Not Musical Monday: Heart - Barracuda

Musical Monday: Rhiannon Giddens - Louisiana Man

Now that's talent!

Not Musical Monday: Earl Scruggs and Friends - Foggy Mountain Breakdown

And yes, that is Steve Martin!

Comics writer/artist Cameron Stewart and writer Warren Ellis accused of sex misconduct

Not a stellar day in the world of comic books and fiction. Cameron Stewart stands accused by multiple women of misconduct of a sexual nature, including groom of one of his victims when she was a minor. Stewart was the co-writer of Batgirl several years ago when it relaunched with the return of Barbara Gordon as the superheroine. He's worked on other comics since then, including several with Grant Morrison.

From Comics Beat:

The first allegation came when artist Aviva Artzy revealed on Twitter that Stewart had groomed her when she was 16 years old and Stewart was in his early 30s.

Two other women, actress Natasha Negovanlis of Carmilla fame and comics writer Kate Leth, have also come out with accusations of improper behavior.

Sadly, Cameron Stewart isn't the only person in comics currently being accused of inappropriate behavior. According to Multiversity Comics, Warren Ellis is being accused by several women including writer Katie West and photographer Jayne Holmes of sexual coercion. Essentially, he attempted to manipulate them through both friendship and during vulnerable points in their lives in order to try and create a sexual relationship, only to discard them on a whim. Ellis has created several comics such as Transmetropolitan and Planetary. He also wrote the "extremis" story that Iron Man 3 was partially based on.

None of this acceptable, sexual misconduct of any kind ever is. Both Cameron Stewart and Warren Ellis need to take a step back, due some very deep and thorough soul search and reassess their behaviors and how it effects others. Failing that, they can both fuck right the hell off.

Middle of June...and I'm wearing pants and a jacket

I'm going to attribute this more to weather than climate change because there was a tropical storm down South recently that's the likely culprit.

Ain't weather fun?

If you like video games, books, and comics, then boy, has Humble Bundle got a deal for YOU

Humble Bundle is currently selling a delightfully large bundle to help raise money for several charities related to the current fight for racial justice in America. How large is this package? $1,200 worth of books, comics, and video games large. And the price? $30. You can donate less, but according to The Verge, you won't get any of the game keys unless you drop $30. I honestly can't imagine not donating that much considering both the monetary value of the bundle itself and the good feeling you'd get from helping to fight systemic racism in this country.

The list of games is pretty incredible too, ranging from BioShock Remastered, both System Shocks, Kerbal Space Program, Knights of Pen & Paper 2 (I'm sure Tim Knight from HeroPress just perked up), and Elite: Dangerous.

Well, this just seems petty and dangerous

I was reading an article on Vox last night about how a group of (now) six former eBay employees were arrested and charged for stalking and harassing a couple because they wrote critical things about the auction site in a newsletter.

No, seriously.

The “three-part harassment campaign,” as the DOJ described it, allegedly included sending the couple disturbing items including a pig mask, cockroaches, spiders, fly larvae, and a book about surviving the death of a spouse (both members of the couple were and remain alive). There was also allegedly an attempt to send a pig fetus, but the supplier apparently figured out that something strange was going on and didn’t fulfill the order.

Parts two and three of the alleged campaign included sending disturbing Twitter messages and listing the couple’s Natick, Massachusetts, home as a destination for swingers, and then going to their home to try to put a GPS tracking device on their car in August 2019. At this point, the couple became aware that they were being surveilled and called the police.

What in the actual fuck? All this because two people wrote articles that were critical of eBay (the newsletter covered several other online retailers as well)? What makes it all the more disturbing is how high ranking some of these people were. One was the head of the company's global resiliency department and another was senior director of safety and security. It also looks like it might have gone even further to the top because right around the time these people got caught, eBay fired their Chief Communications Officer.

It is somewhat surprising to me that eBay would be involved in this. They are, as far as internet companies go, fairly quiet. They don't make as big of a ruckus as say Amazon or Google. But I guess it just goes to show you that none of them can ever truly be trusted.

Expanding the ole blogroll

I'm looking to add more blogs to the sidebar, anybody got recommendations?

Musical Monday: Brandy & Monica - The Boy is Mine