Author: ahniwa

Categories
book poetic

Poem of the day

Because some days, you need a poem.

Down by the Salley Gardens – WB Yeats

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

Categories
art book cinema

Tintin and I

TintinFrom 1929 to 1982, Tintin entertained us with his adventures as he traveled across the world, traversing danger and mystery with aplomb.  Tonight, PBS' P.O.V. premiers a documentary of Tintin and its creator, Hergé.  It's not playing here until the 20th, sadly, but maybe I can catch the Oregon broadcast somehow.  Click here to check your local showtimes.

Both character and creator were unambiguous. Tintin was literally and emblematically a Boy Scout who always lived up to the Boy Scout code, no matter how dire, dark, strange or adult the situation. Tintin was the ideal with which Hergé totally identified. But, as revealed in Anders Østergaard's "Tintin and I," it was the treacherous and uncertain world around Tintin into which Hergé poured the reality of his own life. Based on 14 hours of audio interviews recorded in 1971 — heard here for the first time — "Tintin and I" shows that Hergé, while trying in life to live up to the idealized Tintin, ended up creating in art a powerful graphic record of the 20th century's tortured history.

(via comixpedia)

Categories
wordpress

The Dancing Librarian has moved.

Subscribers to my old "library" blog, The Dancing Librarian at exlibrius.org, may have noticed that I stopped posting to it, and that as of yesterday the feed title is now ahniwa.com.  I started to feel like having multiple sites to post about multiple topics was simply unmanageable, so I've moved EVERYTHING (including all my old blog entries from my old blogspot blog) over to this site.  One thing to maintain and tinker with, and it's got my name on it to boot.

You needn't change your feed subscription at all.  I've taken care of it for you.  Specifically, you'll receive feed of all the posts on ahniwa.com that would used to have been posted on The Dancing Librarian.  This will probably amount to most of the posts I write, though it may exclude some posts that I don't feel are pertinent (i.e. more personal posts).  If you'd like to subscribe to the whole shebang, point your aggregator over to http://feeds.feedburner.com/ahniwa and you'll be golden.

In either case, I'll continue to post stories and links to things I find interesting, mostly involving technology, webcomics, art & illustration, and other sundry and miscellaneous morsels.  Enjoy, and for the feed-readers, feel free to stop in on the site anytime and say hi, leave me a comment, and let me know that you're out there.  I'm maintaining this site for me, mostly, but it's always nice to know other people might enjoy it from time to time as well.

Cheers, Ahniwa

Categories
art

Three artists for a Saturday

Reading through PC Magazine today I paused over a full-page illustration for an article titled "Do You Know Where Your Kids Are Clicking?"  The illustration (viewable here) is by artist Asaf Hanuka, who lives in Tel Aviv and who does a lot of amazing commercial work.  His blog is particularly interesting because he illustrates (pardon the pun) the process of planning out sketches, which sketches are chosen, and the final polishing for commercial use.  He also has some great illustrations up on his site, as well as a link to a comic he does called Bipolar.Andrea Offerman

With a little blog-hopping, I also came across Andrea Offerman and Tomislav Torjanac, who are both certainly worth a look if you have an extra minute.  All three artists submitted illustrations for a Life of Pi competition, which makes for interesting comparisons in themes and styles (apparently it was Tomer and not Asaf who entered the competition).

Categories
humor

Look Around You

If you enjoy deadpan British humor, you owe it to yourself to check out Look Around You, a whimsical bit of mock-science that originally aired on the BBC.  They're all great, but Look Around You: Maths might be my fave.

(via ryan)

Categories
book news

His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I

I should have known that Gaiman's Emperor of the United States from the Sandman series would be based on a real character.  I guess I'd just never thought about it that closely.  Definately someone to add to my list of people, living or dead, it would be awesome to meet.  I wonder if anyone still has some empire money lying around.

(via an r. stevens lj comment)

Categories
socialweb

Cuddle Party

Cuddle Party is pretty much what it sounds like: a platonic snuggle-fest.  It may be the coolest idea ever conceived.  Aside from the downright neatness of it all, their website is pretty entertaining as well.  I would say more, but really, I think cuddling sells itself. 

(via pcmag)

Categories
music socialweb

MySpace Music

Most of us who use MySpace have something of a love/hate relationship with it. Let's be honest, I find it damn useful.  Whether for tracking down friends, keeping up to date, or sending annoying bulletins (about important events, NOT pointless surveys), it's pretty handy.  Oh yeah, and for pretending you're an internet sleuth, aka being a total voyeur.  On the other hand, the code is complete shit, the whorebots are annoying as hell, and as soon as people start using MySpace they seem to lose about 30 IQ points.

Still, one thing I like about MySpace is the music scene, and that makes sense because that's how MySpace got its start.  If I hear a random band, I can find out who it is, and then chances are I can find it on MySpace and listen to a few songs.  Sure, some bands have websites; some of those websites have streaming audio; some even have videos.  But MySpace is a one-stop shop, and you don't have to click through quite as many splash pages with annoying if artsy flash designs to get to the music.  Plus, MySpace just restructured the music search engine, making it a bit easier to find the stuff you're looking for.

That said, here are a few bands I've discovered through MySpace.

The Jetsons proclaim themselves as "retro dance rock from the future", which is probably pretty accurate.  Their tunes are jangly, annoyingly catchy, and instrumentally tight.  Jules Jetson also has one of the best singing voices, ever, at least for this kind of music though I could see her doing well pretty much anywhere.  I should probably mention that in a complicated fashion I'm sort of related to Jake Jetson, and that we used to play Magic together a lot back in '98.  Aside from that, though, the music is great, and I'm really excited that they seem to be getting noticed and really going places with their music.  If you like them, be sure to swing over to their NME music page and drop them a vote.

June Madrona is a local Olympia band that focus mostly on folky instrumentation and heart-wrenching ballads, i.e. very pretty songs.  They're signed with Bicycle Records, a local indie label on the rise, and have one album available to purchase with a second one on the way, eventually.  Ross Cowman, who does guitar and vocals for June Madrona, has a solo album available as well, which is certainly worth checking out.  I ordered both albums from the Bicycle website and was surprised when Ross knocked on my door and delivered them personally (since he had been riding by on his bike), and then we ended up hanging out and chatting for a couple hours.  They play live a lot, so if you enjoy their music, it's easy to catch a show.

Changing gears a bit, Bitter:Sweet is a poppy trip-hop group that sounds like it should have done the soundtrack for the No One Lives Forever line of video games.  They're already popular, and not local, so I don't feel as much like I might be turning you on to a "hidden gem", but they still sound absolutely fantastic, and if you like trip-hop (and even if you think you don't), you should definately check them out.

Zofka is also described as sounding "futuristic and retro at the same time".  Is there a specific genre for this sort of thing?  Neo-retro?  If not, perhaps there should be, because it seems to be music that I enjoy.  In any case, they sent me a friend request out of the blue the other day, and I've been enjoying their sound.  Sometimes it's nice when bands can find you; another MySpace perk.

Last but not least, I heard a band called Smoke City whilst perusing a surf/board shop in Friday Harbor this last weekend, and I had to ask the salesdude who was playing.   The song playing was probably their most popular at the moment, Underwater Love, and I made sure to remember the band's name for the rest of the weekend until I got home and could check them out. Underwater Love really enchants me, and the rest of their music is top-notch as well.  I've only recently realized that I'm a fan of trip-hop, and now find I may be a fan of nu-jazz as well.  Having expansive musical taste is exhausting.

But I couldn't live without it. 

Categories
art humor webcomics

To boldly Tweep where no man has Tweeped before.

I read a lot of webcomics review sites.  I read Websnark, obvs, with pleasure.  When the Webcomics Examiner posts articles, I enjoy those too.  I have a love/hate relationship with Fleen, though I do at least skim it on a daily basis.  I read Drunk Comic Reviews before they hung up their hats flasks, and I check out Comixpedia when I feel the whim.

I enjoy reading about webcomics almost as much as I enjoy reading webcomics, but that's not the point of this post.  The point is, none of these sites, in my mind, mention Tweep often enough, and Tweep charms the hell outta me.

And today's comic pays homage to My Fair Lady.

However, aside from individual strips, there is a lot that Tweep does on a consistent basis that impresses me, and that I don't see a lot elsewhere.  For one thing, the art style is unique.  Granted, if you look at the early strips, it looks like Ben drew the comic out in Paint.  But he's been at it for over three years now, and his style has come a long way and really smoothed out.  Wanna check the progress, quick-like?

Here's an example from March 19th, 2003.

And one from March 17th, 2004.

From March 2nd, 2005 (contains street pirates!). 

And finally from March 8th, 2006 (with a Beckett reference!).

Ben has come a long way, and obviously put a lot of effort into making Tweep look polished, and I think he's done a good job.  The characters are distinct, sassy, and colorful.  He also likes to employ pictures in place of dialogue (example), which as a technique I think could fall way short if not done properly, but here it is pulled off very well.  The story wanders a lot, and honestly, if you go through the archives, I don't particularly recommend reading the entire To Catch a Rabbit storyline, and to be fair you're offered the chance to skip it under each strip.  But then, I guess if you really like rabbits and old movies, then maybe you'll really enjoy it.  You know … if you're into that kind of thing.

Aside from his occassional and lengthy asides, the story in Tweep mainly deals with a handful of twenty-something kids out there in the world, watching movies, falling in love, working in cafes and music stores, being poor, buying food, and making art.  And sometimes, just sometimes, it has space monkeys.

I'm not sure why Tweep doesn't get mentioned more often, but there ya go.  I've done my part, at least.  Now, go get your Tweep on.

These Tweepish peeps say this comic is for keeps.

Categories
art humor

Spider-Man Comes Out of his Web

As part of the Super-Hero Registration Act, Spider-Man bravely stepped forward to reveal that his name is Peter Parker and that he's been Spider-Man since he was 15 years old.  Good on ya, Petey.  Originally covered by the New York Post , but be sure to check out Gawker's coverage as well. (via Comic Foundry )

Categories
internet wordpress

WordPress Theme Viewer and Plugins

Picking a WordPress theme is like buying a car.  It feels like a big decision, and there are lots of shiny options available.  Themes, of course, are much less expensive than cars, but to date they've also been more difficult to find.  Most sites list themes by name, with little or no rating system and very few sorting options.  I found this to be less than a little helpful and more than a lot aggravating.  But that all changed on June 17th with the launch of the WP Theme Viewer.

Theme Viewer allows you to sort by any number of options, including number of columns, color, widget-readiness, width style, and even sidebar side-preference.  You are also shown a thumbnail of the theme, the number of times it's been downloaded, and the average rating.  The accompanying blog is handy for keeping up to date on changes, additions, and theme news.

Of course, if you're not that interested in searching and installing a theme yourself, updating to WordPress 2.0.3 offers fifty included themes, all washed and polished and ready to drive home today.  This theme was one of them, and I'm quite fond of it so far.

While I'm talking about WordPress:

The WordPress Widgets Blog has updates and downloads of the newest widgets that you didn't know you needed.

Archivist is a plugin that allows you to post a selected number of random archived posts on your front page. 

WP-Alexify pulls website thumbnails from Alexa.com and previews them when people scroll over your links. 

EditorMonkey is a huge plugin that replaces the default WordPress text editor with a TinyMCE or FCKeditor WYSIWYG editor.  It integrates spellcheck as well as find/replace and advanced link options, and is very customizable.  (Evidently WordPress 2.1 will incorporate spellcheck as well, but why wait?)

The Feedburner Feed Replacement plugin allows you to route your RSS feed into Feedburner, which gives you many more options regarding your feed, as well as keeping track of feed statistics and making your feed universally readable.  Note that while this plugin streamlines the process a bit that it isn't strictly necessary for setting up your WP blog with Feedburner.  If you do end up using the Feedburner service, you should probably update your feeds autodiscovery links, as described here.

Google Sitemaps creates a Google compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog.

Last but not least, Ultimate Tag Warrior, which has been around forever and may be the most well known plugin (after Akismet), lets you tag the holy hell out of your posts, and gives you plenty of options for how to display those tags (or not, as the case may be).

I may be a little plugin happy, I admit, but those are the ones I use and I love them all.  I'm also planning on adding a "nicer archives" plugin, once I can find one that says it works in WordPress 2.0+, and I'd like a stat tracker as well.  If you have suggestions for either, please do tell.

Categories
art

Gobelins Students’ Blogs

Il me semble que …

Oops, sorry, I've been reading too much French this morning.  Hmm?  Why have I been reading French?  Because I've been perusing French blogs, of course!  Namely, I found that there are a ton of Gobelins animation students who have personal blogs, and they've posted some fantastic art.  And hey, since it's art, you don't even have to worry about that French bit.  You know … unless you want to.

nenette

Geneviève Godbout is a 2D animation student at Gobelins from Quebec.  She worked on one of my favorite of the Annecy films, Sébastien.  The work on her blog is soft, luscious, and playful.lasco

Mr Fabulon is a 3D animation student, and worked on the Annecy film Cocette Minute.  His artwork appears a little more abstract, the pages are generally busier, but it's all good, and certainly worth a look.

Also be sure to check out: Polyminthe and Seï and Monster Shop and Julien and and and … and then just link-hop to your heart's content, as I did, because there's a ton there to enjoy.

Categories
book

For love of (book) covers

In her article, Allow us to judge a book by its cover, Rachel Cooke quotes Anne Fadiman:

In her collection of essays, Ex Libris, the bibliophile Anne Fadiman writes that just as there is more than one way to love a person, there is more than one way to love a book. Those who revere first editions and pretty covers, who worry about sun damage to spines and despise pencil notes in margins, are courtly lovers. Those who split open books as if they were ripe fruit, who dog-ear pages and use paperbacks as table mats, are carnal lovers.

It was just such a tasty passage, I had to share.  (via pixelcharmer) 

Categories
tech

Google Spreadsheets

Now you can work on spreadsheets collaboratively, online, thanks to Google Spreadsheets.  Just more proof that Google can make anything sexy.  Even spreadsheets.

Categories
tech

BumpTop Hip-Hop

BumpTop is a prototype desktop management system that organizes your computer desktop in much the same way as your actual work desk might be arranged. Plus, they rap!

Watch the lengthier, less hip-hoppitty video for an explanation of features like Dragoncross Drag n'Cross, and to hear them say "lass-ooh" (lasso) a lot. Personally, I'd like to organize my workdesk to be more like my computer's desktop, rather than the other way around, but it's still neat!

(via Gear Live )

Categories
art cinema

Gobelins, L’Ecole des Sorciers

If you've not yet seen them, every year the animation students at Gobelins, L'Ecole de l'Image, submit a handful of short, animated films for the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.  All of these films are absolutely beautiful, and many of them use image very effectively to communicate ideas, transcending language barriers (or I hope so for your sake, since most of them are in French).

All of the films are available on the Gobelins website, and they're all worth watching.  They date back to 2002, and the older ones are definately simpler than the new batch from 2006.  Theo recently observed that the animation industry in France has boomed since the success of The Triplets of Belleville, an animated film by Sylvain Chomet that ran against Finding Nemo and Brother Bear for best animated film at the 2004 Academy Awards.  In a sense, Triplets is the culmination of a French animation boom that began in 1998 with Kirikou et la sorcièr, a film by Michel Ocelot that may have been the first French animated film to challenge Disney's domination of the market.  (story here)

France is the largest producer of animation in Europe, and the third-largest producer worldwide (following Japan and the United States).  Even American directors are looking to French animators for help creating their films.  Steven Spielberg recruited animators from Gobelins for help with his film, Prince of Egypt.  In many ways, the French animation industry is still getting off the ground.  Compared to Disney and Japanese animation studios, France is the new kid on the block.  But they've proven that they can bring something new to the scene, and that they can do it with a certain je ne sais quoi that I find lacking in a lot of American animation these days.

Unfortunately, there are a tonne of European animated films that are not making it into the US.  I have no idea why more US distributors aren't chomping at the bit to sell these movies in the States.  Disney recently started distributing all of the Studio Ghibli films, and they've been selling like hotcakes to American audiences.  If you're not sure what you're missing, Animation World Magazine has an extensive list of animated films made in Europe that you've likely never heard of.  While you're waiting patiently for the next Chomet film to come out (like this one), make some online noise to get these other films released on DVD in the US.  If you pull it off then I'll be greatly in your debt.

In the meantime, Renaissance will be released on film in the US this September.  You can get a quick Chomet fix with this excellent commercial he created.  And finally, to get back to the point of this post, you should go watch the short films by the students at Gobelins:

2002 — 2003 — 2004 — 2005 & 2006  

For extra credit, once you've watched Pyrats, be sure to check out their website detailing the creation of the film, as well as their blog.

(links via Drawn!, lines and colors, and Bolt City) 

Categories
internet music

Mercora: Ajax Radio

Pandora owns my heart when it comes to listening to music over the internet, but I allow myself certain infidelities from time to time. Mercora uses the power of Ajax in that effective manner that makes you wonder how pages managed to ever seem smooth before. The idea behind the site is interesting: the users are the DJs, the users are the listeners. Essentially it’s a peer-to-peer music-sharing service, but with streaming instead of torrenting, and legal listening instead of pirating. One perk over Pandora is that you can actually search out specific songs and play them on the spot. Instant gratification for your ears.

Categories
humor internet

I was a lonely, hairy man …

This is perhaps the best, most hilarious marketing website I’ve ever seen. Be sure to watch the music video, but pretty much everything on the site is top-rate humor.

(via Gizmodo)

Categories
tech

Technology makes me happy

I don’t have a ton of gadgets, personally. I jumped on the iPod bandwagon about 2 years late, and I’ve come to terms with the fact that for those years I wasn’t realizing my “hip” potential. Still, reading about supercool tech gadgets has the power to make me giddy, so I guess I’m a closet gadgeophile, despite myself.

If you’re old-school like me (all relative, I know), you won’t be able to help but love this modded NES-controller-turned-cell-phone. (Google ads displayed “Zelda Ringtone”, which was so appropriate I guffawed.)

On another note, for people who always bite the heads off their animal crackers before they eat the rest, someone has fabricated the perfect USB drive for you. Data storage has never been so deliciously sadistic. Unfortunately they don’t appear to be available for sale, but you could always make your own without too much trouble.

Finally, in the not-so-cute-and-actually-I’m-kinda-scared category: Giant Panda robots. Perhaps a Flameosapien will meet the beasts in battle and save humanity. Or join them, in which case, we’re fucked.

Categories
internet socialweb

MySpace and Accountability

Robin for Yahoo! Tech writes about MySpace accountability, particularly when it comes to youth using MySpace to plan and engage in less-than-healthy activities. But how much should MySpace be accountable for what its users are doing, even when they’re young?

When she went to her daughter’s page the headline on her last entry seared through her. It said, “Priceless: Joyriding with Your Friend at 3AM”. Dana says after reading her daughter’s entries she realized she knew nothing about this place where her daughter could freely “promote her indulgences, had no accountability and just be cool”.

I can’t help but feel that if kids were not using MySpace to plan their dangerous indulgences, they’d be doing the same thing somewhere else. Just ten years ago, keeping your kid off the telephone was the way to keep them out of trouble, and if they made plans over the phone to go joyriding later, well, no one would have tried to make the phone company accountable for what happened. Now pretty much every teen has a cell phone and it’s easier than ever to make plans and coordinate mischief without even stopping by at home to check your messages. Still, while parents may try to limit or monitor their kid’s phone usage, they don’t point their fingers at Cingular or Verizon or Virgin if their kid uses their phone to plan some rabble-rousing.

But back to computers. If MySpace weren’t an issue, you’d have instant messenger services like AIM where kids could coordinate, and more and more we’re going to see video-conversations propagating, which may or may not be a hit with image-conscious teens. The point is that teens are social, and they’re going to talk to their friends one way or another, and what they plan to do with their friends is much more dependant on what kind of kid they are than on what medium they are using to make those plans. Sure, their may be a certain amount of peer pressure involved, a certain adrenalin and ego-boosting that go along with being able to post pictures and accounts of your exploits for all your friends to see. But MySpace isn’t offering these kids the wine, it’s just out there growing the grapes.

So, the issue, I think, is simply that parents don’t understand MySpace. And this has always been an issue in parenting: kids are always technologically two steps ahead of their parents. In the end it all comes down to active parenting, which means being involved in your kid’s life and knowing what they’re up to, showing an interest in their hobbies and ideas. Sure, teens don’t want their parents to be interested in their lives, but they don’t get to decide. After all, the difference between being a parent and having a kid is in how much responsibility you take in raising them.

In the meantime, MySpace has made some conciliatory efforts to make their site safer for teens.