Archive for December, 2008

The Fisherman’s Dilemma (TQP0134)

Posted in Braak with tags , on December 15, 2008 by braak

Remember when I said I had insomnia?  This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up.

Okay, I’m trying a thought experiment about tuna fish.  I don’t know anything about math or science or stuff like that; I’d need a calculator to add up my grocery bill IF I COULD AFFORD TO BUY GROCERIES.  So, let’s take all this with a grain of salt.

Thought experiment, like I said.  Here’s how it goes:

There are two companies that run the industry of tuna fish:  Kobayashi Fish and Manufacturing Concern, in Japan, and the Danish Hans Skaargard Ramblesan’s Friendly Fish Factory.  On Tuesday, Haruki Murakami (the CEO of Kobayashi Fish) and Leif Erickson (the CEO of Skaargard Fish) both receive the same report from some scientists:  the tuna population is reaching critically low levels.

Read more »

Helicopter Submarine Scandal!

Posted in Braak with tags on December 12, 2008 by braak

Whoah!  Is it possible that Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content, is reading Threat Quality?  And that he pilfered Professor Flaznagel’s misguided “Helicopter Submarine” from my re-invented Captain Justice post?

No, actually!  Apparently, he thought up the most outlandish invention possible WITHIN DAYS of my own desperate attempt to conceive of the worst possible thing for Captain Justice to invest his money in!

This is, perhaps, EVEN STRANGER, suggesting, as it does, that the helicopter-submarine exists somewhere in the collective human unconscious, and has chosen precisely this moment in history to make its appearance.

Rethinking ‘Domino Lady’ (TQP0133)

Posted in comic books, Jeff Holland with tags , , , on December 12, 2008 by braak

the-shadowAnother Remake/Redesign on Warren Ellis’s Whitechapel forum. This one was…a bit tricky.

Not least of which because it was a bit of a knockoff of an earlier challenge: The Shadow…but, like, a woman.

Read more »

On Brains (And Thinking!) (TQP0132)

Posted in Braak with tags , , on December 11, 2008 by braak

real_geniusI’m not sure I believe in “smart,” or in “genius.”  Certainly not among artists; I don’t know what it is, but I just feel instinctively and suddenly contrary when someone says, “Oh, such and such actor is a genius.  This or that writer is a genius.”  Those are people that do good work, certainly, and know what they’re about.

But Isaac Asimov has a bibliography of five-hundred and fifteen items, including short stories, novels, a textbook on biochemistry, a guide to understanding the Bible, and a joke book that proposes his own humor theory.  That’s a pretty high bar, and I don’t want to hear about any artist being a genius unless they can also write The Human Body:  Its Structure and Operation.

Read more »

Here He Comes. Here Comes Speed Racer. Again. (TQP0131)

Posted in Action Movies, cars, Jeff Holland, reviews with tags , , on December 10, 2008 by braak

I hadn’t intended to watch Speed Racer. It just looked painful. Literally – the day-glo color palate made me speed-racer-1wonder if it would hurt me. Friend of Threat Quality (FoT-Q) Matt Burns recommended dramamine prior to viewing. This was the first summer movie that made me fear for my health.

But after last week’s discussion, I couldn’t not watch it, right? When it comes to movie discussion, I like to add my input.

So having watched Speed Racer, my immediate response is: Well, that was…something, all right.

Speed Racer turned out to be neither as eye-punishingly bad as I had been led to believe, nor as surprisingly-good as I had been kinda hoping for.

Read more »

Today, In Idiots (TQP0130)

Posted in Braak with tags , , on December 9, 2008 by braak

christian-persecution2I get this thing on the internets for OneNewsNow.  I’m not sure why; I think I probably signed up for it when I signed up for the American Family Association newsletter.  The guys behind both of these organizations are conservative, evangelical idiots; I signed up for their newsletter anyway, because I like to know what they’re up to (mostly:  hating gays, fighting the War on Christmas).

Anyway, I don’t really know what the hell OneNewsNow is, precisely, but I discovered that it prominently features my good friend David Limbaugh.  They sent me an article today about moral relativism, and I thought it was interesting and would like to talk about it.

Read more »

Rethinking Captain Justice, Redux (TQP0129)

Posted in Braak with tags , on December 8, 2008 by braak

captain-justice1I just find this stuff to be really a lot of fun.  Here‘s the Whitechapel thread with all of the talented artists and their re-imaginings.  I highly recommend taking a look at that.  Here‘s Holland’s post (in case you didn’t want to scroll down to read it) on the same topic, and also a little story that he wrote to go along with it.

Read more »

Rethinking Captain Justice (TQP0128)

Posted in Curse You Warren Ellis, Jeff Holland with tags , , on December 5, 2008 by braak

Another entry into the Whitechapel “Remake/Remodel” thread on Warren Ellis’s Whitechapel board.

This week’s entry: Captain Justice!

captain-justice

We’ll just say it again: CAPTAIN….JUUUUUUSSSSSTTTIIIIICCCCE!!!!

Read more »

I Got/I’m Not (TQP0127)

Posted in Jeff Holland, poetics with tags , on December 4, 2008 by braak

After all that talk of The Killers on Tuesday, I thought I should just buck up, quit my whining, and look at things in a more upbeat way.

A more declarative, bombastic way.

A more…Flowersian way, if you will.

And so I’ve taken an inventory, and now present a partial list of things I have been able to claim ownership of, with the caveat that said things do not necessarily represent an ideology, or even another thing, that I would affiliate myself with.

Read more »

Manifesto! Politics, Culture, The Via Vitruvia (TQP0126)

Posted in Braak, poetics with tags , , on December 3, 2008 by braak

If anyone knows anything about me, they know that I’m not a Conservative. (Also: that I’m loud, that I have an inexplicable enthusiasm for commas, and that I’d rather pilfer links from Moff’s website than look things up on my own.)

Speaking of stealing links, he’s got two that are interesting, but that are especially interesting with regards to each other.  The first is this one, from a fellow named William, whom I have never met, and do not really know.  The second is from Roger Ebert, whom I have also never met, but I feel like I know him, which is an illusion created by reading so very many of his reviews.

Read more »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,015 other followers