Wilmaaaaa!!!!!

Sometimes, I just can't resist a good old photoshop challenge, like this one from Mike over at Prog Ruin (...aaaahh, back in the 70s, now then they had blogs).


Laugh? I nearly did... Still I have learnt more about layers, and magic wands.

A spell in the National Service would sort them out, or; Ripped on Facist Ideas

So I read this article about filthy hippies, who should get their bloody hair cut, and get a bloody job, and then I realised that it would make a nice counterpoint to the fact that I saw everyone's favourite crypto-facist pre-apocalyptic wardeath fetish film "Who Dares Wins" last night:

In which Lewis Collins (the one out of The Professionals who 9 out of 10 people say they would rather be when asked "Who would you rather be, Bodie or Doyle out of the Professionals?" even though they can't remember which one's Bodie, and which one's Doyle) shoots a load of filthy communist hippies, or something.

And then I realised that it was almost possible to imagine V for Vendetta as a sequel of sorts to this. After all, both were produced at the same time, and both were very much born from the politics of the early 80s - it wasn't therefore much of a stretch of the imagination to picture Alan Moore's dystopian jackbooted vision of the future arising from a present like the one depicted in Who Dares Wins, especially with the triumphalism given to the SAS' defeat of the terrorists. All that would be needed would be a government dedicated to removing the terrorist threat, by declaring a "War on Terror" and then enacting extraordinary measures to control and monitor it's population, and then, ahhh, errr...

We are at war with Eurasia, and we have always been at war with Eurasia anyone?

An open letter on a slow news day

Dear The BBC,

I greatly enjoy the daily news digests you send me by email, seeing as how it allows me to keep up to date with goings on in the world, locally, politically and also in the sibling worlds of science and technology.

This however, not only is this is not news I could care less about, but more importantly, while yes, it could be considered to be a news story that is vaguely about technology (and that's being generous - but maybe it would fit better somewhere else), I would like it to be borne in mind that I would mostly like to be kept abreast of cutting edge technological developments that are going to change the shape of our world in years to come, not geeky neo-D&D shit like this.

Thank yor.


Currently listening to?

Specifically; The Flirtations ~ Nothing But a Heartache, and also:

Old CDs I know, but I just dug 'em off the shelf...

Quote of the day

Comes courtesy of the one Mr Warren Ellis, from his latest Bad Signal;

"if you honestly think a speculative fiction magazine shouldn't be attracting people interested in new ideas and new art, you're in the wrong business"

Referring of course to this and this.


He has a point of course, why else would Bruce Sterling write a column for Wired?

Or; is this indicative of a (further) split between the written and visual worlds of SF?

Or; is this why more SF and fantasy writers are starting to write comics?




Damn! Knew I should have just let the quote stand on its own...

Whose side are you... oh, just kill me already!

In anticipation of the coming war; the resurrection of a stupid idea that's past it's sell by date:


Many knew this day would come, but no-one would have believed the consequences. Prepare for the blogosphere to be torn apart, as the world finds out, who is the True King of Awesome?

Sims

versus

A Man in a Plaid Shirt

You decide...


I'm going to be banned from the internet forever because of this (and for using the word blogosphere) aren't I?

I'll Meme You. I'll Meme You Right in the Face!

Two "create your own dialogue" comic panel challenges I couldn't pass up:

One from Brandon
And one from Kevin.


hmmmm, do I do the self promotion thing?

How was everyone's weekend?

...and another (four) things

After completing that questionairre the other day, I found it kinda odd that there were no questions about music. Well. I did, I don't know about anyone else.

Bearing that in mind, here's four things I've bought and listened to recently. They are all good. I would advise listening to them all. And by listen I mean go out, find the albums, and purchase them from you local indie record store like I did.

So, what have you been listening to recently?