Oh he's one of those

yeah he's of those alright

While I look over this whole healthcare business and ponder whether I want to write some kind of thing about things, I came across this guy. He's one of those sickening intelligent people who come from sickeningly intelligent families who consistently write sickeningly smart, insightful things about their areas of expertise, in his case being public health (reminds me of the Huxleys and the Darwins, actually). Seriously, if you want a decent grip on a lot of healthcare issues, just read his New Yorker stuff. Obama reportedly ordered The Cost Conundrum to become required reading in The White House; his excellent piece of how heathcare reform was passed in various places in the world is engrossing with all sorts of historical tidbits; and as for horror, one either has the abstract (his piece on on how extended solitary confinement could be constituted as cruel and inhuman punishment, or even outright torture) or the visceral, to wit on itching. No kidding. Some seriously fucked up horror movie shit in there:

One morning, after she was awakened by her bedside alarm, she sat up and, she recalled, “this fluid came down my face, this greenish liquid.” She pressed a square of gauze to her head and went to see her doctor again. M. showed the doctor the fluid on the dressing. The doctor looked closely at the wound. She shined a light on it and in M.’s eyes. Then she walked out of the room and called an ambulance. Only in the Emergency Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, after the doctors started swarming, and one told her she needed surgery now, did M. learn what had happened. She had scratched through her skull during the night—and all the way into her brain.

...

“The guy next to you?” I asked. He had had shingles on his neck, she explained, and also developed a persistent itch. “Every night, they would wrap up his hands and wrap up mine.” She spoke more softly now. “But I heard he ended up dying from it, because he scratched into his carotid artery.”

Now try going to sleep.

Comeex

how many alternate spellings are there

A quick mini-review of Understanding Comics: it's good and you should probably read it, if you're interested in these whole pictures and words business. It's pretty straightforward stuff (atleast to me, and I figure to anyone moderately intelligent and interested in the medium), and pretty well set out in terms of being a comic talking about comics. He's making a case, and not stating 'facts' per se, and there's plenty to argue and cuss and debate over. Actually, some of the most interesting material of the book is the historical analysis of comics, of the evolution and what factors (economic, social, technological, etc) ended up shaping comics into what they are today. The material on iconography, art history, styles of comic creation are also quite good as well. Plus, well-written and a breeze to read.

Feel free to disagree as vociferously as you wish regarding the Six Steps business.

Anyway, I'm going to be much more blase, and offer two what are really quite superficial observations regarding the whole reading/understanding comics criticism, especially in relation to storytelling.

Comics allow two useful improvements in storytelling:

1. The shortcutting or fast-tracking of storytelling. Basically, this is a general variation of the idea that 'a picture is worth a thousand words'. Why tell when you can show? Words are cumbersome and laborious to read and process; pictures provide a much more primal method of understanding and greatly simplify the storytelling process. Note: I'm not saying here that you're going to get some kind of perfect one to one correspondence between what you want to say and what the reader understands using pictures, but that rather, the scope for communication is sped up, if only a little bit.

2. The amplification or expansion of storytelling. By using pictures, storytellers can spend far less time setting the scene, and use the readers precious attention span and mental energy involved in what they want the reader to pay attention to. The use of pictures allows for expanding the imaginative frame that storytellers wish to express and explore. Changes in plot, scene, dialogue or other technical aspects of storytelling that would be disorientating in novels or prose can be portrayed without confusing or frustrating the reader (obviously, within limits).

A quick note about abstract concepts in comics: abstract concepts are much harder to represent within comics, precisely because they are abstract (duh). We can all (well, almost all) readily form mental images of specific, concrete concepts such as 'tree' or 'car' or 'door', though obviously our exact representations of those concepts will differ. But what about 'justice' or 'beauty' or 'deconstructionism'? Obviously, there's a shared cultural symbology that can be represented, such as Lady Justice, or Michangelo's David or Derrida. But we're not going to say that that is justice itself, or that is beauty itself or deconstructionism itself (though I feel that some may disagree with me on the latter). This is a basic problem why there's a general lack of comics that tackle abstract concepts all that much (however, big mentions should be made with regards to both Scott McClouds efforts, and the entire Introducing/For Beginners series of books. Again, there's a caveat, in that both those works are quite word-heavy, and very tightly written.)

Now, i'll end this here, lest the vampire hordes of Platonists/neo-Platonists/Postmodernists/Baudrillardians attack me for my sloppy, sloppy reasoning (and tell me that all representation is futile or something along those lines). Although you'd think they'd like that kind of reasoning...(ho ho, I jest. But seriously, some of your ilk is giving you guys a bad rap. I'd look into it.)

This is probably not exactly what I should be doing

far too seriously

I've had barely 4 days to decompress and process an aptly self-described epic journey across the United States, and yet here I am already looking at gigs that are happening in the short-term future. So with apparently the foolish intention that I wish to supplant A Reminder, here's a quick perfunctory gigroll of interesting acts coming up:

In what looks to be a great double-billing (if you like the bands involved, and there is quite a bit of overlap in these two) The Lucksmiths are playing their final farewell show with Darren Hanlon on the 21st of August at The Factory. With tickets $22ish, this looks to be a very good deal, and most likely going to sell out. Advise to buy now.

Rather oddly, The Sydney Symphony is playing the music of Star Trek, along with clips of highlights from all eleven Star Trek movies. At the Opera House, for two nights only, on the 4th and the 5th of September.

You should all know by now that Malkmus is playing on the 22nd of September at the Metro.

Good news: Metric are coming to Australia for their first time. Bad news: It's at Parklife, and they are no announced sideshows. This is going to be one of those quandrys that i'm going to be slowly gnawed by frustration over, as Parklife actually has a decentish line-up this year: Empire of the Sun, Metric, Junior Boys, The Rapture, Lady Sov, and a few decent second-tier acts, MSTRKRFT, Crystal Castles, etc. But unfortunately, Parklife also tends towards a preponderance of irritatingly stupid pill-popping douchebags with oversized sunglasses and way too much fluoro (which by the way, any quantity more than zero is too much). Tickets are also pricey, as they've always been. Sidenote: Have web designers learned by now not to fucking autoplay music when you enter a site? And compound the problem by not having an easy way to turn it off? I have my own music to listen to, douchebag, and if I wanted to listen to yours, i'd turn it on. Now, you've just gone and pissed me off and close your website altogether. So DON'T DO IT

With what looks to be one of the most hyped unannounced gigs ever, Animal Collective are coming back to Australia. With over a hundred people attending a gig that theoretically does not exist yet, this does look to be a "massive hipstergasm". 11th December, at the Enmore Theatre, if last.fm is to be believed.

The music festival you should go to atleast once: Meredith is back for its 19th year. The first round ballot is now open to existing subscribers, with later ballots, online presales and what is dubbed enigmatically, "Aunty's last chance". What's surprising about Meredith, and argubly attests to its popularity, is that Meredith has not announced a single act in its lineup (Animal Collective are strongly rumoured to show up, despite the fact that they're rumoured to be playing a gig in Sydney on the first night of the festival). In one of those rare instances, its popularity may in fact be justified by quality; in addition to post solidly entertaining line-ups (past performers have included Final Fantasy, Augie March, The Avalanches and The Shins), they have lots of fun attractions (YURTS) and sensible policies (you can bring your own liquor!) From 11-13th of December, Meredith. Ticket prices have not been announced yet, but are most likely going to be quite dear.

It is too damn cold at 5.30 in the morning. This post took me over an hour to compile which is far too long. My sleep cycles are being completely fucked up by too much drinking, too much late-night staying up, not enough sleep, never enough coffee and weird-ass jetlag. I'll post something on comics soon, being inspired by both Scott McCloud and my drunken (embarrasingly one-sided, I suspect) ramblings with Matt.