Arts-&-Literature

The Fashion SWAT review on Something Awful is all about bad comic character costumes this time. While I’m surprised they could stick to only a dozen, one has to appreciate that they manage to get two Rob Liefeld drawings in there. How to explain Liefeld…If, back in the 1990’s, you ever saw a comic book cover and went “What is that thing?!?”, only to realize it was supposed to be a human, that would be a Liefeld-influenced cover. His characters always seem to have lots of muscles where people simply don’t have muscles, as well as inch-wide veins that stick out all over them and upper bodies that would cause them to tip over easily. Check out his gallery for some good examples. Back then, he largely plied his trade for Marvel and Image Comics. ...

Personally I agree with at least one part of Marybeth Peters’ testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee: It is disturbing that there may be ties between terrorist organizations and copyright violators. I mean, after all, what if the terrorists get their hands on copies of Britney and Kevin: Chaotic and release it to the rest of the world? That will just make people hate America more. ;) Link courtesy of Corante, via Boing Boing ...

“My work guarantees me a place in the halls of the immortals, while you are simply destined for the dirt. Think on that.” Rokara Soh, Thanagarian See, this sort of thing is why it’s hard to like Thanagarians. They seem to have way too much self-esteem. Go Rann! ;) (Sometimes I wish I could talk like that, though…) Quote courtesy of The Absorbacon, which can’t help but pull for Thanagar, being their source of knowledge and all. ...

Frank Gorshin, who gave me the creeps as a kid when playing The Riddler on the 1960’s TV version of Batman, passed away on Tuesday. What I primarily remember about that show wasn’t the exaggerated wooden acting of Adam West…it was the sheer enthusiasm of the people playing the villains. They really made the show, and and I loved episodes with Gorshin playing the Riddler and Cesar Romero playing The Joker. (Hey, let’s play on a child’s natural fear of crazy, malicious people…and clowns!) ...

Darth Vader on Contractors: Due to the haste with which we are proceding through the latter phases of this battle-station’s construction we have been forced to employ scores of civilian contractors from across the galaxy in addition to our own Imperial Corps of Engineers. This had led to a certain clash of working cultures. For instance, this morning I critiqued a tragically sub-par piece of workmanship on a tractor-beam repulsolift inversion assembly by snapping the neck of the site supervisor and throwing his limp corpse down a disused elevator shaft. ...

Lorrie clued me into this one. Who Reads What? is a collection of relatively famous people talking about the books they like, going back to 1988. Interesting and eclectic group, currently ranging alphabetically from Bella Abzug to Barry Zito.

The eerie beauty of an abandoned Renaissance Faire. Great pictures. (Caveat: One picture of unidentified animal remains, in case you’re eating.) Link courtesy of White Noise

…as illustrated by gummi bears. Great pictures. Link courtesy of Boing Boing

Recommended: Kanye West’s Lyric “The Way School Need Teachers / The Way Kathie Lee Needed Regis / That’s the Way I Need Jesus,” Adapted for Other Religions by Martin Bell The Next Thing Said After Select Famous Phrases by Marc Tyler Nobleman Translated Thoughts and Questions That Are Running Through a North Korean Refugee’s Mind When He Is Awarded Political Asylum in the United States, Settles Down, Turns on the Television, and the First Thing He Sees Is a Fancy Feast Cat-Food Commercial by David Aldridge Implausible Claims Made by Vanilla Ice in His 1990 No. 1 Hit “Ice Ice Baby” by Doug Erickson 2008 Presidential Stump Speech of Billy Bush, Cousin of George W. Bush and Access Hollywood Entertainment Reporter by Teddy Wayne

“Vin Diesel does not own a television. Instead, he derives entertainment by routinely opening the Ark of the Covenant.” “Vin Diesel created South North Korea by drawing a line of chalk 10 miles away from the DMZ and daring anyone to step across.” “Vin Diesel and Casper Van Dien are actually a superhero team that only fights crime in Toledo, Ohio, between 1:33pm and 4:39pm. Only 5 people in the free world know the reason for this.” ...