tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39733187499719223402024-02-22T01:48:51.264-08:00This kitty's corner ...... just playing with the net. It's really just a big ball of twine.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.comBlogger141125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-30724450873024373862012-10-30T08:20:00.000-07:002012-10-30T08:20:04.184-07:00WizywigAn entertaining and engaging enough book, but it always feels very much like surface where I'd like to read about it more in depth. There is probably an answer to that, such as picking up the book that is by a serial hacker instead of one that is a portrait of a serial hacker.<br />
<br />
<br />
This book does well to point out the different faces of hacking, that it is not a crowd of people all trying to gain something valuable for themselves. That there are those who are simply learning and poking and seeing what turns up. That the thing of value can be only that a puzzle is solved. For me, I already counted that among the things I know. I have never delved into a particular hacker, so the elements of life presented here are quite interesting, but, again, quite cursory.<br />
VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-46024937207929310982012-10-24T08:39:00.000-07:002012-10-24T08:39:10.209-07:00The Catcher in the RyeWhat. A. Twit.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-18569318186528687152012-10-08T08:11:00.000-07:002012-10-08T08:11:34.539-07:00reading Joe Sacco (Palestine)I am reading Palestine and I turn the page and suddenly...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif7-d_uaFQzpbx84h9BBKt36vwFnkKumy0yXrf2xFSh203oH03e3pq3CVoTIlwTJHwoFaykHEpFUdkpPOsFFyidGU5asIbVCFOof4ffmJOYKBmkawlxP-SpWVlU-RCRxRxayZMl95m2aaW/s1600/sacco38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif7-d_uaFQzpbx84h9BBKt36vwFnkKumy0yXrf2xFSh203oH03e3pq3CVoTIlwTJHwoFaykHEpFUdkpPOsFFyidGU5asIbVCFOof4ffmJOYKBmkawlxP-SpWVlU-RCRxRxayZMl95m2aaW/s400/sacco38.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
<br />
There it is, I've hit the rapids again. I attempt to take in the whole page quickly to find the safe route through the chaos. There it is, swishing through the middle, past a panel that is really a whirlpool of five panels. Although boxes are used, not a single line is laid horizontally. There seems to be a fear of the horizontal line in the author. The rapids have tamed again by the next page, but it is still an extremely active page and still contains no horizontal lines.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0AH3ZXyHTkBhOIWpbcoVBAEkPra13o-I1EpViCmr6hi9wbfIunJL-eN4Zv7VXAGmCBBmsscgz4CYahOlKW-SpIeaXY92aJzRIRvkvOhnenNpwCYXWgKGBfRlZNJa10V5PB5MRjz36gLiG/s1600/sacco39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0AH3ZXyHTkBhOIWpbcoVBAEkPra13o-I1EpViCmr6hi9wbfIunJL-eN4Zv7VXAGmCBBmsscgz4CYahOlKW-SpIeaXY92aJzRIRvkvOhnenNpwCYXWgKGBfRlZNJa10V5PB5MRjz36gLiG/s400/sacco39.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
<br />
This is the feel throughout the book, dynamic, active, in your face, dragging me down the streets of Palestine with the author kicking and screaming. Oh, sure, somewhere buried in this book are a few pages that have a conventional layout. More toward the end than the start, he seems to have gotten over the fear of horizontal lines at some point. There's even a few in a solid grid, followed by a page with an even smaller grid. That page is very rare, the rest is this. Even when resting on one of many couches in a room in a refuge camp taking in yet more tea followed by coffee, it is clear that the rest is shallow and can only be brief. Maybe it's the caffeine that makes even these pages walking through a museum churn.<br />
<br />
Sacco in Palestine contrasts quite sharply with Guy Delisle in Jerusalem. Where Delisle moves generally in circles of ex-pats, Sacco is enthusiastically seeking out any locals, generally in refugee camps, who will talk to him. Delisle is sitting back and observing almost entirely, Sacco is out poking anything he can with a stick. Delisle mentions some wrong committed against a Palestinian that you probably ought to know is just the tip of the iceberg, Sacco makes absolutely sure you know it is that tip, and a very small considering the block of ice still hidden below. He is not above starting a list to point at all that is below.<br />
<br />
Both report on themselves as well, but while Delisle ends up reporting on the arbitrary harassment he gets for having the nerve to go off to comics conventions he is invited to in Europe, which is rather extreme, and for wanting to sit somewhere and quietly draw, which apparently isn't quite the innocent action the rest of us take it for, and tours he takes directed by Israelis, one from a group of disgruntled soldiers and one by settlers; Sacco is reporting on how, as he seeks out stories from all who will talk to him, he is a bit of a vulture and the stories become repetitive. He reports on breaking curfew and watching illegal movies and the mud puddles in winter and the limitations of refugee housing and lots and lots of hospitality, tea, more tea, and coffee, sitting by the heater and the food presented to guests to hide real circumstances and which he isn't shy about eating. He has his own tour, too, of the refuge camp courtesy of UNRWA.<br />
<br />
Oddly, I found that the myth of the empty land was most blatant in Delisle's book even though Sacco spends much more time dispelling it. Today we celebrate our own myth of the empty land, although the day is still two days away, with the observance of Columbus Day commemorating the discovery of the new world. We ignore that there were already all sorts of people already here and knowing of the land. It was not empty, but we think about it as though it was. There are no empty lands except Antarctica. If there is a way of surviving somewhere, people have figured it out and are doing it. In Delisle's tour guided by settlers, he is told that the land was barren before, a complete fabrication. His character of himself mumbles how the ancient olive trees give witness that this is a lie, but not directly saying so. Sacco, of course, seeks out those who were displaced, who had their houses destroyed and their farmlands and trees ruined, who made the land green before, to get their stories. He also talks with those who are still trying to make the land green under too frequent harassment.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-37019919863860523472012-09-25T23:12:00.002-07:002012-09-25T23:14:39.337-07:00Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy CityAs usual, Guy Delisle makes a far flung place feel very accessible, although perhaps not physically so. He brings an even mix of experiences any traveler in Jerusalem could have or observe with those specific to his own profession as an animator and cartoonist. It usually has a very mellow tone with occasional pointedness, much like the drawings. He has poise and timing. He knows when to let the images speak for themselves or even contradict. He is very consistent although the material of each place is anything but. So as usual, it is a great pleasure to read.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-6093391160422577462012-09-16T16:45:00.000-07:002012-09-25T23:14:39.339-07:00Anya's GhostThis is a simple story of a few days in the life of a girl as she matures a little intellectually. It is a cute story with an unusual vehicle, but travels a very familiar path in that. And somehow, although she's grown by the end, I was left with a sense that she hadn't actually done any growing. She has determinedly turned a new leaf, but it is somewhat abrupt.<br />
<br />
The art is solid and expressive and cute. It is a little cartoony, but that's the way I like it. The whole is somewhat bland, but pleasant.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-82305109311798300642012-09-14T06:53:00.000-07:002012-09-25T23:13:20.600-07:00Incognito There's the anti-HERO, the one who is imperfect and brooding, but in the end, heroic, and then there's the ANTI-hero, the one who may have done something heroic, but it is a side effect of some decidedly unheroic motivation. I seem to be happy with the first, but not the second. The hero here is decidedly the second.<br />
<br />
Had I read this as issues, I doubt I'd have gotten past the second. Our protagonist manages to masquerade as someone else to have sex with a woman he works with just a few pages in. Yep, rape. How endearing. Then there's a bit of heroing for his own twisted unheroic reasons that actually gets a bit boring. Superpowered guy beating up random street thugs. Meh.<br />
<br />
But I have six issues in a cover in my hands, so it doesn't end there. Luckily, that is all just introductory stuff. The story does pick up into something far more interesting and ultimately moves him along the scale toward the first, the anti-HERO. Likely not enough for my own tastes, but not everything has to be written for me.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-29661867149708474502009-07-11T07:20:00.000-07:002009-07-11T07:47:19.120-07:00Sita Sings the BluesHere's a movie following some very odd distribution. It's all got to do with rights to music as well as its own licensing. The end result is <a href="http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/wiki/index.php?title=SitaSites">free and legal downloads of the official DVD</a>. Which are finally available now. Various other watching methods have been available for a while now, so I've seen it already anyway.<br /><br /><a href="http://sitasingstheblues.com/">Sita Sings the Blues</a> is a weird and wonderful retelling of a main Indian myth. Animated art reminiscent of painted shadow puppets adds great character and charm to the telling.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-1352901396582217552009-07-07T18:59:00.001-07:002009-07-07T19:01:22.265-07:00yuckSpeaking of drawing grotesque for sexy:<br /><a href="http://www.comixology.com/articles/229/Adding-Incompetence-to-Insult">http://www.comixology.com/articles/229/Adding-Incompetence-to-Insult</a><br /><br />Which I think was a complaint of mine in a few previous posts.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-25475074081655183592009-05-05T23:19:00.000-07:002009-05-05T23:52:08.572-07:00three freeAnother May, another Free Comic Book Day.<br /><br />From <span style="font-weight: bold;">AdHouse</span>, there's FCHS. And no Priddy. Boo! Although it was expected. Still, boo! I found the feature teaser for FCHS to be bland. I'm just not that into that sort of thing. There's also a teaser for Remake. Every time I read about Remake, it sounds interesting. Every time I actually read the bits of Remake, it stops. Everyone else seems to be getting it, but not me.<br /><br />From <span style="font-weight: bold;">AP Entertainment</span>, there's Gold Digger. This was a silly and fun story "about archeology". In quotes because it has less resemblance to archology than Indiana Jones. The only thing is, why do the characters seem obsessed with wearing clothing that's three sizes too small? You'd think comic characters would be able to find their own size of drawn on clothing. Is it just to show off their oddly rounded rumps? And why would a "werecheetah" become shaped more like a Barbie doll as she goes toward cheetah form? It's not exactly the female ideal of a cheetah. I'm sure it's drawn only thinking of those who think an exagerated loose approximation of the female form is hot and not even thinking of all those for whom it is just jarring.<br /><br />From <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bluewater Productions</span>, there's William Shatner Presents. I picked it up thinking, "I must not have learned from the Action Pack." Indeed, if you miss the Action Pack, the first two in this will help ease the pain. The first writer needs a better editor and it's all "story by" Bill, it'll feel just like home. They go with a different character of art in all of three stories. The first is more Tek War and not entirely bland, a bit like Tek War. Second is a grimy future with some grimy art. Sometimes the artist carries it off and sometimes not. The splash page it opens with is an example of not. The last story is aimed squarely at your younger teens that won't remember the Action Pack at all. Art and colors far more cartoony, as is the action. And they all get to do stupid deadly illegal fun, have accidents, get caught by authority, and then have everyone pat them on the back saying, "Well, that's alright, you can get away with anything today." Brilliant. By which I mean lame.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-16458550284196578182009-04-28T08:40:00.000-07:002009-04-28T08:59:16.605-07:00James Kochalka's The Sketchbook DiariesThese are a bit of fun, if not particularly informative on a life or interesting. It was meant to be informative to the author, but as he points out a few times, it isn't. There's really to many meta moments of wondering what to draw or a moment revealing that the last few days had a little bit more invention in them than usual to do so. He seems to focus on the moments of non sequitur, perhaps liking the moments of nonsense the best or perhaps his life is all nonsense. Even when there's some event going on like a vacation, the format of a single moment from each day (mostly, there was at least one set with the same date) does not lend itself well to any sort of story arcs and has certainly not been approached as such.<br /><br />Still, I did find one comic to be particularly informative about an element in <a href="http://veloracat.blogspot.com/2008/09/magic-boy-robot-elf.html">Magic Boy & Robot Elf</a>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0ifYXQDW3PP6NXEpEkGo6zS88MCC-DgH8lK4-ia-NGpTQtHNhF1son0egW2Sg4hR7PVhQtftWn1XAFjK8CzzVqFRoJPCTJs273nrFqCzmWjRs_TZnCk4Z9nWXPpZw_fDV2H8bTl_N5nS/s1600-h/Kochalka_19981122.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 377px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0ifYXQDW3PP6NXEpEkGo6zS88MCC-DgH8lK4-ia-NGpTQtHNhF1son0egW2Sg4hR7PVhQtftWn1XAFjK8CzzVqFRoJPCTJs273nrFqCzmWjRs_TZnCk4Z9nWXPpZw_fDV2H8bTl_N5nS/s400/Kochalka_19981122.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329771452840944514" border="0" /></a>This makes the pieces fall into place a little. Really.<br /><br />It's also rather representative. They're actually all online <a href="http://www.americanelf.com/">here</a> if anyone wants to see more.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-45447412389272777352009-03-13T22:52:00.001-07:002009-03-13T23:41:08.715-07:00More water brushes!I got some new Kuretake water brushes in the mail today. Previously I only had the Kuretake "petit set" that consists of a brush with a very small reservoir that folds into itself to protect the brush when stored. It's a set because it also comes with a little water bottle for filling the reservoir when needed. This has been a good set for tossing in the bag to add a little color to sketches when out in the wild.<br /><br /><img src="http://kittynet.dyndns.org/velora/lj/2009/20090313_tools_water_brushes.jpg" alt="Three new water brushes in different sizes and one old water brush and a brush pen to compare them to." /><br /><br />The new brush pens come in three brush sizes. They also come in two lengths, I chose the shorter ones because they fit better wherever I put them and the barrel would hold plenty of water for my purposes anyway. The small brush is the same size as the one in the petit set. The medium one is as long as my Pentel pocket brush pen, but a little wider and the same size as my Kuretake brush pens loaded with paint. The small one is narrower than the pocket brush pen. The large one is slightly larger than the Pentel color brushes I have, it's really quite large.<br /><br />These new pens have a bit more to their mechanism than the petit one. In fact, they look all around suspiciously like the loaded brushes. This makes me think I could probably load them up with something with more staining power than water and it would be alright for the most part. Here all the water is forced through the brush to get to your paper or wherever you want it to go.<br /><br />So far I have tried the small one out for a few strokes. Like the petit, it will dribble if squeezed hard enough as there are grooves to allow water out near the top of the brush. However, in usual operation without hard squeezing everything reliably passes into the top of the brush. Like with the petit, I sometimes felt like the water was flowing too quickly so I guess the different structure doesn't have a different result.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-81833853012135433102009-01-24T18:30:00.000-08:002009-01-24T19:32:12.272-08:00Alec: The King Canute CrowdSometimes one just has odd thoughts. As I was reading through Eddie Campbell's <span style="font-style: italic;">Alec: The King Canute Crowd</span> it struck me that this was a man with a ruler. But even as the thought was forming, I knew it was wrong. Most people have rulers, this is a man with a T-square. This is someone who sits down at his drafting table, set at the perfect angle, slaps down the T-square to line up his paper and then tacks it down with masking tape on each of the four corners just like you did for junior high school drafting*. Which means that when I saw a picture of the man in a "ready to work" pose sitting next to a drafting table with paper taped squarely in the middle, I was not at all surprised.<br /><br />Of the book itself, the art generally has a traced quality to it, although it does still seem to "live" a bit more than photo comics seem to manage. The art is nothing that would catch my eye and get me to pick up the book. The layout of each page is usually meticulous using that T-square although when the atmosphere calls for it he'll throw in a few hand drawn panels too. The art also frees up as the story calls for it.<br /><br />On the other hand, the story telling is top notch. If that was something you could tell at a glance, it would inspire me to pick up the book. It is well timed. As it is (mostly?) autobiographical, some stories can be told with just the middle since how the people got there and what they do after is entirely ordinary and can be covered well with hints. When this isn't so, or when the interesting events go on for many hours or days, he picks the segments of time that are shown very well such that the reader is not left confused by what was left out or bogged down by too much detail yet still feels like the whole story is told.<br /><br />Later in the book, though, there is the sense that the stories are from further and further in the past. A glace at the dates confirms this. The stories become more encompassing and more and more is being told in each page. This has the unfortunate effect that the moments do not seem as well picked or even as much like moments. It becomes summary toward the end instead of the crisp story that is told in the middle.<br /><br />* Too few people actually have drafting in junior high school or at any other time.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-9799240745447109582008-12-07T16:19:00.000-08:002008-12-07T17:24:50.055-08:00TrickedThe book <span style="font-style: italic;">Tricked</span> by Alex Robinson is an exquisitely crafted piece of drama. Each character is crafted with a unique and interesting background and set to proceed down the tracks laid for them as they make their way inevitably to the final crash when they all meet. This little world is built with such detail that the tracks become quite clear. By the end, the only question in this reader's mind was would he take the "easy way" out when the final crash came.<br /><br />It's taken me a while after reading it to figure out why exactly I didn't care for such a well crafted book. The characters do seem to be drawn each with specific differences to set them apart visually, but can you really fault the author for that? Was it the fact of a secondary target for the final "act of violence"? Perhaps a little, but this was certainly not all of it.<br /><br />The trouble for me was that no one seems to change and grow. There is personal growth happening. As we meet her, one character has decided to find out who her father really is, but we meet her after she finds that he's not really dead and has traveled to the city to meet him. That's background to the character, the story does not follow this growth since it has already happened.<br /><br />Perhaps the rock star who sees every woman as someone to hit on is growing. It could be, I suppose, but a whirlwind marriage doesn't really seem like much of a change. Seems more like a fling with legal consequences to me. Wait another three weeks, see if he's not cooling to his new wife and looking for another hot flash of fresh love. Nothing about it really seems lasting.<br /><br />It's possible Robinson's just set it up too well. Everyone was simply too well motivated so that every turn seemed natural and each decision essentially already made. This left for me the sense that each path was simply being followed. The figures played out a disaster. Maybe some of them will learn and grow as a result, but that's in the future.<br /><br />I want some sort of progress or learning, a challenge that is overcome. None of that happened, so at the end the story felt empty to me.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-28573669413799910072008-12-02T09:16:00.000-08:002008-12-02T09:50:28.575-08:00Some 92 years agoThe poor newspaper reader of old, trained to read single stories in long columns probably didn't know what to think of the comics pages of the time. Still nicely aligned in columns with a picture above a paragraph, but the reader was expected to read across the page instead of down. No wonder they needed to put in numbers to tell the reader the order of the panels. It's interesting how little thought many cartoonists today put into how their layout is communicating the order of the panels when they get creative about layouts.<br /><br />It was certainly a different medium around the turn of the last century, as <a href="http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2008/11/flashback-comic-life-1916.html">seen in this (London) example</a>. Still really an illustrated story rather than a comic. One can certainly be glad that the need to verbosely explain what is clearly drawn already has passed. However, I was particularly delighted by one of the strips in the linked post which seems to particularly work with the form of the even by today's sensibilities.<br /><br />The comic that's caught my attention is <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1-rmset09oJaWdeGCMuGCzgR7CMOL_W4ZdZ-TYIgD4h1nEqMlVOaO187reZlvfgVT-bjlMhtxLqGxFWsuhYBgajyeBoomgjOhgDZRJg47hS_7yMpPGHXLc0oRxzS7mpdBRVwIrkC2JKc/s1600-h/Burglar_Bertie.jpg">Burglar Bertie</a> (direct link to one of the two examples from above) which occupied the back of this sheet. Instead of stating what's in the picture, this one has been done in the form of a letter to the editor. It is a nice touch that gets in all the key words that make the images unambivalent to the reader of the day yet does not seem to insult the intelligence outright for the reader of today who thinks the picture didn't need so much explaining.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-42213154484039972662008-11-26T22:08:00.001-08:002008-11-26T22:29:29.611-08:00The BanquetI have just finished watching <span style="font-style: italic;">Hamlet</span> in Chinese (Mandarin). Well, it was called <span style="font-style: italic;">The Banquet</span> and is now called <span style="font-style: italic;">Legend of the Black Scorpion</span> for a re-release, but you start to notice as it hits the main events of the play. The players changed roles in places, a death prescribed to one took hold in that one's opposite instead of that one's counterpart. A few made it out alive who did not even make it to the final bloodbath in the original. Er, I think. There was still quite a bloodbath to be had.<br /><br />A few of the pieces of <span style="font-style: italic;">Hamlet</span> included felt a little bit of a stretch, but perhaps that's because I had realized by those points in the movie. The moment that lead to realization did fit. It was the play within a play, which has become rather common, but then you remember the dead emperor and the o'er hasty marriage between the emperor's brother and his widow and you realize what this particular play will be about.<br /><br />I think the old title fits it better. It did, in a strange way, encompass the events in a way that was easy to describe. It served as a good metaphor for the film. The new title is just designed to make it sound exciting and thus encourage purchase. It has far too many contemplative moments to be trying to sound as something so obviously dangerous outwardly. This is devious, the danger hidden. The scorpion just happens to supply the poison.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-77920237911268807752008-10-28T22:35:00.000-07:002008-10-28T23:10:47.047-07:00That Salty AirThe ocean will at once seem familiar and easy to know, with waves rolling along in regular time, and seem wholly mysterious, with dark waters just a few feet below the surface and storms hiding over the horizon. It is usually slow and sometimes gentle, but it is persistent. Within it there are always currents flowing. They gently carry a child playing far down the beach and the waves push him in to a slightly unfamiliar shore when he's finished playing. But sometimes he plays too far out and those waves pull him further instead. Sometimes the currents pull the swimmer under and far down into those deep, dark waters.<br /><br />The ocean takes the foolish and the unlucky in equal measure. The ones left may raise a fist and a voice at it, but they know it will do no good. The ocean cannot listen and understand. They can affect it no more than the sand and seashells. They may want some sort of revenge upon it but it has the ultimate defense: it moves like water.<br /><br />Which is why it does not seem surprising to me that the author of <span style="font-style: italic;">That Salty Air</span> does not come from an ocean town. This is a tale of revenge upon the ocean, or rather upon creatures of the ocean in proxy for trying to hurt that which cannot be hurt. Hugh, the main character, is shown as one who reveres the ocean until he receives a letter informing him his mother has drowned in it. Maddened with grief he forgets the responsibilities of his life and wife. She finally brings him back to his senses, but when the sea shows itself to be a fickle and unpredictable thing, he manages one more bought of crazy anger.<br /><br />This was a tale more of a man who showed himself quite foolish and ultimately got off quite lightly. Sometimes you do. The sea is fickle.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-23615277461956225552008-09-24T22:53:00.000-07:002008-09-24T23:14:10.106-07:00Magic Boy & Robot ElfI can have fun. I like to have fun. Really. Like this book. This book, <span style="font-style: italic;">Magic Boy & Robot Elf</span> by James Kochalka, is all kinds of fun. And I like it.<br /><br />The story is of a man who builds a robot to be him. The robot wants to live so tries to take his creator's life right from childhood. (Because it has a built in time machine <span style="font-style: italic;">of course</span>.) Thus the book goes along on a wild rampage broken up by moments of quiet reflection. Somehow the rampage and reflection seem to all fit together.<br /><br />Each moment of the story is told only in service of that one moment with no ulterior motives of getting the story someplace by the end. It takes sudden left turns just for the sheer joy of seeing what happens. It is a very enjoyable meander through a wild imagination.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-50337052244880403032008-09-20T22:10:00.001-07:002008-09-20T22:46:05.413-07:00Wall-EThere is apparently a cute little robot movie out by Pixar. Other than that, I knew nothing of what to expect in going to see Wall-E.<br /><br />There is a lot of cute to it. All sorts of saccharine sweet, laid on thick, sappy, cute. And if that's enough for you, this movie is great. But if you peak behind that curtain of cute, it's very empty. For me, the cute was way too much. I found myself rejecting it and the movie just fell flat.<br /><br />Presented with a robot that had lots of personality, but no traits that would seem to lead from being a robot. In fact, some of it seemed to clash with being a robot. A most decidedly male robot although there should be nothing to make him male. He is tasked with cleaning up an Earth which, thanks to a loss of the law of conservation of matter, is quite covered in trash.<br /><br />Along comes another robot. This one is decidedly female although there is still nothing about her that should lead her to thinking she is female. These humans that made these two robots seem to have adding in a lot of extra programming that serves to reduce the chances of the robot working well.<br /><br />Ultimately the only robots that seemed to have a sensible outlook on life were a cleaning robot before it suddenly stopped hating "foreign contaminant" in order to save a really big clump of the stuff and the autopilot. Past that, the motivations of humans and robots were utterly mysterious leaving the action without foundation. Which is why it was quite empty to me.<br /><br />I also have to love the amount of trash a ship on its 700th year of a planned 5 year outing is able to pump out. That pesky conservation of mass thing has really been kicked. Other than that, I have a couple other solutions to the motivations of the characters of this movie:<br /><br /><ol><li>Watching a sappy movie for 700 years can make a robot become sappy to a degree few humans have ever achieved.</li><br /><li>This sappiness is infectious. It may require touch to transmit, but it can transmit to other robots.</li></ol><br /><br />I did like the opening short. Rabbit is hungry. (Hear the tummy growl?) Rabbit would usually have been fed, but isn't. Until feeding happens, rabbit is quite prepared to do all sorts of ill to the hand-that-has-not-fed-it. Ah, motivation.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-38601399744599597082008-09-13T12:57:00.000-07:002008-09-13T14:11:21.431-07:00some moviesI've actually been off to see a few movies in the last couple of months. First there was:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Fall</span>. Not very imaginatively named but imaginatively constructed. After a fall a stuntman is hospitalized and possibly paralyzed in 1920s Los Angeles. After a different fall, a little girl is hospitalized with a broken arm. He decides to tell her a story populated by the people she knows and has told him about. Why he does this is he skeleton of plot the movie is built on, but the meat of the movie is art rather than plot.<br /><br />The stuntman tells a story which is mainly the movie he was working on when he had his fall but we see this story as it is interpreted by the little girl. This is clearly illustrated as he tells of the Indian's most beautiful "squaw" (which I'm fairly certain is not a word used in polite conversation) in all the land but her Indian friend is from the subcontinent so the fabled wife is in finery associated with India. The movie is full of delightful details and certainly would bear, even need, multiple watchings.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Iron Man</span> is a straight up action flick. Lots of fun and largely bloodless violence so rather cartoon like even though it's live action. Well, I guess the more violent parts probably weren't really live action since they're between robotic shells. Good guys win and bad guys lose and it's all quite feel good. Good to see whenever you need brain candy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wanted</span> is also an action flick, but with a lot of artistry tossed in in rather silly ways. This one was full of quite bloody violence. I wondered what the dad who came in with his two little kids just after the initial bloodbath and longest of the two sex scenes (which are there to illustrate just how much of a lose our hero is at the start) was thinking. The boy sitting next to me who must have been 7 years old winced a bit during the movie and I quite agreed.<br /><br />Once in a while the barrage of weird artistic bullets doing impossible things with far too graphic results would have a go at actually being a suspense thriller instead of straight action. But it seemed like the creators found that too slow, so they would get past in as quickly as possible. It had some fun CGI stunts too, but I don't think I need to see this again.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Kung Fu Panda</span> is more brain candy. It seems that young pandas script their dreams terribly, but I love what they do with the textures during this opening sequence. It's a lovely piece of work. Most of the movie is fairly standard for this kind of animation these days, but standard has gotten to look very good. I had the impression that his fur might not be as deep as it ought to be, but there's plenty other things wrong with the panda if you want to get into how he isn't exactly like a panda. The plot itself held together very well. I'm not used to seeing that in an animated movie staring animals. In spite of the claim of "kung fu", there was no actual Eastern philosophy of any kind that I can remember in the movie. Again, something to watch when what you are looking for is well executed silly.<br /><br />I also caught the trailer for <span style="font-weight: bold;">Star Wars: Clone Wars</span>. I was impressed, but not in a good way. They have decided to take a series of short cartoons that were done in an innovative and artistic 2D animation and remake them into a single movie done in a 3D style that was innovative in the 1980s but now just looks cheap. My two questions are "Why?" and "Who would bother to go see this?" Certainly won't be me.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-54063928204364845422008-09-12T08:03:00.000-07:002008-09-12T08:08:20.678-07:00looking upWe must be an inherently optimistic people. How else could all manner of words from "fantastic" to "terrific" come to mean "extraordinarily good"?VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-56264236616404147142008-08-24T17:21:00.001-07:002009-03-13T23:41:08.716-07:00art materials: brush pensHere is something fun for a bit of art on the go. These are various sorts of brush pens and a water brush (top). The brush pens are all loaded with pigment now, but were fresh nylon bristles when I got them, just like the water brush.<br /><br /><img src="http://kittynet.dyndns.org/velora/blog/brush_pens.jpg" alt="Water brush and three brush pens." border="0" /><br /><br />I wanted to be able to do watercolor easily in the field and I hesitate to take anything that would need cleaned up "in the field" as well. The Pentel Color Brush Pen (bottom) seemed like a good thing to try, and I've seem people bragging up how wonderful their "Pentel Brush Pens" are. I got the sepia to try out, but was not impressed. It was a bit like a brush trying to be a pen and it wasn't a very good brush. Particularly the bristles keep trying to be in two bunches instead of one. I'm willing to believe that that is not usual and it's just a problem with mine, but it didn't leave a good impression. I'd also read that you can do a bit of watercolor over it after a day or two drying. This is truly like watercolor and it doesn't matter how long you let it sit, it will not allow for painting with water over it.<br /><br />Then I found that what people rave about is the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (one up from the bottom), which only comes in black. It's also a little harder to find. I gave it one more chance, although I can't get any other colors, and got one. This has much shorter bristles that seemed to be connected when I first got it, but split up as the ink soaked them and it was used. Unlike the other brush pen, there is nowhere to press to help the ink along, the ink flows into the bristles as it will. This is much more like a pen that aspires to be a brush and overall has been very pleasant to use. There is nothing unruly about this nib.<br /><br />I also got a Kuretake No. 61 Brush Pen with silver ink (one down from the top) for little bits of fun. The tip is a little shorter than the color brush pen. It also needs to be squeezed to push the ink from the reservoir to a second that fills the brush. This one stays in one tight bunch but is a little wider than the color brush pen. For what little I've used it, it has been quite nice if a bit bolder than expected. The metallic ink is not transparent.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-32594397274187034962008-07-26T17:45:00.001-07:002008-07-26T18:22:07.627-07:00more minisI have more darling little hand made comic books. Actually, I may have ordered practically everything Matt Wiegle has done and is available plus one he just drew most of the artwork for.<br /><br /><img src="http://kittynet.dyndns.org/velora/lj/2008/Wiegle_minis.jpg" alt="mini comics and original art" /><br /><br />They even came with a piece of original art!<br /><br />The three along the bottom are all adapted from old tales which are all a little off as such tales tend to be. These haven't been Disneyfied yet.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Murder</span>, in the middle of the top, was written by someone else and most the stories are drawn by Matt. I saw a review on it somewhere, which I think may have been the trigger to remember I wanted to devour all the other books I could get but hadn't yet.<br /><br />At the corners are lovely little nonsense books like <span style="font-style: italic;">Your Karate Vacation</span> was. These are little gems that should be shared at every opportunity.<br /><br />The last piece in the middle is the original art on the back of a <a href="http://partykausa.com/">Partyka</a> postcard. Now I just feel special.<br /><br />I'd never ordered minis so I twitched for the two weeks hearing nothing trying to remember that this is just spare time stuff until the envelope popped up in the mailbox. And then I twitched for the rest of the day knowing that I should be working, not opening up envelopes full of minis. Okay, they may not have lasted the whole day, but testing computer programs can have down moments that are perfect for reading mini comics during.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-34020656815281961172008-07-25T11:04:00.001-07:002008-07-25T11:08:19.480-07:00pull outThere's something deeply disturbing about the pull quote "India's answer to The Lord of the Rings" on a book called <span style="font-style: italic;">Ramayan 3392 AD</span>.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-57790344038826787652008-06-16T22:18:00.000-07:002008-06-16T22:50:25.823-07:00Project: TelstarIt must be said that the folks at AdHouse love books, although as a "boutique juggernaut" that's not many people. I still wish they'd print a few more, or perhaps that's reprint a few. Still, I have gotten hold of the book that inspired my previous rant (<span style="font-style: italic;">Project: Telstar</span>) for only somewhat above cover price. I also got hold of another of the set (<span style="font-style: italic;">Project: Romantic</span>) for my regular discount. I will not be getting the last of the set (<span style="font-style: italic;">Project: Superior</span>) unless it is reprinted. At $50 for a library copy (ooh, it's come down), I'll just have to be happy with my free comic with part of it from a few years ago. It's the Joel Priddy part anyway.<br /><br />So I hold in my hands a copy of <span style="font-style: italic;">Project: Telstar</span>, which is <span style="font-style: italic;">A Spacial Robotic Anthology</span>. The detail that has gone into this is just delightful. There's a busy little scene of robots and workers bustling about on the cover. Over the subtitle, little ones and zeros are printed in clear, a reminder for those who look of what makes a robot tick. Cute rounded corners, but heavier than it looks because it's actually printed on good paper. It all gives a good feeling, and so you open it up.<br /><br />And there's more art on the end pages. In fact, it turns out that the front cover was the first page of a wordless story contained on the covers and end pages of the book. The book itself is printed in two colors, traditional black and a metallic blue. It's a choice that just makes sense.<br /><br />The various authors utilized the two colors to varying degrees. There is some wonderful work in this taking advantage of ink. I do particularly like the work by Jay Geldof and Rob Ullman. There's also a few that would have been better off to have the colors printed in the opposite order.<br /><br />There's almost nothing I didn't like in this. There's three portfolios contained in the book, which I didn't care for although I felt my heart softening for the third one. Still, they're not stories! Meanwhile, lots of wonderful, creative robot stories.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3973318749971922340.post-5456299275482795182008-06-15T19:03:00.000-07:002008-06-15T19:34:50.976-07:00shirt of TeeI have found the greatest tee shirt offered by the internet. So many are offered here and there, but so many aren't very good. There are a few good ones, like xkcd has some nice ones <a href="http://store.xkcd.com/">in the store</a>.<br /><br />Ah, the regular expressions shirt... except that the whole swinging in heroically to apply them rather made the comic. And I don't really use them enough so any time I really want to do something fun with them, I seem to have to look up bits.<br /><br />Ooh, the sudo shirt... even though it always felt like a joke I'd tried before. Odd thing is, the systems I might try it on rarely have the command installed and even fewer seem to have given me sudo permission on the particular command in question.<br /><br />Hum, the one titled "stand back (science)" is getting there...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=DC-SCIENCE&Category_Code=DC">This is the greatest tee-shirt on the net</a>. It has a wonderful mix of alienness and childishness and simplicity. Also fun is the <a href="http://dresdencodak.com/cartoons/dc_013.htm">related web comic</a>.VeloraCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08100538112996258482noreply@blogger.com0