I want a pet. A loyal, loving pet.
There’s a movie called Hachi: A Dog’s Tale based on an original Japanese film. It’s about a Akita Inu who waits for his master at his train station every day. Even after his master passed away. I cried like a baby. Go watch it. It’s based on the true story of a real dog.
Also, watch this, and cry like a baby:
Hambuster from Hambuster Team on Vimeo.
This is probably happening in Soviet Russia somewhere.
Watch it, it’s fun. Gets pretty gory, and its hilarious.
[via. theawesomer]
DC’s getting ready to release their behind-the-scenes production insider at the end of the month. It’s chocked full of creature designs, special effects processes, a shit-ton of storyboard and concept art—probably anyway, I’m just guessing that’s what I’m going to see when I get my hands on it. And I will, damn it.
I’m 90% sure the four of you reading this don’t give two shits about creature design, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Green Lantern, if nothing else, is a great example of the capabilities of the imagination in creating truly interesting creatures, or in this case, sentient beings.
What’s interesting is that they’ve gone both ways with interpretting the comic book characters for the screen. Some designs are strikingly similar to the comic book mythos, while others deviate greatly, and that’s where I assume much of the creative gets their hands dirty with figuring out ways to reinvigorate the goal in portraying these characters: truly make them look alien.
With Salaak (left) – the guy has four arms, so that’s already not very humanoid, but they still made his chest distinctly different from a human’s, unlike in with comic book artists who do take liberties with drawing these alien characters and basing much of them off human anatomy. But with Medphyll (right), who’s actually a sentient plant species, the creature designers wanted to play that up in the film, so giving him a much more recognizable plant look as their take on his appearance. Plus, they make the one-eye thing going on not look as dorky as it possibly could have.
More hi-res Flickr photos of the book here.
My main praise with what I’ve seen so far from the film, is the creature design that I’ve been exposed to. Frankly, I think its astounding, because you don’t normally get to see this kind of art and design in a comparative and relative manner. Usually, creature design comes directly from the imagination, but with Green Lantern, you have a before and after to look at, and to see what those artists have taken with them and what they’ve changed is like looking into a candy store for me.
[via io9.]
Hey if it’s not your thing, that’s okay. But you gotta admit, it’s a bit cool.
I’m gonna jump on the ‘I dont give a fuck if you don’t like what I post, this shit isn’t about you’ bandwagon. Should just get a Tumblr, really.
Let’s put Green Lantern, Portal, Guild Wars, video games, comic books and other things you have little interest in aside for a while. Change of pace. And by that I mean things I actually used to post that mattered to most people.
By that I mean a MUSIC POST, oh my what?!
The Kollection is a website. With music, oddly enough. A lot of music, actually. And guess what, you’ve probably never heard most of this music. Because most of this music is assembled, produced, scoured or sponsored by the people behind this website and posted for your listening pleasure, and they make sure most of it is special, unique, and creative. Mash-ups, remixes, mixtapes, collected albums, it’s all there for you to download.
Give it a click, and it’ll save me some explanatory effort. But what I can say if you’re too lazy is that most, if not all, of these mixes are very well done. I’ve listened to a few, and this site has some pretty stellar quality control. That whole correlation between artists that are unknown and their quality of music has some validity here. Rightly so, because some of these remixes are absolutely ridiculous. Some of these indie artists and great finds, and some of these mixtapes are tailor-made for your specific situations, moods, and troubles so you have a soundtrack to your life for a while.
It’s a damn civil service. So check it out. It’s your duty as a citizen. Of good music.
ALSO, recommendations. I feel like doing recommendations. You feel like being recommended music? Good. I love you, because you love music and being recommended some by me. I love music because I get to recomme—
ALRIGHT,
1) Starfucker – it’s electropop with an indie style; dream-poppy, raw vocals, some high, pulsing beats on most of their tracks. Their sound is chilled out but still energetic. You like melodic electro? Check ‘em out. Even if you like the glitch or dub sounds, these guys have some sonic references to those genres as well. Also, that band name. I mean, come on now. Reptilians is a good album to start.
2) Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats – Remember the Red Hot Chili Peppers (and how they ‘broke up’—fuck the doubters)? Well, they’re still here. They just took a break. Their drummer looks like Will Ferrell, and this side-project funk rock collective is his version of ‘taking a break’. Don’t let ‘funk rock’ deter you, some of their tracks off their debut Meet the Meatbats are pretty versatile in style and genre. Some sound post-rocky, some even grungy, but with Chad Smith banging those drums with that familiar RHCP rhythmic control, it’s still got groove and flavour. Dig funk rock? Dig rock? Dig 90’s? Dig into these guys. Also, there’s a theme going on with these band names. Guess what it is.
3) All India Radio – Jus chilllllllll. Describes them pretty well. This band’s been here for a while under the radar of mainstream and pumping out album after album of steady trip-hoppin’/ambient/electronica grooviness. The vocalist has that soothing, ethereal feel to it, combined with the atmospheric and interesting beats, it gets you into another place. Wonderful genre, wonderful band to represent it. Good for soundtracks, discovering one’s purpose in life, falling in love, and slow-motion. I lied about the theme, kind of. India’s pretty epic though. Lots of shit happening there. Echo Other is a good starter for this band’s rich and broad discography.
4) Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Fun as hell indie pop. If you dig Vampire Weekend, they have sort of the same vocal sound, and a arguably more epic band name. Crisp vocals and up-beat, clean instrumentation make for a pleasing ear-massage whenever you want them for one. Good cheer-up music too, especially their album Let It Sway. Nothing’s in-your-face. It’s laid-back rock pop, approachable, and enjoyable. Melds genre codes, but still gives you exactly what you want to expect from a band name like that.
5) Guitar – Well, this is just deceptive. It’s not a rock band. Not even a band, just a music producer with a very unique sound. It’s trip-hop at its core, maybe—an artist like this doesn’t bode well with categorization. It’s just what it is, and what it is down-tempo beats combined with guitars (accordingly) and other strings; even some cultural traditional instruments from Japan. Again, it’s chill music, but with a nice twist. The classical feel of the guitar against the trip hop/ambient beats provide a damn interesting sound to absorb in. Only album I have right now is Tokyo. Planning on getting to some more. It’s worth it, trust me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I know there’s no rap, no death metal, no jazz (full-on jazz at least), and no tribal music, but I do try to be broad with recommendations, buy its my first one so cut me some slack. If you want some more recommendations, The Needle Drop is where to go. I took a page from his book for the post he did today:
My album recommendations aren’t debuts, but still, check them out. I download my music illegally, because its cheap. But I don’t recommend doing that. If you have the money, and the motivation, buy on iTunes or go to a music store. Gives you hipster cred, and you get to support artists worth supporting. Downloading music is a shameful thing. But I’m a shameful person, so it works out.
I might be expanding on one of these artists, audaciously. If anything, there will be more of the good ol’ days of music posts. Been binging on chill music for the past week. Going to need a lot more. If you don’t already know why, you’ll have to keep checking in for the big reveal. That’s right, you’re gonna have to read more. But in the future, I might proofread, and write more concisely, but I sucked at English in first year, so maybe not.
Stay tuned, and happy listening.
Get stoked.
Slowpoke, I know, but I haven’t gotten to dig into Gambino’s lyrics, especially for this song, until now. Too many brown kids reciting all of his rhymes in a car slightly too well to not be an obsession. But, I hear ‘em now, loud and clear.
“I got some pussy that was insane / So insane, it’s an enemy of Bat-mayne”
There’s a lot of reasons why Black Spiderman/Troy/Gambino/Donald should be listened to, but for me, that one line was enough. It’s a sick line. You probably understand why.
This song is like pop cultural references + weird swag = new age black rapper. Or something. Fuck, I don’t know, I just dig the Joker reference.
Fuck yeah, Joker (well, to be accurate, almost all of Batman’s rogues gallery are legitimately insane in one way or another, hence Arkham Asylum, but you don’t really care so I’ll leave it at that). Sick beat too.
And dat dolly in. Nothing’s better than a smooth, slow sensuous camera movement on a rapper on crack jumping around spitting about how he digs voluptuous fangirls. Bam, I just made an application of my learned skills at school. How you like me now?
Also, Freaks & Geeks is classic 90’s television. Sick show, go watch it.
Here’s an optional aside for those of you interested.
Have you played the first Guild Wars? Then this 30 minute Gamescom demo footage will please your meagre little brains—by that I mean blow your minds.
Don’t know what Guild Wars is? Too bad, this is 30 minutes of LotR-esque, fantasygasm, magic-spewing, sword/gun/staff/relic/bow-wielding multi-race awesomeness filled with kick-ass armour, instanced gameplay, customized narrative, mech suits, and just about everything that you could possibly think of in something that’s awesome.
Original Guild Wars was addicting. This one will be unfathomably more destructive to my well-being if I get my hands on this dirty motherfucker of a game.
K, I’m done.
Sometimes, all you need are some booming orchestral voices and some bare gameplay clips to make something look absolutely epic.
Guild Wars 2 is an upcoming massively-multiplayer online role-playing game. Dragons, magic, swords, guns, and being able to play as a furry menacing gruff-looking lion dude, or a tiny, squeaky alien-looking elvin dude are all reasons I’m going to blow loads of money on this game. Also, it’s free to play monthly—eat a dick, Blizzard.
No release date. I sad. Going to have to wait for all the multi-profession PvP and event-based battle gameplay mechanics for not a whole while longer I hope. Must have my fantasy fix!
Even dressing like a superhero, and looking respectable!
There’s a an entire site dedicated to professional or unprofessional redesigns of superhero costumes made by comic book artists, fan artists, and I would assume a lot of people who are really awesome, because this site rocks so much.
I mean this post about superhero-inspired high-fashion for normal day attire rocks especially. I can picture those outfits being pulled off pretty damn well in reality--in fact I picture a lot of aweosmeness and then me high-fiving her. Cause she’d look awesome, and also be awesome.
Inspirations are: Raven, from the Teen Titans. Green Arrow, an archer with kick-ass facial hair. Black Canary, she fights well and screams loudly. Miss Martian, Martian Manhunter’s cousin or something.
Here, let’s play a matching game!
These are the favourites I picked out—yeah, I like women’s fashion, what’s good? There are plenty more at the link above. Next challenge is, if any of you girls are reading, pull these outfits off and find me on the street, and then have your high-fiving hand ready.
The blog is actually really damn cool if you’re into comic books. Check it out.
The post’s author has her own blog where she’s actually doing this for a shit-ton of superheroes, it’s actually insane. Look at this god damn list. For each of her design ideas she actually provides you with clothing suggestions and sometimes links to actual items that match closely to those designs. So half the work is done for you. No excuses people. Her blog’s Asterous Fashion.
Go. Be fashionable. Believe.
Video games are culture. What this guy is saying, to me, is all correct. At first, I was one of those people who were up in arms with Ebert’s statement that ‘video games are not art’ because, well, the notion of something being a work of art is a notion presented with merit, respect, and significance.
And a lot of people weren’t taking very kindly to the thought that video games did not contain some, if not all, of those aspects of something being a ‘work of art.’ So, really, I think the argument against stemmed from an entirely different basis than the ‘art’ thing, because we associate specific qualities to what makes a product a work of art, outside of simply using such a statement as a figure of speech. Though still, in that instant, those associations work too.
So the criticism against video games being works of art, rather than, say, having artistic qualities (which unless you are blind, or a complete fucking idiot, are obviously not true), is an incredibly flawed one on both sides.
I haven’t read the article, yes I’m too lazy, no I’m not trying to be smart here, I’m just talking out of my ass and you’re gonna like it. But I’m assuming, after watching Sessler’s commentary on it (he’s a host for a gaming review show on G4, channel 90 on Rogers Cable [fuck those bastards]), that Roger Ebert is not an avid gamer. Don’t think I can picture that either. But my biggest qualm is that I think he’s talking out of his ass when he says what he says. This was a while back, so I don’t know details and I passed on discussing this before, but really, I don’t think Ebert has any basis for what he’s saying.
Nor do I think what Adam Sessler is discussing about what pertains to ‘art’ as a whole in context with video games was the mindset Ebert had when saying those comments. I’m going to be cynical and say he’s with the rest of the bandwagon.
It’s a bandwagon of ignorant fucks.
These three games are by an indie game developer called Thegamecompany, a group of grads from an Interactive Media program in the States that have a very specific development philosophy when creating their projects: the decide what emotions they want to evoke through their games and into their players, and design the game accordingly. The result is art. I dare you to disagree.
What Sessler is saying about participant influence in whatever video games actually are, art or not, is an incredibly valid point. The notion of a work of art having to be presented to its audience in one form by the artist, and that experience needing to not be altered is also a valid point. Once the audience starts being a participant, does the notion of art within a project cease to be?
If you watched that first video, that’s probably one of the ‘philosophical issues’ that video games sparks debate for. And in Sessler’s view, that’s what makes video games so progressive, transgressive, and interesting as an entertainment medium.
The participant is the third piece needed to finish the artwork is what Sessler posits. In that sense, it is true. Does that necessarily mean, given this reality, that a video game, as a whole, in its package, isn’t art?
If everything that surmounts to creating the finished video game product requires incredible levels of skill and talent pertaining to all aspects of art, design and interactivity, does simply making this art more accessible, more personal, deny those elements the ability to assemble together and create a true artwork?
To me, video games, if they are to be considered ‘art’, connect with its audience at another level. Once again, it transgresses a lot of what’s considered art these days. Participants are experiencing the artistic elements in a game first-hand on several different levels. Sessler points this out in his video, visual design, AI design, character creation, environment creation, narrative structure, user interface. The participant interacts with the art, instead of just viewing the art.
The validity of that realization ferments my opinion in that video games are art. Traditional art? No. But I can’t deny the fact that so much of what’s put into a game relies upon every single principle artists of all kinds rely on, themselves, to create a visual, aural, or narrative piece of artwork from their imagination.
Google Team Fortress 2. Example of high stylization and a distinct focus on creating visual atmosphere, and awesomely hilarious narrative mood with their character design. Something like Braid or Limbo. Arthouse games. Yeah, that’s a genre. If you research countless indie games from indie developers, like the three mentioned above, all of them probably have clearer, more traditional artistic elements that may sway your opinion.
