"TCA, to paraphrase BAZ, do you realize you're doing a blog in visual format? And a boring one at that. Pick up the paper look at the headlines, Blah, Blah Howard Stern, Mel Gibson. Slap up a square"

Sometimes it's bloglike, sometimes it ain't. Sometimes it's boring, sometimes it ain't. For seemingly the thousandth time, I do not ''slap up'' squares. The result may be a failure, but I put a lot of time and effort into every square.

Howard Stern got fired because his boss at Clear Channel appeared before a Congressional committee that could eventually recommend imposing censorship on the internet. Yes, Gridcosm could be banned by the U.S. government. A victim of election season politics. I should have included a link to the EFF in the level 1759 poem. EFF: Homepage <www.eff.org>

Is that relevant enough for you? Mel Gibson made a movie that the Simon Weisenthal Center is worried about. Fartman, Gibson's movie. Two birds, one stone. Did you notice the connecting theme? Censorship, fascism. There, I said it. A clue for you, JER.

"Does pop culture really carry that much meaning for you? I mean a little bit of topical shit is alright on the grid, but I like coming here to escape all that dreck and to see the news of the day slapped in the middle of some emerging themes is really deflating."

You have the right to hide your head in the sand if you so desire, JER. Maybe you should form a mob and try to force the wizards of SITO to impose a ''no topical news photos'' rule. Or wait until Bush is re-elected. Use of news photos will probably be illegal because of copyright restrictions. Years in jail, huge fine. Complain to the FBI--they'll investigate.

OTOH, you could try to work around the topical stuff. Playfully undermine it or overwhelm it with graphic beauty. I like a mixture of line drawing and painting and digital weirdness and collage. An array of different styles. I like blendiness but not uniformity. Often I run a news photo through a bunch of filters to make it blend with a level.
 

"Now can you please explain the significance of every reference you've put up in the last few levels. I mean I'm sure there was a real burning need to put up the Late Night with David Letterman marquee next to my square on 1756 (Example #25235). Really ties the level together as a unified whole."

...gridcosm?level=1756 Your 1756-a2 looked like a warm pile of buffalo poop to me. Please forgive me for saying so. I thought the Letterman marquee was a clever way of blending your buffalo poop with b3.

I already explained the Letterman marquee--in the level 1758 poem, of all places. I said that the Letterman marquee and Know Your Current Events refer to ''RBR's topical gay marriage imagery.'' How ironic--I was referring to someone else's topicality, not my own.