Blast from the Past

Watch these in order. It's much funnier that way. Sorry I couldn't embed the second one.



And now Seth Green's take on it.

Neil Gaiman on Novels, 'Graphic Novels,' Movies and More

So for those of you who don't know, Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite modern writers evah. I've read just about everything he's ever written, and some of the comic books (also known as graphic novels, the difference between which he goes into). If you haven't read Neverwhere, which is darkly humorous and really original, or American Gods, which mixes up mythologies in a really wonderful way for anyone who's ever loved the stories of the old gods, or the Sandman graphic novels, which are beautiful and dark and full of magic and mystery, you are completely missing out and need to go read one or all of them now. He also co-wrote the screenplays for the movie version of his novel Stardust and the 2007 Beowulf movie, if you saw those.

Anyway, long story short, he was interviewed on Google. It's fun stuff, full of jokes and back-story, and you should go watch it.



Cross-posted at WTF is a Hoosier?

RIP, George Carlin

George Carlin died yesterday. He will be greatly missed. He was both brilliantly funny and sharply insightful, a combination that is all too rare and incredibly important, and his nonstop questioning of authority and willingness to push at the limits of perceived acceptable humor were...well, inspirational. He was going to receive the Mark Twain prize in November, and I really can't think of a comedian more deserving of it. His wry humor and dedication to free speech and language were very much in Twain's tradition.

I first encountered his humor several years ago, in the book aisle at Target. I used to hang out there while my mom was shopping; one day I picked up one of his books, Napalm and Silly Putty, and proceeded to giggle like a maniac for the next 15 or 20 minutes. After a few minutes my mom came to join me; she picked up another copy and laughed with me. People were giving us very strange looks and hesitating to enter the aisle; we probably looked like deranged maniacs, but we weren't. He was just that funny.

Here's one of my favorite clips, a monologue on the Ten Commandments. You may or may not have heard it, but take a few minutes to watch it and mourn his loss.



Cross-posted at WTF is a Hoosier?

But They're Just Helping Out!

Every bit of angry union brat in me is screaming.

I hate the contractors in Iraq. Hate. Blackwater and Halliburton and all of them...and it isn't just because I'm opposed to the war. Their incompetence and endangerment of lives fills me with a deep and righteous fury.

The gods wept

I know it's wrong to dwell on the past. I know that. Al Gore may have won the election, but he isn't president, and I have to accept that and move on.

But when I found this video over at Shakespeare's Sister, I laughed -- then almost cried. And I do not cry easily. It's just so fucking depressing...