The best spam ever

I got the my favorite spam of all time. It came with the subject line "day care" and followed with this amazing prose-poetry. I very much want to know more about the Tibetans Mordecai and Rait, and our mysterious narrator who promises two sets of twins to the wind. The worst part was the lame image attached. Not nearly as original.

Then there was nothing for it but to take those two Tibetans withus. Understand, these people think that Mordecai and Rait wereone and the same person. Theres a monk in the firstniche in the passage. But there was that dead horse, and Iwas starving hungry. They have made their winterquarters in a little monastery near here and were easy to find. Theres a British resident, anda Moravian mission, and astronomers up at the observatory. Tsang-Mondrong and Tsang-yang were our chief perplexity. Next day after that they changed my cell mate. Well, you cant start while the storm lasts, he said presently. We could not quiet him until Narayan Singh crawled out and pretendedto scout through the storm. Some of em asked to see it, but I only showedthe tube what it was in. The room he had brought us into was a large one, heavily beamedand ceilinged with hewn planks. According to Grims theory, that is the secret of the strength oftheir enduring race. Neat they tries to setmy friends house afire. Chullunder Ghose seizedhis hands and slapped the backs of them. Comes five of the Tibetans after me, reckoning theyll catch metheir side of the Zogi-la. I helped him to enter Tibet but I never heard ofhim again. He has said hewill visit my house tonight. I lost the way, and it stormed, covering up my tracks and theirs,too. I guess a cow feels that way in the shambles. I was put in witha monk who had to tell me all the passwords. I have known quite a number of men who have entered Tibet, heanswered, many more than you imagine.

What Id rubbed on warmed me and I didnt hurt so much, but my headbursts every step I take.Presently a bell rings, and theres silence.Night marches are almost impossible, and by daylight it is hopelessto try to escape observation.Narayan Singh coveredhim with an extra overcoat. I makes the horse step lively, and thesnow coming from behind me covers up the tracks.Half a dozenmay have found it but I think all the others perished.If theyd skin you,that ud be a mild thing! I am perhaps a little wiser than I was, but it may be I am onlylazy and afraid. There came a more than usually violent gust of wind that seemedto shake the earth. I promises her two sets o twins in three years. What Id rubbed on warmed me and I didnt hurt so much, but my headbursts every step I take. Presently a bell rings, and theres silence. Night marches are almost impossible, and by daylight it is hopelessto try to escape observation. Narayan Singh coveredhim with an extra overcoat. I makes the horse step lively, and thesnow coming from behind me covers up the tracks. Half a dozenmay have found it but I think all the others perished. If theyd skin you,that ud be a mild thing! I am perhaps a little wiser than I was, but it may be I am onlylazy and afraid. There came a more than usually violent gust of wind that seemedto shake the earth. I promises her two sets o twins in three years.

Root Down

I went to ROOT division's 2nd Saturday event this week and was really impressed by both the space, the scene and the art. My favorite pieces were by Melissa Hutton who did the chairs at Brainwash back in the day. Her latest stuff has some amazing colors and really pop in a pleasant way while still playing of nolstalgia imagry. Nice stuff.

All-natural, locally sourced, trans-fat-free IT'S IT

Intetresting that IT'S IT would produce a special sandwich just for Googlers, as revealed at Official Google Blog: I scream for (Google) ice cream. I wonder if they are considering offering this "elternative" IT'S IT to the general public (without the Google co-branding of course). I for one would be interested. I love me some IT'S IT, but all-natural, locally-source, trans-fat-free, that sounds great too.

"1 Way Ticket" to ride

I don't read a lot of web-comics, but this one looks like a good one. It's a rock 'n' roll comic with those heavy, sloppy inks I like with a definite Paul Pope influence. It's hard to really see where the plot is going in just two pages, but they're nice looking pages. The artist is Daniel Warner, new name, but some one that could be worth watching.

Lucky 13?

All the talk around Al Gore's movie Inconvenient Truth reminded me of this sea-level rise Google map mash-up San Francisco flood map. Turns out my place is good up to 13 meters, but a few more feet puts water at my doorstep. Not so bad, but the funny thing is that the Marina and the Mission both get hit pretty hard. Hmmm, it might be nice to hold onto those ice caps.

The Walking Dead vs. Lost

I'm a late convert to the TV series LOST, and just watching the 12th episode last night where Claire is taken by Ethan and Charlie nearly dies. It was excellent TV and expertly written. Then this morning I was thinking of Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof's introduction to the latest collection of Robert Kirkman's comic book series Invincible.

"LOST is a comic book... Or like one... Here's two things I learned from reading a gazillion comic books:

Thing One: I like lots and lots and lots of characters. I get bored easily, so the Justice League is infinitely more compelling then just Superman alone. The X-Men rock harder then Wolverine's solo albums...and even the Midnighter can't hold my interest for too long if you strip away The Authority.

Thing Two: I like my stories complicated and sprawling. I want surprises. I want to be rewarded for being a loyal reader... like I'm part of a secret society. I don't want to be spoon-fed. I want to think. I want to be part of a universe where anything can happen... and often does. And I like RISK.

Robert Kirkman has mastered Thing One and Thing Two."

Damon's absolutely right, but the series that actually illustrates this the best is his other creator owned series The Walking Dead. While LOST chickens out and lets Charlie live, The Walking Dead regularly kills off major members of it's sprawling cast. Kirkman has written that no one is safe in this series, not even the main protagonist, Rick. And I believe it. Rick just recently lost a hand to a sadistic survivalist-warlord. I don't feel the same sense of danger for LOST's Jack. In TV, star actors are usually hired for entire seasons and are rarely let go mid-season. But for comics, any character can be written out at any time, all of them just lines on paper. And that's big part of why comics can take bigger risks. Of course, in mainstream super-hero comics like Superman and Spiderman, no one can stay dead for long, but outside of the icons, character can die and stay dead. And in creator-owned project anything goes. No matter, how big a TV show runner is, they don't have that kind of freedom. So while LOST is very well done and I'm may be surprised by latter episodes, it seams clear that The Walking Dead "rocks harder" to use Damon's parlance, just because it takes a lot more risks and really ANYTHING can happen. The structure of TV just doesn't offer those possibilities, no matter how quirky and off-beat a series is.

UPDATE:

Okay, I'm wrong. Lost does take some major risks and will kill off main characters. The writers are doing it right, and writing along the lines of some of the best comics.

Milked Almonds

My family was macrobiotic when I was a kid. So since we didn't eat any dairy, we made almond cream for our waffles instead of whip cream. It was a fairly involved process of soaking the almonds, pealing off the skins and then blending them with the right amount of water. It was actually really good stuff that I miss. So imagine my surprise to find out that almond milk is being sold commercially now, by Blue Diamond no less! They're selling it as Almond Breeze®, which I think is a pretty strange name. Part of me is amazed that milk alternatives have come so far in 25 years, but another part of me is horrified that corporate almond growers are finding new avenues to sell their products. But it tastes pretty good, though not as good as homemade. Makes me want to make my own Almond cream though....

Saucers Sighted

This weekend I went and saw my sister, Slyvia's latest play, The Farmington Armada. It's a series of mostly comedic shorts, all based on a 1950 newspaper account of several days of regular saucer sights in Farmington, NM. Sylvia has roles in two of the most surreal scenes, one of which she plays a "visiting" bartender that literally pulls it out it's ass. Certainly needs to be seen to be appreciated.

Alan Moore' Lost Girls

This week the Onion's A.V. Club has an excellent interview with the incomparable Alan Moore in anticipation of the long awaited "Lost Girls". I remember hearing about this project back in the early nineties, when it was first started, but after sometime it took on a semi-mythic status as the Alan Moore pornography project that would never get published. So a few months ago, I was a bit surprised to hear rumblings that it was actually going to see print. I have to admit I had some hesitations about ordering the massive thing, but ultimately decided I needed to see it myself to see what I thought.

I'm definitely intrigued after reading this interview and seeing him write so intelligently and passionately about the book and the status of pornography and sex in Anglo-American culture. I think if it doesn't challenge my own sensibilities a bit, I may be disappointed.