December 2008
This week's horoscope
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): How much of your animal essence is in captivity, and how much is running free? Is your inner lion able to wander at will through places where it feels at home, or is it trapped in a confined space it would never stay in if allowed to choose? Keep coming back to these questions during 2009. It will be an excellent time to spring the great cat in you from conditions that...
Brave New World of Digital Intimacy →
“This is the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update — each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting. This was never before possible,...
Archaeologizing Watchmen: An Interview With Dave... →
“Alan writes in a very visual way, and I draw in a story way. We’ve always enjoyed working together … But people unacquainted with graphic novels, including journalists, tend to think of Watchmen as a book by Alan Moore that happens to have some illustrations. And that does a disservice to the entire form, because comics are stories in words and pictures. To marginalize either...
Top 10 New Organisms of 2008 →
“With animals going extinct at rates unseen since the dinosaurs disappeared, it’s nice to be reminded that some species haven’t even been discovered.”
Hear hear.
This week's horoscope
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “What do I long for?” should be a core question for you — always, of course, but especially in 2009. Are you adventurous enough to look beyond the status symbols your ego is attached to and the transitory wishes that constantly flit through your imagination? If so, you’ll prime yourself to establish a root connection with your soul’s deepest...
The British Animal Studies Network →
Remembering Bettie Page →
“So here was Bettie Page, a woman known only for her sexuality, who had been sexually abused by her father, sexually violated by a gang of strangers, and emotionally battered by a husband. In the years since she had gone underground, Bettie had become a born-again Christian working for the Billy Graham Crusade. Surely she would repudiate the work she’d done as a pin-up and bondage...
Pinup queen Bettie Page dies at 85 →
Since the age of sixteen, without fail, I’ve had a picture of Bettie Page hanging somewhere near where I work or play.
I think it’s fair to say she’s had a more profound impact on my understanding of female sexuality than anyone else.
NORAD Tracks Santa 2008 →
“All the preparations for this year are in place! Return on Christmas Eve to track St. Nick on his magical flight around the world!”
“The issue with online social networks is that they conflate “I like you as a...”
– “Unfriending”: Stealth Tactics and Sensible Responses
the first time i saw sigur ros the teenage couple...
we couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying but their body language was so clear that it was impossible to mistake what was happening.
this performance made the sound and light onstage alternate between foreground and background.
just like the smile never left my face but was often accompanied by the tears welling in my eyes.
INTERVIEW: Playtime with Keita Takahashi →
“Keita Takahashi, creator of cult sensation Katamari Damacy, has announced that he is to make a playground for the people of Nottingham … ‘Being totally honest with you, I’m beginning to get a bit bored making just games. I wanted something in a different area, but quite similar. My personal opinion is that every normal daily routine should be fun, but at the moment that doesn’t...
Fibreculture Issue 13 →
Adrian Mackenzie - Wirelessness as Experience of Transition
The paper analyses wireless networks in terms of a concept of experience drawn from the work of William James. James’ account of experience focuses closely on the effects of ongoing change, and this is particularly useful in thinking about media change. The specific experience in question here is ‘wirelessness,’ an...
'Ancient city unearthed' in Peru →
Very interesting, and near where I lived as a child. Thinking back, it was regularly witnessing such things that made me want to be an archaeologist. And sometimes I miss it more than anything.
The Mennonite: A contrarian view of... →
It’s not how much you buy, but what you buy, that matters.
buynothingchristmas.org →
Mennonite anti-consumerism.
Tips From the Potlatch, Where Giving Knows No... →
“Now that hard times have arrived, now that we’re being punished for our great credit binge, what are we supposed to do for the holidays? The logical answer is to cut out the useless and the lavish, but I have it on the highest authority that it’s just not that simple…”
Wow. Soliciting consumption & redistribution advice from the Kwakwaka’wakw. Times are changing.
“Don’t despair too much if you see beautiful things destroyed, if you see...”
– Ben Okri
Swedish artist uses “unethical” cash to fund... →
“The Swedish performance artist and filmmaker Pål Hollender, who in 2003 invested SKr100,000 (around €11,000) in “unethical” companies, has distributed SKr32,500 (€3,235) in “scholarships” derived from the returns … He chose companies involved in what he called the “five main unethical industries”: arms manufacture (Lockheed Martin), tobacco (Swedish Match), alcohol, pornography and...
"My words have other colors than the same words...
“Almost all my human relationships have resulted from attacks of a feeling of isolation…I have been ridiculously happy if ever I found, or thought I had found, in someone a little patch or corner of common concern. My mind is burdened with a thousand shaming memories of such weak moments, in which I absolutely could not endure solitude any more…The feeling that there is about me something...
Canada's 'dirty oil' challenge →
What a mess.
Smashing Pumpkins - Muzzle (1995) →
…But I knew exactly where I was And I knew the meaning of it all And I knew the distance to the sun And I knew the echo that is love And I knew the secrets in your spires And I knew the emptiness of youth And I knew the solitude of hearts And I knew the murmurs of the soul And the world is drawn into your hands And the world is etched upon your heart And the world is so hard to understand...
“But as ‘digital natives’ get more interested in the real world;...”
– Russell Davies
Yes. And let’s not forget that the ultimate analogue skills are everyday social skills, which are something that geniuses/creatives/geeks notoriously lack.
Bush is back! →
There may be hope yet!
Favourite Comics and Art Books of 2008 Part 1:... →
Favourite Comics and Art Books of 2008 Part 2:... →
