Jumpsuit G. Oversells’s hero is the great Richard Simmons — he’d at least love to be as butch as Richard — but for the moment his domain is middle-of-the-night infomercials, in which he impresses the Botox off of his co-host, Cindy Ex-Actress, while working up a sweat to KC and the Sunshine Band. He’s a ...
Via Gloria Brame, who gives good blog, this bit of silliness from (of all things) The Sun, reheated by Ananova. It’s probably nonsense, but it has a small whiff of plausibility about it. Are You Being Served isn’t remembered all that fondly in Britain – it was dated long before it ended, and operated on ...
I’ve been having fun watching the videos from the 2004 ACLU Membership Conference, which are available here. The Gala Dinner, ‘America at a Crossroads’, in particular has some great stuff. After Sandra Tsing Loh [Sweet Chariot] and John Sayles, Seymour Hersh wanders on and, in his low-key, self-effacing ...
There’s a short scene towards the end of Star Wars which, despite being shot carelessly, as if it were just tedious but necessary exposition, is hugely important to the film. Luke, Han, Leia and the droids have just escaped from the Death Star with its plans, and have done the hyperspace thing back to the ...
I found lots of good crunchy fibre in this piece by Tom Coates, What you should know before starting a doctorate. Having given up a PhD myself too, I empathised with a lot of the feelings of conflict, depression, failure, burning-out. I can’t speak too much for the argument that doctoral students consider their path ...
Walking westwards down Wilshire from our new apartment towards the commercial centre of Santa Monica, a funny but almost magical thing happens. The street that pumps like a main artery through the centre of LA seems to vanish into a blue haze in the distance. It’s the Pacific Ocean, of course, but it comes as ...
If it has to be endured, the least one should expect from spam is that it be entertaining. I’m kinda tickled by the recent rush of spam appearing to come from people with names apparently dragged from some random generator, yet which capture something. It’s probably just me seeing pattern where there is none, ...
About our new dishwasher… A couple of years ago I taught a course called ‘Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Programming’ — largely because I was available when no-one else was. It turned out to be great fun, and not least because I’d been through the same course one year as a student, and ...
Sitting in a deli the other day, having lunch, I was battling with the thixotropic brattiness of a new bottle of Heinz ketchup. I’d shaken it vigorously, and was whacking the bottom, to little effect. A girl from a couple of tables away leaned across and gave some advice. Tap on the ’57’ with the ...
This timely, pertinent, and wholly depressing little piece from LA Weekly about Dick Cheney’s outburst. Hooray for the Guardian, and not for the first time. This Victorian veil that’s drawn over certain good solid words in popular media drives me slightly nuts. It’s even more baffling in this case, since ...