Motorcycle with camera on it crashes into truck (rider OK)

Mark Frauenfelder at 10:57 PM Sat 

It looks like fun until the last two seconds, and then it becomes nightmarish. (Via Arbroath)

      Comments: 24

Have fun in a capsized ship at Machine Project in Los Angeles, 9/5/2010

Mark Frauenfelder at 4:43 PM Sat 

Mark Allen of Machine Project in Los Angeles says:

For a period of five weeks Josh Beckman’s Sea Nymph will be host to a whole series of nautical-themed events, performances, lectures, and workshops, as well as an opera by and for dogs. Inside the capsized hull of the ship there will also be a crystal cave. Join us at Machine for the opening on September 5th from 5-10pm, where you can gaze upon the wreckage with accompanying performances by Clay Chaplin, Ambient Force 3000, Ecce, OK Music, Chris Kallmyer, and Colin Woodford.

      Comments: 3

Interview with James Howard Kunstler, author of The Witch of Hebron

Mark Frauenfelder at 4:14 PM Fri 

Matt Staggs of Suvudu interviewed James Howard Kunstler (The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century) about his forthcoming novel, The Witch of Hebron, which is anther novel set in the same universe as his end-of-cheap-energy novel, World Made by Hand (which I liked and reviewed here).

Staggs: Both World Made by Hand and The Witch of Hebron take place in the world of The Long Emergency, which you’ve written about in the non-fiction title of the same name. Could you very briefly explain what the Long Emergency is for our readers?

Kunstler: The Long Emergency is the culminating crisis of modernity, growing out of the limits to growth, resource scarcity, and the collapse of the complex systems that keep us going — everything ranging from industrialized farming to oil-based transportation to electronic communication. It can also be described as the crisis of over-investments in complexity — resolving in a traumatic wave of sudden de-complexifying.

Staggs: Reading your novels, I find myself in some ways envious of the sense of community enjoyed by the residents of Union Grove, yet I remain aware of – and wary of – the incredible loss of life that our world would experience following a collapse of our oil-based infrastructure. On the whole, would you imagine that we’d gain or lose more in such a world?

Kunstler: It’s part of the tension of the story that we are constantly having to measure what’s been gained against what’s been lost. The losses are perhaps more obvious: comfort, certainty, and the whole prosthetic nimbus of technology that we are so used to. The gains are perhaps more subtle: making your own music, enjoying the sounds, scents, and sensations of nature much more directly, the blessed absence of cars and other motor-driven annoyances, unmediated relations with family, friends, and community members, a reconnection with the elemental ceremonies of birth, death, the harvest, the coming of spring, etc.

      Comments: 15

What Things Do: excellent webcomics

Mark Frauenfelder at 2:48 PM Fri 

Panels from "Unraveling," part 2, by Jordan Crane

What Things Do is a stunningly good webcomics site, launched by comics artist Jordan Crane and featuring some of the best independent comics artists around, including Gabrielle Bell, Abner Dean, Sammy Harkham, Jaime Hernandez, Kevin Huizenga, Ted May, John Porcellino, Ron Regé Jr., Steve Weissman, and Dan Zettwoch.

Many of the artists here seem to have been mildly influenced by Tintin's Hergé (and Joost Swarte). This is not a big surprise, since Jordan Crane selects all the artists for his site, and Crane himself shows a little Hergé in his work. (I can't think of a better artist than Hergé from which to draw inspiration.)

The comics in What Things Do all have the same yellow-gray color scheme (with a few exceptions) that give the site and elegant cohesiveness. The comics are large clear and readable.

In addition to showcasing the work of contemporary cartoonists, What Things Do, runs "decades-old work" from worthy but not-so-famous cartoonists, as well as articles about comics. What Things Do: excellent webcomics

      Comments: 8

The Imp, a great journal about comic books, now as free PDFs

Mark Frauenfelder at 2:28 PM Fri 

Daniel Raeburn has done the world a favor by creating free PDF versions of his outstanding self-published journal about comic books, The Imp. Though he published only four issues (I have them all in hard copy) Raeburn's journal is regarded as a masterpiece of comic book criticism. Each issue covered a single subject: Daniel Clowes in Vol 1, Jack Chick in Vol 2, Chris Ware in Vol 3, and Mexican "historietas perversas" in Vol 4.

The Comics Journal called The Imp “One of the very best things to come out of comics.”

Here's what This American Life creator Ira Glass said about The Imp:

It was clearly the work of an obsessed person, in the very best way possible. A really smart obsessed person. There was a kind of Talmudic completeness to the whole thing, in a way that journalism rarely even aspires to. Not much journalism tries to be so emotional, and funny, and analytical, and thorough. There’s really very little like it out there. The closest you get is one of those big stories they used to do in the old New Yorker, where at the end you feel like there’s nothing else that needs to be said on the subject. I read it admiringly and jealously. In the years since I read the Chris Ware issue I’ve actually become friends with Chris Ware, real friends, we talk all the time, and probably a third of what I know about Chris still comes from that issue of The Imp. It was that complete and emotionally insightful.

Stefan Jones, who also bought The Imp in hardcopy says,

The issue about Jack Chick is an amazing piece of journalism. It makes you feel some sympathy for the loon behind all of those hate-filled comic tracts.

Much of issue 3 was reprinted in a monograph about Ware. I prefer The Imp version, which resembles one of Ware's big-format comic collections.

Volume Four was mind-boggling. I'd never heard of the Mexican comics in question. I keep meaning to get my hands on some.

Download The Imp here

      Comments: 8

Cock-touching forbidden in Kyoto

Mark Frauenfelder at 9:55 AM Fri 

I didn't touch it.

      Comments: 36

Crystal Jellybean Skull only $6 in Boing Boing Bazaar

Mark Frauenfelder at 8:58 AM Fri 

Who in their right mind wouldn't want a Crystal Jellybean Skull for only six dollars? Get yours now in the Boing Boing Bazaar.

Crystal Jellybean Skull

      Comments: 5

Cartoonist Pete Emslie posing with Julie Newmar

Mark Frauenfelder at 3:59 PM Thu 

I can't stop looking at this photo of talented cartoonist Pete Emslie posing with my favorite Catwoman, the beautiful Julie Newmar.

Pete Emslie at Fan Expo 2010

      Comments: 21

Rob Cockerham's quest for a solid ice beer tray

Mark Frauenfelder at 3:12 PM Thu 

Rob say: "I spent way too much time making a solid-ice beer tray, but I still feel it was worth the effort. To be truly complete, I should have test floated it in a pool or hot tub, but the bottle opener kept short-circuiting my experiments."

The Quest for a Solid Ice Beer Tray

      Comments: 23

Mopion cargo bike

Mark Frauenfelder at 2:40 PM Thu 

Our friends at Biomega designed this cool-looking cargo bike for Puma.

PUMA Mopion is rock steady for the daily grind. It mixes city bike features, and cargo bike features, making it a sturdy companion. It comes with a super-size innovative front carrier for heavy duty transport of your groceries or other needs. Developed for city dwellers, Mopion features a light aluminum frame, making it a one-of-a-kind lightweight cargo bike weighing only 22 kilos. The geometry holds the body in a slightly inclined, but still heads-up position for navigational ease and exceptional balancing.

      Comments: 24

The West Chester Guerilla Drive-In MacGuffin Quest

Mark Frauenfelder at 2:28 PM Thu 

John Young says:

Boing Boing has mentioned us at the West Chester Guerilla Drive-In a couple of times now (here and here). We show 16-millimeter movies at secret locations that match the film, projected from the sidecar of my 1977 BMW motorcycle. In order to find out where and when the movies will be, folks must find the MacGuffin -- an AM transmitter hidden in a waterproof Pelican case.

This year, we raised the bar on the quest. The MacGuffin is hidden in public. In order to finish the quest, folks must memorize and recite Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias", the most metal poem ever written. Some of the folks present will know what is going on, but they will not let on that they know until the recitation is complete. And the reciter can't half-ass it, either. Unless they chew the scenery, unless they really SELL the bombastic majesty of the lone and level sands, the judges won't reveal themselves, and you won't even be sure that you're reciting in the right place.

To demonstrate a proper recitation, I asked Hunter Davis to do a reading. Hunter is the fellow who did the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" in the voice of Sir Ian McKellen. Here's the result, setting the bar for all our MacGuffin quest-ers. You must be at least THIS METAL when reciting the poem!

      Comments: 8

Mad Men discover the laptop computer

Mark Frauenfelder at 2:12 PM Thu 

Mad Men's Ken Cosgrove and Harry Crane stumble upon a MacBook Pro about 40 years before its time. What did the web look like in 1965? From a terrific Rolling Stone gallery of behind-the-scenes Mad Men photos by James Minchin III.

Inside 'Mad Men': On Set and Behind the Scenes

      Comments: 15