For cyberpunks of a certain vintage, Re/Search press (previously) was absolutely formative -- books like Incredibly Strange Films, Zines!, and, of course, Modern Primitives (RIP, Fakir) were incredibly influential material for the modern happy mutant. Read the rest
Haunted Mansion superfan Jeff "Chef Mayhem" Baham sent me a link to the Van Eaton Galleries Disneyland auction, which closes on June 25 -- as with other Van Eaton auctions, this one is a trove of super-rare, drool-inspiring old merch, props and handicrafts. Read the rest
Reason Editor-in-Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward received a commemorative Johnson-Weld 2016 Libertarian Party Presidential Campaign plate in the mail.
Haiku stamped on the back of a commemorative Johnson/Weld plate I just got in the mail:
Not for food use. May poison Food Decorative Art pic.twitter.com/soSagmFPtk
— Katherine Mangu-Ward (@kmanguward) November 22, 2016
Yoni Mazuz wonders:
There’s definitely a libertarian/regulation joke in here somewhere but I’m to lazy to fully work it out. https://t.co/OYkgeCuLzM
— Yoni Mazuz (@yonatron) November 25, 2016
The Libertarian moment of enlightenment is when you realize it's a giant ashtray. Read the rest
They're on sale at Trader Sam's at the Disneyland Hotel for $30, limit 2 per customer. (Excited about this, but Trader Sam's needed another reason for crazy, badly managed queues like it needed a hole in its draught beer pressure system). (Thanks, Cecil!) Read the rest
Everyone hates Nazis. For decades they've been the go-to villains for movies that need bad guys. With the modern sensitivity toward Native Americans, Russians and other traditional villains of American screenwriting, I predict we will see a resurgence in film and television with lots more nasty Nazis. The Man in the High Castle, anyone?
So what could be more fun than a gift whose function perfectly follows its form than this candle of that nasty Nazi rat-bastard SS agent Arnold Ernst Toht, Gestapo agent? The little weasel gets his well-deserved comeuppance in perfect style when his face melts off like hot butter, when the hell hiding in the Ark of the Covenant is unleashed at the end of first Indiana Jones flick Raiders of the Lost Ark.
You gotta love this candle! Let's watch his soul get sucked out of his stinking Nazi skull with the flick of a match. Available from Firebox for a mere $28.39 in the UK (hence the odd price), I really have to buy two: one to keep, and one to melt.
Available as shorts ($25) or pants ($42), and they say "Creepy" on the butt, because they come from Night Vale, where "creepy" is a superlative. Read the rest
Disney has announced a series of three monthly subscription loot crates from the Haunted Mansion, released by the "Ghost Relations Department." Read the rest
Scarfolk (previously) is the English country town that is caught in a perpetual ten-year loop from 1970-1980; in 1977, while the rest of the world was getting Kenner Star Wars toys, Scarfolk's children were treated to a line of Star Wars medical equipment from the good people at PalliativeToy. Read the rest
The company continues its amazing tradition of surprising and delightful holiday subscriptions with a $15, eight-part Hannukah mystery gift offering. I just ordered mine (I'm not missing out this year!) and answered many of the nosy questions at the end. Read the rest
You've got until Dec 7 to pre-order one of Rob De Maio's handmade, incredibly detailed masks from the game Dishonored. (via Geeky Merch) Read the rest
For girls: Radiation Immunity; Surviving in Nature; Controlling Plants With Minds; Advanced Knife Fighting Techniques; for boys: Invisibility. Read the rest
The iconic, stripe-shouldered uniform made Wil Wheaton the beloved scamp we know and love today, and it can be yours for $60, complete with aura of youthful, exuberant naiveté. Read the rest
Just in time for the new Doctor, Thinkgeek's K9 slippers, $30. (via Cnet) Read the rest
Here's a (wonderful) turn-up for the books. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (a stellar organization) has assumed the trademark for the Comics Code Seal, once a symbol of self-censorship in the comics industry. The Comics Authority, which ran the censorship regime, folded up last year. CBLDF will be using the seal on merchandise it sells to fund its free speech work:
Read the rest
The Comics Code Seal comes to the CBLDF during Banned Books Week, a national celebration of the freedom to read, and just a few months following a decision in the U.S. Supreme Court where Justice Scalia cited CBLDF’s brief addressing the comics industry’s history of government scrutiny and the subsequent self-regulation the Comics Code represented. Dr. Amy Nyberg, author of Seal of Approval: The History of Comics Code has prepared a short history of the Comics Code Seal and the era of censorship it represents exclusively for CBLDF that is available now in the Resources section of cbldf.org.
CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein says, “As we reflect upon the challenges facing intellectual freedom during Banned Books Week, the Comics Code Seal is a reminder that it’s possible for an entire creative field to have those rights curtailed because of government, public, and market pressures. Fortunately, today comics are no longer constrained as they were in the days of the Code, but that’s not something we can take for granted. Banned Books Week reminds us that challenges to free speech still occur, and we must always be vigilant in fighting them.”
The CBLDF will take over licensing of products bearing the Comics Code Seal, including t-shirts, providing a modest source of income for the organization’s First Amendment legal work.
