lanceparkin.org, lancejparkin@gmail.com he/him en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Parkin born 327.78ppm
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... and not Nightwing, like when he's in Spyral. As I say, we need to assemble a Council of DCea to establish the precise date.
Theologians will need to calculate the exact date.
Ironically, the only part of his body that looks fine is his right ear.
I don't want to read about AI, dystopia, totalitarian corporations, miracle cures only available to the rich, everyone tracked by a handheld talking computer, a collapsed system, cartoon dictators, fake hologram girlfriends, or drone soldiers, so I might try reading some science fiction instead.
Dick Grayson debuted as Robin in April 1940, became Nightwing July 1984, so June 2028 will mark the dickquinox, the exact point he was Robin and Nightwing for the same amount of time.
A true 90s album would have randomly capitalized one letter.
If you want an example of 'something they wouldn't make now', this is it. I encourage you to dive into an internet search about this very, very odd thing.
It's not that I can't see what they were thinking, it's that every thought came from and at the worst place it might have.
I was going to call this album a convergence of all these forces, but I think it's a divergence. Literally every element this project is made of is at its nadir.
The Beatles are old hat, but big business, but not talking to each other, but their songs are now fully canon.
The music industry has disappeared into a world of lavish LPs. Renewed interest in B&W film.
It's from 1978, a very strange time where all the things were aligned very oddly. Lots of 'flirting with Nazi symbols' at the edge of popular culture. An obsession with WW2 in Britain ...
It's the lyric book. Each page has the lyric of a song, a cartoon of the cover artist, a tinted WW2 image.
I got this - the double LP 'All This and WW2' yesterday, and I'm not sure I'd heard of it before, and it's one of the most bizarre cultural artifacts I've ever seen. An album of Beatles covers that was the soundtrack to a movie of WW2 footage from real life and war films.
starmer reshuffling his cabinet on transfer deadline day raises the very real possibility of manchester united paying £65m to sign yvette cooper
Brilliant
This story makes more sense if you remember that time Kevin Spacey was mugged while he was out for a stroll on Hampstead Heath at 4.30am.
this story makes absolutely no sense
If you say 'heteronormative' or 'unhoused person' or 'food insecurity' you're basically talking gibberish and nobody can understand you but if you say you can see inflammation in children at the airport and that vaccines lower IQ or that germs are a myth you get to fire all the scientists.
Oh God, I've turned into the sort of git who spends $28 on vinyl and feels the need to go on social media.
Woke this morning to learn of Chris Bidmead’s passing. The man responsible for my break into TV, and my unwitting entry into a global family in which I’ve remained to this day. For both of which, I’m forever grateful. Vale Chris
They wouldn't let me make jokes like that today.
'Both the left and the right have good points'.
Monday is Labor Day, a day when Americans think they'll finally get a lot done they've needed to do all year, but they just end up sitting around doing nothing. It's named after the Starmer government.
I mean or just email Pete Hegseth and ask, saying you're definitely not a journalist.
Pin now. Break glass when needed. youtu.be/po5HxJgyaMU?...
If you want a sign they're hiding that something is up, track Vance.
Also, it's a holiday weekend. Labor Day on Monday. A lot of WH staff and journos would have bunked off 3pm and won't be around until Tues am.
The tariffs are illegal.
(In case it wasn't clear, the 'two books' thing wasn't a claim of superiority on my part, just me noting that I'm coming at this from a very, very pro-Watchmen position. I've re-read it *a lot* over the years, and it's a great example of a book that changes as you get older)
Well, yes, ultimately. I'm certainly not saying that people making Star Wars or DC Comics should stay in their lane, it's only Star Wars and Superman, don't show any ambition. Certainly not saying readers shouldn't read it. I think I'm saying readers shouldn't stay in a lane, either.
If an adult watches Andor, wants to learn more about totalitarianism taking root, and thinks 'maybe I'll check out Clone Wars', then I think, yes, that's Doing It Wrong. Check out Clone Wars, it's good. But not for that reason.
I think something like Andor has a place in processing how fascism takes root. Quite an important one, actually. If it's a gateway to reading the history, seeking out other narratives, or just a nice coping fantasy, that's great. But if it's the *only* way people engage with that topic ...
When I talk about a balanced diet, I just mean if you want a visceral power fantasy of good v evil ... superheroes. Read superhero stuff. But any story about, god, the Middle East and superheroes is going to be about the limits of the superhero genre, not a way to learn about the Middle East.
I think Watchmen is brilliant, one of the great novels. I wrote two books about Alan Moore. It's not a call for 'grown up' superheroes. It's about how they *can't* be middleaged with bills to pay and erectile dysfunction. It's about how *stupid* it would be if superhero stories were 'realistic'.
I love so, so many of these characters and stories and so on. I think they can do more than you might think, that they can appeal to adults. I also think there are design limits.
Yes. That's what I'm getting at. And I think it applies to all the franchises - or facets of franchises - that are 'for kids' but not really, they're for middleaged nerds. And it's an issue because, sure, Andor's 'grown up Star Wars', but I would prefer more Muppets and space battles.
I think it's a movie that speaks differently watching it when you're Jareth's age, not Sarah's. That it would be the textbook definition, for many reasons, of a problem if you watch this when you're Jareth's age but react like you're Sarah's.
Now I see a film that's *about* how 15/16 year olds are kids but don't think they're kids, specifically there's this liminal thing around 'sexy' where there's a deeply uneasy thing around, well, y'know, David Bowie's right there and he's into you, so ...
This is an example that hopefully doesn't end with me on a register, but ... I am the same age as Jennifer Connelly. I saw Labyrinth when it came out. I found Jennifer Connelly sexy. I still find Jennifer Connelly sexy. I do not, though, now, find Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth sexy.
'What scares me' now is not the same answer as it was when I was ten. That's not the complete answer, anyway. Rinse and repeat for the various other motives and emotions.
My place in the lifecourse, yes, but part of that is 'knowing more', and reading and seeing stories for adults.
What I'm saying is that now I'm older - often than the people who made them were! - I rewatch, reread with a different perspective. I'm situated differently. And I'm not *just* reading and watching repackaged things from my childhood.
Oh my god, seriously, I just bought two Wonder Woman comics, some Lego, a Queen album, a Dr Who season I bought twice already, and Nemesis the Warlock. I have literally never grown out of anything.
None of these were father figures to me, per se, but they were all 'my dad's age'. If seeing them now as 'all younger than me' doesn't change my perspective, I think I'm probably not engaged enough in what I'm watching.
OK. So. I'm 54 next week. I just watched an episode of The Avengers, and even given that Patrick Macnee looked older than he was, I'm so much older than Steed, now. Older than Connery's Bond, Indiana Jones/Han Solo, most of the Drs Who.
I'm a very firm believer in a balanced media diet, and that a story or character can be revisited. I think if, as an adult, you like thing you liked as a child *in exactly the same way you did then*, then, yeah, you're probably Doing It Wrong.
Yeah, I'm not going to get into their intentions! It's a tactic that works. They stand out, they get rehired, they develop a career. If you have a tactic that's working, you try it again. I don't think you need to be malicious or deceptive to do that.
It's kind of that, but it's not just 'distracting' or 'overwhelming' or 'straw man', it's the conceptual sleight of hand that's the good bit. It creates the idea of a competent version. It's kind of what I've seen called 'steelmanning', but at a conceptual level, not point by point.
I'd love to know if this rings any bells. Academic paper, early 90s at the latest. It has, shall we say, current political applications.
(wait, no, this is the last part) So, this process has an arc: 1. I can't take this TV astrologer seriously. 2. This one obvious thing prevents me from doing so. 3. If that one thing changed, I'd take them more seriously. 4. I have accepted I could take astrology more seriously.
(paraphrase last part) ... and this is a very common, very successful rhetorical tactic in every walk of life. People will object to you. If you can get them to object to you for your stupid bowtie, then they won't be objecting to the thing they should really be objecting to.
(paraphrase continues) And this objection 'Russell Grant shouldn't wear silly clothes' overshadows, removes in fact, our objection 'astrology is silly'. So, consciously or not, it's a brilliant tactic, a lightning rod that channels 'this is silly' away from the core activity.
(paraphrased) TV astrologers are mannered and ridiculous. Russell Grant, Mystic Meg etc. We ask 'how do they expect to be taken seriously wearing that jumper, talking like that?' This *sets up a notional TV astrologer who we would treat seriously, if only they wore a suit and spoke normally*.
OK. Hive mind: I was struck as an undergraduate (so early 90s) by a paper talking about TV astrologers. Probably a poststructuralist lit theory type thing. Want to bang on about how great the concept was, but also want to credit it, so does anyone recognise the argument in the next post? -
'Screen villain'?
Oafs gonna oaf. Actually, that sounds like a character from a Norse saga, doesn't it? Oaf Gonnaoafenson.
Some Judge Dredd strips use subtext and they're all cowards.
"If you asked someone in your life about the National Guard deployment and they replied by talking about the price of cars, you would probably think there was something medically wrong with them, which is incidentally how most Americans view the Democratic Party." slate.com/news-and-pol...
"... Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice" www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-engl...
You can sum up Starmerism with the abbreviation LBWRRBFK. It doesn't stand for anything.
Suddenly remembered that they did a spin off of Last of the Summer Wine (premise: old people who act like reckless young people) where you saw them doing the same things, but as young people.
Wow
Again: the complete explanation is that these people are stupider than anyone you know.
Can we see the details before we yub nub this great victory, please? I want these people in rags on the side of the mountain, with nowhere to plug in their laptop. What it looks like is that they've agreed to buy the perpetual right to use the books for a couple of cents each.
They will eventually get to "Universal Basic Income is good" around five minutes before the sea swallows the land and the sun collides with the earth
"Future historians will surely debate at great length whether it was economics or media culture or simple incompetence that led the Starmer government’s moral compass to break. But they surely won’t debate who, out of the Taliban or the people who fled from their regime, were actually the baddies."
That and the fact I'm 54 next week. That also rules me out.
The reason I know I'm Gen X and not a Millennial is that until a few minutes ago I thought there was a really successful band called Taylor's Version.
Say what you like about David Cameron, who had sex with a dead pig and destroyed the country, but he somehow managed to operate as a government even though he didn't have a majority. Labour have the sort of majority that can bend the course of mighty rivers, yet ...
To use a football analogy, the score was Labour 398, Reform 5 at the end of the first leg, with three-quarters of the second leg match to play, and Labour can't really lose, but are still playing in a way that makes it possible.
Look what they did to Notepad. Shut the fuck up. This is Notepad. You are not welcome here. Oh yeah "Let me use Copilot for Notepad". "I'm going to sign into my account for Notepad". What the fuck are you talking about. It's Notepad.
I’m coming to #London #Manchester #Edinburgh and #Glasgow touring a book on the long history of #transgender people and the fight for #LGBTQ rights against Nazis in the #Weimar. I’m a journalist, an author, a TV host, a PhD, a podcaster. Interview me. Let’s annoy #TERFS @theguardian.com any takers?
Labour have always been a coalition of people united only by the common aim of framing popular, sensible ideas so badly they'll lose to the Tories.
This is something I'd noticed - the comments sections are now the voice of reason, the articles are where you find the hysterical phobic nonsense. This is so wrong it almost doesn't need stating.
Sixth line: if you think the problem is small boats and Trans people, then go vote for that odious, sickly shit. Bye. The rest of us will get on with fixing this mess.
Fifth line: Britain has an opportunity now to try something new. Fine. Austerity, deregulation, failing to tax the rich while leaving everyone else with no disposable income, houses that earn more than people ... that's the old way that needs to go.
Fourth line: perhaps some of the very few people who still think Brexit was a good idea are honest and sincere, but we shouldn't be afraid to say 'we tried it your way, everything got worse, you were wrong'.
Someone in the Cabinet just needs to make an 'incendiary speech' just saying out loud that anyone who is still a Leaver is an idiot. First line: Brexit was wrong. Second: Those who pushed it are now calling for rivers of blood because they're a shower of c$%ts. Third line: Fuck 'em.
It makes a bit more sense for Dems in the US to seek votes from Republicans, but it makes no sense in the UK to win a landslide, see a split opposition on the right and decide that's the territory to fight for.
If your problems are all a product of austerity and Brexit, and your opponents are the people who did austerity and Brexit, this shouldn't be hard.
Making them wear high-visibility vests over camo is such a good joke you couldn’t write it
Guys guys guys, Diabolik: Ginko Attacks! has an opening sequence that is (a) a Bond titles pastiche and (b) diagetic. It's *part of the story* that women wearing basically only jewels are writhing around giant letters while someone is singing and the lead guy is sneaking around.
OK. Legal framework now in place to fight the climate emergency by nationalizing the fossil fuel industry.
I was on the road last week when people were reading Todd Blanche's snuggle with Trump's sex trafficking buddy. Am I wrong this this picture did not come up? www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/u...
Can't even build death star anymore, because of ewok
"The Agriculture Department will not require poultry companies to limit salmonella bacteria in their products, halting a Biden Administration effort to prevent food poisoning from contaminated meat." www.seattletimes.com/business/usd...
Oh no. Not Fox News, Fox Sports and Fox Business. Oh no.
Tim Walz: "Think of how easy it would be to be a damn Republican. 'Oh, what should I wear today? This stupid frickin' red hat. What should I say today? I don't know, just make sure it's cruel. Who do we listen to? That guy -- the felon in the White House.'"
The Virago back cover comes out and says it's 'science fiction'.
The back cover of the first edition isn't coy about it being SF.
The Virago edition of Handmaid's Tale was unashamedly both 'literature' and 'science fiction'. It was, of course, a superb book to use if you want to write an essay about feminism. I think it's the Virago imprint that cemented it on so many university syllabi.
In the late 80s, Virago and the Women's Press were scooping up lots of feminist novels, regardless of 'genre'. Jody Scott's Passing for Human, where a shapeshifting alien adopts the from of (amongst others) Emma Peel, is science fiction, duh, but also absolutely 100% feminist literature.
A book's called science fiction if it'll sell more copies if they put it out on the science fiction shelf. The original push for Handmaid's Tale absolutely knew that they'd sell some copies to SF nerds like me.
