Iorxhscimtor, my first WoW character – who was once hiatus’d for a month, then resurrected – now finally has reached level 60. I was a bit disappointed that there was no drums & salutes, but it felt pretty damn nice anyway. Screenshot from Twin Colossals, in Feralas. Click image for bigger version at Flickr. My profile is at Allakhazam, btw.
This saturday, I picked up the latest book by comic book genius Tony Millionaire (who, to quote Peter Bagge, “is so good he should be called Tony Billionaire”), Billy Hazelnuts. Billy Hazelnuts, like many of Millionaire’s books, leans heavily on old children’s books, and older literature in general, with its slightly horrid imagery and olden language. This, more than Maakies, would actually be possible to read for children, even though the book is likely to disturb them at least as much as the Grimm Brothers’ tales, or the scarier H.C. Andersen. Still, in the end, it is not the scariness that lingers but the insane inventions, the sweet melancholy and the spirit of forgiveness no matter what.
OK, I’m sitting here watching the first season of Hill Street Blues, and the subtitling is just plain crap at times! I mean, it’s for the hard of hearing, an English release and all, but shouldn’t English know US colloquialisms better than a SWEDE such as I? Anyway, this being an 80s series and whatnot, surely Bobby Hill brings RIPPLE and not RED BULL to a party? For shame, subtitlers, for shame.
Other than that, this series from my youth has lasted better than expected, although I believe I see totally different details now. This should have been re-released YEARS ago, if you ask me. Solid television from 25 years ago.
Changed the header to a variant of the standard Binary Bonsai Kubrick theme one, this one featuring Martin Fredrikson Core‘s brand new Borgstrand Stencil, part of the “Top of the Notch” FontpakTM from Fountain. As always with Core, an extremely well-made font! Check the picture to the right for a real life application. Photo by Finsta.
I also changed from justified to aligned, and added a link back to the front page from the header. I’ll probably adapt Kubrick some more, since there are some things that could be better, or at least more individualized. Or perhaps I’ll try Binary Bonsai’s K2 theme. Problem is I gotta move this server to another computer first. Damn you, Red Hat! This time I’ll go OS X.
The below is the unedited basis for an article I wrote for now defunct free magazine Monitor. The original printed in Swedish of course, and was edited to look like a real interview. I also put up the PDF of the printed article, for posterity or some such thing. Here goes (Derek, if you by some odd reason should see this and in some way feel embarrassed, please come forth and say so):
Back in 1999, I did a mail interview with Derek Powazek, who at the time was one of the first bloggers (before it was even called “blog”), and, I daresay, one of the main players behind the blogging r-/evolution. His work with fray and other projects was one of the main inspirations behind things I did at the time, like the little text I wrote about 10 days in France, the summer of 1999. That page is a graphic homage to the stuff that was on fray at the time, albeit not nearly as good. If I remember correctly, Powazek was also one of the founders of blogger, which was probably the earliest good free blogging service. At least it was via PowazekI first heard about it.
Anyway, once again, Powazek enters the fray (ho-ho) with a SXSW commentary, wherein he adresses that pet peeve of mine: semi-corporate entities that does nothing but trying to maintain a company-artist status quo, where the artist is constantly manacled, hampered and used up. Powazek, as an artist-of-sorts, puts it in plain text:
Until we (users, industry groups, lawyers, and politicians) finally make a clear legal and procedural distinction between copying a work for noncommercial creation of new works (like mashups or backups) and wholesale piracy for profit (like duplicating a work for the purpose of resale), we’re just going to keep shouting at each other in conference rooms and newspapers, and real innovation will never get made.
I couldn’t agree more. Piracy for profit is near-accepted, whereas small-time downloaders are hunted down. And god-damn the poor bastard who dare sample without clearance: onto him/her shall the hounds be released. Exchange should be easier, and whatever MPAA & RIAA might say: they are NOT there to protect the rights of the artists; they are there to protect the assets of the industry.
