Is Sex on A Boat Your Idea of A Vacation/Holiday?

Then you need to head to Lake Balaton resort. The Hungarian Tourism authority is circulating an email with a link that features a short cartoon of a woman who picks up a man in a bar and then... oh, just check it out for yourself.

Little Girl Giant

Rikki Simon, who does the voice of Gir for Invader Zim (among other things) has an online journal called The Sad Circus By the Sea. He posted this amazing video of an oversized marionette called The Little Girl Giant on his site a few days ago, proclaiming it to be the greatest thing on the internet. I was absolutely mesmerized. This is the coolest thing I have seen in a loooooong time.

Animated Fractals

I have an inexplicable love of fractal imagery, so I was extremely pleased to run across this site of animated fractals completely by accident. I suggest that you heed the host's recommendation of downloading the videos to your computer and then playing them, as certain browsers can be troublesome.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond: Syd Barrett 1946-2006

Last Friday, Roger “Syd” Barrett, died at his home in Cambridge at the age of 60. Though no cause of death had been reported as of this post, he was known to have been battling diabetes for some time. Barrett was co-founder, singer, guitarist and songwriter of Pink Floyd. His indelible mark was their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967. Barrett’s failing mental health (no doubt fueled by an abuse of drugs) caused such disruption and turmoil, that he either left or was fired from the band partly into the recording of their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets.

After two years of hiding out, Barrett reemerged in 1970 with two solo albums, The Madcap Laughs, and Barrett. Both found him supported by his ex-bandmates (including his PF replacement, Dave Gilmour, who produced most of the recordings). The albums are folky with a slapdash, sometimes chaotic quality about them, but Barrett’s humor, thoughtful wordplay and infectious tunesmithing are sharply evident amidst an underlying cauldron of bubbling madness. So influential and coveted were these recordings that practically every vault has been ransacked over the years for unreleased tracks, out-takes, alternate takes, demos and BBC variations.

Barrett’s decaying mental state contributed heavily to his abandoning his musical career and living in self-exile by the mid-1970s. His former bandmates insured he was funded with royalties. Otherwise, he had divorced himself from his place in rock history for the last 30 plus years.

Barrett’s mental deterioration was thematically explored (fictionally, of course) on both Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. PF’s song, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is by and large considered the ultimate tribute to him. There is no praise I could offer Syd Barrett that hasn’t been done more eloquently elsewhere. If you search web news sites, you’ll find no shortage of reactions to his death. This is one from David Bowie.

Mark Mothersbaugh’s Moist Towelettes

A few days ago my friend, Anthony, graces my inbox with a simple link... no explanation save for the subject line: Website for the “wtf” files. I click on only to find a site devoted entirely to the wonder of moist towelettes. Moist towelettes of all shapes, sizes and uses from all over the world. If you contribute a minimum of 10 to the site you can qualify for a gallery page. Rev. Toth Wilder from Church of Subgenius is a prolific contributor. But right there at the top of the list is former Devo co-founder and current composer Mark Mothersbaugh. Mark has contributed 70 plus MTs, many of which he adorned with his own art.

Perry Bible Fellowship Moves and Introduces More Dimensions of its Creator

If you’ve never heard of the Perry Bible Fellowship, it’s probably not what you think. PBF is arguably the most intriguing comic strip out and is the product of the multi-talented Nicholas Gurewitch. Not only is PBF philosophical, thoughtful and comical in one fell swoop, it encompasses a wide range of artist styles from stark, raw geometrical figures to highly detailed exquisitely rendered paintings. Gurewitch’s sense of humor is equally eclectic ranging from “go for the laugh” punchlines to oblique concepts that sink in upon reflection. “A Hit for Bobby”, sets up the classic B-Movie scenario of a professional baseball player promising a “hit” for a bed-ridden child, then ends with the player (a pitcher, we discover) beaning a batter which erupts into a televised brawl... all to the glee of the hospitalized kid. In another strip, a dragon sleeping on mountain-side has it’s paw dipped into a cauldron of warm liquid by local villagers. The third panels shows the village being washed away in a yellow flood. This simple toilet humor is elevated by being beautifully rendered in an artistic parody of classic Chinese scroll painting. Gurewitch’s world encompasses everything from the microscopic to the cosmically universal, sometimes resulting in collisions in what the late Douglas Adams might call “a terrible miscalculation of scale.”

The move to the new site, www.thepbf.com (if you get the “moving very soon” page just click on the stilltemporary link) not only makes it more accessible (I sometimes had problems with certain browsers on the old site) but offers several new features. Aside from the comics, there are added bio, links and contact pages. The real payoff are the links to Gurewitch’s non-comic art and a small collection of fascinating short films and videos. Many of the films are or could be extensions of his comics. However, his mini-documentary “SEW” (about obsessive compulsive disorder) and an 11 minute epic, “The Liars”, are the definite highlights.

PS: Thanks to Frippy who turned me on to the PBF some time back.

Google Makes It Into the Dictionary

It’s official, Google is now a verb. Reuters reports that the term is one of the 100 new words added to the 2006 update of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Other words and terms added include mouse potato, himbo (I like the Seinfeld variation, mimbo, better), soul patch, supersize, and drama queen.

Although not included, I agree with the American Dialect Society (among others) that the 2005 Word of the Year was Steven Colbert’s late-comer: truthiness.