Thursday, April 29, 2004
Okay: More email being used for Two Birds. I'm as lazy as the next guy. Just take it as a given we were talking Iraq. You'll have to pick your way through this minefield, and use your own brain to figure out what I was answering. I'm not trying to make the other guys look like idiots, I'm just trying to snip the bits that refer directly to what I have to say. A lot of this is totally out of context, so be forewarned. (Let 'em get their own BLogs.... )
Re: "the soldiers were spit on" anecdote never
happened.
Me: "It's total bullshit. It's the kind of thing that a mean-minded person would do. These guys came back twitchy and with that scared-deer look (eyes HUGE, all pupil -- it's called the 1000-yard stare. You see it in photos of WWII German troops. They all know they're prey, and somebody out there is hunting them).
If anything, people were kind to them. They were just kids, fer cripesakes. Skinny little things. Babies sent to bleed.
Spitting on someone -- now WHICH side is more liable to spit on someone? Liberal-minded people who want peace? Or war-eaters who hate people of other sexes and colors?
They're always accusing us of doing what they like to do.
Spitting on anyone -- BRRRR.
Hell, I apologize to the trees when I have to move in the woods -- "It's just water. Look, it's good fertilizer! And I'm burying it next to your roots." Trees are huge -- I'm insulting something THAT big?"
Re: "it wasn't like the movies, and there was no hail the conquering hero."
Me: "That's the movies' fault -- not the soldiers'.
Start a program of teaching children, early on, that those are all ACTORS -- and those are all scripts. And to get to the library and read.
And make sure every single child gets a copy of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.
(Yeah, I read it seven times, so I tried to See The Elephant myself, and became -- agh! -- a WAC. They -- um -- wouldn't let me out of the country. See if I keep the general's damn teletype running next time. @!$#$!!!!)
(And the book that local Veteran's groups took up on my recommendation -- Remarque's next book -- THE ROAD BACK. All the dissapointment and anger and PTSD is right there, from another generation, and another people).
Don't even let your sons and daughters get hauled into this stuff being fed the usual garbage. Don't let THEM get fooled or treated like ignorant cannon fodder just because YOU were. It hurts to talk? Do it anyway. You want to protect your families, get the patriotic cobwebs out of their heads, and help them to THINK.
Re: "They needed to hear that they were welcomed back as gladiators,
protectors, etc. They needed to feel clean and sane again."
Me: "This is the problem. People need to believe all this crap is FOR something -- and it's not. They always get schnookered.
They will never be clean or sane again. They did horrible things, and that blood will never wash away; a decent person would never want to forget it. But they don't need to try to pretend it didn't happen, or it was for some "Good War." They can only work with what they've got. They can deal with it, slowly, painfully, with our help, even if we can't know completely what they went through. We cannot ignore them. We can't hand them some medals or a parade or a job, and tell them to Get Over It, or to Get A Job, or to Get On With Life. They're repositories of terror, and they need to tell us what was done to them -- AND what they did.
No, I'm not asking for some kind of religous confession or remorse -- that's crap. We need their knowledge, experience and memories. Those are precious, and need to be retained.
In corporate or imperial war, nobody's getting protected but the stock interests. Those soldiers over there are not protecting me. The more angry people are around the world, the more dangerous it is for me and people like me, every time we get on a plane. You can't stop really angry, grieving, bitter people. They will GET your ass, sooner or later. You can ONLY try to deal with root causes. It's all you've got.
Unless, of course, you're all safe and warm in the White House, and you don't give a big whip whether the plane I'm on gets run into a building, except for propaganda photos. And I don't even get a gun. I get dragged into this against my will, just trying to live my life.
Yes, I'm pissed. And getting more pissed by the day.
Re: "These kids will come back ...they will have a lot of the same mental crap to deal with."
Me: "The veteran's groups need to be there. There were more of them for the people after Vietnam than after World War Two. And we can't lie to them and tell them it was FOR something. We can only help them become the kind of people who will tell the next generation NOT to do these things.
Jesus, the Germans did it for THEIR soldiers! We can't do this for OURS?
Re: "He'd been there over a year... We haven't spoken yet, but I know that for now, he is where he wants to be."
Me: "And will he come back and admit WHO makes the biggest casualty in a war?
Soldiers?
Or women and kids?
Where are the medals and the parades and the mourning walls for the women and children -- the majority of the war dead?
Those people don't even have guns. Hell, they don't have Humvees or armor or defense parameters. They go out and get water and food daily -- and always have -- with their own fragile skins -- while the forces of the empires and corporations throw metal at each other, and right through them.
And then WHOSE fear do we get to hear about?"
Re: "the soldiers were spit on" anecdote never
happened.
Me: "It's total bullshit. It's the kind of thing that a mean-minded person would do. These guys came back twitchy and with that scared-deer look (eyes HUGE, all pupil -- it's called the 1000-yard stare. You see it in photos of WWII German troops. They all know they're prey, and somebody out there is hunting them).
If anything, people were kind to them. They were just kids, fer cripesakes. Skinny little things. Babies sent to bleed.
Spitting on someone -- now WHICH side is more liable to spit on someone? Liberal-minded people who want peace? Or war-eaters who hate people of other sexes and colors?
They're always accusing us of doing what they like to do.
Spitting on anyone -- BRRRR.
Hell, I apologize to the trees when I have to move in the woods -- "It's just water. Look, it's good fertilizer! And I'm burying it next to your roots." Trees are huge -- I'm insulting something THAT big?"
Re: "it wasn't like the movies, and there was no hail the conquering hero."
Me: "That's the movies' fault -- not the soldiers'.
Start a program of teaching children, early on, that those are all ACTORS -- and those are all scripts. And to get to the library and read.
And make sure every single child gets a copy of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.
(Yeah, I read it seven times, so I tried to See The Elephant myself, and became -- agh! -- a WAC. They -- um -- wouldn't let me out of the country. See if I keep the general's damn teletype running next time. @!$#$!!!!)
(And the book that local Veteran's groups took up on my recommendation -- Remarque's next book -- THE ROAD BACK. All the dissapointment and anger and PTSD is right there, from another generation, and another people).
Don't even let your sons and daughters get hauled into this stuff being fed the usual garbage. Don't let THEM get fooled or treated like ignorant cannon fodder just because YOU were. It hurts to talk? Do it anyway. You want to protect your families, get the patriotic cobwebs out of their heads, and help them to THINK.
Re: "They needed to hear that they were welcomed back as gladiators,
protectors, etc. They needed to feel clean and sane again."
Me: "This is the problem. People need to believe all this crap is FOR something -- and it's not. They always get schnookered.
They will never be clean or sane again. They did horrible things, and that blood will never wash away; a decent person would never want to forget it. But they don't need to try to pretend it didn't happen, or it was for some "Good War." They can only work with what they've got. They can deal with it, slowly, painfully, with our help, even if we can't know completely what they went through. We cannot ignore them. We can't hand them some medals or a parade or a job, and tell them to Get Over It, or to Get A Job, or to Get On With Life. They're repositories of terror, and they need to tell us what was done to them -- AND what they did.
No, I'm not asking for some kind of religous confession or remorse -- that's crap. We need their knowledge, experience and memories. Those are precious, and need to be retained.
In corporate or imperial war, nobody's getting protected but the stock interests. Those soldiers over there are not protecting me. The more angry people are around the world, the more dangerous it is for me and people like me, every time we get on a plane. You can't stop really angry, grieving, bitter people. They will GET your ass, sooner or later. You can ONLY try to deal with root causes. It's all you've got.
Unless, of course, you're all safe and warm in the White House, and you don't give a big whip whether the plane I'm on gets run into a building, except for propaganda photos. And I don't even get a gun. I get dragged into this against my will, just trying to live my life.
Yes, I'm pissed. And getting more pissed by the day.
Re: "These kids will come back ...they will have a lot of the same mental crap to deal with."
Me: "The veteran's groups need to be there. There were more of them for the people after Vietnam than after World War Two. And we can't lie to them and tell them it was FOR something. We can only help them become the kind of people who will tell the next generation NOT to do these things.
Jesus, the Germans did it for THEIR soldiers! We can't do this for OURS?
Re: "He'd been there over a year... We haven't spoken yet, but I know that for now, he is where he wants to be."
Me: "And will he come back and admit WHO makes the biggest casualty in a war?
Soldiers?
Or women and kids?
Where are the medals and the parades and the mourning walls for the women and children -- the majority of the war dead?
Those people don't even have guns. Hell, they don't have Humvees or armor or defense parameters. They go out and get water and food daily -- and always have -- with their own fragile skins -- while the forces of the empires and corporations throw metal at each other, and right through them.
And then WHOSE fear do we get to hear about?"
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Discussion of a book I have up at www.booksurge.com:
From Stephen Holland at Page 45 (good shop -- www.page45.com):
And he'd done a review talking about the bad production values (too true!) Here 'tis:
"The Grandmothers' Hive (£9-99) by Donna Barr. Painted colour artwork throughout, a rare treat from Donna, and outside of the occasionally opaque bits, it's both a joy and the strength of the work. Check out the cover - the ivy-encrusted old stone house, surrounded by autumnal trees. Beautiful. Unfortunately this surreal children's story, a journey up into (then swiftly down from) the tallest reaches of the tower, infested with gaga grandmothers and assorted livestock, is told in a stilted verse whose lettering isn't all that clear, which doesn't always match the illustrations on each page, and is littered with foreign words and phrases for which Barr has to provide a glossary at the back. It's quite the chore, and it's badly laid out, most of the problems stemming from landscape layout, with its spine at the top, like a calendar. Just awful production values, really. I don't think I'm going to be able to forgive myself for saying anything negative about Donna or her work, and before now I've never had to. But hopefully this will at least alert DESERT PEACH fans to some new Barr material. In colour." -- Stephen
And then my answer:
"Oh, and I TOTALLY agree on The Grandmothers' Hive (shudder)-- but if we hadn't turned the pages sideways, considering that we only had a limited amount of sizes to choose from, the pages would have been EENTSY, and even muddier. It's some of those awful compromises we have to make with print-on-demand, when we dump some of the compromises we had to make with offset/webset. They can't cut POD yet -- they have to go with limited sizes.
We're working on the revised addition, right now, will full new scans. Believe me, I agree with everything you said about production values. And we're using new fonts. When it's up and prettier, we'll email everybody.
(Of course, that's always much better than having somebody look at your book and, with wrinkled brow, murmuring "Nice production values." I've had to do that. To the point that, when I praise somebody's production values, I'd reassure someone that it IS praise, and not blowing off their artwork!).
I should mention that I have a friend who can actually read this verse out loud! Incredible. He's done it, more than once. And in public (shameless). I ain't no poet, that's for sure. It's as much tongue-in-cheek as anything.
That's why the book is print-on-demand; it was done more to share the artwork and the insane calligraphy with the more completist readers."
My webguy said it would be a good idea to put this up on the BLog, as opposed to putting it in the book.
>^..^<
From Stephen Holland at Page 45 (good shop -- www.page45.com):
And he'd done a review talking about the bad production values (too true!) Here 'tis:
"The Grandmothers' Hive (£9-99) by Donna Barr. Painted colour artwork throughout, a rare treat from Donna, and outside of the occasionally opaque bits, it's both a joy and the strength of the work. Check out the cover - the ivy-encrusted old stone house, surrounded by autumnal trees. Beautiful. Unfortunately this surreal children's story, a journey up into (then swiftly down from) the tallest reaches of the tower, infested with gaga grandmothers and assorted livestock, is told in a stilted verse whose lettering isn't all that clear, which doesn't always match the illustrations on each page, and is littered with foreign words and phrases for which Barr has to provide a glossary at the back. It's quite the chore, and it's badly laid out, most of the problems stemming from landscape layout, with its spine at the top, like a calendar. Just awful production values, really. I don't think I'm going to be able to forgive myself for saying anything negative about Donna or her work, and before now I've never had to. But hopefully this will at least alert DESERT PEACH fans to some new Barr material. In colour." -- Stephen
And then my answer:
"Oh, and I TOTALLY agree on The Grandmothers' Hive (shudder)-- but if we hadn't turned the pages sideways, considering that we only had a limited amount of sizes to choose from, the pages would have been EENTSY, and even muddier. It's some of those awful compromises we have to make with print-on-demand, when we dump some of the compromises we had to make with offset/webset. They can't cut POD yet -- they have to go with limited sizes.
We're working on the revised addition, right now, will full new scans. Believe me, I agree with everything you said about production values. And we're using new fonts. When it's up and prettier, we'll email everybody.
(Of course, that's always much better than having somebody look at your book and, with wrinkled brow, murmuring "Nice production values." I've had to do that. To the point that, when I praise somebody's production values, I'd reassure someone that it IS praise, and not blowing off their artwork!).
I should mention that I have a friend who can actually read this verse out loud! Incredible. He's done it, more than once. And in public (shameless). I ain't no poet, that's for sure. It's as much tongue-in-cheek as anything.
That's why the book is print-on-demand; it was done more to share the artwork and the insane calligraphy with the more completist readers."
My webguy said it would be a good idea to put this up on the BLog, as opposed to putting it in the book.
>^..^<
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Okay, one more for today.
People, those of you who want censorship -- in any form -- no matter how mild -- for your kids' sake or whatever -- had better know that if you bring it up to artists/writers like me, we are going to blow sky high.
There's a REASON you'd better pussy-foot around us on this subject. You're looking at everything from bookburning to burning of the author, imprisonment, you name it, when you're dealing with censorship through the ages. In the US, comic book authors still face the threat of house arrest.
And I'm a woman more than a 1/2-century old. I remember when I was always being told to shut up. Why? Because I was cleft, instead of crested, to quote Queen Bess. And it was always because some child might see.
Put the kids into purdah. Lock 'em up where they aren't threatened. Keep YOUR eye on 'em -- don't expect us to. And don't expect us to write Mary Poppins because otherwise it might upset your spawn.
And don't act all hurt and pretend to be reasonably appalled when you bring up censorship to authors, and they bite your face off.
Right here, I'm taking back any apologies I ever made because somebody's feelings got hurt because they didn't like MY reaction when THEY started talking censorship.
And don't think code words like "barrier pages" is going to get you off the hook, buster.
People, those of you who want censorship -- in any form -- no matter how mild -- for your kids' sake or whatever -- had better know that if you bring it up to artists/writers like me, we are going to blow sky high.
There's a REASON you'd better pussy-foot around us on this subject. You're looking at everything from bookburning to burning of the author, imprisonment, you name it, when you're dealing with censorship through the ages. In the US, comic book authors still face the threat of house arrest.
And I'm a woman more than a 1/2-century old. I remember when I was always being told to shut up. Why? Because I was cleft, instead of crested, to quote Queen Bess. And it was always because some child might see.
Put the kids into purdah. Lock 'em up where they aren't threatened. Keep YOUR eye on 'em -- don't expect us to. And don't expect us to write Mary Poppins because otherwise it might upset your spawn.
And don't act all hurt and pretend to be reasonably appalled when you bring up censorship to authors, and they bite your face off.
Right here, I'm taking back any apologies I ever made because somebody's feelings got hurt because they didn't like MY reaction when THEY started talking censorship.
And don't think code words like "barrier pages" is going to get you off the hook, buster.
Talking' to a colleague on another list, and he said that BD in DOONESBURY and Willie in GET FUZZY had both lost legs in Iraq. So here's my response:
"Aw, poor BD. He was dumb back then, and he's dumb now. Tell me if losing
a leg has given his body more blood to send to his brain?"
Colleague said Trudeau was handling it better:
Me: "Well, it's not fair to the Get Fuzzy author. Trudeau was around for the Vietnam idiocy, so he's kinda just running the same take. Matter of practice. The other guy wasn't around back then, and it's all new and fresh to him."
And after another colleague's comment about BD's importance in Trudeau's work:
Me: "BD is the voice for brainless patriots! They we will always have with us.
Who else would express these viewpoints so well? Never get rid of a really
good character, you'll kick yourself.
What's Beetle Bailey up to? Mort always has something to say against war. Been there, done that, don't want to do it again.
Was on a panel with a kid back from Iraq, who'd got a purple heart when his vehicle went over a mine. I should state that the following conversations were made by both him and me in the spirit of trying to lighten up a very dark panel. Later in the conversation, I said,
"Well, you know, if you shoot at people, they WILL shoot back!"
Him: "Yeah, I found that out!" Then:
"Hey, you're the one with the purple heart -- you're the one forgot to duck."
He, comically wailing:
"It wasn't fair! They're supposed to put up little red flags that say 'Mines here, don't run over this!' And it wasn't my fault -- I wasn't driving!"
He sounded like the guys back from Vietnam: "I was more scared than anybody! I forgot to duck. He was doing his job, I was doing mine, I guess he just did his a little better." Guys like that are now opening up restuarants in Vietnam with the guys who shot 'em.
Nothin' like combat to kick the patriotic crap out of people. Too bad we have to have wars, because people can't figure this stuff out on their own.
I mean, what does it TAKE to remember the very simple idea: "War is for
stupid people." ?
Huh. Looks like I just wrote the material for my BLog today."
>^..^<
"Aw, poor BD. He was dumb back then, and he's dumb now. Tell me if losing
a leg has given his body more blood to send to his brain?"
Colleague said Trudeau was handling it better:
Me: "Well, it's not fair to the Get Fuzzy author. Trudeau was around for the Vietnam idiocy, so he's kinda just running the same take. Matter of practice. The other guy wasn't around back then, and it's all new and fresh to him."
And after another colleague's comment about BD's importance in Trudeau's work:
Me: "BD is the voice for brainless patriots! They we will always have with us.
Who else would express these viewpoints so well? Never get rid of a really
good character, you'll kick yourself.
What's Beetle Bailey up to? Mort always has something to say against war. Been there, done that, don't want to do it again.
Was on a panel with a kid back from Iraq, who'd got a purple heart when his vehicle went over a mine. I should state that the following conversations were made by both him and me in the spirit of trying to lighten up a very dark panel. Later in the conversation, I said,
"Well, you know, if you shoot at people, they WILL shoot back!"
Him: "Yeah, I found that out!" Then:
"Hey, you're the one with the purple heart -- you're the one forgot to duck."
He, comically wailing:
"It wasn't fair! They're supposed to put up little red flags that say 'Mines here, don't run over this!' And it wasn't my fault -- I wasn't driving!"
He sounded like the guys back from Vietnam: "I was more scared than anybody! I forgot to duck. He was doing his job, I was doing mine, I guess he just did his a little better." Guys like that are now opening up restuarants in Vietnam with the guys who shot 'em.
Nothin' like combat to kick the patriotic crap out of people. Too bad we have to have wars, because people can't figure this stuff out on their own.
I mean, what does it TAKE to remember the very simple idea: "War is for
stupid people." ?
Huh. Looks like I just wrote the material for my BLog today."
>^..^<
Well, welcome to the time in the day when I look in the mirror and beat my head against it. Those of you who do this, get to laugh. Those of you who don't -- GET A MIRROR.
This is my nasty quote Girlamatic was using to promote the site:
"A nice little controlled perfect we're-all-the same, we're-all-right ring fence enclosure like the boys have been running for years. A ring through your nose. A ring around your neck. We all play by our rules. It's our football. No girls allowed. You draw like a girl. Don't think for yourself or try a new style or say scarey things, cuz it might touch on the little tender soft shrinking testicles. Shit, this industry thinks it's being revolutionary every time it invents a gay character." Me, 2002.12.30
Now if people know I talk like that, and have that attitude -- why do they get all surprised when I talk like that, and have that attitude? When it serves their agenda, I'm their Company Doberman, and they sit back and laugh. When the Doberman shows she ain't Company, and they get bit -- why are they all surprised? (I actually had "Company Doberman" on a resume at one point, because I turned salesmen and winos back from the front doors of the business I was secretarying for.)
Do they think I reserve my sharp tongue for my enemies? Because I don't really have any enemies. Enemies are people who hang your cat from a tree, or stalk you in an alley with a knife. THAT's an enemy. Everbody else is just my fellow poor monkeys.
You know what my problem is? I apologize too much. Everybody else gets to get their backs up, and get all pissy over a few words, or an unintentional screwup (and Lord knows I make 'em) and I'M supposed to be the adult and fix the problem and apologize and make everything all right. I'm supposed to get head-first into their idiot self-serving projects, and make nice and be the team player.
People, I'm not a team player. I've never been. It's why I'm poor and crazy (and I have a beach and you don't!). I've got a few very select people around me, extremely competent people, who keep contact, and just want to get things done. And I have a world of incredible readers, retailers and colleagues. As I've said before -- and this time I mean it! -- I will not have or make any time for touchy freaks, or people who lockstep in an industry and expect me to do the same, or bad-tempered people who make my friends afraid (I could throttle those guys; don't get me started on a recent incident, when a good friend's eyebrows worked with worry, and I groveled rather than keep that look on my friend's face). I'm going to save my time and good words and gratitude (if only I had enough to pay them back!) for these people.
Buddha says we have to spread the Fearlessness. I swear -- I SWEAR! This time I'm going to do it.
Yeah. Right... Tell me when...
This is my nasty quote Girlamatic was using to promote the site:
"A nice little controlled perfect we're-all-the same, we're-all-right ring fence enclosure like the boys have been running for years. A ring through your nose. A ring around your neck. We all play by our rules. It's our football. No girls allowed. You draw like a girl. Don't think for yourself or try a new style or say scarey things, cuz it might touch on the little tender soft shrinking testicles. Shit, this industry thinks it's being revolutionary every time it invents a gay character." Me, 2002.12.30
Now if people know I talk like that, and have that attitude -- why do they get all surprised when I talk like that, and have that attitude? When it serves their agenda, I'm their Company Doberman, and they sit back and laugh. When the Doberman shows she ain't Company, and they get bit -- why are they all surprised? (I actually had "Company Doberman" on a resume at one point, because I turned salesmen and winos back from the front doors of the business I was secretarying for.)
Do they think I reserve my sharp tongue for my enemies? Because I don't really have any enemies. Enemies are people who hang your cat from a tree, or stalk you in an alley with a knife. THAT's an enemy. Everbody else is just my fellow poor monkeys.
You know what my problem is? I apologize too much. Everybody else gets to get their backs up, and get all pissy over a few words, or an unintentional screwup (and Lord knows I make 'em) and I'M supposed to be the adult and fix the problem and apologize and make everything all right. I'm supposed to get head-first into their idiot self-serving projects, and make nice and be the team player.
People, I'm not a team player. I've never been. It's why I'm poor and crazy (and I have a beach and you don't!). I've got a few very select people around me, extremely competent people, who keep contact, and just want to get things done. And I have a world of incredible readers, retailers and colleagues. As I've said before -- and this time I mean it! -- I will not have or make any time for touchy freaks, or people who lockstep in an industry and expect me to do the same, or bad-tempered people who make my friends afraid (I could throttle those guys; don't get me started on a recent incident, when a good friend's eyebrows worked with worry, and I groveled rather than keep that look on my friend's face). I'm going to save my time and good words and gratitude (if only I had enough to pay them back!) for these people.
Buddha says we have to spread the Fearlessness. I swear -- I SWEAR! This time I'm going to do it.
Yeah. Right... Tell me when...
Well, I guess I DID give Lea the twitchies (Paid Home, see below).
Cuz she got her back all up, and we ended up putting all my material on Moderntales. Of course, when she tried to put on a barrier page to my work, I blurted out (well, blurt-typed out), "Just because I have a twat, doesn't mean I'm going to be their paid baby-sitter."
Which was a little too pointed for Lea. I forgot she's got kids (most of my gang don't have kids) and people with kids have a real sore point about censorship. They KNOW they had the kids, and they're supposed to be taking care of them and not dumping them on other people, or intruding into adult non-kid lives, but when one of us who decided not to help overpopulate the planet makes the point, something kicks in -- I dunno what, guilt? -- to make them all defensive.
And Lea had been using one of my most nasty quotes about mainstream comics, quite gleefully, to skewer the boy-brigade that runs the industry. But I forgot that too often, them what can dish it out can't take it (and I should know that because I'm one of them! Like the rest of the damn monkeys on this planet...).
And of course, good people got dragged into the fracas (they always do), and I feel bad about that. I apologized to Lea for hurting her feelings (want to make me back off? Act hurt. Works every time). I should apologize to the good people for intruding on their decent lives, too.
Anyway...
This is better. Moderntales has a much wider scope for mature content (GOD! I hate the context of the terms "mature" and "adult." People automatically think it's sex. We should be putting the term "teenage" or "adolescent" on the stuff we don't want the kids to see. The real Mature or Adult stuff just goes over their heads. Anyway).
And people can see all my work at www.Moderntales.com Which includes some pretty twitchy-making stuff.
So you're forewarned.
But if you still want to see some great stuff (that will not frighten your children) go over to www.girlamatic.com!
Cuz she got her back all up, and we ended up putting all my material on Moderntales. Of course, when she tried to put on a barrier page to my work, I blurted out (well, blurt-typed out), "Just because I have a twat, doesn't mean I'm going to be their paid baby-sitter."
Which was a little too pointed for Lea. I forgot she's got kids (most of my gang don't have kids) and people with kids have a real sore point about censorship. They KNOW they had the kids, and they're supposed to be taking care of them and not dumping them on other people, or intruding into adult non-kid lives, but when one of us who decided not to help overpopulate the planet makes the point, something kicks in -- I dunno what, guilt? -- to make them all defensive.
And Lea had been using one of my most nasty quotes about mainstream comics, quite gleefully, to skewer the boy-brigade that runs the industry. But I forgot that too often, them what can dish it out can't take it (and I should know that because I'm one of them! Like the rest of the damn monkeys on this planet...).
And of course, good people got dragged into the fracas (they always do), and I feel bad about that. I apologized to Lea for hurting her feelings (want to make me back off? Act hurt. Works every time). I should apologize to the good people for intruding on their decent lives, too.
Anyway...
This is better. Moderntales has a much wider scope for mature content (GOD! I hate the context of the terms "mature" and "adult." People automatically think it's sex. We should be putting the term "teenage" or "adolescent" on the stuff we don't want the kids to see. The real Mature or Adult stuff just goes over their heads. Anyway).
And people can see all my work at www.Moderntales.com Which includes some pretty twitchy-making stuff.
So you're forewarned.
But if you still want to see some great stuff (that will not frighten your children) go over to www.girlamatic.com!
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Lea has pointed out that Paid Home (see below) needs a barrier page that protects naughty serfs at work.
When I put up the barrier page, I'm going to have to note where folks can get bailout programs, so the boss don't get a clue their slaves are subverting the work ethic...
When I put up the barrier page, I'm going to have to note where folks can get bailout programs, so the boss don't get a clue their slaves are subverting the work ethic...
When I wrote the following report back in April of 2003, I didn't know how close I'd come to what would happen.
When I hear military wives on the radio, now, their voices shaking, attempting to be brave when they know they may never see their loved ones again, yet desperately trying not to know about what was actually happening, or why, I am tempted by the most uncompassionate urges. I feel the urge to sneer, "I told you so," at these women. Or "You threw them away for lies. How could you?"
You have to understand that I expect more of a woman. I expect her to be strong, informed, and in control. Men -- well, I don't expect much of them. They have a very bad track record, when it comes to caving in to whatever form of violence is going. But women? I want to be compassionate toward them, but they are capable of strength and of putting their feet down, and refusing to take the easy route.
Maybe it's because I had such a strong mother.
In the meantime, I will continue to try to be compassionate toward these women.
And NOT mutter "I told you so" ever time I hear one of them whimpering on the radio.
(The last line in the report is my attempt at future magic. If I SAY these people are trustworthy, they will be so. So much for me as a witch.)
In the "Enemy" camp.
Donna Barr 2 April, 2003.
I've been thinking about the Saturday, March 29, 2003, Support The Troops rally (in Silverdale, Washington), and trying to figure out what -- among the many things I saw -- are the most disturbing.
First of all, when I had a chance to talk quietly to people, I -- as I expected -- found that these were no more war-mongers than you or I. They didn't want to invade anybody. Like so many average people in so many wars, they don't want the people on the other side killed, either. They want peace and a way to feed their children and have their normal lives, like anybody else. This was not a surprise. I hope very much that the people around the world are able to separate the support of the troops from the urge for war and conquest. The people of Indonesia have already organized -- in a Christian and Moslem Coalition -- to supress fanatical attack upon western countries, because they've seen the peace marches, and know the American people are not monsters -- but we have to hope that the support rallies are not misinterpreted as the thirst for war. This can only lead to more attacks on what are perceived as aggressive countries. We can only hope that the peace rallies remain large enough to offset the effect.
There was now and again a low-minded sentiment (such as the sign "War solves everything" -- but I think this was just a joke in very bad taste, in an attempt to reverse peace protest signs without thinking about the meaning), but the majority of the people just wanted their relatives to come back safely, and the war not to last very long. That they expressed sympathy for Iraqi civilians was a credit to them.
It was where you ran into the professional groups that you realized the amount of propaganda that had been perpetrated on these people. A local radio station, KVI, which is under Clear Channel, used a woman whose "husband was in the war" as an excuse -- a kind of political human shield, if you will -- to quash all information.
Did this woman even know that her husband has the right -- the duty -- under the Geneva Convention to disobey illegal orders? That he will be court-martialed if he does? That I am one of the peace movement who will try very hard to have him released from unfair -- and under the Geneva Conventions, illegal -- confinement and prosecution? Does she know that our military is using heavy metals in its weaponry, and that her husband, if he does come anywhere near the country, will be contaminated, as will their children, if he contracts radiation poisoning? That these heavy metals -- with a 1/2 life of 14-million years -- are poisoning the earth in Iraq (as are the weapons that the other side is using -- a horrible chemical brew has been used by both sides with no care for the needs of the civilian population, to forward military goals). Has she yet found out that the government has cut the veterans' health benefits? These are Navy people, and less likely to outrightly suffer from a land battle, but she shouldn't be left in ignorance to serve the cynical ends of the media.
A group of Navy wives accused me of having used drugs, and of having accused them of being "baby killers." I wasn't sure what that last accusation was about -- unless it was a leftover of rare incidents that occured during Vietnam. (I had, of course, used the same drugs they used -- caffeine and alcohol. These are the legal American drugs, along with nicotine. They have a tendency to exite us, I must admit. We really should lay off them, if they weren't so highly addictive.) The women said they had been in Iraq, and asked if I'd seen the atrocities. I wanted to get more details about it, specifically to ask if they’d ever been off a ship or outside a military compound, or if they’d been there during a war, what had caused the atrocities --and whether they’d been caused by the local government, or American forces. But they began to chant "USA USA," waving flags. Somehow they got abortion or how the UN supported it, or something, into the mix. It was a stew of damaged misinformation. They had at their disposal a number of confused slogans, and they called names, but there was no attempt to think about the situation themselves.
I felt sorry for these women -- they'd been hurt a lot. Somebody had threatened them a lot. One of them had been in the Navy herself, and I wanted to talk to her, having been in the Army. But in each case, the radio station and the wives, they said, "They told us somebody like this might show up." One of the members of the station went to get the police -- I said, Good idea, I'll come with you." However, I got stopped by somebody else, and we got to talking, and the radio person disappeared. These crowds are always hard to keep track of.
I don't know if anybody in this march had applied for a permit. Leading onto the overpass, the people had to cross very heavy traffic coming right in off a freeway, in three lanes. There was no cross-walk. Old people, children, people pushing strollers, were having to take their chances (I did, too -- baaaad jay-walker). People were crossing with little care for the lights, just bunching up and moving across in the weight of their numbers, at the psychological moment. There was no police control of the intersection. Since a lot of people had showed up in a lot of large vehicles, with a lot of blind spots, I winced at the thought of the collision that constantly threatened. I finally called the State Patrol and asked them to please get some crowd- and traffic-control into place, before somebody got maimed or killed. I hope they showed up. I don't want to claim that the police had not been notified because the organizers wanted to say that "They didn't need police protection, because they weren't dangerous," but as well and centrally organized as this rally was, I cannot believe that somebody simply forgot to arrange traffic control. It's one thing to believe something -- it's another to use it to endanger lives to make a point. These were perfectly decent people, and did not deserve to get run over. Save the political statements for the airwaves and the signs -- but don't deny people police protection.
Anyway, I guess that's a rally report. These are decent people -- but their loved ones are being horribly misused by our government. I cannot -- I WILL not -- believe that they are willing to throw their loved ones away to pay for their lifestyle. Or to force their beliefs, way of life, or way of government down someone else's throats. The decent people are always in the majority. Trust in them.
When I hear military wives on the radio, now, their voices shaking, attempting to be brave when they know they may never see their loved ones again, yet desperately trying not to know about what was actually happening, or why, I am tempted by the most uncompassionate urges. I feel the urge to sneer, "I told you so," at these women. Or "You threw them away for lies. How could you?"
You have to understand that I expect more of a woman. I expect her to be strong, informed, and in control. Men -- well, I don't expect much of them. They have a very bad track record, when it comes to caving in to whatever form of violence is going. But women? I want to be compassionate toward them, but they are capable of strength and of putting their feet down, and refusing to take the easy route.
Maybe it's because I had such a strong mother.
In the meantime, I will continue to try to be compassionate toward these women.
And NOT mutter "I told you so" ever time I hear one of them whimpering on the radio.
(The last line in the report is my attempt at future magic. If I SAY these people are trustworthy, they will be so. So much for me as a witch.)
In the "Enemy" camp.
Donna Barr 2 April, 2003.
I've been thinking about the Saturday, March 29, 2003, Support The Troops rally (in Silverdale, Washington), and trying to figure out what -- among the many things I saw -- are the most disturbing.
First of all, when I had a chance to talk quietly to people, I -- as I expected -- found that these were no more war-mongers than you or I. They didn't want to invade anybody. Like so many average people in so many wars, they don't want the people on the other side killed, either. They want peace and a way to feed their children and have their normal lives, like anybody else. This was not a surprise. I hope very much that the people around the world are able to separate the support of the troops from the urge for war and conquest. The people of Indonesia have already organized -- in a Christian and Moslem Coalition -- to supress fanatical attack upon western countries, because they've seen the peace marches, and know the American people are not monsters -- but we have to hope that the support rallies are not misinterpreted as the thirst for war. This can only lead to more attacks on what are perceived as aggressive countries. We can only hope that the peace rallies remain large enough to offset the effect.
There was now and again a low-minded sentiment (such as the sign "War solves everything" -- but I think this was just a joke in very bad taste, in an attempt to reverse peace protest signs without thinking about the meaning), but the majority of the people just wanted their relatives to come back safely, and the war not to last very long. That they expressed sympathy for Iraqi civilians was a credit to them.
It was where you ran into the professional groups that you realized the amount of propaganda that had been perpetrated on these people. A local radio station, KVI, which is under Clear Channel, used a woman whose "husband was in the war" as an excuse -- a kind of political human shield, if you will -- to quash all information.
Did this woman even know that her husband has the right -- the duty -- under the Geneva Convention to disobey illegal orders? That he will be court-martialed if he does? That I am one of the peace movement who will try very hard to have him released from unfair -- and under the Geneva Conventions, illegal -- confinement and prosecution? Does she know that our military is using heavy metals in its weaponry, and that her husband, if he does come anywhere near the country, will be contaminated, as will their children, if he contracts radiation poisoning? That these heavy metals -- with a 1/2 life of 14-million years -- are poisoning the earth in Iraq (as are the weapons that the other side is using -- a horrible chemical brew has been used by both sides with no care for the needs of the civilian population, to forward military goals). Has she yet found out that the government has cut the veterans' health benefits? These are Navy people, and less likely to outrightly suffer from a land battle, but she shouldn't be left in ignorance to serve the cynical ends of the media.
A group of Navy wives accused me of having used drugs, and of having accused them of being "baby killers." I wasn't sure what that last accusation was about -- unless it was a leftover of rare incidents that occured during Vietnam. (I had, of course, used the same drugs they used -- caffeine and alcohol. These are the legal American drugs, along with nicotine. They have a tendency to exite us, I must admit. We really should lay off them, if they weren't so highly addictive.) The women said they had been in Iraq, and asked if I'd seen the atrocities. I wanted to get more details about it, specifically to ask if they’d ever been off a ship or outside a military compound, or if they’d been there during a war, what had caused the atrocities --and whether they’d been caused by the local government, or American forces. But they began to chant "USA USA," waving flags. Somehow they got abortion or how the UN supported it, or something, into the mix. It was a stew of damaged misinformation. They had at their disposal a number of confused slogans, and they called names, but there was no attempt to think about the situation themselves.
I felt sorry for these women -- they'd been hurt a lot. Somebody had threatened them a lot. One of them had been in the Navy herself, and I wanted to talk to her, having been in the Army. But in each case, the radio station and the wives, they said, "They told us somebody like this might show up." One of the members of the station went to get the police -- I said, Good idea, I'll come with you." However, I got stopped by somebody else, and we got to talking, and the radio person disappeared. These crowds are always hard to keep track of.
I don't know if anybody in this march had applied for a permit. Leading onto the overpass, the people had to cross very heavy traffic coming right in off a freeway, in three lanes. There was no cross-walk. Old people, children, people pushing strollers, were having to take their chances (I did, too -- baaaad jay-walker). People were crossing with little care for the lights, just bunching up and moving across in the weight of their numbers, at the psychological moment. There was no police control of the intersection. Since a lot of people had showed up in a lot of large vehicles, with a lot of blind spots, I winced at the thought of the collision that constantly threatened. I finally called the State Patrol and asked them to please get some crowd- and traffic-control into place, before somebody got maimed or killed. I hope they showed up. I don't want to claim that the police had not been notified because the organizers wanted to say that "They didn't need police protection, because they weren't dangerous," but as well and centrally organized as this rally was, I cannot believe that somebody simply forgot to arrange traffic control. It's one thing to believe something -- it's another to use it to endanger lives to make a point. These were perfectly decent people, and did not deserve to get run over. Save the political statements for the airwaves and the signs -- but don't deny people police protection.
Anyway, I guess that's a rally report. These are decent people -- but their loved ones are being horribly misused by our government. I cannot -- I WILL not -- believe that they are willing to throw their loved ones away to pay for their lifestyle. Or to force their beliefs, way of life, or way of government down someone else's throats. The decent people are always in the majority. Trust in them.
Saturday, April 17, 2004
From a recent forum, after I announced certain explicit stories that would be going up on the net:
Lea (she said I could use her name): Sounds like it's going to be at least as explicit as recent episodes of same--which means I want them behind a content warning page. Girlamatic isn't an all-ages site, but with the general content not being what I'd call X-Rated, I think a barrier page is appropriate."
Me:
"Just don't call it Adult Material.
I gave Lea the twitchies... I gave Lea the twitchies... na na na na NA na.
I think the Barrier Page should read: If your child is reading this, and you don't know about it, we will prosecute you for child neglect.
Which is what I'm gonna do. Hell, I've already used it. On a panel, an indignent parent demanded to know how they would know my books were for grown-ups?
After I simply OPENED the damn thing and displayed it to him, I then said, well, what I said above.
Panel and audience applauded.
Where are the goddamn parents!!!???? I am sick and tired of being an UNPAID BABYSITTER. Just because I have a twat, I'm supposed to look out for their stinky naked squall-machines?
Or their unripened bondage-curious goth babies?
Or it could say this: "Get your kid away from me. Or I will EAT it."
And, yes, this is going up on www.wolffood.blogspot.com (with names erased to protect the twitchy).
Donna Barr
Cannibal Aunt.
Lea (she said I could use her name): Sounds like it's going to be at least as explicit as recent episodes of same--which means I want them behind a content warning page. Girlamatic isn't an all-ages site, but with the general content not being what I'd call X-Rated, I think a barrier page is appropriate."
Me:
"Just don't call it Adult Material.
I gave Lea the twitchies... I gave Lea the twitchies... na na na na NA na.
I think the Barrier Page should read: If your child is reading this, and you don't know about it, we will prosecute you for child neglect.
Which is what I'm gonna do. Hell, I've already used it. On a panel, an indignent parent demanded to know how they would know my books were for grown-ups?
After I simply OPENED the damn thing and displayed it to him, I then said, well, what I said above.
Panel and audience applauded.
Where are the goddamn parents!!!???? I am sick and tired of being an UNPAID BABYSITTER. Just because I have a twat, I'm supposed to look out for their stinky naked squall-machines?
Or their unripened bondage-curious goth babies?
Or it could say this: "Get your kid away from me. Or I will EAT it."
And, yes, this is going up on www.wolffood.blogspot.com (with names erased to protect the twitchy).
Donna Barr
Cannibal Aunt.
A letter to Scott Simon, Weekend Edition, NPR:
"Dear Mr. Simon (with the understanding that I get a kick out of your coverage and your tone. And that infective laugh):
You made a remark on Saturday's show, concerning Nazi attempts to cover up their genocide: "How could such a technologically-advanced people have done something so morally bankrupt?" Or words to that effect.
You were speaking to Elvis Mitchell, the movie reviewer, and he did not answer your question. I realize that you were playing Devil's Advocate, but I think your question might have been a little too subtle.
Were you actually trying to make the connection between industrial technology and fascism? And were you pointing out that, according to their moral compass, the Nazis were doing something perfectly moral?
Their morality, was, of course, that which had been developing in the West -- and sadly enough, among the white race -- for over 500 years. According to that morality, a single race was morally superior, and its actions, no matter how heinous, were, in the long run, for the greater good. It was often necessary to hide actions that less enlightened (sic) or less intelligent (sic) people may consider bad, because otherwise their reactions might lead to inefficient results. It's all right to dump toxins into the river, because it keeps everybody locally in their jobs. Including the local politicians backing the pork-barrel and corporate projects.
The Nazis were, in the majority, of Germanic backgrounds. All of those with German relatives can tell you how obsessive and intense the people tends to be. Of all the peoples on the planet, they have a tendency to take things to the logical extreme. If it was all right for Americans and the British, the French, the Dutch, to import black peoples as chattel slaves/organic machinery, why was it not all right to import slave workers from white countries? If it was all right for the Belgians to use black people as faceless, disposable transportation devices for the production of rubber and the collection of ivory, then wouldn't it be all right to use Russians to produce food for the Fatherland? And if they proved less efficient, wasn't it all right to clear them off the land, and introduce a superior (sic) culture? If it was all right for the American doctors to recommend -- even practice -- eugenics -- why was it not all right to lace large-scale production facilities into the use of slaves and ultimate disposal of unwanted genetic material?
We have to remember that when the question of eugenic studies came up during the Nuremberg trials, and the defeated doctors began to quote their research, that part of the trial was quickly ended.
To put it simply, the seeds of Auschwitz were in the Spanish gold mines and the cotton gin.
If anything, the Nazis were far more even-handed in their treatment of the races than so-called more moral people in our present. To them, everybody was an inferior race, and available for conquest, invasion, enslavement or racial purification. In fact, it was these very actions that began to awaken the white race to the realization that these activities were inherently bad, or immoral, regardless of their ultimate end. What white men, as a majority, would have actually looked at, or ceased, their oppression of women, "colored races" or children, without having experienced the bad effects upon themselves?
(I will not include the actions of the white race during the American Civil War. To put it bluntly, that situation resembled two men who had been raping a woman for 300 years, and then one of them, after having decided she was no longer attractive, deciding to knock the other one off her, and to release her into the street, with no real protection, and minimal compensation. And the original point of releasing her was to deny her use to the other man. A particularly nasty form of Dog-In-The-Manger, if you will. It might have been, in the end, a moral action, but the chest-puffery that goes on in the white race that supposedly fought to release her is a little tooth-gritting. It could be stated in a less hypocritical or self-congratulatory manner.)
I do know that my German friends were appalled by recent actions, starting more than a year ago. "Are you crazy?" they emailed me. "Are you stupid? Did you NOT learn anything from our history?" Of all people on the planet, the Germans may presently be the most truly moral people. They learned the hard way, and they're not forgetting. Let's hope that their obsessiveness, this time, will continue down a less harmful road. I should mention that when I told my German friends that most Americans did not know that Hitler had been voted down three times before stealing an election -- well, I can't exactly duplicate someone sputtering in email, but you probably get the idea. They do not realize how intensely our media works to separate their experience from the rest of the world. It would be very bad for the corporations that run the media if anyone made the actual connection.
It's been said that nothing happens for a bad reason.
At least until humanity can learn to look ahead and have more compassion for their fellow creatures, regardless of who they are -- it may be true.
And yes, of COURSE, this is going up on www.wolffood.blogspot.com
With an RSS feed:
http://www.2rss.com/atom2rss.php? atom=http://wolffood.blogspot.com/atom.xml
(This is the local one:)
http://www.2rss.com/atom2rss.php?atom=http://clallamatbay.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Yeah, they let me into the Chamber of Commerce. Be very afraid."
"Dear Mr. Simon (with the understanding that I get a kick out of your coverage and your tone. And that infective laugh):
You made a remark on Saturday's show, concerning Nazi attempts to cover up their genocide: "How could such a technologically-advanced people have done something so morally bankrupt?" Or words to that effect.
You were speaking to Elvis Mitchell, the movie reviewer, and he did not answer your question. I realize that you were playing Devil's Advocate, but I think your question might have been a little too subtle.
Were you actually trying to make the connection between industrial technology and fascism? And were you pointing out that, according to their moral compass, the Nazis were doing something perfectly moral?
Their morality, was, of course, that which had been developing in the West -- and sadly enough, among the white race -- for over 500 years. According to that morality, a single race was morally superior, and its actions, no matter how heinous, were, in the long run, for the greater good. It was often necessary to hide actions that less enlightened (sic) or less intelligent (sic) people may consider bad, because otherwise their reactions might lead to inefficient results. It's all right to dump toxins into the river, because it keeps everybody locally in their jobs. Including the local politicians backing the pork-barrel and corporate projects.
The Nazis were, in the majority, of Germanic backgrounds. All of those with German relatives can tell you how obsessive and intense the people tends to be. Of all the peoples on the planet, they have a tendency to take things to the logical extreme. If it was all right for Americans and the British, the French, the Dutch, to import black peoples as chattel slaves/organic machinery, why was it not all right to import slave workers from white countries? If it was all right for the Belgians to use black people as faceless, disposable transportation devices for the production of rubber and the collection of ivory, then wouldn't it be all right to use Russians to produce food for the Fatherland? And if they proved less efficient, wasn't it all right to clear them off the land, and introduce a superior (sic) culture? If it was all right for the American doctors to recommend -- even practice -- eugenics -- why was it not all right to lace large-scale production facilities into the use of slaves and ultimate disposal of unwanted genetic material?
We have to remember that when the question of eugenic studies came up during the Nuremberg trials, and the defeated doctors began to quote their research, that part of the trial was quickly ended.
To put it simply, the seeds of Auschwitz were in the Spanish gold mines and the cotton gin.
If anything, the Nazis were far more even-handed in their treatment of the races than so-called more moral people in our present. To them, everybody was an inferior race, and available for conquest, invasion, enslavement or racial purification. In fact, it was these very actions that began to awaken the white race to the realization that these activities were inherently bad, or immoral, regardless of their ultimate end. What white men, as a majority, would have actually looked at, or ceased, their oppression of women, "colored races" or children, without having experienced the bad effects upon themselves?
(I will not include the actions of the white race during the American Civil War. To put it bluntly, that situation resembled two men who had been raping a woman for 300 years, and then one of them, after having decided she was no longer attractive, deciding to knock the other one off her, and to release her into the street, with no real protection, and minimal compensation. And the original point of releasing her was to deny her use to the other man. A particularly nasty form of Dog-In-The-Manger, if you will. It might have been, in the end, a moral action, but the chest-puffery that goes on in the white race that supposedly fought to release her is a little tooth-gritting. It could be stated in a less hypocritical or self-congratulatory manner.)
I do know that my German friends were appalled by recent actions, starting more than a year ago. "Are you crazy?" they emailed me. "Are you stupid? Did you NOT learn anything from our history?" Of all people on the planet, the Germans may presently be the most truly moral people. They learned the hard way, and they're not forgetting. Let's hope that their obsessiveness, this time, will continue down a less harmful road. I should mention that when I told my German friends that most Americans did not know that Hitler had been voted down three times before stealing an election -- well, I can't exactly duplicate someone sputtering in email, but you probably get the idea. They do not realize how intensely our media works to separate their experience from the rest of the world. It would be very bad for the corporations that run the media if anyone made the actual connection.
It's been said that nothing happens for a bad reason.
At least until humanity can learn to look ahead and have more compassion for their fellow creatures, regardless of who they are -- it may be true.
And yes, of COURSE, this is going up on www.wolffood.blogspot.com
With an RSS feed:
http://www.2rss.com/atom2rss.php? atom=http://wolffood.blogspot.com/atom.xml
(This is the local one:)
http://www.2rss.com/atom2rss.php?atom=http://clallamatbay.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Yeah, they let me into the Chamber of Commerce. Be very afraid."
Friends of mine have an incredibly lovely little Chinese girl they adopted about 5 (?) years ago. She is a little activist, and the light of the local sci/fi/fantasy conventions. Oh, yes, her picture in her stroller, gleefully holding up an "No Iraq War" poster at the Seattle marches, is a delight. It was published in the Bremerton Sun. For once my stupid digital camera was working. If you'd like to see it, she's at: http://www.stinz.com/home/news/march.htm
Friday, April 16, 2004
Told my webguy to look up the rest of the Ramification Stories for Paid Home (under "Rotten Pot" at www.Girlamatic.com).
(These are in the form of paper manuscripts. We're putting them up on the net as webcomics).
This is my description to find them in the crisping old pages:
"Hey, when you start getting near the end of Paid Home, I'd like to continue
the story. It starts -- well, it starts with a soccer game. It's in the
embroidered book that shows the blue skull-faced thing holding the bleeding
head. You should recognize it because as it goes along, there's a large
scene of a soccer audience, army and SS, cheering and throwing things. It
goes quite a while...
Next email:
"Yeah -- let me know if you have any trouble finding it. It's a story that branches out and branches out, and effects a lot of people. Full sets of
teeth knocked out, and punishment and banishment, and beatings, and
submission, and oral sex with sea serpents and mixed-race mermaids. And
mermen. And blackmail and sexual compulsion and drowning and sexual power
games and intentional hamstringing and tormenting cripples and...
It's like Sex In The City in Black, with NO sense of humor.
Girlamatic is gonna frickin' love it."
(These are in the form of paper manuscripts. We're putting them up on the net as webcomics).
This is my description to find them in the crisping old pages:
"Hey, when you start getting near the end of Paid Home, I'd like to continue
the story. It starts -- well, it starts with a soccer game. It's in the
embroidered book that shows the blue skull-faced thing holding the bleeding
head. You should recognize it because as it goes along, there's a large
scene of a soccer audience, army and SS, cheering and throwing things. It
goes quite a while...
Next email:
"Yeah -- let me know if you have any trouble finding it. It's a story that branches out and branches out, and effects a lot of people. Full sets of
teeth knocked out, and punishment and banishment, and beatings, and
submission, and oral sex with sea serpents and mixed-race mermaids. And
mermen. And blackmail and sexual compulsion and drowning and sexual power
games and intentional hamstringing and tormenting cripples and...
It's like Sex In The City in Black, with NO sense of humor.
Girlamatic is gonna frickin' love it."
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Oh, lord.
I can remember the reaction the war protesters got from the military wives and the mainstream media -- we were "unpatriotic." We were "cowardly" and "weak."
Well, we didn't stick our heads in the sand, and willingly allow the government to scoop up our dear, precious husbands and sons and brothers. We FOUGHT against it. We knew it was for oil. We weren't going to give up that easily.
And now the military wives and the mainstream media and the conservative Democrats, and the Republicans Who Are Just Waking Up are all outraged because their loved ones -- whom they threw away -- are dying, and the government won't give them back as promised.
Let's try some new definitions, shall we?
Conservative: We always know better.
Liberal: We TOLD you so.
Donna Barr
Having a REAL hard time being compassionate.
I can remember the reaction the war protesters got from the military wives and the mainstream media -- we were "unpatriotic." We were "cowardly" and "weak."
Well, we didn't stick our heads in the sand, and willingly allow the government to scoop up our dear, precious husbands and sons and brothers. We FOUGHT against it. We knew it was for oil. We weren't going to give up that easily.
And now the military wives and the mainstream media and the conservative Democrats, and the Republicans Who Are Just Waking Up are all outraged because their loved ones -- whom they threw away -- are dying, and the government won't give them back as promised.
Let's try some new definitions, shall we?
Conservative: We always know better.
Liberal: We TOLD you so.
Donna Barr
Having a REAL hard time being compassionate.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Welp, gonna be out of town for the Easter weekend.
Norwescon! Readings, panels (why did I get the science track so heavily?), masquerade, all kinds of good stuff.
Check it out at: www.norwescon.com
My webcomics at www.moderntales.com and www.girlamatic.com will be on hiatus while I'm doing the Norwescon thing.
Norwescon! Readings, panels (why did I get the science track so heavily?), masquerade, all kinds of good stuff.
Check it out at: www.norwescon.com
My webcomics at www.moderntales.com and www.girlamatic.com will be on hiatus while I'm doing the Norwescon thing.
I received this message, with an attached voice recording in my email this morning. Once again, the comics people come through:
"This is a message sent to all the international contributors of the "Alan Moore: Portrait of an extraordinary gentleman" book after the official annoucement of the 36,000 US dollars donation to the Alzheimer's charities. More info at www.millidge.com.
It's a very short message but a very important one for me: Again, thank you all from the depth of my heart for the support to this amazing project! I think we have made some difference in the fight against this terrible disease.
From Italy
smoky man - www.ultrazine.org"
"This is a message sent to all the international contributors of the "Alan Moore: Portrait of an extraordinary gentleman" book after the official annoucement of the 36,000 US dollars donation to the Alzheimer's charities. More info at www.millidge.com.
It's a very short message but a very important one for me: Again, thank you all from the depth of my heart for the support to this amazing project! I think we have made some difference in the fight against this terrible disease.
From Italy
smoky man - www.ultrazine.org"
From my friend and colleague, Kjartan Anorsson in Iceland, who reports that my book "The Grandmothers' Hive" (www.stinz.com for the link) is in his local library!
I just wanted to put up the name of the library because it has handsome words.
'"Borgarbókasafn Reykjavíkur", the Reykjavik public library. I've been
haunting it since it was in an old sea-captain's house. The new, modern
library building has less oldworld charm, but it has lots more room,
which more than compensates.'
I think that first word might be related to the German Buergerbuechersammeln -- citizen's book collection. By way of many years and much distance.
(AGH! My degree in German language and literature strikes again).
I just wanted to put up the name of the library because it has handsome words.
'"Borgarbókasafn Reykjavíkur", the Reykjavik public library. I've been
haunting it since it was in an old sea-captain's house. The new, modern
library building has less oldworld charm, but it has lots more room,
which more than compensates.'
I think that first word might be related to the German Buergerbuechersammeln -- citizen's book collection. By way of many years and much distance.
(AGH! My degree in German language and literature strikes again).
Thursday, April 01, 2004
In answer to an message from www.page45.com (Specifically http://www.page45.com/newarriv.html) and a review of my latest book, NEW SOULS:
"Yes, I do love to draw. And I'm so glad it shows!
Oh, if you miss Stinz, as I get more pages, they'll be going up as
webcomics, just as I ran all the pages that are in New Souls. But first...
I'm presently working on the last BOSOM ENEMIES (See? No more scary stuff.
And you aren't the only one that series has scared silly). Cuz I'm paid to
do it, and that's why I've done so many issues of it. And it's too much
fun -- the boys are in San Francisco, ca 1972! As their human selves. And
they can't get out of their uniforms... and they stink... And Steph is just
so PISSED OFF. Stewart is eating popcorn and whatever else he's been
missing. It's so goofball, and so much fun. We are about to watch Steph
try skateboarding... in THAT uniform... It'll be going up on
www.moderntales.com as soon as I finish running THE ERSATZ PEACH -- the
creator anthology that has been sold out so long.
And I've nearly finished a rough of THE DESERT PEACH, taking place in Hell,
the 1990's border riots in Rostock, and far in the future (with a VERY BAD
descendant, who is pushing contraband -- well, you'll see what he's
pushing). As soon as I've drawn THAT all out, and got it up on
www.moderntales.com, then...
ARTWITCH. A Stinz story, in which somebody finally gets a handle on that
awful End Of The War magic... SORT OF... There will probably be
casualties...
And when all these books are complete as webcomics, they'll go up as POD on
Booksurge (Diamond WILL negotiate for POD -- and they work with retailers.
No more warehouseing!). For a link to my books THE GRANDMOTHERS' HIVE and AN INSUPPORTABLE LIGHT [The Stinz novel]-- {a link so I get a little bigger percentage} -- check out www.stinz.com).
(I stopped drawing for about 6 months while we prepared to move -- and I'm making up for lost time with a vengeance)"
"Yes, I do love to draw. And I'm so glad it shows!
Oh, if you miss Stinz, as I get more pages, they'll be going up as
webcomics, just as I ran all the pages that are in New Souls. But first...
I'm presently working on the last BOSOM ENEMIES (See? No more scary stuff.
And you aren't the only one that series has scared silly). Cuz I'm paid to
do it, and that's why I've done so many issues of it. And it's too much
fun -- the boys are in San Francisco, ca 1972! As their human selves. And
they can't get out of their uniforms... and they stink... And Steph is just
so PISSED OFF. Stewart is eating popcorn and whatever else he's been
missing. It's so goofball, and so much fun. We are about to watch Steph
try skateboarding... in THAT uniform... It'll be going up on
www.moderntales.com as soon as I finish running THE ERSATZ PEACH -- the
creator anthology that has been sold out so long.
And I've nearly finished a rough of THE DESERT PEACH, taking place in Hell,
the 1990's border riots in Rostock, and far in the future (with a VERY BAD
descendant, who is pushing contraband -- well, you'll see what he's
pushing). As soon as I've drawn THAT all out, and got it up on
www.moderntales.com, then...
ARTWITCH. A Stinz story, in which somebody finally gets a handle on that
awful End Of The War magic... SORT OF... There will probably be
casualties...
And when all these books are complete as webcomics, they'll go up as POD on
Booksurge (Diamond WILL negotiate for POD -- and they work with retailers.
No more warehouseing!). For a link to my books THE GRANDMOTHERS' HIVE and AN INSUPPORTABLE LIGHT [The Stinz novel]-- {a link so I get a little bigger percentage} -- check out www.stinz.com).
(I stopped drawing for about 6 months while we prepared to move -- and I'm making up for lost time with a vengeance)"
