We Recommend: Your Friday Freebies

Each Friday, our contributors send in a bunch of (legally) free stuff they’ve come across this week to help you waste your weekend. You’re welcome.

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Comics: Wild Horse Comic

Recommended by: Elizabeth Flux (”Treat Your Hoo Haa Like A Star’, And Other Things That Don’t Need To Happen‘)

If you’ve ever wanted to find out what would happen if a puckish horse and an insecure man decided to live together, then you might want to take a look at Wild Horse Comic. Following the day-to-day lives of Wild Horse and Man, you see the friends take on decimals, break-ups and V-neck shopping. It’s surreal, it’s funny, and it’s all done in biro.

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Documentary: Labor In Power 

Recommended by: Matt Banham

If you’ve been enjoying the recent Keating interviews and crave more chats with former Labor politicians, then check out Labor In Power, a documentary series that the ABC made in 1993 about the first 10 years of Labor under Hawke and Keating. The wounds are still very fresh following PK’s toppling of Hawke, and both men and other ’90s pollies are very frank about the events that lead up to Hawke’s downfall and what they think about it.

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Article: Alec Baldwin’s ‘last interview’

Recommended by: Nicholas Fonseca (‘Mid-Season Catch-Up: Has Success Spoiled ‘American Horror Story’?‘)

So back in 1991, Alec Baldwin gave an interview and swore it would be the last time he ever spoke to the press. HAHA, I know, right?! Anyway, it gets even better: he gave that interview — actually, a series of 11 chats — to Ryan Murphy, who would go on to create shows like Glee and American Horror Story. The article Murphy went on to write is vintage Hollywood dish, outlining Baldwin and then-wife Kim Basinger’s furious scrubs with Disney and the tabloids. But mostly, it’s a chronicle of Baldwin’s struggle with his own ego, which rages on. Sample quote: “Jeffrey Katzenberg is a short, bald, uppity, greedy megalomanic. I will never see him again. I believe God would protect me from that — just like I wouldn’t get AIDS.”

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Photo: Axle Whitehead’s Wikipedia profile pic

Recommended by: Alasdair Duncan (‘The Five Best Non-Jennifer Lawrence Parts Of Catching Fire‘)

Axle Whitehead hasn’t been around much since he got his balls out at the 2010 ARIAs (RIP, Axle Whitehead’s broadcasting career) and, don’t ask me why, but I was wondering what the hell he’s doing these days. It turns out he’s busy having the best Wikipedia profile image of all time:

Mr Whitehead, if you happen to see this, please text us and let us know if you’re okay.

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Cartoon: ‘Rick And Morty’, by Dan Harmon 

Recommended by: Andy Huang (‘Five Inspiring Bits Of Wisdom From TedXYouth‘)

Remember when Dan Harmon started making podcasts after he got kicked off Community (and before he was asked back again), the way people who get dumped start making make-up mix-tapes? Well, during this very creative time he also worked on a cartoon for Adult Swim called ‘Rick And Morty’. It’s about the sci-fi misadventures of alcoholic mad scientist Rick and his grandson Morty, and this is the first episode, ahead of its premiere on December 2.

12.20 is when it starts to get interesting: Rick and Morty are stuck on another planet, and there’s only one way they can get home. “These seeds aren’t going to be let in through [intergalactic] customs unless they’re in someone’s rectum, Morty.” Well, it looks promising.

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TV: ‘Tele Visions’

Recommended by: Rob Moran

For those of us raised on morning cartoons and whatever late-night inappropriate material we peeked at with lights low and parents in bed, next week is fairly significant: analog TV transmissions will be shutdown for good. Farewell, my only childhood friend!

‘Tele Visions‘ is a unique project put together by local artists to commemorate the moment and explore the medium’s cultural significance: a temporary TV channel that’s broadcasting a mixture of live events and screen-based artworks for 24 hours a day until December 3, when the plug’s officially pulled. Among the network’s listings are an address from columnist Doug Anderson; a film featuring cameos from local musicians The UV Race, The Twerps, Woollen Kits and Dick Diver; a live endurance piece from artists Kate Blackmore and Frances Barrett, who’ll be slumped on a couch and watching every episode of The Simpsons for 8 days straight; and riffs on familiar TV tropes like test patterns and late night adult commercials (you know, “Call me now!”).

If you happen to live in Sydney’s Inner West, you can tune into the station at 681.25 MHZ on your UHF band; for everyone else, there is the internet. Gather the family, and watch the death throes of TV as we’ve known it for 57 years. Nice knowing you, television.

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