A huh....

Apparently I can upload pictures alright, just not from the specific folder in which I kept the batch of Notting Hill pictures.

AND NOW YOU KNOW.

But at least this means I can post comics this weekend!

A smidgen of Notting Hill

Here's something I'm definitely not used to seeing in Canada, a monument which addresses the Spanish Civil War. This is a topic generally not covered much, if at all, in Canadian high school history teachings and generally most folk don't much about it. I was certainly quite ignorant until about two months ago when I was reading Noam Chomsky's Objectivity & Liberal Scholarship, which used Western study of the history of the conflict as it's model.
Not unlike another monument I highlighted almost a year ago, this mural acknowledges people from the neighborhood who went and fought in the conflict. If you've seen one photo from the Civil War, it's generally this one by Robert Capa.Otherwise Notting Hill was a pretty standard, pleasant London neighborhood. Not as upscale as Kensington but certainly not as drab as North Islington, I can easily see why people would want to live here. Naturally, I kept looking about to see why you'd want to use this neighborhood to shoot a movie.

It's nice, but I wasn't sure what qualified Notting Hill over other areas I've seen. To be fair, this is based off of one fifty minute jaunt during a lunch break! After reading up on the matter a little bit, it turns out the director just really liked it so there. This I can sympathize with.

Also I just now seem unable to upload further photos to blogger, which is disconcerting since the Internet Gods smiled on me and freed up firstworldproblems.blogspot.com for me to leap on. Later today I hope to post a revised version of what I aborted earlier in the week! Until then...

While teaching paw how to make a blog...

....I came across the blog which has claimed www.firstworldproblems.blogspot.com

It's soooo abandoned! Does anyone know how to go about petitioning to get a dead blog cleared out so someone else can use the url?

The British Musem: Part 3 - Elgin Marbles

Right then! The Elgin Marbles are arguably the British Museum's most famous, long term exhibit. You can thank this wacky bastard for their having been taken from the Parthenon in Athens, as well as their English given title.There are folk of both countries that would like them returned to their rightful place, but frankly I do not see this happening anytime soon. This is if only for the fact that both countries generally have much higher priorities to worry about and because the timelessness of the Elgin Marbles doesn't exactly put any great urgency to the matter.I wish I had the kind of photographic memory which would have let me piece the marbles into the Parthenon using memories from my trip to Athens, but alas I could only sort of guess. Still, it was interested to know that I have now seen the almost the literal entirety of the Parthenon (a handful of pieces are scattered amongst other national museums, though the Swiss and the Germans are notable for having given theirs back).One nice thing about seeing the marbles was that I wasn't trying to blink back a blazing sun while I observed them, nor where the milling tourists nearly so thick (in more than one sense of the word). Being able to properly focus on some of the statues, like this torso of Poseidon, better allowed me to connect with the majesty of the artistry and the myths to which they are connected.Though you can find all sorts of statements and explanations for what happened regarding the transfer of the marbles and the reasons for keeping or giving them back...I thought it'd be fun to grab a picture of the explanations given on large plaques just outside the entrance to the exhibit.
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In unrelated news, the fourteen tenets of a fascist regime are a hell of a thing to read when you realize that everyone's favorite American administration has checked of every single one.

Oh me, oh my, oh pooooop

I'm sorry folks, but in the interest of not serving up a steaming dogpile there won't be a new comic today.

On a related note my hat's off to all the professional cartoonists who have to draw just as well on a bad day as a good. On another related note - PROTIP: If you make a mistake that really pisses you off, take a step back and pause for a moment before continuing. Don't just power through and draw faster, harder with the expectation that you can kick difficulties ass....somehow.

Siiiiigh.....fuck it, I'm off to bed. Enjoy Bill Maher's rebuttle to the whole "Freedom Fry" mentality, if a bit past when that was first topical.

Tomorrow? Elgin marbles my dear.

The British Musem: Part 2

Outside!
The design of the central chamber was not what I was expecting at all...And a few shots from the west wings "Enlightenment" section, just past those lovely clocks.
I rather enjoyed the way this wing made you feel like you were in the library of an eccentric member of the aristocracy...which only makes sense given how such individuals have often given financial aid to the museum over the years.While I fiddled around the neighborhood briefly, I found a specialty store where one could - if one were so inclined - dagger canes and swordsticks.
I may go back for an estimate. Just out of curiosity, you understand.
Tomorrow will undoubtedly yield a comic, but Thursday I'll be showing some of those Greek treasures which the British Museum is "keeping safe". Until then!

The British Museum: Part 1 - CLOCKS

So yes, on Saturday it was pretty plain that the demand to see the Terracotta Warriors was (and is) pretty high in London. I got to the British Museum for 10:30am and was told the first free timeslot (with people being funneled in one end of the exhibit and out the other pretty much nonstop) was 2:20pm. Luckily I had the rest of the museum to explore and luckily the museum is in a neighborhood I am quite familiar with (the museum lay a few blocks east of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus). Logically I should start with the outside and main interior chamber of the museum, but I promised CLOCKS. FANCY CLOCKS. So that's what you get!This impressive ship-clock was designed to roll along the length of a banquet table and to fire off certian cannon's (just a flashbang, of course) to signify moving from one course to another!Phew! Man...so many nice clocks. I gotta go towel off THE SWEAT I'M TALKING ABOUT SWEAT HERE. More to come later!

I LIKE THIS MAYBE YOU'D LIKE THIS

This is a neat little "How each comic gets gone" video by Octopus Pie. It's more of a fun animation than any kind of actual tutorial, but still!



Meanwhile, the title for this post could arguably be used for 98% of user created content on the internet, I reckons. Ah well, if you haven't already then please check out the latest episode of my own little darlin'.

Get ready for clocks

Well hot dang, it's a NEW COMIC!

Tomorrow? Clocks. So many clocks like you wouldn't believe.