More Pulp-y goodness under the cut

Here of course is the original, which I have to say is a good song but can’t really stand up to Shatner’s awesome delivery.

A live version of Shatner for those interested

And finally maybe the awesomest link in this post, and that’s saying a lot, comes from Chris’ Invincible Super Blog (an awesome comic book blog); a reenactment of the song using panels from Archie comics. It really must be seen to be belived.

seriously?

Okay I lied that wasn’t all I had to say. This is in such bad taste it’s astounding. I can come to only two conclussions about this a) it’s completely and horrendously racist or b) the cartoonist is absolutely oblivious to the connotations of the image. This also isn’t the first time that Obama has been likened to a monkey.

I suppose the monkey could, if we’re playing devil’s advocate here, be in reference to Congress and not Obama since they are the ones who technically wrote the Stimulus Bill but that ignores the fact that Obama has been the face of this bill and that it’s basically been referred to as his baby in the media for the past few weeks. If this were the case it’s also just bad cartooning (?) to not label the monkey as such and a far more appropriate animal in that case would have also been a donkey.

I’m going to give the guy the benefit of the doubt here and assume he meant Congress and is trying to latch onto the news story of the Chimp mauling a few days ago, but I mean really even if that’s the case this shows an amazing lack of insensitivity and obliviousness on both the parts of the cartoonist, who I can imagine just had a brain fart and didn’t put two and two together, and the editorial staff at the NY Post who really should have caught this before they published it. I’m flabbergasted that this actually managed to make it to print.

Search Engine!

Search Engine was created in 2007 by host Jesse Brown as show dealing with internet technology and culture and their impacts both on and offline. It aired on CBC Radio1 weekly for almost a year before it was canceled, so that the team could work on stories for other CBC shows, but that wasn’t going to keep it down. Shortly after the cancellation was announced a facebook group, Saving CBC’s Search Engine, was started to protest this decision and get the show back on the air. While not able to get the show back on the radio it was resurrected in zombie podcast form, whereby every Monday a new short episode is posted online.

It’s a bit of a collabrative effort and stories can be pitched at both the Search Engine blog and facebook group and both often have interactive features where you can submit questions for interviews or calls to action on certain topics. It’s also good to check out the blog every once in a while as stories that may not necessarily be aired are posted there.

If you go back into the archives a bit to before the show was canceled there are a few good reoccurring segments worth checking out but the two best are Copyfight and The best of Craigslist. Copyfight with BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow deals with internet copyright issues and is very informative if a little biased. The best of Craigslist has Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster reading, in the vein of Ben Stein, a selection of some of Craigslist’s more excentric postings.

On a more serious note I just want to note some of the accomplishments of Search Engine. It has successfully taken on the Conservative government of Canada and helped lead the opposition to the proposed draconian copyright reforms bill (C-60 for those interested) and through lobbying and listener help managed to get themselves uncensored in China. Praxis!

This is a real labor of love for all those involved and if you have any interest in the impact of the internet on our culture and society you should check it out. There are RSS feeds at the blog and of course you can also subscribe through iTunes.

So if you like it, hate it, or have a suggestion for another podcast, or just feel like spamming leave a comment.

First up is Helvetica, a documentary about the font Helvetica (imagine that). This has created a little bit of a firestorm on the ‘net a few months ago and I finally got around to watching it this week. It’s a fascinating look at the way Helvetica specifically, and fonts in general, affect our everyday  lives and their impact on graphic design. Definitely worth checking out.

Next up is Blambot’s look at comic book grammar. Some of these conventions may be apparent to those who read comics frequently but I was quite surprised in how formal some of these conventions are; I always assumed that these just sort of evolved over time and there weren’t any formal rules. For example if you’re lettering for Marvel Comics, which I know oh so many of you do, you have to put the ? before the ! in a shouted question.