Like A Smoking Stone

Probe after Rolling Stone lights up

This link is of no great importance save as an indicator the the new puritanism lurking in our midst. Those grand-daddys of rock, the Rolling Stones, have had their share of controversy over the years but are now largely considered part of the establishment. But where once it was smoking marijuana that caused a furore, now it's tobacco.

Up yours Scotland! If you're so concerned about health, get those damn petrol-chemical emissions out of the air instead of complaining about a few micro-particles from a cigarette. These guys are in remarkably good health given their age and hedonistic past- if anything, that makes a farce of this neo-authoritarianism.

There are times when seemingly inconsequential news has greater import. I was never a fan of the "Big Brother" type of reality TV programme, but have gradually appreciated the fact that its addictive nature has actually done a lot to break down social barriers and predjudice. Many viewers have become familiar with people they would otherwise have stereotyped and ignored - and that's all good for enhanced communication and social integration. In Amerika however, I was horrified to hear that CBS (See BullShit?) are to "liven-up" one of their reality shows by imposing racial segregation. The spectacle of contestants battling it out along racial and ethnic lines will effectively destroy the benefits such series may have given us. Worse still, if it becomes the norm, this behaviour will actively promote predjudice and discrimination.

Back in the day, I worked producing comix and had a long association with a creator who remains one of my favourite artist/writers, Bryan Talbot. His epic series from the 1970s and early 1980s, "The Adventures of Luther Arkwright" has met with increasing acclaim as the years have past - so much so that he developed a sequel, "Heart of Empire" some years back.

The original series has now been digitally re-mastered at high resolution with the help of Bryan's Czech publisher who spent some months on the scanning. The result is on the second edition of a CD ROM with the same title. Better still, the entire series is now available online as a "web comic" and you can see it here ...

Luther Arkwright Online Webcomic

Apologies for an absence of comment for the last few days. I've been working on integrating more online facilities into my system - watch out for changes to the links on the left shortly. For a preview, I essentially have two auxillary blogs for Video & Media and Undercurrents & Archives which will allow me to concentrate here on current affairs news and opinion.

All have RSS feeds and can be freely syndicated.

Later.