davextreme

Two Quotes About How Artists Make Money

2011-02-01T15:36:00.001-05:00

We have to be very clever about those things. You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.

This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?

In the old days, 200 years ago, if you were a composer, the only way you could make money was to travel with the orchestra and be the conductor, because then you’d be paid as a musician. There was no recording. There were no record royalties. So I would say, “Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money.” Because there are ways around it.

Mick Jagger, a few months ago:

The rise of illegal file sharing and the correspondingly steep worldwide decline in CD sales have made these tough times for record companies and recording artists alike. But the Rolling Stones continue to do very nicely, thank you. This is partly because what remains of the market for CDs is dominated by baby boomers the Stones’ demographic and partly because Jagger, together with his recently retired financial adviser, Prince Rupert Loewenstein, has been exceptionally wily about exploiting other revenue streams. “There was a window in the 120 years of the record business where performers made loads and loads of money out of records,” Jagger says. “But it was a very small window say, 15 years between 1975 and 1990.” Touring is now the most lucrative part of the band’s business. (The Bigger Bang tour, from 2005 to 2007, raked in $558 million, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time.) The band has also been ahead of the curve in recruiting sponsors, selling song rights and flogging merchandise. “The Stones carry no Woodstockesque, antibusiness baggage,” Andy Serwer noted approvingly back in 2002 in Fortune magazine. Indeed. Their most recent merchandising innovations include a range of “as worn by” apparel, replicating garments that individual band members sported back in the ’70s. (“It’s a very nice schmatte, actually,” Jagger comments.)

Transit Music

2011-01-31T16:27:00.001-05:00

MTA.ME turns the NY subway into a string instrument.

And, worth a relink, SolarBeat does likewise with our solar system, and Birds on the Wires with birds.

The Cars the Transformers Were Based On

2011-01-27T14:49:00.000-05:00

Original Image from carinsurance.org

(via)

Realtime Traffic

2011-01-27T14:08:00.000-05:00

Whenever there’s a big storm like yesterday’s that shuts down traffic in the area, I think about James Surowiecki’s Wisdom of the Crowds. In it, Surowiecki attempts to describe how groups of people can work together well and arrive at very precise solutions to problems, and why they often don’t. The basic problem with traffic jams is that there’s no way for people to share information easily. If a certain road is blocked (and this probably isn’t relevant for giant snowstorms when every road is blocked) there’s often no way to know not to go near that road until you’re stuck on it. The ideal solution would be one in which a large proportion of cars on the road all used GPS units for directions which could report instantly on traffic issues. If cars in one area weren’t moving, those cars’ GPS computers could tell others cars in the area to take alternate routes until the congestion cleared, spreading the traffic out to other routes that made the most sense for where that particular driver was going.

The Washington Post writes today about a system that does this sort of thing.

The Newman Sinclair

2011-01-27T12:51:00.000-05:00

There’s a part in A Clockwork Orange where Alex (Malcolm McDowell) jumps out of a window. The shot is done from his point of view as he falls. I’d heard before that Stanley Kubrick accomplished this by dropping a camera, but not this:

We bought an old Newman Sinclair clockwork mechanism camera (no pun intended) for £50. It’s a beautiful camera and it’s built like a battleship. We made a number of polystyrene boxes which gave about eighteen inches of protection around the camera, and cut out a slice for the lens. We then threw the camera off a roof. In order to get it to land lens first, we had to do this six times and the camera survived all six drops.

—Interviews with Stanley Kubrick

Six takes!

493 Pokemons Drawn As Anime Girls

2011-01-25T15:46:00.001-05:00

493 Pokemons Drawn As Anime Girls

Wow. Thanks, internet. (via)

OAuth Will Murder Your Children

2011-01-25T15:26:00.001-05:00

OAuth Will Murder Your Children

Good suggestion for improving all those “such and such application wants access” pages on Twitter and Facebook. I should be able to decide whether an app can merely access my information or also update/edit it.

London Intrusion

2011-01-24T12:05:00.000-05:00

China Miéville has, so far, published four pages of a comic he’s written on his blog. (via)

In Nuclear Silos, Death Wears a Snuggie

2011-01-24T09:50:00.000-05:00

Fascinating article on what it’s actually like to serve in a nuclear silo. You spend years preparing to be ready for a launch order that never comes.

In four years on nuclear-alert duty, I ran through an infinite number of attack sequences and fought countless virtual nuclear wars. I knew how to target my missiles within minutes and launch them within seconds. The process was rigorous, thorough and fully governed by a checklist that was, to our knowledge, without defect. The room for human error was minimal.

But that training was about as exciting as the job got, a blessing considering the mission. Being a missileer means that your worst enemy is boredom. No battlefield heroism, no medals to be won. The duty is seen today as a dull anachronism.

“In Nuclear Silos, Death Wears a Snuggie,” by John Noonan

The First Decade of the Future Is Behind Us

2011-01-13T20:23:00.000-05:00

Fun Discover article about how sci-fi life is now compared to even fifteen years ago. I admit that after having an iPhone for over three years, it still seems like a Star Trek gadget to me sometimes. (via)

Doctor Who Theme in Mario Paint

2011-01-12T10:01:00.000-05:00

“This video is bigger on the inside.”

I used to love Mario Paint. (via)

Hobbit Meals

2011-01-11T14:35:00.000-05:00

What do you eat when you watch the extended versions of all three Lord of the Rings movies? The Alamo Drafthouse served up an eight-course meal during its LOTR marathon, including First Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevensies and Coney Stew.

io9 has photos of the event, including the full menu.

When our daughter was born we joked that since babies eat every three hours, we should refer to her meals like hobbits do. After a small bit of research we found that hobbits regularly eat these seven meals:

First Breakfast
Second Breakfast
Elevenses
Luncheon
Tea
Dinner
Supper

Turns out that winds up being fewer meals than a newborn baby needs. Even if you eat supper late at, say, nine, there’s no name for the midnight and 3:00 AM feedings.

Brand New on the Nationals' Slight Rebranding

2011-01-10T09:25:00.000-05:00

There is a New “W” in Town”

I like the change to script for the wording but do think it looks a bit generic baseball. Also the “O” looks too much like the Orioles’ “O”.

Todd Alcott on The Shining

2011-01-07T12:03:00.000-05:00

Screenwriter Todd Alcott’s seven-part series on The Shining: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Lots of great insight into the film, its structure, and who the actual protagonist is. I hadn’t heard this one:

One of my favorite factoids regarding the movie is that Kubrick didn’t just have a ream of “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” typed up, no — he had reams and reams typed up, in different languages, one for every major territory the movie would play in — Spanish, Italian, French, German, etc., all with a regional phrase specific to the territory. Production Assistant on a Kubrick movie must have been the worst job available in show business.

(via)

Batmobile History

2011-01-06T16:55:00.000-05:00

The Evolution of the Batmobile. I’ll always have a soft spot for the 60s TV show convertible. (via)

Covers

2011-01-06T16:33:00.002-05:00

I did not know that They Might Be Giants’s “Istanbul” is a cover. This page has some other that are, too.

Flex Mentallo to be Republished in Fall 2011

2011-01-04T11:44:00.001-05:00

DC has just announced that Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Flex Mentallo will finally be collected and published as a deluxe hardcover in the fall:

If youre a fan of Grant Morrison (and who isnt?), youll be stoked to know that FLEX MENTALLO will be published in book form this year. This marks the first time the four-issue mini-series written by Morrison and illustrated by artist Frank Quitely is being collected. FLEX MENTALLO sprang out of Grants mind bending and infamous run on DOOM PATROL.

Pick up this beautiful Deluxe Edition hardcover with bonus material this Fall.

The story was one of the first collaborations between Morrison and Quitely but has never been republished due to a lawsuit by Charles Atlas Ltd. Flex Mentallo’s origin story is a parody of Atlas’s famous “The Insult That Made a Man Out of Mac” ad that ran in comics in the 60s and 70s, and the character bears an undeniable resemblance to Atlas (c.f. the photo of Atlas in this article and the pinup of Flex Mentallo in this one). The case was dismissed but DC decided not to reprint the series, until today. (More info on the case, including Jim Shooter’s afadavit, here, and on its decision not to reprint it here.)

Flex Mentallo is important not just because it’s an early collaboration between Morrison and Quitely, who’d go on to reinvent the X-Men, Superman, and Batman, but because it is an amazing commentary on comics themselves and states many of the themes of fiction vs. reality that Morrison has continued to play with subsequently. It takes a tour of comics from their fun origins through the zany silver age to the dark 80s and toward Morrison’s idea of the future of comics, which he’s attempted to realize in his Batman work and others. Many have called it one of the greatest short comics series ever published, up there with Watchmen. Greg Burgas takes a stab at explaining why here.

The real question, since I own the original copies (and even had them bound into a hardcover), is whether I’ll need to buy the series again in this deluxe format with bonus material. (Answer: yes.)

Generic Dr Pepper

2011-01-04T10:41:00.000-05:00

Here’s a list, with screenshots, of tons of generic Dr Pepper drinks. I know I’ve had Dr. Perky before. I feel like I’m duty-bound to seek out some Dr Extreme at some point. On that topic, I’m totally craving some Dr Pepper with sugar now. Here’s a roundup of the retro can designs from last fall’s batch. (via)

Sixties Seventies

2011-01-03T20:54:00.000-05:00

Sixties Seventies is a gorgeous collection of models from that era sporting miniskirts, bellbottoms, boots, and more. (via)

Law and the Multiverse

2011-01-03T11:40:00.000-05:00

Law and the Multiverse examines how superhero (and villain) activities and powers would work legally. It looks at issues like anti-mutant discrimination, whether Iron Man would run afoul of the FAA when he flies in his suit (vs. a hero who can fly without one), the legal ethics of sentencing an immortal villain to life without parole, and so on. I recommend checking it out.

I think it falls a bit short, though, in its strict focus on applying the laws of our world to fictitious ones. Marvel’s Civil War, for example, is predicated on the idea that Marvel’s US legal system has adapted its laws to account for superpowered individuals. It’s likely that laws have been adjusted to allow for, say, evidence obtained by Batman to be presented in court. Otherwise either every criminal could demand to be set free because the chain was tainted, or conversely dirty cops could constantly lose evidence (or plant it) and claim a vigilante had messed with the scene. (via)

What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2011?

2011-01-02T22:29:00.005-05:00

Current US law extends copyright protections for 70 years from the date of the authors death. (Corporate works-for-hire are copyrighted for 95 years.) But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years (an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years). Under those laws, works published in 1954 would be passing into the public domain on January 1, 2011.

What might you be able to read or print online, quote as much as you want, or translate, republish or make a play or a movie from?

And here's a list of the authors whose works did enter public domain this weekend.

The Rules for Long S

2011-01-02T12:55:00.000-05:00

The rules for uſing the long letter “s” in older Engliſh works.

Neptune's Year

2011-01-02T11:09:00.000-05:00

On July 12 of this year, Neptune will complete its first transit around the sun since its discovery in 1846. A Neptunian year is 164 Earth years.

Books I Read in 2010

2010-12-31T22:47:00.000-05:00

Riding the Metro to work typically affords me 20-30 minutes each way for reading. It’s something I really like about commuting via public transportation. This year was not typical, though, as I spent most of it working from home part-time and looking after the baby. With no commute and no lunch breaks it felt like I didn’t have much time for reading, yet I managed to get through sixteen books.

I think World War Z was probably my favorite of the year, though the Stieg Larssons were a lot of fun. I read the two James Bond books on a short holiday in Florida over the summer and like them quite a lot. Outliers was filled with interesting tidbits but I found Blink to be overrated. Our Sentence is Up required a complete reread of The Invisibles, which took some time but I think I finally have a handle on that series now.

In order by author:

F/X Porn

2010-12-27T01:02:00.000-05:00

What’s the difference between a Hollywood special-effects blockbuster like “Terminator 2” and a hard-core porn film? Very little, claims novelist, essayist and footnote fetishist David Foster Wallace.

—F/X Porn

[As a rule I dislike the use of “(blank) Porn” (e.g. “Torture Porn”) but I’ll let it slide here because this was written over a decade ago and by DFW.]

Home 3-D Is DOA: Majority of U.S. Won’t Buy a 3DTV

2010-12-23T11:22:00.000-05:00

[O]nly 3 percent of [American] consumers surveyed said they would definitely buy a 3DTV over the next year, with an additional 3 percent saying they probably will buy one.

—GigaOM

Count me among the 90+% who isn’t interested in 3D TV.

Absolutely Epic 1974 Letter From Cleveland Browns to a Fan | '64 and Counting: Scene's Sports Blog

2010-12-23T08:16:00.000-05:00

Predictions for 2020: Comics

2010-12-20T18:04:00.000-05:00

In the next decade, younger comics writers and artists will come of age and break into the mainstream publishers. They’ll have grown up reading 90s stories and the Gambit, X-Force, Venom/Carnage era of Marvel will see a resurgence.

Digital will continue to get more popular, but maybe not from DC and Marvel. As big companies they’re naturally more skittish, while Dark Horse and smaller companies will be more creative. The iPad’s screen size and dimensions lends itself more easily to manga-sized comics, so expect to see that slightly smaller form factor catch on with direct-to-digital offerings. In general I don’t see print dying out until digital offers an equally-compelling product, which won’t happen as long as they’re merely shrinking existing art down by 25%.

IBM and the Jeopardy Challenge

2010-12-18T09:14:00.000-05:00

IBM and the Jeopardy Challenge (via)

Running iTunes Media on an External Drive

2010-12-17T13:51:00.000-05:00

Since cancelling my cable account, I’ve been watching the vast majority of my television over-the-air (recorded on a TiVo), but there are some cable shows I can’t miss (e.g. Mad Men, Futurama, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Doctor Who), so I’ve been buying those from iTunes and watching them on an Apple TV. As a result, I quickly filled up my laptop’s hard drive. I bought a large external drive and moved my iTunes Media folder to it, but there were a few problems. iTunes doesn’t like being launched if the external drive isn’t attached, and if you try to sync an iPhone while the drive isn’t mounted, it’ll think that you have no music in your library and wipe the phone clean. Annoying. Here are the two changes I made to fix this:

I connected my iPhone to the computer (with the external drive mounted) and unchecked the box on the summary page in iTunes that makes iTunes automatically launch when that phone is connected. Now it won’t try to sync when it won’t be able to find the media it needs, but I do have to remember to manually press the “sync” button after I plug it in.
To keep myself from trying to open iTunes when the drive isn’t attached, I made a simple AppleScript application:
```
tell application "iTunes"
    activate
end tell
```

I saved the script as an application on the external drive, gave it iTunes’s icon and dragged it to my Dock in place of iTunes. If the drive is attached, it’ll speed up and then launch iTunes. If it’s not attached, the Dock won’t be able to find to app, so iTunes won’t load. The result is that I can’t ever accidentally launch iTunes without having the drive with all my files on it mounted.

This problem is likely to get worse as Apple transitions to using only flash memory in its laptops, which is much more expensive in larger storage sizes. Traditional hard drives are just getting to the point where one can fit a terabyte or two into a laptop, which is what you need if you’re going to store video. There’s continuing speculation that Apple will start an iTunes streaming service so that one doesn’t have to store one’s videos locally, but until then, this is the approach I have to use.

The Suits of James Bond

2010-12-13T15:00:00.001-05:00

The Suits of James Bond

Classic Doctor Who on Netflix Instant Queue

2010-12-10T14:50:00.000-05:00

Here is a great list of all of the classic Doctor Who DVDs that Netflix has in their proper chronological order. Below I’ll list just the ones that you can watch instantly as of today. No guarantee they won’t add more or remove these in the future, of course.

I don’t know why the DVDs that are available to stream were chosen and not others. Many of the ones I understand to be the essential stories are DVD-only. Of those that can be streamed, all but the Sixth and Eighth Doctors are represented (though Eight only appeared once, anyway).

It should be said that Doctor Who is not a terribly continuity-driven show. There’s no need at all to start at the beginning. The series since 2005 stands alone very nicely, and I certainly recommend starting with the newer series first before going back to watch the older episodes. Season five (the most recent) is a great jumping-on point if you don’t want to go back to season one (though you should!). Here are the newer seasons on Netflix:

Season five isn’t streaming yet, but it just came out on DVD so there might be a waiting period. There was an almost two-year break between seasons four and five, so the four special episodes (The Next Doctor through The End of Time) fill that gap and are crucial to the development of the Tenth Doctor’s character.

Apple Asked to Pay Up for Network Improvement as Operators Face Data Flood

2010-12-08T14:07:00.000-05:00

Apple Asked to Pay Up for Network Improvement as Operators Face Data Flood

I’ve read similar things about cable companies asking Netflix for money. It seems like they want the money to come from the wrong direction. If I’m using too much bandwidth watching movies on Netflix, shouldn’t they charge me, not Netflix?

The Triumph of Intellect and Romance Over Brute Force and Cynicism

2010-12-03T12:18:00.000-05:00

Craig Ferguson did a Doctor Who episode a few weeks ago. It started with him looking glum saying that he’d choreographed a dance routine set to the Doctor Who theme music but wasn’t allowed to show it because of right issues. At the time I thought it was a joke, that is, he was saying he’d choreographed this great dance number but really hadn’t. Yesterday the actual footage made its way onto YouTube. You can also watch the whole episode here, or just the opening on CBS’s site. I’m curious to see if CBS rotates the video off its site before it asks YouTube to take its copy down. (via)

This YouTube video of every Doctor Who title sequence is fairly interesting to watch as well. The theme, written in 1963, is one of the first examples of electronic music used on television. I love how each incarnation of the show puts its own spin on the music, and how you can clearly see the era each comes from just by the style of its titles.

Close the Washington Monument

2010-12-02T12:24:00.000-05:00

Bruce Schneier:

Securing the Washington Monument from terrorism has turned out to be a surprisingly difficult job. The concrete fence around the building protects it from attacking vehicles, but there’s no visually appealing way to house the airport-level security mechanisms the National Park Service has decided are a must for visitors. It is considering several options, but I think we should close the monument entirely. Let it stand, empty and inaccessible, as a monument to our fears.

The whole piece, which he published in New York Daily News, is great. It’s a fact of life that doing practically anything, from eating buttered toast to getting into a car is dangerous, but you gotta leave the house.

Death by a Thousand Cuts

2010-11-30T22:43:00.000-05:00

In his October 2004 address to the American people, bin Laden noted that the 9/11 attacks cost al Qaeda only a fraction of the damage inflicted upon the United States. “Al Qaeda spent $500,000 on the event,” he said, “while America in the incident and its aftermath lost — according to the lowest estimates — more than $500 billion, meaning that every dollar of al Qaeda defeated a million dollars.”

Al Queda doesn’t have to do much to make us do a lot.

Death by a Thousand Cuts - By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross | Foreign Policy

127 Hours

2010-11-30T20:11:00.000-05:00

And that’s why you always leave a note.

—J. Walter Weatherman

I’ve been a fan of Danny Boyle’s films since Trainspotting, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go see 127 Hours. A movie based on the true story of a hiker who gets trapped under a rock and has to cut off his own arm? Wouldn’t that be unbearable to watch? Turns out, yes and no.

Honestly, if you’re squeamish, you can still watch this movie. The whole thing is tense, but it only gets really bad for about two minutes. If you’re worried you can’t take the arm-cutting, here’s my advice: after about an hour and fifteen minutes, he realizes what he has to do. The scene starts with him breaking his own arm. When that happens, leave the theater for three minutes, then come back. You’ll be fine and he’ll be free.

I stayed, and it was an overwhelming but rewarding experience. When he finally gets free, my heart rate was elevated and I took a bunch of hurried breaths to release the tension. It’s amazing what James Franco pulls off, doing a whole movie stuck in what looks like a tiny chasm. He has to carry the film single handedly, so to speak, and does.

April 11, 1954

2010-11-28T08:19:00.000-05:00

Every day something of significance happens, a person is born who is destined for fame, there is an event in the arts or sports, history is created. With 300 million of these facts fed into the “brain” of True Knowledge, Tunstall-Pedoe’s Cambridge company, the computer was asked: “What was the most boring day in the 20th century?”

April 11, 1954, apparently.

Christmas Playlist 2010

2010-11-25T21:13:00.000-05:00

I’ve been very carefully building a Christmas playlist for the past few years. I only add one song a year, and I only listen to the songs on the list between Thanksgiving and the Epiphany. There are now ten songs on the list.

“The Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues
“Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Judy Garland
“Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon
“White Christmas” by Bing Crosby
“Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” by Dean Martin
(New) “The Christmas Song” by Nat “King” Cole
“Baby It’s Cold Outside” by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan
“Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy” by David Bowie & Bing Crosby
“Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade

Previously

Apple Makes Find My iPhone Free

2010-11-22T08:47:00.000-05:00

Macworld reports that the “Find My iPhone” service will be free for all iOS 4.2 users starting today. “Find My iPhone” lets you locate your iPhone from any Web browser or iOS device in case your phone is lost or stolen, or you want to track your spouse/children.

Schneier on Backscatter X-Ray Machines

2010-11-19T11:53:00.000-05:00

Security expert Bruce Schneier has posted a great roundup of links to news stories and studies about the use of x-ray backscatter machines in airports.

Personally I do sympathize with the TSA’s charge to protect us from planes getting blown up or hijacked but think these machines go over the line. Here’s my simple test: imagine that instead of using these machines to take a naked x-ray picture of you, the TSA required you to step behind a screen and undress in front of one of their agents while they take your picture (which they claim they won’t retain).

I think we’d be far safer spending the $300-400 million we spent on these scanners to instead hire air marshals. As Schneier points out, the shoe and underwear bombers were caught by humans noticing something wrong, not machines.

Meanwhile in the TARDIS

2010-11-12T21:23:00.000-05:00

Two excellent deleted scenes from the most recent season of Doctor Who. (via)

Eat a Bagel, Lose Your Baby

2010-11-11T15:28:00.000-05:00

The ACLU of Pennsylvania recently filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of a couple whose newborn baby was kidnapped by Lawrence County Children and Youth Services (LCCYS) because her mother recklessly consumed an “everything” bagel from Dunkin’ Donuts the day before the birth. Jameson Hospital, where Isabella Rodriguez was born on April 27, has a policy of testing expectant mothers’ urine for illegal drugs and reporting positive results to LCCYS, even without any additional evidence that the baby is in danger of neglect or abuse. LCCYS, in turn, has a policy of seizing such babies from their homes based on nothing more than the test result. Unfortunately for Isabella’s parents, Elizabeth Mort and Alex Rodriguez, Jameson sets the cutoff level for its opiate test so low that it can be triggered by poppy seeds, which is why two caseworkers and two Neshannock Township police officers visited their home the day after baby and mother returned from the hospital. LCCYS seized the three-day-old girl and put her in foster care for five days before conceding it had made a mistake.

Eat a Bagel, Lose Your Baby - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine. My memory of when Mythbusters tested this is that they found even a few bites of something with poppy seeds will set off a drug test. (via)

What The Old Timers Used To Call Cabin Fever

2010-11-10T21:32:00.000-05:00

From left to right, every costume change Jack makes in The Shining.

The Washington Post for iPad

2010-11-10T07:53:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post App for iPad (iTunes link)

I’ve used this a bit in the past few days and like it a lot. It feels snappier than The New York Times’s iPad app. I find it easy to browse through the sections and read stories I’m interested in. Easier than using the webpage.

A few niggles:

I think prefer pagination to scrolling for long articles on the iPad (as opposed to on the Web), but here I don’t mind it much.
They’ve locked out copy and paste, which is silly.
The ever-present ad bar at the bottom seems like wasted space. Maybe the ads could float in/around the articles instead? Worse is the floating social media bar thing. It’s a lot of pixels at the bottom of the page I’m just ignoring. It’s early, though. Maybe they’ll make good use of it.

Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale

2010-11-09T15:28:00.001-05:00

This is it. I can feel it. It’s okay. We each get to be in the world a time, and I’ve had mine. It can be tough. It can be ugly. But I’m grateful for the journey and what I’ve stumbled across along the way.

As it was cancelled long before its time, there are many stories that Joss Whedon never got to tell in Firefly. The film cleans up the main River Tam plot, but the character of Shepherd Book never got a chance to have his story told. In this new hardcover from Dark Horse Books, Zack Whedon tells Book’s tale from outlines by brother Joss, with art by Chris Samnee.

The story starts with what could be a deleted scene from Serenity and then flashes back to glimpses of Book’s life. We see some of his time at the abbey and some of his much-speculated career as a soldier. There’s a nice twist at just the right place, precisely as I was worrying, “this is it? The big secret is that he used to be a soldier?”

The graphic novel’s plot structure reminds me of Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. Both books start at the end and work their way back in time through embedded flashbacks. It’s a neat format that works nicely here and makes great use of the sort of overlapping narration Scott McCloud talks about in Understanding Comics, where the dialogue from the previous scene carries over to a panel in a different time/place, creating a contrast between the two settings. I don’t know that Whedon was thinking of The Gunslinger when he structured the story this way (he probably would have mentioned it in the backmatter along with the other influences he references), but I’ve always felt the same gritty, western feel in both the Dark Tower and Serenity ’verses.

While I enjoyed the book, reading it made me sad that the series ended so early. That Joss Whedon decided to disclose Shepherd Book’s backstory serves as further proof that no new movies are coming. I recommend The Shepherd’s Tale to anyone who loved Firefly and is curious about Book’s history, or just wants to revisit the trappings of the series for a few minutes. Amazon has it on sale for $9 and I would expect to see Dark Horse put out an iPad version as well.

I'm Here

2010-11-09T12:36:00.000-05:00

I’m Here is a brilliant, stylish short film by Spike Jonze. I highly recommend you take twenty minutes and watch it.

This is the sort of thing the internet makes great. Short films are hard to get in front of people because networks don’t run them and they don’t fill seats in movie theaters, but you can put them online and people can watch them. I question the decision to build the whole site in Flash, though. Wouldn’t it be better to offer a download so people can watch it on their iPod or stream it to their TV?

Thirty-Five Images of Space Helmet Reflections

2010-11-09T10:42:00.000-05:00

from 3 Ton Gallery

Suggested Real Name: Katherine "Kitty" Pryde

2010-11-08T14:32:00.000-05:00

Letters of Note publishes the pitch page for Kitty Pryde from 1978.

Jamie Hewlett Illustrates "Common People"

2010-11-08T13:14:00.000-05:00

Eight page comic of Pulp’s Common People by Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl, Gorillaz).

The Walking Dead Google Map

2010-11-07T06:50:00.000-05:00

I read The Walking Dead in hardcover, so I’m always about a year behind. Thus, this map has spoilers in it, but if you just look at it zoomed out you get a general idea of the landscape. It starts in Kentucky and moves to Atlanta.

Daring Fireball: Going Flash-Free on Mac OS X, and How to Cheat When You Need It

2010-11-04T20:41:00.001-04:00

Daring Fireball: Going Flash-Free on Mac OS X, and How to Cheat When You Need It

The Single Weirdest Thing in the Batcave

2010-11-04T16:31:00.000-04:00

I’m pretty sure that this is the single weirdest thing in the Batcave. And considering it’s only two doors down from a robotic tyrannosaurus, that’s saying something.

—The Weirdest Thing in the Batcave: Batman’s Truth Chamber - ComicsAlliance | Comics culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

Batman & Robin 16

2010-11-04T08:40:00.000-04:00

It is worth noting that the way this finale plays out only underscores how unnecessary and fabricated the recent Bruce Wayne: The Road Home issues truly were, as if that wasn’t already readily apparent from those forgettable one-shots. It doesn’t take a close reading of this issue to realize none of the events of The Road Home fit logically within the confines of Morrison’s story.

—Batman and Robin #16 Review - Comics Review at IGN

Grant Morrison on the Logo Design for Batman & Robin

2010-11-02T08:52:00.000-04:00

Click through for more.

Kubrick

2010-10-30T21:23:00.001-04:00

Tony Frewin and Leon Vitali, who’d been working as Stanley’s assistants for years, said there was a staff joke about the one phrase you would never hear at Childwick Bury, and a week after Stanley’s death someone actually said it to them. It went, “Use your own judgment, and don’t bother me with the details.” His concerns ran from the ethereal-aesthetic through the technical to the crudely logistical, no detail too prosaic, all the way down to stationery and paper clips.

—“Kubrick” from Vanity Fair

Gamble a Stamp 03

2010-10-25T08:05:00.000-04:00

[The Dark Knight Returns] is the blaze of glory. It’s a revitalization before death. Watchmen is the autopsy. At the end, there are no secrets. What’s Flex Mentallo? It’s a wake, that time when everyone gets together, gets drunk, and talks about the deceased.

—Gamble a Stamp 03: Superhero Comics Are Dead

Cablevision

2010-10-21T23:27:00.000-04:00

Last summer, as we were considering whether to drop cable, I drew up a list of all the shows we watched that were available over the air versus only on cable networks. In our case, the balance was about 80/20. The more I thought about that, the more I resented that I 80% of the money I was paying Comcast was going to them to just repackage shows that are available over free, public airwaves. The current fight Fox and Cablevision are having is funny to me, in this light. If you’re in New York, you’re paying Cablevision to not give you a channel you could be getting for free.

Big Networks Block Web Shows From Google TV

2010-10-21T23:22:00.000-04:00

I just love it. So predictable.

A Few Quick Observations about FaceTime on the Mac

2010-10-20T17:56:00.000-04:00

Yes, you can FaceTime yourself from your iPhone.
Yes, it makes neat echos if you point the phone at the Mac.
FaceTime on your Mac will ring even if you don’t have the app running.
I don’t see a way. but it would be great if you could link your phone number and your email address so that people will reach you wherever.

2010-10-18T17:12:00.000-04:00

Tina Fey Signed Copy of “Going Rogue” by Sarah Palin

The Road Home

2010-10-15T13:39:00.000-04:00

I’m not reading any of DC’s “Bruce Wayne: The Road Home” books. Here’s Brian Hibbs writing about how poorly-produced the specials were:

[I]nstead of being “one shots,” as their solicitation text describes, the final product turns out to effectively be an eight-issue miniseries, with each one-shot being released with “to be continued in…” the next “one shot.” Naturally, someone messes up the production and at least one of the books “points” to the wrong “next” title. And let’s not forget to mention that the eight covers link up to form a single image – but that that image is neither the order of release, nor of reading order.

Mad Men Theme Song With a Twist

2010-10-12T17:54:00.000-04:00

Bizarre thing I didn’t expect to find: Brian Williams’s daughter singing Nat King Cole’s “Nature Boy” to the tune of the Mad Men theme.

Robot Cars

2010-10-09T22:54:00.000-04:00

Engineers at Google have developed and tested in actual traffic a car that drives itself. Eventually it seems like we pebbly will be able to build cars that can drive themselves more safely than we can. But surely they’ll still crash sometimes, right? How will we deal with that? Psychologically I’d think it would be totally different to blame an AI for a loved one’s death than another human.

On Treating Bone-itis

2010-10-07T13:30:00.000-04:00

Last month I was contacted by the National Bone Marrow Registry, which I signed up for in college. A 57-year-old male with cancer (aka “myelofibro myeloid metaplasia” aka “bone-itis”) needed a transplant and I was a likely donor candidate. I went in and submitted some blood for testing and found that, yes, I was a perfect match. A few weeks ago I went in for a physical to clear me for donation, and was scheduled to donate bone marrow in just over two weeks.

Today I was told that the patient was transferred to Hospice and not expected to make it. The donation has been cancelled.

It’s been an extremely emotional time for me. I’ve always heard that donating bone marrow is an extremely painful process. It turns out that there are two ways it can be harvested. One is through surgery, removing the marrow by drilling into the hip, and is quite painful. The other is by donating peripheral blood stem cells. This newer PBSC method involves taking a series of five injections of a drug called Filgrastin which would make my body create extra marrow and release it into the bloodstream. I’d then go in one day and sit in a chair for several hours while they pump out my blood, spin out the marrow in a centrifuge, and pump the plasma back in. Side effects of the drug range from mild discomfort to flu-like symptoms, headache, and bone pain.

It sounded better than surgery, but still wasn’t something I was looking forward to. But there was never a time when I was considering declining to donate marrow. I was given a chance to literally save someone’s life in exchange for a week of possible discomfort. The brochure said that being asked to be a donor can be emotionally trying. It’s certainly taken its toll on me. Reading through the list of possible side effects made my physically ill, and watching the video about the donation didn’t help. I had a feeling of, “why is this happening to me? Why do I have to go through this?” I started to feel better about the process when I went in for the screening physical and was told that most patients just feel a little lousy from the drug, take a steady dose of Tylenol, and then it’s over. Seeing how the procedure worked let me understand it, and being treated like a hero by the x-ray technician was an amazing feeling.

But now it’s all off, and this guy I’ve never met is going to die within two weeks of my being able to give him the marrow that may have saved his life. The registry rep said he likely wasn’t diagnosed in time. All that’s left is for me to say a prayer for him and his family.

Action Comics 893

2010-10-01T12:35:00.001-04:00

Lex Luthor!!! Kneel before Grodd! You have walked into my ambush! And I have brought my biggest combat spoon—to eat your tasty brains!!!

—Action Comics 893, by Paul Cornell and Sean Chen

Ambassador

2010-09-27T08:55:00.000-04:00

The United Nations has appointed Earth’s ambassador should aliens touch down in the near future.

—Meet Mazlan Othman, the United Nations ambassador to extraterrestrials

Gourmet Live and Rewarding Experiences

2010-09-24T23:13:00.000-04:00

The short version: Gourmet Live, the new iPad app that reimagines Gourmet as a sort of massively multiplayer magazine, is live. I’ve been working on this for the past six months, and I’m enormously proud of it.

—Anil Dash

Taylor vs. Risk

2010-09-24T17:22:00.000-04:00

I very much enjoyed Layer Tennis today.

George Lucas Stole Chewbacca, But It's Okay

2010-09-23T12:49:00.000-04:00

Fascinating, in-depth piece on where the ideas for Chewie came from and how the character developed through various drafts. I especially like the aside pointing out that Chewie really doesn’t do anything in any of the movies except add needed flair.

Mr. Frogger

2010-09-22T07:52:00.001-04:00

I was touring Steve’s Retro Room, and I leafed through his newly acquired collection of arcade cabinet marquees. I pulled this one out and felt a million guns of empathy shoot a million bullets of sadness and guilt right through my cerebro-arterial core.

Frogger was a regular guy on his way to work. Dear god.

—Neven Mrgan

Click through for the picture and the full story.

Buzz Anderson on Twitter and Why He Sold Birdfeed

2010-09-18T19:05:00.002-04:00

There are a lot of reasons I took the opportunity to sell Birdfeed when I did—the personal toll the bruising iPhone Twitter client market was taking on me, imminent financial concerns, the opportunity to be an early employee at Square—but without a doubt, my perception of an emerging, strong product direction at Twitter played a big part.

—Buzz Anderson

It’s silly to say, but I still miss using Birdfeed. Twitterrific works wondefully, but nothing quite has the elegance Birdfeed did.

Uniforms

2010-09-17T19:57:00.001-04:00

All of the 2010 MLB uniforms, pixel-style.

Twitter and RSS

2010-09-17T13:59:00.000-04:00

I’ve seen this quote by Dave Winer a few times today (in my RSS reader):

Why does Twitter work better for news than Google Reader? SImple, Twitter gives you what’s new now. You don’t have to hunt around to find the newest stuff. And it doesn’t waste your time by telling you how many unread items you have. Who cares.

Scripting News: How to reboot RSS

Me, I want to see almost no links on Twitter. For me, Twitter is for keeping up with people I want to keep up with, and by design it’s an on-the-go medium. If I’m checking my timeline waiting for a Metro train, I’m probably not ready to read a long article that might come in as a link, and I’ll probably forget to look at it later (though Instapaper helps with that). When I open up my RSS reader I know I’m going to find some things that I want to sit down and read. Blogs, Google Reader, Buzz, etc. are for sharing stuff. Twitter is for sharing thoughts.

Dalek Blueprints

2010-09-17T07:45:00.001-04:00

“The following images contain the blueprints for a Dalek.”

Eyehole Paintings

2010-09-16T11:43:00.001-04:00

Eyehole Paintings with Adam West

Soda Pop

2010-09-14T16:56:00.000-04:00

Neat short documentary about a store that only sells soda pop.

Language Log: More Pseudo-Latin Plurals

2010-09-13T18:25:00.001-04:00

Found when searching the plural of “omnibus” (which is apparenty already plural).

Roger Ebert Presents at the Movies

2010-09-10T16:17:00.001-04:00

“This is the rebirth of a dream,” said Ebert, who partnered in recent years with Richard Roeper before cancer robbed him of the ability to speak. He said he will act as co-producer and employ a computer voice to appear on every episode with segments titled Roger’s Office devoted to classic, overlooked and new films.

Chicago Sun-Times

Hugo Awards

2010-09-10T11:47:00.001-04:00

Moon, starring Sam Rockwell and directed by Duncan Jones, won this year’s Hugo for “Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form”. I recommend it highly. Here’s the Netflix link.

The Doctor Who episode “The Waters of Mars” won for short form, and was very good science fiction. All you need to know is that The Doctor is a time-traveller. Netflix link

I’ve also read China Miéville’s The City & the City. I liked it a lot but I think people expected something from him and were put off when it wasn’t weird enough.

Your Dalek Blueprints are Enclosed

2010-09-10T11:03:00.001-04:00

Greatest of All Time

2010-09-03T19:47:00.000-04:00

[Who's the highest-paid athlete of all time?](http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/roundtable/greatest-of-all-time.php)

Apple's Problem with TV

2010-09-02T16:54:00.000-04:00

John Siracusa, arguing that Apple should go all-in with a set-top box. Make it the only box you need in your media cabinet. Let it record TV, play DVDs, stream Netflix, and sell you iTunes stuff all in one interface.

Something you can watch for when Steve Jobs debuts products are cues that he personally doesn’t have a lot of passion for them. He knows lots of people play and care about games, but he doesn’t. Game Center is important to iPod owners and will help Apple sell to them, but Jobs clearly doesn’t have much enthusiasm for it in his talk. Compare the Game Center segment to any feature at all he talked about when he showed off the iPad for the first time.

Several years ago Apple released Keynote, which was later joined by Pages and Numbers as the iWork suite. Keynote was a program Apple designed specifically for Jobs because he so hated the existing presentation apps out there (that is, PowerPoint). When Jobs wants something, he has his team design the very best (in his eyes) version of it possible.

I really, really wonder what Steve Jobs’s home entertainment center looks like. Maybe he just has an Apple TV and watches pay-per-view movies on it. I’d think if it were the spaghetti mess of wires and boxes most of us have, it’d drive him crazy and he’d direct his engineers to solve the problem. Apple TV would truly be that one box to rule them all. How hard would it be to throw in a DVD slot and a DVR application? That Apple hasn’t is, just guessing here, because Jobs doesn’t watch much TV and isn’t a live sports fan.

JFK to Lyndon Johnson

2010-09-02T09:21:00.000-04:00

Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the moon, or by a rocket to go to the moon and back with a man. Is there any other space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win?

Letters of Note: Is there a space program which which we could win?

Posting to Google from NetNewsWire

2010-08-31T22:29:00.000-04:00

NetNewsWire, a superb free RSS reader for the Mac, syncs with Google Reader but doesn’t have a built-in way to share news items. I installed this AppleScript and used the Keyboard System Preference to set its keyboard shortcut to ⌥⌘S. That command normally invokes NetNewsWire’s “Add to Clippings” key, which I think really should be tied to Google Reader’s share feature. I also added “activate” before the last line of the script to bring Safari to the front when I share an item.

Top 10 Lost Technologies

2010-08-30T21:35:00.000-04:00

The world has never been more technologically advanced than it is now, but that doesn’t mean that some things haven’t been lost along the way. Many of the technologies, inventions, and manufacturing processes of antiquity have simply disappeared with the passage of time, while others are still not fully understood by modern day scientists. Some have since been rediscovered (indoor plumbing, road building), but many of the more mysterious lost technologies have gone on to become the stuff of legend. Here are ten famous examples.

Top 10 Lost Technologies

All Six Volumes of Scott Pilgrim Hit the iPad, iPhone

2010-08-11T08:41:00.000-04:00

Robot6 reports on the new standalone app.

The smaller manga size works perfectly on the iPad. I only got into Scott Pilgrim recently, in time for the last volume to come out, and it’s very fun.

God's Number is 20

2010-08-10T14:42:00.000-04:00

With about 35 CPU-years of idle computer time donated by Google, a team of researchers has essentially solved every position of the Rubik’s Cube, and shown that no position requires more than twenty moves.

Cube20

How Star Trek artists imagined the iPad... 23 years ago

2010-08-10T13:36:00.000-04:00

To understand the thinking that lead to the design of the Star Trek PADD, we spoke to some of the people involved in production of ST:TNG (as well as other Star Trek TV series and films), including Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda, and Doug Drexler.

Ars Technica

Sally Draper's 45s

2010-08-06T10:18:00.000-04:00

When Don Draper asks his secretary to buy his daughter some Beatles 45s, here’s what she likely picked up for Christmas 1964:

“I Feel Fine”/”She’s a Woman” came out November 27 of that year.
“A Hard Day’s Night”/”Things We Said Today”, July 10, 1964.
“Can’t Buy Me Love”/”You Can’t Do That”, March 20, 1964.

All are semi-early Beatles releases. The band was still in its early mod period, sporting what the early 60s would think of as long hair but would seem very short come St. Pepper’s full-on hippie look. They wouldn’t start experimenting with different sounds until “Rain” and Revolver in 1966.

The band was pumping out three records a year, and early on their single releases were not collected on the subsequent LPs, so there was a lot to keep up with for the early Beatles fan. Capitol Records, which distributed the band in the US, compiled the albums differently than the UK releases. With Help! in 1965 the releases started to sync up, but in 1964, if Sally had any LPs, she would have had titles like Meet the Beatles!, The Beatles’ Second Album, and Something New. A Hard Day’s Night came out with the film’s release in the late summer but had a slightly different track listing than the UK. Beatles ’65 was the most recent LP Sally could have gotten for Christmas that year, having hit the shelves on December 15.

Kier Dullea on 2001

2010-07-23T18:08:00.000-04:00

“You’ve just been offered the lead in Stanley Kubrick’s next film.”

Kier Dullea on 2001

Staff Writer Todd Levin on the End of Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show

2010-07-22T22:47:00.000-04:00

The next afternoon we had another staff meeting, presided over by a very different Conan. Yesterday’s Conan was an immovable object. Today’s Conan looked drained. He entered the studio unceremoniously, dressed in a leather jacket and baseball hat—like someone getting ready to leave—then slumped into the guest couch and fixed his gaze on the far wall as he addressed us, never really making eye contact. It was a sight that shook your faith a little, like seeing your dad on crutches.

Doctor Who on Netflix

2010-07-22T11:02:00.000-04:00

Netflix has four seasons of Doctor Who available on its Instant Queue streaming, except for three specials that they only have on DVD. To watch everything in the right order:

Watch the first three seasons.
After season three, you’ll need to watch the Christmas special “Voyage of the Damned” on DVD, then season four.
After season four, watch “The Next Doctor” and “Planet of the Dead” on Instant Queue, then get the DVDs for “The Waters of Mars” and “The End of Time”.

Then, while you’re waiting for season five to come out (it’s airing now), you can watch three streaming seasons of spin-off Torchwood. The other spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures, isn’t available for streaming as of now.

I’m woefully late to the party on Doctor Who. It definitely has some cheesy sci-fi stuff in there that you’ll either love or have to get past, but when it’s on, it’s absolutely fantastic. I think it’s very well served by the BBC’s shorter season length. US series like Flashforward suffer from having to fill twenty-something episodes. Doctor Who, with only thirteen episodes, can have a few one-off shows and slowly build it’s season-long story without too much filler.

Update 12/16/10: All of the specials are now streaming. Here’s more info on classic Who.

A Brief History of The Knight and Squire

2010-07-14T18:39:00.000-04:00

That sounds awesome, and not just because Cornell’s idea of a “realistic take on British super-heroics” involves Dracula shooting vampires at England from his castle on the moon before getting into his magic space pirate ship.

A Brief History of The Knight and Squire

Prefer Standard Definition Videos on iPhone 4

2010-07-08T22:16:00.001-04:00

The new iPhone 4 can play high definition video, but with a 3.5″ screen, you probably won’t notice the difference. On the “Summary” tab in iTunes you can tell it to sync the standard definition copies of videos if you have them. Anything you buy in iTunes that’s HD comes with an SD copy, too.

6 Things From History Everyone Pictures Incorrectly

2010-07-07T07:57:00.000-04:00

[S]ince the Pyramids were the tombs of the pharaohs, they made sure they were the biggest, most sparkly things of all. The original outside consisted of smooth, white limestone that hid the layers of brick, giving the effect that a pyramid was one giant solid piece.

6 Things From History Everyone Pictures Incorrectly

iPad and Kindle Reading Speeds

2010-07-05T19:16:00.000-04:00

A study of people reading long-form text on tablets finds higher reading speeds than in the past, but they’re still slower than reading print.

iPad and Kindle Reading Speeds

Temporary Costumes

2010-06-30T10:46:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I think they redesign iconic characters just so, years later, you’re rereading a book and think, “oh yeah, they did that dumb thing for a while”. Morrison had to deal with electric blue Superman in the first bit of his JLA. Civil War has the Iron Spidey suit in it. Now Wonder Woman.

Gay Comics: Young Avengers and Batwoman

2010-06-24T19:22:00.000-04:00

With a new volume of Young Avengers around the corner, I wanted to go back and look at that series again. What I’ve always loved about that book was how writer Allan Heinberg managed to make all of its characters seem like real people. In 2006 GLAAD honored the series for its depiction of the relationship between male characters Wiccan and Hulkling. Similarly, GLAAD awarded Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III for their work on Batwoman in Detective Comics last year. I lent my copies of both series to Red Fuzzy Jesus’s Gabriel Hudson and this week we chatted about homosexuality in comics.

Before we get into the characters’ sexuality, how did you feel about the stories overall?

I like both story lines a lot. I do not have nearly as much experience reading comics as you so I was a little surprised by some of the storytelling. Mainly I was impressed by how well emotion and character development can be conveyed through very concise dialogue. I think in both instances there’s a lot of assumed back-story or familiarity with the characters that I lacked. But, without exposition, I was able to pick up and follow along pretty quickly.

Young Avengers I think is a bit less standalone than Batwoman, who is an almost brand new character at this point. She was created in 2006 in a comic called 52 and had almost no appearances between then and this run of Detective Comics. As Batwoman she’s kidnapped by a cult and stabbed, which is referenced in Detective Comics. Her appearances as Kate Kane in 52 were as the rich ex-girlfriend of Renee Montoya. The first scene was a fancy dress party so the initial impression she gave was as a lipstick lesbian. Still, her debut got a small bit of mainstream press attention (with headlines like “Holy Lesbian, Batman!”) and the rumor was always that DC Comics got cold feet about how to use a gay character and shelved her for three years.

Both stories allude to gay criticism by the public and press. There’s a brief discussion of changing Asgardian’s name to Wiccan to avoid providing the press with an automatic joke. [“Ass-Guardian”] There’s also disapproval of Kate at a ball when she wears a tuxedo. Her line about taking criticism in stride refers to her character and the inevitable criticism of having gay characters.

However, that criticism was slight at best. Focus on the Family and Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute made harsh criticisms about the “homosexual agenda” finding a new pop culture vessel. But otherwise there was not much hysteria. This is another sign that gay people have moved toward greater acceptance. A gay character provokes more of a yawn than an outcry. Still, the direct address of criticism acknowledges its potential. The authors seems to be recognizing that there are people out there that may have a problem but their scorn is not factoring heavily into their decision making.

Writer Greg Rucka made a point of underplaying her sexuality in interviews. One quote:

Yes, she’s a lesbian. She’s also a redhead. It is an element of her character. It is not her character.

Reading the first few issues of the story, I had the feeling, though, that he was almost over-underplaying her sexuality, like he had something to prove. He makes it a point to show guitars and music posters in her house, to display her menorah. Like he’s saying, “there’s more to this character, I swear!”

It could be that he was just delaying her sexuality… because it’s featured more prominently later on. I think the comparison to straight characters is fair here. Some comic book characters are immediately introduced as ladies’ men (Tony Stark) or awkward around girls (Peter Parker) but for most their romantic side stories develop later. It could just be that he was establishing other things about her character first the way other superheroes are established before their attractions are introduced. That doesn’t necessarily indicate cold feet about including a lesbian storyline, just a hesitance to kick it off by announcing her lesbianism, which is a good use of restraint.

As the second story arc comes along, Rucka brings her sexuality to the front, in the present with her dancing with Captain Sawyer and in the past with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. How did you feel about the flashback sequences with her at West Point?

I think it’s interesting how hard she tries to be a “legitimate” hero. By that, I mean, she doesn’t start out trying to help people with vigilante activities. She wants a career in the military. But, she is faced with the impossible choice of denying who she is and hurting others. This eventually leads her to vigilante justice because she cannot deny who she is for a career.

I think this part of the story rings particularly true. For the most part, arguments against DADT have been phrased as counterarguments toward attacks on gays that have limited direct applicability to the military. But there have been fewer affirmative arguments in favor of repeal. Lately, military leaders testifying before Congress and in other venues have argued in favor of honor and integrity; two qualities long associated with military service. It is unfair to ask military members to sneak around, to call their partners “roommates”, and live double lives. The choice between a life of service and a life of honor is an unfair choice to be imposed.

Similarly, outside the military, many LGBT people find themselves in the gay catch-22. One is simultaneously condemned for not participating in institutions from which there is exclusion. Often, anti-gay groups deride the gay community universally as promiscuous and insincere about relationships. They then turn around and use the purported promiscuity to support bans on same-sex marriage. It is contradictory to criticize people for not mirroring relationships they are told they cannot have.

Today’s younger gays see long-term, committed relationships as an option for them in adulthood previous generations did not perceive. So they are “free” to pursue the typical heterosexual norm. As a result, the stereotype of the back alley gay man is fading away. In the same way, had Kate seen a military career as an option she might have gone on to achieve a high rank and legitimate heroism. Likewise, it is unfair for the military, police, or Kate’s military father to criticize her vigilantism because she’s told legitimate service is not an option. Fortunately, her father eventually came around to support what she was trying to do.

Yet Kate, in putting on a mask every night, is quite literally hiding part of who she is from the world.

With good reason. If she didn’t wear a disguise she could easily be harmed in her regular life. Or worse, those close to her that lack super powers could be harmed as a way of getting back at her. So, there’s a practical concern behind wearing a mask.

Gay people still face something similar. As much progress as we’ve made, there are still many situations in which it is not safe to come out. And safe is not put in quotations there because it really is a question of harm. Gay people used to be asked whether they were out or not. Now, more commonly, they are asked how out they are. Meaning, there are varying degrees of disclosure. A person might be out among close friends but not out at work. A person might be out to some relatives but not others.

And there is real harm at stake. Losing a job or being denied a promotion is harm. And as tolerant as many people profess to be, there’s a more subtle exclusion from the old boys network or male bonding rituals in professional life that need to be considered. A lot of what contributes to career progress is collegial relationship building with superiors. Coming out can inhibit that. Also, gay people have to be concerned if their kids will be made fun of at school or if their parents will be embarrassed in their community. This is similar to the concern superheroes have for the well being of those around them.

Much has been made about the volume of gay men in white collar executive or artistic positions. Some have suggested that whatever predisposes one to be gay also endows them with the qualities necessary for professional work, or deprives them of whatever is necessary for manual labor. Others hypothesize that, because gay men do not have families to support, they are freer to focus on careers and climb the corporate ladder more quickly. I think a more reasonable conclusion might be that there are more gay men in white collar and arts-based professions because it is safer to be out in those lines of work. It is easier for a gay man to be out as an attorney than a construction worker.

Acceptance of gay people, while not universal, is a lot more common now than just a few years ago. For that reason, shame or social rejection is not enough to keep most in the closet. If one is rejected by friends and family there is enough of a supportive environment out there to minimize the hurt of rejection. What keeps many GLBT in the closet now, even partially, is real, measurable, demonstrable harm. It’s the same thing that keeps the mask on Batwoman. She’s out to some. Her dad knows her full identity. But, there’s still too much risk to be completely unmasked. As much progress as we’ve made, there is still a risk to being out that has to be calculated. And, for each gay person that calculation is varied and personal. That’s why I don’t like forced outings by the politically opportunistic. You never know what harm you may be causing to someone by revealing things about there identity. This is true even if you believe the world would be a better place if all gay people were out.

Turning to Young Avengers, we see the younger generation in Billy and Teddy’s relationship. Kate faced real adversity because of her sexuality, giving up a promising career as an Army cadet. Billy and Teddy come out to their friends and parents are immediately accepted. Do you think it’s more common now for teenagers to be able to admit their sexual orientation, or even be able to have it figured out by high school?

Oh absolutely! It’s a fairly new phenomenon but for many gay people adolescence now occurs during adolescence. For so long people typically didn’t realize they were gay, or couldn’t tell anyone until their late 20s. Now it is more and more common for young people to come out and for their friends and family to be supportive. When I read the scene in which Billy and Teddy discuss whether they should tell their parents about their super-heroism, and are subsequently affirmed in their relationship, it was moving.

I’ve had several conversations with gay friends in which there are two coming out stories, the real event and the fantasy. Often, the latter is more detailed. People really do dream about their family meeting their partners or their parents not just being tersely accepting but celebrating in their gay child finding love. I can’t help thinking that the author of this storyline has a lot of familiarity with the gay experience.

The best news is, the story had resonance because it’s actually happening. Parents often know their kids are gay before their kids tell them. And when they do, it’s a chance to build the relationship, not destroy it.

Sometimes GLAAD will give recognition for just showing up. Inclusion of a gay character is enough. But I think we’re to the point where there needs to be more. Giving characters dimensionality or mirroring actual changes in the gay community is praiseworthy. There’s a new gay narrative being written and it’s refreshing to see that narrative appearing in a medium marketed almost exclusively to young men.

Right. Comics tend to be filled with women in tight-fitting costumes posed in impossible contortions. I don’t know how much you ever played XBOX live games, but you can’t go five minutes without someone calling you a “faggot” over voice chat. It’s not the most progressive community and comics are filled with ads for video games.

That’s what makes it even braver. Immediately adjacent to the coming out scene between Teddy and Billy there’s an ad for Bod Body Spray that shows a cartoon guy with women swooning around him. I’ve always thought that gay rights would reach an apex when professional male athletes felt comfortable being gay. This is close to that. A publication, with very masculine advertising, has young gay men being close and expressing their love for each other.

I wasn’t as surprised by Batwoman. She’s a lesbian but she’s also hot with a skin tight costume and giant breasts. Lesbianism can easily be folded into a male fantasy world. Your average sorority girl can become a lesbian after a few shots but it’s mostly for the entertainment and pleasure of men. For two male characters to be gay in a male dominated medium is quite progressive. Acceptance has been a double-edged sword for gay men. On one hand, people are more comfortable with a gay man being around. But on the other, they require him to be sassy, funny, or flamboyant. It is for this reason I never considered Will & Grace a big step forward. It was gay men on prime time network TV but it was the type of gay court jester that’s easier to swallow. A heroic, competent, complex gay man is still a rare thing to see.

I should also note the dimensionality of these characters. I would similarly not be surprised if two gay men in a comic book flitted around fulfilling every type of swishy, prissy stereotype. But these young men are masculine. They literally engage in acts of heroism. They’re tough and they know how to fight. They just happen to be gay. The dimensionality within their individual characters and their relationship belies the usual treatment of gay men when straight men are present.

Yeah, both Billy and Teddy are drawn in sports jerseys at different times. It’s not like Kurt on Glee who’s always wearing ascots and talking about his skincare routine (though I think that show has done a good job with his relationship with his father).

A few weeks ago I saw a sketch on The Soup in which a woman wants to find a “real man” i.e., not gay. I know it’s just a silly sketch but it caused me to think inside, “I am a real man!” Gay men sometimes have to remind people that they can be fully capable leaders and gay. These characters do that well. They are guys. They just happen to love other guys.

And fight crime! Despite their secret origins Batwoman, Wiccan, and Hulkling are all typical superheroes, complete with tragic origins. The Batman books practically require a hero to have dead parents, and Billy was bullied as a kid, making him want to protect others. And many in our society still think homosexuality is a result/response to abuse.

That is an unfortunate misconception that has stuck around. Many profess a supposed link between childhood trauma—sexual or not—and being gay or lesbian. Opponents of gay rights use this to undergird arguments claiming gayness is not an identity trait but a defect. Returning to the topic of DADT, that has been an argument out there that the presence of same-sex attraction is evidence of damage making one disqualified from military service. It is surprising today that that kind of thinking still gets any traction.

However, gay people can have a good deal of trauma. Whether it’s getting bullied in school, familial rejection, or just a generalized feeling of being different, there are some common developmental experiences. At the beginning of the Young Avengers series I assumed the shape shifter might be gay because he talked about being different and wanting to pass as one of the guys in the locker room.

Superheroes also have a common theme of trauma in youth. Bruce Wayne’s parents are gunned down in front of him. Peter Parker’s uncle is killed by the assailant he could have stopped. And these traumas are instrumental in their new identities as superheroes. But, these traumas did not make them superheroes. A bite from a radioactive spider or a toxic spill or something else gives the hero his or her powers. The trauma usually inspires what they do with those powers. Batman, Spider-Man, and others want to fight crime because they are familiar with the pain it causes.

In the same way, childhood trauma doesn’t make a person gay. But it can shape how one handles it. Many gay people empathize with other outsiders and outcasts because they know the pain of rejection. In Billy’s story, he accepts his bullying and learns to live in quiet avoidance until he sees someone else being bullied. His decision to use his powers to help others comes after he recognizes his pain in another. Many gay people live similar lives until they see someone else trapped in a closet. It was an open secret for years that Rosie O’Donnell was gay. But she didn’t officially come out publicly until she identified with a pair of adoptive parents in Florida forced to live in the closet or risk losing their children. The trauma is not what makes the superhero. Likewise, the trauma is not the cause of gayness but it can lengthen the road to personal acceptance and inspire many to activism.

DC iPad App

2010-06-23T08:41:00.001-04:00

Following up from last week, DC Comics has now released its own iPhone/iPad app, also powered by comiXology (iTunes Link). Newsarama has the full list of its launch titles.

Recommendations:

All-Star Superman
Green Lantern
Batman starting with 655
Action Comics starting with 844
Tiny Titans, especially for kids
Sandman
Planetary