Fractionals

Oh Onion, I love you. Actually, the whole week looks pretty good, including the AV club (Evel Kenieval! Wilco! Speed Racer! Madonna! Sex slaves!

Dumb dumb dumb. Not TMFTML, mind you, the music business.

I really hope this isn't just the usual empty hype.

I've glanced at the Entrances to Hell site a few times, but it really does deserve notice. Always makes me think of Lewis' great Screwtape Letters, for some reason.

Neat photography.

May whatever deity (or lack thereof) they believe in bless the kind folks at boingboing for bringing us this.

Still having archive problems, but no matter. Kudos to AL Daily (now linked at the side) for not only linking to this fascinating article on Adolf Wolfli (whom I'd never heard of), but for tracking down some images as well.

Testing, testing - I'm having archive problems.

Wednesday's Emotional Setup: What Do I Get


Prefatory Notes: I have, in the past, occasionally posted music reviews here, in a mostly haphazard way. Often they'd just be pieces I did for the Ontarion. Last week, on Wednesday, I finally decided I wanted to do it again, but this time actually do it according to a strict schedule - that is, if you came here every week on a certain day, there'd be music-related content here. Starting out quite humbly (today is just a single song, for example), but perhaps one day swelling to The War Against Silence proportions. I was musing what to call it, and which day of the week to arbitrarily choose, when "Wednesday's Emotional Setup", by ShelleyDevoto, Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto's recent electronic project, came up on Winamp. It must be a sign - after all, it was Wednesday.


I then promptly forgot to do anything about it that day. So I've been waiting a week to launch this thing, and here we are. Barring disaster I'll be putting something about music, most likely about a specific song or album, here every Wednesday - I'll also be cross-posting it to my journal so that people who for some reason only read one will still be able to see it. That's probably enough, or even too much, in the way of preface, so on with the show; in honor of the people who inspired the column's title, our inaugural subject is the Buzzcock's "What Do I Get". On with the show.


I discovered the Buzzcocks just slightly too late. I was still adolescent enough in outlook for them to reach me, sure, but I'd started growing out of it enough that rather than my life being defined by Buzzcocks songs (as I have the scary certainty it would have been if they'd reached me when I was, say, 16), they became a kind of spokesmen, Pete Shelley in particular articulating the turmoil that dealing with girls (and I was still in the age of girls, not women, at this point) while attempting to keep a cool head. "What Do I Get" was the first Buzzcocks song I ever heard, and still the only video by them I've seen (enjoyably minimalist and deadpan, complete with the band tearing its way through the white backdrop at one point with less energy than I would have thought possible), and I was instantly in love, the sort of state of affairs that Shelley and co. would highly approve of. Here, after all, was a song about how the singer "just wanted a lover, like any other", a state I certainly sympathized with at the time. But at the end, of course, he reveals that there is a "you" that he's been singing the song for, that all this pretense that he wants anyone, will settle for anyone, is exactly that. As with most of what are my favorite Buzzcocks songs, this is a song for and about boys (and those rare girls) who think they're smarter than their emotions, and who fully expect to have them under their rational control - only to discover that they've fallen in love again and can't do a thing about it. Shelley really does want a lover like any other, but he's forced to specifically go after "you" because of forces beyond his control. And to that particular brand of adolescent, whose ranks I of course swelled in my time, this rankles. If he can't have "you", he wants nothing "at all, at all, at all, at all". The great moment of the song, for me, is the point where he finally admits the "you", the last line of the song, and the whole band seems to go gloriously out of tune in sympathy. Having done quite a bit of growing up since first hearing this song, and having obtained the peerless "Singles Going Steady" (I tend to be a bit leery of remasters with bonus tracks, but this one does it right - four a sides and the four corresponding b sides are added, but the a sides are placed after the existing first LP side, and before the first b side, keeping the record's natural progression), "Ever Fallen In Love?" has replaced this song slightly, both in my affections and as an example of this state of mind as written by Shelley. But, due to my being older, this song also sounds more like the rueful acknowledgement of wanting someone you can't have, and less like a petulant smokescreen. Of course, I love it either way, and it can be fully enjoyed either way; in any case, the Buzzcocks were, for a time, the chroniclers of the interiors states of a particular subgroup of teen, the ones just slightly too smart and way too self-analytical for their own good.

I don't usually blog quizzes, but I like this one. I'm apparantly heading to the second level, with the Lustful, to hang out with Helen of Troy and Cleopatra for all enternity. Lustful doesn't just refer to sex, though, I'm damned for "[betraying] reason at the behest of [my] appetite for pleasure". Sounds about right.

I love the idea of synesthesia, and apparantly researching it has turned up some interesting things.

How does this strike anyone as a good idea?

Give me a break.

I really should get around to reading some Camus.

Today I had toast for breakfast. That may not seem like much, in fact I doubt it is much, but our toaster oven gave up the ghost months ago and its replacement only arrived recently. I am not a man of simple pleasures - I own too many things for that - but an engagement with more complex ones does not negate our ability to be made happy by toast, or a warm breeze, or encountering a friend.

They're all wastes of skin. And I don't care if I'm adding to Jack's depression.

Another accurate Fame Audit.

Virgin births for everyone!

I managed to find Complete Works, Vol. 1 for a good price, and it is, as long as you are in the right mood for it, impeccable. A must-have for Spiritualized fans, and a decent introduction, although due to the time period covered it tends more to the gauzy, becalmed textures of Lazer Guided Melodies than the full rock-outs of later days. Not that that's the problem. Perfect for a day like today, where I don't have to do anything until I go to work at 5:30.

Sounds like Brahm's life was more interesting than his music.

I'm not a big fan of Hitchens, but this is a decent piece on Malcolm Muggeridge.

This sort of review is why I love Filthy.

This pretty much speaks for itself. At the risk of being disrespectful to all involved, I'd vote for De Marrais. If, you know, I was forced to vote.

Update: Apparantly my one peeve with blogger is that recent posts can't be specifically linked to - I'm leaving the link above alone for posterity, but for now, it's titled "No One Could Ever Stain" and it at, where else, TMFTML.

"On a similar note, I can't get worked up over the whole dilemma pro-choicers are supposedly facing over Laci Peterson and fetal murder laws. Sure, in a perfect world where abortion rights are firmly entrenched, there's no philosophical reason that pro-choicers shouldn't support laws that punish the murder of a wanted fetus. But we're not in that world, and the laws are being proposed specifically in order to chisel away at abortion rights. I have no problem objecting to that at all."

I didn't just link to that because it's a bit too recent in the archives of Dan Radosh's blog for the link to work. I agree with the sentiment completely, in any case.

And speaking of the MP3 discman Pete talks about, I won one of these (or at least something very close - I can never ever find the exact model of something I have on Sony's website) at a raffle this weekend. It's a very nice piece of equipment, fully justifying the $15 I spent on tickets.

I wholeheartedly second Pete's positive assessment of the Delgados in general and "Hate" in specific. I actually had the chance to speak with Alun from the band last Friday, and he was a pleasure to talk to. I didn't learn anything terribly interesting other than a mutual fondness for Grant Morrison, but I certainly enjoyed myself.

Shit. I just noticed that in that last entry I stopped using 'I' and switched to 'we' - another example of the esteem we - I mean I - have for TMFTML, I guess. Or possibly I'm just impressionable.

Speaking of emulating TMFTML, they've linked to an excellent interview with the author of what looks like an important book. As with TMFTML we haven't read the book yet, but we'll be looking for it next time we go to the library.

The Minor Fall, The Major Lift has linked to enough interesting looking stories at the New York Times that I've almost given in and registered (I initially refused to do so as an easy way to cut down on what I read, rather than any sort of anti-NYT prejudice). But not quite. For now, I'll just continue to shamelessly ape the site and its excellent content as much as possible, minus the NYT links.

Excellent piece by Marcello Carlin on Mike Oldfield and Glenn Branca. I plan to pick up the Branca reissue, just as soon as I don't have to skip lunch to do it.

Ah, this takes me back to my youth. A horrible, horrible part of my youth, but my youth nonetheless.

I've been reading Elf Only Inn tonight, and I really enjoy it. See, it takes place in a chat room. So all the characters are various stupid scifi/fantasy archetypes - the elven ranger, a vulcan, duke nukem, and so on. But they're also real people pretending to be these things, and the story never errs too much on the side of either room stuff or weird stuff. It starts out fairly juvenilely (as most of these do), but the quality ramps up fairly quickly. Plus, this one has a very accurate comment on male/female relationships.

Hands up, whoever didn't see this coming.

This is really neat.

Considering that she's always been talented, and that this comes on the heels of some of her best work (her appearances on ADF and Massive Attack songs), I hope people mostly skip the bad jokes.

When Shakira is more politically active than you, you've got a problem.

Pitchfork's reviews can vary wildly in quality, but Bowers' review of the Uncle Tupelo reissues hits the spot; of course, maybe I just like it because I, too, tend to loathe bonus tracks.

Worth it for the headline alone.

I got to work at 1. I woke up at 12:30. I feel dirty, and I need something to eat.

I can't stop laughing. Couldn't happen to a nicer band, although the fans are clearly idiots for suing.

Some beautiful writing at the beginning of McDonald's newest review.

Yep, I'm fiddling around with the layout. Not only is this one of the premade templates, but I took it after seeing that Pete took it. Double rip off! I mostly wanted something that had the "recommended" section already in there. Look for a color change when I feel less lazy.

Drool.

This is especially onerous as my girlfriend comes from Ohio. Hope it gets shot down.

This is ridiculous. So once a critic has formally reviewed your show they can never mention it again? What about all the times when the comparison is positive?

Having roughly the same reaction to "Turn On The Bright Lights" as Pitchfork, I'm glad to read that their live show is equally good. Now if only they'd play Toronto...

Best Desert Island Disc article ever.

Shug Knight's biography to have "some educational things for the kids". Aww, how nice of him.

Just went back and re-watched the kitten version of 'Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues. Hard to remember the song is under two minutes - the presentation is quite cheerfully insane.

They admitted to an inquiry into the tragedy that they had habitually falsified water test results and faked daily log entries. They also admitted to drinking on the job.

I come from a small town near Walkerton. Some of our rugby team got sick after they went to Walkerton to play. I think jail is well deserved here, considering that, to quote later on in the article, "Stan Koebel withheld test results showing problems with the water even as people in the town began getting sick".

Breaking news: Arkansas temporarily pulls head out of ass.

It would be really interesting to read the product of this. If it works, the context of its creation would add an interesting aspect to its quality - but if it doesn't work, I hope people don't praise it on grounds of its speed.

There's a thin line for critics between expertise and snobbery; This gets it half-right and half-wrong. Yes, it is not elitist to have an opinion, and calling people with more specialized knowledge than most (i.e. all good critics, and a good point that Miller makes is that if you are an informed fan you can easily be a critic) 'elitist' is silly. On the other hand, her dismissal of the avant-garde in favour of the old smacks of the reactionary - regardless of whether she, myself, or others like a given piece, if the rest of the crowd does, it's silly to expect them not to applaud. The same goes, incidentially, for rap.

Vaclav Havel as new George Orwell? Whether you agree with the contention or not, Havel surely deserves more attention than he has previously recieved.

Another example of the Onion sneaking valuable information into humour, in this case some valuable facts to counter anti-abortion propaganda.

Sigh. It'd be nice if things didn't work this way, but they often do. It's funny because it's true.

For fuck's sake, you can't punish a sovreign nation just because they didn't agree with you.

I really, really hate to kind of agree with Limbaugh on anything, but Wolff is an idiot. And the left needs less idiots right now, not more.

Parish's art and updates have been really top-notch recently, and now we have some new content, on the red-headed stepchild of old-school NES gaming: Kid Icarus.

Women are special.

Today is three distinct things; Earth Day, my dog's birthday, and what would have been my parent's anniversary, were they not divorced.

This is why I love Achewood. Also, this. I've been re-reading the archives today.

Sweden is weird.

The current situation in Iraq scares me. Yes, that's real blood, their blood, and they got like that because they are on a religious pilgrimmage.

This seems to me to be interesting, but potentially dangerous; not in itself, but in how people might misinterpret what it means. To wit, although the method talked about does seem pretty robust, and certainly fascinating, you can't solve personal problems with math. Not that the article says that you can, but people sometimes take this sort of advance to mean that.

I've just had one of those strange moments where I can't get ahold of anyone I know. Not family, not friends, not girlfriend. There's perfectly good reasons for all of it, of course, but it just feels odd.

Interesting piece on Hitler's library.

Read this a while ago at a friends' house - it was in Discover or something similar.

Virginia Heffernan is quite good.

This is kind of an interesting idea.

I apologize if anything posted today is kind of after-the-fact - I was away all weekend, of course, with family.

Even though Parish is in low-power mode for a while, he's still posting good content, this time on Zelda.

And following up the whole Iraqi museum thing, here we learn that it's not as bad as feared. Which makes me happy, and answers my whole "how could the museum not have known something like this was going to happen?" question. Apparantly they anticipated bombing, at least. Still, the fact that some of the looters destroyed what they couldn't take disgusts me.

Interesting comment about the looting of Iraq's museams near the top of this article. Don't know if the idea will do any good, but it's worth a try.

Cory Doctorow's comment on this item at boingboing is almost better than the article itself. I agree with Doctorow - no one gets enough sleep any more. Myself included.

Interestingly enough, I had very definite one-song soundtracks to my last two exams. The one on Monday featured "He War" by Cat Power, especially the tense, spiralling guitar line that introduces the song; my exam today, in contrast, featured the soaring, oddly joyous chorus of Superchunk's "Watery Hands". "Watery Hands" comes off of one of Superchunk's less well-regarded albums, "Indoor Living". Despite its reputation, it's quite good.

This is interesting: Stylus is apparantly starting the practice of having multiple reviewers having a go at the same album. The first one up is the new Yo La Tengo. I bought and quite liked And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, and I'm still waiting to find a copy of I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, but this new one doesn't really appeal to me. Especially with the mixed reviews.


For future reference, the reviews are here, here and here.

Every time I link to one of these I feel whatever small amount of respect I may have built up among previous posts shrinks a little. You'll notice it doesn't stop me, though.

I have to thank The Minor Fall, The Major Lift for recommending Nobody's Perfect to me (at least, I think they recommended it). When I used to work in my hometown's library I would spend a fair amount of time perusing the reviews section of the New Yorker, and I had always assumed that the magazine had a dictintive voice. It turns out that it was just mostly Lane. As I make my way through the book, he steadily ascends into my pantheon of truly great critics, adding more force to my recent conversion from the idea that criticism exists merely to help people to the idea that it is truly an art unto itself. If I had a spare $50 sitting around, I would definitely buy the book rather than just borrowing it from the library.

So I just learned that, acoording to this, the #1 song on the UK charts on my day of birth was "Green Door" by Shakin' Stevens. Not bad. But the #1 on the US charts was "Jessie's Girl". Don't know how I feel about that.

Of course, while Israel are not the evil Empire, they're not the the Rebel Alliance either.

To quote one of Atom's songs: The Palestinians are not the Rebel Alliance, jackass.

I'll stop linking to Parish's NES article when either he finally has it all up, or it stops being so comulsively readable. Of course, I grew up with the stuff, so your mileage may vary.

Excellent comedy at Something Awful today. In case you've been living in a cave, here's the guy they've been talking about.

Boy, I sure hope that fucker is dead.

Jesus. Even though I probably own a fair bit of what's making up the Complete Works, I'm enough of a Pierce fan to want to pick this up.

It's a mark of my respect for Marcello Carlin's writing that I enjoy reading his stuff even when I don't think I agree.

I really liked Mclusky Do Dallas, so I found both this story and the link from it, to kittens playing "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues", terribly entertaining.

I keep hearing the new Manitoba album being referred to in glowing terms that seem to be aimed directly at me. My Bloody Valentine and the peerless Susumu Yokota listed as comparisons? I think I'd better check it out.

I didn't even know they were supposed to be Christian in the first place. Nor, honestly did I care; but a friend of mine who liked that one single of theirs is likely to get a laugh from this.

I'm mostly blogging this so I can download some of those rockabilly mp3s. After seeing the amazing video for Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt", I began to get re-interested in the man. I finished reading this last night, which was informative if a bit repetitive (a problem endemic to 'reader' type books), and I've officially moved from casual admirer to fan.

Good to hear TMFTML has discovered Achewood - makes me wonder why I didn't mention it myself. I'm left to point out the absurdist charms of Triangle and Robert, then, which has an even bigger archive. Albeit much less easy to navigate.

An interesting viewpoint on free markets, democracy, and ethnic hatred.

I'm not entirely sure why TMFTML claims this is a waste of time. Having at least a partial interest in all three bands (in order of preference: Elastica, Blur, Suede) and having heard various bits of the story here and there, I'm glad to have to whole thing in relatively coherent form. Definitely grain-of-salt material, though.

I do not believe this shit. Yes, the entire Iraqi conflict has been proof that we don't learn from our mistakes, but this is something that absolutely cannot be atoned for. We have little enough information about the past, and shit like this isn't making it any easier. I'm not trying to be callous, but once the US invaded Iraq I expected a certain level of human damage, although I'm certainly not happy about it - but this was completely preventable.

"You know what I like best in a comedy? Humor."


Filthy goes to town on Anger Management.

Liz does her usual excellent job reviewing the original "The Thing".

"In Stylus' continuing effort to become the new NME we present another list by the staff."

Covering protest songs this time, and it's worth it for the intro alone. Stylus has always had middling-to-good content, but recently they've really been upping the bar. Even if most of Van Veen's reviews are illegible.

"My darling One & beautiful, Everything tends towards catastrophe, & collapse. I am interested, geared-up & happy."


Winston Churchill writing to his wife, July 28, 1914.

'With an Iron Fist, We Will Lead Humanity to Happiness.'

Sign at the main camp of the first Soviet gulag.

Only the top article here is really worth your time, but the rest isn't bad either.

Good, well-reasoned article on why the US should keep Franklin Graham the hell out of Iraq.

Had another 8:30 exam today. I feel extremely good about the actual exam (for instance, I can explain to you why Williams says that coherentism is just a special kind of foundationalism and then refute his idea off the top of my head), but I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night. I know, there are people who have to get up at 6 or 7 every single weekday (my friend Tony among them), but just because you're suffering more than me doesn't mean I'm not suffering.

Strangely enough, Parish has actually posted the next section of the Nintendo article up already.

I personally don't think that they're going to start finding stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction; but in any case, if this guy continues to insist they don't, the US says he's being "uncooperative". So what, they just keep questioning him until he gives them an answer they like?

A good article on academic freedom, kind of, here.

This is the best idea ever. Seriously.

More info (although less context) on the whole Apple/Universal thing.

This is funny.

Get your war on.

'Holy crap' indeed. I'm not linking to the article directly because it requires registration, but this is very, very interesting.

Really quite amazingly good piece on Summerteeth, which my dad gave me for Christmas a few years back, over at Stylus.

Parish has another good article up, this one on Metroid Prime and mortality.

I'm half linking to this just to reinforce the fact that del Naja was found innocent. Townshend too.

Given my feelings on democracy (it's been downhill ever since Athens), I'm inclined to pretty much agree with this.

News flash: Religious conservatism in the US threatens science, education, access to birth control, life itself.

In other news: Bear shits in wood.

The SA photoshop feature this week is especially good - anagrammed movie posters.

Toastyfrog has just uploaded the third page of his fascinating history of Nintendo

Pleased to report that it looks like Mr. Durst has finally lost it.

This is kind of creepy. So, unsurprisingly, it was brought to my attention by Warren Ellis.

There's a shock.

Finishing a take-home final today. Rough stuff - Aristotle, Nietzsche and phenomenology. On a lighter note (and you won't get the pun until you read the article), Arts & Letters has linked a great article about comedy.

When it rains, it pours - more info on Uzumaki.

Previous statements to the contrary aside, I do sometimes miss TV.

I would have assumed it already was, actually.

Some people ask me why I hate Scientology. Leaving their ruination of A. E. Van Vogt aside, there's always crap like this. Operation Clambake remains, as far as I know, the best place to go to get some information of your own.

Yes, it's been a slow day. But it's all worth it, because finally there's a place you can go to get all those excrable songs sung by actors in one place! Your mileage may vary. Brought to you by TMFTML, but they got it from boing boing.

Great, with one conflict possibly over, the UN gears up to start a new one. Although it does say that the most that can result is a 'condemnatory statement' - I'm sure North Korea is trembling with fear.

Poor bastard.

I've always liked Blair at least a little, and I was impressed by the way we got out into the trenches of his electorate and worked his ass off to convince the people that this war was necessary and just. He clearly believes it himself. And now it looks like it's all going to blow up in his face when they don't find nearly the hidden weapons they'd need to justify this.

Interesting perspective on the sixties here, although of course I wasn't there myself.

As someone who is familar, unfortunately, with the social skills (and lack thereof) of gamer geeks, Larry Groznic just slays me.

The Onion is getting pretty vicious about the war these days. Good for them.

Yeah, I remember the show too.

Slate's going strong today, with a piece on Rumsfeld's poetry.

This pretty much confirms my prejudices about phone booth, although I am going to go see it with my brother and girlfriend later this week. Great premise, ruined by Schumacher and Farrell.

Viruses, including the coronavirus that scientists believe may be the cause of SARS, are so tiny that they can easily pass through such barriers.

I'm glad I didn't bother when I went to Toronto, then.

Yes, I now realize there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and haven't been any for years. If there were, they'd have used them by now. Still wondering? What happened to that fleet of chemical-spewing drones? Those long-range missiles aimed at Israel? The fabled nuclear program? The alliance with Osama? Gassing us after we crossed the red line around Baghdad? If you don't use what you've got to defend the capitol city or your international airport, you don't have anything at all.

Jim Griffin's latest entry in his guestblog at boingboing is quite good, although not really anything new, per se.

You can say one thing about Kelly Osborne shitting on stage - it'd make the show more interesting. (Cheap shots? Moi?)

This seems a bit redundant, and the bands are already more famous, on the whole, than the ones on "No New York" probably ever were. Kudos for including Calla's fine, menacing 'Strangler' among the more usual suspects, though.

This is a bit flippant, but it's heart is in the right place. And what's wrong with flippancy, anyways? On a related note, Arts & Letters prevented me from viewing anything they linked from the Telegraph (as is this article) for a while, until I realised that I had to change the url's ending from .html to .htm - you might have the same problem.

Which is worse? Deliberate genocide, or accidental genocide?

If you're going to watch porn, you can least make it visually compelling.

You may know the title track of this from a recent movie, but until you've read Julian Cope's review (funny and enlightening, as always) you've really missed out.

Of course, that means I need more content.

I'm having trouble believing that, not only has TMFTML seen fit to link to this blog in it's fairly massive "neat neat neat" category, but that the current lead entry includes the fact that they got to Stylus' hidden track article (see below) from here.

That means they read us. Someone is actually reading this.

I feel like I've won some sort of prize.

This article seems to have the same ambivalence towards hidden tracks as I do.

This is interesting to note. I'm glad to hear it, but that doesn't mean we should keep on the way we are, climate change or no.

Well, reading about The Ring and the various Japanese versions thereof is not a good way to pass an afternoon when you're working on the phones. Good website, though. And if you like that, you might like this. I don't think I want to see it, myself.

I have no problem admitting that a good scary movie can really affect me. The last one I saw was the American version of The Ring, and while this site is certainly informative and interesting, it's also kind of creepy. It does convince me that I would probably enjoy the US version more than the original Japanese, and even more than the novel, which surprises me. But from what I've been reading, I just like the explanations it gives more than the others - they hold together better, and in my old age I'm finding I like it more and more when things make sense.

As I belong to neither group, I find this pretty interesting.

And speaking of the Delgados, the diary featured on the page I just linked to, by Stewart, the bassist, is extremely enjoyable reading.

The Delgados' show was truly wonderful. I was already a fan, but they've ascended into the ranks of my favorite bands. It's rare that I say that you have to see a band live to truly understand them, but that's the case here.

Why I can't get enough of these, I'm not sure.

It truly is a wonderful time to be alive, I guess.

Unfortunately, this is basically what's going to happen next time I turn on my Gamecube.

The New Criterion's choice of content, if not always their analysis, continues to impress me.

This, and the other stories as well, is just hilarious.

People who actually sound sorry when they say "I'm sorry we're not in to take your call" on their answering machines are kind of creepy.

You want stupid bandnames? You got 'em. (All joking aside, much respect to TMFTML)

I discovered this webcomic yesterday, and although I'm only about 2/3 of the way through the 600-odd strips, I'm astounded. The strip itself is, on the whole, a bit twee for me, but the sheer amount of background information Reitz has created for her world (we're talking physics, cosmology, languages, mathematics, social structures, history, games, ecology, and so on and so on) impresses the hell out of me. The strip isn't bad, it just has several baseline assumptions about things that I don't agree with (although the complete lack of anything resembling homophobia is a nice change). I'm more than willing to overlook the areas that the strip doesn't do it for me in exchange for the chance to submerge myself pretty completely in such a consistently worked out fictional world. That sort of thing doesn't come along often enough.