A title this would be, had I the originality.

I made a new filty piece of porn wallpaper. It's november which mean pretty fireworks in England. And to cheer you all up about the Tom/Alex break up, it's Tom and Alex having a go at making some fireworks.

Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.

Tab's plans:

Saturday:

Get to london
James' Birthaday meal
8:30 Avenue Q showing.
In Hotel with Jack and Liz

Sunday:

Natural History museum through the day
Back to the hotel to change
7:00 COSPLAY BALL YEAH

Monday

Whatever people are up for in london
3:00 Doctors Appointment


RIGHT

Now we need to sort out avenue Q tickets. If we can do a group booking that would be a good idea as it's possibly cheaper and we'd get to sit together. So if you're definately going and have the money to pay now, say so and we can sort it out.

The cheap seats are about £20 which judging on the financial state of most of us is where we'll be going. Those of you who aren't sure at the moment about going or can't pay until the actual day, still come with us as you can pay in the box office. That way you can then sit together even if you don't get to sit with all of us.

Sense make y/n?

Literary agent Peter Cox makes several interesting points about the publishing industry's failure to engage with consumers in his Litopia Daily podcast here.

Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.

If you have any love of stand-up comedy, and an interest in the way it’s crafted and the dilemmas between pleasing yourself and pleasing the audience, then get thee hence to the Lyric Theatre (before Friday!) to go and see The Comedians, which I went to last night with @zsk and her husband.

It’s set in 1970s Manchester where a veteran Northern stand-up comedian runs a comedy class – and that night, his students will perform for the chance to get a contract with a venerated club promoter.

It’s often said the past is a different place, but it’s amazing to watch this recreation of 1970s Northern club comedy in 2000s West London, and marvel at the difference between then and now. Jokes you would not possibly get away with these days, mixed in with constant references to localities and local comedy clubs that reinforce the sense of community, from Liverpool to Leeds, that you just wouldn’t get today, especially in Southern England. Plus watching the on-stage collapse of a brotherly double-act is always highly amusing in a horrifying way.

There were, alas, moments when it seemed we were watching Mind Your Language instead, especially when the token comedy ethnic character popped in to steal the show for two minutes. Only, to my mind, made sadder by the realisation that the role was taken by one of the cast of the then ground-breaking Goodness Gracious Me. From being one of the co-stars of one of the most diverse sketch shows to a three-minute role, in ten years.

Of course, now we live in a world where vindictiveness is returning to comedy in a way it never has done before. Frankie Boyle, a Scottish teetotaller comedian, constantly stereotypes Scottish people as racist miser alcoholics, and refers to an Olympic athlete as being so ugly, she must be “very dirty”, and everybody laughs. Even I did. Indeed, tonight, the sick jokes website Sickipedia (don’t visit if you have any sensitivities to any jokes) is putting on a gig.

Still, if you have any love of comedy, go and see it before it closes on Friday!

Mirrored from almost witty.

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No Tom, it's not the answer to everything. You Cock.

Enjoy the page folks, I stayed up late for it because I refused to sleep before it was done.

Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.

The one thing that I've found hardest to deal with in my transition has been that while being a guy is the most comfortable for me, when I'm male I don't feel attractive.

I just went to a party where there were lots of women in stockings and corsets and it kind of made me envious. Because I used to be able to wear them and I looked really good in them, even if I didn't like it that much due to the female-ness of everything.

I was there in just trousers and a shirt so I felt like such a plain thing compared to what I used to wear to that kind of event. Before I would have turned heads, now I'm just a small guy who doesn't even look like a guy yet.

I'm not really looking for pick-me-up "You're attractive!" replies, just maybe some opinions on what makes guys attractive/sexy. Maybe some clothing advice if anyone has it (though please keep in mind most goth/fetish stuff would just make me look like a girl).

I finished this on Friday. It's engaging, but it comes from an aspect of the Moscow mindset that seems to be unremittingly dour. It starts there and ends there, and even the flashes of humour along the way are of the grim "shared suffering" variety.

Sedia writes well and draws the reader into her world, like a wise and kindly woman offering to share her shawl on a November afternoon, but several times on the journey I paused to wonder why I was still walking with her, and when we reached our destination I was glad to emerge from the bleakness.

So, why am I offering a review here, when it's my LJ policy to review only novels that have impressed the hell out of me?

Well, it's because this book has impressed the hell out of me. Yes, it's downbeat. And, yes, if you're looking for a light, fun, sexy read, I'd suggest you look elsewhere.

But it's a strong story that stayed with me over the weekend and into today. Often, I close one book and open the next on the same day, but not in this case. The Secret History of Moscow is still fermenting in my mind now, three days after I finished reading it.

Sedia is a brave and honest writer. She could have lightened this story up in any number of places, but she stayed true to her world in which people and their gods stand bowed but resolute under the oppression of land and climate and years. And those flashes of gallows humour? They stand out in my memory like bright steady lights shining from a wooded hillside at night. They're real.

There's a terrible beauty in the history of Moscow, but Sedia doesn't describe it. She writes from within it - as the people of her world live within it, and often in spite of it - and so it shines from the core of her story.

I found this amazingly recent and helpful Nova episode. This covers almost exactly the species that I need to know for the test, as well as bipedalism and climate, all of which I have to have down pat.
And it was damned interesting, too.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/beta/evolution/becoming-human-part-1.html

New Page

Pages like this make me happy because then all the angst I've had cooped up inside of me is finally free. So therapeutic!

I'm not out to start a riot or anything, but I thought I'd bring this to the attention of my fellow non-believers (at least, the ones who haven't heard yet):

The Conservative Bible Project.

It's worse than you think, and as far as I can tell, it's not a joke. Just the fact that a "conservapedia" exists is enough to bother me, but seriously? A more conservative bible? Pardon?

At minami Timber Matt and Christian are doing a skit, which means this year I am whoring my ass out to the masses for skits and costumes.

I currently have Seigfried and Ed from FMA ready to wear, and I guess I could just turn up and be like "I am Seigfried, ya?" but I prefer working with other people. If anyone has a skit which either of those two could be needed for, or are working on a costume from the series that you'd like to do with me, please let me know.

If anyone also has a good skit that needs another person I'm happy to join in. I just need a fair bit of notice for making the costume. If it's a secret skit (as most are) just email me at Tab@khaoskostumes.com . You have my word that no secrets shall be spilled to the masses!

Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.

I don’t really drink coffee. I’m not a particular fan of global consumer mono-branded capitalism like McDonalds. And yet, the sight of a Starbucks mug fills me with pride and joy.

It’s a unique combination of solid working-class workmanship – this is a big chunky mug for drinking out of – and branded middle-class aspirations – I’m drinking in a funky trendy cafe.

One recently fell into my hands, and I’m very reluctant to let it go. It just sits there on my desk, and I feel a very odd sense of pride when I do end up drinking out of it. I’ve found myself making more cups of tea just so I can drink more out of it.

and what other chain can promote themselves on the basis of “Oooh, the red cups are back!” ?

Mirrored from almost witty.

"If you're one of those people who finds the bashing of religion tiresome or offensive... just... give me five more minutes."

My first attempt at embedding. God help me if I've failed :p

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I like how I can be a bit messier with this comic. Also, today has pierre in it, who is totally awesome. I need to draw more with him in.

Originally published at Nick Bertozzi. You can comment here or there.

Sex with aliens.

Anything goes. Tentacles allowed. This is a judgement-free zone.

Which alien does it for you? Who would you do?

There's no question as far as I'm concerned: it always has been and always will be Farscape's Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan.



Who's your off-planet pash?