Gravity Lens Weblog

Archive July 20 - August 1 2003

Friday, August 1

It is August:

The Quantum Muse Artist of the Month is Tom Lavelle.

The Molecule of the Month is Fluoxentine.

The God of the Month is Spider.

That is all.

Here's a gallery of parody pulp covers I found at Weird Links. Also there I found this trippy sculpted Art Car belonging to one Extremo the Clown.

Bill Maher now has a blog. Also found on the web: An Online Abacus Museum, Love Advice from Dr. Zaius, and Revolve, the Bible that looks like a magazine.

Things Magazine has a link to J.R. Mooneyham's Illustrated Speculative Timeline of Future Technology and Social Change, which is exactly what it sounds like. There's a great section on future cars, aside from that it is no more or less plausible than any other "future history" (theoretical or science fictional), but I find these kind of projections great fun.

Thursday, July 31

H.R. Giger has converted a 400 year old chateau in Switzerland into the H.R. Giger Bar and Museum. Here are some pix of the interior. I really want a Giger dining room set.

Other Science Fiction Art Stuff: Check out the life-sized pulp-and-anime statuary of Colin Christian (this one's my favorite). Gaze at the hot rods and astro-girls of John Bell. Theo Kamecke designs and builds magnificent plinths, furniture, and sarcophagi.

This guy skydived across the English Channel. Cool photo.

Chet Raymo of the Boston Globe dives into a plate of mussels and begins pondering the mysteries of the universe.

Comic Stuff: Newsarama talks to artist Cully Hamner about Warren Ellis' Red. Comic Book Resources has posted info for it's Comic Book Idol amatuer art competition. I do not usually pay attention to Marvel action figures, but the photos of upcoming releases look sweet. My favorites so far are The Beast, Mr. Fantastic in full-attack mode, The Hulk as Joe Fixit, Nick Fury with a Sterenko jet pack, Red Skull in Nazi garb, and a two-pack of Silver Surfer with (for some unexplained reason) Howard the Duck.

Wednesday, July 30

It's good to know that there are still brilliant ideas out there: I just saw the TV Land promo for the all-animated Alan Brady Show coming in August.

Recommended Readin':

Kathleen Parker of the Orlando Sentinel chimes in on the Hunt for Bambi hoax.

At Reason Online Cathy Young gives a tourist eye view of US/Europe relations, Tim Kavanaugh and Julian Sanchez look at our contemporary surveillance society, and Ron Bailey explains why the terrorist futures market was actually a pretty good idea.

James Hughes of Better Humans insists we must overcome the tyranny of the natural and build human institutions that serve human needs.

Onkar Ghate says "Don't Blame Our Intelligence Agencies, Blame Our Unprincipled Foreign Policy."

Guy Dixon of the Globe & Mail looks at the music industry's view of piracy

Erik Baard of the Village Voice reports on last month's World Transhumanism Conference.

Thomas Sowell has some random thoughts to share.

Tuesday, July 29

It's official: Kansas is flatter than a pancake.

Assorted Items: SciFi Weekly reviews the Hellraiser Soundtrack Box Set. Harlan Ellison has more to say about the Gene Wolfe/Odyssey situation at Locus. Film Threat has an interview with Tom Savini. Scott Shaw of Comic Book Resources looks back at Bob Hope's comic career here, here, here, and here.

Comic Stuff: Writer Brian Wood has been handed the reins of Newsarama for this week. Slush Factory previews Mark Wheatley's Frankenstein Mobster. Wizard throws Five Questions at Jim Lee.

Monday, July 28

The BBC says that there's a new Blake's 7 series in the works.

Slush Factory interviews writer Mark Waid.

Link Page reader Hanan sends along Grow A Brain, a monsterously large link page where I found this gem called City of Tomorrow.

SciFi.Com's Webguide has posted new sites like Stephen's Time Travel Page as well as Teri Hatcher Heaven.

Sunday, July 27

In case you don't follow science fiction writing workshop scandals (and, c'mon, who doesn't?), author Gene Wolfe left the Odyssey Workshop this week when some students (unpublished writers) complained about his style of criticism. Locus has printed several letters by fellow authors supporting Mr. Wolfe. I applaude any public belittlement of those whose whine because their unwarrented self-esteem and tender sensibilities have been bruised by competent people who know what they're doing.

Saturday, July 26

PBS is planning a TV program to instruct, and I quote, "low-functioning adults" on how to perform simple tasks needed in today's world. I'm dying to hear the catchy theme song.

The Blogathon is happening today! Support your favorite participating blogger. Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has a page about the event, including a list of participants bringing donations to the fund. The most intriguing is Rob Callahan, who is writing a novel in reverse order, from last chapter to first.

Friday, July 25

The updated Wolfland Pictures site has a sweeeet Quicktime trailer for the CGI film of Phillippe Druillet's post-apocalyptic Nosferatu. Now if only we could get a good, old-school Heavy Metal movie...

James Randi has dedicated his column this week to the subject of religion.

Assorted Items: Sunspot.net looks back at H.L. Mencken's coverage of the Scopes trial. Photoshop Phriday at Something Awful brings us Experimental Weapons of War. Seth Shostak of Space.com explains the filthy-sounding concept of panspermia. Nobody ever told me there was a Beer Church or a Church of Moo. I am psyched to learn that the mighty Mission of Burma are performing a couple shows in my neck of the woods soon.

Coudal Partners has a link to the very nice online exhibit Getting the Picture: The Art of the Illustrated Letter.

Thursday, July 24

Retrocrush has posted an excellent gallery of "Bad Girl" movie posters.

Coolness: Artist/engineer Theo Jansen, a madman who constructs large, skeletal, wind-powered, beach-walking leviathans called Strandbeest, now has creepy streaming videos of these amazing creations on his site.

Recommended Readin': Brad Evanson of the National Post informs us that hidden in every brain there lurks a poet. Virginia Postrel writes at Wired why the creative shall inherit the economy. Russell Madden of SOLO HQ looks at wealth and responsibility. Jacob Sullum takes on the DEA's recent medical marijuana raids at Reason Online. Josh Wolfe tells us to look for a big, scary anti-nanotech report from Greenpeace today (UPDATE: Here's a PDF of the report). Kathleen Parker of the Orlando Sentinel invites us to belly up to the bar of stupidity. Chet Raymo of the Boston Globe gives us the somewhat disturbing news that biodiversity thrives on Planet You.

Comic Stuff: A couple Marvel goodies. Comic Book Resources has a preview and character sketches of Neil Gaiman's miniseries 1602, while Newsarama talks to Jim Starlin about his upcoming Thanos series.

Assorted Items: It's bad enough I'm not attending WorldCon this year, but now I learn I'll also miss SpyFest being held on the Queen Mary. The Planetary Society has decreed that Wednesday, August 27 will be Mars Day. Can you imagine the shrieking that would occur if the U.S. had a National Foreplay Day? National Geographic posted this great photo of Hell's Café from 19th century Paris, quite possibly the world's first goth club.

New on the Amazing Colossal Links Page: The Danteworlds Gallery, Virtual Dali, Blue Marble, Belly Dancers & Harem Girls, and Weirdo Leonardo.

Wednesday, July 23

Modern Drunkard educates us on how alcohol is the solution to all of life's problems.

Robot Stuff: here's some fun photos of the Robot Protest that took place at MIT earlier this year. This emotive robot head has been deemed 'too scary" for children. I've seen a lot of robot costumes in my day, but none as ambitious and well crafted as the 9 foot tall Mechawolf.

Tuesday, July 22

And now a moment of silence for "Matt" Jeffrries, designer of the original U.S.S. Enterprise, and made immortal by the Jefferies Tubes.

One of my boyhood crushes Pamelyn Ferdin is curently partaking in a hunger strike (after being arrested, no less) as part of her animal rights crusade. UPDATE: She has since been released.

From The Jesus Museum: Many a madman has claimed that god spoke to him through a TV show. Now, the folks at the Entertainment Ministry show they may not have been crazy. And here's a hysterical site for a book on how to Escape the Trap of online pornography.

Recommended Readin': At Better Humans Simon Smith explains why Making Babies Ain't what it Used to Be while James Hughes explains the pitfalls of Saving Human Rights from the Human-Racists. At Wired Randy Dotinga discusses the recent rash of diversity among comic book characters.

Yesterday's story about Stan Lee doing a cartoon based on Hugh Hefner and a cadre of superpowered bunnies got me thinking: We can infer from this that at some point, Lee and Hef were hanging out at the mansion surrounded by babes and brainstorming ideas. There isn't a geek or fanboy on the planet who wouldn't have bartered a healthy limb or beloved family member for a chance to be a fly on that wall. Personally I think a half hour show of these two elder statesmen of cool sitting around drinking and talking would be more fun than animated blondes.

Monday, July 21

Answer to the mystery of life: four. Carry on.

Slush Factory interviews Lucifer and Hellblazer writer Mike Carey.

Alien Online reports on Gerry Anderson's plans to make a CGI Captain Scarlet series. In other news, Cinescape reports that Stan Lee has announced he will follow-up his animated Stripperella with yet another Playboy inspired project called Hef's Superbunnies.

Your secretary will soon be replaced by a machine.

From the uber-shady world of high art crimes, The Guardian has a cloak-and- dagger story about Melvin Perry and Peter Bellwood, a pair of map thieves who plundered the great libraries of Europe.

Sunday, July 20

Look, Up in the Sky: Space.com has a list of the 10 best things for backyard astronomers to watch for in the summer sky. One of those won't be the orbital wedding of Yury Malenchenko and Yekaterina Dimitrieva, whose planned zero-gee nuptuals have been called off by the Russian Space Agency. I guess they'll just have to cohabitate instead.