Sdtrk: ‘Sadistic’ by Stereolab

We know a little workplace in the American Southwest, where alert reader Sena toils in the biotech department. She, like many other people, recently viewed ‘Guys and Dolls‘, found it eminently fascinating, and told her coworkers about it. However, instead of the typical torches-and-pitchforks reaction, according to her, Sidore and I are celebrities over there. Don’t believe me? Check out their whiteboards:

That blurry bit in the first pic is the department name, by the way. I particularly like the second pic though, as the artist managed to accurately capture our likenesses to a T. Someone’s done their research!

This post goes out to Sena, Jacob, and the diligent (?) employees at Corporate Workplace That I Obviously Can’t Name, Located in a Rather Large Southwestern State. Stop watching so many videos on das InfoBahn! Go read a book instead!

Sdtrk: ‘Alright, already’ by Combustible Edison

Being as that I’m a reasonably large fan of the comic-artist stylings of Jamie ‘The Bicycle King of Worthing‘ Hewlett, you know what gets on my wick? I’ve got all of the Tank girl trade paperbacks available (except for ‘Tank girl: Apocalypse!’ as that was shite), and I even have a copy of the rare ‘Hewligan’s haircut‘ in my library, which I proudly display whenever dignitaries or heads of state pop round Deafening silence Plus. However, the one thing I desperately need a trade paperback of would be his series ‘Get the Freebies!’ which ran in the UK fashion/music/style mag THE FACE back during the late Nineties.

The premise of the series was typical The Hewll: gay Buddhist kung-fu expert Terry Phoo and his partner Whitey Action, a former child star who has her breast development stunted by hormone use, work for the police in order to capture the Freebies gang, which is comprised of Burk, a dumb purple gorilla; a fey midget with hooves for feet whose name I can’t remember; and Marlon, their leader who has a basketball for a head. They drive round in Matchbox cars, Whitey’s main gimmick are her utility pants, which are a bottomless pair of knickers which hold her weapons and… anything at all, really, and in the first issue, the Freebies get killed. But that doesn’t stop them from reappearing in the rest of the series! YES. HEWLETT.
What shags me off worse is that there actually is a trade paperback for Get the Freebies! But the bastard’s in Spanish. DAMNIT *slams fist on table*

However, there might well be a live-action television series. The Devil, you say.

Car chases, kung-fu and comedy come together in the wonderfully warped world of Phoo Action – an offbeat 60-minute drama special for BBC Three.

Based on characters created by Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz, Tank Girl) for The Face comic strip Get The Freebies, Phoo Action is set in 2012, when London is in the grip of mutant criminals, The Freebies.

Only Terry Phoo, a hapless Buddhist kung-fu cop, and unruly teenage heroine Whitey Action, the daughter of Police Chief Benjamin Benson, can save the nation.

Together they form an unlikely but effective crime-fighting team who bring together chaos and comedy, mischief and mayhem, to become heroes for a future generation in the face of Britain’s super-vile, super-famous mutated criminals.
taken from this site

Going by the trailer on the above-linked Myspace page, the pilot looks rather Sid and Marty Krofft-esque, which fits, and would probably be the only proper way to translate something like that into three dimensions. Also, it’s reassuring to see that it’s directed by Euros Lyn, who was in the director’s chair for one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes, ‘The girl in the fireplace’. Huh! And HOLY CRAPS IT’S ON BBC THREE THIS TUESDAY NIGHT AT 9PM.
As long as it’s nothing like that hideous Tank girl movie, there’ll be no need for that massacre. Err, not that I was planning one, of course

Technorati tags: Jamie Hewlett, Tank girl, Get the Freebies!, Phoo Action, Doctor Who, BBC Three, Sid and Marty Krofft, Worthing

Sdtrk: ‘Judy is a punk’ by the Ramones

A number of months ago while on my daily route to work, I’d noticed a storefront on westbound 12 mile that specialises in gardening, historical landscaping, and the like. They listed in bold lettering on one of their windows what their specialties are, and I’d noticed that one of their services is the design of follies. Now, a folly, if you’re not familiar with it, is a structure that serves no true purpose except for ostentatious decoration. They’re usually either towers or monuments; some can be castles or gardens. Interestingly enough, the Wiki entry lists North Korea’s legendary non-existent building, the Ryugyong Hotel, as a folly, which stands to reason.
Personally, I can’t say I’m very knowledgable about follies, and my architectural/cultural interest in them isn’t as intense as all that 20th century Modern stuff that I love, but follies are kinda ace. The premise is fantastic and idiotic all at the same time. ‘I’m an addle-brained gout-riddled baron with too much money, and I’m going to build a fanciful tower on my estate so that my name lives forever. FOREVER!!’ *flings turkey leg at nearest wolfhound, bursts into long, discomforting laughter* The closest thing we have to that nowadays are mausoleums, and decorative as those can be, their purpose is pretty clear-cut. With a folly, it’s more like, ‘I built it because I could’.

So as I’d said, I pass this place on a regular basis, and one morning recently I’d noticed there was a bloke in a t-shirt at the drafting table, clearly visible from the road, at work on a design. The astonishing thing was this was at a quarter to eight in the morning.
Seven-forty five in the AM, and you’re in there, sketchin’ up follies?? Has there been a sudden upswing in folly demand, the likes of which haven’t been seen since 18th century England, that I somehow managed to miss? I mean, apart from the Millenium Dome, that is?

If you’re becoming more and more rabidly curious about follies, you can check out The Folly Fancier, which is where I first learned of the phenomenon. Ahh, Internet.

Unrelated: To my own shame, I’d like to point out that I’m 35 years old, and I still haven’t heard Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ in its entirety. Or ‘The Man-machine’. Or ‘Trans-Europe express’, for that matter. In fact, I really haven’t heard most of their backcatalogue, with the exception of Computer world (had it on vinyl), Electric cafe (had it on tape) and Radioactivity (had it on Cd). But not having heard all of ‘Autobahn’? That’s actually something to be ashamed of

Sdtrk: ‘Let’s live for the present’ by the Continental Co-ets

More like This, then, is bollocks. I’ve just had to brush about five inches’ worth off my car this morning/afternoon, and we’re expected to receive another five before the day’s overwith. Ugh. Mother Nature, kindly get your shit together, as this is out of hand

Sdtrk: ‘Jackie Onassis’ by Milky

Saturday! Traditionally known throughout history as a Day of Acquiring Knowledge and Stuff. And with my mates and I, that’s exactly what happened!

Our Algonquin End Table this Saturday past consisted of Jeff (aka Zip Gun) Derek et Steph, and Joe (aka SafeTinspector). We convened at Jeff’s digs at about 1.30, piled in D&S’s van, and sped off to the wild, largely uncultured city of Dearborn, as the Henry Ford Museum (now referred to as simply ‘the Henry Ford’, in an effort to make the place sound ‘hip’ and ‘with it’) had something we wanted to see: they were holding a temporary exhibit entitled ‘Best of Friends: Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi‘. Initially SafeT told me about it a number of weeks ago, and he and I had made arrangements to see it, and Zip Gun and D&S elected to come with, as it was something different from our usual week-end fare.

On the way to the Fuller/Noguchi exhibit, we stopped to look at the car John F Kennedy was assassinated in. Upon reflection, I should’ve gotten a pic of myself near it, for Extra Ballard Points.
Having looked through the info provided on the Dymaxion house, we had to actually queue up for about ten minutes for a guided tour, as there were quite a few interested people there with us as well. The Dymaxion house was, like a lot of Bucky Fuller’s ideas, startlingly ahead of its time. Essentially after WWII, there were hundreds of American soldiers returning home to find there was a housing shortage, while at the same time, aircraft manufacturers were laying off employees left and right, due to the decreased demand for fighter planes. Bucky Fuller presented a design that he’d been refining since the Twenties to the aircraft manufacturers that would solve both problems: by using excess aluminum material, he would retrain the employees into building homes instead of planes.

It was very ace thinking. The house was like an IKEA house: all parts were shipped in a rather large tube, and the whole assemblage took only three days to build — two days for the major assembly, and the third for installing the bathroom and electricals. As the home was built using cables suspended off an enormous central pole, not only could you raise or lower it, as it needed no foundation, but if you didn’t like where you lived, you rung up the builders, they came round and broke your home down, and set the whole thing up again in your new locale. 1000 sq.ft of self-contained living, featuring a gutter that collected rainwater for later use, ‘Ovolving’ (vertically rotating) shelves built into the walls for clothing storage, and other such fab amenities. Very forward thinking, especially for the late Forties. Unfortunately, as per usual, the general populace wasn’t ready for such a thing as kit housing, which is why the homes never went into production. The Henry Ford has one of the two prototypes in existence, and over the course of three years, restored it to its finery.
I regret not getting more pics of the house — the tour we were with probably had about fifteen people, so it was kinda cramped — but I did get this pic of the Dymaxion car, which was part of the Fuller/Noguchi tour proper, and as such, isn’t a permanent exhibit.

Four hours later, we made our leave. If we’d had more time, we would’ve gone to see the seat where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, as well as the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, but ZG had fatherly duties to see to. However, we made a brief stop in what passes for Dearborn’s downtown district, and hit up the comic store Green brain, as we were in the area. They’ve got quite a selection, although I didn’t see too much manga, but perhaps I just overlooked it. I did grab something that completely slipped under my radar: the trade paperback for ‘The gifting’, the all-new Tank girl series. When I bought it, I was a wee bit hesitant, as Jamie ‘The Hewll’ Hewlett wasn’t the artist — too busy working with Mr Albarn, undoubtedly — but art duties were competently handled by someone named Ashley Wood. Tank girl’s new character design wasn’t what I was used to, as sometimes it veered from somewhat sketchy to sub-Hewll, but since Alan Martin was still writing all the stories, it was just like meeting an old friend after a twelve-year long absence. A sweary, lager-swilling, heavy-ordnance-toting friend who lives in a tank with her kangaroo boyfriend. And we all know someone like that, right?
Our purchases duly made, ZG, SafeT and I dashed upstairs to Stormy records, to see what they had on offer. My purchase there? ‘Merzbear‘, by Merzbow. As it is, I’m gonna have to give it a good solid listening-to, as so far, it’s proving to to be wildly mediocre — too much like ‘Houjoue’ and not enough like ‘Oersted’. Masami, you’re killin’ me, man!

DAVECAT (flipping through the Merzbow section): ‘I can’t keep up with all of his releases!’
ZIP GUN: ‘Who can?’

Upon getting back to Zip Gun Towers, we split our separate ways for dinnair, as unusually enough, we couldn’t come to a decision as where to eat. SafeT and I filled up at Quiznos, then the lot of us (minus Steph, as she called it a day) returned to ZG’s, for several unbridled hours of Godzilla: Unleashed. I still can’t get entirely used to properly using those Wiichucks! This means I am old.

The end!

Sdtrk: ‘Kokser kun pa Jesus’ by Faderhuset

*mops brow* For those of you lucky to have missed it, ‘Shouting etc etc’ had another outage, lasting nearly a day. Well, it was more of a deep hiccup. The main page was all screwed up, as some bollocky server error had occurred. We seem to be back to normal now, thankfully! Unfortunately though, I was in the middle of writing a lengthy post when everything went pear-shaped, and I dinna get a chance to save it. It was literally one of those things where it’s like ‘check me out I’ve been typing for half an hour straight without saving once and o shit something’s gone wrong and aaah my file it has disappeared into the very ether forever.’ Fuck. O well, I still have a third of it on my Treo, so I’ll just have to work from there…
Watch this space! Well, not this space, but that space. You know.

In the meantime, EGAD ONLY 13 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE NEW DOCTOR WHO

Sdtrk: ‘Three-way’ by Magnetic fields

Apart from the previous post, which is again due to an inside tip from the Inspector of Safe Tea, I do believe I’m in another writing slump! Let’s analyse the possible reasons:

+ Found a new copy of Half-life 2 for the XBLOX at a Kmart for $5 USD. I’d always wanted to play it before, but the computer I owned at the time was woefully inadequate for running it. But now, I can catch up on all the fun that my mates were having back in 2004! So for Xmas 2007, I would like a gravity gun

+ When I’m not busy playing that, I’m logging far too many hours in on Warriors Orochi, as previously mentioned in this post. Short of unlocking four or five of the seventy-odd characters, finishing about eight stages, and grinding various characters’ levels, I’m all done! In short, I have much work to do

+ Getting Deafening silence Plus in some semblance of order. Yes, still. It’s actually 98% done — the dining area is now home to IKEA’s priced-to-move LAVER table and four chairs set — but the only major task that still needs to be done is to move my loveseat in. Which I could do myself if I had a gravity gun. Honestly, the most time-consuming thing, though, was setting up my vast collection of figures and toys collectibles into a stunning tableau, which I think I’ve finally accomplished, praise “Bob”.

Click here for full-sized version; opens in new window

Not pictured: the other third of my collection, either up against the adjoining wall, or in boxes about to be deployed, once I get more rack shelving.

+ And Reason Number the First: I’ve been feeling under the weather again. Yes, again. Monday I awakened with a dull ache in my guts, which intensified and moved upwards from my stomach into my chest whenever I belched or breathed too deeply. I mentioned this to Steph when she and I were buying sushi from our usual place with her hubby Derek Tuesday night, and she said my symptoms sounded quite a lot like when she was getting pneumonia. Heh, check that off of my List of Things to Do! Thankfully, upon seeing my GP this morn, he diagnosed it was heartburn. Heartburn! Exacerbated by post-nasal drip, as the weather’s been bitterly cold lately, but heartburn! He gave me prescriptions for Prilosec and Flonase, and kicked me unceremoniously out of his office for wasting his precious time.
In my defence, I’ve never had heartburn this bad before. That shit hurts when it migrates up my torso. Lesson learned? Don’t eat an hour before bedtime. in fact, just don’t eat, to be absolutely certain.

So yeah! I’ll be in Writing Form again soon, I’m sure. Or something?

O, and speaking of Xmas, my friends (you know who you are) would do well to update their Amazon wish lists. Just sayin’. Here’s mine! Also just sayin’.
Remember, my rules for Xmas apply just like they have for the past couple of years: everyone gets a Xmas prezzie, just not necessarily at Xmas