Category: Uncategorized

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“If You Go Into Those Internet Worlds… That Will Drive You Off Your Rocker”

I don’t go on the Internet. I never go on the Internet. I don’t go on Twitter. I’m not on Facebook. I’ve seen friends go into dark, dark holes of sadness because of that. Frankly, I don’t have the time or the attention span for it. I would rather go to a movie with my free time than be on the Internet. To me the computer is still where I type my script and that’s it. My whole thing about Facebook is I don’t understand, you have email. Friends are like, “Yeah, but I want to send you pictures of my kids.” And I’m like, “I don’t want pictures of your kids! I don’t want to see what your children look like, ever.” I don’t care about that. I just want to send you a nice message saying, “Hey, want to have dinner on Friday?” and I would like you to respond. That’s all I want! My life is very simple.The thing is, if you go into those Internet worlds, if you’re going to believe the good feedback, you have to believe the bad feedback, and that will drive you off your rocker. If you don’t internally have a feel for the show and have a feel for what you like and where you want to go, then you shouldn’t be doing the show. You can’t look for people to vindicate you, or then when the people go, “You actually suck,” you’re going to sit there and go, “Yeah, I actually suck.” And I’m really not emotionally stable enough for that. I cannot hang with that.

That’s Amy Sherman-Palladino, creator of Gilmore Girls and the sneaky-secret show of the summer, Bunheads, talking.

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“?”

Having one of those busy days, again: re-writing my Time story for tomorrow in addition to posts for SpinOff Online, Robot 6, Newsarama (seven posts for them today; thankfully, they’re short), Comics Alliance and Digital Trends means that I am keeping myself busier than the average bear, which means I am sadly ignoring this blog. More later, if I have the chance, or tomorrow if I don’t, I promise.

(Image from Uncanny X-Men Annual #14, by Chris Claremont, Art Adams and a whole host of inkers – I have no idea which one of the five listed in the credits for this issue actually did this panel – with colors by Brad Vancata.)

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Eat Hot Logo, Nort Scum!

I’ve been re-reading a lot of 2000AD recently, and something that’s caught my eye as much as the thrill-power of the individual strips is the design that’s on show. The above logo, for example, isn’t the kind of thing that necessarily works in every possible outlet, but… there’s something really great in a classic 1980s fashion about it, right…?

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“A Cold Manila Fist That Closed Around My Fragile Hopes”

My art school rejection letter arrived as a cold manila fist that closed around my fragile hopes. When I closed my eyes, I saw the little animation from my TV favorite The Prisoner; Patrick McGoohan’s scowling Buddha face inflating to fill the screen before two iron gates closed across it, eternally barring his escape. I imagined the walls of my room extending to the infinite horizon.

From Grant Morrison’s Supergods.

I remember being rejected from Glasgow School of Art, a year before I got accepted to Grays School of Art in Aberdeen; I’m not sure that my mind invoked The Prisoner (Although I had just recently discovered that show, and become a fan), but the sense of frustration and hopelessness in the (melodramatic) passage above definitely seems very familiar to me.

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Under The Unfinished Westway

Huh, interesting. William Orbit – fast becoming a Blur spoiler fan-favorite after working with the band on new material and then being dumped when they didn’t like the results – has released an earlier version of “Under The Westway” on YouTube:

It sounds unfinished and far less interesting/epic than the finished version, and I find myself amazingly grateful they didn’t go with this direction, but what’s really fascinating is an entire middle section that was dropped from the song as officially released (1:52-3:30) that’s… actually the best part of this version, and something that I almost wish had made it into the finished take. If nothing else, the bit about “On Friday night/In public houses/We are wonderful/Pathetic or just/Plain gone” is a lovely intro into the “It’s magic arrows hitting the bull!” part at the end…

(Now I’m very curious about what other bits have disappeared from familiar songs that I’d love. That box set filled with demos and unreleased material keeps tempting, dammit…)

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“Success Is Very Fragile”

It’s easy to get excited and arrogant when things are going well but it is important to remember that success is very fragile.  Digg sold for $500K after being worth $200 million just a few years ago. In the same time period, RIM, maker of the Blackberry, lost 95% (!) of its value.  There is continual disruption in our industry and you are likely to fail if you get complacent or stop evolving.

From an internal email sent by CEO Jonah Peretti to BuzzFeed employees celebrating the company’s current success.

The Internet is a shark.

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“Because Escape is Unthinkable and Unwanted”

I was trying to explain this to a friend in email, and the only compact term I could come up with for what I’m talking about was “urban ennui.” Urban ennui is that feeling that arises when you’re caught between a city’s majesty and its dungeon. It’s the combination of pretending you’re sober enough to talk to a pretty girl on somebody’s balcony at midnight and curling into a fetal ball in your apartment because the pressure is too much a week later, and then doing it all again because escape is unthinkable and unwanted.

Seriously, there are times when David Brothers writes things and I want to shake my fist at the screen because he’s put it so well. Holy fuck, people; he’s an amazing writer.

(From here, all of which should be read.)