Why does it amuse me to see the guy doing the vacuuming wearing a Smiths t-shirts? (WMV file)

For the second time in about a month, a dog has been found hanged in suburban St. Louis, and police are trying to determine if there is a connection.

Police were called Monday morning to Clydesdale Park in south St. Louis County, after a resident reported a young pit bull was hanging by its leash from the top of a playground slide, county police spokesman Mason Keller said. The dog was dead when police arrived. Keller said it appeared the dog had been intentionally hanged, with its leash tied to the top of the slide.

On Feb. 5, a couple walking their dog in Babler State Park in west St. Louis County discovered a 40-pound husky mix hanging from a tree. Authorities said that dog, its neck hung by the loop end of a strap leash, apparently struggled before dying, with teeth full of bark and moss.

Keller said there was no evidence connecting the two crimes.

“They’re in drastically different spots, but we’re looking at it as an option,” Keller said. “There doesn’t seem to be any similarity other than there was a dog hanged, which was enough…”

(Found by Rob Armstrong, thanks)

Broken: a wonderfully mean superhero-remix story by Dean Haspiel and Michael Fiffe.

How do you get a new animated series on the air these days, I wonder?

I’ve gotten close a number of times — one, I was about to sign the contract on when the network underwent a staffing change, and the new boss rescinded the deal just as pen was about to touch
paper. One got killed just before the deal was to be issued, as new guidelines about violent/”edgy” content came in, and mine was both.

And, of course, I had a “webisode” in production and a few more in development when the dotcom bubble burst.

Odd to think that if the internet business had stayed booming, most of my work would be in animation these days.

The only animation I’ve worked on that’s actually gotten to broadcast was that episode of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED I wrote last year, which seemed to be pretty well received.

I find myself wondering: how’s the field changed in the years since I was involved in developing original material for it?

I wonder how to get an original animated series on the air, or on the cable or or the net, somewhere.

Things I Wonder About: #88675 in a series, collect them all.

– W

A friend of mine was asking if I knew of a site that ran bit torrents of Canadian TV shows, in the same way that UKNova handles British television. I don’t.

If you do, let me know, would you?

(Yes, I know that REGENESIS turned up regularly on the main TV torrent sites.)

Meredith Yayanos:

Songs made freely available for download on the internet by the artists, put into a single file and released as a podcast mixtape for several hundred of my closest friends.

Podcast address: http://warrenellis.libsyn.com/rss

Direct download: here

(Almost) All previous mixtapes: http://warrenellis.libsyn.com

If you like Superburst Mixtape, tell people.

(Download count: Mixtape 02 – 1710 times/03 – 1188/04 – 1319/05 – 2357/06 – 1413/07 – 1280/08 – 1033.)

555 Recordings of Flagstaff, AZ were a great little record label that got stiffed and lost distribution one time too many. Sadly, they had to shut down last year. I just found the following message on their website:

As of March 2005 space limitations have encouraged us to start throwing away all the old 555 and Red Square stock. As we now have no distro and are owed money by many, we really don’t need / can’t sell 500 Bright Lights CDs, 600 Downpour singles or 800 Lolita Storm CDs, etc… There will be no sales or discount, as we feel that cheapens the music and isn’t really fair on the few who paid full whack. We will however throw free stuff in at our discresion if you do order anything. We are throwing boxes out randomly over the next few months, so if you do want anything please order sooner rather than later.
Thanks
Stew and Jen

P.S. if you are in a 555 band and we havent contacted you already and you want your stock at cost, let us know a.s.a.p.

A judge in California has ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said the state could no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

The ruling came after litigation stemming from the city’s decision last year to allow gays to marry. Those marriages were ruled invalid by the state’s Supreme Court but it then referred the issue to a lower court.

Just a thought — but if you go here and vote for Superburst Mixtape, it’s got more of a chance of being occasionally mentioned on Podcast Alley’s front page, and therefore will draw more people’s attention to the music therein. Which is what Superburst Mixtape is all about.

The Superburst Mixtapes are archived for direct download here.

A man who created suspicion by collecting items from various department of K-Mart and taking them into the restroom just before closing time Wednesday arrested after police said they found him operating a methamphetamine lab in the bathroom.

According to Kingsland GA police, store security began watching Eddie Young, 34, when he came back into the store after making a purchase. After seeing Young get a Coleman lantern from sporting goods and various over-the-counter drugs from the pharmacy area, they said he took the items into the store’s restroom.

Store employees reportedly went into the bathroom to tell Young the store was closing in a few minutes, they became even more suspicious and notified police.

Finding a powder that tested positive for methamphetamine in the bathroom, Young was arrested for possession of items to manufacture methamphetamines and possession of a controlled substance…

Malawi’s president has temporarily moved out of his 300-bedroom state mansion, claiming it is haunted by ghosts, a senior aide said Saturday.

The Rev. Malani Mtonga, presidential aide on Christian affairs, said that President Bingu wa Mutharika had asked the clergy to pray to “exorcise evil spirits.”

Mtonga refused to give further details about the ghosts. But another aide, who asked for anonymity, said that the president hears footsteps and strange noises at night. Nobody else, including the president’s wife, hears anything, the aide said…

The granddaughter of Italian wartime dictator Benito Mussolini went on hunger strike on Monday after being barred from next month’s regional elections over signature forgeries.

More than 800 signatures on her petition to stand in the election for president of Lazio region have been declared false. The list allegedly includes names of the dead and others whose existence was dubious, such as people who gave their birth date as Feb. 31…

I read a PDF preview of the first episode of ELK’S RUN the other day — and it was really, really good. It’s a seriously strange coming-of-age story, set in an old mining town that’s been essentially cut off from the rest of the world. Usually, that kind of story doesn’t do much for me, but the team execute it with great skill. Hit the link to find all kinds of preview material.

Ideally, if you wanted to get a copy, you’d tell your local comics store. If the store won’t get it, or you don’t have access to one, you can either buy it from the guys themselves, or try an online retailer like Khepri.

Nice work, Katie West. Yet another composition I’m going to steal one day:

© Bára 2005 All rights reserved

Both because of and despite the fact that I barely understand a word of it, and what I do understand is horrifying:

Maestro Repsä was on the top of the ladder, when Sä Tuut, Sä Meet was released. For years people had been laughing at him. After his last album Repsänkeikkaa and unfortunate “freak out”, which took place in that very same live recording. 3 years earlier he had been in terrible accident (1995), in which his face burned nearly completely. It was tough job even for the biggest names in plastic surgery, to create him “a decent face” from those little bits of flesh and skin that was left. Well, new Master Repsä wasn’t sweetheart next door; he was pig ugly and bitter. His girlfriend left him giving kettle black lies. It was “Karma Chameleon” that saved him…