March 2002

March 31/2002 (11:24 PM) ~ posted by Sean
We're dealing as capably as we can with this cease-and-desist order. Please be patient during the transition.
 

March 30/2002 (12:42 PM) ~ posted by JP
I just changed my column logo, see it here along with my latest photo album. Hope ya like it.
 

March 29/2002 (5:45 PM) ~ posted by JP
Two new pieces of hate-mail added to Pulp's Deleted Scenes. Read 'em here and here.
 

March 27/2002 (9:28 PM) ~ posted by Ash
The new PULP is out. Knock yourselves out, kids.
 

March 27/2002 (2:08 PM) ~ posted by JP
One of the sites I check on a daily basis mentioned me today! The Making of a Restaurant linked to my amusing essay on my future restaurant. Thanks for sending some links this way guys, love your site.
 

March 25/2002 (9:22 PM) ~ posted by Sean
This week's batch of album reviews will be online Tuesday afternoon. Sorry for the delay.

In the mean time...

A few days ago, JP posted a link to a story about the mayor of Inglis FL, who banned Satan from her town. Well, here's a real, actual interview with the woman herself.

Beck's got an iPod. But what's he listening to? Check it out in a pretty wittle picture.

And finally, a fascinating interview with George Burdi, former skinhead and White Power figurehead.
 

March 25/2002 (12:22 AM) ~ posted by Ash
No, it shouldna.
 

March 24/2002 (11:50 PM) ~ posted by Sean
The Fellowship of the Ring shoulda won.
 

March 24/2002 (12:16 PM) ~ posted by Ash
Well, after a long and painful hiatus, PULP is back in black, and twice as ugly. Not very funny, though, but who asked you anyway. The new issue is out in email form as we speak, and should be up on the website, hopefully today or tomorrow. If you want an advance copy, or would like to subscribe, send an email to pulp@tangmonkey.com, or sign up on the main PULP page.
 

March 22/2002 (5:36 PM) ~ posted by JP
Wowee, I'm on a roll. The Rant! section got a whole lot better today thanks to my efforts. *pats self on back* I've added a comments thingie to each rant and I've also restored the "5 most recent / 5 random rants" sidebar on the rant index page. Go there now to bitch about the bitchin' and to bitch some more.
 

March 21/2002 (4:15 PM) ~ posted by Sean
Boys and girls, the world has gone mad. Yes, it's Crocodile Hunter, the movie. And its got explosions.

Crikey.
 

March 15/2002 (4:58 PM) ~ posted by Sean
A head's up about new column scheduling:

JP's BLAG now appears on Wednesdays;
Scott's fantastic Underwear on the Outside is a Thursday affair;
Tales from the Crypt should pop up on Saturdays;
a new Mumbles & Music will show up on Monday.

Any new or revived columns will fill those ranks out. Are you interested in writing for Tangmonkey? Email us.
 

March 14/2002 (4:29 PM) ~ posted by Sean
It's come to our attention that Tang's new Canadian ad campaign makes heavy use of monkeys. This is perplexing to us: we are not sure whether we should begin legal action against Philip Morris (owners of tang, killers of children), or, instead, hide - 'cause their lawyers could easily beat up our lawyers.

While I'm here, I might as well encourage you not to sing bad Frank Sinatra karaoke in the Phillipines, not to phone Miss Cleo (cause, believe it or not, it's a sham), and not to consume inordinate quantities of cinammon, horse-radish or saltines.

Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, Booklend is the kind of thing that makes me absolutely adore the Internet. Mark Robinson's library is available to the public; want a book? He'll send it to you free of charge, to read for as long as you want, and even include a postage-paid envelope so that you can return it when you're done. Trust-based and wonderful.
 

March 5/2002 (10:37 AM) ~ posted by Neale
Sphera Software, a small operation run by a friend of the Tangmonkey Group, has just released its first piece of software- the highly addictive word puzzle game Scramble. A demo version of the game which includes 100 different puzzles is downloadable for free, and a full version with 1000 puzzles is available for a small fee. The game requires that you be running the superb Mac OS X.

More information, and the free download, are available at Sphera Soft's website.
 

March 1/2002 (9:49 PM) ~ posted by Sean
I got in from New York City at 6:30am today: bedraggled, fatigued, but comfortable. Snowflakes spiralled around me, dusting the streets, and it was very very cold. I had only been gone from Montreal for five days, but I had missed it.

Some cities have souls. In the stones that make up their buildings, in the bushes and the empty empty winter trees, there is a sense of some larger understanding, some coherent whole. Anyone who has been to Toronto knows it has a personality (albeit an ugly one, selon moi). Ditto for Glasgow, Paris and Amsterdam. I get along well with Montreal. Its grey skies agree with me. But I think that New York and Montreal would be friends, if they knew each other. They have the same respect for age, the same vivacity, the same pixie dust that trails, sometimes, in the air. And I dug the Big Apple. Like Montreal, it was more serif than sans, more melancholy than mellow. I'll be back.

New York this week was a wash of clear, blue skies, of warm weather and sun. As we trooped through the looming streets of Manhattan, we stared with awe at the subtle architectural flourishes, the soaring glass. Every so often, Central Park broke into view - vast and varied, with knotted trees and green benches. The park contextualized the buildings, linked their gargoyles and doorways with hills, mosaic and birch. Beneath the sidewalks, you could feel the roots of skyscrapers.

The Guggenheim lurched out of the road like one of the mad hatter's hats, inside a spiral of hot Brazillian art and Rockwellian nostalgia. Like the ROM in Toronto, the Museum of Natural History was old and full, but where the Royal Ontario Museum recalls the marble-and-gold of a fancy hotel, the New York equivalent had the mazelike quality of an antique train station. I saw big dinosaurs, giant bugs, and a night sky.

Elsewhere, the Met revealed itself an awesome array of ancient artifacts and modern masterpieces. From Picasso to Magritte to the ancient Greeks: a nickel to get in, and it made me so delighted to see the place so packed, with all ages, colours and eyes.

And then there are New York's neighbourhoods - as you wander, you find yourself changing with the architecture and class, standing taller, walking straighter in the Upper East Side, shuffling and joking in the East Village. Down on St. Marks Place I scored mad-crazy-super deals on CDs (albums by Sparklehorse, Ed Harcourt, Dealership, Vaganza, Blinker the Star, and the Frames - less than $10 US for all six!), and tried to gobble down the variety of used books at the monstrous Strand, uptown.

And then there were Tina Fey and Horatio Sanz at the Upright Citizens' Brigade, caves at the Liberty Science Centre, noodles at the Saigon, the 'La Bamba' horse-man on the subway, and, of course, the bizarre Hasidic Jewish bus line that took us across the border.

New York seems a tremendous city. Go.

Tangmonkey recently received a 5-star rating from The Weblog Review. If you're reading this, you should pat yourself on the back: apparently you have good taste!

Check out the enormous 100-panel Fusion comic, over at waferbaby. One hundred artists were given a preceding panel, and were asked to provide the next panel. The results are absurd but astonishing in scope. Check out my contribution at #77; my favourites are #30 and #45. Waferbaby has now launched a gargantuan 1000-panel Fusion. Get involved!

Want weirdness? Check out Marcy, a creepy, singing ventriloquist's doll with a penchant for Christian music. [Listen]

Want education? Read about the world's major religions, and see how things really stack up in terms of population. Did you know that there are fewer Jews in the world than there are practictioners of Voodoo and its variants?

Want Vader? There is a very strange gargoyle at the Washington National Cathedral.

Want to take a leak? Here's how.

And finally.... Don't. Let the muffins. Tempt you.