The House of Irony / February, 2006

Stephen King and me, we go way back. My aunts read practically everything he wrote, and they’d leave their sloppy seconds behind at the cottage for the next vacationer to enjoy. I was a voracious reader back then, a habit that simmered down a few years ago and has only been recently reignited. I’m not nearly as interested in King as I used to be, though that isn’t really his fault. He’s simply entered that category of writers, like Ray Bradbury, whose career I can admire but who just doesn’t capture my interest like he used to. Despite this, King still has the ability to surprise me, if not in content or style then in format.

I was in the checkout line at Chapters when I saw King’s name on a slim paperback with a lurid cover. It was a title I had never heard before, which, despite my current ambivalence to his work, seemed unlikely. How had one of Stephen King’s novels slipped past my notice without the usual hype? The title of the book was The Colorado Kid, a part of the Hard Case Crime imprint.

Hard Case Crime is a wonderful throwback to the days of mid-century pulp fiction; brutal little tales of doomed little men and the beautiful dames that lead them astray. Everything about the presentation of these books is perfect. The two I have before me are each around 200 pages in length with lovely painted covers reminiscent of the great paperback artists of yesteryear. In fact, the legendary Robert McGinnis contributes a cover to Little Girl Lost, a title I plan on picking up for the cover alone. The stories themselves range from new tales by renowned authors of today to reprints of the long-lost crime classics that inspired them. Unlike so many similar undertakings I’ve seen over the years, the folk at Hard Case seem to have all their bases covered. If you like your fiction hard-boiled, I can’t recommend them highly enough.

And while I can’t say that I wouldn’t have come across this series eventually without his help, I’d like to give a tip of the hat to King for helping me along.

There are some things that just get me going, and trying to load Linux on my computer devices is definitely on that list. I was looking forward to trying out the iPod Linux distro, but there’s a delay in the 5G Video release, so no luck yet. Truth be told, I’m sure it’s nothing more than a cool trick—the iPod’s user input is fairly limited. Don’t feel like scrollwheeling through the alphabet, thanks!

Naturally, once I heard the news that the DSLinux project had made progress accessing the system’s Wi-Fi, I started drooling all over my Linus t-shirt. I’d love to have a portable Internet device, especially one running Linux, and with a touchscreen keyboard I could definitely see myself tap-tapping out email, or web browsing, SSH, with the microphone I can almost picture VOIP. Big dreams attached to that, right?

My hopes were dashed once I started doing a little more research—turns out that there are some rather irritating hardware requirements necessary:

Just not what I was picturing. I’d break that off in a matter of weeks, not a doubt about it.

I’m sure the hardware will change and evolve, there’s even a small one out now, though it doesn’t work on the latest versions of the DS. Eventually I’m sure to take a crack at this, but for now, it’s just too damn ugly to consider.

R.I.P.

Archangel, Storm, Cyclops, Professor X, Wolverine, Beast, Colossus, Jean Grey, Psylocke, Cable, Bishop, Forge, Strong Guy, Sabretooth, Quicksilver, Husk, M, Skin, Synch, Gateway, Boom Boom, Siryn, Lila Cheney, Longshot, Sunspot, Rictor, Skids, Artie, Mirage, Karma, Magma, Warpath, Franklin Richards.

Still Kicking

Iceman, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Phoenix, Nightcrawler, Captain Britain, Meggan, Moira, Banshee, White Queen, Jubilee, Havok, Polaris, Wolfsbane, Gambit, Chamber, Penance, Widget, Douglock, Cannonball, Feral, Domino, Shatterstar, Dazzler, Rusty, Leech, Lockheed.

This is a shout out to the Flat Earth Comics regulars, without whom the weekly mutant massacre would not have been possible. You know who you are. Special mention must be made to Meatball, Mr. Questions, the kid who owned every Daredevil comic, Paul, and She-Hulk Boy.

I am a fan of both cartoons and blasphemy, so when I come across a blasphemous cartoon – I am tickled pink. You can imagine my surprise this week when I found out that many in the Muslim world do not share my enthusiasm for these sorts of cartoons.

It appears that many people are in a tizzy at the Danish government for allowing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in a newspaper. In response the Danish government told people to simmer down. Since the initial backlash the cartoons have been reprinted in Danish and Norwegian newspapers and have been floating around the web. I was lucky enough to find one to share with all of you.

This news re affirms suspicions I have had for years; cartoons corrupt all that is good, holy, moral and right … I am off to get pencils.