links/2023w27

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reMarkable (2) incoming...

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After a few years of looking at one, I finally took the plunge yesterday and purchased a reMarkable 2 writing tablet (along with the typepad folio)...

Goals: a capture device and an easy-on writing device for pieces here – as well as fulfilling (and amplifying) the usual functions of my Boogie Board: handwritten explorations of specific sections of a WIP. Planning to use the reMarkable app on desktop and mobile to facilitate the export and import of notes and scaps and other writings from reMarkable to Obsidian for work and zettelkasten archiving. Potential use as a Daily Note device too?

Should arrive next week. Penning this to start the tag and log its purchase.

SUPERMAN, Vol. 1, No. 423 + ACTION COMICS, Vol. 1, No. 583: "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" (Moore / Swan; DC, 1986)

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Filing yet another under the "no I can't believe I didn't read this until now either" header because, not only is "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" now my favorite Superman story, but it's one of my favorite comics stories of all time, my ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST of comics.

Clark revealed as Superman by Curt Swan and George Pérez

In fashion not dissimilar to Leone's masterful deconstruction and exploration of the mythological Western, the pairing of Moore's words with Curt Swan's immortal and character-defining pencils is magic: a deconstruction of the hallowed and iconic by a mind matched by few wrapped in a rousing action story with deep emotional stakes; a distillation of, at that point, nearly 50 years of monthly storytelling that not only showed why Superman has endured, but why he must: it's the first work anyone tasked with carrying on that legacy – be it in comics or in film or in any other media – should read; I can only hope that Gunn uses this as a guide – fortunately, from what he's said of what's coming in LEGACY, it sounds like he has. Certainly nailed the casting so far.

Other than Morrison and Quitely's ALL-STAR SUPERMAN (now my second-favorite Superman story and apparently one of Gunn's guiding texts), I can't think of another take that so deeply captures every facet of the character – the hope, the action, the sacrifice, the tragedy – in such a powerful, poignant, and emotionally satisfying way. Essential.

threads? threets?

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Signed up for Threads (which, to its credit, is remarkably easy to do), posted a Thread (Threet?) or two and a dog GIF, and realized that a.), Twitter is its own Twitter killer – Space Karen is just the latest (though admittedly far more loathsome – if he and Zuckhead fight it out in the Colosseum, the world would be far better off if the rules of engagement were historically accurate to the place they chose to besmirch, read: lions) wrecking ball; b.), while I’m willing to fiddle about with it, I have little interest in another short, status-based ambient social/swarm experience; and c.), having asked myself, "If I were to start using social media for the first time today and not 15+ years ago, how would I use it?" the answer is, without fail, I wouldn't: while I'm grateful for the eyes that “the socials” have brought to my little narrative experiments and mental gesticulations, I've felt a mental and creative freedom in these last couple of weeks away from all of them – yes, even Mastodon – that I haven't felt in, well, 15+ years. That being said: perhaps with a bit more time (I'm experimenting with once-weekly photo dumps from the week prior on Insta and, like I said, I’m willing to fiddle with Threads for a spell) I’ll find a modicum of enjoyment but I'm not going to expend any significant mental energy to do so.