately, I have my own blog! See, I get what she's saying about determining the existence of sexism in various situations based on historical and recognizable patterns, and that people who've spent a long time noticing and studying such patterns are fairly expert about them. However, I also think one can get so caught up in seeking patterns in a random world that it's easy to see them where they may not exist -- I mean, look at pareidolia. So I'm not sure that something Observer A sees as sexist and Observer B doesn't is objectively sexist, and I don't think that has anything to do with intent. I minored in Women's Studies in college over half a lifetime ago, I'm not new to this. I just don't think things are as cut and dried as Melissa seems to depict them. We're human beings, we love to ascribe patterns to things. And patterns can be helpful in human interactions, but aren't always a determinant factor. So while I'm about 80% with Melissa here, and I really adore her Matrix analogy, I'm just a bit too skeptical to concede that other 20% yet.
• Of course, sexism is still the norm at MSNBC. Over at HuffPo, Eric Boehlert links to his insightful Media Matters column about how profitable misogyny has been for Chris Matthews, and Rachel Sklar discusses a Countdown conversation wherein Keith Olbermann suggests to one of the network's company players that what Clinton really needs is "Somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out." Words fail me. If the former sportscaster maintains this locker room mentality, he'll find lots more discerning viewers opting to watch baseball games instead. At least with MLB you get overt discrimination against women, so you know where you stand (i.e., specatators only, thankyouverymuch). Molly Ivors has given up. At Corrente, both Sarah and BDBlue) are disgusted. The Left Coaster's eriposte has another compendium of reactions. Eric at Wampum links to a MadLib of Chris Matthews hyperventilating after a debate that would be very funny if it weren't so sadly true. Kathy G suggests more concerted action. And eRobin is swinging towards Hillary due to all this nonsense but reminds folks again, as I have, that neither Demo candidate is progressive in any real sense of the word.
• Sexism sometimes affects fantasy worlds as much as the real one. Many feminists like Amanda are shocked by something dreamt up this year at a con in Ann Arbor called ConFusion, which named itself the Open Source Boob Project. Here's an overview. I liked Lisa's reaction of applauding how quickly feminist sf fandom came down on this idea. I haven't been heavily involved in sf fandom in over 30 years, but I remember the years of the Langdon charts, of feeling flattered by any sort of sexual attention because fandom was a haven for misfits and the "mundanes" wouldn't give geeky girls with few social skills the time of day so we should be grateful that men of even fewer social skills wanted to be, erm, socially skilled with us. Pre-AIDS scare, all sorts of sexual experimentation went on at sf conventions; 30 years later I still can't shake the memory of how little self-esteem I had then, and how desperately happy I was to be treated for a mercifully brief time as a sexual object because that's all I felt I had. Fortunately, my feminist sensibility roused me from this path well before I ventured past the point of no return, and I was able to continue living with myself after bidding sf fandom adieu. And lo and behold, geeky guys who actually had social skills wound up befriending me, two of whom I even married (although Robin's not quite as much of a fanboy as Steve, he's geeky in other directions). It's a bit disturbing to see that the more things change the more they remain the same, but it's extremely encouraging that many of today's female geeks have way more self-esteem at their beck and call than I did at their age.
• The other major controversy this week has to do with the aforementioned Amanda, who has been one of my favorite feminist bloggers for awhile. First she wrote an article for AlterNet, the ideas in which were largely taken from a blog by BrownFemPower, unattributed. BFP subsequently stopped blogging, leaving the feminist blogosphere quite bereft. Then Amanda showed off the cover to her new book, It's A Jungle In Here. This was the 2.0 version, as the original had featured a gorilla carrying a scantily-clad woman. The revised version featured art from the Atlas comic Lorna the Jungle Girl, and my first reaction was twofold surprise: that Werner Roth's art was apparently in enough public domain that Seal Press felt they could use it; and that Amanda didn't mind the Roth-drawn "headlight" style which overemphasized certain assets. Hey look, another Open Source Boob Project! But not really being that familiar with the specifics of Roth's art, I was really bowled over when I found out the interior chapter art was full of Lorna coming to the rescue of mansels in distress by defeating caricatures of dark-skinned natives. Yeah, you can't blame people for not being ahead of their time. But that excuses Roth, not Seal Press. Apologies from both parties quickly followed, as they know on which side their bread is buttered and, as a friend of mine once pointed out, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Here's my question, though: couldn't Seal Press have found an artist to duplicate Roth's style and draw an entirely new cover and chapter headers? There are lots of wanna-be pros out there who'd do it for free, just for the chance to get their art seen. Really poor pre-planning all around, I say. Here's what others say, and do read them, they're all important: Pam (Amanda's Pandagon partner), Barry, Jill, Melissas McEwan and Krause, Carla, Lisa (the second half of her Open Source Boob post) and Avalon's Willow. Then read Cheryl Lynn, who keeps amazing me over and over with how cogently she gets to her points. Someone please hire this woman as a pro writer, now! Give her a Misty Knight series and she'll be a happy camper.
• See, with all this going on there's a reason I don't feel I need to read the right-wing blogs. But if you do, you'll want this guide from Roy Edroso with illos by Tom Tomorrow. Tom was the first person to welcome me to the political blogosphere, and Roy has always been a total delight whenever I've seen him.
• A few more political bits and bobs: I concur with Leigh's call for a National Action Day this coming Thursday (aka MayDay) to actually do something constructive instead of sitting around praying. I wish we didn't need this primer from Tristero on why torture is wrong, but this country has become a slightly different America from the one in which I grew up. Athenae finds the disembodied head of John McCain, on jewelry. Florida license plate expert Bryan reveals where the money goes from the proposed "I Believe" plate. And the good Roger Ailes tells the tale of Popeman Ratz and his black and white cat. (No, I don't know the cat's color, that was just a reference.)
• Fun stuff now! Sheila Lennon reports on ROFLCon. That kind of brings LOLdom full circle, doesn't it, since all those wacky abbreviations used on blogs and texting had their origin with sf fandom and zines (I first encountered "LOL" in apas over a quarter century ago).
• Who's sari now? Sara is! I've always wanted to wear saris, now I want to even more.
• Passover's almost, well, over now. But don't let Laraine Newman's remembrance of Passover, SNL style pass you by! Also, via BoingBoing, and this one's for Mom, which imaginary animals would be kosher?
• Speaking of food, Chris Cosentino sounds off on PETA's latest publicity campaign; Michael Symon officially announces he's taking over Dinner: Impossible from its now-disgraced former host; and Larry Gonick makes this turnip recipe look so good I might even try it, once I get a cast-iron pan.
• Dwight Schrute, for one, welcomes our spring overlords.
• Dorothy Snarker is psyched for the female buddy-movie Baby Mama.
• Cool, Darwin's Garden, right here in the Bronx, not more than a 10-minute drive from here! Anyone wanna go? Also at Pharyngula, PZ makes the best case for "anonymity bad, pseudonymity okay" that I've read in a long time.
• John Hodgman really likes this musician:
I would too, if she didn't look so bored playing music so interestingly.
• Ken Jennings has yet another example of Superman being a dick. And we end with Marie showing us some nice examples of graphic storytelling around the world.
Ow, my shoulder. Till next time, y'all!
• Congratulations to Jamal and Karine Igle on the birth of their beautiful daughter Catie!! I wish we didn't live two boroughs away, I can hardly wait to meet the li'l darlin'.
• I've been saving it for awhile but it still makes me giggle: the awful Bendis Doom dialogue (which I mentioned in my last blogaround) inspires the MightyGodKing.
• As Melissa Silverstein mentions when discussing her encounters with Obama-bots, this is not a post-feminist world. It's a sexist one. Another Melissa, namely McEwan, has had an amazing number of great feminist posts I've bookmarked these past couple weeks, incuding ones discussing the origins of her website's name (following on a post by Kate, who also authored a wonderful Obama-skeptical post); weighing in again on Clinton and misogyny; examining the place of frivolous and fun posting (hey, my specialty!) amidst all the sturm and drang; and positing the objectivity of sexism and critique thereof.
I'm not sure I entirely agree with the last one, but it's impossible to comment on there because Shakesville just gets so many comments that, by the time I get to the thread, it's already so laden that anything I had to say would get lost in the morass. Fortunately, I have my own blog! See, I get what she's saying about determining the existence of sexism in various situations based on historical and recognizable patterns, and that people who've spent a long time noticing and studying such patterns are fairly expert about them. However, I also think one can get so caught up in seeking patterns in a random world that it's easy to see them where they may not exist -- I mean, look at pareidolia. So I'm not sure that something Observer A sees as sexist and Observer B doesn't is objectively sexist, and I don't think that has anything to do with intent. I minored in Women's Studies in college over half a lifetime ago, I'm not new to this. I just don't think things are as cut and dried as Melissa seems to depict them. We're human beings, we love to ascribe patterns to things. And patterns can be helpful in human interactions, but aren't always a determinant factor. So while I'm about 80% with Melissa here, and I really adore her Matrix analogy, I'm just a bit too skeptical to concede that other 20% yet.
• Of course, sexism is still the norm at MSNBC. Over at HuffPo, Eric Boehlert links to his insightful Media Matters column about how profitable misogyny has been for Chris Matthews, and Rachel Sklar discusses a Countdown conversation wherein Keith Olbermann suggests to one of the network's company players that what Clinton really needs is "Somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out." Words fail me. If the former sportscaster maintains this locker room mentality, he'll find lots more discerning viewers opting to watch baseball games instead. At least with MLB you get overt discrimination against women, so you know where you stand (i.e., specatators only, thankyouverymuch). Molly Ivors has given up. At Corrente, both Sarah and BDBlue) are disgusted. The Left Coaster's eriposte has another compendium of reactions. Eric at Wampum links to a MadLib of Chris Matthews hyperventilating after a debate that would be very funny if it weren't so sadly true. Kathy G suggests more concerted action. And eRobin is swinging towards Hillary due to all this nonsense but reminds folks again, as I have, that neither Demo candidate is progressive in any real sense of the word.
• Sexism sometimes affects fantasy worlds as much as the real one. Many feminists like Amanda are shocked by something dreamt up this year at a con in Ann Arbor called ConFusion, which named itself the Open Source Boob Project. Here's an overview. I liked Lisa's reaction of applauding how quickly feminist sf fandom came down on this idea. I haven't been heavily involved in sf fandom in over 30 years, but I remember the years of the Langdon charts, of feeling flattered by any sort of sexual attention because fandom was a haven for misfits and the "mundanes" wouldn't give geeky girls with few social skills the time of day so we should be grateful that men of even fewer social skills wanted to be, erm, socially skilled with us. Pre-AIDS scare, all sorts of sexual experimentation went on at sf conventions; 30 years later I still can't shake the memory of how little self-esteem I had then, and how desperately happy I was to be treated for a mercifully brief time as a sexual object because that's all I felt I had. Fortunately, my feminist sensibility roused me from this path well before I ventured past the point of no return, and I was able to continue living with myself after bidding sf fandom adieu. And lo and behold, geeky guys who actually had social skills wound up befriending me, two of whom I even married (although Robin's not quite as much of a fanboy as Steve, he's geeky in other directions). It's a bit disturbing to see that the more things change the more they remain the same, but it's extremely encouraging that many of today's female geeks have way more self-esteem at their beck and call than I did at their age.
• The other major controversy this week has to do with the aforementioned Amanda, who has been one of my favorite feminist bloggers for awhile. First she wrote an article for AlterNet, the ideas in which were largely taken from a blog by BrownFemPower, unattributed. BFP subsequently stopped blogging, leaving the feminist blogosphere quite bereft. Then Amanda showed off the cover to her new book, It's A Jungle In Here. This was the 2.0 version, as the original had featured a gorilla carrying a scantily-clad woman. The revised version featured art from the Atlas comic Lorna the Jungle Girl, and my first reaction was twofold surprise: that Werner Roth's art was apparently in enough public domain that Seal Press felt they could use it; and that Amanda didn't mind the Roth-drawn "headlight" style which overemphasized certain assets. Hey look, another Open Source Boob Project! But not really being that familiar with the specifics of Roth's art, I was really bowled over when I found out the interior chapter art was full of Lorna coming to the rescue of mansels in distress by defeating caricatures of dark-skinned natives. Yeah, you can't blame people for not being ahead of their time. But that excuses Roth, not Seal Press. Apologies from both parties quickly followed, as they know on which side their bread is buttered and, as a friend of mine once pointed out, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Here's my question, though: couldn't Seal Press have found an artist to duplicate Roth's style and draw an entirely new cover and chapter headers? There are lots of wanna-be pros out there who'd do it for free, just for the chance to get their art seen. Really poor pre-planning all around, I say. Here's what others say, and do read them, they're all important: Pam (Amanda's Pandagon partner), Barry, Jill, Melissas McEwan and Krause, Carla, Lisa (the second half of her Open Source Boob post) and Avalon's Willow. Then read Cheryl Lynn, who keeps amazing me over and over with how cogently she gets to her points. Someone please hire this woman as a pro writer, now! Give her a Misty Knight series and she'll be a happy camper.
• See, with all this going on there's a reason I don't feel I need to read the right-wing blogs. But if you do, you'll want this guide from Roy Edroso with illos by Tom Tomorrow. Tom was the first person to welcome me to the political blogosphere, and Roy has always been a total delight whenever I've seen him.
• A few more political bits and bobs: I concur with Leigh's call for a National Action Day this coming Thursday (aka MayDay) to actually do something constructive instead of sitting around praying. I wish we didn't need this primer from Tristero on why torture is wrong, but this country has become a slightly different America from the one in which I grew up. Athenae finds the disembodied head of John McCain, on jewelry. Florida license plate expert Bryan reveals where the money goes from the proposed "I Believe" plate. And the good Roger Ailes tells the tale of Popeman Ratz and his black and white cat. (No, I don't know the cat's color, that was just a reference.)
• Fun stuff now! Sheila Lennon reports on ROFLCon. That kind of brings LOLdom full circle, doesn't it, since all those wacky abbreviations used on blogs and texting had their origin with sf fandom and zines (I first encountered "LOL" in apas over a quarter century ago).
• Who's sari now? Sara is! I've always wanted to wear saris, now I want to even more.
• Passover's almost, well, over now. But don't let Laraine Newman's remembrance of Passover, SNL style pass you by! Also, via BoingBoing, and this one's for Mom, which imaginary animals would be kosher?
• Speaking of food, Chris Cosentino sounds off on PETA's latest publicity campaign; Michael Symon officially announces he's taking over Dinner: Impossible from its now-disgraced former host; and Larry Gonick makes this turnip recipe look so good I might even try it, once I get a cast-iron pan.
• Dwight Schrute, for one, welcomes our spring overlords.
• Dorothy Snarker is psyched for the female buddy-movie Baby Mama.
• Cool, Darwin's Garden, right here in the Bronx, not more than a 10-minute drive from here! Anyone wanna go? Also at Pharyngula, PZ makes the best case for "anonymity bad, pseudonymity okay" that I've read in a long time.
• John Hodgman really likes this musician:
I would too, if she didn't look so bored playing music so interestingly.
• Ken Jennings has yet another example of Superman being a dick. And we end with Marie showing us some nice examples of graphic storytelling around the world.
Ow, my shoulder. Till next time, y'all!
Silly Site o' the Day
Shoulder area aggravation, day three and counting. Don't know how long I can sit in this position and type, but I'd really like to get that long-promised blogaround out of the way by day's end. In the meantime, continuing on yesterday's theme, have a gander at LolCommute (via Maru).
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
I did warn you we're going through another Beatles phase again. Robin found LOLBeatlz, which is just so very wrong:
I think this one was my favorite so far. Yeah, I've subscribed to the feed. I'm just that way, I suppose.
I think this one was my favorite so far. Yeah, I've subscribed to the feed. I'm just that way, I suppose.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)
We're in full-bore Beatle mode again here at the Riggs Residence. Here we see Rob testing out some sort of surround-sound remix of Sgt. Pepper which was accompanied by a photo slide show (that'd be John on the telly). Erm, and a kitty.
And here we see Datsa batting at his little octopus toy...
"I'd like to be / under the sea / in an octopus' garden with you..."
And here we see Datsa batting at his little octopus toy...
"I'd like to be / under the sea / in an octopus' garden with you..."
Silly Site o' the Day
I'm slated to hit the city again today, but I haven't yet heard back from the agent arranging the interview so I'm not sure of the time frame. Might as well struggle to fully awaken whilst I wait for 9 AM to roll around. Last night on Firesign chat, Cat told me about a pretty cool blog that deals with strange maps. I think my favorite on the front page is the one depicting France as a household utensil.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Must dash to another interview; maybe I'll catch up on blog reading upon my return. Via Susie, what do you get when you combine Alan Watts and all sorts of Eastern mysticism with Trey and Parker? You get Prickles and Goo, that's what:
I must admit to feeling both a little prickly and a little gooey today, but then it's near 80 degrees in April...
I must admit to feeling both a little prickly and a little gooey today, but then it's near 80 degrees in April...
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
It's Administrative Professionals Day, the first one in ten years when I haven't been employed as an admin professional. It's hard not to get depressed in this job market, but I'm trying to maintain my optimism, primarily because I know how good I am and how much I'll be able to help anyone who hires me. Hey, it only takes one! Meanwhile I'm exercising and getting ready to see my dentist and a new primary care doctor (my current one is in New Rochelle, where I have no intention of returning) who might be able to recommend a local ob/gyn as well. Gotta make sure I keep in good health while I still have insurance! My goal for today is to get through all my blog-reading and post a blogaround. My ComicMix column is up, and the accompanying pictorial was linked to by Heidi, so I do feel the need to keep up my new content! And apparently my exclamation points. Via Augie, this bills itself as the World's Hardest Game. What do I know, I barely get through level 1 of these things...
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
A NYCC 2008 Pictorial
Tomorrow my ComicMix column about how this year's New York Comic Con affected me will be posted, but it's easier to post photos and talk about general stuff here, so enjoy the pictorial. Clicken to embiggen!
One of the first things we did on Friday was look for Jamal Igle, not only because Rob is inking him but because I wanted to find out if Karine has had the baby yet. Not by the end of the weekend! Although it really will be any day now. Jamal was amazingly calm for a first-time dad-to-be. Here he and Rob actually talk shop.
It's always terrific seeing Joe Rubinstein, who greeted me with a terrific hug-from-behind while we were at Danny Fingeroth's table in Artists' Alley. Being a part-time actor as well, Joe's always happy to pose for the camera! I really miss him since he's literally gone Hollywood (i.e., moved to the west coast for good).
Look at how cool the stairwell is decorated! I still don't know how they do that.
Alitha Martinez and son Michael were there. I'm so happy Alitha had a booth, she's been convention-shy until now and it's good to see her getting herself out there. Self-promotion is so important, particularly for women in this business.
Ah, the aforementioned Danny Fingeroth, to whom I will point every time Mom says "so I saw this article about Jews and comics..." I'm eager for his newest book Disguised as Clark Kent to come out in paperback.
A couple Canucks! Here's Janet Hetherington, the queen of horror romance...
...and Leonard Kirk, the king of Leonard Kirk's Balls (which comic strip will doubtless return once he gets his blog up and running again) and of course Rob's penciller on Supergirl for 4+ years. He and Rob also share a birthday.
Phyllis Novin is still inking Bongo books but has a lucrative second career in jazz and blues music. She's one of the most ebullient gals I know, a long-time friend from our Lulu days.
Speaking of Lulu, here's me and Val after the Lulu-sponsored Women in Comics panel. Which of course gave rise to tons of blog-whining about how we don't need a Women in Comics panel any more. Horse-hockey. To quote Melissa Silverstein, "we don't live in a post-feminist world. We live in a sexist world." As soon as women are reading and creating comics in the same numbers as their percentage of the general population, as soon as male artists stop drawing female characters to emphasize sex while male characters get to emphasize strength, as soon as the very many things that give rise to all the thoughtful feminist comics blog posts stop happening, then maybe we don't need a Women in Comics panel any more.
I didn't get any photos of the incredibly well-attended Women in Comics panel because my camera and I just weren't well-situated. I always seemed to arrive late to the panels, which meant all the good seats were taken, and the first three rows were "VIP reserved" so nobody could take those spots unless they overpaid exhorbitant amounts of money. This was the closest I got to the online comics journalism panel, featuring Heidi MacDonald, Matt Brady, Jonah Weiland, my ComicMix news boss Rick Marshall and a couple other guys I didn't know that well.
And this was the Black Panel -- left to right, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, Rashida Lewis, my ComicMix EIC Mike Gold, and my fellow ComicMix columnist Michael Davis moderating. None of the photos I took after Denys Cowan joined the panel came out, I'm afraid. It was 7:30, the last dang panel of the day, and we were all pretty tired. Michael was even low-key, for him. I wish the panel had been earlier, around 4 PM or so, so we could have had enough energy to attend the DC freelancer party that Heidi told us about.
Saturday was a lot more crowded than Friday, as you'd expect. I loved watching the fans stream westward from Penn Station; it was like watching a pilgrimage. A pleasant day to walk to the Javits, but not after the Friday we'd had. Here's the view from artists' alley as things were starting to get uncomfortably crowded.
Fortunately we discovered a sort of lounge set up specifically for pros (and the "press" badge people who love them!), where we found Val and Dave Gallagher on the couch and Bryan Hitch on the right side. Amusingly, although Rob's known Bryan for ages, since their days at Marvel UK, he didn't even notice him until about 5 minutes later. Guess he was too busy posing with Val. It was so great catching up with Bryan, we had a nice long talk with him. I hadn't seen him since... when did the third Harry Potter book come out in paperback? I'll always remember it because Bryan's the one who turned me on to the Potter books, which he says he got into once he heard the audio version done by Stephen Fry.
Ha! The lounge had an oxygen bar on Saturday! It didn't strike me and Val as that different than going through a department store perfume area, or plugging in a new air freshener. But it was funny to see it there. On Sunday they had a popcorn machine instead, which struck me as a lot more practical.
Much of Artists' Alley was way too crowded to get through, but we did run into Bob Wiacek and Tom Smith, and got to talk about "our generation" of superstar pros like John Byrne and George Perez, as well as what everyone was up to. I was amused at Tom's reaction to finding out Robin does all his own work; I guess this is the age when more inkers and even colorists have studios and assistants than they used to. Or maybe it was always that way and I never noticed. Tom asked me with incredulity, "You don't even spot his blacks?" Nope. Robin really is that fast, by himself. It's called "working smarter."
By Sunday we'd given up seeing a lot of our friends, and mostly stuck to panels. Here's Amelia Rules creator Jimmy Gownley and his editor Michael Cohen, whom I hadn't seen since his Strange Attractors days, talking about how they'd turned Amelia into a live-action musical. Seriously! Here are some videos from a New Hampshire community theatre production starring a letter-perfect Casey Perkins as Amelia. My favorite is "Fighting Over Me," but I can't find the filmed version Jimmy showed at the panel, which he directed for a whopping $100 and which is absolutely adorable. Jimmy and Michael plan to make the script (with the story based on the book's Christmas issue) available to community theatres and kids' groups throughout the country.
Jewwwwwws in Spaaaaaace! No, not really, it's the "Disguised as Clark Kent" panel, the Bonus Passover Edition, with Arie Kaplan, Al Jaffe and Danny Fingeroth. Jaffe was such a pip! "I came into the business shortly after the Civil War," he began. He talked about how he got the idea for the famous MAD Fold-Ins (which my brother Jay and I used to go crazy over when we were younger) by looking at fold-outs in Playboy, National Geographic and so forth. Hey, if they can do fold-outs, why not parody that with fold-ins? He approached his bosses reluctantly, saying "I'm submitting something that I would personally reject because it will mutilate the magazine," to which Bill Gaines replied that would be a good thing because it meant readers would have to buy an extra copy. It's not often you see someone as quick-witted in person as on paper, and that was a lot of fun. Bonus trivia bit: Jaffe introduced Chris Claremont to Stan Lee.
We decided to spend another hour or so up in Artists' Alley, where I had the chance to capture Joe Staton drawing. I'm always reluctant to snap photos like this unless the artists say it's okay, because the flash can really disturb the eyes, but Joe was fine with it.
Abby Denson and Heidi MacDonald, always two of the most fashion-forward pros around. I heard from Ed Matthews that the Sticky Pages (aka Gays in Comics) panel which featured Abby and a host of others was terrific as usual, but I couldn't go because it was opposite Jews in Space.
The Comics for Girls panel was pretty well attended with a very impressive lineup of panelists. It was great seeing Archie represented and getting their props for always being girl-accessible, and it's always terrific to find out what Barbara Slate (second from the right) is up to. That was our last panel of the day, and we were just about to head back up to the ComicMix office where Vinnie Bartilucci had offered us a ride home (hooray, no more waiting for the once-hourly bus!) when I heard "Elayne! Elayne!"
It was Tintin! All the way in from the Phillipines, to promote her work on the Shakespeare manga line (she drew Hamlet, as you can see). I was so pleased to see her! There were a lot of folks we missed that I regret not seeing, from the many bloggers to a number of pros, but I'd really wanted to run into Tintin, and now I had. It made my con.
So many people and things inevitably go unmentioned from these overviews, but hey, this was a pictorial, not really a report. It is what it is. Hope you enjoyed it!
One of the first things we did on Friday was look for Jamal Igle, not only because Rob is inking him but because I wanted to find out if Karine has had the baby yet. Not by the end of the weekend! Although it really will be any day now. Jamal was amazingly calm for a first-time dad-to-be. Here he and Rob actually talk shop.
It's always terrific seeing Joe Rubinstein, who greeted me with a terrific hug-from-behind while we were at Danny Fingeroth's table in Artists' Alley. Being a part-time actor as well, Joe's always happy to pose for the camera! I really miss him since he's literally gone Hollywood (i.e., moved to the west coast for good).
Look at how cool the stairwell is decorated! I still don't know how they do that.
Alitha Martinez and son Michael were there. I'm so happy Alitha had a booth, she's been convention-shy until now and it's good to see her getting herself out there. Self-promotion is so important, particularly for women in this business.
Ah, the aforementioned Danny Fingeroth, to whom I will point every time Mom says "so I saw this article about Jews and comics..." I'm eager for his newest book Disguised as Clark Kent to come out in paperback.
A couple Canucks! Here's Janet Hetherington, the queen of horror romance...
...and Leonard Kirk, the king of Leonard Kirk's Balls (which comic strip will doubtless return once he gets his blog up and running again) and of course Rob's penciller on Supergirl for 4+ years. He and Rob also share a birthday.
Phyllis Novin is still inking Bongo books but has a lucrative second career in jazz and blues music. She's one of the most ebullient gals I know, a long-time friend from our Lulu days.
Speaking of Lulu, here's me and Val after the Lulu-sponsored Women in Comics panel. Which of course gave rise to tons of blog-whining about how we don't need a Women in Comics panel any more. Horse-hockey. To quote Melissa Silverstein, "we don't live in a post-feminist world. We live in a sexist world." As soon as women are reading and creating comics in the same numbers as their percentage of the general population, as soon as male artists stop drawing female characters to emphasize sex while male characters get to emphasize strength, as soon as the very many things that give rise to all the thoughtful feminist comics blog posts stop happening, then maybe we don't need a Women in Comics panel any more.
I didn't get any photos of the incredibly well-attended Women in Comics panel because my camera and I just weren't well-situated. I always seemed to arrive late to the panels, which meant all the good seats were taken, and the first three rows were "VIP reserved" so nobody could take those spots unless they overpaid exhorbitant amounts of money. This was the closest I got to the online comics journalism panel, featuring Heidi MacDonald, Matt Brady, Jonah Weiland, my ComicMix news boss Rick Marshall and a couple other guys I didn't know that well.
And this was the Black Panel -- left to right, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, Rashida Lewis, my ComicMix EIC Mike Gold, and my fellow ComicMix columnist Michael Davis moderating. None of the photos I took after Denys Cowan joined the panel came out, I'm afraid. It was 7:30, the last dang panel of the day, and we were all pretty tired. Michael was even low-key, for him. I wish the panel had been earlier, around 4 PM or so, so we could have had enough energy to attend the DC freelancer party that Heidi told us about.
Saturday was a lot more crowded than Friday, as you'd expect. I loved watching the fans stream westward from Penn Station; it was like watching a pilgrimage. A pleasant day to walk to the Javits, but not after the Friday we'd had. Here's the view from artists' alley as things were starting to get uncomfortably crowded.
Fortunately we discovered a sort of lounge set up specifically for pros (and the "press" badge people who love them!), where we found Val and Dave Gallagher on the couch and Bryan Hitch on the right side. Amusingly, although Rob's known Bryan for ages, since their days at Marvel UK, he didn't even notice him until about 5 minutes later. Guess he was too busy posing with Val. It was so great catching up with Bryan, we had a nice long talk with him. I hadn't seen him since... when did the third Harry Potter book come out in paperback? I'll always remember it because Bryan's the one who turned me on to the Potter books, which he says he got into once he heard the audio version done by Stephen Fry.
Ha! The lounge had an oxygen bar on Saturday! It didn't strike me and Val as that different than going through a department store perfume area, or plugging in a new air freshener. But it was funny to see it there. On Sunday they had a popcorn machine instead, which struck me as a lot more practical.
Much of Artists' Alley was way too crowded to get through, but we did run into Bob Wiacek and Tom Smith, and got to talk about "our generation" of superstar pros like John Byrne and George Perez, as well as what everyone was up to. I was amused at Tom's reaction to finding out Robin does all his own work; I guess this is the age when more inkers and even colorists have studios and assistants than they used to. Or maybe it was always that way and I never noticed. Tom asked me with incredulity, "You don't even spot his blacks?" Nope. Robin really is that fast, by himself. It's called "working smarter."
By Sunday we'd given up seeing a lot of our friends, and mostly stuck to panels. Here's Amelia Rules creator Jimmy Gownley and his editor Michael Cohen, whom I hadn't seen since his Strange Attractors days, talking about how they'd turned Amelia into a live-action musical. Seriously! Here are some videos from a New Hampshire community theatre production starring a letter-perfect Casey Perkins as Amelia. My favorite is "Fighting Over Me," but I can't find the filmed version Jimmy showed at the panel, which he directed for a whopping $100 and which is absolutely adorable. Jimmy and Michael plan to make the script (with the story based on the book's Christmas issue) available to community theatres and kids' groups throughout the country.
Jewwwwwws in Spaaaaaace! No, not really, it's the "Disguised as Clark Kent" panel, the Bonus Passover Edition, with Arie Kaplan, Al Jaffe and Danny Fingeroth. Jaffe was such a pip! "I came into the business shortly after the Civil War," he began. He talked about how he got the idea for the famous MAD Fold-Ins (which my brother Jay and I used to go crazy over when we were younger) by looking at fold-outs in Playboy, National Geographic and so forth. Hey, if they can do fold-outs, why not parody that with fold-ins? He approached his bosses reluctantly, saying "I'm submitting something that I would personally reject because it will mutilate the magazine," to which Bill Gaines replied that would be a good thing because it meant readers would have to buy an extra copy. It's not often you see someone as quick-witted in person as on paper, and that was a lot of fun. Bonus trivia bit: Jaffe introduced Chris Claremont to Stan Lee.
We decided to spend another hour or so up in Artists' Alley, where I had the chance to capture Joe Staton drawing. I'm always reluctant to snap photos like this unless the artists say it's okay, because the flash can really disturb the eyes, but Joe was fine with it.
Abby Denson and Heidi MacDonald, always two of the most fashion-forward pros around. I heard from Ed Matthews that the Sticky Pages (aka Gays in Comics) panel which featured Abby and a host of others was terrific as usual, but I couldn't go because it was opposite Jews in Space.
The Comics for Girls panel was pretty well attended with a very impressive lineup of panelists. It was great seeing Archie represented and getting their props for always being girl-accessible, and it's always terrific to find out what Barbara Slate (second from the right) is up to. That was our last panel of the day, and we were just about to head back up to the ComicMix office where Vinnie Bartilucci had offered us a ride home (hooray, no more waiting for the once-hourly bus!) when I heard "Elayne! Elayne!"
It was Tintin! All the way in from the Phillipines, to promote her work on the Shakespeare manga line (she drew Hamlet, as you can see). I was so pleased to see her! There were a lot of folks we missed that I regret not seeing, from the many bloggers to a number of pros, but I'd really wanted to run into Tintin, and now I had. It made my con.
So many people and things inevitably go unmentioned from these overviews, but hey, this was a pictorial, not really a report. It is what it is. Hope you enjoyed it!
Silly Site o' the Day
Just finished my ComicMix column, which was supposed to link to my New York Comic Con 2008 pictorial on this blog but Blogger isn't letting me upload photos at the moment, so I may opt to do a blogaround instead. In the meantime, I think I'm actually starting to run out of Silly Sites, so consider this an appeal to the Pen-Elayne reading public to email me suggestions. Otherwise you'll be subjected to things like the comic-related videos from Pine Oaks Lodge (via Val D'Orazio)...
Monday, April 21, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
What a lovely day to be in the city again! My morning interview got me back home by about 1:30 to try to regain some strength before writing my ComicMix column, which will be all about what happened to me at the con this past weekend, and not the usual con report. The usual con pictorial/report will go up on Pen-Elayne shortly after my column is done, so I can link to it and people can read both if they so desire, sort of a companion-piece thing. I don't really do news and interviews and such, as y'all know, but I'll talk about friends both seen and missed and panels and whatever else I can organize in my head. Meantime, on the opposite end of me, my feet have been cramping and seizing up intermittently every few minutes, which hasn't been a great deal of fun. I don't think I'll be hitting the roller derby arena any time soon, even though (via Gerard) my roller derby name is Blanche Antagonism, and I've always depended on the blockage of strangers.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Off to the final day of the con! We expect it to be another short one, we're wiped beyond all reason. If you don't have a table or a real specific plan for these things, that can happen. Fortunately we're getting a ride home with Team Bartilucci so we won't have to worry about bus schedules again, and I can concentrate on preparing for tomorrow's interview. We had a chance to informally survey a few neighbors yesterday afternoon about the Cablevision situation with the frequent intermittent outages of the phone and internet, and confirmed they're getting them as well, so that pretty much rules out any internal problems. Not that Cablevision will be able to find and fix what's wrong externally (which I'm still convinced began as a result of the windstorm of a couple months ago) but at least we know it's not us! Today's Kids Day at the con, which should mean lots of craft-oriented stuff. To that end, via Rachel Edidin, I present This to That, a website all about gluing things to other things.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Belated Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)
Didn't get to this until now; good job we made today a short day at the con! Let's see what Amy's been up to this past week:
And I do mean "up"! The top of these two bookcases is her domain; you'll notice her maroon dry-food bowl behind her, up where Datsa (whose system can't process it) cannot reach...
And I do mean "up"! The top of these two bookcases is her domain; you'll notice her maroon dry-food bowl behind her, up where Datsa (whose system can't process it) cannot reach...
Silly Site o' the Day
Ugh. Have I slept at all? I was unconscious the moment my head hit the pillow around midnight, and didn't rouse until Datsa woke us with his meowing around 7:15, but I feel like I still need another half day or so. Yesterday was as exhausting as I should have expected. It was great to see old friends like Joe Rubinstein (who gave me the best hug hello!), Phyllis Novin, Bryan Hitch, Ken Gale, Keith DeCandido (celebrating his 39th birthday), Jamal Igle, Val D'Orazio, Janet Hetherington, Bob Greenberger, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, Leonard Kirk, Randi Mason, Vinnie Bartilucci and of course all my ComicMix colleagues, but without a set game plan or a table or the ability to get close enough to the front of the panels to take photos (the seats in the first few rows of each room are "reserved for VIPs" so press folk with normal cameras are out of luck) I felt near useless. The Lulu booth is completely subsumed by an unusually in-your-face MoCCA contingent, which has managed to actively turn us off working the table-such-as-it-is and, in fact, any thoughts of renewing our MoCCA membership. It's like the friendly folks we used to know have been replaced by MoCCA pod-people. And as large as the convention hall is, it can be traversed in under an hour... and then what?
Today is definitely going to be a truncated convention day. If we're not in the ComicMix office (#10, mid-level by the bathrooms and Kinko's), look for us in the panel area between 11 and 3, then we'll probably head home. It's not like we're important enough to be invited anywhere this evening, and even if we were it takes over an hour to get home -- nearly two hours yesterday, as the 9 PM crosstown bus left the Javits Center too late for us to connect to the 9:20 express bus at Sixth Avenue, so we had to wait another half hour. My back is still recovering from that delay. But I'll be unburdened today, just the walking stick and my new ComicMix t-shirt and my wonderful and patient husband. Here's another art-related Silly Site via Gerard, called a worm painting generator.
Today is definitely going to be a truncated convention day. If we're not in the ComicMix office (#10, mid-level by the bathrooms and Kinko's), look for us in the panel area between 11 and 3, then we'll probably head home. It's not like we're important enough to be invited anywhere this evening, and even if we were it takes over an hour to get home -- nearly two hours yesterday, as the 9 PM crosstown bus left the Javits Center too late for us to connect to the 9:20 express bus at Sixth Avenue, so we had to wait another half hour. My back is still recovering from that delay. But I'll be unburdened today, just the walking stick and my new ComicMix t-shirt and my wonderful and patient husband. Here's another art-related Silly Site via Gerard, called a worm painting generator.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Via August Pollak, whom I don't think I'll be seeing today (MoCCA's more his kind of thing than the NYCC), it's Squishable.com. "They're giant, round, fuzzy, stuffed animals. Hug them." HUG THEM, DAMN YOU!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
I opted for a bit of a social life today in lieu of sitting at the computer, so after I made our omelets I went to meet Martha Thomases and other ComicMix folk at the Javits Center and secure my and Robin's badges. Very glad I got Rob's today, as the queue was only post-office length, and I'm sure tomorrow it'll be at least Disneyland length. Said hi to Heidi and a few others in the press room, so I feel as though my weekend's socializing has started already. (I'd wanted to link to this wonderful post of Heidi's, but it'll go by the wayside along with a whole bunch of other posts I just haven't gotten to this week.) Afterwards Martha showed me 'round a few of the bead shops on Sixth Avenue and we had a couple tasty salads, waiting about 20 minutes for the check, which meant I didn't get the 2 PM bus home as I'd initially hoped, but hey, 2:30 was fine, right? Alas, there must have been a bus breakdown or something. The 3 PM arrived about a quarter after, but I spent my 45-50 minute wait productively by participating in a phone interview that'll go to the in-person stage next Monday. The bus ride home was pretty long, I didn't get home until around 5 and then collapsed for an hour before making dinner, doing the washing up, helping Rob pack for tomorrow, putting away laundry... my gosh, I've now recited a literal laundry list, haven't I? In any case, I invite everyone to get in an artistic mood by trying this Sketch Generator (via Gerard). ComicMix is in office #10 again this weekend; come by and say hi!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Busy gearing up for the con this weekend, so at least I'm somewhat distracted from unemployment by the promise of a fun time coming up. The first issue of Tangent: Superman's Reign that Rob inked over Jamal just came out today as well (at least Rob's name is on the cover, although it was missing from the solicit). The job situation has made me feel even more distant than usual from my comic book friends, so the con couldn't come at a better time. And we did our food shopping this afternoon, which reminded me I wanted to pass on this bacon flowchart from Catherine at Poverty Barn.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
My ComicMix column took until mid-afternoon to finish, but it's up for approval now, and I can move on to my next assignment of figuring out which panels this weekend I want to cover (mostly pictorially) for the site. I think the thing I'm most psyched about is seeing all our British friends again. Liam Sharp's bear hugs alone are worth the trip! He's not the guest list but neither is Robin, who's been credentialed for awhile. Anyway, can't wait to pass along this British Town Name Generator from Generator Land. Just click the chishie-fip!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Yeah, four agencies and two direct-employer interviews in one day might have been a bit much, even if they were all within a radius of about 15 blocks or so. Need sleep, now! Good job I have a forgiving editor who will approve my column as soon as I write it tomorrow morning. But I'm happy because it was a nice spring day in NYC and I got to gaze at lots of cool buildings. Hey, I'll bet the Science Museum in the UK is a cool building too, if only from this Launchball game (via PZ Myers)...
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Wonderful day mostly away from keyboard, which means I'll be scrambling to write my next ComicMix column, but I have most of it in my head anyway so it shouldn't be too hard. We finished watching our recordings of Torchwood Series 2 today, which finale kinda depressed us but, overall, I think the second season worked a lot better than the first. Except the time travel stuff, which always gives me a headache. Speaking of which, via Scott at World O' Crap, Abyss & Apex presents an excerpt from the International Association of Time Travelers: Members' Forum Subforum: Europe – Twentieth Century – Second World War. It's wonderful and hilarious and the saddest thing about it is that it manages to sound like just about every fan-type forum I've ever read...
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Kieran points out that Tom Lehrer turned 80 years old last week. Here are some cool Tom Lehrer videos. Some are even done by him.
Belated Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)
It's okay, it's Caturday! And everything outside seems to be blossoming, which makes Amy very happy:
Meanwhile, I was digging through my old office stuff and found Skippy, the Greenpoint Bank mascot (no relation to this skippy). Greenpoint's since been swallowed up by North Fork, which in turn has been engulfed by Capital One, but in some of our hearts Skippy still lives:
Yeah, I know it's Stuff On My Cat, but he actually seemed to like it, and Datsa's not a patient kitty by nature.
Meanwhile, I was digging through my old office stuff and found Skippy, the Greenpoint Bank mascot (no relation to this skippy). Greenpoint's since been swallowed up by North Fork, which in turn has been engulfed by Capital One, but in some of our hearts Skippy still lives:
Yeah, I know it's Stuff On My Cat, but he actually seemed to like it, and Datsa's not a patient kitty by nature.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
As Barack Obama's campaign is fond of saying, Yes We Can! Via Ellen at Slashfood, there's a really cool public art-type project out there called Canstruction - check out their website! They're "a design/build competition currently held in cities throughout North America. Teams of architects, engineers, and students mentored by these professionals, compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food... At the close of the exhibitions all of the canned food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to emergency feeding programs that include pantries, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers." Is that not the coolest?
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
It's almost 9 PM Eastern, and time for the penguin atop your television to explo-- no wait, I meant, time for Firesign chat. I'm still pissed that no Firesign routines made it into the 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time, although I didn't expect them to make the British equivalent. Maybe it's because so much of their greatest stuff was audio-only, or maybe because they were regarded by many not as the pioneers they were but as yet another variation on the stoner comedy made most famous by Cheech and Chong. (Look it up, kids, they were the Harold and Kumar of their time.) Speaking of which, Gerard leads us to High Times' Cannabis Cup Name Generator. Apparently my "stoner" name is Siberian Tiger Bluntmaster. Ooh, kitty! I guess it's to advertise some DVD produced about five years ago. I could make a stoner joke saying that it's not surprising it took them five years to go from DVD to name generator, but that would be cheap.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
My newest ComicMix column is up. Another one about music, specifically about how it's crept back into my life without me even realizing it. Maybe there's hope for me yet. It helps that we live in a pretty idyllic neighborhood and I don't hear a lot of outside noise other than birdsong. Rob's back at work playing music pretty much all day, which doesn't bother me unless I'm in the living room trying to watch TV, and you know what? His work comfort takes priority over my lounging about. Best to stay in the computer room and work on my writing, when I'm not out and about doing errands. I tried to play through the first round of Bow Street Runner (via Cory at BoingBoing) but this old machine ran out of virtual memory so maybe I'll continue sometime on the laptop...
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Heh, Gerard found a Clippy generator!
I think "Clippy" is the first thing I turn off whenever I open Word in a new computer.
I think "Clippy" is the first thing I turn off whenever I open Word in a new computer.
Getting On With It Blogaround
My job searching is done for the day, I've eaten a hefty salad, I've finished this week's ComicMix column and I've even written another page or so in Megillat Vashti. I feel my writing muscles returning, and have resolved not to neglect that aspect of my life whilst searching for a permanent full-time position with benefits. If I put my mind to it I could do both easily! Of course, then blogging (at least blog-reading) might go by the wayside, but I'm not as caught up in all of this as many of the folks I read. I like blogging, but it's always going to be a hobby for me, I'm never going to be like one of these people. (And honestly, anything calling blogging a modern-day equivalent of sweatshops has a tremendous lack of historical perspective, and insults the memory of the men, women and children who really did labor under horrid conditions. I'm sorry, not comparable in any way, shape or form to eager geeks who choose to park their posteriors at computer terminals cranking out posts for $7 per.) That said, right now I feel like catching up:
• I agree with Lis, this is a very cool promo:
• Used to be, a good ear for different characters' "voices" was essential for a comic book writer. But that was before the current Cult of Personality age, wherein a number of popular writers put whatever words they want to in the mouths of characters that may as well be interchangeable. If the writer has a strong enough personality, he (almost inevitably "he") can get away with it for a time, but after awhile a tin ear tends to piss off discerning readers by shattering their ability to become absorbed in the story. (That's assuming, of course, that the writer even intends to tell a story, rather than making a series of in-jokes winking at his own cleverness.) Lisa Fortuner takes exception to the way Brian Bendis puts sexist words in Doctor Doom's mouth in some Avengers comic I don't read. Kevin Church agrees, and shows how to dialogue the same panel with much more finesse -- sure it's still sexist language, it's supposed to be (he's a badguy!), but it's imperious and slightly antiquated and perfectly "within" the established characterization, rather than the crude, possibly Miller-inspired "Goddamned Batman" school of clunkiness. And of course Bully has a ball making other suggestions of dialogue that would be very wrong in that panel. Lastly, Val gives more examples of inappropriate-to-the-character dialogue from the a recent Buffy comic. Given that we have seven seasons worth of Allison Hannigan's acting and dialogue by which to judge this writing, this kind of thing is bound to be scrutinized even more than the words of characters who've never existed outside of a comic book page.
• Meanwhile, real life also features characters saying things entirely inappropriate to what I'd previously assumed their personas to be. Over at HuffPo, Randi Rhodes' stand-up routine wherein she called Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro "fucking whores" (rather than umpteen other things she could have said about politicians with which she agreed, like "misguided liars" or other epithets that would have had nothing to do with their double-x chromosomes) is justifiably pilloried by Earl Ofari Hutchinson (who's quickly becoming a HuffPo must-read for me) and Bill Press. I used to love Randi, I even called her my goddess a few times in this blog. But wow, this was so far beyond the pale, particularly for a feminist progressive working in liberal radio, that I'm still reeling.
• Sometimes, of course, culture informs reality. Leigh confesses to some important lessons she learned via Hollywood. (By the way, congratulations to Leigh on being published in the Joss Whedon Nothing But Red antho!) And Jill links to this interesting piece by Peter Sagal on NPR's site about the daughters of Whoville's mayor in the new Horton movie, which also prompted a response from BetaCandy at The Hathor Legacy about reactions to pointing out sexism in children's entertainment.
• Giblets makes the case for blowing up the moon. I'm so glad Fafblog is back to save the universe!
• Via Neil Gaiman, this made me laugh far more than I felt I should have. Ahem. I think I need a cold shower now.
• Over at Corrente, chicago dyke points out something that can't be said enough -- our media, both old and new, keeps thinking this presidential campaign is all about them. Zuzu's put her finger on why a lot of Obama supporters are freaking her out -- to many, particularly those who treat this as one big game rather than something that will affect millions of lives, it's just another form of fandom. And fandom often blinds its adherents to anything negative about their chosen idols, and anything positive about anyone who isn't in their circle. In this particular case, it translates into parsing everything Clinton says even when it's discovered she's told the truth and the media has lied, and rarely examining Obama with anything near that kind of scrutiny (and do check out the video passed along at the end of that link to eriposte's post). When he's been "attacked" at all, it's most often been on cheap-shot unimportant "personality" stuff like his smoking or bad bowling. Meanwhile, Steve Soto joins the chorus of those of us who miss the promise of a return to responsible journalism that Keith Olbermann once represented. The Hillary Hatred is like the stupid, it just keeps on burning. (Insert usual disclaimer here reminding folks that neither Clinton nor Obama is particularly progressive and that I cast my vote for Obama in the NY primary largely on the strength of his eloquence and mostly because Edwards had dropped out of the race by that point.)
• My ex-husband passes along a very important video about the continuing American heartbreak that is the Centralia, PA tragedy.
• Both Lance and LowerManhattanite give Chuck Heston his due.
• Mustang Bobby has been kind enough to praise my blogarounds in the past, but he has a pretty comprehensive one here that's well worth your perusal.
• August doesn't get the whole Hell's Kitchen thing. I don't either; promos for that show turned me off to the whole idea of reality-show cooking competitions for a long time, and I now regret not having watched the first couple seasons of Top Chef, which is guilty of none of Hell's excesses as described by August: "The host of the show is a belligerent maniac who verbally (and apparently as close to physically as the law allows) assaults the contestants to the point of physically and emotionally crippling them." This ain't entertainment to me, either.
• Via Henry at Crooked Timber, the "Colbert bump" can now be scientifically proven.
• Lastly, an important announcement from Liss.
I know the time stamp says 3 PM or so but by the time I finished the post it was past 6:30 and I'm off to make dinner...
• I agree with Lis, this is a very cool promo:
• Used to be, a good ear for different characters' "voices" was essential for a comic book writer. But that was before the current Cult of Personality age, wherein a number of popular writers put whatever words they want to in the mouths of characters that may as well be interchangeable. If the writer has a strong enough personality, he (almost inevitably "he") can get away with it for a time, but after awhile a tin ear tends to piss off discerning readers by shattering their ability to become absorbed in the story. (That's assuming, of course, that the writer even intends to tell a story, rather than making a series of in-jokes winking at his own cleverness.) Lisa Fortuner takes exception to the way Brian Bendis puts sexist words in Doctor Doom's mouth in some Avengers comic I don't read. Kevin Church agrees, and shows how to dialogue the same panel with much more finesse -- sure it's still sexist language, it's supposed to be (he's a badguy!), but it's imperious and slightly antiquated and perfectly "within" the established characterization, rather than the crude, possibly Miller-inspired "Goddamned Batman" school of clunkiness. And of course Bully has a ball making other suggestions of dialogue that would be very wrong in that panel. Lastly, Val gives more examples of inappropriate-to-the-character dialogue from the a recent Buffy comic. Given that we have seven seasons worth of Allison Hannigan's acting and dialogue by which to judge this writing, this kind of thing is bound to be scrutinized even more than the words of characters who've never existed outside of a comic book page.
• Meanwhile, real life also features characters saying things entirely inappropriate to what I'd previously assumed their personas to be. Over at HuffPo, Randi Rhodes' stand-up routine wherein she called Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro "fucking whores" (rather than umpteen other things she could have said about politicians with which she agreed, like "misguided liars" or other epithets that would have had nothing to do with their double-x chromosomes) is justifiably pilloried by Earl Ofari Hutchinson (who's quickly becoming a HuffPo must-read for me) and Bill Press. I used to love Randi, I even called her my goddess a few times in this blog. But wow, this was so far beyond the pale, particularly for a feminist progressive working in liberal radio, that I'm still reeling.
• Sometimes, of course, culture informs reality. Leigh confesses to some important lessons she learned via Hollywood. (By the way, congratulations to Leigh on being published in the Joss Whedon Nothing But Red antho!) And Jill links to this interesting piece by Peter Sagal on NPR's site about the daughters of Whoville's mayor in the new Horton movie, which also prompted a response from BetaCandy at The Hathor Legacy about reactions to pointing out sexism in children's entertainment.
• Giblets makes the case for blowing up the moon. I'm so glad Fafblog is back to save the universe!
• Via Neil Gaiman, this made me laugh far more than I felt I should have. Ahem. I think I need a cold shower now.
• Over at Corrente, chicago dyke points out something that can't be said enough -- our media, both old and new, keeps thinking this presidential campaign is all about them. Zuzu's put her finger on why a lot of Obama supporters are freaking her out -- to many, particularly those who treat this as one big game rather than something that will affect millions of lives, it's just another form of fandom. And fandom often blinds its adherents to anything negative about their chosen idols, and anything positive about anyone who isn't in their circle. In this particular case, it translates into parsing everything Clinton says even when it's discovered she's told the truth and the media has lied, and rarely examining Obama with anything near that kind of scrutiny (and do check out the video passed along at the end of that link to eriposte's post). When he's been "attacked" at all, it's most often been on cheap-shot unimportant "personality" stuff like his smoking or bad bowling. Meanwhile, Steve Soto joins the chorus of those of us who miss the promise of a return to responsible journalism that Keith Olbermann once represented. The Hillary Hatred is like the stupid, it just keeps on burning. (Insert usual disclaimer here reminding folks that neither Clinton nor Obama is particularly progressive and that I cast my vote for Obama in the NY primary largely on the strength of his eloquence and mostly because Edwards had dropped out of the race by that point.)
• My ex-husband passes along a very important video about the continuing American heartbreak that is the Centralia, PA tragedy.
• Both Lance and LowerManhattanite give Chuck Heston his due.
• Mustang Bobby has been kind enough to praise my blogarounds in the past, but he has a pretty comprehensive one here that's well worth your perusal.
• August doesn't get the whole Hell's Kitchen thing. I don't either; promos for that show turned me off to the whole idea of reality-show cooking competitions for a long time, and I now regret not having watched the first couple seasons of Top Chef, which is guilty of none of Hell's excesses as described by August: "The host of the show is a belligerent maniac who verbally (and apparently as close to physically as the law allows) assaults the contestants to the point of physically and emotionally crippling them." This ain't entertainment to me, either.
• Via Henry at Crooked Timber, the "Colbert bump" can now be scientifically proven.
• Lastly, an important announcement from Liss.
I know the time stamp says 3 PM or so but by the time I finished the post it was past 6:30 and I'm off to make dinner...
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Just finished watching The US vs. John Lennon on VH1; I'd been wanting to see that docu for some time so I'm a happy camper. Of course we couldn't record it because we've got both the relatively tedious John Adams thing and the not as tedious Iron Chef thing going on the DVR. C'est la vie. I made stir fry duck tonight, yum! Here are some way cool pictures of fruit and veg sculptures via Mike at Left is Right.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Today was Tax Day at the Riggs Residence, which we'd been dreading for awhile as we knew we'd be hard at work for most of the day. We hadn't been able to muster all three prerequisites -- concentration, leisure time and relative health -- until now, but it's now all done and e-filed. In celebration, allow me to direct you to a taxman game. It's French, how taxing can it be?
Friday, April 04, 2008
Friday Cat Blogging (™ Kevin Drum)
So, this week's birthday girl was lounging on her pillowy "plinth" atop Rob's jacket...
Let me just remove tha-- oh, hello Datsa! You be nice to Amy now, it was her birthday this week...
"What? I'm not going to attack her, honest! Although..."
"...I suddenly feel a great need to savage the other arm of the couch..."
Maybe next time I'll get it as a movie...
Let me just remove tha-- oh, hello Datsa! You be nice to Amy now, it was her birthday this week...
"What? I'm not going to attack her, honest! Although..."
"...I suddenly feel a great need to savage the other arm of the couch..."
Maybe next time I'll get it as a movie...
Silly Site o' the Day
Off to The City again, this time in the rain. Maybe I should make a "Muxtape" like seemingly every other blogger so I have musical company...
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
The cat screwed with our sleep cycles again, so when we'd finally regained some rest we did a bit of spring cleaning this afternoon. With any luck, this weekend we throw out the accumulated boxes of detritus. Anyway, it's been nice to be away from keyboard for most of the day, and this evening I got to ask the Firesign chat folks for a Silly Site, with which they could of course oblige. May I present, c/o "Bubba's Brain," LOLCode!
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Silly Site o' the Day
Sorry I didn't post sooner, but my sleep cycle is still a bit screwed up due to a restless night (probably allergy-related, but the "cure" is still worse than the "disease" for me so I prefer to muddle through without allergy meds) and interiew trips to and from The City. My ComicMix column is up, this one about competing "-isms" and, although it's gotten a couple comments, I'm particularly interested in how it's received by folks on my blogroll who've written extensively about prejudice, like Barry and Kate and Mary Beth and Melissa and Cheryl Lynn, all of whose work I linked to in the column. In my April Fool's links yesterday, I left out the mother of all media hoaxes, so here, for your pleasure, is the 51-year-old Swiss Spaghetti Harvest:
Speaking of which, it's time for dinner!
Speaking of which, it's time for dinner!
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The 'Net Doth Make Fools of Us All
I decided to put this in a separate post rather than embellishing on my earlier one. Here's what I've found of April Foolery:
• Heidi linked to today's Gmail goof.
• Ragnell sees the light and has converted to the cult of Frank Miller.
• Hey, good to see my buddies at ComicMix are publishing Superman comics!
• David Malki's gone hand-drawn, Ape Lad's gone blank, and Rich has wrapped up The Ten Doctors rather hastily.
• Sheila rounds up some April Fool's sites, and Mad Kane presents her first Humor Carnival.
• Rachel at Girl Wonder implores us to save the veggies.
• VastLeft recommends the ThinkGeek product ZapCam.
That's pretty much it, except for all the liberal bloggers suddenly deciding to vote for John McCain. Everyone knows that's not going to happen until their particular Democratic candidate doesn't get the nomination.
• Heidi linked to today's Gmail goof.
• Ragnell sees the light and has converted to the cult of Frank Miller.
• Hey, good to see my buddies at ComicMix are publishing Superman comics!
• David Malki's gone hand-drawn, Ape Lad's gone blank, and Rich has wrapped up The Ten Doctors rather hastily.
• Sheila rounds up some April Fool's sites, and Mad Kane presents her first Humor Carnival.
• Rachel at Girl Wonder implores us to save the veggies.
• VastLeft recommends the ThinkGeek product ZapCam.
That's pretty much it, except for all the liberal bloggers suddenly deciding to vote for John McCain. Everyone knows that's not going to happen until their particular Democratic candidate doesn't get the nomination.
The Best April Fool's Day Ad
Via Julian Lennon, the Telegraph finds flying penguins:
It may be an ad for the Beeb's iPlayer, but it's damned clever.
It may be an ad for the Beeb's iPlayer, but it's damned clever.
Silly Site o' the Day
White Rabbits! And happy April Fool's Day, one of my favorite "high holy days" since I used to self-publish INSIDE JOKE back in the day. It's the day we celebrate Amy's birthday, so she's now 11 years old. I just woke up so I haven't scoured the 'net yet, but I did want to point to a very special site whose return will, I'm sure, excite the blogosphere. Welcome back, Fafblog!!!
I'll try to update this post throughout the day as I find Cool April Fool's Stuff. Here's an Aussie roundup to get you started (well hey, it's already been April Fool's Day for hours longer there), and Google's announcement of Project Virgle.
I'll try to update this post throughout the day as I find Cool April Fool's Stuff. Here's an Aussie roundup to get you started (well hey, it's already been April Fool's Day for hours longer there), and Google's announcement of Project Virgle.
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