On HU
Featured Archive Post Kathryn Van Arondonk on metaness and Fringe.
Me on Ke$ha and the new man of rock (massive comments thread featuring Charles Reece.)
James Romberger interviews Tom Kaczynski.
RM Rhodes on Ted White’s year as editor of Heavy Metal in 1980.
Joy Delyria on how Captain America is real (plus fan art by my son.)
Isaac Butler on reality, torture, and Zero Dark Thirty.
music sharing post featuring Miranda Lambert’s “Me And Your Cigarettes.”
Utilitarians Everywhere
At Reason I’ve got a piece on public diplomacy and advertising imperialism.
This week at the Atlantic I wrote about:
—Superman, Orson Scott Card, and the KKK.
—Star Wars’ timid approach to gender.
—The awesome eco-apocalypse metal of Botanist.
—Boring parenting stories and some that are less boring.
This week at Splice Today I wrote about:
—Whatever happened to Brooke Valentine.
—Why liberals should learn to love the sequester. (It’s because we hate America.)
And as a bonus, I join the long list of people who have been trolled by Jpod.
Other Links
7 Miles a Second by David Wojnarowicz, James Romberger, and Marguerite Van Cook was at number 5 on the NYT best selling graphic novels list.
Dan Kois on the morality of tilting your seat in an airplane.
Mary McCarthy on how her vagina hates spin class.
This Week’s Reading
I reread D.M. Thomas’ “The White Hotel”, which I think I liked even more this time round. (Has anyone ever read anything else by him?) Started Ursula K. Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness (also a reread from long ago.)
Current reading and watching:
Finished the Royal Spyness series. Cozies are just so weird, as I am continually reminded. This one has lots to say about the class system, but I find the actual heroine/hero pair pretty bad at solving mysteries.
Reread Heaven, Texas an old favorite. I had two snow days (14″!) and wanted something to go with hot cocoa.
I’ve been doing fiber arts all week, art-wise, in preparation to returning to work on Sekrit Project for HU. Think I have mastered the skill needed.
I’m considering a reread of Tenant of Wildfell Hall in the hopes of tempting others to read it, too. Maybe if I make a mini-comic….
read:
Othello; The Sub: A Study in Witchcraft (Disch); God in the Age of Science?: A Critique of Religious Reason (Philipse).
comics:
Dance ’till Tomorrow vol.1 (Naoki Yamamoto); Niji Iro Togarashi vol.1 (Mitsuru Adachi); The New Sun (Taro Yashima).
watched:
Shanghai Blues (Tsui Hark); Somewhere in the Night (cheesy amnesia noir by Joseph Mankiewicz); The Killers (1946); Mutiny on the Bounty (1935); Mr. Thank You; The Missouri Breaks; The Crimson Pirate; Pather Panchali; Three Colors: Red; All the King’s Men; Little Caesar; Fallen Angels (Wong); Playtime; Ace in the Hole.
Ace in the Hole is so good. Shockingly cynical even by Billy Wilder’s standards.
I read 81 blog comments about a film I will never see, and Bang bang clang clang and Baby Plays Pat-Pat, like, a million times each. Also the 2nd vol. of Tales Designed to Thrizzle; Kupperman has become such a lazy draughtsman that I couldn’t enjoy much of it. The guy looks worse now than Tom Tomorrow.
I read the fourth volume of Kaoru Mori’s A Bride’s Story, which is a series that I am starting to love dearly. I decided to start reading One Piece, so I plowed through the first three volumes in an afternoon, and I’ll be reading more soon. I don’t think I’m up for 60 volumes (or however long the series is; it’s still going strong), but I expect I’ll get through a bunch, especially considering how quick it reads. It did get me in the mood for manga comedy, so I’m also reading the second volume of Akira Toriyama’s Dr. Slump. I thought the first volume was pretty hilarious when I read it a while back, but I think diminishing returns are setting in, since it’s starting to seem pretty childish. It’s still pretty funny, but I’m thinking I won’t need to read any more after this. And then I’ll have to see what other funny manga I’ve got laying around in my to-read pile; maybe Ranma 1/2, Cromartie High School, Iron Wok Jan, or whatever.
Movies: I watched Premium Rush, the Joseph Gordon-Levitt bicycle messenger action movie, which was enjoyable. I especially liked Michael Shannon as the villain; that guy is great.
TV: I’m enjoying the new FX series The Americans, which is about some Soviet spies operating in the US in the early 80s, posing as a married couple (with kids who don’t know their real identities) and dealing with various matters of Cold War intrigue, like having an FBI agent living next door (oh, snap!). It’s been pretty good so far.
Reading Moorcock’s Elric series for the first time (pro drugs!), Adam Winkler’s Gun Fight (pro guns!) and a collection of X-men comics just before Neal Adams came on (pro Steranko!).
Matt: As funny manga, I can recommend Cromartie, Detroit Metal City, Octopus Girl, Bakune Young and Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga — probably in that order. (Bakune Young is great, but not solely a comedy).
Jones: “I read 81 blog comments about a film I will never see”
On top of that you counted them!…
“Ace in the Hole is so good. Shockingly cynical even by Billy Wilder’s standards.”
I would ammend “so good” to pretty good, if only because the ending with Kirk Douglas walking heaving out ironic messages left and right felt like melodramatic flailing to me. I rate Sunset Blvd. the highest of Wilder’s stuff I’ve seen.
As for humor manga I’ll second Bakune Young and Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga (and while we’re mentioning Pulp titles will add Dance till Tomorrow). I also agree about Dr. Slump wearing kind of thin after a while, it’s better to read it incrementally. Early Dragon Ball holds up pretty well though. Also, has anyone else read the gag manga Anywhere But Here (Miki Tori)? That’s one of my favorite things Fantagraphics has published in the last 10 years or so but it hardly ever gets mentioned… Didn’t finish the first volume of Octopus Girl for some reason.
Oh yeah and a while ago I noticed the Highland Park public library has what looks like a complete run of Ranma 1/2, keep meaning to re-read that.