Just picked this up from the post office today before it closed for xmas.

Originally, I thought this one was sold out and it surprised me when they were not. And I should say that this picture in particular is an inspiration for something I have been working on.

Check out his other work for sale here.

They have been sourcing funds through IndieGoGo. They recently achieved their initial funding goal, but that does not mean that you miss out on pre-ordering a copy for yourself and/or gaining an additional perk with enough support.

These people have heaps of talent and I’m waiting out to see what they have in store for us. There site is here The books won’t be released until March 2012. So I guess, I’ve got to be patient.

(Art by Sam Cavanagh (twitter))

Everything about the design of this site, and its seemingly endless catalogue of seemingly-endless-looping gif images, speak volumes to me. A click of a button will send you in a random direction to things that built memes and to the nostalgia of when you first discovered a looping gif in an email or on the forum wall. Stay for a couple of minutes and soon you will realise that an hour passed. Addiction at its Finest couldn’t be more apt.

This still haunts me.

Archive Team
Remember GeoCities. Probably not. It used to host around 7 million sites and 38 million pages, most of them dating back to a time when the internet was mostly dial-up and Hackers was considered a current release (and when Angelina Jolie was such a tomboy). Anyway, its funny how things turn out, because back in 2009, Yahoo turned off the servers that held GeoCities. Yahoo had no plans on keeping backups or archives. To a number of people, including the volunteers of Archive Team, this was pretty much the equivalent to travelling back in time and burning down the Library of Alexandria.

Archive Team were the ones that raced to download all of the GeoCities sites they could and then a year later, they torrented all 640Gb of it.

Jason Scott is the face of Archive Team I know of, this is his blog. Earlier this month, Jason presented a speech at DefCon19

Today I received two letters addressed to the Portrait Gallery. Not addressed to the Portrait Gallery with my post box number on it, but something like:

Important Person’s Name Here
National Portrait Gallery
Portrait Gallery Address

Weirdness prevails I suppose. But I also received two parcels. First of all is this:

I meant to announce this earlier, but I was on the road in Melbourne with my family. And an internet connection was not reliable either.

Long story short, Bizoo was a zine that started up in my hometown. It was born out of a vacuum of youth culture and lack of a music and arts scene in that town. It ran for five years and then shut its doors forever. Of course six years on now, the long awaited, somewhat highly anticipated final issue is here. It’s about the same dimensions as the original zine, but is damned thick and contains the best (and possibly worst) stories the zine offered in it’s half-decade span.

I spent a couple of months helping out with the editing, giving feedback and the general opinion of the outsider. It was fun actually reading a stack of other people’s work and helped improve the way I write.

There are two final and very important facts about this book. Firstly, the Bizoo comittee decided to make the book carbon neutral, so the paper its printed on is recycled and didn’t add to pollution/global warming/azathoth’s growing power. Secondly, the book is free. When Dr Jerm mentioned this to me months ago, it made me pull a double-take. The pages aren’t numbered, but it feels around in the 96-120 page range. And its free. The Bizoo crew are planning a tour to launch the book around the country. You can get more details from them here

Also almost forgot to mention: the coverart is by Sam McKenzie. Big fan of his stuff.

Next item is this

The SVK Comic. I’m still not entirely sure what SVK stands for (though I remember something like “So Very Kafka”), but its a Warren Ellis, D’Isreali comic, which is nice to see them together. Last time I remember those two on the same front page was Lazarus Churchyard. And that’s something I’m still jealous of my brother owning and not me.

Anyway, there is one important thing about this comic. Each issue came bagged with a little UV torch. The reason was this: the comic has two printed layer on each page. One is that which you see with your eyes. The other is printing in an ink that is revealed by shining the UV torch at it. It reveal the underlying thoughts and motives behind the characters, along with, I imagine, the invisible “data noise” which is become thicker as we drive towards denser wireless coverage. The torches were designed by BERG

Either way, both look like exciting reads.

If We Don’t, Remember Me.

Like all good tumblr sites, IWD,RM is cinematic hauntology. Perfectly picked scenes from films that are rendered into seamlessly cycling gifs. It’s almost an art perfected.

Retrogasm

I have been following this one for a number of months. Bad of me. This guy really like Marilyn Monroe. And when he’s not doing a marathon of those, its all manner of things from the past, a true wunderkammer of the good ol’ days.

Godsend

I do not read many web comics. I find most difficult to appreciate because of the back matter and in-jokes you have to get before anything is relevant or funny. It’s good when I catch one early. Godsend is created superbly. So well in fact, I’m surprised that it’s not in print. Slightly larger images would help better to soak in the details.

Night

And here’s the write-up:

The Carillon is ringing out tunes, like the Cell Block Tango and Coin-Operated Boy. This is roughly how the Amanda Palmer Ninja Gig began. All the while Mr Fibby and band plead and beg and curse towards the concrete bell tower. They need her to stop so that they may begin. And just as all of the bells stop, a thunderhead rolls across the sky, blotting it out.

Kaelee and I rode our bikes to the Rat Patrol headquarters (or perhaps just one of them) where this entire adventure began. The Rat Patrol is DIY bicycle club, a motley crew that cruise around town on junkers, clunkers, choppers, tandems, all of which are Frankensteins, welded and bolted together from the corpses of dead bikes. I managed to meet and briefly chat a few members, before Ms Palmer rocked up and then it was on to get down to the Carillon on Aspen Island. There would have easily been sixty, seventy, maybe even eighty people, all pedaling towards the city centre.

This mob swarmed the bike paths and cluttered up suburban rodes as it made its way down to Garema for a brief break and photo-op, before setting off again towards Commonwealth Park. Then through the park and around the lake towards the bell tower, where more people were waiting to hear the performance.

A piano showed up, Mr Fibby and Band produced instruments and were about to play when suddenly the Carillon piped up, its bells chiming away, until a tune began to form. Amanda Palmer was up there knocking out Coin-Operated Boy on an old-looking pedal keyboard. CCTV at a nearby kiosk showed her playing away. Then the Carillionist wanted to show her a thing or two and what song she could knock out of the bells. At this point Mr Fibby who were waiting to open began screaming at the tower and then the CCTV monitor for her to stop so that they could start.

Behind them , clouds came steamrolling over the sky, blackened with storm that wanted to flatten anything in the way. And when the lightening made a crease across the night and the first drops began to fall, it was then that everyone ran for the nearest shelter under the bell-tower. For a short while there was some relief. But the wind made sure that no one would be left dry, as it seemed to blow in from all directions. As people made makeshift shelters, someone had the forethought of bringing a big enough tarp for Mr Fibby to continue playing under.

After a short while, Amanda Palmer stepped out, asked for a ukulele and began playing a few tunes, including Map of Tasmania and Creep. People sang along and cheered despite the seemingly apocalyptic storm. Then things were handing things back to Mr Fibby and band to tell one final tale about Koschei the Deathless.

At this point most people had left, the cold and the wet finally making Kaelee and I leave. We rode through the night back to the bunker to get somewhat dry and dredge up some food and to drive her home. An excellent and tiring night all round.

Here are some photos. Most have a resolution of 1200 x 900 pixels. Right-click them to see there full resolution, unless your monitor is huge.

The following photos are by Kaelee

Morbid Anatomy – is a library and wunderkammer in Brooklyn, New York.

It regularly updates with news about exhibitions involving medical studies and the fine art of human anatomy. Totally clicks with what I wanted to research.

Hynerotomachi(n)a – is a photo/link blog of pictures that I would happily scroll through all day –

but I have to work, you know, IT stuff…

The Skinny – Five senior/post- high school girls put together a fashion/trends/culture magazine with each issue following a different theme.

The Look – Go to Borders. While avoiding all of the Twilight merch, go directly to the Culture and Society section of the magazine racks. Pick up a magazine that looks like it made by hipsters or scenekids. Pick one and go through the checkout. Congratulations. You just wasted your money. BATS is free or, at the very least, practically free. You get the relatively same quality of photos and layout design as you do with the any of those C&S mags. The covers practically match anything that shows up in a hipster’s hands. While everything is in black and white and feels printed on regular Reflex paper, you don’t feel cheap picking up an issue.

And BATS is not SuperSuper. And thanks to the angry mountain god for that one.

The Content – Each issue follows a particular theme, with whatever else managed to make the deadline. As a fashion/trends/culture flicker, it contains articles about surviving this fast-paced social-website, alchopops-fueled society for the average kid out there. These include what to expect at Schoolies week, advice about exposing yourself on the internet, and the prospect of being addicted to FaceBook. The writing is tight, I didn’t spot any glaring errors in language to prompt concern for the collapse of society. (Unlike the “East Lun-dun-ers” of SuperSuper).

The Verdict – It’s not something that I would have picked up if not for the zine fair. But I am glad I did. Good promising work. I can see intense future careers.

Off My Meds – Philip Dearest – Site – (Let’s just go with NSFW)

The Skinny – Phillip Dearest, the author of this zine, stopped his course of antipsychotic medication for an A – Z list of disorders. Then he began to see some shit. Some of it is recorded in this zine.

The Look – The cover (by Karl Kwasny – Site) is what initially drew me to this zine. It’s like an old woodcut. Inside is a compilation of strange illustrations and lurid artwork that takes me back to the Apocalypse Culture books. The style itself is somewhere between Adult Swim’s SuperJail! and Kate Beaton’s Hark A Vagrant. Simple artwork that is disturbing like a terrible car accident, but you cannot help just to continue turning the pages and looking further.

The Story – A man quits his meds. Draws the stuff he sees. That’s it.

The Verdict – The problem for me is this: I should have bought more than one of Philip’s zines. Now I have to contact him.

Burger Force #1 – 4 – Jackie Ryan, et al – burgerforce.com

The Skinny – Nervous and paranoid university student, Mercury, is selected to join a super secret agency whose cover is a fast food chain. The universe appears to have it in for our awkward hero with a sister that seems to hate him, an ex-girlfriend that takes him as a loser, zero friends and a fear of The Illiad. The first story arc deals with something of a mind controlling substance.

The Look – The presentation, the look and feel of the comic is impressive for an independently published comic. Burger Force use photos rendered into black and white sketch-like images for its panels. Similar style was used in Gary Spencer Millidge’s Strangehaven or Tony Harris who frequently uses photos as a reference point. This is what initially drew me to this comic. Each panel is rendered very well and very clean. The single issues feel heavy in my hands, more robust than the regular stuff off the stands.

The Story – The pace of the story is slower than what it could be. For a story about super-secret bases beneath mundane jobs (ie Chuck) The pace is a little slow for the sexy and funny spy-fi that should be Burger Force. There are a number of things that remain a mystery to me. In the first issue, Mercury’s girlfriend breaks up with him, but this whole issue feels a bit forced. Mercury also has no friends or sidekick, which puzzles me. If there’s one thing I do know, weird outsiders always find fellows of the same strange feather. Lastly, each issue began with scene how certain people reacted upon contact with a mood-altering chemical. The first scene features a girl implying that she wishes to eat her mother’s heart. This was suitably creepy. The next two, involving a breakup over a wedding proposal and a twenty-first birthday boy telling everyone to shove off are less so. I would have expected something more voracious from a mind controlling substance.

The Verdict – Burger Force looks sexy. Very sexy. Clean art and well-structured panels makes this comic series look good on the inside and out. However the story lacks that bit of extra punch and still feels a bit rough around the edges to really drive thru. I hope that this will improve with subsequent issues.

Haich #1 & 2 – by Filka – Torn Translations

The Skinny – Wide screen art and poetry zine explores the letter ‘H’ and it’s re-occurrence in the world.

The Look – Tight and well-rendered pencils and ink with a flowing style which makes me think of art nouveau meets the cybernetic. The zine is small, and with artwork of this quality, I do wish it was a little bigger. Sadly my photo doesn’t do it justice.

The Story – As with most poetry, I find it difficult to describe. But the general gist is, in a similar vein to the 23 Enigma, “Haich” pervades all time and space, crossing barriers of science and art. Overall its an interesting read.

The Verdict – A nice neat little zine with superb art. I really look forward to reading more.

I’ve recently ordered wine from Churchview. And I’ve been a customer for the last couple of years. Their Cab Sav is my personal favourite, and I stash away bottles for special occasions. And with such occasions few and far between I am getting a collection. Nothing is more sobering than ordering drink from across the country. Over the next two weeks while it makes it way to my doorstep, I will gently rock back and forth.

After more than a year of posting any stories online, I will make the effort this weekend to put some fiction back on the Wall. No promises, but for those people left over from the people who hung on, I guess, I should do it from them.

That’s all for now. Tomorrow is Friday. And then I can prepare for the weekend ahead.