Another magazine from my stash. What was inside the August 1982 edition of Street Machine? A six wheeled, two-engined monster, the prettiest Volvo Amazon, and the last ever Belle Vue custom car show, amongst other things.
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A combination of timelapse, video, and photos, as I try to condense my walk- with several distractions- from Kanda to Nakano Broadway.
Robot 7 deserved a diorama, so I dug out one of my stash of old Matchbox bases and set to work.
These little Cavico robots are awesome. I got this one from Hobbylink Japan (affiliate link).
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I disappeared down the rabbit hole of public domain characters recently, wondering if I could find new projects or inspiration. There’s no comic in the immediate future, but I may do a few more reinterpretations of old covers for practice.
This piece is based on the cover for Undercover Girl 6, seeing how I could do it using Clip Studio assets. I need to improve my art overall, work on my linework, and try out some new brushes.
The cover I recreated came from the Public Domain Super Heroes wiki.
“Undercover Girl was Starr Flagg, a female American secret agent. Her affiliation was never too clear – sometimes, she worked for the CIA, sometimes, she worked for some branch of the US military and sometimes, the agency she worked for wasn’t named at all. Either way, her loyalty to United States and commitment to her assignments was unwavering. She spared no effort to advance America’s interests abroad and defeat the machinations of Communist agents.”
The first full day of my Tokyo trip was a Sunday, and I shot a fair amount of video. I may only have covered a fraction of the city, but it was one busy day.
Here are the highlights, including all the people getting a photo or video on the promenade up to Tokyo Station, and a walk along Akihabara’s main drag after it was closed to traffic.
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A graphic novel biography of Elon Musk could be an interesting read. But the creator has so far been unable to find a UK or US publisher. It looks like they’re all scared of legal action, despite everything in the book already being published elsewhere.
Maybe ‘free speech’ warrior Elon Musk should step up and stop this self censorship by saying he won’t sue. He won’t, of course, because he doesn’t really believe in freedom of speech. The graphic novelist has it right in his assessment. Musk is just a mediocre man.
I was lucky enough to be up in Cumbria last week when the Workington Model Railway show was on, so got this video of all the layouts and displays.
The Chiba Urban Monorail is the longest suspended monorail in the world. I took a ride on it whilst I was in Japan, stopping to pay homage to a sci-fi classic along the way.
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Here’s something a little different to my normal subjects.
The Extinct Media Museum is dedicated to preserving defunct technology, particularly if it’s related to photo and video. It’s heaven for a camera nerd. The museum is open most weekdays. Check the site before visiting, to make sure they’re not live streaming from the studio on site.
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The Yurikamome is a driverless light rail system that’s a convenient way to get to the attractions on Odaiba, with some great views along the way. I rode it a few times whilst I was in Tokyo, and shot this video on one of those rides.
Fujimi make a model of a 4 carriage Yurikamome train in N gauge (affiliate link).
I put on the news to go with breakfast, and caught the end of Trump’s victory speech. Not a great way to start a Wednesday.
This US election, I’ve been too preoccupied to do my usual pimping of Sounds of Soldiers, but here we are.
I started this book in 2008, based on the premise of McCain/Palin winning the US elections that year, McCain dropping from the stress, and Palin being exactly as crazy as she appeared when she got power. That’s all hinted at in the back story, but it’s really about how a second American civil war affected Europe, and the narrator in particular. In some ways, it’s an optimistic book, as everyone is rebuilding, and finding better ways to do things. But there’s still all the death and terror that took the world to the place they had to rebuild from.
All of the above is to say- buy Sounds of Soldiers (also available from Smashwords if you don’t want to give Bezos any money). And start working out how we’re going to deal with the shit a second Trump presidency will shovel on the world.
Click the image or this link to watch the video on YouTube.
Small Worlds Tokyo is a collection of massive model railways and dioramas- much like Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, but with a fantastical and sci-fi twist. From a spaceport, to a Ghibli meets cyberpunk and steampunk layout with dragons and robots, to several recreations of the worlds of Evangelion, and more, it was a fascinating place to spend half a rainy day. Highly recommended if you’re in Tokyo.
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Stancenation Japan was held whilst I was in Tokyo, and I made it along to the first day. Here’s the video I put together from my walk along the rows of awesome cars they assembled.
Here’s the archived livestream of me unboxing all the modelling goodies I brought back from my trip.
For some reason, WordPress won’t let me embed YouTube videos. Click on the image, or this link, to go to it.
I didn’t plan my trip to Japan to coincide with this event. But when I found out it was on, I had to go. I tried to get footage of every stall, and resisted the temptation to buy from all of them.
Some of these companies can be hard to find at your local model shop. My first call when I can’t get them locally is Hobbylink Japan (affiliate link).
Cities don’t have to degenerate into dystopian hellscapes. There are ways to make them liveable and sustainable, whilst retaining the bustle and action that make a truly great city.
Here’s What the Sustainable Cities of Tomorrow Could Look Like | WIRED https://www.wired.com/story/heres-what-the-sustainable-cities-of-tomorrow-could-look-like/
As the big brands buy up smaller brewers and co-opt the craft beer tag, indie brewers ate fighting back.
I only log in to Twitter once every week or two to check my mentions nowadays. Content from other feeds is pushed to it, so I still have an active presence there.
It’s unlikely I’ll delete my account, no matter how little I use it, but news that ‘X’ is selling user data to companies training AIs makes it tempting. In the mean time, the post title should be what gets tweeted, so I hope the bots learn to hate Noel Skum as much as the rest of us.
https://lifehacker.com/tech/x-is-selling-your-data-to-third-parties-for-ai-training
I’m having one of my occasional periods of fascination with buildings. Not the incredible creations Hanif Kara helped create, so much, but his story, and the relationship between structural engineers and the architects they help is fascinating.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/oct/08/hanif-kara-soane-medal-will-alsop-zaha-hadid
There’s a thought that’s been bugging me for the last few weeks. And it’s, well, *about* weeks.
Where did they come from?
I don’t mean as in how does time work? But more, where did the concept of the week (and the month, for that matter) come from? And how did 7 days- five ‘week’ and two ‘weekend’- become the international standard?*
There has to be an interesting tale to tell around this thought. I bet there were conflicts aplenty, between tribes, countries, cultures and religions. Lots of politics and intrigue, probably some action and romance. Blockbuster stuff.
If somebody wants to fund my time to write a pop history book on the subject, drop me a line.
*I imagine there are still cultures and countries operating on timetables different to the 7 day version. I would, of course, cover those as well.
