« An Evening at DED HQ    --    LAST GASP CLOTHING SALE! »

Heeeeeeey Kids!

October 29, 2004

Hey kids, do you know what time it is?
No seriously, do you know what time it is?
Come on you stupid kids, someone just tell me the time?
Time for another “special edition“?
Oh. Okay.

Thank goodness that’s over with. Unlike the previous special edition, this one isn’t so much because the next episode is full of thousands of tiny miniature cuts of zombie-fu… It’s more about how much time is realistically required to get through the remaining three episodes without needing a month off to whip the monster finale (a.k.a. episode 48) into something resembling “shape”. CGI effects, cast of thousands, big song and dance number, clowns, jugglers, trained racoons, 3D-glasses, on-line voting, special guest appearance by Jeff Probst… It’s mammoth.

Okay maybe I made 90% of that up - but the episode is big. So no promises that this will be the last of the “special editions” but at least this way you’re (hopefully) not going to get them back to back after the hellacious cliff-hanger in 47.

Deal?

Deal.

On the right of the screen are a couple of buttons from everyone’s favourite on-line e-tailor Amazon, the US and Canadian variant respectively. The way that it works is that if you click on one of them before you buy something from Amazon, they donate part of the purchase price to us and we use it to buy Russian mail-order brides and grooms … I mean… To put against the monthly server costs. I’ve always found this a non-offensive sponsorship option as it doesn’t affect you guys in any way, you’re just buying stuff you would have bought anyway - but it’s interesting to see what gets purchased (no I can’t tell who bought what… But I do get an aggregate list).

This is a very long winded intro to pointing out that somehwere out there in the DED Audience is (are) (a) clever person (people) who bough Cory Doctrow’s excellent Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom AND Jen van Metre’s Hopeless Savages: Ground Zero in itself, not surprisng, except these were two of my favourite books from the last couple of months and couldn’t be farther apart. Doctrow (one of the founders of the cutting edge Blog BoingBoing.net and ex-pat Torontonian) is one of the best futurists working today. His Disneyland-set examination of a totally leisure society where all needs were provided for was fascinating. Now motivated only by status societies most common goal was striving to accumulate a kind of digital karma called “Whuffie” (needed to obtain the materials to do cool group projects and get even more “Whuffie”) smacks of almost-there realism. It clear to see where the influence of “credibility via community” (a la Slashdot could intersect with “Hey let’s use the Internet to do something cool” (a la… Uh… Dead End Days) to create Doctrow’s nuanced view of a “Bitchun” society. You don’t have to take my word for it though - the book’s available for free (along with all Cory’s other published works) on his website.

That’s right. You don’t have to buy squat. It’s right there in a myriad of formats. Just download it and read it.

I’ll admit, I’ve had his follow-up novel “Eastern Standard Tribe” partially-read on my hard drive for a couple months now, and I may break down and buy a pulp copy once DED is done and I can again do such frivalous things as “read books”… But that’s only because I don’t own a printer or an e-reader at the moment.

In contrast Jen Van Meter’s Hopeless Savages is… Well.. A comic book for starters. The irregular adventures of the Hopeless-Savage family chronicles the 21st Century life of now-aging Punk Stars Dirk Hopeless and Nikki Savage, and their four grown children, Rat, Arsenal, Twitch, and Zero. Kind of like “The Osbournes” for the Manga generation, it focuses on what happens when “alternative” becomes the status-quo. The various volumes of the book have had myriad tones and focuses (and IMHO levels of quality) but rarely the heartfelt earnestness of volume 2 (Ground Zero) which, amidst is crazy set-ups and unbelievable coincidences, manages to capture a universal aspect of “high school romance” without coming of saccharine or contrite. Perhaps a little John Hughes-ish at times, but a little mash never hurt anyone did it? Of course not. All you guys can stop rolling your eyes now, I saw you misting up during “The Breakfast Club”. Posers.

I actually hadn’t intended to write about either of these books, but since this is turning into a vague “things I like that came from Amazon this month” post, I’ll bump a comment I made a few months back just to add some CD-loving, by pointing out that track 4 from The Handsome Family’s excellent Singing Bones contains the best song ever about falling into a bottomless pit (both figuratively and literally) ever.

Huh. I wasn’t really sure where I was going with any of that, but I guess it’s done now. (Late night writing - where is it going? Even the writer doesn’t know!)

I had a whole clever political-type-rant to make in this space prior to the US Elections but I think I can paraphrase Firefox best and sum it up as such:

1972 - University students spend their time protesting the war and blowing each other up in multi-player computer games.

2004 - Oh how far we’ve come?

See you on election Tuesday for a production journal!

Congrats, you made it to the end. Here’s an addictive little flash game.

Comments

• Search for: