Category: Random

Scott McCloud, godlike genius behind Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics has a particularly well developed web-presence, my favourite part of which (found via haddock.org) is the Giant-Size Choose Your Own Carl.

So I decided (inspired by Jason‘s third birthday to have a roam through his archives. Of all the entries, this one has had most impact on me so far. This is exactly where I feel myself to be at the moment. “Two or three weeks off to walk the earth.”

Courtesy of idiote.org: A song in french about plastic bags – a song with a startling hidden meaning.

Matt has taken Metafilter down for the weekend to do some maintenance and hardware / software improvements. But he hasn’t just thrown up a ‘closed’ or ‘under construction’ page – instead he’s taken the opportunity to celebrate Two Years of Metafilter.

8.30pm Friday: Yesterday evening I was travelling up the escalator in Maida Vale tube on my way home. Halfway up, I felt this strange sensation – as if some force behind me was gently pushing me faster than everyone else. For a fraction of a second, I didn’t know what was happening, but then the escalator gently slid to a halt. Like a car braking suddenly and its passengers being thrust forwards, my feeling had been the consequence of a sudden deceleration rather than a speeding-up. This has never happened to me on an escalator before. And it suddenly got me thinking about the sensation associated with things ending or breaking. Maybe there’s always a sensation of oneself moving forward – a positive feeling of individual movement, or progress – in the moment when the rest of the world suddenly slows and stops.

8.30am Saturday: Despite being awake until 3.30 am in the morning, I rise early when the postman arrives. There’s a letter from AOL in the post rejecting me for the role of Broadband Producer. I am surprised by how disappointed I am. I have several potential job opportunities around at the moment, but none excited me anywhere near as much as this one. It seemed to me something I could get passionate about – something exciting that I could excel at.

I’ve been investigating Q4music.com’s guide to (and reviews of) my favourite ever band: The Pixies [Reviews: Come On Pilgrim | Surfer Rosa | Doolittle | Bossanova | Trompe Le Monde | Death To The Pixies | At The BBC | Complete B-sides].

Now I’ve never been much of a one for Robbie Williams. I mean the man’s a laugh, and it’s good to finally have some pop stars with a sense of humour and some style, even as the manufactured groups get more and more overt and trashy. But I think I could assert that I’ve never really found him attractive. Until that is I saw him this morning in a few sketches he’s done for Comic Relief. Based on the Ted and Ralph characters from The Fast Show (and more than a little based upon Scudder from Maurice), I present for you – uncut half-naked Robbie digging holes.

Here’s an interesting exercise – Mo Morgan is donating £1 to Comic Relief for every page impression that his weblog gets today. Join me in my question to bankrupt him, by visiting his site immediately.

Mark becomes the second weblogger to move his writing into the source-code. Could this be the future? Endless rows of blank-pages, updated two or three times a day with invisible content? Quick, InvestoBoy – to the Businessplanmobile…

There’s a redesign over at sourground.co.uk that is kind of what I was trying to do with the blue design of plasticbag.org – only, you know, sourground actually works. I’m endebted to the site for another reason – it pointed me towards dreamline.nu – an unofficial fan site for the works of Dave McKean – an artist who often produces the covers for the higher class of comic books.