Clea's Cave

8 Important Lessons Learned From '80s Cartoons

My early TV cartoon watching was in the 60's, but i sure loved  8 Important Lessons Learned From '80s Cartoons from Cracked.com.  i hope it makes your day, too!  Thanks to Pop Candy for the link!

He IS An Impetuous Man!

In lieu of actually blogging, which since my father moved in i somehow have less, not more time and energy for, i bring you this:

Penn Jillette's mug on a box of Chinese "Viagra".  This is traveling the internets, but i got it from The Bulldada Newsblog (an impeccable record of the dumb shit that happens daily), who got it from AdLand.

The New Year & A Call For Optimism

Generally, i tend to agree with Robert Anton Wilson that optimism is the best outlook, in terms of human survival strategy.  Last year at this time Jim and i fervently hoped, and i pretty much assumed, that 2006 just had to be better than 2004 or 05.  Of course, from a personal standpoint last year Jim's life ended, and the worst year of my life commenced.  But with a much wider perspective, things on this planet also seem to be rapidly falling apart, and it's so difficult to even plan for the future. 

If you need what my father calls a cheer-up, or just share an anxious, down feeling today, i urge you to check out The World Question Center 2007.  The Edge Foundation annually asks experts in various science and humanities disciplines for their reasons for optimism.  There are dozens, and they make totally compelling and inspiring reading.  Some of them are obvious, or even idiotic, but there are thought provoking, even mind blowing perspectives and predictions.

Thanks to Boing Boing for the day- making link!

Day Against DRM

Today, October 3, is the International Day Against DRM (Digital Restrictions Management; that stuff that's crippling the legal CDs, DVDs and download you purchase).  If you're unsure why DRM is a problem (or sure it isn't), take a look around DRM.info for a simple introduction, or The Electronic Frontier Foundation for the grand tour.  For the lighter side, or to spread the word painlessly, find some videos here.

Favorite Movie Gum Cards!

From Bubblegumfink comes a great photoset of Giallofink trading cards featuring scenes from Suspiria!  To view the set, click here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, or just scroll down a ways on the Bubblegumfink blog.  i love how they are gum cards, not trading cards, consistent with the age of the film.  You better believe i'm printing mine.  Link via The Tim Lucas Video WatchBlog. 

Card Du Jour

Postcard of an actual item for sale at garypanter.com.

Waiting For 'Lost Girls'

It's been preordered for months, and i'm impatiently waiting for Lost Girls Collected.  Like a lot of folks, i've only seen previously published bits, and pre-publication reviews have me excited - and concerned that some eleventh hour legal horseplay might suppress the book.  Top Shelf has remarked on greater than expected early orders, and i think that's because people worry there won't be a reprint.

There are good pieces all over the web.  Neil Gaiman's review for Publisher's Weekly is here.  But the most exciting thing i've seen is Susie Bright's Blog Entry.  A good interview with Alan Moore AND Melinda Gebbie (who goes way back with Susie).  The best part is the gallery of Melinda's past and present work, including Wimmin's Comix, which was the first place i saw her comics, and became an instant fan.  Check it out, and become geeked as so many are, at the publication of a true graphic novel sixteen years in the making.

Ball Jointed Doll Band Wins Indie Competition!

Overplay, a music site for emerging artists, has an ongoing competition for the best unsigned bands.  Mistula, a Filipino mixband fronted by a trio of BJDs, has finished fourth in the Playrate competition.  The popular song, The Last Supper, available on Mistula's lovely website, is described by Overplay thusly: "Loony vocal mash-ups collide with slamming Slayer riffs to construct this bizarre-but-energetic prog-metal cathedral".  As a whole, i'd say Mistula's sound is right on that line where prog-metal and goth overlap.  The duo behind Mistula are the only Filipinos to place in the largely European competition, but as a project they are much more than a handful of songs and a forthcoming video.  There is an official fanclub for dolls and fleshopods, and an interesting blog.  Even if the music doesn't appeal to you (or your dolls), check them out for the wonderful art and writing, and the intriguing convergence of resin and flesh!

Day of the Longtail

i recently read Chris Anderson's The Long Tail but almost missed the Boing Boing post about this very funny satirical movie trailer.  As pointed out in one of the creators' blogs, the parody isn't precisely about 'the long tail', but of you've read the book or are a copyfight or open source advocate, you will laugh.

13 Reason New Orleans is Not OK

i'm posting the full text of this post from Poppy Z. Brite's blog with her encouragement, because some of you don't get clicky with it, and this update for those of us outside the area should be read.

If the information in this post surprises or interests you, check out her blog for the Carlos Mencia controversy which prompted the list.  i swear, this country is getting so jacked up i hardly recognize it any more.

Not OK
Occasionally I'm asked by friends Not From Here, "New Orleans is better now, right? You had Mardi Gras!" or "Are you doing OK?" or some variation. Sometimes, particularly if they're contemplating a visit, I even try to reassure them: it's very possible to have a good, safe time here; the French Quarter is fine; lots of restaurants and bars are open. In truth, though, New Orleans and most of its inhabitants are very much Not OK. I present to you a baker's dozen facts about life in the city seven months after the storm. Some are large, some small. I think many of them will surprise you.

1. Most of the city is still officially uninhabitable. We and most other current New Orleanians live in what is sometimes known as The Sliver By The River, a section between the Mississippi River and St. Charles Avenue that didn't flood, as well as in the French Quarter and part of the Faubourg Marigny. In the "uninhabitable sections," there are hundreds of people living clandestinely in their homes with no lights, power, or (in many cases) drinkable water. They cannot afford generators or the gasoline it takes to run them, or if they have generators, they can only run them for part of the day. They cook on camp stoves and light their homes with candles or oil lamps at night.

2. There is a minimal police presence, and most of it is concentrated in the Sliver. Homes in other parts of the city are still being looted, vandalized, and burned.

3. Many parts of the city have had no trash pickup -- either FEMA or municipal -- for weeks. Things improved for a while, but now there are nearly as many piles of debris and stinking garbage as there were right after the storm.

4. There are no street lights in many of the "uninhabited" sections, which makes for very dark nights for their residents.

5. Many of the stoplights, including some at large, busy intersections, still don't work. They have become four-way stops (with small, hard-to-see stop signs propped up near the ground) and there are countless wrecks.

6. There is hardly any medical care in the city. As far as I know, only two hospitals and an emergency facility in the convention center are currently operating. Emergency room patients, even those having serious symptoms like chest pains, routinely wait eight hours or more to be seen by a doctor. We have, I believe, 600 hospital beds in a city whose population is approaching (and may have surpassed) 250,000.

7. Most grocery stores, many drugstores, and countless other important retail establishments are only open until 5, 6, or at best 8:00 PM because of the lack of staffing. This is only an inconvenience for me, but it's crippling for people who work "normal" hours.

8. The city's recycling program has been suspended indefinitely. We talk about restoring the wetlands that could buffer us from another storm surge, but every day we throw away tons of recyclables that will end up in the landfills that help poison our wetlands.

9. Cadaver dogs and youth volunteers gutting houses are still finding bodies in the Lower Ninth Ward. Of course these corpses are just skeletons by now -- the other day they found a six-year-old girl with an older person, possibly a grandmother, located near her -- and they may never be identified. The bodies are hidden under debris piles and collapsed houses. This is in the same section of town that some of the politicians are aching to bulldoze.

10. Thousands of people who lived in public housing were forcibly removed from their homes. It is now being suggested by much of the current power structure, including our very liberal Councilman at Large Oliver Thomas, that they not be allowed back into these homes unless they can prove they had jobs before the storm or are willing to sign up for job training. (Many of you may agree with this, and I did too, sort of, until I really thought about it. Hadn't they already qualified for the housing? What about the ones who had jobs that don't exist anymore? How can they find jobs in New Orleans if they don't live here?)

11. There are still flooded, wrecked, and abandoned cars all over the streets, parked in the neutral grounds, and in many cases partly submerged in the canals out East. Now that it's campaign time, Mayor Nagin is trying to come up with a solution for this, but he thinks maybe we should wait for FEMA to do it (!!!!!) and he claims the best removal offer he's gotten so far was "written on the back of a napkin."

12. Many of the FEMA trailers -- you know, the ones costing taxpayers $70,000 each -- have been delivered to homeless New Orleanians but cannot be lived in because the city doesn't have enough people to come out and do electrical inspections, and the trailers need a separate hookup instead of being hooked into the house's power supply, and a dozen other damn fool things. While these trailers sit empty, there is an easily constructed, far more attractive structure called a "Katrina cottage" that could easily be built all over south Louisiana. It costs about $25,000 less than the flimsy, uncomfortable trailers. FEMA refuses to use it because they're not allowed to provide permanent housing.

13. A large percentage -- I've heard figures ranging from 60 to 75% -- of current New Orleanians are on some form of antidepressant or anti-anxiety drug. The lines at the pharmacy windows have become a running joke. When a visiting "expert" gave a Power Point presentation on post-traumatic stress disorder recently, the entire audience dissolved into hysterical laughter.