October 2001
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October 31/2001 (11:37 PM) ~ posted by JP
 Well we pulled out all the stops for halloween and went with this lovely orange and black motif, hope ya like it.
Truth be told we were all apparently too lazy to post anything on the day itself, I'm pretty sure that was Ash's job but he's probably off doing horribly bad things someplace. I for one watched Buffy and Angel back to back, halloween is a scary scary time...
Oh my god oh my god ohmygod!!!! If you were born about 20 years ago like I was and if you had no friends like me then you probably played a lot of computer games. Assuming you weren't one of those poor poor mac-kids (haven't they suffered enough?!?!?) then you'll wanna check out the Dos Games Archive where you can download such classy classics as Simcity Classic, Whacky Wheels, Lemmings 2, Mario(remember typing class?), OMF 2097, Prince of Persia 2, Warcraft 2 and many more!!! While I was investigating this site I also came across Moby Games which is an excellent resource for info, screenshots and box art from all your favourite retro games. Ahh... Memories...
Speaking of memories and/or halloween, check out this dude's costume, you won't be disapointed! (thanks to Andrew for the email forward)
And after all those tasty tasty links we've even got some semi-homebrewed goodness for you. Marc's been away for a while but he's got a new Evil Love Comic that y'all should have a look at.
October 30/2001 (1:17 PM) ~ posted by Ash
Well kids, it's almost time for Halloween, and you know what that means! That's right, it's time for pretentious pagan rituals, Village of the Damned on the Family Channel, and a brand new Halloween PULP, set to debut in precious hours. To get an advance copy, sign up on the main page. Also, for all Tangmonkians in the Ottawa area, it's time for Crankenstein's annual Halloween Hootenany, featuring a handfull of Ottawa's best bands, and Crankenstein. The show's at 7 or 8, at the Underground. Be there or Scotty Daterape will kill your pets.
October 29/2001 (1:03 PM) ~ posted by Sean
 Around the planet, things have been busy. From the midterm mania at college campuses, to Halloween fervour at Walmart, to thethousands of fiery, agony-inducing bombs dropped onto Afghanistan, the world is positively hopping. We here at TANGMONKEY are being cajoled by thousands of visitors from cruel.com, where My Life as Nat was the 'Cruel Link of the Day'. Welcome, seekers of the cruel and horrible. Um. C'mere, and we'll give you all hugs.
In the midst of the world's seriousness and 'times of turmoil', I'm thinking everyone needs a bit of absurdity. My deft hand, therefore, has plucked from the Web some delicious examples of sillinness. Enjoy.
Some people think Flash Animation died with All Your Base. They couldn't be more wrong. Check out un lapin, and watch for the bouncing girl. Equally random is this video of the OMVF's air-guitar champion of 2001. Watch as he improvs to Weezer's "Hash Pipe".
What's that you say? Not manly enough? Needs more Samuel L. Jackson? If you insist.
There's also the inevitable photographs of a rabbit with strange items on its head. Or the archive of images with people pretending to run.
If none of this interests you, well, I imagine an addictive computer game will. It's called Spaced Penguin, and if that doesn't sound like mad fun, you must be suffering from anthrax poisoning.
(The picture to the above left is called 'oh, fuck it', and it's from the ever-wonderful explodingdog site. Sam (the artist) is now selling a book of his work; so if you're rich, support him by ordering one!)
October 28/2001 (12:14 PM) ~ posted by JP
Firstly, sorry 'bout not posting for the past week or so, I suck. Here's an email my girlfriend Emily received from one of her old friends, it's funny and cutting and pasting is much easier than typing something myself.
Dear Family And Friends,
I have come to the realization that I am a rastafanarian and that Jah wants me to embark on a spiritual crusade to become a towering bastion of coolness. To this end I have decided to quit school in order to front a ragae band which I will name "The Merry Fucking Christmas Ragae Band" and request that from now on you address and refer to me as RudeBoy-X. I will also start speaking with a jamaican accent which is not just a pretentious front but rather my native dialect which I have been suppressing since birth in order to fit in, man. Peace.
RudeBoy-X
Site News: The redesign is so very close to being done I can taste it (tastes like dusty glass). I'm not going to set any dates or anything crazy like that because we all know they're not going to be met but I can tell you that Dave and I put in a bunch of work (mostly Dave) when I was in Ottawa for the weekend. Soon Tangmonkey will become a thriving community of content and fun, very soon.
Link: One of our faithful readers emailed me some comics relating to my post about "desert sushi" last week, they can be found here and here. The whole Tangmonkey crew really appreciates hearing from you, go to the group page and drop us a line, getting email makes us feel special.
October 20/2001 (9:03 PM) ~ posted by JP
Ugh... I think I've sunk to a new low of geekdom, though I'm sure it's not unheard of I've just memorized my icq number, 351-8395. This is of course a triumph for me as I don't memorize things easily, it's easier to memorize than a phone number though, no area code. The reason I've done this isn't some sort of kooky self-challenge it's just because I've been using web-based ICQ a lot lately (due mainly to a week-long internet downage at my place a while ago) so I've been typing it in anywhere I can, school, i-cafes, friend's places, etc... By now I'm sure you will be thinking either "why doesn't he just shut the hell up?" or "there's web-based icq? golly!". For those of you thinking the latter I'll let your use of the word "golly" slide and introduce you to the good folks at Screwymail, they've also got a web-based version of AIM there too. For those of you who think I should shut the hell up I wish you wouldn't be so mean, you really hurt my feelings, damn bastards.
For linkage today I've got a link to a Wired article about Photoshop Tennis as well as a link to the Coudal Partners Tennis HQ. Let me explain, a match of photoshop tennis is played between a couple of designer-types with too much time on their hands, they volley a photoshop file between each other via email adding layers as they go, votes are later tabulated and a winner is chosen. At the Coudal site mentioned above you can view the results of several matches, it's really neat to see where the artists go with what they're given. Sometimes the results are really neat and sometimes it just looks like they put tangmonkey through a paper shredder.
October 19/2001 (11:49 AM) ~ posted by JP
Ok, so I missed a day, sue me. To compensate I'm going to post a few extra links. But first, a couple of other things.
First, desert sushi (mentioned in my last post), is fucking horrible! GOD DAMN! I made some yesterday and it tasted almost exactly like ass, not that I'd know but really, ugh... The problem was the seaweed, I'm sure someone who's eaten/made more sushi than me could have told me that despite what I thought nori seaweed has a very strong, distinct flavour, not something that goes too well with chocolate and fruit. Oh well, here's to experimentation, on the up side I made a lasagne that turned out great.
And now for a shameless ad-revenue plug: Click the banner in the forum! PLEASE! Seriously, they've cut the revenue per click in half recently so we'll need twice as many clicks to make the same amount of cash. As I always say, we're not out to make a profit (or even pay ourselves), we just need money to pay expenses. Thanks.
And now some links: I found out last night that my picture is on the Douglas Coupland site. Pick me out of the group and I'll give you a prize. After some people told me they really liked Nowhere Girl I've decided to link to its mother site. Jitterbug features short films, comics, humour, games and more. I haven't really had a chance to look through much of their stuff but if NG is any indication I'm sure they've got some goodies.
Gareth sent me this link to a horribly offensive though somewhat insightful comic about the war on terror. Don't blame me if you don't like it, blame Gareth.
Well, that's it for today, I'm heading back to Ottawa this afternoon, though I just read that Waking Life just started playing at The Varsity here in TO so I might check that out before hopping a bus. Bye Bye.
October 17/2001 (3:42 PM) ~ posted by JP
Today I confirmed plans with web-guy (and friend) Dave to work on the redesign when I'm in Ottawa this weekend, we may even finish it, you never know! Also today I saw a homeless woman wearing a pair of shoes I threw out, guess I shoulda donated them to "the homeless" (in quotes not for sarcasm but rather because no organization of that name exists to which things may be donated). What else? Today I started making a Ben Folds mix with only the most rockin' songs, even though they have some great midtempo and slower stuff, I feel like rockin' out. It'll have stuff off all the BFF albums plus some songs off "Fear of Pop" and "Rockin' the Suburbs" as well as possibly a few other things (like the song Ben did for the soundtrack to "The Grinch"). Anyway, hopefully this will purge my brain of Ben Folds for a while so I can allow new music to seep in. Tonight I'm going to the Hayden show at The Rivolli with some people from York, hopefully it'll be fun fun fun! Also in the fun department, I was at the grocery store today where I purchased some sushi rice (Japanese short-grain that is, I've been planning to make sushi for the last little while, never have before) and I got to thinking of creating some sort of desert sushi; flavour the rice with cocoa, cream and sugar, put some fruit inside (strawberries with mint, peaches maybe) and wrap in nori, maybe some icing sugar and/or chocolate drizzle on top. Let me know if any of you have heard of sushi being bastardized in this particular way before.
I apologize for the verbal diarrhoea (nice mental image there), on with the show!
Today's link: Nowhere Girl is an online comic that's totally different from the other comics I've linked to here, it leans more towards the look and feel (well not "feel" really) of a print comic than that of a comic "strip". The art and writing is beautifully accomplished by Justine Shaw who gives us full-colour, full-page illustrations on a continuing basis (though I'm not quite sure how frequent her update cycle is). The comic itself is about a girl who's suicidal (at least in the first 10 pages, I couldn't get any further before coming to gush to you folks about how neat it is) but it's really not especially depressing so go read it NOW!
ps: Mom & Dad, thanks for sending the money! (right, like you ever read this, I hate you!) not really, I love you guys, and not just because of the money, really, seriously, bah, you're not reading this are you? Forget it.
October 17/2001 (12:06 AM) ~ posted by JP
Here is the second installment of JP's funtastic link of the day and news update rambling:
I spoke with my brother today and confirmed the final phase of my plans for next week. I'll be in Ottawa this weekend staying at home, soaking in the good cooking and visiting with friends (At least those who aren't in L.A. with their robot). Then it's off to Montreal tuesday night to visit with Sean and to see the play he's in, then back to Toronto for a day perhaps before heading up to Waterloo to visit with my brother and his fiancee (July 20th wedding, be there). I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone, it should be a good week.
Today's link will be to the story of what Dan Rather was thinking on september 11th. Now I know we're all somewhat sick of reading about this tragic day but this article is really good and you should check it out. It's really more about life as a journalist more than the actual events of the day anyhow. As with many good links brought to you by Sean and myself this one was captured at TheMorningNews.org.
funfact of the day: Mrs. Fields Cookies has a "Yucky Cookie" button on the cash register.
October 15/2001 (10:04 PM) ~ posted by JP
Right, this site is starting to stagnate and so instead ignoring the problem and hoping it'll go away like a good web-professional I'm going to make a long and rambling post. Why would I do this? What the hell do I think I'm doing here? I'm not a web-professional, I'm a punkass, and punkasses do as they please. (Sorry to any real punkasses out there, I'll try not to appropriate your identity for the purposes of filling space too often).
So as I was saying, the site is starting to stagnate a bit and we're all feeling a bit guilty about it. I was talking to Sean on the phone today (planning a trip on Montreal and gossiping like schoolgirls) and he echoed this sentiment. Sean's a busy guy so he's got an excuse whereas I've got nothing but time on my hands and shoes on my feet and so from this point on I vow to be a good punkass and make an effort to at very least update this main page as often as I can. This will probably take the form of a rambling blog-like entry like this one but at least you'll have something to look at. In addition to my ramblings I'll try to provide you a link to some site that may bring you a wee bit of joy. Here's the first entry (and possibly the last since I have a tendency of forgetting I've started this sort of thing but I'll really try this time, really I will, really).
JP's
Superfunlinkofweejoyandmaybesomeentertainmentifyourelucky
*ba baba ba!*
Today's link is to ONFA.NET which is a site with a bunch of blogs and some other stuff that was apparently inspired by Tangmonkey! (in that none of the content should really fit together and yet it does in some strange way I guess) It's creator is (I think) Brendan who is a friend of Paul's both of whom I met for the first time at the Douglas Coupland reading last week. The site's got a really nice design (nicer than TM's but not for long! hahahah!) and the content's pretty cool, though that may just be because I'm the type of sicko who enjoys reading about other people's lives, considering this site's readership, you're probably one of those sickos too, check it out.
October 9/2001 (6:42 PM) ~ posted by Zebulon
Speaking of getting off one's lazy ass, I finally posted a new View Askew! Find it here.
I apologize for my slowness in posting of late. A combination of a schedule change and some personal problems are making column writing difficult.
October 2/2001 (3:43 PM) ~ posted by JP
Pulp Issue Ten Now Online!
Yep, I finally "got off my lazy ass" and converted the latest issue of pulp to HTML, it seems pretty good but I've only had a chance to read a few snippets so far. In other news the Ben Folds show the other night kicked some serious ass, the band had fun, I had fun, everything went quite nicely. I forgot to pick up a t-shirt though, thank goodness for the internet. I'll order one when I actually have some cash to spare. Now I'm going to the park to see if I can master a club-juggling technique I saw the manager of the Paramount Theater doing the other day when I saw Rush Hour 2 for 3 bucks (student weekday discount). Rush Hour 2 is NOT worth 3 bucks. Bye now.
October 1/2001 (12:22 AM) ~ posted by Ash
Nuts to you, JP. The brand new issue of PULP is out, in email form, and it's quite possibly the funniest issue I've put together all month. If you want an advance copy to tide you over until JP gets off his lazy ass and puts the new issue up, just fill out this form, or email me at pulp@tangmonkey.com. As an added bonus, the issue is almost on time, coming out just one hour past the midnight deadline. If only I'd known Enterprise was a two-hour premiere.
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