Happy Stuff Your Face ‘Til You Can’t Feel Feelings Day, everybody.From one of my faves, Grindhouse, I give you… Thanksgving.
I’m still catching up on all the links I’ve been saving up on. First up, lemme hit up these scientific ones first:
Swedish and Italian scientists have created the first robotic hand to give amputees a sense of touch. My favorite part of the pic in this is that the Ghandi on his tank top almost looks like he’s say “OMFGWTF IS THAT!!?”
Some of the oldest artifacts have been found in Oregon in Paisley Caves. Although there is still some weirdness about the DNA testing, the radiocarbon testing has put the artifacts to a time before the Clovis culture of 12,900 to 12,400 years ago. I wanted to use this Nature link, but they decided to make you pay for it, so I found this article instead.
And to cap it off, the remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands according to Herodotus in 525 B.C. in western Egypt might have finally been found.
I am a huge fan of alternate histories, whether massive or minuscule in its scope. Most people turn to Harry Turtledove, and with good reason, but other people have done interesting takes with the concept. Take Stephen Baxter’s short story The Twelfth Album.
The story starts with two dock workers stumbling onto a mysterious black album with the word God written on the lower left hand corner. In it was a shocker: An album by the Beatles from an universe where they made one more album after Abbey Road. The songs in the album are (in our universe) ones from their solo albums, so some of the titles sound familiar, but the way they were arranged are definitely something different. Take into account the last track on this incredibly peculiar album, in Baxter’s words ( thanks to user Necanthrope from everything2):
This would be the the ultimate track–the twelfth track on the twelfth album.
The last new Beatles song we would ever hear.
Because, of course, by now we both believed.
It was recognizable from the first, faded-in, descending piano chords. But then the vocals opened–and it was Lennon.
“It’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed,’”, I said, awed. “Mcartney’s greatest post-Beatles song–”
“Just listen to it,” said Lightoller. “He gave it to Lennon. Listen to it.”
It didn’t sound like the version from our world, which {McCartney], battered and bruised from the breakup, recorded in his kitchen.
Lennon’s raw, majestic voice wrenched at the melody, while McCartney’s melodic bass, Starr’s powerful drumming, and Harrison’s wailing guitar drove through the song’s complex, compulsive chromatic structure. And then a long coda opened up, underpinned by clean, thrusting bass, obviously scored by George Martin.
At last the coda wound down to a final, almost whispered lament by Lennon, a final descending chord sequence, a last trickle of piano notes, as if the song itself couldn’t bear to finish.
The stylus hissed briefly, reached for the run-off groove, and lifted.
That is pretty powerful, at least to me, growing up watching the Anthology documentary and knowing all the turmoil the band was going to at that point in history. As it stands, some people aren’t fans of the story, but opinions are like..well, you know. I want to get my hands on the story myself to get the whole deal. Oddly enough, people have taken this idea and run with it. This guy here might have taken it a little too far, but I do want to see if he gets a cease and desist from EMI. Hey, it happened to Danger Mouse, right?
As a side note, I wonder if Kieron Gillen has ever wondered about tackling the Beatles for his Phonogram stuff, but that’s another thing altogether.
With this next list of top fives, I thought I’d finish up the ones I started on Halloween. This time, I’m going with the good guys:
Top Five Video Game Heroes:
Mario – This one goes without saying, really. He is the goddamned Nintendo franchise, despite the overtly racist undertones.
Solid Snake – Whether in his Michael Biehn pose or voiced by David Hayter, you have to admit, he’s the most badass cloned espionage agent to tackle nuclear mecha.
Crono - Square loves its aloof protagonist, so much so that they made their best one completely silent. It doesn’t help that he was drawn by Akira Toriyama as well.
Simon Belmont – The whip wielding vampire hunter that started it all. Honestly, I’d love to be a fly on the wall for the design meeting that thought up of a whip.
Samus Aran – Like many enterprises, masked space bounty hunting is one predominantly made up of men. It’s nice to know that one of the most most feared and best of them is an Amazonian chick that rolls up in a freaking ball.
Honorable Mentions: Link, Mega Man (X version as well), Sam and Max, Cloud Strife, Jill Valentine, Agent 47, JC Denton, Gabe Logan, Raziel, Leon Kennedy, Sonic the Hedgehog
Top Five Book Heroes
Paul Atreides – (I don’t know why the ‘84 movie image took precedent over the miniseries one on Wikipedia, but I digress.) Muad’Dib is one of the most interesting takes on a precognitive superbeing ever made. At least when Frank Herbert was writing him, he was nuanced and conflicted with the information of having generations of information within his mind.
Hiro Protagonist -With a name that sounds like it came straight out of fanfic, Neal Stephenson somehow created a badass biracial techno samurai pizza delivery man…that worked. I can’t even believe I typed out that sentence.
Beowulf - I wanted to put Gilgamesh instead, but seeing that apparently there are historical records of that guy existing, the Grendel killing King of Geats gets the spot instead.
Don Quixote – Seeing that the story he is in is considered by many one of the first novels written, it’s only fair that he gets in as well. Oh yeah, also that he was crazy delusional and wanted to go to toe to toe with friggin windmills. The story itself is really sad though.
Odysseus – This crafty bastard thought up the Trojan Horse, and then had the huevos to get back to Ithaca after a ten year Gilligan’s Island trip on crack with a lil Poseidon hatred mixed in. All in all, he’s a hard guy.
Honorable Mentions: Jean Valjean, James Bond, Atticus Finch, Hester Prynne, Harry Potter, Sam Spade
Top Five Comic Book Heroes
Batman – I’ll let Frank Miller do the talking on this one, for the laughs:
Spider-Man – He’s Marvel’s flagship character, and despite Quesada screwing him up lately with all this retconing , At his core he is still the everyman guy who is trying to do right with the powers given to him.
Dream – Neil Gaiman turned the whole Sandman idea on its head with Dream and made him into the melancholic ruler getting his kingdom in place while dealing with what is probably the most dangerous and dysfunctional family ever.
Spider Jerusalem – Oh Spider. Part Edward R Murrow, part Hunter S Thompson, shake well with source gas, heroin, and a bowel disruptor, and you have one of the coolest political/sci-fi heroes ever made.
Yorick - Brian K. Vaughn’s last man on earth is an escape artist with a cool monkey pet. That’s basically win right there.
Honorable Mentions: Superman, Cable, Wolverine, Green Lantern, The Flash, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Professor X, Invincible, Hellboy, Marvelman, Captain America
Top Five Film Heroes
John McClane – No matter what terrorist, what venue, what heist, he is your man. I will give Bruce Willis a pass for anything by virtue of this character.
Han Solo – Awesome job? Check. Sweet ride? Check. Awesome co-pilot? RRRRAWWWWR! (Check). Hell, His pals went to a dangerous slug mobster’s lair to get him out of frozen metal slab, that’s how awesome he is. Any man that can be cooler than men with friggin’ lightsabers is a hero in my book.
The Man With No Name – Also known as the only reason you know Clint Eastwood besides Dirty Harry. Most people prefer the .357 Magnum variety, but I prefer the poncho wearer. Why? Because he’s basically Toshiro Mifune with a six shooter, and that’s awesome.
James Bond – With the exception of George Lazenby, the on-screen depictions of James Bond have been either iconic (for Connery and Moore) or at least good (Dalton, Brosnan, and Craig). Also, I didn’t forget that both David Niven and Peter Sellers played him in the original Casino Royale, so that lends even more to this.
Sam Spade – Besides Rick Blaine, this is Bogey’s most recognizable character. This is THE hard-boiled private dick, and he slaps dames and takes no guff from seedy criminal types in The Maltese Falcon.
Honorable Mentions: Mad Max, Rocky Balboa, Indiana Jones, Captain Jack Sparrow, Marty McFly, Buckaroo Banzai, (Mr.) Virgil Tibbs
I just got this a minute ago. This is, without fail, one of the best movie mashups I have seen in my life. I give to you…Reservoir Turtles:
It’s been a while since I’ve put up some artwork. I’m gonna have to change that.
First off, I gotta go with the funny, courtesy of Baxter King’s Creepy:
Now onto cooler stuff. from Cgunit, I have some work from Contraonmes:
Also, check out these cool Marvel-inspired portraits from Jean Baptiste Vendamme:
To top it off, I’m going to leave this nice little group of amazing 3D portraits.
Alright, none of the following links have anything to do with Guy Fawkes or his Gunpowder Plot, I just wanted to mention it so I can say: read, don’t watch, read V For Vendetta today.
That being said, here are your links:
Over at Prospect Magazine, Peter Jukes writes on why the British TV industry can’t make the same caliber dramas as the US. It is aptly titled, Why Britain can’t do The Wire. To summarize it in one line from the article, it would be this one:
“The writer is God.”
I found this cool website Abduzeedo a couple of days ago. A couple of days ago they posted this amazing Marvel Super Hero and Villain Alphabet, made by Ankles.
These are all over the internet, but here’s an amusing collection of character alignment motivational posters, courtesy of Topless Robot . I’m loving the Chirgurh one.
From BoingBoing, Maggie Koerth-Baker wrote this pretty interesting article on nuclear accidents and their effect on the superhero genre. The fact that she talked to actual safety professionals and a retired physicist definitely makes for not just your average pop culture article.
For all my Dexter fans and culinary geeks, I present to you: blood slide suckers.
And to cap it all off, I’m putting down an oldie but goldie, Andrew WK’s McLauchin Groove.
Try not to blow Parliament up tonight.
The next following entries are going to be album review related. I’ve been meaning to hit these albums up for a while, and with a couple of interesting releases in the last month or so, there’s enough to write about. To start, here is my review of Kid Cudi’s Man On The Moon: The End Of Day.
- I wasn’t expect that languid an opening. The space beats are interesting, but Cudi doesn’t bring anything to the table with his vocals.
- Pretty by the books beats by Emile and pretty decent lyrics from Cudi.
- The OMD sample is an inspired choice. Plain Pat does a great job on the beats and Cudi sounds like he’s picking up steam on this one…
- …And he goes back to the boring space opera-style compositions. I get enough of this from Muse already.
- Again, these space-age beats and lyrics need to be more bombastic if they are gonna illicit any response from me. Next!
- Sounds like an old emo poem put to a sci-fi B-movie score. Next.
- Ah, the single. Still a fan of this song, but the fact that I’m halfway through and only one song has gotten me make this song seem like a fluke in comparison.
- And the verdict on the Yeezy beat is… it’s ok. Cudi is boring on it though.
- Wow, this one is bad. No one asked for Space Love Boat, Cudi. No one.
- The Ratatat Sound (TM) is definitely a welcome change on this album. They needed this level of excitement of this song on a lot of the other songs.
- This is actually a plus for Cudi as his lyrics and flow are at the forefront in this one.
- Ah, the other single. This is a definite banger, and I’m definitely feeling the Common cameo above all.
- The Ratatat/MGMT combo is really cool. I would go so far as to say that this is a good route for other MCs to take, going to the electronic/indie set. Cudi, go talk to Four Tet next time.
- Nice slow jam with good little funk feel to it.
- Decent feel-good anthem. With the rock-inspired beats, it definitely puts Cudi on the list of top five MCs to front an all-black supergroup (but that’s for another entry).
The rest of the songs are on the Deluxe version. normally I wouldn’t add them but as I am this deep in, I might as well give it a listen.
- The beat is great, and Cudi actually spits rather well on this one.
- He should have made more songs in this vein than the boring space opera ones. These beats fit the introspective feel that his lyrics clearly have.
- Cudi and Wale on a great Emile beat = sick. This should have been on the album proper, not relegated to a B-side.
Overall, I don’t want to say that Cudi needed more chart-friendly hits, but if you’re going to be this ambitious, at least try to keep it to your second or third album. This seems too bloated and off to be a debut for him. I know he’s had the mixtape scene to hype him up, but it feels like he’s let the hype get to him and made him jump the gun on what makes a coherent record. There are definitely good songs on the album (# 3, 7, 13, 14, and 15 ), and they should have put the three songs on the deluxe edition instead of some of the boring /bad songs, especially # 9. It is great that there is someone taking the limits of hip-hop and breaking through them, but I hope he takes it down a notch in the next one.
Well, thanks to a friend, I have recovered some of my old Top Fives from college. I’ve decided to put them up in segments, and being that today is Halloween and all, I figure I start with all the ones that have to do with…Evil. Without further ado:
Top Five Video Game Villains:
SHODAN
Liquid Snake
Sephiroth
Albert Wesker
Sara Kerrigan
Honorable Mentions: Nemesis, GLaDOS, Kain, Jon Irenicus, Dracula (Castlevania)
Top Five Evil Groups (Books):
Nazgûl
Brotherhood of Evil Mutants
The Four
Project Mayhem
House Harkonnen
Honorable Mentions: Mina’s Army, Death Eaters
Top Five Evil Groups (Video Games)
Umbrella
Mavericks
Space Pirates
FOXHOUND
Shinra Corporation
Honorable Mentions: The Aesir Corporation, Majestic 12, The Combine
Top Five Evil Groups (Movies)
Ministry of Information
Spectre
Borg
The Corleone Family
Sith
Honorable Mentions: Weyland-Yutani, Zorg, Foot Clan, Project Mayhem
I’ll add on to this list in the upcoming one. In the meantime, Happy Halloween, everyone.
I’m grabbing some of the stuff of my private entries and putting them up here just so I can see them better without having to log on.
First up: augmented reality. There’s a lot of hype about this type of tech, and this link to a TED video showing how it can be used with computing makes it very appealing.
Next: on the list of interesting figures, Hedy Lamarr is one of them. Look her up.
Finally, I need to look up more on these two words:arcology and cybersectarianism
