The Circus Of Disembowelled Plush Toys
Michael Hanttula has previously been responsible for MoFa, the museum of food abnormalities, and some photos of marshmallow rabbits being burnt to a crisp in a toy house fire. His latest gallery is described as "the most hideous collection of plush-toy tragedies" that will "shock & horrify". There is something dark about seeing teddy bears with their cotton wool guts spilling out, cuddly monkeys sawn in half and covered in acupuncture pins or a microwaved Barney the Dinosaur. Well, maybe Barney deserves it.
Johnny Dee
www.hanttula.com/exhibits/plushtoys
Neil Gaiman
The book world is slowly catching on to internet marketing, but still the vast majority of author websites exist around the publication of a new work before stagnating shortly afterwards. Neil Gaiman's wonderful site is one of the few exceptions. What's great about it is that it's generous: while most writers are curmudgeonly about giving away their work, this has a regularly updated journal as well as a collection of fine short stories, essays and whole chapter excerpts from his back catalogue. For those who've read American Gods, there's the bonus of sheets from his working notebook and a list of websites he used for research. Dedicated followers can help out with a Gaiman wiki.
Johnny Dee
Mog
Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, the supremely bonkers Deerhoof (pictured) and Pink are just some of the stars who have signed up to this lovely music recommendation site. In theory, you can see the latest music played on their iPods, view lists of recent records they've bought and hear what songs they recommend, while they can stream favourite tracks (or their own) and chat about them on the blog. The site breaks down the whole fan/musician barrier, but also succeeds in being a more accessible MySpace for people fanatical about new music. For the less obsessed, it's a nice place to leech new tunes.
Johnny Dee
419 Is A Joke: The fine art of scamming the scammers
Everyone has received an email from a person who claims to be a businessman in desperate need to transfer millions of dollars or maybe from an African lottery company who has selected you as a random winner (see urgentmessage.org for hundreds of examples). Most of us delete them immediately, but there are some poor souls out there who believe these advance fee frauds and end up losing money - this makes the increasingly popular sport of scam baiting acceptable. The idea is to reply to the emails from specially set up accounts and then turn the tables on the fraudsters by scamming them. At stringalongafraudster.bravehost.com this takes the form of having them correspond with an eccentric Englishman not dissimilar to Jimmy Savile, while scamorama.com includes bizarre correspondences that go on for years. Rather more hardcore is the trick pulled by Football 419 (storm.prohosting.com/f419), which turns the tables by promising email fraudsters a grant if they pledge their allegiance to Arse Clown Football Club (one brick-balancing trialist pictured). Meanwhile, the counter scamming 419 Eater (youtube.com/419eater) includes a prank where a scammer is persuaded he's a talented music producer and ends up performing the Village People's YMCA. You'd think he might have suspected something, seeing as the emails came from His Excellency George W Bush.
Johnny Dee
What we learned on the web this week
What Homer Simpson would be like as a real person
The story of Tiddles the giant cat who lived in the ladies' lav at Paddington Station
What happened when Justin TV took off his camera hat
10,000 reasons why civilisation is doomed
The art of avoiding an asshole boss
The seven stages of owning an iPod
Bodybuilders are rubbish at applying fake tan
The most ambitious prank in history
The best parts of most films are those with Steve Buscemi in them
The 10 greatest movie potheads feature Angelie Jolie's current mate
How to write - by the late, great Kurt Vonnegut
Big on MySpace: We Smoke Fags
URL myspace.com/thebelmontfantastics
Profile views 58691
Friends 7715
Random comment "you guys are purty amazing musiic makuurrs"
Billing themselves as "The future sound of London" and claiming they sound like "sex through the wall", this arch electro punk trio mix sordid lyrics with fearsome synth headbanging and, on Lust Puppet, sample the deep throated elderly perv who did the Denim For Men adverts in the 1980s. They also wear vests. No less frightening are their friends, who include hundreds of porn models and Right Said Fred. Allegedly they've run into difficulties with some Americans who think their name is homophobic. As if. Meanwhile, they've been discovered by Radio 1, are gigging with Soulwax and have launched a cunning side project entitled We Smoke Cigars.
Blog roll: Music news
Guardian
blogs.theguardian.com/music
Opinion, heated debate and unnecessary cruelty directed at Natasha Bedingfield.
DJ Martian
djmartian.blogspot.com
An all-seeing eye over the planet of sound and links galore.
Rock Snob
therocksnob.blogspot.com
Easily digestible news morsels with 33% extra Keith Allen's daughter.
Stereogum
stereogum.com
A pleasing mix of videos, MP3s and bands to watch.
idolator
idolator.com
Winning outbreak of sarky rock bulletins. Plus album leak news.
No Rock And Roll Fun
xrrf.blogspot.com
Hourly updates on the Girls Aloud split and other ongoing pop doom.
Music Thing
musicthing.blogspot.com
For lovers of actual musical instruments (like the Ztar guitars) rather than berks who play them in bands.
