This is the best image I have seen today:
In the spirit of this image, if you leave a comment, I will respond with your very own set of free instructions.
Author: Alasdair
Links For Monday 29th June 2009
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Shit, I may have to go and see this movie, if only to determine if this review is the touch of genius I suspect it is.
Links For Friday 26th June 2009
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Not a topic I have a hugely vested interest in, being unlikely to marry or spawn, but it's a handy reminder of how Tory social policy is 100% arse backwards. "We must fix our ailing society, by doing things that any idiot can see will only make it worse". Genuine question: in what situation is be conservative (the ideology, not the party) social policy a good idea? Society moves forward – why is attempting to hold it back good or useful?
Michael Jackson: A quick poll
I have no particular axe to grind here, I’m just curious about something. According to my LJ profile page, there are 284 people who read my journal. Allowing for people who won’t see this because they have filtered me away for doing nothing but posting links, dead journals, people who have lives and don’t compulsively read LJ and people who just can’t be arsed filling in a one question poll, I figure this give me a potential respondent pool of up to three people, which is enough to at least satisfy my curiosity.
See, I know a lot of people who will chin strokingly talk about Jackson’s impact on pop music and how “he may have been a bit of a freak but those first two albums…” (I include myself in this number), and my friends list today is full of tasteless jokes, grief stricken comment, and other responses to his death but I don’t know how many of those commenting actually own any of his albums, and as I say I’m curious:
NB: if you own more than one copy of an album for some reason, please only count that album once.
It Is New Emusic Day
Which is always a happy occasion. Because I am a smug bastard, on a very old price plan that I have stubbornly refused to change because they don’t offer anything like it at the moment, I get 65 tracks a month for a tenner.
But still: I like to use Emusic for getting exciting new music. Because I’m paying anyway, I figure I might as well use it to get new stuff.
So, if you’re of a mind, recommend me stuff I won’t have heard of. I’m not genre picky, so go for anything. (If you’ve got the time and inclination to check it’s available on there, that would be ace.) But please: take the time to tell me why the artists in question are ace, and pick out some tracks you particularly think I should check out – if I get enough interesting recommendation, I may just grab a few tracks per artists this month, and then grab albums in future months…
Go! Tell me of your modern music!
Links For Thursday 25th June 2009
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On the one hand, my heart goes out to her and her family. On the other hand her condition could radically transform our understanding of the ageing process, which could be a game-changer….
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Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a horrifyingly accurate psychological portrait of Kieron Gillen, acclaimed author of Phonogram and Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter. Warning: not suitable for children, those of a nervous disposition, or really, anyone.
Links For Wednesday 24th June 2009
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Not intrinsically riveting, but it's one of those product design ideas that you see and think "how has no-one come up with that before", that reminds us that even they every day things we take for granted were designed by someone, and I like that sort of thing. I hope the inventor becomes very rich.
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It's an idea I have a certain in built resistance to – I'm against anything that might make internet access more expensive (not for selfish reasons, but because I genuinely think that it's the great enabling technology of our time, and everyone should have access to it, and basically that avoiding a digital divide is going to be vital to a fair future), but I can't deny that I also think we need to ensure that our creative/broadcast industries are well supported.
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Something of a companion to that Thea Gilmore link from the other day – another approach to stepping around labels and the traditional economics of the music industry. Does require a slightly rabid fanbase and a willingness to be very public and interactive, so it's not exactly going to help bands that are just starting out, but still…
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It's an exaggeration to say that this single comic is responsible for DC Vertigo, and the entire notion of doing comics for grown ups. But it definitely helped a very great deal. It's a masterclass both in horror storytelling, and in taking an old concept and rebooting it in a completely new light, and is basically bloody superb. If for some reason you haven't read it before you can now do so for free online. Go. Read.
Links For Tuesday 23rd June 2009
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Steve Bissette offers a behind the scenes look at the creation of the first issue of Alan Moore's industry-changing run on Swamp Thing, only recently reprinted for the first time.
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I am very very occasionally asked why I'm not on The V (an old internet hangout) these days. I can't imagine my presence is terribly missed, but Dave has thrown up a summary of the board that he found somewhere (either on the board itself, or on some kind of nerd forum review site, I guess) that has rather set me to thinking about on-line communities, why I basically don't participate in them any more despite having spent a significant chunk of my 20s in one forum or another, and what I think they lack, and it's a topic I wouldn't mind writing something longer about in the near future, so I'm just bookmarking the summary as a useful starting point.
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Thea Gilmore's new idea for a music business model. I'll be interested to see if it takes off. And if I have the spare cash, I might well sign up.
Links For Monday 22nd June 2009
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In short: the hippies and perverts are taking over. (Well done, the hippies and perverts.) Although I am rather laughing at the woman who "works with the Morrigan" and doesn't "target people in [her] spells". Is she talking about the same Morrigan that I'm thinking of – goddess of War or at least of generally being In Fucking Charge? Surely they'd be kind of all about targeting people. I'd hate to be the one trying to hold *that* back. Still, I suppose it's further proof that whatever their denomination, British people prefer their religion to be about tea and scones and jam than whatever their actual gods might have had to say on the matter.
Links For Sunday 21st June 2009
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I'm just, y'know, saying.