I Surf, Therefore I LInk

Diversions, amusements and the like. Some take off of politics, but almost none are primarily political:

• The next President of the United States: 35 photos from the campaign. There's a whole essay to be written here about the iconography of power: Obama is mostly shown either alone or with a huge crowd in which individuals are barely distinguishable; most of the rest are with his family. There are a few of (essentially anonymous) supporters. The only campaign operative, I think, is shown from the back. There's no sense of the real nature of political power -- its complexities, the many people who influence it and create it and have it -- in these images. But since I don't have the energy, right now, to spell any of this out, I'll just say that there are a lot of very beautiful images there. (via)

• I sometimes think my unbounded admiration for Borges's stories and essays interfere with my paying due heed to the brilliance of his poetry. (Or maybe it simply doesn't translate as well? In this case it seems to, anyway.)

• An extraordinary video of probably the most famous excerpt of Harvey Milk's most famous speech: the visuals and music wonderfully complement his (very moving) word.

• Worth it for the opening panel alone.

• Famous paintings recreated using vegetables. Really well done, actually.

• A kick-ass Haiku. I'm totally serious: a kick-ass haiku.

• The onion continues its reign of reportorial brilliance.

• Characters from The Wire redawn in the style of The Simpsons.

• A fun video of Stand By Me. (via)

• Criticising the criticism of James Wood. (Interesting even if you are, as I am, only moderately familiar with his work.)

• Alone doesn't mean lonely.

These links have been piling up for a while, so in most cases I've forgotten where I saw 'em. My apologies for lack of back-linking.