Before Shaun of the Dead there was Spaced. If you haven’t already (incidentally) seen a bootleg of it, here’s your chance to get in the ground floor–well, the American ground floor–of Simon Pegg’s breakthrough tv series:

Spaced Set to Invade U.S. Via DVD, Cable | The Underwire from Wired.com

Unless you live somewhere in the middle of the country…in which case here’s an interview with Mr. Pegg:

Simon Pegg’s Geek Roots Show in Spaced | The Underwire from Wired.com

Rock!!!

A: Nothing!

I just watched their demo video and it looks amazingly easy to use and robust at the same time. If you’re been reading this site lately you’ve noticed how frustrated I’ve been with the available free WordPress design templates. I’ve only found one that lets me customize the colors. Though not free, every aspect of Squarespace’s design templates is customizable from text and background colors to column widths and gutters. WordPress has a decent set of modules to enhance your columns, but if you want to move parts of them around you have to dive into the code. Squarespace let’s you drag and drop all kinds of page elements. Check it out for yourself:

Build a Website - Create a Blog - Squarespace

Of course, if Squarespace wanted to hook a brother up with a free account I could spread the word much more effectively as a practicing convert… ;-)

Went to the Rocks the Bells tour Hip-Hop show in Tinley Park on Saturday (July 19, 2008) with a group of guys I know from High School. Mostly my brother’s friends. The day started rainy, on and off between drizzling and pouring. It cleared up by the time we got there, but we missed Dead Prez (damn!) so we tailgated thanks to the Ridgeline’s awesome secret cooler compartment. Here’s how it tasted…

A Girl and a Bucket, 5 Diptychs

I am using my main Flickr page as a temporary gallery for 5 pictures that I want to showcase. They are actually all diptychs, so there are 10 images in all. They involve some of my favorite themes and concepts: the beauty of the female body, alternate versions of the same scene and texture. I think they are artistic, but they might not align with everyone’s idea of art. Here’s the NSFW link (there’s nudity):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fissionmailed/

Two images are available to the general public (non-members of Flickr). All you need to see everything is to log into Flickr with your Yahoo! ID.

Looks good to me, but I’ve only read Watchmen once. Not sure if the storyline about the previous generation of superheroes will be in there or not, but it looks like the material is being handled with an appropriate amount of gravity. I know Alan Moore isn’t too happy about the way the movie is going, but what writer has ever been pleased with a film adaptation of his/her work…besides J.K. Rowling.

Nerdgasm: Watchmen Trailer Hits Web a Day Early

Enjoy!

There are so many Americas, but they are all in binary pairs. There’s an America that loves Hummers and one that righteously looks up in disgust from their Priuses at that America. One that loves shooting deer with assault rifles and one that would prefer their venison slaughtered by a Native American archer. One that loves killing babies giving women control over their bodies and one that believes life is precious unless there is a war wants to have total control over women. One that understands irony parody satire (whatever it is!) and one that doesn’t:

According to a “high school journalism teacher” (what a pedigree!) the recent cover of The New Yorker is a context without context. Ted Spaniak, author of The Tribune’s blind eye to The New Yorker cover thinks some accompanying text was necessary to contextualize “The New Yorker’s aim of exposing right-wing fear mongering.” I guess text is an appropriate means of creating context, but when considering a cubbyhole for the cover of The New Yorker in our media landscape, what possible ambiguity is there?

I wonder if Mr. Spaniak understood the dual-edged nature of his indictment of the Tribune editorial staff: “[It] makes me wonder how they ever earned journalism degrees.” Not that you’d need a journalism degree to teach high school journalism.

This video is safe in that there’s nothing explicit, but you’ll want to watch it in private anyway. You may think her dance moves are lame and the content of this video tame, but this convinces me that Bettie Page was the real deal. Her stage presence is perfect. She’s knows how to imperceptibly veer from awkward to shy to silly to confident and to always keep it sexy. Wow. Please, to enjoy:

OK, this is just some film footage from circa 1950 of a burlesque troupe called Louis S. Sonney Roadshows. Please to enjoy “Famous Dancers of the Burlesque Stage” (IMHO Bonnie Jean Hendrie at time 5:15 is the best):

Anamorph

From Apple.com:

When a reclusive detective (Willem Dafoe) is drawn into the case of a serial killer who is enacting anamorphosis - a painting technique that manipulates the laws of perspective - only with human bodies; he is thrust into a dark and unsettling underworld that threatens to reveal the secrets of his tormented past.

Just watch the trailer: Anamorph

Andrea en B&W

Andrea en B&W by Javier Echaluce