Silly Site o' the Day

This is quite possibly the best anti-pot prohibition cartoon I've ever seen:



Via Mark at BoingBoing. Flower power!

Silly Site o' the Day

Been awhile since I've rocked out with the Muppets, so here you go:



Via Ozzy McTavish.

Silly Site o' the Day

Wow, is it that time of year already? The annual Del Close Marathon begins tomorrow. Via the Comedy Central blog.

Silly Site o' the Day

Okay, I haven't slept right since I saw this, so I'm going to inflict it on you. Ain't I a stinker?



Hey, blame Lisa at BoingBoing. Brr, cow spiders...

Silly Site o' the Day

The first rule is that... one mustn't mention it... one simply mustn't!



Via David Malki.

Silly Site o' the Day

The electricity and ACs held through the night, woo-hoo! I'm considering taking the camera in with me this morning but wondering if that isn't too ghoulish. Meanwhile on the internets, did you ever wonder about this whole LOLCat stuff? Now I Can Haz Cheeseburger presents I Can Has History?, the complete (so far) history of LOLCats and related memes in graphical form.

Belated Friday Cat Blogging*

So when I visited Mom last weekend she gave me a casino freebie of a beach towel, which (since I'm not a beachgoer) I use on the bed if I'm feeling particularly in need of a towel for whatever reason. I laid it out this evening whilst I showered in the dark, not knowing when the electricity would return, and wanting to lie down on something soft and absorbent. Amy, of course, had other ideas:



She's such a Trump shill. It makes me wonder if she's angling to be the first Kitty Apprentice on his next show.

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

Wow. We've just endured a few minutes of the worst tornadic storm I've ever seen out of our front window, followed immediately by 5+ hours of no electricity. Here's the report from a local news station:



Obviously, the electric has just come back on (say what you will, Con Ed does a bang-up job, at least in our neighborhood) and the ACs are once more operational. Update: The power continues to be sporadic. Not a surprise considering what the crews around here have to deal with Still, a cautious Hoorah, I can sleep tonight! And I can breathe again! Let's celebrate the wonders of Oxygen!



Via Bora from back when he was still on Science Blogs.

Silly Site o' the Day

Still not at used-to-be-Comic Con. The only thing I really miss is seeing my friends. But Robin and I have an actual social engagement this evening with some fellow not-at-no-longer-Comic Con geeks, in honor of whom I herewith present, via Laura (who's also not at comics-what's-comics? Con, but at Winkie Con which I'd really like to attend someday), the Geek Alphabet. To tell you the truth, I'd like to be anywhere but in steamy Manhattan this evening, but we're hoping to be in air-conditioned buses most of the way, so there's that at least.

Silly Site o' the Day

Seriously, am I addicted to Wonder Tonic lately for my Silly Sites? As Robin says, if only all world history can be reduced to something this mind-numbing:



My goodness, that's some deliberately bad, over-the-top PowerPointing. Kudos, Mike Lacher.

Silly Site o' the Day

Very long day. Need some tea. Or some Chamomile Tea Party posters (via Xeni at BoingBoing).

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Robin, an all-too-familiar scene in a "high-end" audio store, utilizing limited animation and computer-generated (actually typing text-to-movie) voices:



This reminded me, I'd seen another video not too long ago featuring a woman's first day on the job at a mainstream media newsroom - can't remember which blog had this:



I think the black and white is an interesting twist. Here's another orientation video I found, there seems to be a whole subset of these:



This process is apparently known as "Xtranormal." This is now A Big Thing all over the YouTubes. Is it the 21st century's answer to Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation? Or is this just the latest version of the medium being the message, a la Marshall McLuhan on this day, the anniversary of his birth?

What Robin's Been Up To

Thought you'd like to see some pages of Robin's latest project, a spec script by Rich Johnston, from whose page I stole this preview - click on it to see the project full-screen, with turney-pages and all:




If you're out in San Diego, please spread the word. Thanks.

Silly Site o' the Day

This Italian-made fake silent movie of Star Wars is cute, but the 21st-century actors are a bit jarring to me.

Via Bully.

Silly Site o' the Day

Mike Lacher of Wonder-Tonic wants us to know that McSweeney's is now presenting his Comic Sans monlogue in the Comic Sans font. For all you people who, like me, are Sans Comic-Con this year.

Silly Site o' the Day

Back from the land that DSL forgot into the 21st century again. Worth it, though - Mom's fine, and the Parkway and Turnpike were blissfully empty this morning for the drive home. Hmm, I wonder if I remember my passwords. Help me, Wonder Tonic!

AFK

Offline until tomorrow afternoon, as I venture into the Land of Dial-Up (Mom's house).

Silly Site o' the Day

And now, a PSA on behalf of cats:

Via the Comedy Central blog.

Friday Cat Blogging*

Robin took some photos of Amy this morning; this was my favorite:



Of course, that was before he discovered Facebook and became lost to me...

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Neither a Face Nor a Book - Discuss

Robin has finally joined Facebook. He's now spending more time there than I do. Which admittedly isn't saying much. Anyone who has Facebook and knows us, feel free to friend him. (And me, for that matter.)

Cleanup Time

I took the day off work to do some housekeeping, both online and off. Inspired in part by Skippy's 8th blogiversary and his tireless support of Blogroll Amnesty Day and the concept of mutual linkage, I decided to clean my sidebar of all the News + Views Guys, Duos and Groups whose blogs are inactive or who don't have me on their blogrolls. (Having already swept through the Liberal Coalition and News+Views Gals sections a few months back, this now leaves the Kultcha section, Op-Ed and Roundups, the last of which will probably go bye-byes.) If Bill Wolfrum, Dave Johnson, Mark Kleiman, PZ Myers, Tom and Dori at Backup Brain, David and Sara at Ornicus, the folks at After School Snack, Corrente, Crooked Timber, Feministe, Feministing, First Draft, the Group News Blog, Lawyers Guns and Money, Left Coaster, Pandagon (wow Amanda, no blogroll?), Preemptive Karma or anyone else actively blogging who's now been removed from my sidebar can point me to where on their blogs a link to me appears, they will of course be immediately reinstated. (I continue to read a number of blogs which ignore my existence entirely because I enjoy them - as evidenced by my Bloglines subscriptions - but I no longer feel a need to give them free sidebar PR if there's no reciprocity.)

This housecleaning has freed up my sidebar considerably, so it might be a good time to mention to any "new" bloggers I read (like Amanda Hess at The Sexist, the gals at Tiger Beatdown, etc.) who would like a mutual link exchange, I'd be more than delighted. And,to remind other folks who seek a link exchange for the primary purpose of selling something that Pen-Elayne is a NO-ADS blog.

Oh, and also? I've moved my friend Jill, who does Brilliant at Breakfast, up to my Top Seven. Given that I conceived that section to honor friends and bloggers who've had a profound influence on my writing and my life and my decision to blog in the first place, she totally belongs there. (Now if only Anni Ackner would return to blogging, I could expand that section to a Top Eight...)

Silly Site o' the Day

So on Firesign chat last night, I brought out my Venn diagrams during a discussion of the late great Tuli Kupferberg and the conversation turned to the Church of the SubGenius. So I wondered, whatever happened to Doug Smith aka Ivan Stang? I hadn't heard from Doug in over a decade. Turns out I needn't have worried.

And yet another...

I couldn't resist:



The Awl has the wrap-up.

Silly Site o' the Day

As it turns out, Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing is as enamored of the Old Spice/Isaiah Mustafa viral campaign (featured here yesterday) as Robin and I are. And she's found the perfect counterpoint:



Should be a lot more of these sorts of things coming down the pike. I can't wait.

Silly Site o' the Day

Fellow Americans, are you getting as much of a kick as I am out of those Old Spice ads featuring the wonderful comedic timing of the actor and ex-football player Isaiah Mustafa? Well, we're not the only ones. Yesterday, the corporation took to the new media airwaves, as it were, to cross-promote the "Old Spice Man" on Twitter, YouTube, etc. etc. by having Mustafa answer folks' questions, which resulted in some very amusing videos chronicled on CNET's Technically Incorrect blog. More here, including this sample:



Via Robin.

Not in Cleveland

The New York Yankees lost another larger-than-life figure today, as George Steinbrenner passed away. Keith Olbermann remembers the Cleveland native for whom, frankly, I never had much time or respect personally, but hey, that's how I roll. (The post reads a bit better than his verbal tribute on Countdown, although it doesn't have the advantage of the Ken Burns interview which solidified what it is that made me most uncomfortable about Steinbrenner. His main claim to fame was that he "threw money at" anything perceived to be a problem. Olbermann may have criticized Limbaugh's eulogy, but I think Rush was right on this, Steinbrenner was the ultimate hyper-capitalist.)

I never read any American Splendor either, but I can appreciate how Harvey Pekar (that other Clevelander) touched Tony Bourdain. Even if we don't have a personal connection to someone, even if they are pretty much the opposite of everything we consider entertaining, it's probably worth noting that, if they affected someone who in turn affects us positively, by extension their lives were worthwhile.

Silly Site o' the Day

April Winchell at Regretsy has an occasional feature called "This is Not Steampunk." I'm not sure whether the following is punk, but there's no getting around the steam:



Via Xeni at BoingBoing. Their YouTube site looks pretty clever.

RIP Tuli Kupferberg

I woke up to the news that Tuli was gone. I had some unusual staffers during the time I self-published INSIDE JOKE, but probably none as memorable as Tuli. He'll be missed.

Silly Site o' the Day

Dang, no new Daily Show nor Colbert Report for two weeks. Ah well, maybe I can catch up on my sleep now. Or play Sushi Cat: The Honeymoon (via Robyn Lee at Serious Eats).

Because I keep "finishing the internet" and saving all these links, and I may as well try to close a few out:

• Some very nice reminiscences to start off, from Keith Olbermann about Bob Sheppard (that's the first of a few stories from Keith's baseball blog), from Mark Evanier about George Burns, and from the Rude Pundit about an influential and much-beloved teacher. Also, Susie writes a love letter to Philadelphia, and Roger Ebert remembers the Class of 1960.

• So I hear Wonder Woman is getting a new outfit, just in time for the buzz at San Diego. Heidi has lots of links about it, Ragnell sees other problems with the character, and Vinnie reminds us that we've seen this all before and it won't be long before things are back to status quo. After all, DC has too much merchandising riding on the iconic costume. Me, I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to JMS' run or not. Besides it being hard for me to get enthusiastic in general about reading comics during a time when Robin's still between assignments, I must confess I never wholly subscribed to the Cult of JMS. I think Joe can be a fine writer, particularly of two-person conversations, but I'm not that blown away by his plotting, and I never did believe Babylon 5 had a "5-year plan" worked out in detail from the very beginning. I also tend to find that he, like Joss Whedon, tends to get more credit for writing "strong female characters" than he may merit. It still feels to me like he writes women from an outside perspective, as The Other rather than just people. That said, the (temporary) costume change doesn't bother me in the least, it's certainly attractive and practical enough and would seem to suit the story JMS wants to tell. I'm just not sure I'd be very enthusiastic about that story he wants to tell. But hey, I learned a long time ago I'm not the target audience for these comics anyway.

• What I am the target audience for is essays like this one by Heidi examining DC's response to observations about sexism and racism in its comics, and this one by Barry Crimmons containing remarks suitable for a July 4 speech.

• Happy belated birthday to my favorite little stuffed bull, who could have sworn he saw the A-Team movie for his birthday. Whereas Lance Mannion definitely saw that movie and shares his thoughts on it.

• Amanda Marcotte describes exactly how I feel about catcalls, and Sarah at Feministe examines the Hey Baby consciousness-raising video game. (Speaking of video games, yes, Roger Ebert goes there again.)

• C.L. Minou at Tiger Beatdown is disappointed with Hot in Cleveland. I think it's getting better by increments, and of course its mediocre quality thus far is no fault of the superb acting (I'd forgotten how much I love Bertinelli's delivery) but of the tepid writing.

• Val D'Orazio points out that the Tea Party folks are a lot smarter and meaner than many of their followers. And Sady and Amanda Hess are being hilariously mean girls to Ayn Rand; nobody deserves it more.

• What Digby Said, reminding us that, as bad as things are with Democrats who haven't followed through on promises to reverse Republican madness, it could be far worse if those Republicans regained political power. Also see Digby on faith-based economics, which bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the days of leeches.

• Speaking of barbaric medicine, I guess I can understand the medical impulse to want to help prevent congenital adrenal hyperplasia, but to use dexamethosone 'cause you think intersex babies might grow up a bit butch? (Nice satire by PZ Myers.) Or because you think being intersex in and of itself is teh ick? What are they teaching these people in medical school nowadays?

• What Jill Said, about Olbermann having enough of blind worship, and about the (dis)connection between fat hatred and the availability of decent clothing for fat people, and about a very memorable Mets game, and lastly about an item I've not yet seen detailed anywhere else, our men in Costa Rica.

• What Melissa Said, on the occasion of her eighth wedding anniversary, and on the Male World Cup (I really hope the Women's World Cup is televised next year, I can pretty much guarantee there'll be better sportswomanship than the travesty we saw of the Dutch men), and on MANCATIONS! Which are, you know, guy getaways.

• And What Lance Said about the difference between saving the economy and saving the economically corrupt system.

• Mazel tov to Mikhaela and Makesha on the birth of their adorable one! And I must not have noticed previously but Natalie Bennett seems to have a new gig as the editor of the Guardian Weekly website; her profile of Egyptian feminist Nawal el Saadawi is well worth a read.

• Can I get an amen on Cruella's prayer to the NSS Facebook site?

• Okay, so Cory at BoingBoing thinks this old sugar ad is ridiculous because Everybody Knows that sugar causes obesity. I actually think the ad is pretty sensible - sugar does give a short-term energy boost, and there's nothing wrong with "a balanced diet in moderation." Sugar isn't the culprit in the so-called "obesity epidemic"-that-really-isn't; if you want to point fingers, why not start with the empty chemical calories of high-fructose corn syrup, which the human body isn't made to process? And Amanda Marcotte recommends a cooking method that doesn't follow a recipe model, which I think comes with its own set of problems, chief among them that it relies a lot on instincts that many people have never honed. Which is rather like recommending an untrained artist just pick up a brush and paint, because studying art is so restrictive!

Lastly, RIP Harvey Pekar; even though I never met him nor wanted to meet him, I can appreciate the role he's played in modern comics.

Silly Site o' the Day

Because I promised Robin, a strange video from a '70s era French TV show featuring the disco version of the Star Wars theme:



Blame Bully.

Silly Site o' the Day

So it's Tesla Day and I was cruising my Bloglines subs hoping to find something to use as a Silly Site. But Susie had a better link, 'cause it's nature-made! And intense! First the original:



Then the Auto-Tune The News satire:



[stoner]"Seems pretty intense to me, man."[/stoner]

Belated Friday Cat Blogging*

Datsa looked very quizzical in this video I took this morning:



He was also, thankfully, silent. (Sorry about the lack of light, I didn't want any lights to disturb Robin's sleep in the adjoining room. Yes, this adorable feline kept each of us up during different parts of the night. Again.)

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

Another morning, another Olivia Munn/Daily Show/feminism post, this one again from Sady at Tiger Beatdown. Munn had a segment last night (well after Sady's essay posted) which I thought she handled well in terms of the humor quotient. I still think she needs to work on her delivery and comedic timing, but these things occasionally take time. (On the other hand, that craft-honing really should be done before one gets put on the air, yes?) Anyway, in honor of all this discussion about women and geek culture, Myca at Barry's place presents "Les filles sont nulles aux jeux vidéo" (Girls suck at video games) from Stéphanie Mercier:



The part that rings truest? Any way you look at it, you lose.

Silly Site o' the Day

Personally, I think RiffTrax's Bacon Cam is a hoax, as I've never actually seen it in action, but I thank First Draft for the excuse to plug RiffTrax again anyway.

The Battle of Mutually Exclusive Boxes

Well, I must say it's nice to see the current burning question on the internets is "Where are all the female late-night comedy writers?" rather than "Where are all the women writing and drawing comics?" or "Where are all the women bloggers?" And it's also nice to see that, this time, it's women doing the asking rather than myopic men who really could find tons of women blogging and doing comics if they actually opened their eyes or stopped moving goalposts.

Not so with late-night comedy, alas. We look to find ourselves represented in the entertainment we like, because we enjoy being full participants in that entertainment. (Same thing with government – if it's of, by and for the people, it should be all the people, not just males or whites or Christians or etc.) We want and deserve to read about or watch people like us. And I think entertainment that isn’t designed to be exclusionary toward a large swath of its audience has an obligation to follow through on that by embracing a diversity of viewpoints. Especially intelligent comedy and satire. It doesn't take a lot of skill to “work blue” or trade in humor that insults the societally shit-upon (the poor, non-Christians, women, fat people). To me, political humor only hits its mark by the satirist identifying with the powerless against the powerful, not supporting the powerful and viciously mocking the rest. And in order to create humor that better identifies with societal underdogs, it helps to have an ensemble show created and presented by members of said underdog groups.

The Daily Show has gotten better at this; where they used to feature a bunch of talented white male correspondents with diverse personae (because of course, as The Default, white males are assumed to not be monolithic), they now feature an East Asian and two black males, and two white men aren't even American. So yeah, their global and ethnic perspective has improved. On the other hand...

Well, let's let Michelle Dean at the Awl tell it in the introduction to her analysis of what's been going on: "A couple of weeks ago, Jezebel's Irin Carmon... wrote a piece examining what she termed The Daily Show's 'Woman Problem.' She largely defined the show as being a hostile environment for women as evidenced by the perennially low number of female correspondents and the testimony of some named and unnamed sources. The piece didn't really go too far, other than apparently being widely linked on Facebook. Olivia Munn, the Daily Show's but-one-month-old lady correspondent may or may not have heard about it, and, uh, commented."

Then the Comedy Central blog ran an open letter from the mostly-behind-the-scenes Daily Show women (wow, look at that photo, one of them even clearly appears to be non-white!), which was probably just asking for trouble. So Amanda Hess of the Washington City Paper's blog The Sexist (one of my new must-reads) parsed it well, and Sady from Tiger Beatdown (the other new must-read for me) satirized it viciously and (in my opinion) hilariously.

And as these things do, the thing branched out into other thoughtful posts, like this widely-linked post from Amanda Marcotte mostly aimed at male fellow-travelers wanting to broaden (pun intended) their sites or choice of entertainment to include women. I laughed at her #2, about not emphasizing that you want women involved in your hobby or whatever because it increases your chances of getting some. I used to hear that way too often in comic book fandom circles! (The aforementioned Amanda Hess also has a good post on making dude-dominated subcultures more accessible to women, which likewise induces this strange déjà vu in me from my Friends of Lulu days.) Susie asks, "When was the last time you saw a female blogger on The Ed Show, or Countdown, or Rachel Maddow? 'Cause I’m scratching my head and can’t think of one." (Does Ana Marie Cox still count?) Update: I just saw new entries into the discussion from the queen of why-aren't-more-women-in-prominent-media-positions, Melissa Silverstein, as well as Lesley from Fatshionista with a trifecta post covering Munn, the Daily Show situation and exclusionary videogame culture.

Lastly, my old buddy Jill - have I mentioned enough times yet how influential Jill was in helping me form so many of my opinions on culture, politics, feminism, etc. back in the day? Well, I have again - has a good overview of the whole shebang, and goes into more detail about the box in which Olivia Munn voluntarily finds herself. Where we also learn that Munn grew up not believing herself to be attractive, so the whole Playboy and Maxim and raw-hot-dog-gobbling and French-maid-costume-in-the-pie antics are perhaps understandable once someone’s discovered she's actually considered "hot" and can therefore exploit herself as a stepping-stone to, um, tepid comedy bits? In any case, it's probably too early to see whether Munn will make it as a regular correspondent; Kristen Schaal hasn’t made an appearance in over a year. (I hope it's because she's gotten better work elsewhere, even though I have to disagree with Jill's finding her hilarious; that Chenowith-like voice just grates on me. I much prefer folks like Sarah Haskins. Why oh why has The Daily Show not snapped her up? Does CurrenTV really pay her that well?) A really good essay overall, whence I swiped the title for this post.

Meanwhile, having given up on the idea of writing comedy for a living some quarter-century ago, I believe I still have enough chops and comedic timing to present The Daily Show with a golden opportunity to hire their first fat, older, not-hot, amateur female correspondent if they so desire. Daily Show producers, the email address is over there on the sidebar.

Next up: Wonder Woman - what’s up with the costume change?

Silly Site o' the Day

As Robin put it, this is both engrossing and grossing. Reminds me here and there of Bill Plympton's stuff. Really brilliant.



Via io9.

Silly Site o' the Day

Economics. Let's face it, boring. At least to me. But thank goodness for the RSAnimate people, because this is anything but boring:



Via Cory at BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

I'm afraid the day got away from me, so I barely have time to plug Tea Party Jesus (via Susie)...

Peace and Love

It's Ringo's 70th birthday tomorrow (damn he looks good for 70!) and, via Sheila Lennon, he would like everyone to make the peace sign at noontime on 7/7 and recite "Peace and Love." Wish I could get into that concert tomorrow night, it's right down the block from my office. (I also love how he says "in my head, I'm 24" - in my head, I'm always 23.)

Silly Site o' the Day

Up with a bit of a bad tummy. listening to fireworks in the distance. Still, for some reason this video made me hungry despite myself:



VIa David at BoingBoing.

A Musical Tradition

I'm really liking TCM's weekend of wonderful musicals. I have most of the stuff they're showing on DVD anyway, but it's still nice to see it on the tube where I don't have to go searching for it.

Robin found this on the YouTube, which I thought was perfect for the holiday:



Really cool to see Hope hoofing it, and it makes me that much more frustrated that Cagney didn't do more musicals.

Silly Site o' the Day

Happy American Independence Day to my fellow US citizens. And to my dear English husband, thank you for the gracious way in which you tolerate my "we whooped your asses" teasing each year at this time. So far Susie, Mark and Laura have all put up the kind of July 4 post I would have done, celebrating the movie musical 1776, so please peruse those links (particularly Susie's which goes into the history of Cool Considerate Men and the line I inevitably quote from that movie each year). So instead, I'll just implore everyoue on there to do the patriotic thing and apologize to BP (via Dave Johnson). After all, one can presume they were only getting back at us for WHOOPING THEIR ASSES.

Silly Site o' the Day

We did our food shopping yesterday so we don't have to go out all weekend. And why would we? Football today (what an amazing win by Germany!) and hot 'n' humid weather the rest of the 3-day holiday weekend. Tomorrow's hot dogs and corn on the cob, of course, whilst indulging in the traditional watching of our 1776 DVD and the traditional "we whooped your asses" taunting of Robin by Elayne. Hmm, maybe we'll make popcorn too. Although probably not the Swedish Chef's version of popcorn shrimp:



Via, so far, Mark Evanier and Laura Gjovaag. I love that the caption writer becomes a sort of character as well, that's very Muppet.

Friday Cat Blogging*

Last night I spotted both cats at pretty good angles for picture-taking:





As always, I love the "laser eyes."

*(Friday Cat Blogging is ™ Kevin Drum)

Silly Site o' the Day

Via The Awl, have a little At-At Day Afternoon:

And remember, The Empire Strikes Back was not a movie, it was a chapter.

Silly Site o' the Day

White rabbits! Wow, July already, which means it's that time of year. Yes, brace yourselves for this year's Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest results. This one's for you, former-coworker Al, wherever you are.