From Mark Morford at the San Francisco Chronicle

An interesting follow up to our conversations about Web 2.0 and social networking sites.

thanks to legalmoose for the link

Batman: The Killing Joke
Written By Alan Moore, Art by Brian Bolland
DC Comics

I've never really been a fan of DC Comics outside of the Vertigo line, but Batman has always had an edge to it. Even still, I haven't read much Batman. But I have read a lot of Alan Moore. The man's a genius. So, it was my duty as a fan of the writer to read this classic story.

It was pretty good.

I think that it feels similar to The Watchmen in tone, in that he's exploring the origins and the psyche of the superhero and supervillain. It's good in that respect, but I felt it fell a bit short. Like it needed just a little bit more to flesh it out. It concluded too fast, and didn't go deep enough. I thought the violence was much higher than I expected, and that the ending was a little too pat. But I guess there's only so much one can do with a mainstream comic.

I can see why it's a classic though. The artwork on that comic is impeccable. The premise is great. I think it could have just gone a bit further.

Well.

Tonight faeshale and I continued down the blood soaked, corpse ridden road of "When They Cry" (Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni).

The second and third chapters are no more illuminating than the first, just as disturbing, and in fact raise more questions than provide answers as totally contradictory stories slam into each other...

with a baseball bat.

Basically what happens, and there are many things that may or may not have happened, is that cutesy anime girls and boys and adults DIE. They die HORRIBLE, EXCRUCIATING DEATHS. And you never really know exactly why, or exactly how, or even if they took place at all. It's like Children of the Rice, or Japanese Village of the Damned...

We were only able to make it halfway through the series tonight. The rest must wait for another time.

This is definitely Shojo Horror. And it's definitely good. But MAN is it confusing.

So, as I mentioned last night I bought some videos. The one anime video that I bought was the first volume of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I knew very little about this show as I was going into buy it, but people have been raving about it online so I figured what the hell.

I'm SO GLAD I bought it, because I laughed so hard I was about to cry. Here's the general plot.

Haruhi is an unusual high school girl. She's not interested in your average people, she wants to meet aliens, future people, and ESPers (telepaths). So, she joins every club in school and hunts for people who would be willing to go along with her scheme. Most of them being semi-unwilling, but Haruhi is a forceful kind of gal. Kyon-kun is the boy who sits in front of her in class, and ostensibly he's the narrator. Kyon, who is somewhat attracted to Haruhi, finds himself swept up in her madness and becomes the webmaster for the SOS Brigade.

What is the SOS Brigade you might ask? Well, Haruhi decides that she's going to start a club to investigate weird phenomena, and in her manic way she ropes people into joining the club, "donating" computers, building a website, handing out literature in playboy bunny costumes and generally reeking havoc. It's quite hilarious.

Though what is even more hilarious is that over the course of the first three episodes you discover some interesting secrets about the people in the club, and some bizarre information about Haruhi.

I totally loved it, and I'm totally going to buy the other volumes.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:
Black Dossier
By Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill

I think calling it a Graphic Novel is the first place to start. Unlike the other League books which are trade paperback collections of individual comic book issues Black Dossier is something entirely other. It is a combination of comic book exposition interspersed with "replica documents" that mimic the ones the characters are reading in the eponymous black dossier. It's the reproduction documents that give the book its flavor, but it's also where I got the most frustrated with the story. Just as the action is getting somewhere the reader is confronted with a wall of text. The first few times this happened I got through it just fine, but by the third section of this I just skipped it entirely.

I probably shouldn't have because by the time I got to the end I was hopelessly confused. Let me explain...

( Read more... )

I apologize in advance for the pixelated pics. If you click on an image it will take you to the original shot at NYMag.com.

I am often brought to task for my love of couture crazyness. People look at me like I'm completely insane because I see these things online or on television and I'm awestruck. These people will turn to me and say "Jesus! That's hideous! Why would you ever wear that? Why the hell did they even make that?"

The most frequently asked question is "What purpose does that serve?"

The answer?

To amaze and inspire.

And also as a palate cleanser.

The pieces on the left of this post are from major couture houses and avant-garde fashion people, and the ones on the right are from high end designers who do a lot of commercial retail. If you scroll over it you'll see who designed it.

Let me ask you this. You're a fashion reporter or a major buyer for a department store chain. Every year the designers put on these shows in order to market their new lines, and get buyers to buy them and to impress the critics at the same time. So, you go to the tents. The average show lasts about 15 minutes and then there's another show. And another and another and another and another. There are dozens upon dozens of shows. I mean, Jesus, just look at the list! It's completely overwhelming.

What would you rather sit and look at? 75 hours of clothes that you could buy at Target? Or 15 minutes of something completely overdramatic, incomprehensible and insane?

My point exactly.

It does no one any good to sit and look at all this boring stuff walk down the runway. Sure, K-Mart may buy this or that piece or even a whole collection. But do you want to look at people walking around in K-Mart clothes?

In that 15 minutes an avant-garde designer can show people things that they've never seen before. Reinterpret old things in exciting new ways. And, just as important, they can give people a break from the humdrum of everday fashion.

Is anyone going to wear this? Well, at least one person will.

So what's the point of all of this madness?

Drama.

Drama is the whole reason fashion exists.

Clothing makes a statement about you. Your style tells people something about you. First impressions are lasting, and what you wear sends signals to other people. If you dress averagely, people will think that you're average. If you dress powerfully, then people will think you're powerful.

Avant-garde clothing forces people to take notice. You can't miss someone walking around in that kind of clothing. It's a walking work of art, something beyond what clothing is, something beyond what clothing needs to be. It's the avant garde that shows us that we can be more than just animals wearing leaves. We can be something more than just K-Mart clones. We can be Gods. We can live a life of excess, drama, passion, strangeness, and power.

Anyone can wear a pant, or a dress, or a sweater. We all do at one point or another. But what kind of person can wear this? Where would you wear it? The mind starts going in a thousand different directions at once. Are you going to perform a tableaux of Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss," are you going to do bondage burlesque, are you going to be a matador in the far far future, hunting on Alpha-Centauri? Sure those are highly unlikely scenarios, but so what!

Why can't life be this wild?

Why must we live a life full of uniforms and jeans and a-line skirts and tennis shoes and oxford shirts?

I want a life that's different. A life that's more than just uniforms and jeans and a-line skirts and tennis shoes and oxford shirts.

I want plastic and spangles. I want stretch and color. I want to see a world alive with variety and newness. I want to see people revelling in the joy of absurdity. I want to see more than I've ever seen. I want to see people ecstatic with the joy of their clothes. I want to see people bending over backwards to find the look that truly expresses who they are as a human being.

No more easy outs. No more settling for second best. No more scraping by.

I want to see innovation. I want to see the world open up before us. I want to be liberated by my clothes, not just covered.

Why do I love couture? Because it speaks to me. I can't explain what part of my soul cries out for this drama. I can't explain what part of me says "YES! I must wear that!" But it's there. And I would. I would totally wear these things. If I couldn't find an occasion to wear it I would make one.

Life is too short to not push the envelope.

Why not wear faux-fur pants? Why not wear a spandex halter top? Why not paint yourself indigo and cover yourself in rhinestones?

Why not?

Break out of your shell!
Let loose the wild abandon within!
Dress yourself in madness, glory and joy!
Live a life beyond your wildest expectations!

This is why I love fashion.

Because it wakes me up.

I have to say. I totally loved last nights challenge.

( SPOILERS and commentary below )

Oh, and if you don't know who those two guys judging were? They were the creative team behind Heatherette. And if you haven't seen Heatherette, you're misssing out on the crazy.

Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi's memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution shows how quickly a civilization can change through the eyes of a young girl in the heart of the storm. It's a frightening lesson about political power shifts, and we should all pay heed. But more than that it's about how war and culture effect an individual, and the struggle to retain identity in the midst of rapid social change. Absolutely wonderful film. It should win an academy award.

Cloverfield - Godzilla meets the Blair Witch project. Cloverfield follows the lives of six friends who try to survive the carnage. And honestly that's about it. I could go on about the monster, or the other monsters, or the action or whatever. But anything would give it away. I think this movie will sell like crazy when it hits video, because there will be loads and loads of things to nitpick and details that remain largely overlooked in the theater. I really enjoyed it.

This season has been a combination of good and blah. I like the people, but they are not the most entertaining to watch. Here's my opinion on who's left.

Chris - My heart always goes out to the underdogs. And to have someone still in the game after being eliminated and brought back makes me root for him even more. I think that his work, for the most part, always has flair, but I think in the last challenge (the Levi's challenge) he's been letting the criticisms of the judges get to him. Too safe, not wild enough. We all know he's got the wild side, he just needs to find the fabulous balance.

Christian - I love watching Christian. If anyone is entertaining tv it's him. That said, I think he's an amazing designer. My only criticism of him is that he's got some standardized elements in his bag-o-tricks that he pulls out a lot; upturned collars, pleating as a major element, puffy sleeves... This is not a bad thing, it shows consistency, but I wish to see more.

Jillian - Everyone on the blogosphere talks about Jillian being wooden, and it's true. I don't know why she won't crack. Well, last night made her crack and she nearly cried on camera. While I don't want that to be the focus of the show, people having utter breakdowns, I was glad to see her let her guard down. I think her fasion sense is interesting and kind of home-y. Her overalls collection a few weeks ago was evidence of her vision as a designer. And I like what I see. I think a lot of girls would like her looks.

Rami - I'm totally sick of Rami. I think that all his gowns look exactly the same and the scene from his studio in LA reinforces that. He does his best when forced to work outside of his normal medium (anything that drapes), and last night was a testament to that. Though I know these people have to have watched previous seasons, and the zipper thing bugged the shit out of me because it was just like Jeffrey's Bryant Park show. My friend c4bl3fl4m3 even pointed that out and she only watches the show when she comes over to my house! If even a casual viewer notices a detail like that it's gimmicky.

Sweet P - I have not been totally wowed by Sweet P, but I think she's good. Her dress last night was a knockout, though my friend and I thought she should have taken it further rather than scaling it back. We both looked at each other and said "train." To take something as pedestrian as Denim and turn it into something as wonderful as a wedding dress would have been absolutely phenomenal. You've never seen a denim evening gown have you? She nearly went there and I think that had she gone there she might have won. Overall she's been kind of in the middle, but not really on top.

Ricky - I am sick of Ricky as well. Yes he won last night's challenge, but that dress was nothing stunning. It was innovative in the use of the button fly up the front, and the Levi's woman was clearly impressed. But I didn't see the fantasticness they were all seeing. To me it just looked good, not great. Overall Ricky has been mediocre. Last night he said that he's worked for Valentino. I certainly haven't seen it, and I think the judges were waiting to see something that was good enough from him before aufing him. And I can only take watching someone cry so often.

Last night I was watching stuff I had saved in my DVR, and I went through the Astroboy christmas marathon on Adult Swim.

The first episode is called "The Birth of Astroboy." The story goes like this. Astor Boynton is a fun loving child, and in the future of the year 2000 he, like all people are allowed to drive cars at hyperspeeds because the road does the driving for you. Through a horrible mixup the roads and cars malfunction and Astor is killed upon impact. So, Professor Boynton at the Institute of Science declares in his grief that he will build a robot in the image of his child, and he will press the entire service of the institute to that end. Thus Astroboy was created. Professor Boynton is there to throw the switch to turn on his new robot child and they set about having a life together as Father and Son. Years pass quickly and while Astroboy is learning, he does not change in physical appearance. Professor Boynton is dismayed at this because he finally realizes that this robot boy is no substitute for his real son. So the professor sells Astroboy (with much emotional pleading from the child). His new owner is a robot gladiatorial combat ringleader, and the first thing he does is put Astroboy in the ring to fight against a colossally huge robot. Astroboy, being the height of robotics, handily puts the robot in check, but does not want to destroy him. Astroboy doesn't want to hurt anyone. So the ringleader locks him away with all the other junk robots. Astroboy powers up the other robots and they end up saving human lives as the circus burns to the ground. It's at this moment that Professor Elefun, the new head of the Institute of Science takes Astroboy under his wing and they live together.

The second episode "Colosso" has Astroboy longing to have a real family, with a mother and father who look like him and who love him and take care of him. Though derailed by the premature awakening of the robot Colosso, in the end Astroboy is united with a robot mother and father (who have similar features to him).

I give all this back story for a reason.

It's almost exactly the same storyline as the Stanley Kubrick / Steven Spielberg movie Artificial Intelligence: A.I.

Robotic engineer loses his son and designs a robot boy in his image. Family lives with robot boy until they feel that he's too uncanny and mother leaves him alone in the woods to die (with lots of emotional pleading). Boy finds his way into the city and gets picked up by a robot circus where robots fight to the death. There he meets other fractured robots in a pile, waiting to be scrapped. He escapes from the circus But he wants to be a real boy, with a real family. And in the end, thousands(?) of years later, he is united with a mother who loves him though who herself is a clone.

I think you could take scenes from these two episodes of Astroboy and put them next to individual scenes in A.I. and see nearly the exact same thing. The same story arc, the same resolution.

While it could certainly be debated whether or not Brian Aldiss, the author of the original short story, or Stanley Kubrick ever even saw Astroboy it's amazing to me that 45 years later we have a film that follows this so closely without ever mentioning it at all.

A lot of what I'm going to say is focused around the Spider-Man storyline "Brand New Day." If you have no idea what that is, and you have a passing interest in Spider-Man comics this is mega spoilery. But if you read, oh basically any kind of comic book related news or hell even regular news you'll know that something major happened in Spider Man land.

( Spoilers and pontifications )

Mad Magazine, that purveyor of social satire and all things dreck caught my eye this morning. The cover for the January issue headlines the years 20 dumbest people, and the image of their mascot Alfred E. Neuman is posed hiding on a public toilet seat, pants down, uncharacteristically wide-eyed, while a man's black dress shoe sticks out under the stall.

Yup. You guessed it. Senator Larry Craig made the list, and the subsequent article "Craig's Lust" shows a spoof DVD entitled "There's Something About Larry." The Wide-Stance Edition no less. It made me chuckle and also shocked me a bit, especially looking at that cover art. I'm glad we have it here at the public library.

Though the look on his face makes me wonder. Alfred E. Neuman is known for his maxim of "What, Me Worry?" The look of shock and fear on his face is a little surprising for his character. I think I'd rather him be blase about it, or sarcastic about it, or even snickering at it than afraid. Is it the scene that's making him worry and fear, or is it just Craig himself that he fears? It's a little unclear. Knowing that Mad always goes for the direct hit I could easily say that he's afraid of Craig himself coming after him in the toilet. But still, it seems out of character, and a little too much "gay panic."

That doesn't mean that it isn't funny. Cause trust me, I found it funny. Just complicated.

The larger the typeface in a book, the uglier its cover art?

It's like how dresses that go up into the plus sizes start to look more and more boring and/or hideous.

I promise I'll keep them brief

Tenth Doctor

( Smith and Jones )

( The Shakespeare Code )

Fourth Doctor

( Pyramids of Mars )

( The Android Invasion )

( Destiny of the Daleks )

I'm currently reading Susanna Clarke's magnum opus entitled "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell." I don't know why exactly I never picked it up before except for fear of the heft of the book. It's incredibly well written in that gorgeous Victorian air, as if you have a long winded friend telling you the tale. And the premise is about a gentleman who was singlehandedly responsible for the "return of English magic" in 1807, which should have been an automatic sell for me. But I just never got around to it, and just passed it by every time. One of the librarians said that it was a wonderful book and that it seemed so believable, and told me roughly what it was about and I just couldn't resist any longer. Also, having just finished reading that Doctor Who book set in nearly exactly the same time period it was a natural fit. Magic employed to baffle the French during the Napoleonic wars just seems so fantastic. I've made substantial progress and in just a few days I'm practically 1/8th of the way through, which is phenomenal progress for me. But I just can't put it down. I'm reading it on the ride in the morning, during lunch, on the ride back in the evening and before bed. Perhaps I should consider other large books that I overlooked out of fear.

So, I watched Midnight Cowboy tonight. The only thing I could think of is: who says to themselves, and to others, "Yee hah! I'm a gonna be a hustler!"

??

And it wins best song, for the fact that it only has one song in it anyway? I mean, it's a good song, but usually a movie has a couple tunes in it.

I liked the ending, because just as soon as he starts talking sense he loses the weight that held him back.

And the Warhol-esque party was so right.

After watching Castrovalva, I figured it would be cool to go through Peter Davison's first season. So, that's what I've been doing. These three stories follow sequentially from Castrovalva.

( Four to Doomsday )

( Kinda )

( The Visitation )