Topics

Did cyberspace exist before William Gibson? And what is the origin of nerds?

All topics dear to our hearts, of course, and maybe you could earn yourself a few geek points by helping out finding the origins of these and other words.

Link: http://oed.com/bbcwordhunt/" target="_blank">BBC Wordhunt

Cast your minds back if you will to the depths of last Christmas. What do you remember? The presents? The boarder awards? How you gave me your heart, but the very next day I threw it away?

No of course you don't. What you remember most and fondest of all is the exciting tale of how King Trout made the Baby Jesus cry, and slapped Tharg in the chops. Isn't it? (Say "Yes, Pete")

Well, as literally some of you demanded it (or at least didn't pounce on me and cut my arms off when I mentioned the possibility) I'm planning to do another Trout Tale this year. Which is where you scribblers come in.

I'm going to need pictures of evil mutant fish. Lots of 'em. Anything will do, from a single pic to a whole page, whatever you fancy doing. I'm planning to take a Stan Lee approach to the script - i.e. let you draw pretty much what you like, then make up any old gubbins to go with it and claim all the credit ;)

The one stipulation is that you must feature some kind of representation of yourself, and said representation must reach a nasty death at the hands of King Trout.

Trust me, this is going to be a belter. Certainly not some poorly-plotted unlikely nonsense filled with lame in-jokes. Oh no.

To give you an idea of the standard required, here's a link to the last Trout tale, and a sketch for the new one. As you can see, talent is not necessary to take part in this smorgasboard of piscene pish.

If you fancy contributing to the m?nage ? poissons, sendmail me or register your interest on this thread, and I'll supply you with the HIDEOUS DETAILS of what I require of you.

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=input&page=thrillviewer&choice=trout" target="_blank">Away In a Fish Tank

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/kingtrout/trout2004.jpg">

Winterfest's in London on Saturday 23rd. Who fancies a pint on Friday 22nd?

This one's mostly for all you married types, I guess.

As some of you are aware, my brother's getting married next month. Anyone got any good gags he can use in his speech?

I've been thinking about the reactions to the return of Strontium Dog and Robo-Hunter, and it strikes me that in a way Alan Grant has the bigger task on his hands, because whatever you think about the question of the Final Solution, Alpha as a character was never compromised in the way that Sam Slade was by the Millar stories. So (IMO) Wagner can get on with producing new tales of Johnny, while Grant is (for the moment at least) limited to re-establishing what it was we liked about Sam in the first place.

I remember Peter Hogan's Robo-Hunter tales as being quite good fun, and I suspect they'd be held in much higher regard if they hadn't followed Millar's dreadful take on Slade.

So, what I want to know is, what stories, or what particular writer/artist's takes on a story, do you think haven't had the acclaim they deserve?

Well, I've got over my teary fit at not being able to make Dreddcon, and found a B&B less than 10 miles away from the lovely village of Moniaive. So who else is gonna be there?

blimey, the postman turned up before I left for work for once.

Nice Cliff Robinson cover, love the expression on Wulf's face.

Dredd romps along, funny stuff, what's the betting the rookies will save hthe day and then he'll fail them for disobeying orders?

Bec & Kawl was more enjoyable than I thought it would be, I think Si's getting into his stride with them, this is the best B&K tale yet.

ABC Warriors continues to be so much fun I hardly notice the absence of plot.

Stront finishes in fine form, great pay-off line. It seems churlish to say so given that we usually have to wait a year for the next one, but 2 weeks before the next one? aiieee!

No Droid Life, but we do get the first part of the Spurrier/Roberts strip that's up on the Beeb's new comics site. Si, have you worked at the Beeb? It's quite uncanny ;)

I'm very worried that I haven't had my booklet from Tony Blair through the post. How will I know what to do if Osama Bin Laden decides to target Enfield? Luckily I found this site which put me right.

Link: http://www.preparingforemergencies.co.uk/" target="_blank">Run!

Anyone in London who wants to take advantage of my mate being ill, I've got a spare ticket going for PJ Harvey at Somerset House tonight. 25 quid, sendmail me if you're interested.

cheers
Pete

Forget all this film malarkey. The only version of the Hitch Hiker's Guide that really matters is coming back for a tertiary phase this autumn. And DNA himself is in it!

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/index.shtml" target="_blank">It's coming home...

Oi Tharg!

2nd October. Yes or no?

well, soundtracks, anyway...

To be precise, the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
My mate Cath manages Joby Talbot (composer of the music for the League of Gentlemen among other things), and she's looking for people to help out with some of the music for the H2G2 film. Here's the details if anyone's interested:

SINGERS REQUIRED FOR FILM!  (no experience necessary.....)
 
We are recording a short 'hymn' for inclusion in the forthcoming feature film of HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.  Here are the details:
 
Saturday 19th June, St Michael?s Church, South Grove, Highgate, London.
Nearest tubes: Highgate and Archway
 
12.30 - 1pm Choirs arrive
1pm - 2.30pm Rehearse and Record
 
Total number of singers required 500 - mixture of amateur choirs and people who would like to join in (no children, please).   It's meant to sound like a mixed congregation, rather than an amateur/professional choir.
 
The hymn is very short and easy to sing.  A choirmaster will help everyone to learn it on the day.  Music and words are available in advance.  The composer is Joby Talbot (of Divine Comedy/ League of Gentlemen fame)
There will be a small camera crew filming for the 'Making of' the film.
 
The Highgate Festival is on that day - so parking will be very tricky.  Use public transport where possible.
 
I'm afraid that there are no fees available, however, we aim to make this a fun occasion for all involved!
 
If you'd like to join in, please email:
 
composers@mannersmcdade.co.uk

Went to see this at the ICA last night and it's not bad, as a documentary it's no great shakes, but Moore's such an engaging raconteur that you can put up with the slightly irritating and pretentious direction (you know the kind of thing, shots of tarot cards at random, backwards film of a bloke wandering around London in a trenchcoat looking not that much like John Constantine, some crappy special effect that would have shamed Dr Who at its worst which I think was meant to represent Swamp Thing, or possibly the super-consciousness of creation, maaan, crappy "dramatisations" of passages from V and Watchmen). Thankfully the only voice you hear is Moore's though, so you can ignore this kind of nonsense and enjoy his tales of growing up in the kind of neighbourhood where "even the family dog shared the same hair lip", then a brief resume of his career, and (the real meat of the interview) his ideas on magic and the creative process, which are a great deal less pretentious or mad than I've just made them sound. There's also a very creepy moment when he reads one of Rorschach's journal entries, which is quite terrifying. His great interest at the moment is the theory that information may be a fundamental universal force, and the accelleration of information and knowledge to the point where he thinks "human culture is turning to steam".

There's no cinema distribution deal been done for this yet, so if you're not in Londinium (it's showing all week at the ICA) your best bet is to look oput for it on TV or DVD. Anyway, for all my misgivings about the style of the film, 80 minutes of Moore talking is worth anybody's time.

BTW, rumours of affable Al's retirement would seem to be premature: one of the titbits to emerge from the discussion before the screening was that he's kicking ideas around with Oscar Zarate for a new book, provisionally called "The Battle". And Jose Villarubia recommended the upcoming final issue of Promethea, on the grounds that it's "insane" :)

Attention, zombie fans!

Dawn of the Dead, BBC2 tonight, 11.50

One of my favourite places on the Inter-Web is The Guardian's Football http://www.football.guardian.co.uk/thegallery/"> Gallery , where bored office workers employ their image manipulating skills in the cause of mocking footballers.

One of my least favourite things in the Meg is the normally excellent John Ridgway's use of computer graphics.

So, I thought I'd combine these two things, and ask you all to show me how you think the Cursed Earth should be rendered, using whatever technical resources you can get your hands on. With only a mouse, Microsoft Paint, and access to Google, I've come up with this effort. But I'm sure you can do better. Who knows, I may even offer a prize to the one that tickles my fancy the most, if I can be bothered to dig out some old tat I don't want anymore.http://mysite.freeserve.com/judgeparsnip/images/5-picture3.jpg">

Yup, a year older, and we can only hope and pray a year wiser too ;)

YES!!!

I've been reliving all my favourite News-Jiffeys with the splendid new DVD release of "The Day Today", which contains many fine extras such as the original pilot and Alan Partridge and Chris Morris discussing the conspiracy theories surrounding Princess Diana's death. My very favourite moment, however, remains Chris Morris's one-man sendup of MTV, particularly controversial rapper Fur-Q ("You gotta kill people...to have respect for people").

I'd have thought the powers that be would have learned from this stuff, but it seems to me that if anything, TV news has become *more* like this in the past decade.

Those are the headlines... god, I wish they weren't.

I've decided that sanity is an overrated virtue, so with that in mind, I'm going to become a magician like Northampton's finest. However, as affable Al has first dibs on Socko the snake, I'm currently lacking a god to worship. Anyone got any suggestions for a likely deity? Bearing in mind that I'm fairly lazy and a bit squeamish, so ones that demand human sacrifice or constant praise are probably out.http://www.the-village-square.com/sooty/sooty-puppet.jpg">

21 again! ;)

Well, sort of.

Link: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994638" target="_blank">http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994638