Turkey is pretty good

Pretty good!? You fool!! Spent yesterday enjoying chunks of fresh turkey and generally being refreshed by hangin with the fam' at my parents'. I hope everyone else had similar experiences. Here's to keeping it together in the next few weeks before the second part of the holiday season.

Prost!

Missing Links

There are some updates to the "Stuff to Read" section of the blog. Tuesday Morning Quarterback has found a new home at NFL.com (ye gods!), so the TMQ link now takes you to TMQ. There is no archive yet, so I will be linking directly to the articles.

I've also added Spinsanity, which is a very nice site that cuts down rhetoric and tries to give its readers a clear idea of what's actually going on in America's political system. They criticize the truth-twisting of Ann Coulter and Michael Moore with equal disdain... Now, that's refreshing.

Missing Legs

As a symbol of hard-lucked perserverance, the three-legged dog has always been a favorite thing of mine.

So, it is with great sadness and amusement that I give you this story: Five-legged Dog has Two Legs Removed

See to believe, folks.

Skinned

On Friday, I happened to flip-and-stick (a term I made up and hope to use on a regular basis) on HBO's Naked in America documentary on a global tour of the artist Spencer Tunick, who has made a name for himself by orchestrating seas of naked individuals across natural landscapes.

When Kristi and I saw the original ad promoting the program, we both kind-of winced at Spencer's... exploitation in the name of art, i guess. That is... here was another artist peddling mediocre nude compositions for their cliched shock appeal and 'taking the art world by storm.' Bleh. It's not that I won't eat it, it's that I really have no taste for it.

But what engrossed my attention were the motivations behind the exploitation; the documentary could assess these things where Tunick's photographs could not.

Before getting too far into this point, though, I'd like to say that the director/editors did an excellent job of presenting the finished photographs of Spencer Tunick; detail crops were handled with a good understanding of composition and the composition itself, and I got an excellent idea of the presence of Tunick's work through it. I've seen this botched plenty of times, so it was nice to see it done correctly.

Anyway, back to more pressing matters... In documenting Spencer's struggles and triumphs at convincing random individuals to pose for him and in interviewing those who did agree, Naked in America explores the national relation of global citizens to their bodies. Probably the prime example is the director of the Russian Museum's argument with Spenser over the implied erotocism of his work. Tunick's goal is to create very stoic nude photographs, and from an American perspective this is a success. But to a Russian, coming from a recent cultural heritage of communism, the simple presence of a naked body has an erotic value to it because of how new such an individual act is. As one of the models (the director was the centerpiece of a photo, incidentally) states in explaining his drive for posing, under the former cultural/political system one's body did belong to oneself but to the greater society. It is these relations that the documentary explores so splendidly. Japan's corporate mentality, France's openness to nude on a wall but prudent opposition to naked on the street. the world-travelling youth of Ireland stepping away from the reserved ideals of the church... There is also some handling of individuals who are coping with the scarring of their physical bodies (through HIV or early-life wounds), but for whatever reason the director chose not to go into this type of relation too deeply.

The other thing we don't see is Spencer Tunick approaching locations where his art might actually be deemed dangerous by national institutions. For the time being, if you want to get to why Tunick's work is exploitation you can simply address the absence of, for instance, the Mid-East. Tunick arrives at scenes where the fundamentalist control structure has been laid to ruins, but never to where it still stands or is beginning to detioriate. For what purpose does Spencer avoid locales where his art might have real impact? There are plenty of answers, many justifiable, but the question is worth addressing for this artist who has turned the globe into his canvas and its people into his paint.

Overall though, an excellent tv special worth stopping for.

Have Intercourse With Our Friends and Beat the Crap Out of Our Neighbors

At least, that's how this George W quote from a speech in Britain is bound to get picked up:

"It really is about time we started to realize who are allies are, who our enemies are, stick with the one and fight the other."

It must have sounded good in his head at the time.

Aside from when he really gets his mind set on something, Bush tends to be much more a grayscale thinker than he expresses himself to be. This has been part of his PR problem since... well, since forever. I imagine him seeing this kind of statement as grand and heroic rhetoric, a head coach in the locker room at halftime about to stage the biggest come-from-behind victory the world has ever seen. After the show, he gives Condoleeza Rice a high five and like college buddies they point out the kick-ass-ed-ness of the sound bite.

I sincerely doubt Bush literally meant we're going to send the armed forces of all allied nations to massacre all non-allied nations. But you can't use global struggle as a metaphor when global struggle is what you're addressing.

On a related note, it's times like these that we should read British papers like The Guardian. It allows us to see how the people being addressed are viewing how they're being addressed. Reading them to get the most honest outlook (which I know many who do) is just as immature as trusting mainstream US media as the end-all be-all. More on that later (if I can get myself riled up about it).

Eat, Drink

Last Saturday, Kristi, some friends and I went downtown to eat at Lalo's, one of the River North food machines that caters with huge atmosphere and overpriced dinner plates. Reservations for 9pm unwittingly turned into 9:45 and then 10:30 and could have become later if it weren't for the diligent pestering of Kris and Ben.

In a restaurant whose overall floor area is half-devoted to the bar, it is no wonder that reservations get bumped to a later spot. Drinks from bars are already grossly inflated but tourist-gobbling enterprises like Lalo's jack it up another notch; so why not pocket a few extra dollars for a nudge of the reservation time? In their defense, resaurants also don't want tables left open because of reservations where the diners are late and justifiably have to cushion what would be a loss. But praying to the gods of chaos eventually incurs their arrival.

Not that Lalo's (or any busy restaraunt) really loses any money when things go awry. For our wait, we were negotiated free drinks and some free appetizers, which have a high menu value but extremely low real cost. The only person affected is the tangentially related waiter/ress whose guests might not tip for the menu value of the free items (we did).

So, I guess what I'm saying is to not specifically fear Lalo's but to hold a general wariness for any dinner factory and most restaurants. The food, though, was just okay, so my feelings won't be hurt if you decide to never go there... except you'll be missing out on a fantastic paintings of boats sailing by a cross against a clouded map sky.

Respect for Amnesty International

I would probably join the American Civil Liberties Union if it were not for a few pet issues which I feel have become politically motivated and are counter-productive to the key principles of the organization. In conversation with people on the behaviors of the ACLU, I have often cited Amnesty International as having the kind of ideal apolitical atmosphere the ACLU should be striving for. That said, I find this Salon interview with Amnesty's US executive director William Schulz to be very interesting. Salon has chosen to sauce the tease (a term I made up and hope to use more frequently) to fire up its audience, but at its root the interview addresses the non-stance Amnesty International has taken on what the organization interprets to be political decisions. Some interesting implication of the ethics involved in such decisions raise some debatable questions; for instance, should Amnesty International take a lesser-of-two-evils approach in certain cases? Of course, the edges are glittered up with sparkles to get the "antiwar left" dazzled in one way or another.

Princes of the Universe

At Penny Arcade, something has been written about the new Prince of Persia that makes me want to jump on my bike and ride down the frozen tundra of Clybourn and trade in all my old Game Cube games to purchase it. O... Since you are so curious, here is a little portion of what was written. "If your game doesn't look as good, play as good, or just feel as good against my bare skin maybe it should never see the retail shelf."

So, a reminder. I don't necessarily hate this type of criticism (although I don't think Tycho necessarily sees himself as a critic persay); in fact, I enjoy it. Good article in The Reader this week about Bookslut that ever so subtly touches on the debate over the purpose and approach of literary criticism (Why couldn't it just go in that direction a tad more!?). And it reminds me why I think we're so cool for trying to do what we're trying to do at RF (and what other underground zines are also stabbing at)... Most normal places... Whether the criticism is too harsh, too soft, too true; it's all geared at the sale. I love the fact that such criticism exists (this might go against RF 1.1's theme) and that I can hear/see beautiful praise or scorn laid at the altar of the works of man. But there are times when I KNOW what I'll think of something and what I really want to learn about is what makes a work work. I am at a point in my life where having my furnace and water heater explode at the same time seems like less strain than reading plot summaries and back catalogs in reviews. Fluff. Let's trim it so we can see the glorious beast underneath.

But yes. Accolades and attacks are great fun, I eat them like they are ice cream. I'll even eat tiramisu ice cream because I love ice cream so much.

Elephant and a Drawbridge

Alchemists pay attention: Viva La Bam is GOLD. Take 2 parts Jackass/Camp Kill Yourself, mix in 1 part story, then remove consequences: the mystery has been solved. But now the question of the hour, will the increase of gold in the marketplace radically devalue it? We can only wait and see.

But the Water Main's Busted

New American Ninja Underground strip is up. "Water Main" is probably my favorite ANU strip so far and I think is the best portrayal thus far of what I'm trying to do with the comic. ANU is meant to be a humanized Xiao Xiao. Although the stick figure fights will be cool and stylish, my interest is more in telling a comic story about a bunch of ninjas trying to be ninjas in a world not made for ninjas.

I hate punchlines (gag frames and what-not) in comic strips. Alright. Let me correct that with a convoluted story. In the first strip of my short-lived series, In Pictorium, I wrote three frames of solid text about how the comic was never going to have a punchline; the fourth frame said, "Oh. How about a picture?" It was a stick figure sketch of a drunk man and a crow and a chicken on some grass. This is to say: I'm not necessarily opposed to gag frames or punchlines, but I don't think a comic strip should read like a joke. A regular-running comic strip depends on the notion of each strip being just a piece of a large body of work. This is true even if there are not regular characters persay, because the narrator and the themes become the continuity. With In Pictorium, the worst strip I ever did was one where the intrusive self-analyzing writing of the narrator was replaced with thought bubbles of the comic's central figure. Although the structure of the humor and the visual style were exactly the same as in previous outings, I had lost the strip by thinking each In Pictorium could depend on those two principles and stand individually. I was wrong.

In a continuing comic, there is assumed story around a strip and to be most effective, the author needs to depend on this story in structuring these individual parts. Calvin and Hobbes is the example I keep thinking of... Bill Watterson used the continuity of his strips to ground his humor. i.e. He didn't have to force a joke on the surface; instead he depended on his characters' natural responses to create the humor. The way he structured strips could change dramatically day-to-day, but each strip acted as just a part of something bigger.

To put it most clearly, though... A strip didn't make sense just at it's conclusion; it made sense in every frame. And that's what I like about "Water Main". The final frame is the climax of a joke and the strip is at some root level a build-up to that gag. Even if you haven't read any other ANU strip though, you know there is more than "Water Main" going on. The apex feels good, but all the other frames are doing more than leading-up to that point. We are getting a better idea of who the characters are, as well... Cyd's as-of-yet-unamed wife, continues to be confrontational towards the ANU's boys club behavior, Cyd himself continues to be a guy getting pushed around by these two powerful halves of his life, and we meet Peter Travers for the second time... Cool and deadly serious about his craft. It just has a great sense continuity while pushing the story critically forward.

What Gary Larson did in the Far Side is a different creature altogether though. The major difference being that The Far Side was gag strips. Larson, however, managed to establish strip continuity in ways which I have not thought about hard enough to fully explain. But, his strips were not simply jokes, and anyone who has read the strip can probably attest to each piece really feeling like a piece of the entire body of work. If you have any thoughts on this, please post in the forum and I'll be sure to respond.

A Modest Destiny is a neat strip that I think is structured very well; if you're ever looking for something fun to read on a boring day go back to day one and read the catalog thus far. Anyone who would enjoy it has probably heard of it, but Penny Arcade is another online exclusive that generally works well at deemphasizing the final frame gag.

Gatorade's Cool Blue (it's in a silver bottle, it is NOT the Frost blue but is colored the same) has an electric aftertaste.

I am not even joking.

The Spirit of Jackass Alive and Kickin?

I preface by saying, I've been away from MTV for a long, long time...

Although Johnny Knoxville has left the hijinx of Jackass, MTV is gratefully reluctant to let go of the weird assortment of talent they had surrounded the turn-of-the-century underground legend with. Yes, Jackass spin-offs have hit the tube and it's a funny thing considering the original show was the exact opposite. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Breaking up the circus has allowed for some things that worked well on the original series to be fleshed out. The adventures of Steve-O and Chris "Party Boy" Pontius with Manny, a kind of wildlife guide from the So Florida episodes, are turned into a half-assed, tongue-in-cheek nature show. I'm sure this will be said of it ten million times, but it's the Crocodile Hunter if the Aussie gator guru were an actual idiot. There's a bad catch-22 working against the show though, the "Wild Boyz" can't hurt the animals but the animals are totally willing to hurt and/or kill them. So, there's not the same kind of idiotic danger as in Jackass... but, sometimes, it still manages to be funny. When Steve-O had eggs from a dead salmon squirted in his mouth and then salmon semen squirted all over his face, I laughed. Pretty loudly too.

The other show is Viva La Bam. Which I have not witnessed yet, but which presumably follows the Margera family's psychological torture at the hands of Bam Margera. Sundays, I believe, if anyone needs another show to clog up their Sunday evening viewing.

All the Prophets in the House

Carnivale has opened a mighty big metaphysical can of worms on its viewers as the battle to inevitably be waged between good and evil begins to unveil itself. This is a show with an almost painful patience at revealing its characters, as if it's saying "You are about to witness one of the most collossal conflicts in the history of the universe. Let's make sure you fully understand what brought every piece into place for it to happen." The allure of, say, the Sopranos is in waiting to see what will become of Tony Soprano... Sure, hints have been dropped that the show will end in Big T's demise, but we have no idea where that will come from. Also. Tony has been working towards remedying his feeling of the end being nigh both practically and psychologically. So, there are no guarantees. Instead we watch to see where the characters will bring themselves. Carnivale is different in that we have the feeling that we are seeing a history of the story; we don't have a full character sketch for any of the major players at this point, but revelations to who they are gradually given. Even within an episode we see this structure; we don't understand the relevance of things until the conclusion (even then, we oftentimes are only assured that items will have relevance to the grand conclusion).

Anyway. We've hit a point where we know enough that we can actually talk about what's going on in the show and not just stare at each blankly and say, "What the hell just happened?"

Critical Mass

Friday night I participated in the October edition of Critical Mass. For those not in the know--basically everyone--Critical Mass is a bike trek through Chicago's busy streets during Friday rush hour with many hundreds of bicycles. It is one of the strangest (or most frustrating) things you will ever see and honestly one of the most fun to participate in. The line of bikes, once the mass gets moving, stretches at least five city blocks, and although the front line stops appropriately at traffic lights the rest will keep moving through red intersections in order to keep the line together (done partly for safety, partly for order, partly for the fun of it).

Arguably the best part of the ride is the reaction to it. The majority of witnesses fall into the puzzled and/or awestruck category... Bar patrons plaster the windows or spill out into the sidewalk, pedestrians step to the curve to get a closer look or to question riders breaking to the side, car passengers think they've lost their minds. After all, the streets, which we associate with the dangerous, accelerating iron-grid of automobiles has been pacified by an endless stream of pedal-powered skeletons. Part of the wonder of even participating in the event is this dramatic reversal of authority. Even if the corking of traffic frustrates you to no end, there is little to say or do aside from just watching it all go by.

Howerver, some people are, I suppose, in denial. They will honk (which is greeted by the "woo"-ing of passing cyclists), try to inch their way through the mass (which is greeted by one excited cyclists pulling to a stop directly in front of them, thus ceasing the car's forward movement), or in extreme cases, get out of their car and try to pick a fight with their halting rider (which is greeted by swarming bicycles demanding for the individual to get back into their car).

Normally, routes are planned ahead of time and pretty much stuck to, but a few "tricks" in this month's map ended up bringing the ride into a benevolent chaos as the ride was given its own life on a wandering exodus from Daley Plaza. The group I was with for most of the ride ended up experiencing a radically different conclusion to the ride than I did after we were separated --DUE TO THE INTENSE SPEED AT WHICH I RIDE!!! -- but both concluded with a practical party social in the middle of triangle intersections. They got bagels though. (There were probably 3-4 different packs by the end of the ride.)

For more on the Mass, check out the website : Chicago Critical Mass or drop me an e-mail.