I’m in Los Angeles to take part in a public conversation about anger on the Internet. I’m not sure if this is because I know a lot about anger on the Internet or because I just am frequently angry on the Internet. Sort of a form-content dealio there, I guess.
Anyway I can tell I’m in L.A. because Google Maps is telling me that there’s a Starbucks a half mile from here, but when I look out the window of my hotel it’s abundantly clear that there is actually no sidewalk between here and there, which makes it impossible to walk there. Also it’s raining.
I’m using two things to fight off suicidal ideation:
— the Ombudsmen arc on PvP, a Watchmen parody featuring syndicated comic strip characters. Jon from Garfield = Nite Owl. Popeye = Rhorschach (his huge chin looks sort of disturbing in the blot-mask). Charlie Brown = the Comedian. (It differs in this respect from the now-canonical Peanuts/Watchmen mashup, where Linus gets that slot.) Whatsisname from Blondie is Dr. Manhattan. I hope Scott can keep this going. Go Scott go! Remember I’m fighting suicidal ideation.
(More Watchmen parody goodness here and here.)
— This excerpt from Michael Chabon’s journal on the New York Times “Paper Cuts” blog.I think it’s an under-reported fact that one of America’s major novelists is also a nerd of gigantic proportions:
In December 2004, I went to Beijing and Hong Kong to meet, in both cities, with the legendary director (”Drunken Master,” “Snake in Eagle’s Shadow,” “Iron Monkey”) and fight choreographer (”The Matrix,” “Kill Bill,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) Yuen Wo-Ping (always known as The Master) and his right-hand man, Mr. Fish Fong. I had just been hired by Disney to work on the script of “Snow and the Seven,” a proposed live-action martial arts retelling of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” to be set in and around Victorian Hong Kong, with fighting kung-fu monks taking the role of the dwarfs …
I can’t even tell if this is real or not.