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A short but lovely, STOP MOTION ROBOTIC APOCALYPSE TRAILER!
Just the thing to go with boiling coffee over a dessicated can of sterno. The street finds its own uses for things, after all.
From Andy Goralczyk via Twitch.
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Tonight we have an interesting twist on the classic “Mysterious portal causes people to develop superhuman abilities” riff.
Darker Than Black from Tensai Okamura. Ignore, for a moment, the somewhat common Disaster Strikes Tokyo and The Paranormal Is Unleashed On The World themes.
The really fascinating thing here is the premise that for each of these characters, at every instance where they exercise their abilities, a subsequent correlation must be made. Be it compulsion, obsession, neurotic tick, general lack of sociability, what have you. As a general rule I tend to skew towards the anti-hero scale as far as protagonists go, and by and large I’ve eschewed many of the more traditional Supers in favor of more offbeat fare. This, though, has caused me to rethink a few of those considerations. Certainly, you’ll find much here that is familiar, and possibly hackneyed, but I think the potential is there for something that works on a much deeper level if explored in full.
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Also known as Dumas’s timeless classic The Count of Monte Cristo. Re-imagined.
I have Cash to blame for this one, although blame is probably not the most appropriate term. More applicable would be “Damn you word monkey! Why have you not spoken of this earlier?!” Followed closely by the strident sound of coffee mugs colliding unceremoniously with glass desktops, and massive erupting plumes of cigar smoke.
That said, his taste thus far has yet to steer me wrong, and only the vagaries of decimal mathematics prevent a perfect score. To wit: tonight’s feature. One of the most singularly creative uses of the animated form I’ve seen in years, and one that simply Had to be featured, if only for it’s remarkable treatment of such historic subject matter.
(ed. If you get dizzy, it’s because you’re not looking at it properly. Shape up, or we’ll send the narwhals after you.)
(ed. They’re hungry. And also slightly belligerent.)
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“What to my wondering eyes should appear?”
Just a little perk for your Sunday morning.
A new video. Music by Massive Attack; directed by Edouard Salier. And absolutely wonderful.
No critique needed, just grab the headphones, and pump up your screen resolution.
Doesn’t that feel better?
Found via Popwhore
I know that I should be doing my homework…but I have been in a metal mood recently and can’t seem to get this music out of my head. So, to my much needed break from homework, I bring you this South-African post grunge/alternative metal band, Seether. This song is from their album, Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces.
effing enjoy, you dumacooches!
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All too often in the West, anime becomes one of those forms much maligned as unsophisticated, lacking in depth and perspicacity; and while I can understand much of where this misconception is derived from (and there are too many examples out there to pick on one or two specifically), there are some truly notable instances of deeply psychological anime (Perfect Blue comes to mind, which I will run happily if I can ever find a decent embed). And much like Cash’s Understanding Comics piece, I thought I’d share a couple of the more thoughtful anime I’d come across.
So tonight we’ll shift gears a bit, and actually take on a love story, Le Portrait de Petite Cossette. Well. Sort of.
With a bit of a Noir feel to it, the entire run is worth a look, even if only for the slow tormented progression of obsessiveness that overcomes the protagonists.
Read this travelogue from Guardian UK writer Douglas Rogers.
His experience is a perfect photograph of every experience I’ve had on an Amtrak train east of the Mississippi for the last two decades. Right down to the bomb scare (mine was simply a large battery underneath the train catching fire at 2 a.m. in the middle of The Badlands, but hey, it was the ’90’s and Fear wasn’t in vogue yet).
Look how HARD he has to rationalize his account. His train is stopped by a bomb scare – but it’s OK! It’s near a really quaint little town with a used bookshop! Really! It’s alllll part of the allure of train travel in America!
Also, keep track of the number of times Doug mentions booze. In fact, every time Doug mentions booze, take a drink because that’s how you keep face on an Amtrak trip: ANESTHETIZE!
Best part: Doug has to cut it short to FLY home because his wife goes into labor.
Oh, Doug.
Poor Doug rides trains like I ride trains: willing to take any level of bullshit because we are so enamored of old black and white pictures like this:
And it is not like that. At all. If you think you are treated like Second Class Citizens on this nation’s domestic air flights, you have never enjoyed being a third class citizen on Amtrak. I mean, they don’t even capitalize it, look!
Sad. Sad. Sad.
I WANT to love you, Amtrak.
[takes swig of teeny-tiny bottle of Amtrak merlot]
Why you got to make me hurt you like this?
[collapses into corner and begins sobbing]
@Nekogirl@Gestalt