- Artists Ryan Ottley and James Harren have a Tumblr where they release non-comic pieces of art they’ve been conjuring up. There seems to be themes, too. Like the other week they called ‘Shadow Week’. The site is called “THEBOG“. James just posted this, as winter is not over yet:
- More comic stores are refusing to sellOrson Scott Card’s new Superman book on account of his straight-forward, clear stance on gay rights and indeed lesbians, gays, and bisexuals as people too. I love that Mark Millar came out and said something to the tune of, “that’s the thing about free speech, it isn’t always something you’re going to agree with. But that doesn’t mean you ban someone, you threaten their livelihood.” Actually Mark, that’s the thing about Free Speech, you can sell or not sell whatever products you choose as dependent upon however you feel about said products, production methods, or producers themselves. And while we’re at it, work on your dialogue please.
- Very interesting perspective here. Former ‘sex worker’, now journalist on what feminists get wrong when it comes to prostitution (from Guernica): WAGING WAR ON SEX WORKERS.
“I’ve been free in my writing to have that opinion. I’ve never been constrained by journalism in a formal way in which I have to hear both sides. I don’t even know who “both sides” would be on this issue. No, I’m not going to have a debate with you about how you feel about sex work. It has no impact on what happens tonight with the police in the streets. Our feelings alone don’t change what happens with the police, what happens in jail, what happens when someone tries to go to the welfare office, the unemployment office, or any kind of state agency where a criminal record comes up for prostitution. How we feel about the commodification of sexuality and violence doesn’t actually translate to those people’s lives. A lot of the debate is really academic and a waste of time.”
- The latest Watch Dogs video looks unbelievable. Too bad this is a PS4 game, cause I’ll probably wait to buy one of those ’til they go down in price. I still haven’t finished even 50% of Skyrim, and have Dishonored to get into. A new Playstation will guarantee one thing though, super outrageously cheap games on eBay and Craig’s List for the last system. Anyways, here’s that video:
- That Sioux Falls group Phantom Balance — I discussed them a couple posts ago — is releasing a new album called “Loser” tomorrow I believe. I’ll stream it here either tomorrow or later in the week.
- New How To Destory Angels (Trent Reznor’s latest band; his wife is the singer, and Atticus Ross co-producers/performs) is streaming. The new album is called “Welcome Oblivion” and will be released March 5th. 13 tracks at 65 minutes. On Columbia Records. Wikipedia’s labeling it as “post-industrial” and “electronica”.
- To get personal shit out of the way (even though I know very few people who may be reading this care; and those who are probably have been linked here by google searching “george tooker”): That job I interviewed for last week? I got it! I’m getting closer and closer to a final product with this album I’m working on. It should be pretty neat. My wife is pregnant, so soon I’ll be able to share all this art and music and information with a mini-me. Also, my life will obviously get insane… so, I may have to shut this thing down. Okay, enough of that.
- Some of my buds from across the pond, specifically Daniel the curator, will be starting a music blog very soon that I’ll occasionally be writing on. I’ll definitely be linking to it once it’s up and running, I think he’s shooting for a Tumblr-based site.
- New Game of Thrones trailer:
- Jonathan Hickman has been teasing a new creator owned project that comes out sometime in March with Image Comics. This is the latest teaser:
- I saw Beasts of Southern Wild last night and I really, really enjoyed it. Surreal, haunting, powerful, peaceful, humanistic, with a very something-bigger-than-you vibe to boot. The occasional glimpse at the extinct ancient beast “Aurochs“, who have risen from their frozen states, melted out of the ice caps, is perhaps the best visual metaphor in film this year. The acting is top-notch with the occasional good. The directing and cinematography are beautiful, from the fireworks celebration early on to the parting shot of the characters strolling carelessly as the power of the rising ocean bears down on them. There needs to be more movies like this.
- I don’t why — considering I’m a Minnesotan — I just recently heard of the Sioux Falls group Phantom Balance. Good Lord, they’ll tear your face off. This is the kind of thing that can only be conjured up in the midst of frozen lakes, crops, and wind chills of negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit:
- COFFFFEEE!! It’s been a minute since I’ve been here.
- Last night I had this amazing dream about my wife and I. It kinda felt like a second honeymoon. We were in this very 21st Century, borderline futuristic city… like Tokyo looking. Except it wasn’t Tokyo because there was an abundance of white people and everyone spoke with a vague European accent. Let’s just call it 2064 Kiev. But we were frolicking through this city from a home-base of this beautiful penthouse. We went to see this band play in an underground club. Somehow we got to dancing at the side of the stage then the band invited us up to dance on stage and sing backup for the rest of the show. After the show we went back to our place and got up onto the roof. There was a small, traditional movie theater across the alley from us. Even with the neons of the city the stars burned bright. I found a piece of wood we used to walk across and get onto the theater roof. We made our way inside and found the projection room. We dug through reels and reels of film until we found an old, dusty copy of Inglorious Basterds (so yes, this must be a future occurrence). I put it on the 35mm projector and got it working. We brewed up some popcorn and watched the film all by ourselves in this tiny, historic theater. Balcony and all. When it was over we put the reels back how they were and darted out to the rooftop. The sun was just coming up.
“They came for him on October 23, 2008. Eight medical staff, corrections officers, and guards took William Coleman out of his solitary cell, down a bright hall, and into a medical examination room. The officers stood guard outside while a medical internist told Coleman to get on the vinyl-covered examination table. They were going to feed him. Coleman told them he did not want to be fed. But they weren’t asking for his consent; he had no choice.
It had been more than a year since Coleman had chewed anything.
He’s not suicidal; he’s in prison for something he says he didn’t do. Like 2.2 million people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the U.S., his body is not his own. The only way for him to protest his conviction, to exercise his first amendment rights, he says, is to stop eating solid food.”
“In 1956, with the guiding support of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, the U.S. Department of State sent the nation’s finest jazz musicians abroad as goodwill representatives in a conscious effort to symbolize America’s commitment to freedom. The Jazz Ambassadors program was launched at the bitterest point in the Cold War to bring the best of American culture to the rest of the world. The program not only focused on Iron Curtain nations but also the Third World, where many developing countries were exploring Marxism as a possible political identity. The first Jazz Ambassador was trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and two years later Brubeck joined the ranks that would eventually include Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Benny Goodman and Miles Davis. These musicians reached audiences in the millions, not only performing but also meeting with heads of state as well as thousands of everyday citizens through the international language of music.”
I can’t help but think this would never be something we’d invest in today’s world. Even with a surplus.
- An article discussing what may happen to comic books should the government employ censorship to them. The article goes on to talk about the 1954 “psychology” book Seduction of the Innocent, a travesty of human creation that delves into — in the book’s words — “the influence on comic books on today’s youth.” The release of the book and subsequent hearings in the Senate ended in sweeping censorship across the spectrum of the art form and a decline for the business economically (until the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko era began). Here’s to hoping Mr. Biden and whoever he’s talking to about gun violence don’t touch comics.
- The idea that the military enlists (generally) the poor, uneducated, or generally lost to their ranks is nothing new. A recent article at Slate talks about a fee one could pay to essentially wave enlistment to the Civil War. “Such famous Americans,” notes the article, “as Grover Cleveland and John D. Rockefeller took advantage of [the] provision.” The substitute fee was $300, or about 5 grand in today’s terms.
- Also on Slate: Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Aaron Swartz. Swartz was something of an internet pioneer, with credits including work on RSS, Markdown, Reddit, and even Creative Commons.
“Hanging over his death is, of course, his persecution at the hands of U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz. People commit suicide because they suffer from depression, which he did, not because they’re being railroaded by the U.S. Attorney, which he was. His crime was breaking into a random closet at MIT and mass downloading academic journal articles from JSTOR. Obviously if you get caught trespassing, you’re going to face some legal consequences. But not a federal case with talk of million dollar penalties and decades-long jail sentences.”
Another excellent article, sort of a sequel to that last one, is THIS ONE. It discusses whether or not Swartz’ death will make the open-access market more mainstream. Wikipedia calls open access “the practice of providing unrestricted access via the Internet to peer-reviewedscholarly journal articles. OA is also increasingly being provided to theses, scholarly monographs and book chapters.”
- John from Baroness posted a really great journal entry/message to fans on the band’s website this week. It talks about his rehabilitation after their harrowing bus accident in Europe, and his absolute need to make music again:
“i’ve tried to fill my weekly routine with as much physical therapy as possible but the truth is, PT is not fun, and its benefits come with a great deal of mental/physical/spiritual pain and struggle. furthermore, i believe am getting a touch of Stockholm syndrome when it comes to my doctors and therapists (the highlight of my week should NOT involve a clinic). music might be the best therapy i have right now. perhaps it’s both the cause and the cure (the thought has crossed my mind); but i feel lost without it. Pete and i have just spent a long week surveying our musical wreckage and, surprisingly, we are quite well and intact. sure, there’s some substantial obstacles to overcome before we write, record or perform any time soon; but we still have everything we need to get “back in” that particular “saddle again”.
- WHY AM I JUST NOW DISCOVERING BARNABY WARD?!? Holy holy:
- “Raise the Black Lantern”… The label I’m on — Black Lantern Music — has just released a 50 track compilation album from it’s first slew of releases. It’s wonderful. There’s so much good music and artists, I’m just glad I’m involved. GO HERE to get the album. Donations welcome. This is the cover:
I’m taking a holiday break. See you — anyone who reads this — soonish.
- Rian Johnson posted his original script for his film “Looper” on the official website of the science fiction flick. He stresses that it’s only the “shooting script”, therefor it is different in some ways from the final product. I found it interesting that he noted writing the first half years ago, and starting the script back up again years later. It’s obvious where this happens when you watch the movie. And at first it’s a little jarring but in the end the 3rd act is what gives the movie all of its heart.
- I’m compiling a list of my favorite albums of the year and holy shit I have a ton of them. Probably more than I’ve ever had before. Last night I was writing up little 3 or 4 sentence justifications for my picking them. I still have quite a few do to. So hopefully that’ll be posted soonish. While I was digging I ran across a review for P.O.S.’ latest album “We Don’t Even Live Here” and was kinda blown away by it. Apparently though, I am not the first to find frustration with a review from this guy at Pitchfork, a one Ian Cohan. This led me to the site RipFork, in which select music critic reviews (mostly from Pitchfork) are torn apart in pretty hilarious fashion.
Actually I’d like to, when I have time, dig into that POS review line by line, because a lot of it just doesn’t make much sense.
The lamp is as simple as it is inexpensive. A cable hangs from a gear mechanism holding onto a plastic bag filled with dirt or rocks. The energy created by gravity pulling the bag downwards is enough to power an LED bulb for up to half an hour. Riddiford and Reeves have posted their creation on the fund sourcing site indiegogo and thus far pledges have doubled the $55,000 goal.
The two note on their page that over a billion and a half people in the world today have no access to a reliable electricity source. When it gets dark, their only light source comes through burning wood, peat, or other biomass materials – the most popular by far, is kerosene. They also note that the World Bank has recently estimated that up to three quarters of a billion women and children regularly inhale smoke from kerosene lanterns, which is they say, equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day – a situation that leads quite naturally to very high lung cancer rates.
- Cover for Jonathan Hickman’s next “Avengers” issue:
- Last night I made the mistake of beginning to watch the Lance Bangs Pavement documentary “Slow Century”. A mistake because I should have known it would’ve been too fascinating to turn off, no matter how late the hours got. If you’ve got the time, here it is:
- Sage Francis has resurrected the Tumblr Hello There, Racists after an apparent shut down. I think it’s outrageous to say it isn’t fair to publicly chastise these people, knowing full well that Twitter and Facebook are publicly viewed domains (they’re basically the 21st Century “public square”). It also serves to remind us of some very important things, two of which: you’re not invisible on the Internet, and if you want to say outrageous shit you’d better damn well be posting anonymously (then again anyone with half a brain can trace an IP address), and yes… racism definitely still exists. Some of this shit is just disgusting.
- Very interesting article, that very well might go over your head a little (went over mine at least), on the nature of dark energy. Is it static or dynamic in its existence. If it’s dynamic… yeesh, the philosophical implications of such a thing are astronomical; a form of matter whose density and composition and structure changes as it shifts though space time??
While hypothesized dark energy can explain observations of the universe expanding at an accelerating rate, the specific properties of dark energy are still an enigma. Scientists think that dark energy could take one of two forms: a static cosmological constant that is homogenous over time and space, or a dynamical entity whose energy density changes in time and space. By examining data from a variety of experiments, scientists in a new study have developed a model that provides tantalizing hints that dark energy may be dynamic.
The results are still far from conclusive, but the scientists hope that future data might narrow down the models with greater accuracy. They hope that observations by the Planck spacecraft (launched in 2009; first data available in April 2013) and the Euclid spacecraft (launch date is 2019) could help pinpoint the dark energy models that most closely describe our expanding universe.
- Great piece of street art (graffiti, if you prefer that term; I really could care less what it’s called) from GOIN, who I believe works out of the UK:
1) When the frantic cavorting of the veritable legion of squirrel monkeys makes you immediately lose the capuchins, you may want to reflect on how their spritely bounding also distracted you from taking a solid bearing from the trail. And how you’re… at the river… wait…
2) It IS going to rain. Torrentially. Which means it’s also going to get VERY dark much earlier than anticipated (except, of course, by Shelly… *ahem*).
3) Once you realize that you’re lost, and you’re off trail, and you’re completely disoriented, and it is now completely black, and it seems like you keep crossing the same stream over and over again, and there’s that frakking stream again, you may then also notice that both of your flashlights are getting awfully dim…
- The newest Black Lantern release is just spectacular. Beautiful, wounded, haunting Electro from two guys from Kiev: together they are MR. MORSE. This is their debut album, it is called “Collapse”. Definitely worth checking out. This is the cover:
- Slightly frightening article about a counter-terrorism home-base of operations in Djibouti (which is in Africa).
Camp Lemonnier, a sun-baked Third World outpost established by the French Foreign Legion, began as a temporary staging ground for U.S. Marines looking for a foothold in the region a decade ago. Over the past two years, the U.S. military has clandestinely transformed it into the busiest Predator drone base outside the Afghan war zone, a model for fighting a new generation of terrorist groups.
The Obama administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal the legal and operational details of its targeted-killing program. Behind closed doors, painstaking debates precede each decision to place an individual in the cross hairs of the United States’ perpetual war against al-Qaeda and its allies. Increasingly, the orders to find, track or kill those people are delivered to Camp Lemonnier. Virtually the entire 500-acre camp is dedicated to counterterrorism, making it the only installation of its kind in the Pentagon’s global network of bases. Secrecy blankets most of the camp’s activities. The U.S. military rejected requests from The Washington Post to tour Lemonnier last month. Officials cited “operational security concerns,” although they have permitted journalists to visit in the past.
- I’m tuning into the War Rocket Ajax podcast at Comics Alliance right now, mostly because it features an interview with Jonathan Hickman, who I’m a fan of. He might even turn me into an Avengers reader, a feat previously thought impossible. But when I tuned in I was pleased to hear them talking about El-P and Killer Mike, and apparently they talk about hip-hop alot on their podcast (and BBQ). Then they pointed towards a Comic-Con called ColaCon, which blends comics and hip-hop. Fucking awesome. This year Ghostface and Phife (from Tribe Called Quest) are playing. I may have to become a regular listener.
The Nova Convention, three days and nights of readings, panel discussions, film showings and various sorts of performances that sought to grapple with some of the implications of the writing of William S. Burroughs, concluded Saturday night with a program at the Entermedia theater. Actually, the convention was not entirely over; there was a midnight rock concert featuring Robert Fripp, Blondie, and other rock performers. But it was over for Mr. Burroughs and his inner circle, who all went immediately to a private party.
The convention drew an interesting cross-section of people, and one suspected that only Mr. Burroughs could have brought them together. There were more or less conventional poets, novelists, performing artists, composers as diverse as John Cage and Philip Glass, rock musicians, serious students of American literature, street types and others.
All or almost all of them had been touched in some way by Mr. Burroughs’s varied body of work, which includes straight hard-boiled prose fiction, autobiography, nonrepresentational writing using the cut-up technique invented by Brion Gysin, science fiction of a sort, barbed satire, accounts of drug experiences and attitudinal or political pronouncements.
And here’s some audio from the convention as well:
- Marvel Comics and Fox have hired Mark Millar to oversee the next batch of comic properties to the big screen. I think “creative consultant” is the official term. Fox owns the rights to things like X-Men (and therefor Deadpool, which may or may not get off the ground), Fantastic Four, Daredevil. Any of you who have read Mark Millar probably know how big of a risk this is. The guy is a terrible not a very good writer. His characters and plots and tropes kind-of reek of adolescent worldviews that do nothing but downgrade the iconic characters who’s mouths he shoves the words of a 15 year old boy. Which is of course fine when it’s his creator-owned stuff. But Kick-Ass the film only succeeded because it was funny and didn’t take itself that seriously. Kick-Ass the comic is far more serious. And it’s kind-of a pile of shit to be honest about it. Of course, that link up there goes to an Examiner article where they think this is a good idea, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. I wonder if they’ve read any Mark Millar.
In subject matter, history, and art style, From Hell stands apart from other works written by Alan Moore, but that hasn’t made it obscure, rather notorious. If its Jack the Ripper subject matter was less well-known in the popular imagination, perhaps it would have been viewed as a more “indie” work like Snakes and Ladders or The Birth Caul as adapted by Campbell. The work itself deserves to be notorious for a host of reasons, but within the context of both Moore’s life, and Eddie Campbell’s, who illustrated it, it stands as a megalith that changed the direction of their future output.
We’re still in this period of deviation from our fundamental constitutional protections. It’s going to be a very difficult period to end and I think there are several reasons. One is that there will be no obvious or dramatic signing ceremony that will end terrorism. The violations are done mostly in secret, therefore we will need a thorough exposure, a truth and reconciliation commission, a Church Committee, which did an excellent job of documenting the abuses by government agencies led by the FBI, including military intelligence, the IRS, the NSA, and others from the ’50s to the ’70s. Violations are not currently seen as a systemic failure, although they are in fact the product of systemic failures.
- Go and play around with this “Society of 12″ website. It’s intriguing.
