Aggravator Aggregator
August 20th, 2009
- Still thoroughly brain-blown by last week’s viewing of Adam Curtis’ latest film, ”It Felt Like a Kiss’, I’ve gone a bit doolally and found links for a whole Curtisathon. Old hat, good hat:
- First, two recent bites from Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe/Newswipe shows. This one covers the abasement of TV journalism as a career path for people who like to bear the sight of their own reflections; and this one on the geldoffisation of event politics. When people say Live Aid killed Rock ‘n’Roll, previously the world’s last best hope of cultural salvation, this is what they mean, and why it matters. (b)
- And going back a bit further, The Living Dead from 1995 (Parts One, Two, Three), a haunting three-hour tale of WWII necromancy and voodoo propaganda, a political Zombie fest of the lowest order. (b)
- Ah, this old chestnut rears its head again: A beginner guide to comics. How to balance entertainment, a formal education, a demonstration of the range of the medium, with individual tastes? Andrew Hickey’s list is interesting because it’s a specific response to a specific request from a work colleague, but on the whole I find these sorts of exercises simultaneously fun and frustrating in that they too often drift into generalisations about audience appeal, and fail to engage with some of the deeper questions about why comics don’t work for some people. If you follow this link be sure to check out the comments section. (z)
- A while ago I did a piece on Fighting Fantasy books, focusing on their wonderful cover art. Inspired by this I went seeking some of those artists. Nice to see Ian Miller is still producing wondeful, idiosyncatic artwork. (tbmd)
- Opinionated? Arrogant? Obnoxious? Triple check. Funny? Tuned in? One of the best Hip Hop writers out there? Check, check, check. Byron Crawford is always worth checking out. (tbmd)
- One of my favourite ever sketches from Armando Iannucci’s brilliant and underrated 2001 TV programme, The Armando Iannucci Shows: fucking brilliant stuff. (tbmd)
- Here’s some rather ace footage of Public Image Ltd performing their discordant masterpiece ‘Poptones’ on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand in 1980: World’s collide. Much as Lydon might be reduced to reality shows and butter ads (don’t ask….) there’s no denying he’s one of the all time great gobshites. (tbmd)
- Jog’s review of Johnny Ryan’s upcoming Prison Pit has me salivating about it…Bring that shit on! (tbmd)
- Jesus Christ, that shit looks like the sauce (z)
- Wow, so I’m coming to the party super late, but I’ve only just spotted this op-ed over on Newsarama, where-in the question is raised: will Nolan’s next film bat-film be The Dark Knight Returns? My response: wow don’t be silly and no of course not (z)
- The Podcast Of The Week Award goes to Geek Syndicate for their interview with Jonathan Ross. Ross is an eloquent and knowledgeable interviewee who carries the whole shebang with ease. He also dishes some details of him and Neil Gaiman’s meeting with Steve Ditko which he couldn’t divulge in the Ditko documentary. Listen (gl)
- As you probably know, the majority of Mindless Ones used to spend a great deal of time on the Barbelith message board. Originally conceived as a fan community dedicated to the Invisibles, it quickly transformed into an all purpose forum known for its tough, yet geeky culture and its hardcore anti-prejudice stance. Things haven’t been going so well for Barbelith over the last couple of years. The technology that underpins the board is essentially broken and many of the old guard, now fully fledged adults with responsibilities and new interests have moved on to greener pastures. The upshot: Barbelith is on its deathbed. So with that in mind I’ve decided to catalogue my favourite evar Barbelith threads, hence this link to a discussion on the Passion of the Christ, which contains perhaps the most irritating, patronising (and consequently compelling and hilarious) series of posts that I can remember reading*.
“Read this with attention, This is a film full of hope, of joyous optimism!”
Lulz! (z)
*For those of you unfamiliar with Barbelith you need to bear in mind that the conversation there aspired to be, and often was, some of the most stimulating on the Internet. You will have seen much worse behaviour than that on offer in the above link, but the intellectual rigour demanded by Barbelith at its best meant that heated debates on the board were often vastly more entertaining than the simple minded flame wars to be found elsewhere
![](https://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/500songs-1.jpg")
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.