DocPop

Here is a comic I illustrated for a recent 826 Valencia field trip:






 

Scott Beale recently handed me a sticker that his friend from StickerGiant.com made. The sticker is an embroidered version of the Laughing Squid logo, and it looks great. Since there are only a few of these (10?), I was a little hesitant to just put it anywhere. Finally decided to just go ahead and sew it onto my Lovelife bag. I was worried the sticky tape on the back would gum up my machines needle, but it went smoothly.

What would you do if critics repeatedly chided you as a “misogynist”? Dave Sim, Cerebus creator and publisher of one of the longest running independent comics of all time, decided the best way to handle such a situation was to send out a form letter requiring anyone who wished to correspond with him to fill out and return with a note saying “I don’t believe that Dave Sim is a misogynist.”. “If you aren’t willing to extend that minimal courtesy to me,” he states “then I would respectfully ask that you not attempt to contact me in the future.”

You can read a scan of the original letter on the fantastic Inkstuds Blog, or hear their recent (and relatively rant free) interview with Dave here.

Sim, who often refers to women as “Emotional Female Void” and men as “Rational Male Light”, feels his reputation as a misogynist is ill deserved. In his letter Dave asks “What sort of friends and fans allow a friend or the person they are a fan of to be called the lowest, subhuman form of life in our society with impunity?”. The Dave Sim Misogyny Page is chock full of his quotes on gender and Heidi McDonald has an interesting piece on the subject in The Beat.

Recently Sim, who apparently favors good old pen and paper to computers, spent 100 Hours On the Internet to promote his new book Glamourpuss. Of course he was dogged with questions regarding his point of views on the opposite gender, which is no surprise given that Glamourpuss appears to be a parody of a women’s fashion magazine.

Although I am not willing to on the record and state that I feel Dave Sim is not a Misogynist, I will state that a terms of service of correspondence is a great idea! As a matter of fact, I have decided to enact my own Doctor Popular TOS on this very blog; by commenting, reading, hearing about, or in anyway thinking about Doctor Popular or DocPop.org, the user is hearby stating that they agree that “Doc Pop is the awesomest guy on the internet!”.

Once again it’s time for Maker Faire at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. As makers from across the globe gather in the Bay Area, it will certainly be interesting to see what effects social sites like Twitter and Dodgeball will have on how people organize throughout the weekend.

Last year I traversed the faire with my mighty PXL2000 and put together the attached video. The PXL2000 was made by Fisher-Price in the late 80’s. It shoots video on analog cassette tapes, the end result is obviously lo-fi and deliciously pixelated (hence the name). My PXL is heavily modified which you can see throughout the video.

My friend Paul Nathan has recently posted a video of his tour of the Distilleries Françoise Guy, one of the oldest absinthe distilleries in the world. The video follows the process from anise to absinthe. Paul has also posted a great blog about the tour on his Myspace blog.

If you live in the Bay, check out Paul’s Louche parties at Whisper SF. In fact, there’s one tonight.

Upon a cursory glance, building games for the iPhone would be a designers dream. The screen is huge (for a phone), the device is powerful, and then there’s those awesome touchscreen and accelerometer interfaces you get to work with. It doesn’t take long to realize that the novelty of the iPhones interface wears of quickly when trying to adapt it to a game. Using the touchscreen to control pieces often blocks the action in a scene and games that use the accelerometer’s interface give the gamer motion sickness. So far, what’s worked best on the iPhone has been to keep the game simple. So far, one of the most addictive games I’ve played has been CubicMan by Passionfools.

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Geek Entertainment TV is certainly no stranger to the world of nerdcore hip-hop, but now they’ve finally posted their SouthBySouthWest interview with the godfather of nerdcore; MC Frontalot.

In related news, MC Slutsky and I will be performing at Laughing Squid’s “Lucky 13” party at CELLspace on May 31st. I’ll be doing a few songs off of Me Geek Pretty One Day, and Irina and I will probably do our Vlog Deathmatch song.

I posted 3 new auctions to eBay this morning:

Rare Casio DM-100. Circuit bent by Highly Liquid, who also added a midi in. I’ve used this funky beast on several songs, including MC Frontalot’s Pr0n S0ng and several tracks on Me Geek Pretty One Day.

Nudie Jeans, “Straight Sven”. These are brand new, with tags. Size 29″ waist by 29″ inseam.

Imperial Denim, Raw King Black Selvage. Also new with tags and the same size; 29″ waist/29″ inseam.

Have you seen the advertising for Disney’s new Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian? It’s hard to miss, especially in our neighborhood. Movie banners are everywhere, including on the sides of MUNI buses.

I love the unfortunate awesome placement of one of the buses yellow reflectors over Prince Caspian’s face. Imagine this evil eye blinking on and off at you as the bus makes a turn. Can you say Scott Summers? I would love to see how the Chronicles of Narnia would deal with “the mutant problem”.

Man, I’m getting really hyped about going to the Missouri State Yo-Yo Contest next weekend. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, learning new yo-yo tricks, but most of all, I’m looking forward to hanging out at the City Museum… The most dangerous children’s park in the Midwest!

Seriously, I love the City Museum. The highlight of last years event was hanging out with my friends and climbing the through the CM’s pipes and tunnels. I’m looking forward to seeing what new additions they’ve added to the building. I still think they should consider using my mascot ideas:

I’ll be arriving Friday night, and will be hanging out until Monday morning. I’ll be judging all the yo-yo divisions and the diabolo freestyles too. BTW, A lot of people have been asking about when the next batch of Blue Bolts will be available, well I’ll be bringing 30 Blue Bolts to sell at MoYo to help pay for my trip.