GREAT MOMENTS IN PRACTICAL JOKES: THE PLAYBOY CLUB

Because it’s not Easter without bunnies.

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SPECIAL COMMENTARY: While I’ve made no secret of my love for retro cheesecake on this blog, I confess that I always found the Playboy Bunny concept more camp than sexy. And I also think that while Hugh Hefner may have a lot to advance sexual liberation in America, he usually did it in a way that ensured the sexist lifestyle of well-off single men remained firmly unchanged (or at least unthreatened).

That said, watching this footage, it occurs to me that Hefner might also have been an avant garde comedian of sorts.

Consider the commercial success and pop-culture phenomenon of the Playboy Club, the success of which hinged entirely on convincing as many women as possible to dress up like sexy rabbits.

Tell me that’s not one of the greatest mass practical jokes ever.

Hippity hop hop,

This is dF

IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU COME

And that’s all I got for Easter 2010. Must sleep now.

Blast off,

This is dF

KEATS AND YEATS ARE ON YR SIDE

The five-day HK weekend continues thanks to a combination of the Easter weekend and the Ching Ming Festival, both of which involve death but only one of which requires a trip to an actual cemetery.

Which is as good an excuse as any to post a Smiths song.

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We didn't go to the cemetery, though. As for what we have been doing for the last few days, let's just say yr going to be getting a bunch of movie reviews soon. Because God knows there's not enough of those on the Interwebz.

Don't plagiarize or take on loan,

This is dF

WHY I DON’T WANT AN IPAD

I confess that on both a professional and personal level I’m interested in the iPad primarily for its potential role as an e-book reader and the impact it might have on that market, which is mostly dominated by the Kindle and the Sony Reader Daily Edition.

Kindle has the Amazon ecosystem but that also means consumer-unfriendly DRM (not to mention the occasional price wars and surprise recalls). Sony is also keen on DRM – as was its music division at one point, and we saw how that went.

The iPad has the successful App Store and the new iBookstore on its side. Unfortunately, both have content policies designed to treat me like a six-year-old Mormon. The App Store has an arbitrary No Bikini policy, while the iBookstore is so tightly wound that it bleeps phrases like “sperm whale”.



Which is not only just stupid, but also insulting.

So honestly, at this stage I’m at a loss as to why I should give any of these people my money when I can buy dead-tree books without any of the inconveniences their products offer.

BONUS TRACK: One interesting side note is the argument over whether the iPad will be a good or bad thing for comics fans who want their comics in digital form (with Marvel already set to leverage the iPad platform).

Cory Doctorow says it’s terrible. Warren Ellis says it’s not. Personally I think Warren wins that argument, but then I don’t share Cory’s OTT hacker mentality that if you can’t disassemble it, you don’t own it.

No sale,

This is dF