August 31st, 2009
Say what you want about Kaus, but he has all the right enemies.
(Scroll down, I’m not talking about Orszag, obvs.)
0 commentsSounds like someone's got a case of the Mondays!
August 31st, 2009
Not happy about being back to work? Here, then, is my gift to you:
Matt Labash spent a week with Marion Barry.
You can’t imagine how good this is.
Bonus Gift: Labash has a collection of his best stuff coming out this winter, Fly Fishing with Darth Vader. Pre-order it today.
0 commentsNote from a Concerned Editor
August 27th, 2009
The headline on the backpage of today’s New York Post reads:
“Mighty Sanchez: Mark Gets Starting Nod: See Sports”
My concern is if it turns out the new Jets quarterback plays down and, well, dirty. When will the haters start calling him, um, Dirty? You’ve got the Dirty Dozen. There’s Dirty Harry. I can just picture it now: Dirty… Mark. That’s what they might call him. Dirty Mark Sanchez. Hmmm…
Please, it’s a family blog!
0 commentsA Very Tory Notion
August 26th, 2009
“He lived his own large life and the ledger of it shows a substantial positive balance.” Pretty gracious stuff.
Mind you, George Will found the McCain-Feingold Act so unforgivable that he preferred the elevation of Barack Obama, the most liberal president in modern history.
Exit Question: If I hadn’t prompted you, would you have guessed the quote was Will or Peggy Noonan?
Update: Scott Johnson has a less polite analysis: “We live in Edward Kennedy’s America not only in the consequential legislation that he sponsored and saw through the Senate, but also in the afterlife of the vulgar political sham on which Senator Kennedy relied to defeat the nomination of Judge Bork.”
I bet he won’t be going to any Georgetown parties!
Update II: Tommy from Quincy is bereft.
0 commentsMotion Comics
August 26th, 2009
Spider-Woman, Agent of S.W.O.R.D. is out on iTunes and while it’s an interesting concept, I think it’s structural problems are indicative of the superiority of print.
Agent of S.W.O.R.D. (I’m not typing that out again) is a motion-comic, one of Marvel’s attempts to come to grips with the digital world. Marvel is built on a hard-copy product (though that core product is not their primary revenue source, it drives the big revenue streams) and their experimentation with this new format should be applauded, even if we judge it a failure.
The “motion comic” is essentially a cross between digital graphic novel and Sin City with small bits of movement infusing individual still images via the magic of computer manipulation. Spider-Woman is built using an honest-to-goodness comic book engine, the writer being Brian Michael Bendis (who’s a stud). But the format doesn’t work nearly as well as if the entire production had simply been on the printed page:
* Having voiceovers is terribly distracting because there is no animation. This works fine in narration, but is terribly distracting during actual dialogue. You hear a character’s voice, but their lips aren’t moving. Even if this is done with a high level of technical and artistic sophistication, it looks amateur and off-putting.
* Where conversations would be conducted with a single long panel and then alternating dialogue balloons on the page, here they flip back and forth between still panels. Makes it feel like those re-cycled He-Man animations.
* Like a lot of pulp and noir writing, comic-book writing is meant to be read, not heard. Prose that merely stays out of the way in a comic book sounds kind of ridiculous to the ear when someone says it out loud.
* Despite all that, it’s awfully pretty. Very nicely rendered stuff. And Bendis, per the norm, creating an interesting story.
By all means, spend the 99 cents to catch the first episode of Spider-Woman. But at the end of the day, I suspect it will convince you that the fears of floppy comics going away are unfounded.
0 commentsSet to Stun
August 26th, 2009
Star Trek cologne. For reals.
Vick Watch
August 26th, 2009
“Civil rights” groups in Philly are holding a march in support of Vick. It’s the Philly way!
The bad news is that the shop at NFL.com won’t let you order a “MEXICO” #7 Eagles jersey.
The good news is that they will let you order a “MXICO” #7 Eagles jersey.
An acceptable substitute? You decide.
0 commentsInception
August 25th, 2009
The first teaser for Inception looks pretty interesting. Lots of gyroscopey goodness.
0 comments
