I find it hard to believe that anyone would pay for this crap:

There’s a marketing firm somewhere that’s laughing its way to the bank with a cheque for $4 million.

Anyone who feels excited or rejuvenated about this “dynamic” new strategy is simply deluding themselves. It seems like nothing more than an exercise in self-indulgence and ignorance. Or perhaps all the rhetoric is simply rationalization for having spent millions of dollars on a pile of crap.

I could’ve come up with something more inspiring for eleven dollars and ninety-three cents.

Batman Begins is, without a doubt, the best comic book movie ever made (with the exception of Sin City and Ghost World). So let me qualify that by saying it is the best superhero movie ever made (where the protagonists of Sin City don’t count as superheroes).

I was passed this ‘baton’ by Yaser, who will now indubitably (and inexplicably) complain about the loss of his anonymity due to my linking to his blog.

Total volume of music files on my computer: 11.28 GB. I have no idea how that translates into song hours or number of files.

The last CD I bought was: The last CD I actually spent money buying (for my own listening) was Everlast’s “White Trash Beautiful.”

Song playing right now: Howard Jones – No One Is To Blame

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

• Howard Jones – No One Is To Blame. Everything but the chorus, ironically.
• Mouth and Macneal – How Do You Do. Infectious.
• Barenaked Ladies – War On Drugs. Not just copying from Yaser, but they say that Jesus and mental health are just for those who can help themselves, but what good is that when you live in hell on earth?
• Inti-Illimani – El Pueblo Unido… jam�s ser� vencido.
• Barry McGuire – Eve Of Destruction. Yeah, my blood’s so mad feels like coagulating, I’m sitting here just contemplating. I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulation. Handful of senators don’t pass legislation, and marches alone can’t bring integration, when human respect is distinegrating. This whole crazy world is just too frustrating. And you tell me over and over and over again, my friend, ah you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.

Three people to whom I�m passing the baton:
Mudasser, Adam, Arif.

Growing up here in Jerusalem, I think I had a pretty normal childhood. But normal in the Middle East is always intertwined with war.

– B.Z. Goldberg, Co-Producer/Co-Director and Narrator of Promises

I’m having a cry-fest here.

I just saw Promises, a movie about children in Israel and Palestine, on Yaser’s recommendations. Like Hotel Rwanda, some parts of it made me cry. There were scenes where I was laughing as I cried. Not an easy thing to do.

It’s genuine and it’s amazing. To echo Yaser, Yasmine described it best on her blog. If you can get your hands on it, watch it.

Last night, more like this morning, I was watching Hotel Rwanda. It was a very moving film and I think it effectively conveyed its message. Some people criticized it for not showing more gore — but it certainly didn’t have to. I was crying my eyes out at one point.

An excellent film and an excellent performance by Don Cheadle.

Go watch it.

here’s this great speech that spider-man made in amazing spider-man #135, published in august 1974 (written by gerry conway, illustrated by ross andru) — while and after he was fighting the tarantula, essentially a political assassin/terrorist/mercenary

one of my favourite quotations (it’s the last line) of all time comes up in this comic

Tarantula: Mockery? You dare mock me? Don’t you realize who — what — I am?

Spider-Man: Sure I do, buster — you’re a first class creep — a traitor to your own friends, men who were trying to free their people from a dictatorship — heroes whose boots you aren’t fit to shine!

You know something, “amigo” — it’s bums like you who give revolution a bad name.

Sick little criminals — who don’t give a hang about the cause they’re fighting for — who only care about themselves — and their own twisted egos.

Sure, I know who you are … and punk … so do you.

Punisher: That was quite a speech, my friend.

Spider-Man: Punisher…? When did you sneak up?

Punisher: Right after “heroes whose boots he isn’t fit to shine“. Do you believe all that, Wall-crawler? Are you truly that idealistic?

Spider-Man: Yeah, I’m idealistic — and I’ll stay idealistic until something better comes along.

(while he was making the “speech” he was wiping the floor with tarantula’s face)

daily dose of sanjeyan, as quoted by saqib:

ksnite says:
you know something … if you really pay attention, you can kind of notice that noaman is into spider-man — just kind of though…

i got to the e.j.pratt library at about 10:00 am, as stated earlier it is probably the most aesthetic library on campus (next to gerstein) — for one thing, you actually get natural light coming in, as opposed to sitting in a fluorescent atmosphere that resembles a fort more than it does a library (although pratt looks like a pillbox from the outside)

i ended up catching up on homework (and i’m still not anywhere near done) till 10:00 pm, leaving the library twice — first to get that water english toffee and crappy boston cream then later to grab a sandwich from subway

so sometime later (after 10:00 pm) i enter the subway and i’m going eastbound — at yonge these rowdy black kids come in to the car (four rowdy girls and one laid-back guy)

from yonge to victoria park (when they sat down) the girls were jumping around and disrupting people, being ostentatious, singing songs (ashanti) and dancing … one girl went to the front of the car and did her beyonce impression as she walked forward

people got up and moved away from them, some people smiled and were kind of enjoying it

finally at warden station i got up and went up to them and told them that (apologizing to the crowd for the upcoming profanity), when i asked them a question they ought to say “they schools don’t teach us shit”

then i asked them “why haven’t you learned anything?”
and they more-or-less replied “they schools don’t teach us shit”
(that’s from a dead prez song)

i then asked them if they knew who malcolm x is and they responded loudly in the affirmative

i then asked them if they knew that forty years ago malcolm x was shot dead

that quieted them down, and i said, that’s right — they schools don’t teach you shit

that’s when a man came up to me and shook my hand and so did one of the girls
i asked if they knew who the dead prez are, and two of the girls said no — but the guy and a girl said yes so i gave them props for that

i then told them to listen to mc nomes, captain nomes, to me:

you put down virtue and you promote vice
then you turn around and say you’re for the passion of the christ
i don’t give a **** about the qur’an or the bible
as far as i’m concerned it’s the fittest who see survival
but drinking, smoking pot and shooting shit in your veins
that ain’t survival of any kind you’re just ****ing your brains
but the corporations love it ’cause they’re making big profit
and your mind is so gone it’s easier keeping you down in shit
and all the while you light up thinking you’re so revolutionary
but you’re just a dumb **** and you’re slowing the evolutionary process….

i ended off telling them to stay away from drugs, to stay in school and get an education because brother malcolm said “without education, you’re not going anywhere in this world” and that’s about when the train got to kennedy

i did all that without being patronizing or condescending, and at the end i got respect from the guy and the girls, and all those people who were at first put off by the rowdiness of the girls seemed to have gained some kind of awe for/wonderment about me (i was quiet the whole time until the train got to warden)

that’s what i would mark as the return of the ttc mc, and i think i’m going to look forward to doing more of it…

(the above entry is disjointed and lacking lucidity because i’m tired from over twelve hours of studying on little sleep)

and speaking of the subway, here’s today’s daily dose of sanjeyan:

ksnite says:
today, i was in the subway
nomes says:
how was it
ksnite says:
kinda tubey

nomes says:
guess who is in a class of its own
ksnite says:
i dunno, who?
nomes says:
that’s right

i’m weary and my pen nib is scared

and that’s odd because nibs shouldn’t have emotions

i’m scrubbing it with an old toothbrush — one my uncle used when he came to canada on a trip

i just finished redrawing the first panel of my diana comic and i like the new rendition, and the new background effect, much better; and so i photoshopped it in

i want to sleep — i usually (usually? that’s a laugh) go to bed by 6:00 a.m. and it’s now 11:00 a.m. — people keep asking me if i ever sleep

i once had a dream that was a black and white comic — this is long before i even knew about sin city — it had panels, it had sound and motion effects … i don’t remember much of it

comics — i could go on for a long time speaking about the various aspects of comics but most people’s eyes would glaze over

sometimes you repeat a word so much that you start to doubt if it is a real word, you roll it over your tongue and try to savour its cadences but all you taste is a funny feeling; you repeat the word to yourself and it seems to be the most ludicrous thing you’ve ever heard — is it really a word? — you check the dictionary and it just blows your mind that there it is, right there, these letters arranged in this order placed in this context

i want to draw more comics and i want to do unexpected things with them

after my “no man’s land” strip people were caught by surprise by the diana comic — it wasn’t expected — it wasn’t humourous and that seemed to be out of vein of my usual activities

i like doing unexpected things

after i’m done washing these pen nibs i’m going to sleep

and then one of the nibs breaks — not the nib itself but the brass reservoir control on it breaks — and that hurts because it’s a good nib and a replacement is going to be expensive and i wonder if art stores have boxing day sales

it strikes me then, that not it but the other nib was the one that was scared

and that’s odd because nibs shouldn’t have emotions

i certainly need some sleep

(click on thumbnail)

for diana (though, not about diana), thanks to payal for her help…