Friday link-a-dink-dink

I'm unfortunately going to have to hold off and double up next week on the satellite radio challenge to the dismay of maybe three people, but there's some stuff I want to link before I depart for a weekend of debauchery with people I haven't talked to since college graduation (or, more likely, paintball and naps, because I'm not feeling so hot. Let them get go in for the bacchanalia, I say.) But, if you want to see what XM has to offer in the way of country music, check Chris Brown out.

• Over at Pop Matters, Ben Rubenstein drops some hip hop knowledge. Really worth checking out, even if you aren't a hip hop head.

• David Welsh takes the "idea store" concept, and runs with it. Don't listen to his title--his ideas show promise. Also, if anyone else is throwing ideas out there, I'll link them, too, before the Wal*Mart of idea stores pushes everyone out. Or something.

• Bill Baker talks to my man Rich Watson about his Glyph newsletter:

BB: Now I know that Glyph's intended for a mutli-ethnic audience, which leads me to wonder how it might ideally serve those different audience members it reaches...and how the same text can serve all these different needs simultaneously?

RW: Well, first of all I feel I should point out that my mailing list does include black and white people. Everyone chose to subscribe to The Glyph, I believe, because they sense that comics in general needs to be more inclusive and less insular if it is to survive, and to do that, we need to pay some attention to the things being said on other sides. I focus on black comics and creators, but I try not to go overboard with the Afrocentricity if it's not required. For instance, when I interviewed Firestorm artist Jamal Igle, we talked about the issues pertaining directly to the book itself; I didn't ask him questions like "How do you deal with being a black man in a white man's industry" or anything like that because in this particular case, it wasn't necessary. Nothing in Jamal's body of work, past or present, suggests a particular bent towards Afrocentricity. If I were to interview someone like, for instance, Lance Tooks, whose work is very Afrocentric, that would be different. My point is that I try to present the creators I write about as creators who happen to be black, not as black creators - the difference being that their ethnicity does not and should not define them. I believe that would do these men and women a disservice and I won't do that

And if you still haven't signed up for Glyph yet, you can do so by e-mailing Rich with "Glyph" in the heading. I think he's still looking for contributors as well.

• Kevin Church has a great review of Teenagers From Mars that makes me want to reread it.

• Jason Richards talks about the quirky stuff of superhero comics that appeals to him. Jason, please try The Comics Journal again--they're no longer pretending superhero comics don't exist (also, there's still time to win a free copy from Shawn Hoke--the contest update is right past his reviews of Project: Superior and other stuff--so you can maybe do it without parting with money). And I, too, dig Taskmaster. Even the Udon-crafted mini.

Don't judge me.

• Good new blogger Sean Maher is getting on the contest tip, giving away a copy of 1000 Steps to World Domination, a book I haven't read yet but many of my crew seem to like, so I'll be entering. Yay for an excuse to write poetry.

• EDIT: Tradewhore also has a contest of note, giving away some 100% stuff. This one is meant for Kevin Church:

That's right, the only way to enter this contest is to create a music mix based on relationships. The good, bad, ugly, sexy, joyful, regretful, distrust... any or all of it. Create a mix of break-up songs, or spring flings, I don't care. You just have to create a mix based on relationships in general. You can choose any genre of music you want: Pop, R&B, Rock, Easy Listening, Trance, Rap, Jazz, Adult Contemporary, and so forth.