I am unemployed, almost completely out of money, single and love-free, my flat is a disaster area and I can't seem to get a handle on the redesign of Barbelith. Still, mustn't ¥KVETCH.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jason Kottke, commander of Osil8... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/1999 09:27:40 PM ----- BODY:Jason Kottke, commander of the omnipotent 0sil8, also runs a particularly fine weblog, dripping with design savvy. So visit kottke.org - it truly is the home of fine hypertext products.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: An epinion on Natural Born Killers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/01/1999 11:30:09 PM ----- BODY:There is something really frustrating about writing something that you think is quite good and then having to think of what to write to follow it up. On the other hand I could be being precious. You decide - read my epinion on Natural Born Killers.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Forrest Gump - bastard evil vile film - and now epinioned... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/1999 12:20:47 AM ----- BODY:I think it is important that I make my opinions clear about Forrest Gump.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A morning visit to the HSX... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/1999 05:06:58 PM ----- BODY:No morning is complete without a visit to the Hollywood Stock Exchange.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Final Fantasy VIII... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/1999 06:57:27 PM ----- BODY:To be honest, I can't even tell whether or not this is sad. Is anyone else my age excited about Final Fantasy VIII. I bought the last one on a whim, and it was gripping. Occasionally repetitive, but gripping nonetheless. Start saving your pennies...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: We're running out of information? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/1999 07:27:26 PM ----- BODY:Is it true? Can we possibly be running out of information? Is being catalogued and annotated faster than we can find it out? Smug's Leslie Harpold thinks so. Read "net worth".
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Megnut is a well constructed STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/02/1999 11:07:46 PM ----- BODY:Megnut is a well constructed and clear weblog that I am contemplating completely ripping off. I feel completely trapped by the dictates of a unifying design scheme (die, barbelith, die). Oh the horror. God knows, if anyone can think of anything, they should let me know as soon as possible. Tom
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Blogger... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/1999 10:25:04 AM ----- BODY:The secret behind many a wonderful weblog is the incalculable power of blogger. It has a hell of a lot to recommend it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Soul-destroying web-design... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/1999 10:27:29 AM ----- BODY:Designing web pages is invigorating and stimulating when it works and frustrating and soul-destroying (seriously) when it doesn't. When I need a clue, or a bit of constructive advice, I go to A List Apart.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Time Out London Guide... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/1999 10:39:05 AM ----- BODY:Tomorrow I start a couple of days work updating the film section of the Time Out London Guide. Check it out.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Self-aggrandising paean to self-important individualism? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/1999 06:30:16 PM ----- BODY:I think I've sold you all out. I have been talking with an ex, and he thinks that I have turned this front page from a non-functioning advert for the collective to a self-aggrandising paean to self-important individualism. What you you think?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ally McParanoid Schizophrenia STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/03/1999 10:20:55 PM ----- BODY:Does anyone other than me think that it is commendable that Ally McBeal's main love interest is on the brink of crippling hair loss? I have to say I am delighted, as I am approaching that brink myself. It's one (only mildly sarcastic) good thing to say for the almost offensively conservative programme. And I'm sorry but, if your delusions make you physically attack young children, you're not 'kooky' - you're suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Oh hated redesign... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/1999 10:49:17 AM ----- BODY:So - everyone on the Nexus hates the new look for this site. Which is a bit disappointing, I have to admit. It seems slightly pathetic to actually ask people for nice comments.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Film Festivals... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/1999 01:06:31 PM ----- BODY:Finding out information on film festivals in London is extraordinarily difficult. The only one that seems to have a damn site is the London Film Festival. It looks like it has the first British screening of American Beauty...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: You can ride them like ponies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/04/1999 08:58:28 PM ----- BODY:"In my world there are people in chains and you can ride them like ponies." Supreme Dominatrix? Nope - Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The world gets weirder by the minute. If I didn't know better, I'd say we had already won...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: New job jitters... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/1999 12:58:06 AM ----- BODY:It's 1am and I can't sleep. I am starting a new job on Monday working for Time Out in London. I will be Deputy ******** on their website. Something half editorial and technical. I was really looking forward to it until this afternoon, when I talked to someone about the job. They have scared me rather badly and I find myself concerned that I have signed myself up for several months of drudgery without the chance to do anything constructive. It's probably nothing to worry about.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: d|i|s|i|n|f|o|r|m|a|t|i|o|n STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/1999 12:59:35 AM ----- BODY:Everyone knows about d|i|s|i|n|f|o|r|m|a|t|i|o|n but it bears repeating. All the information you could ever need to know about all the things that you are not supposed to know about.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The world is fucked up... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/1999 09:04:36 AM ----- BODY:So a 13 year-old school-boy is told to write a scary story for Halloween. He writes one (a pretty bad one at that), it gets a really good grade and he reads it out in class for extra credit. The story is considered to be a threat to his school mates, and he is taken to court and put in a juvenile detention facility for five days as punishment. Perhaps we haven't won yet after all...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Strange Cults of Webloggers... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/05/1999 08:51:18 PM ----- BODY:There was an Invisibles site called Target One a while back, and now the guy who built it runs Attack Force D, which is another weblog. I'm not entirely sure I knew what I was getting into when I started this - there seems to be this strange, hallucinatory cult of webloggers in the world. It's ... nice somehow.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Up on the roof... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/1999 12:42:31 AM ----- BODY:Occasionally, during the summer, when it got really hot and the air conditioning wasn't working at work, I used to sneak away from my desk on the second floor of the Time Out building and clamber from the balconies on the seventh floor up the service ladders and onto the roof. You can see all of London from up there - the Houses of Parliament, Canary Wharf, the Post Office Tower... I'm pretty sure I am not supposed to have done it. If I'd taken some photos, perhaps I could have sent them to Infiltration.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Inspirational minidiscing... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/1999 01:06:01 AM ----- BODY:My friend Michael is trying to finish his doctorate in Bristol at the moment. I fear it is a project doomed to failure but he has surprised me in the past (to put it mildly). He's asked me to send him a mixer minidisc so that he has something to listen to. I've been checking out the selection of ideas at red balloon and have come to the conclusion that they urgently need your help.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What to do for New Year's Eve? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/1999 01:26:19 AM ----- BODY:The question in the air at the moment amongst my friends seems to be what to do for New Year's Eve. I've looked at various helpful sites but it hasn't really helped. Where shall we be when our lives are upgraded to version Y2K.1? Nick seems concerned that the Millenium bug will cause cars and planes to crash into mobs of similarly destructive Millennial cults and has suggested getting some people together somewhere in the west of England. I think it's an ark thing. Toby is determined to take polaroid pictures of people in the dome in Greenwich. What can be said.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Dogma previews... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/1999 01:44:15 PM ----- BODY:It has appalled the religious right in America, enthralled and amused reviewers and is generally considered to be Kevin Smith's most accomplished movie. And Dogma isn't even out yet.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Britain's Millennium Map... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/06/1999 01:47:18 PM ----- BODY:Britain's Millennium Map - is it a historic achievement or an infringement of our privacy?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reviews of The Bomb, Reviews of Chasing Amy... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/1999 12:44:01 AM ----- BODY:The Bomb has been given a wonderfully flattering review by Comics International.
Read my epinion on Chasing Amy.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Exploit the ethics of revolutionaries... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/07/1999 01:01:09 AM ----- BODY:British television at the moment is dripping with advertisements that parody or exploit the ethics of revolutionaries or non-capitalist states. There is something extremely unsettling about a Chinese gentlemen with a dodgy accent in Communist uniform stating that a brand of Chinese food represents "a Chinese Revolution". An advert for Twix recently claimed that the Russian cosmonaut in the advert had "less spine than this capitalist snack". But the most bizarre of all has to be the new Financial Times advert which has Lenin talking about share portfolios and "not Karl Marx, but Deutschmarks".
I feel slightly as if anti-capitalist memes are being raped in front of me - is it the equivalent of Roman soldiers sodomising their enemies after military victories? Fight back. Pollute the advertising meme-stream with adbusters.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: TimeOut.com here I come... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/08/1999 08:57:34 AM ----- BODY:Today I start work at timeout.com. More information on what I am up to when I have it. In the meantime, any suggestions on how to improve the site? *spark online is an interesting site which explores the frontiers of thought on technology. Get involved in their electronic consciousness. The propoganda section of Infinite Race has some wonderful nuggets of resistance. Abuse of power comes as no surprise. Holodeck 73 describes itself as an inspirational launchpad. Good design and a thousand interesting links. Read my epinion of Cube.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I survived my first day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/09/1999 09:17:59 AM ----- BODY:I survived my first day in the new job. I can't say that it was exactly what I had in mind, but it could have considerable potential. I'll let you know in a few days. The quest to find out what my job title is and when I get paid begins today. Wish me luck.
A little quote from the official British government's Millennial survival guide: "What is the Millennium Bug? It's not a virus and you certainly can't catch it." I have decided to pretend that it is not the most facile comment ever made and instead make believe that they are simply lying, and that the Millenium Bug is the first computer problem to jump species.
I found this wonderful story at The Onion the other day. You go girls.
I went to the launch party for the new Neonlit book, where my friend Rhonda won £500 which she has to spend in two weeks with nothing to show for it. Turns out part of my job at Time Out is to help run the Neonlit site. I think it could be time to talk to Derek and Shauna at the fray and ember.org - two of my favourite online writing sites.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'm Assistant Editor of timeout.com... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/10/1999 09:30:31 AM ----- BODY:I'm Assistant Editor of timeout.com, which is nice. I also get paid at the end of the month. All questions answered to my satisfaction.
The Wax has a wonderful regular poll - "Am I Normal?". Do you have complete conversations with yourself?
My friend Will does. He decided to come and stay at my place last night and flirt with my favourite barman, and then launched into a huge rant about how he has scary premonitions. This morning his new rant was about how when money becomes more electronic "they" will be able to control it more easily. Not the most detailed or fully-worked-out conspiracy theories ever, I have to say.
If you are after a detailed conspiracy theory to accessorise your daily rebellion, then why not try the Montauk project? There are thousands of damn sites about it.
I am a real fan of the design at hoggorm.com/ although for the life of me I can't be bothered to find out what it's about.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Assemblers, Irritability and Kinky Friedman... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/11/1999 09:05:38 AM ----- BODY:Before I get going, get this - someone is trying to build an Assembler!
I blew off two separate groups of friends last night so I could hide at home after work and watch bad TV. I walk in my door only to discover that Will is still there - sitting on my bed munching on bread and humous. My hopes for a piece of complete downtime dashed, I become moody and irritable.
This evening I am going to see Kinky Friedman in Camden with a group of friends. I've only vaguely understood the allure, so tonight should be an interesting experience.
Epinions has changed the format of their pages again, clumping up the loves and hates lists. Ick. Still, I'm sure I'll get used to it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: No censorship in MIT webspace... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/13/1999 12:20:33 PM ----- BODY:I remember a time when being at University meant savage and unwelcome censorship of web-space. Apparently this is no longer the case. Look at the wonderfully offensive things that MIT allows nowadays...
Missed yesterday's entry, which felt a little odd. It was my younger brother's birthday (he's fourteen now). He's been packed off to boarding school by parents eager to inculcate in him the ways of the uber-class. I bought him a copy of Day of the Triffids and some sweets from Muji. We will see (in years to come) whether or not he thinks I was a good brother.
Kinky Friedman was amazing. Classic songs like "They don't make Jews like Jesus any more" and "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed". There can't be many people more subversive than a Jewish Texan Country Singer / Detective Novelist.
There are some weird epinions things going on around the net. People seem to be becoming affiliates (glassdog, peterme), although quite why escapes me. I suppose there must be some point to it.
Speaking of personal sites - I have just stumbled upon jezebel.com. Frankly the world can do with more "impudent, shameless, or morally unrestrained" people.
Now I must go to the gym so I can contemplate the overt body facism of western capitalism...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nexus Online Poetry Slam... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/14/1999 07:33:37 PM ----- BODY:
Announcing the first ever Nexus Online Poetry Slam! All the details are in the Core. I went to see Fight Club yesterday evening. Then I came home and wrote a long, complicated and detailed epinion about it. And then my computer crashed. Epinion lost. Today I have been visiting Pippa in Highgate. She is an old flatmate of mine who has moved into a flat with another old flatmate of mine purely for the purposes of making me neurotic with flat in-jokes and knowing looks. I'm kidding of course... Under the instruction of megnut, I went to find out my Wu-Tang Clan name. I was less than thrilled to find out it was "Dizzy Cow". Here's a few of my other friends. (If you don't believe me - check it for yourself!)
Nick Cornwell - Furtive Ventriloquist
Chris Bell - Ol` Filthy, Sweaty Bastard
Max Prutzel-Thomas - Temporary Spastic
Kate Myers - The Nation`s Favourite Galoot
Toby Stone - The Littlest Vandal
Pippa Sturt - Sweaty Butcher
Melanie Goldblatt - Tha Ever So Weary Assistant
Some things get me very unhappy. One of them is being completely crushed by someone else's pure design superiority. I am in awe of saturn.org.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Ruminations on Weblogs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Personal Publishing CATEGORY: Personal Publishing DATE: 11/15/1999 10:29:24 PM ----- BODY:You can't talk about your life because people you know read them. I have on occasion (yesterday for one) suggested to a few friends that they should look at the site because there was this really satisfying link on it which I thought they should see. This is fine. But then you begin to realise that everyone has looked at it at one point or another - for god's sake your e-mail address has barbelith.com in it.
And then your fourteen year old brother is wondering whether or not your parents should be told about the what you have said on the site. And should I really be advocating the dismantling of the phallogocentric hetero-orthodoxy within his tender earshot? More to the point, how on earth are you going to talk about sex when you know your brother (half your age) is looking over your shoulder?
And speaking about sex - what happens when the people you want to talk about also read your weblog? You can't be honest. Period.
When I have had a hard day at the office, sometimes I like to relax by watching a balding web god scratch himself and listen to the Chemical Brothers. I plan to have him on screen at all times when I am at work. I think it will soothe me.
Look for the little downward arrow on the left side of glassdog.com. When you click on it, a whole new world of advertising wonder opens up for you. I like the idea of an advertising system like this, an unobtrusive mutual advertising system where good products are rewarded with loyal advertisers and bad products fail. Such is the web...
Hmmm... There's a lamentable shortage of links here today - not much of a web-log. Here are some cool places to go for a couple of minutes: prehensile tales : the finger : maura
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So I missed another day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/17/1999 06:34:47 PM ----- BODY:So I missed another day. Perhaps I'm not really committed....
Since I started working at Time Out full-time, I no longer seem to read a newspaper or keep up with the daily news. I no longer have any idea what is going on in the world. I can't even be bothered to read The Onion.
Being newsfree for a while makes you feel lighter - it's almost as good as not wearing a watch (which I didn't do for two years). I wonder how long it will last.
So tonight I have been invited to watch a football match in Finsbury Park (the pub's called the Fulback on Perth Road if anyone fancies joining us). I don't care about football in the slightest. It is not an affectation - I just don't enjoy it. However there are a large number of people who are going to be there that I like. What does one do? Drink oneself to death while all around burn David Beckham into their collective retinae? I fear I may be bored...
Decisions, decisions. Participation in the Day Without Art is much more my kind of thing. I can't decide whether I should participate though. I'll follow the instructions of the first person who e-mails me.
Evil, subversive site of the day must go to the tremendous disobey.com. Ghost sites is a laugh, netslaves cuts a little close to the bone for my liking, and the disobey news network will keep you bogged down with information for a few hours. Not that I read it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Football, weblog moods and stuff... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/18/1999 11:52:11 PM ----- BODY:A couple of things to talk about today. Where shall we begin? Um.
Guess what! About bloody time...
The new issue of The Invisibles is out. Tremendous news all round. Annotations, discussion, barbelith gets very exciting at these times of the month...
Weblog mood and it's relationship to daily page views
So what is the relationship between mood and page views? I have been analysing this over the last couple of weeks and have come to the conclusion that no one wants to read people being depressed. Or at least the people that DO want to read about people being depressed are slightly scary.
Let's put my theory to the test:
Cheery Logs:
absolute piffle
lemon yellow
mood swings
Naughty Logs:
eatonweb blog
have browser will travel
Sad/Cross Logs:
damn dirty ape
What's this football thing about then, eh?
I went to watch the football. I didn't understand how anyone could get so excited. Lost on me completely. I tried to explain to the assembled masses that if the players had handlebar moustaches, smoking jackets, armchairs and muskets, the game would be both more civilised and more entertaining. They resolutely refused to see reason.
Exciting new retail opportunities...
Seems you can buy anything on the net nowadays. Do you have a Zombie? Do you need a brain? Brains4Zombies.com is for you...
Catastrophe
My link to the great trans-cultural overmind has been severed. I still have TV, but since I am never in I have to use my VCR. But today I find that it doesn't work and many episodes of TV series have been eaten. I don't feel as liberated as perhaps I should. I need a new VCR.
I have lost count of the days recently in which there has been something that I really wanted to talk about and yet have not been able to.
Instead - see if you can trigger some form of latent epilepsy with this little gem of net freakishness. It has no point.
I'll be sorting out the annotations and news for The Bomb tomorrow morning. Now I plan to go and get trashed on cocktails.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On the Stately Homo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/21/1999 07:10:06 PM ----- BODY:On the decline of the stately homo:
It's the end of the world. Quentin Crisp has died. He had a lot of very strange opinions - and a blue rinse - but he will be much missed.
On swear words:
Just a little piece on the use of the word "badger". Pippa had a car. The car was old. It didn't go very fast. Pippa had a twin sister called Bella. Bella and Pippa had overactive imaginations. The engine of Pippa's car was described as being powered by badgers. The badgers had names - I forget what they were.
So this charming little imaginative fiction comes to public attention when the car is being driven up a hill. Pippa declares she is about to "whip the badgers", and places a delicately heeled foot firmly onto the accelerator.
"Whipping the badgers" becomes, very quickly, a phrase that generates widespread hilarity due to its similarity with certain expressions referring to the stimulation of the male genital by its owners hand.
Keep in mind my brother sometimes reads this weblog.
"Perhaps", people say, "this is the female equivalent! And perhaps, therefore, to call someone a "badger" is to be almost as offensive as to refer to them by the commonplace vernacular for the organ in question. What a jape!"
There's a discussion all about swearwords on the Nexus at the moment (which includes another version of the "badger" creation myth), started by a devilishly foxy young actor. Frankly, you'd think he'd have better things to do with his time...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Jeffrey Archer - Rot in Hell... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/1999 11:00:02 PM ----- BODY:All together now - "Jeffrey Archer, rot in hell, rot in hell, rot in hell..." Watch with glee as a modern (downmarket) Sir Miles Delacourt rip-off gets his comeuppance. It's like getting Capone on tax evasion. Wonderful.
Every good student of deconstructive philosophy knows that any text can be seen to be advocating any one position and its direct opposite. Watch with awe as I write an epinion about Halloween that manages to justify it as a subversive and revolutionary text. You'll moisten. Trust me.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Fans of Attack Force D? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/22/1999 11:12:21 PM ----- BODY:Fans of Attack Force D (which include me) don't think he's ripped off barbelith at all. What do you think?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The beginning of the end... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/24/1999 09:07:01 AM ----- BODY:I don't know - you finally figure out that you do want to go out with a person that you've been vacillating about for ages, only to find that you've missed the boat by a week. And it's his birthday.
I don't quite understand what has happened, and frankly I find it quite hard to believe that a mere blond engineering student could have arsed things up. So basically it must have been me that threw the spanner in the works sometime over the last few weeks. Far, far from the land of happy bunnies...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Don't let the bastards grind you down... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/25/1999 09:31:28 AM ----- BODY:So I found this wonderful link back to The Bomb today. I have no idea what it says, but it sounds great. To quote: "Nìo » o site oficial do escritor Grant Morrison mas » como se fosse. Mantido por Tom Coates com um design super cool." See? Super cool...
Got a couple of e-mails about the state of my love life, which is a little unsettling, but cool nonetheless. To you people I say - keep your chin up and don't let the bastards grind you down.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Intratextual thinking... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/26/1999 11:34:08 PM ----- BODY:Here's an exchange for you from the Nexus. Possibly my favourite in some time. Discussing the latest issue of Grant Morrison's Invisibles...
IANJONES: And what struck me about this issue is how full of references to incidents in my own life it is. I will not go on about them because its dull. I imagine you all found similar references however, in which case the comic has achieved a kind reification of the hologramatic universe and the surface of magic mirror.
GANESHA: Yeah, it reminds me of how I daubed myself with my friend's ashes last year, and that time we infiltrated the cyphermen factory.
IANJONES: I was actually thinking a little more intratextually than that.
Well it made me laugh. For those of you that are interested, I have put up as many of the annotations for the new issue as I could, and there you go...
I haven't been suggesting many sites recently. However I can wholeheartedly recommend k10k.com for its design nous alone. Expect heavy influence on barbelith from them...
What else has happened to me recently? I won the soundtrack to Fight Club in a bizarre online competition accident. I'd tell you more, but I think I'm on to a "nice little earner". It's wonderfully moody and cool in places (and drags like buggery in other places). All I can say is, like most music, it just gets better the louder you play it.
I went to see EDtv, but don't think it interesting enough to write an epinion about. You shouldn't let that stop you watching it though - it's an idle afternoon's entertainment.
I have just found a book by Huysmans (you should all read his stuff - I swear it is wonderful) called La Bas, which includes first hand information on fin de siÀcle 19th Century Black Masses. A must buy.
Let me just undercut my "supercool" image by mentioning at this point that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer three video boxed set of the first half of the first series is now available in UK shops.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A panoply of epinions... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/27/1999 03:55:15 PM ----- BODY:OK. So let's get something out of the way first. I know that not everyone agrees with my epinions (and I am sorry to go on about it so much, but I can't help thinking it's a great idea), but I don't understand why some of them are much read, and some haven't been read at all. It's got nothing to do with what the film is - Forrest Gump and Natural Born Killers are read a lot, while The Matrix, My Fair Lady, South Park, Head On and The Astronaut's Wife - well, no one seems to want to go near them with a barge pole. WHY!?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being upbeat... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/28/1999 09:47:39 PM ----- BODY:A more upbeat weblog than normal...
I have a scheme... So I am currently working on a cunning new project that will unite all the various strands of the barbelith collective into one handy sized micro capsule of joy. The new venture is to be called "Microlith".
This is the way it works... I construct a pocket-sized easy to update mini-Barbelith, which will include little extra barbelith-esque treats - a sample from the Xenolith weblog, a random "Invisibles" quote machine, which will pump out elegant Morrison bon-mots and a "Dice Man" decision making machine. This micro site will be viewable in a tiny window about 150 x 250 pixels in size.
Now here's the clever bit. Those of you who are interested in daily interesting content will put a little code onto your pages. When people come to your pages, a pop-up window will appear (like those really annoying ads on Tripod and Geocities). Except THIS pop-up window not only has interesting content (see above), but also works as a form of web-ring, because every site that includes the code will also be listed in the members section of the micro-site - thus improving inter-Invisibles communications on our burgeoning micro-community.
I have been scheming this scheme for ages, and I think the novel combination of interesting content, webring and advert could really catch on. I'll hopefully have it up and running by the end of the week (at which point I am hopefully undertaking a second barbelith redesign in line with my new starker aesthetic). The Dice Man should follow shortly afterwards.
I went to see The World is Not Enough yesterday, and am horrified to report that I slept through a good third of it. Probably the only interesting part (that I saw) was the scriptwriters move from evil arch-criminals to the unlikely pairing of anarchists and uber-capitalists. The stuff that I did see didn't seem particularly up to par, but because of my abbreviated viewing I don't think I can really be expected to epinion it.
I got an e-mail from Tracy Scarpino about my writing on epinions and the xenolith weblog. For some ungodly reason she is getting a kick out of hearing about my family and my love life. So I thought I'd indulge her and reveal a few more crumbs about my little brother.
He's 14 (as of a couple of weeks ago) and attends a boarding school in Northants. He's called Peter and is by far my favourite relative, being decent and intelligent. Initially I was really anti- this whole boarding school thing, but if any kid is going to get the best out of it, I think it's him (I hope that he'd tell me if he hated it - he hasn't done yet). He is a great fan of the Simpsons, loves Cricket, the new Volkswagen Beetle, and (if the history file of his browser is anything to go by) is also quite the young male fan of Jennifer Aniston as well.
As yet there is no news on whether or not he is a proto-revolutionary punk anarchist, but I guess time will tell.
More examples of astonishing web design tomorrow....
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Microlith proceeds apace... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/1999 12:03:04 AM ----- BODY:Microlith proceeds apace. Heh heh heh.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Links from work... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/1999 11:04:44 AM ----- BODY:Bit of a change of pace today, as barbelith is updated directly from my place of work whenever I take a break.
I have stumbled upon a benefit that is happening in Los Angeles later this month. Gillian Anderson (Scully on 'The X-Files') is hosting it, and it is in aid of The Trevor Helpline. This is the first round-the-clock national toll-free suicide helpline for gay teens, who are three times more likely to attempt to take their life than their heterosexual peers are.
I don't normally go for advertising charity events, but gay suicides are robbing America and the world of sexual dissidents. What kind of system generates such mind control that those who can't follow the rules feel their only option is to kill themselves?
[Today's weblog comes to you live from Tom's place of work, Time Out in London]
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Linkage... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 11/30/1999 06:11:55 PM ----- BODY:Not as many breaks as I hoped to have today, unfortunately. Still never mind. Bored with the hegemony of authors having their say? Shred it.
Occasionally I think you should look around at the people you work with and thank god that they are tense and irritable instead of me. Of course you only have time to do that when you are not tense and irritable yourself. In the meantime, these stressed people should be a source of endless entertainment.
Update on love-life. After several days of distance from my twenty-year-old (and an interesting sexual interlude with a young American) I feel genuinely more comfortable and settled with things. Young chap wants to be friends, which generated the wonderful comment from my tactless friend: "What the hell would you do with a twenty-year-old FRIEND!?". I, of course, only grudgingly saw the funny side.
So in the meantime I have decided just to flirt with my favourite barperson and leave it at that. Pretty sure he's not interested, but like all decent barpeople, he knows exactly how to maintain a decent level of intrigue without actually putting out.
According to evhead, "One in three men lie about the size of their e-mail inboxes by over-estimating the number of e-mails they receive - proving that size matters as much online as anywhere else."
Fed up of being at work now. I'm going home...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Microlith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/1999 11:22:56 AM ----- BODY:Check out the beginnings of microlith (currently content-free) and the beginnings of my new stark monotonous grey aesthetic. If you complain, I rip out your spine...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A day without art... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/1999 12:38:17 PM ----- BODY: |
A range of important information that everyone should know about:
Oh cool - I've figured out how the archiving works (duh). Have a look at my life over the last month. I've had a funny time...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Reviewing Fight Club... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/01/1999 10:31:50 PM ----- BODY:I wrote a review of Fight Club. Don't read it. I have no idea what I think about it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Epinions just can't stay still! STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/02/1999 09:24:10 AM ----- BODY:Epinions just can't stay still! Now you can post comments on other people's reviews. They've also redesigned the review pages - again I am not convinced by the new look. We shall see if it grows on me...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Tom's top ten restaurants... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Food & Drink CATEGORY: Food & Drink DATE: 12/02/1999 05:39:32 PM ----- BODY:So, I was supposed to go around for dinner at Nick's house with Emma and John-Paul. However, somewhere along the line someone has forgotten about this fact, and now it is no longer happening, which leaves me at a loose end.
Tom's top ten restaurants/bars in London:
It's very important that you all get over to The Nexus immediately and read the first person account of the Battle of Seattle (The Core). It's incredibly moving stuff. Here's a brief excerpt:
"The whole way I was hoping that this story would get out. Hoping that the level of violence inflicted on non-violent protesters, peacefully assembled, would wake a lot of people up and show them the level of democracy in this country. Hoping that people would see what the level of force aimed at people who peacefully oppose the interests that are dominant in this country and the world. I returned home to have this hope crushed. The local news stations were reporting on the broken windows of businesses and not the broken bones of protesters. They reported on things like "police fatigue." Which I assume is when your arms get tired after you beat people for hours. They talked -and continue to talk about- the extremely "restraint, openmindedness, and gentleness" displayed by police."
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: No-Corporate Creative Poll... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/04/1999 11:33:13 AM ----- BODY:I was so appalled by Zeldman's article on the POV 100 Top Sites Awards that I thought something had to be done immediately.
So in the spirit of promoting creative and expressive sites all around the web you should immediately take part in the barbelith no-corporate creative poll.
There are over fifty creative and intelligent sites listed. All you have to do is check out a different three or four each day until the new year and vote on which one of them gives you most hope for the future of the web. This way I get to introduce you all to a whole huge world of wonder on the web.
SEE THE POLL IN ITS NATURAL HABITAT
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On exhaustion... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/05/1999 10:26:53 PM ----- BODY:Finally the end comes to an exhausting and debilitating weekend filled with tensions and parties. It would be hard to deny that I have had a cool time, but I feel completely washed out. And I have work to do before I can sleep.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On SUFFOCATE... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 09:22:31 AM ----- BODY:SUFFOCATE is a group of web enthusiasts and designers who are given a different project each month. This month's concept is to communicate a message without using text.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Grant Street Journal... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 09:27:26 AM ----- BODY:The Grant Street Journal is a well designed personal project dripping with bittersweet insights and gripping content. Well worth a visit.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Famewhore... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 09:34:14 AM ----- BODY:Famewhore is wonderful place to go for design inspiration. You are unlikely to find more polished design anywhere on the net, and with a sense of humour too. Quite heavy on Flash, Javascript and DHTML, go with your browsers set to KILL...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Arsdigita poll... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 09:35:33 AM ----- BODY:A review of some of the interesting sites on barbelith's non-corporate art site poll today. Once you have visited a couple of them, simply visit the poll above and express your preference!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Could this be Peter Quayle? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 03:50:25 PM ----- BODY:I'm in the middle of one of those "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" e-mail conversations that people who have just met and who are involved in the web get into. It's always a little odd - particularly when one of your sites (this one) is the net equivalent of airing your problems with your transexual partner on Jerry Springer.
The person you are talking to suddenly gets an immediate insight into every aspect of your life - which can be particularly awkward their sites are well-designed corporate creatures, free of discussion of sex lives, family members, ex-partners and ongoing American TV series.
Time will tell what the reaction will be...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Note to self... Be more evil... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/06/1999 09:19:44 PM ----- BODY:DAMN IT. DAMN IT. I FAILED THE ENTRANCE EXAM AT EvilPeople, INC. Note to self. Be More Evil.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Too much work to do... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/07/1999 03:30:55 PM ----- BODY:Too much work to do. MUCH too much work to do. Co-worker at the Drone Factory is down with the flu, which leaves me toiling for two. On the plus side I bought myself a new VCR which is cool.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I'll show you mine... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/1999 01:14:15 PM ----- BODY:Did you have a good journey into work this morning? If you live in London it is pretty likely that you didn't. Talk all about it at tubehell.co.uk.
On a rather different note, I'm perturbed by the progress of e-mail "i'll show you mine if you show me yours" discussion which started on Monday. It's just got a little, well, corporate. Don't know what I think about it.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I have no idea who I had lunch with... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/08/1999 03:37:42 PM ----- BODY:So I had lunch with e-mail correspondent. My concerns allayed, I am now very much in the holiday spirit and wish to share this good humour with all concerned. So I hereby DEMAND that you all send each other a Time Out Christmas Card as soon as possible.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Heavy week for press screenings... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/09/1999 03:51:03 PM ----- BODY:So I went out for a drunken binge with the people from my journalism course last night, which was entertaining. Dave, who works at Capital Radio did his standard trick of getting drunk and aggressive, which was as ever interesting. By the end of the evening he was busy pawing Henry, who hardly seemed to notice.
Next Monday I have a press screening of Three Kings to attend. In fact this is a pretty heavy week for press screenings - and I will try to get something written for epinions on any films that are on general release in America. I think one of them is called Body Shots, and features Jerry O'Connell from Sliders.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Day from hell? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/1999 10:42:19 AM ----- BODY:The almighty Queer as Folk has a new site. It's not brilliant but it's not bad.
Today is the day from hell. I have to work all morning, make a short film (in half an hour at most), get my hair cut, run back and work all afternoon, see a press screening (Tumbleweed) and then proceed to a drunken party. I fear I will be very tired tomorrow.
I think the non-corporate art poll is being highjacked by people from the various sites concerned. It's very important for you people to make your votes count!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Prehensile apologies... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/10/1999 10:52:22 AM ----- BODY:I take it all back. Prehensile Tales is directing people to the poll and doesn't even (really) try to influence the voting. I am Jack's Desperate Needy Apologetic Aspect.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Zeldman and Tumbleweeds... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/1999 12:06:19 PM ----- BODY:Zeldman.com has commented on the non-corporate art poll. To quote:
"The poll asks readers to visit the independent content sites honored in the Vision, and vote for the one which gives them "the most hope" about the Web. Barbelith creator Tom Coates hopes the poll will guide newcomers to "the best content on the Net" Ò since the big portals clearly don't do this job. (They point to large corporate sites that advertise in their pages.) By nature, polls are popularity contests, and that makes us uneasy. Competition is beside the point. We think the last entry should read "All the Above." Still, we are happy that Barbelith - itself a damn fine site - is promoting independent content on the Web. 'Cause, people, it's our Web, not corporate America's Web."
I am completely honoured to be mentioned at Zeldman since it is, in many ways, the decentred centre of the web - connected intimately with the Web Standards Project and the fight to keep original non-corporate content visible on the web. It's as close to representing the "spirit of the web pioneers" as you can get.
I don't agree about the popularity poll thing though. I agree that polls are by their nature competitive - but only if they are taken seriously! The poll was designed to get people to look at some of the best independent content that the web has to offer, and the interactive part is merely a means to that end. However, if people think that it is against the spirit of the sites themselves then I'll remove it post haste...
TUMBLEWEEDS
Last night I went to the press screening of Tumbleweeds. It was an affecting, slightly off-kilter film, which didn't opt for the easy answers. I basically liked it. But it was more interesting as a treatment of mothers. You felt sympathy for the mother who serially marries and runs across the country with her young daughter, pulling her in and out of schools, getting involved with abusive and violent men. She was portrayed as so childlike and confused herself that she almost couldn't be held accountable for her actions.
I sat there thinking that although the film was entirely convincing and moving, exactly the same story, with the same script but a different director, could have just as easily portrayed her as an inhuman monster.
This aspect slightly perturbed me. It made me wonder what actions couldn't be justified on screen with a sensitive back-story and a likable actor/actress. And whether the love of her daughter should really be taken as such a barometer of her morality. It seemed just as likely to me that the daughter in ten years time would resent her mother with a vengeance.
I'll think about it a bit more and then I'll post an epinion.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Three small things: Croon, Zeldman, Tumbleweeds... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/11/1999 09:06:35 PM ----- BODY:Three brief things. The first is really important. Both Zeldman and I got the URL for Croon wrong. Which might explain why people aren't voting for it (link goes nowhere). Turns out it's not croon.com but croon.org. Bum. I suggest that EVERYONE goes and looks at the site today and votes for it (should they feel that way inclined).
Zeldman himself (awe) has written to me and explains his feelings on the poll. Having heard him out properly, and heard his position through, I must confess I think I agree with him. Um. Finally, I wrote the damn epinion on Tumbleweeds. I am now consumed with guilt as I think I sound right-wing and single mother hating, which fills me with horror.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: American Gigolo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/1999 12:25:36 AM ----- BODY:You remember what I was telling you about my interesting dalliance with a young American? Well hey! Lookee here. I made me a (tiny) gallery...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Traffic to Barbelith... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/1999 09:54:50 AM ----- BODY:The front page of barbelith reached 10,000 hits today. This is quite invigorating. The bomb has now had nearly 40,000 visitors, the nexus over 15,000. What a nice way to start the day...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Vote for me... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/1999 09:57:41 AM ----- BODY:Could anyone who has a chance (and likes The Bomb) go to Wahoo! and rate it for me. They only include people who have been rated more than ten times in their top-rated sites, and The Bomb languishes with five.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Christmas Shopping... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/12/1999 02:47:12 PM ----- BODY:I went Christmas shopping yesterday. I didn't feel like a politically insurgent sexual terrorist at all. I bought biscuits, chocolate, videos and Lebanese candy floss from Selfridges in London. At no point did I stick two fingers up at the ubercorporations. I must be getting old.
Here's an interesting site for you: The Incunabula Papers. I'll let you make up your own mind about it though because I have yet to make up my mind.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Wahoo... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/13/1999 10:39:22 AM ----- BODY:Yay! The Bomb is the top rated site at Wahoo.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Romantic Apocalypse? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/14/1999 12:05:12 PM ----- BODY:Like a recurrent dream comes the non-corporate art poll.
I went out for a drink with e-mail correspondent last night which was supposed to lead into a press screening of Three Kings but didn't. I then stumbled off alone around central London under the influence of alcohol and tobacco and freezing my arse off around Leicester Square while feeling like I was about to vomit. An interesting evening.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The Movie Therapist... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Film CATEGORY: Film DATE: 12/14/1999 04:35:44 PM ----- BODY:Listen very carefully, my friends, for this is the most important thing I have ever had to tell you. This concerns the wonders of Movie Therapy. For years I laboured under the misapprehension that when one was miserable one watched a sad film. Slowly over the years I began to realise that this wasn't the case. So here are some of my recommendations for handling emotional instability through Meme Therapy...
| Lovelorn/Lonely | The immediate temptation when one is in this kind of mood is to go and see some form of romantic comedy. The phrase "comedy" is the killer here, creating the impression that you will be invigorated and cheered up by the story. Unfortunately this is simply not true when you are feeling lovelorn - instead you are likely to find your own situation even more pitiable and begin to hate and resent the film itself. The best solution in these circumstances is to see a film that makes you feel powerful and pro-active, rather than one that makes you feel inadequate. Action films are always relatively good, but don't choose anything with particular lulls in it as these are likely to result in a loss of interest (Pulp Fiction has too large a range of emotional responses for example). A strong figure to identify with style and panache always helps. The Matrix is great for this kind of thing. Another way out of the impasse is to watch a terrifying film which fills you with adrenaline. The original Halloween is particularly good for this, Scream is OK, but Scream 2 is hopeless. If you are of a slightly more cynical bent, you can scrabble a certain amount of pleasure and bile out of a black comedy. This is not recommended for those unfamiliar with Meme Therapy as you are prone to savage eyebrow movements and attacks of biting satirical wit. Recommendations: The Matrix, A Bond Film, Terminator 2, Scream, Halloween. [Cynical Bent: Fight Club, Cube] |
| Anger | There are several forms of anger. If you suffer a form of frustrated anger with an authority figure or the like that you are unable to do anything about in person, then again a decent action film with a strong villain is ideal. However, the most elegant solution to this kind of problem is an anti-establishment comedy which ridicules a figure who represents your enemy rather than destroys them. For anger generated by job pressures, one of the many 80s comeuppance films (Working Girl, Wall Street) work very well. Anger against a partner is the only time when you can effectively watch a romantic comedy, but be careful that you choose the time well as the experience of watching the film will either cause you to forgive your partner and be sensitive and loving for a while, or you will immediately dump them to be with someone you think you can be sensitive or loving with. Be careful, romantic comedies are dangerous things. Recommendations: Working Girl, Wall Street, Mallrats, When Harry Met Sally, One Fine Day, The Matrix. |
That's all for now. Remember these are not general film recommendations, but ways of dealing with and alleviating emotional difficulties that you might be facing. Go with my love, my children.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Rejection and Humiliation... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/15/1999 04:51:15 PM ----- BODY:There's something wrong with the non-corporate poll, and I can't help thinking it has something to do with those scamps at glassdog.org.
So, I am back in pining mode after two concurrent days of rejection and humiliation, both personal and professional. I have been invited to see three separate people tonight - the wonderful Katy who is just down for the night, the heart-squished Josh R, who isn't having the best time in his love-life either and the ever-present Nick, who is determined to go and see Sonatine on the big screen.
I'm going to blow them all off so I can go home and mope effectively. This is good news for people who like barbelith, because these moods generally produce some of my best design work. You leeches...
Is the point of a weblog to record cool places on the net or to be really self-indulgent and talk about whatever you want? Hmmmm - an interesting question...
Americans should use Selectsmart to find the presidential candidate for them. That is, of course, if they are naive enough to believe pre-election promises. Apparently my ideal candidate is Bill Bradley. From having read the summaries of the various positions of the candidates, it's not that far off although the overt policy pronouncements of Al Gore aren't that far away from my own views (except for those views advocating meme terrorism and epistemological insurgency of course). [from Megnut]
I love the idea of iSyndicate and think the design (by the astonishing Powazek) is pretty elegant as well. I'm a little concerned that it will result in the homogenisation of the web, but it is just as likely that it will produce a world of better educated and more informed people. Which I suppose is probably a good thing...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blogger on drugs... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/16/1999 12:10:16 PM ----- BODY:Blogger is wacked out on drugs and speed. Whoa baby - watch that new, intricate and clever interface do its thing. Woof.
There's this quote in Heathers (the film with Christian Slater) which goes something like "Now I use my high IQ to decide what colour lip-gloss to wear". If you added to that discussions about inter-racial relationships and cultural stereotyping in Star Trek, you might have some idea of how far I have fallen over the last couple of years. Kudos to Nick to listening to me ramble on last night.
Red Meat appeals to the cynic in me, but is somehow unfulfilling. There's something too easy about most of it. You know - not quite biting enough. Having said that, this one is pretty lovely...
The non corporate poll has got into silly money as the glassdog.org crew blast it with infinite votes. I can't really be cross since it isn't a competition. Still it is a funny thing to do with your time.
In the interests of fairness, here's a few words about a few of the other sites that you should look up if you get a chance: Pixel Junkie is an elegantly designed site (rebuilt a couple of weeks ago) itself filled with links to sites of a similar classy standard. Much recommended. Soulflare takes design completely away from the technocracy of much online work towards a much more fluid, photo-impressionist style (forgive me if I get a bit florid here). A series of rotating exhibitions demonstrate some of the most intelligent work you will find on the net.
On an altogether more amusing note: for those of you who live in London check out pages 4,6 and 44 of the latest issue of Time Out. Advertrasharama.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Blank Faeces... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/16/1999 10:38:48 PM ----- BODY:So I used to run this site called Blank Faeces, which was designed to reward people who built interesting personal content sites on the web. Basically it wasn't a very good site, so after a great deal of thought I completely ignored everyone who wrote in hoping to get an award.
Most of the sites that people sent to me were pretty bloody awful, but I have only just stumbled upon estetik - a site which was sent to me a month ago with a note asking for feedback. Well frankly, it's wonderful...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Doom Patrol... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/1999 11:24:23 AM ----- BODY:There is this comic book called Doom Patrol, or at least there was a good few years ago. It was written by the immortal Grant Morrison, whom we adore. Anyway - in this comic book there was this character called Crazy Jane. Jane had multiple personality disorder, with a separate super-power for each one. It sounds amusing, but it wasn't - she was a traumatised character who had been abused in her youth and who had absolutely no control over which personality (aggressive, catatonic, violent, sexual) appeared.
I don't mean to scare people, but this cutting-edge and much-loved character may be the focus of a new movie featuring (gulp) Sandra Bullock...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On DisinfoCon... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/17/1999 12:32:12 PM ----- BODY:Disinfo.com is having a conference in NYC. Apparently, Mr Morrison is to attend. Very jealous.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Time Out's Christmas Party... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/18/1999 06:23:42 PM ----- BODY:Last Night was Time Out's Christmas party, held in King's Cross in London. An extraordinarily odd evening with much drinking, schmoozing, flirting and doing of stupid things. I danced like a devil. Other than spending 35 minutes in a taxi rank waiting for a cab to take me home, and the systematic drunken abuse of a young drug crazed gentleman (and the spending of unnecessary monies) it was probably, all things considered, quite a laugh.
Tonight I have a party in South London, doing gay karaoke. It is so cold outside and I am so poor and hungover that I have to confess the idea doesn't really appeal to me. Still it might be enough general distraction to stop me thinking about various love-life related things. Had a chat to potential main squeeze a couple of days ago, in which he said that he didn't think a relationship between us could work. I replied that I knew that, but that I wanted to do it nonetheless. The only question therefore was whether or not he wanted to as well. He said he'd think about it over Christmas. For such a non-committal answer I feel strangely elated. Time will tell I suppose.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: I missed a day... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/1999 06:17:05 PM ----- BODY:I missed a day. That hasn't happened for ages. Perhaps I am suffering from the apparently catching weblogger flu... [Powazek feels bad][Kottke was sick]
Quick bit of politics. Imagine British party politics as two weights, one arranged on the right wing and one on the left wing of a finely tuned set of scales. Traditionally, as one party moved further out on its wing, the other party either had to extend itself similarly down its wing or gather more support in the middle. We now have a new model, as the party that moves further and further to the right sheds voters and MPs, while the party on the centre left has a quick lie down and a glass of port.
It's a strange state of affairs when even Tories think their party is too right-wing...
I was going to suggest some links from people who hate Christmas. Yahoo has a reasonably decent selection of pretty average sites made by people who hate Christmas. But I don't hate it - not really - I just hate the inconvenience and responsibility which I feel when it starts to approach. It would be better if Christmas really was a holiday - but families are hardly holidays - in fact quite often quite the opposite.
Still it will be nice to see my brother, who as ever I miss terribly...
No word from potential main squeeze as yet. There probably won't be any unless either I make the effort or the New Year approaches.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Kissing Mister Quimper... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/1999 09:29:58 PM ----- BODY:Something to make the Americans sick. You can now preorder the new Invisibles trade paperback "Kissing Mister Quimper" on amazon.co.uk but you can't on amazon.com. More information on The Bomb (in the news and collections sections).
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Interstellar Laughing Stock... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/20/1999 10:04:45 PM ----- BODY:I'll tell you something for nothing. If we make contact with Aliens via Heineken's website, then I will be completely gutted. We'd be an interstellar laughing stock...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: 1000 votes... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/1999 09:44:54 AM ----- BODY:The non-corporate poll reaches 1000 votes...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Pirates of Silicon Valley... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/1999 01:32:36 PM ----- BODY:So I finally watched Pirates of Silicon Valley the other day, which a friend had sent me from America a year ago. (I have just bought a new video which can actually show American standard tapes.) I am confused about my feelings towards it - and as time has passed it has remained stuck in my head.
There are a couple of reasons for this - it's portrayal of Bill Gates and Microsoft is resolutely unpleasant, and while Steve Jobs doesn't seem entirely pleasant either, I have more respect for his attitude and his vision. It doesn't hurt that the whole film treats Gates as nothing but a scheming opportunist, nor does it hurt that Jobs is played by Noah Wyle, about who I made one of my first proper sites (and which I still occasionally update). But that isn't all of it.
I think I have fallen for Apple. More musings as they come to me.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On kabbalah.com... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/1999 04:57:42 PM ----- BODY:Every so often you come across a site which is interesting, incredibly well designed and really meshes with your own personal zeitgeist. Check out kabbalah.com.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Support the eToys boycott... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/21/1999 07:34:51 PM ----- BODY:Support the eToys boycott (entry Dec 21). More tomorrow.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Neonlit is getting somewhere? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/22/1999 07:24:08 PM ----- BODY:So my throat is slowly closing up and I am having trouble swallowing. With three days to go until Christmas, could I really be finally getting the flu? Please god no.
Battled away with Neonlit at work today, despite the fact that there are endless other things I should be doing. Finally got it to a place that I am comfortable with. Take a look. Cheer me up.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Design plague apocalypse... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/23/1999 04:16:52 PM ----- BODY:Why is it that I always seem to do my best design on other people's sites? It's only small, but check out the new student guide button on Time Out's site. I think it came out rather well.
Plague remains on periphery. Hopefully I will fight it off before it gets a chance to get a foothold. At least today is my last day at work before Christmas - so I can spend tonight watching TV in bed and wrapping presents. Easy, warm, health-producing activities.
There's this wonderful thing in Baudrillard where he says that it is dull to think of the world as approaching an apocalypse, but much more interesting to work on the principle that it has already happened. There's this wonderful thing in Grant Morrison's work in which he talks about how the spiritual armageddon has come and gone and the physical world is just taking a long time to catch up. These ideas appeal to me. But as Y2K approaches, I can't help wondering whether or not we will all be hunter gatherers in the months ahead. For more see fear2k.com.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Death by cold... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/24/1999 09:14:45 AM ----- BODY:So Barbelith is now getting more hits than The Bomb. Go figure. Plague marches on relentlessly. Managed to get to sleep at 3am, alarm set to 8am so that I can get the train back to my parents' house in Norfolk. Note to self: buy cold pills immediately.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Bizarre Christmas Stories... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/26/1999 12:13:30 AM ----- BODY:So Christmas has come and gone and with it comes the standard array of bizarre family stories. Last year all I could manage was the weirdness of my father specifically asking for (and receiving) 50 bic biros (blue). This year I have the double pleasure of having received a carefully wrapped up can of soup from my uncle while my grandmother insists on wandering around the house saying very loudly, "Where's my pussy!?", "Have you seen my pussy!?".
Frankly I can barely keep a straight face. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Cola Bottle Christmas... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/27/1999 11:48:41 PM ----- BODY:
Phew - the whole Christmas thing is gradually slowing to a halt. I am still at my family's house in Norfolk, but not for much longer. Wednesday morning I am on a train and should be back at home (and able to restore normal service) by the evening. Weird family stories by the bucket load, but I should probably not tell any of them. I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid conversations about politics, because I know they always end in arguments, but my mother insists that Tony Blair is an elected dictator resolved to consolidate his power. I frankly don't know what to say in response to a comment like that...
So I went to see Mystery Men [IMDB] [Epinions] [Official Site] this evening with my brother, who folded up all the arm rests and lay spread-eagled over several seats stuffing his face with cola bottle sweets. It completely reaffirmed my life-long desire to be a super-villain.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Return to London... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/28/1999 11:41:39 PM ----- BODY:I am returning to London tomorrow at which point I will immediately be going to see Dogma with Liz and whoever else I can find to accompany us. My plan is to clean my mind of all the crap that has been accumulating - parents, relationships, little fucking arseholes fucking me around - you know - the whole enchilada. Hmmm... Never sworn so heavily on barbelith before. Feels strangely ... satisfying.
So I have finally found a purpose for the millennium. I am going to do a little stocktaking over the next couple of days and purge myself of every last extraneous and pointless thing in my life. I am going to throw away about a half of the crap in my room, get rid of a thousand bad friends, kill off all the sexual intrigue in my life and return to some form of automaton-like emotionless equilibrium. Accenuate the positive. Eliminate the negative... Savagely.
Oh yeah - WEBLOG - sorry - forgot about that for a few days. Hmmm. Let's see... I am currently unthrilled with students, sappy infantile concepts of Christmas, and DHTML snowflakes on web pages (these are all over the place and must be stopped).
A last note: Ask Jeeves doesn't half come up with some weird answers to perfectly reasonable questions...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On being thrilled... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/1999 06:37:22 PM ----- BODY:Hey guess what! Everyone has cancelled! Instead of seeing Dogma, instead I am staying at home and throwing away all my old papers! I couldn't be more thrilled...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Mystery Men review... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/29/1999 11:45:49 PM ----- BODY:Oops. I accidentally wrote an epinion on Mystery Men.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Etoys lawsuit... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/30/1999 11:29:27 AM ----- BODY:Today's barbelith celebrates etoys decision not to press its utterly ridiculous law suit. Bear in mind though that the precedent probably still stands.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: So it's New Year's Eve... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 12/31/1999 11:31:17 AM ----- BODY:So it's New Year's Eve. I am at home in Hampstead, waiting for some kind of information about what I am going to be doing this evening. My friend Toby is planning to be down at the Thames for the events this evening, with a block of people. He is taking survival gear and rucksacks, which frankly sounds horrific to me. Nick, on the other hand, is dangling the possibility of a party filled with sexy young things for later in the evening - whether or not it is before midnight (or indeed where it is) I just don't know!
I feel profoundly exhausted by the requirement to enjoy myself this evening. That can't be right...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: On Millennium Eve and how dumb it was... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/01/2000 10:33:09 PM ----- BODY:I wanted to get a new relaunched barbelith up today, but the site is so far away from being completed, that I just can't. Which is a pity. Happy new Millennium people. Use it well.
Last night in a nutshell:
Dull as it seems, my resolution for the upcoming year is to "do more gay things". I have decided that I know altogether too many straight people and far far too few gay people. I mean, am I not in touch with my community? Where is my sense of solidarity?
The web has been completely dead over the last couple of weeks - Christmas particularly killed peoples' desire to surf, and New Year seems to have done the same. The Nexus is almost empty, Kottke and Powazek have hardly been writing at all, there are no new IPOs on HSX and page views on barbelith have halved in around a week. It's all very aggravating.
Wired has exceeded expectations by producing the most boring "Things that will happen in the year 2000" I have ever seen. It's probably accurate, but frankly who cares when the future's so dull!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Where were you at midnight? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/02/2000 12:36:07 PM ----- BODY:Powazek has politely pointed out that he has written two new pieces for sf stories. I am an idiot. While we are at it, why don't you tell the fray where you were at midnight...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Internet Time (Part One) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/03/2000 01:40:58 PM ----- BODY:Mr Blair, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, has given his approval to the creation of GeT Greenwich Electronic Time. The site for this is incredibly boring, and I can't help feeling rather misses the point. I mean of course it is handy to have a standard to measure time on the net, but Swatch's system seems to me to have more going for it (although it isn't particularly intuitive). It seems to me that one of the functions of Internet time must be to make it very easy for people to agree to meet online without having to take into account regional time differences. Therefore the system must be intuitive enough for people to be able to understand, while different enough from the standard layout of time to not be confused with it. It's important that people can say lets meet at XXXX and understand where that is in relation to their own time even when their own times are very different.
So here is a preliminary statement regarding BIT - Barbelith Internet Time. My suggestion is to keep with the 24 hour clock (because people have to be able to work out its relation to their own time when things like daylight saving and stuff kick in in the real world), keep it running from Greenwich (why the hell not, everything has done for years anyway) and only abstract its presentation. Something like 3113 for 1:13 pm GMT, minutes first, hours second. I know it seems ridiculous, but it should make time translation really easy while not allowing it to be confused with local time. Six figure numbers would have the seconds at the front - hence 003021 would mean 9.30pm exactly GMT. Someone who currently uses Eastern Standard Time would be able to say to someone two hours ahead of them to meet at 003018BIT which would be half past one EST and half past three for the other guy.
Has anyone got any other ideas?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Internet Time (Part Two) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Technology CATEGORY: Technology DATE: 01/04/2000 07:14:23 PM ----- BODY:I am back at work, and thrilling it is too... I am really taken with the way that metajohn has incorporated the date information into his blog. I may be forced to steal valuable sexy ideas from him.
INTERNET TIME PART TWO:
So the response to my first conception of Internet time wasn't particularly overwhelming. People seemed (how should I put this) ... confused ... by its purpose and/or functionality. Looking over it again they are probably correct.
So I have a new and better idea. Imagine this - you wish to organise a meeting with someone at 1pm your time. You decide on e-mail. You click on the new e-mail button, write what you want, and when it comes time to put in the time of the meeting you click on the clock icon on your toolbar. This icon triggers a "realtime" plugin which would bring up an image of a clock which you could click on, thereby selecting a time. This then writes a small piece of code into your e-mail which you would see as 1pm.
However this code at the OTHER end would be read by the plugin and automatically translated into the equivalent in their time-zone - thus your meeting partner would view it as 3pm (for example).
This plugin could then be added to any number of packages, automatically translating a particular timecode into what time it should be in the place where it was read. (Packages like word processors and web browsers are obvious examples - you can do something on the web like it with applets or javascript, but they go no further).
If you added to the functionality of the plugin by having it check the time against some form of authority (such as GMT) and automatically setting the computer's internal clock accordingly, you could have a really handy nice little device that would completely invisibly generate a standard for Internet Time.
And to make it more entertaining, you could have any number of additional translation timescales in place - you could specify you wanted to see times sent to you in Swatch Internet Time (automatically translated with Swatch's permission) or any number of wacked out systems. Think of it - on your home computer you could choose to work completely in StarDates (with the permission of Paramount of course). And if you wanted to extend it to dates, you could operate in a completely different calendar (although that might get a little too confusing). And it wouldn't matter at all, because to the people who you communicated with would all think you were making all these appointments in whatever system they preferred as well!
Is there anyone out there interested in developing such a mini-app? I even have a snappy name for it: THERMIDOR, after the month of the French Revolutionary calendar in which I was born.
More ravings tomorrow.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: What's the point? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/05/2000 11:09:29 PM ----- BODY:The point of weblogs is to talk about other weblogs - actually no, that is completely not the point. Still - never mind, eh? Metajohn thinks I am nice. Drat Fink has said in response to yesterdays ravings (and I quote): "i hate it when im confronted with intelligent thoughts on other blogs, then im forced to actually use my brain, which only reminds me that i hadnt been using it prior to that point".
The domain name www.year2000.com has been put up for auction on eBay. I think bids closed at around $10,000,000 [Full Story]. Why do I suspect barbelith.com will never be worth a penny? Huh? Answer me that!
I am adding stuff to The Bomb as we speak. It might be in your best interests to go and have a look!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: My first experience of a G4... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/07/2000 11:30:14 AM ----- BODY:British Telecom finally did something useful with the web. I know it is a shock, but it's true! No longer will I be paying 50p a shot for directory enquiries when I can go to www.bt.com/phonenetuk.
Yesterday a new G4 arrived in TimeOut.com's offices. I am in awe. Lust lust lust lust.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Best site on the web? My ass... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2000 11:11:12 AM ----- BODY:What kind of advice is this: Mystery Meat Navigation: An Introduction. People are always asking me, "What's the best site on the Web?" My response is "There is no best site because the best site is the one that as soon as someone clicks a link to go there, money is automatically sucked out of their wallet."?
Well I am afraid Barbelith operates on a non-corporate principle, as I think do most of the very best sites on the net (at least the ones that I visit). So I am therefore more than happy to be (in the words of the man who I quote above) a web site that sucks.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Top Ten Simpsons... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/08/2000 07:41:45 PM ----- BODY:Under strick instructions from Jason Kottke I went and checked out Matt Groening's Top Ten Simpsons Episodes. I don't agree with a couple of them - Frank Grimes was appalling - but there are some classic moments here. "We have reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us!".
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Catch-up time... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/09/2000 12:55:35 PM ----- BODY:Let's see - what have I been up to over the last week that I haven't told you about?
As far as I am concerned, the only news of the day is AOL buying Time Warner. A few months ago people were talking about how large media companies would be buying up Internet companies, but now it looks like the world is moving in another direction. AOL is already worth almost half as much again as Time Warner, which counts amongst its acquisitions an American TV Network, an international chain of shops and cinemas, Warner Bros films (who made The Matrix), Time magazine and DC Comics amongst many others. AOL on the other hand owns Netscape, ICQ and now has a controlling interest in the newly merged company. And this company is affiliated with Sun Microsystems, both of them allied against Microsoft's domination of the computing operating system market.
Things are just getting interesting...
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: A classic Time Out review... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2000 11:18:45 AM ----- BODY:Time Out's reviewers have reached new heights of perfection. The new Pet Shop Boy's single "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You Are Drunk" is described as: "More dirty grunting fuckpig pop from the leathered-up and greased-down mule-bucket gore-hounds." What can I say?
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Classic Coates... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/11/2000 10:17:08 PM ----- BODY:I have been looking over sites that I built nearly a year ago now, and I can't help thinking that they were rather better than the crap I am building at the moment. I mean The Bomb looks pretty hot, but started around that time, I still think The Nexus looks like complete arse (particularly when compared with glassdog.org and Barbelith itself is little more than a gaudy stopgap.
So to help myself get myself back on form I have decided to upload one of my older projects Fin de Siecle to the site - it probably won't be updated any more in its current form (it was far far too much work), but hopefully it will inspire me to get around to rebuilding it, and the other parts of the site that are in desperate need. Whatever happened to Microlith, Dice Man etc etc? Well - I need about four months off work to get them up and running as well!
So go and check out the old Fin de Siecle and let me know what you think of it. I'll try and get the new one up and running sometime before July... (!)
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Went to see Head On... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/12/2000 11:46:00 PM ----- BODY:Went to see Head On again this evening. It's a strange film - sexy but laboured (if that is possible). I was hoping to meet a friend for a drink afterwards, but the various people I had in the frame for the role of "friend" decided to blow me off (in the American rather than English use of the phrase).
I occasionally suggest personal sites to look at. I can't imagine two sites more different than toby.stone.org and Lynn MacEachen's site. Toby is a friend of mine with a rather ... Edwardian ... sense of fun. Among his many galleries is one of a recent party he had at the Oxford and Cambridge Club in London. I was invited, but was unable to attend. Having seen the pictures, I notice a surprising lack of fifth dimensional incursions, space-time supersolids and general political insurrection...
Lynn's site on the other hand is as 21st Century as you could hope for.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Minor Traffic Spike... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2000 09:34:26 AM ----- BODY:I don't mean to be churlish, but how come for the last week barbelith has been getting about 150 visitors a day, and then yesterday suddenly gets over 300?! There's no evidence in the referrer log. What on earth is going on?
I have been separated from most of my e-mail because of a problem with my ISP. I can still receive it, but I can't easily reply, which leaves me feeling more than a little cyberimpotent.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Popstarz Plans... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/13/2000 09:44:05 PM ----- BODY:Tomorrow night I am thinking of going to Popstarz in North London. Now all I need is to find someone pliant to take with me.
SKY: Friends, ER, Roswell High, Veronica's Closet, The Simpsons. I swear - I'm in television trash heaven.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: The horror of Saint Valentine... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/14/2000 12:25:40 AM ----- BODY:How sad is this. In one month exactly it is Valentine's Day. Every year it is a strange time for me, as I always find myself either tense about the relationship (or otherwise) that I am in, or feeling bad for not being in one. And the worst thing is all your coupled friends are too busy throwing flowers and underwear at each other to be any fun at all. Sheesh - some people can be so self-involved (joke).
This year is a particularly odd one. I decided a few weeks ago to aid my (I suppose) "ex" by keeping my distance for a while. Frankly I doubt he's noticed, but since everything has been calming down reasonably well (both internally and externally) I grudgingly think that it is probably a good thing. But I'm a sap for Valentine's Day and want to get him something. However, because of the nature of our relationship at this present time I need to get something that isn't too sappy, offers no pressure or anything but is still vaguely touching in a kind of lightly poignant kind of way. If I could find a way to be perfect and rise above everything then that would be great too.
I really really need some ideas. HELP ME.
In preparation for the full horror - here are some Valentines related sites: blinddate.org is the perfect place to set a couple of young proto-lovers up (or to cause mayhem by setting up bitter enemies). In a rather more trashy vein is Cupid's Cove - I don't have much more to say to that... "Loving You"'s Valentine's Site is almost enough to make me take an axe to people in couples, but I will probably manage to restrain myself for a few more weeks (four probably).
So I think I will end with an unnecessarily venomous guide to The Day of Pink. It's a little savage even for my tastes, but there's an explosion in it, so it's pretty much OK with me! Check out The Alt.Suicide.Holiday Valentine's Day Survival Kit.
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Nick and the suit.. STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2000 12:42:03 PM ----- BODY:First of three things to talk about today is a bit of an announcement. There will be a gathering for anyone who hangs out in The Nexus on February 4th at Popstarz in London. More information as I have it, but it should be a tremendous laugh with much drinking and the like. Drop me a line if you are interested!
Second thing is a little diary entry - and is also about Popstarz. On Friday night I went out for a drink with Nick E. to the Leisure Lounge and Popstarz. I wasn't sure if I was going to be in the right kind of mood for all night clubbing, but it turned out that Nick was perfect company and we had a great time schmoozing and boozing. The club is about 60-70% gay, and Nick is about 95-100% straight, but he often seems to meet attractive and interesting women there.
Nick had told me earlier in the evening that he used to explain very firmly to any gentleman who flirted with him that he wasn't interested, thanks very much, but that he had decided in recent months just to play along and flirt back for a while and then wander off with a smug smile on his face. I told him I thought this was reasonably dodgy and could really interfere with the cheeriness and good spirits of anyone foolish enough to find him attractive.
This night however, he found himself very squarely in the sights of a rather aimiable-looking 6'4" besuited man. But appearances can be deceiving and within about five minutes, said collosal gentleman was exploring Nick's body with an altogether unexpected enthusiasm. Nick looked very sheepish. Several times he gestured to me to save him from this situation, but I decided that (since all he had to do was say - oops ... sorry ... straight) he probably deserved it and could save himself. With a great big grin on my face I made a cod impression of someone who didn't understand his request.
But Nick REFUSED to 'fess up to the Giant Suit - and as time passed he got simultaneously more perturbed and amused by his situation. For an instant I turned away, and when I glanced back Nick was alone. He grinned a grin, and made a gesture of relief and we danced some more. Suddenly I find Giant Suit leering up behind me. Doubling over to reach my ear he whispers to me "Why did you have to have such a HOT boyfriend?!".
Nick is in trouble.
Anyway - the rest of the evening was fun - I met a great guy from the LSE with whom I spent an entertaining evening and whom I wish I could see again, but don't think I will. I could tell you more, but I don't think I will. All in all a pretty entertaining few hours.
Finally, on a rather more geeky note, I have been looking at iSyndicate Affiliates (which was designed by our esteemed colleague at powazek.com) in preparation for the big redesign challenge I am setting myself. But it occurred to me that I hadn't seen many of their affiliates out there in the real world, which made me wonder if they would be of any use to me at all.
So I was interested when today I was sent the URL for a site called Fragile Minds which uses similar newsfeeds from places like moreover.com. Fragile Minds is an interesting site which illustrates that one an use these newsfeeds not just to replicate the content of the information provider but to allow you to produce a site in which everything you create is new, while still offering more of a service to the people who read your site.
I'm still not totally convinced by such newsfeeds, but it is cool that there are decent sites out there using them.
So that's it for today - quite an epic post - much longer than normal. Hope you are all having a good weekend!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: More epinions... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/16/2000 05:28:17 PM ----- BODY:I accidentally wrote some epinions of: Moby, Play / Roswell High / Empire Strikes Back. Sorry!
----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Tom Coates TITLE: Understanding people is too hard... STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 0 CONVERT BREAKS: 0 ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 01/17/2000 05:04:03 PM ----- BODY:Hey look - barbelith's non-corporate art poll was clearly such a spankingly hot idea that it has been liberally appropriated by Vitaflo's gorgeous site [HREF section].