March 23, 2006
Uncollected
1. I finally got around to picking up Firefly, if only to see what all the fuss was about. Imagine my surprise when I suddenly realized that it is one of my favorite shows of all time. When Lileks said that it was mash-up of sci-fi and western I thought he was being metaphorical, but lo and behold he was quite literal. There are spaceships and horses. Terraformed planets and six-shooters. Plasma rifles and cattle rustlers. There are hover cars and space stations and train-heists and deserts.
That being said, the storyline totally revolves around the people in it, unique for sci-fi, which are usually so self-indulgent in special effects and cool-factors that they neglect to give any flesh and bone to their crew. Why develop a character when you can just blow him up? Anywho, Firefly? I love it. Love it, love it, love it. It reminds me of Cowboy Bebop, with that whole freelance ass-kicking mentality. Makes me want to go out and buy a handgun.
2. Sufjan Stevens’ Come On Feel The Illinoise! is one of the most beautiful albums I’ve ever heard. The guy is a master of lyrics and composition. His songs are straight-up orchestral, regularly featuring strings and horns and flutes and english horns. I feel like I’ve known these songs my entire life, and only now am I finally hearing them. This album plucks a string within my soul, and it seriously resonates that deep.
3. Jake Ingman is my new bestest buddy, and Shaun Inman’s most arch-nemesis. His hobbies include battling cockroaches, taking photographs of things, and four-wheeling through my neighborhood. We actually had a panel at this year’s SXSW, much to everyone’s surprise and dismay. He has a new website called Ready to Fail. Go wish him luck, and steal from him all hopes of obscurity that he currently harbors. Watch out, though, cuz the guy is brilliant. He could probably flay you with his mind.
4. It’s official. I have my own tag on Flickr. Go witness the tragedy that is my own obscurity.
5. Do you love fonts? Do you have fonts you love to hate? You might get a kick out of Copperplated, my latest attempt at cluttering up the internet with garbage. Don’t let me have all the fun; feel free to submit your own stuff, too.
6. Hate JavaScript but love the Document Object Model? Me too! Pick up Jeremy Keith’s book DOM Scripting. Written for designers and other non-code affectionados, this book (and his panel at SXSW) was just the kick out the door I needed to begin tinkering with good JavaScript. Start writing scripts that are unobtrusive, degrade gracefully, and work in all modern browsers without the ugly hacks of yesterday. This book has already saved me a butt-load of time and frustration.
7. I really need to start emptying out my gym bag immediately after I get back from the Y. Geez, that stuff is starting to fester.
FIREFLY! Yeah, it’s surprisingly good, picked it up to see what the fuss was about, and it ended up being something like a doomed love affair, cut too short for lack of time. Agree with you on Cowboy Bebop, another amazing show. Have you seen Samurai Champloo? Same creative team as Bebop.
Heh, doomed indeed. I suppose I kind of like it for that reason, knowing that I’m getting involved in a finite universe that isn’t going to consume every waking moment of my life. Which, for how obsessed I am with Firefly the way it is, I know would become the case if it ran for a couple years.
It’s the same reason I avoid World of Warcraft. If I got involved in that stuff and realized I enjoyed it, I’d stop sleeping and eating. They would find my wasted body slumped over my PowerMac.
Samurai Champloo, eh? I’ll have to check that one out, as it looks pretty cool. Thanks for the tip, Dave!