November 10th, 2007 | brainjuice
Here’s an odd question that occurred to me tonight, and I’m turning comments back on for it:
If this blog was part of a network of blogs that you might consider fellow-travellers and associated persons — what blogs would those be?
WARREN ELLIS
Coilhouse - 20 Nov 09
Every time an issue of the magazine goes to print, things somehow turn Highly Inappropriate here at Coilhouse. This is apparent to anyone who was there on Twitter during the hours of our final revision deadline last night. And it’s only going to get worse before Issue 04’s out. So to celebrate, a video of Miss Piggy singing “Fuck the Pain Away” by Peaches. It’s that kind of day.
[via Shannon]
Brian Wood - 20 Nov 09
Will Blanche, ?The Newly Constructed Towers of the World Trade Center Seen From the South Side on West Street, May, 1973? (via These Americans)
See also: Mitch Epstein, ?West Side Highway, New York City? [looking towards World Trade Center] 1977
Kung Fu Monkey - 20 Nov 09
John Robb - 20 Nov 09
Short Answer: divide it.
It's long been my contention that Iraq was stabilized at an acceptable level of controlled chaos due to a happy accident by al Qaeda (in an attempt to expand/lead the loose insurgency in a new direction). What did they do? They blew up the Golden Mosque in Samara in 2006. This act of symbolic terrorism did indeed disrupt social networks as anticipated, however the consequences were ultimately disastrous for the Iraqi open source insurgency.
The reason for this is it broke the dynamics of the open source insurgency in ways the US and Iraqi government's COIN efforts could not. First, it created a permanent split between Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups/militias. Coopetition ended. Second, it motivated large Shiite militias to start an ethnic cleansing of Sunni areas. This put acute pressure on Sunni guerrilla groups who were too small (by design to avoid US counter-pressure) to defend themselves against large militias operating in the open. The result was an opening, very close to the one I described in my 2005 NYTimes OpEd, that allowed the US to convert Sunni guerrilla groups into militias that were not loyal to the central government (in direct contradiction to its COIN manual).
It's a nice example of the dynamics of many to many conflict, social network disruption, and the development open source counterinsurgency.
See this excellent description at the blog, "Musings on Iraq" for more detail on the ethnic cleansing operations. It also includes this money quote: "the majority of the Sunni insurgency gave up and switched sides to align with the Americans rather than face annihilation at the hands of the Shiite militias, Al Qaeda in Iraq, or the United States."
NOTE: it's pretty clear from the above that social network disruption (either through attacks on symbolic targets or blood and guts terrorism) is like playing horseshoes with live hand grenades. It's ultimately a losing strategy for advancing an open source insurgency. Social network disruption is very likely to break standing order 6: don't fork the insurgency.
Girl Farts - 20 Nov 09
John Robb - 20 Nov 09
Some random items of interest:
Jean Snow - 20 Nov 09
Beautiful (and simple) site design featuring the illustrative work of Yorifuji Bunpei. Via Paul Baron.
Jean Snow - 20 Nov 09
Coming up at the Kakitsubata gallery in Nakameguro is the show “Kodai,” running from November 25 until December 6.
Matt Fraction’s.
Charlie Stross, Brian Flemming, and David Brin all leap to mind.
I know you read Stross… here are URLs for Flemming and Brin in case the same isn’t the case:
http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/
http://www.slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/
William Gibson’s blog.
You’ve already surrounded yourself with your fellow-travellers and associated persons. There’s a whole blogroll of them on the right.
(leaving out ones already mentioned) John Rogers, Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton
Joshua Ellis and Patton Oswalt seem like pretty obvious choices.
Gibson, Oswalt, Wheaton, Sterling, Gauger & Brownlee, and the Coilhouse group.
William Gibson, Neil Gaimen and David Byrne; odd as that probably sounds.
Patton’s myspace? Are suggesting that web rings are making a come back? Really?
Gibson, Stross, Coilhouse, Victoria Lane, Wolven (wolven.livejournal.com), Steve Aylett (over on myspace), carpe_jugulum and Lupa from over on lj.
But then again, the sort of informational axis I’d be looking for re: “fellow travelers” is a bit of an odd cross section.
Fraction’s, sure.
But I shudder to think when the next blog gets added out of BMEland and suddenly my morning dose of Warren becomes ‘Hmm. I didn’t think you could do that to keloid tissue, let alone on a penis!’.
Wow, borderline tricky, It’s the originator’s but you will always find your fellow bloggers, associates, fellow travelers and even readers to belong to your group or otherwise they wouldn’t even be viewing and/or commenting. So it may even be a community therefore communistic (if that’s even a concept) and belong to the group as a whole. Geez, I guess I stick with the originator.
Several of those mentioned earlier, and, oddly enough, Rudy Rucker.
For me, I’ve always found this blog and The Reverse Cowgirl seem to go hand in hand together.
My Blogroll [excerpts]
* Boing Boing
* information aesthetics
* Wired
o Wired Top Stories
* WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Gre
* Warren Ellis
* Beyond the Beyond
* Cool Tools
* Neil Gaiman’s Journal
* we make money not art
* ModBlog
* The Woodring Monitor
* viridiandesign
* Bathsheba Grossman
* Steve Haworth
* Charlie’s Diary
* David Byrne Journal
* Paleo-Future
* Beyond the Beyond
Bill Hicks’ blog. If he weren’t dead.
Some of those artist types: Paul Pope, James Jean, Becky Cloonan
+ ZeFrank
warren, you would be with my edge seekers: metacool (diego rodriguez), supertouch (jamie o’shea), josh spear, and jockohomo (jim alex)
There really isn’t anyone out there i read who’s in the same category. As far as writers go, it’s you, Steven Brust, and Malcolm Gladwell.
So..regardless of the suggestions above; my question back to you is: are you suggesting a meta-blog App…?
Something like a bloglines, or like your (and other prominent blogs) blogroll?
The intorweb is a daunting place for getting a decent coverage of what people are talking about (yours, by the by, is an excellent train junction, of thought trajectories) and a meta-blog, or perhaps roving gangBlogs (or ClanBlogs, whathaveyou) that we net-lurkers can leap onto like remoras on a Great White, or hapless primitives on a mammoth, might streamline things up a bit…
I usually read you and JWZ in the same round.
Yahtzee Croshaw
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation
He talks like you but not on the same subjects
Craphound and Open the Future come to mind.
Simon Reynold’s blissblog, Kieron Gillen’s workblog, Technoccult.net, the Reverse Cowgirl.
Bruce Sterling
I’ll sewcond the Gaiman, ZeFrank and Matt Fraction nominations… also, Stephen Fry. I’d stay away from the “official” blogs, like Wired…
I know several people have mentioned Matt Fraction’s Blog and someone has probably mentioned William Gibson and or Bruce Sterling however has anyone mentioned Heidi MacDonald and her Stately Beat Manor? I usually check for new here before there or there before here sort of softens the blow in absorption of events.
The question’s ambiguous, but I made the assumption that you meant “people I would think you would consider to be traveling with you;” that said, I only posted people you know or know of. There are plenty of other people out there treading the territory you’re treading, in terms of finding and making some kind of Better Now, rather than Opining a mythical and supposedly dead Future, through art, writing, or just linking
http://www.zerosociety.com/
a3rdwayproject
http://www.digital-guerrilla.com/
mech_angel
For starters, but in terms of what I think when “Who’s Warren Know?” It’s the previous comment.
even better world blogs
i agree with the person who said jockohomo’s blog. he’s aweseome. and wil wheaton, too. in fact everyone’s already said the people that came to my mind, but i thought i’d just add my “hear, hear!” to their lists.
Blogs I’d put together in one lump (i.e. not coffee, music, or drug related feeds):
You, Ectoplasmosis, Coilhouse, Beyond the Beyond.
Thanks for the DoseNation tip, too.
Gibson, Sterling, Gaiman, Fraction, Wired, all seconded.
Stross, Coilhouse, Colleen Doran, The Pulse, Technoccult, (just for bring the strange news to the table), Bruce Sterling
Comic Industry/Genre Publishing news and Oddments concerning the Future, The Crinkly Edges of the Present (Current Affairs/Music) and the neglected Past.
this one, Neil G, Wil W, Lazy Geisha, Girl With A One Track Mind, Stephen fry
Hmn, trying to think of some outliers.
10 Zen Monkeys.
The Reverse Cowgirl and maybe Violet Blue.
Neil Gaiman’s blog and Ectoplasmosis.
Neil Gaiman
Ben Templesmith
Brian Wood
Katie West
Of the blogs I read, those are the blogs I consider to be associated with you. Maybe some of the comic book newsblogs. I’d like to see you recommend blogs you enjoy that are written by people you consider to be associated with you.
vote++ for Wheaton, Gaiman, Gibson
Funny how small the internet actually is, not a site here I don’t already read (at least occasionally).
The only blog I can think of not already mentioned is Jamie Zawinski’s lj on jwz.livejournal.com .
Wheaton, Gaiman, Peter David, boing boing, stephen fry….and for some reason…Poppy z brite
Among blogs i frequent Violet Blue occupies a similar headspace.
Technoccult
ectomo
boingboing
brassgoggles
Every day I look at you and jwz to get my sometimes-disturbing-often-funny glimpses of the future.
For me, it would have to be neil gaiman and ben templesmith. there is also the friend who introduced me to warren ellis comics, this is his address.
http://ocean-friction.livejournal.com/
I read Neil Gaiman’s blog & How To Avoid The Bummer Life, after you, of course
When I was in college my boyfriend and I used to joke about throwing a dinner party for our favorite bastards. This doesn’t relate directly to blogs, but these were the people we would have invited to dinner with you:
Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, William Gibson, and Neal Stephenson.
This was several years ago, when I was still in love with The Diamond Age and hadn’t yet thrown The Confusion against a wall screaming “Editor! For god’s sweet sake, hire an EDITOR!” These days I would delete Stephenson and add Joss Whedon, because he’s wonderful and because it would be an opportunity to watch the two of you throw poo at each other for an entire meal.
Feel like coming to dinner?
Sorry. A request for other blogs? Have things become so desperate that market research is so blatant. The monkeys are still in the cages? Right?
Suicide Girls (mostly Corddry) & Patton
On a similar vein of lack-of-predictability, I’d say maybe -in LJ: khem_kaigan, greygirlbeast, owl_clan, lupabitch, edwarddain; in blogspot, the late RAWilson… Others that read at least just as often are not so far down in the “unclassifiable” wing of blogland. I also leave out a few in Spanish.
publication designer Roger Black. only for similar tone in fed up and stabbing criticism/praise/hope of the newspaper and magazine industry.
rogerblack.com
I try to keep things diverse, and if I were going for similarity, it wouldn’t be in the links themselves but the impetus of the people behind them…
Warren Ellis
James Kottke
Pixelsurgeon
Most likely wouldn’t see this as a blogging triumvirate, but it’s mine.
Many of the above, and:
No Fear of the Future (@blogspot)
BLDGBLOG
Ballardian
Wired’s Threat Level (which should still be called 27B Stroke 6)
WFMU, Riot Clit Shave, Julian Cope, Wooster Collective, We Make Money Not Art, GPod of the Grey Lodge, Rudy Rucker, those porn blogs i don’t read very often because i don’t like fixating on being made of meat and neurons, Simon Reynolds, The Savage Critic, Ectoplasmosis, and Boing Boing, i reckon … maybe Daily Grail, as a handful of the same links pop up there.
honestly i don’t know, but must confess that you’re in my polymaths & eccentrics feed, not the comics one.
Neil Gaiman
Ben Templesmith
Matt Fraction
Kieron Gillen
Ashley Wood
I second BLDGBLOG (http://bldgblog.blogspot.com)
- architecture, geography, urban planning extrapolated into fantasies of reinforced concrete, earth, and the stuff of the future. Always a good read.
I vehemently disagree about Wheaton’s blog being the same headspace. That’s like putting Hunter S. Thompson beside Bob Denver. I understand some of your readers cross genres but that doesn’t mean you should.
Boing Boing is the most obvious fit. Gaiman, not quite, he’s in his thing. Gibson, yes, though I don’t read his blog regularly.
Does Garth Ennis blog?
FYI I’m here for your different take on our world today and our near future. And I’m liking some of your musical takes, too.
Wouldn’t many of the links to other’s sites and photojournals that you already have on this page make for a good inclusion? As well as some of the people named above that somehow get mentioned but often times don’t seem linked beyond those mentions. I also don’t understand the concept - is it somehow a larger, more meaningfully connected community of personal sites that somehow is more substantial than simple links to the pages?
Technoccult, Dr. Menlo, Projectionist, Ariana Osborne’s blog, Zoe Ebb’s…
boing boing
laughing squid
sterling’s beyond the beyond
Fraction, Oswalt, Gaiman, Brubaker, Wheton, Gibson, Wood, West, Templesmith…