Hey, Merlin! Look at this motherf**king griffin!
Wow, people. I know that NBC has been on a serious anglophilic kick in its programming over the last three years, and that Merlin is the first British series to air (in prime time!) on mainstream American network television in a couple of decades, and I hope that you all don't pillory me for saying this (because I've got Merlin fans on ye esteemed flist), but it's...just not that good, is it? Or does the series get better?
It's so antiseptically clean, and when the griffin (the best thing about this episode) showed up on Sunday night to harass everyone and then Jerkwads, Inc. -- that being Arthur, Lancelot, and Merlin -- ran around trying to kill it, I was sincerely hoping the griffin would just eviscerate everyone, prance around in victory, cure a few blind people to drive home the fact that Merlin and Arthur are, in fact, total assholes, and then fly off to Genoa where griffins are treated with proper and due respect.
Lancelot's hot and all (I love how they coated him in glycerin in, like, every scene so he looked like he was in a Manly Perma-Sweat™ and also made sure that his tunic was always strategically unlaced so we could see his manly chest hair), but when he made his final charge at the griffin and Merlin finally got it together enough to muster up a little magic to power up Lancelot's lance with some swirling blue fire, all I could think was "huh. That must be what Kate Spencer's staff looks like when she's out being Manhunter."
A little blue fire? That's it? He's MERLIN. He should be magicking up all kinds of showy effects. Explosions! Lasers! Plasma discharges! Entanglement spells! Whirlwinds! Energy constructs! Digital stylings à la Stephen Strange!
Next order of business, and this business was stolen from thehefner:
File under "F**ked, We Are So":
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
This We Are So F**ked one-image-post thing needs to go viral - and I'll be the first to take up the challenge tomorrow with a stinging rebuttal.
(If anyone knows the artist responsible for the above Aquaman and Cthulhu team up, please let me know so that I can give credit. That's the best thing I've seen since Geer's Everyone in Star Wars Gets Lantern Corps Rings visual mash up over on DeviantArt.)
Philosophical Question That I Have Yet to See Explored in Comics:
Do superpowered people make fanmixes for their own fights? No, seriously, WAIT. No matter your position on the Morality Index - superhero, supervillain, anti-hero, anti-anti-hero, Evil Overlord, Misunderstood Nationalist, Eco Warrior, Objectivist, Too Mercenary to Commit to Either Side, Nihilist Just In It For the Kicks, A-lister, D-lister - I can't help but think that some of these people get home after a long, hard day of back and forthing with Annihilus in the Negative Zone (and accidentally creating eleven new alternate time-lines in the process) and then sit down, turn on the news or surf over to YouTube to see who uploaded video of their throwdown with Klaw in Minneapolis, and proceed to compile soundtracks for that particular encounter while it's still fresh in their minds.
Or do they proactively compile a soundtrack for their next inevitable confrontation with Blastaar as a motivational tool? Does Johnny Storm keep Bad Company's "Mo' Fire" queued up on his iPod at all times just in case he has to burninate a bitch?
You know who would make soundtracks for their own fights? The Guardians of the Galaxy, that's who. (Except for Adam Warlock - Adam probably eschews that in favor of meditating to the music of the spheres.) But it is Marvel canon that Micromax listens to Primal Scream's XTMNTR before flinging himself into a fray against the X-Men.
Today's Indicator of Just How Long It Takes Me to Get Really Obvious Stuff: I just now, after reading the books for years, figured out one of the reasons that Jim Butcher probably chose "Dresden" as a last name for Harry. "FUEGO!" (If I need a wizard with the ability to firebomb a city into ash, I'll take Dresden, thanks.)
Other signs that I'm rocketing up the Does Not Succeed Meter: I tried (and partially failed) to watch a lot of Ghost in the Shell material again over the July 4th weekend. Naturally this involved watching GitS: Innocence again. Here I must pause, deeply reflect upon my moral and spiritual shortcomings, and set down in pixels a confirmation of my Ultimate Negligence: Somehow, and I consider this particular jewel of failure to be cryptogenic, I had forgotten how gorgeous the opening sequence was - I mean, of course, the sequence with Kenji Kawai's music and the beautiful animation and the minyoh singers. Perhaps it was due to domestic ecdemomania and a wanderlust fomented by a spontaneous desire to run to my makeup boxes and look at all my tins of expired Cargo eyeshadows during the opening credits. Perhaps it was due to an act of the Divine Construct for reasons that have not yet revealed themselves. Perhaps it is one of my Twelve Labors to be cursed with the opposite of foresight that I'm about to view some major win.
Anyway, I'd forgotten, and so here it is - and 'tis amazing.
Ghost in the Shell: Innocence
No, it's not the ethereal cosmic beauty of Yoko Kanna and Origa's work for the television series, but Kawai's music is perfectly suited for the darker tone of the film. (Although it's an obvious given that anything to do with the Ghost in the Shell franchise is going to have music that makes you run out and buy the soundtrack.)
My favorite recent post from metaquotes:
Also, I got to watch the most hilarious small-child Educational Film ever. I forget precisely what it was called, but the basic message of the film was LOOK AT THIS FUCKING FIRE TRUCK. The narrator put on this hilarious gruff voice and would say things like “This isn’t some kids’ game! These firefighters are on a team, but they don’t play on a field! I’d like to see you climb this ten-story ladder, kid!”** It was like watching a cleaned-up badass macro. (“Jesus you know this fire truck will save the fuck out of some shit! And don’t think you can go where the ladder can’t fucking reach you, cuz bitches will inflate a raft like a fucking schoolbus to catch you jesus goddamn.”)
padparadscha wins.
And now music! I was sifting through my music files the other night and have decided to share with you one of this instances where the cover of a song is as good as the original.
The track in question is "Lead Asbestos." It was originally recorded by World Domination Enterprises (and WDE were one of the things that proves that not all music in the late eighties sucked - they were critically acclaimed, put out a few great songs, and then promptly sank without a trace). Years ago I actually found a copy of the 12" containing this track (I think I found it at Amoeba or Rasputin's) and snapped it up.
So, here's the stripped down minimalist British aggro of the original:
World Domination Enterprises: "Lead Asbestos"
Some years later, when Meat Beat Manifesto put out the epic "Subliminal Sandwich" release, they covered this track.
And they did it really, really well:
I remember being very impressed when NME gave "Subliminal Sandwich" a rating of 9 - but then, that was back when NME was still a readable publication.
Since the sound quality on the MBM clip isn't so great, here, take this, crank up your speakers, and give it a listen.
In paleontology news, BBC is reporting that a remarkably well-preserved fossil of a hadrosaur was found in North Dakota, and the best part? Part of the fossil shows the hadrosaur's SKIN:
Incredible. That's a meter-long piece of skin, by the way, so behold the size of the scales.
I think I better end this entry by noting that yesterday I ate some dried pears. I haven't eaten dried fruit in years, and let me tell you, flist, now I remember WHY. I haven't felt this sick since I was struck down by a contaminated salad from Cafe Intermezzo and spent forty-eight hours shivering in agony on the bathroom floor.
Ugh.
It's so antiseptically clean, and when the griffin (the best thing about this episode) showed up on Sunday night to harass everyone and then Jerkwads, Inc. -- that being Arthur, Lancelot, and Merlin -- ran around trying to kill it, I was sincerely hoping the griffin would just eviscerate everyone, prance around in victory, cure a few blind people to drive home the fact that Merlin and Arthur are, in fact, total assholes, and then fly off to Genoa where griffins are treated with proper and due respect.
Lancelot's hot and all (I love how they coated him in glycerin in, like, every scene so he looked like he was in a Manly Perma-Sweat™ and also made sure that his tunic was always strategically unlaced so we could see his manly chest hair), but when he made his final charge at the griffin and Merlin finally got it together enough to muster up a little magic to power up Lancelot's lance with some swirling blue fire, all I could think was "huh. That must be what Kate Spencer's staff looks like when she's out being Manhunter."
A little blue fire? That's it? He's MERLIN. He should be magicking up all kinds of showy effects. Explosions! Lasers! Plasma discharges! Entanglement spells! Whirlwinds! Energy constructs! Digital stylings à la Stephen Strange!
Next order of business, and this business was stolen from thehefner:
File under "F**ked, We Are So":
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
This We Are So F**ked one-image-post thing needs to go viral - and I'll be the first to take up the challenge tomorrow with a stinging rebuttal.
(If anyone knows the artist responsible for the above Aquaman and Cthulhu team up, please let me know so that I can give credit. That's the best thing I've seen since Geer's Everyone in Star Wars Gets Lantern Corps Rings visual mash up over on DeviantArt.)
Philosophical Question That I Have Yet to See Explored in Comics:
Do superpowered people make fanmixes for their own fights? No, seriously, WAIT. No matter your position on the Morality Index - superhero, supervillain, anti-hero, anti-anti-hero, Evil Overlord, Misunderstood Nationalist, Eco Warrior, Objectivist, Too Mercenary to Commit to Either Side, Nihilist Just In It For the Kicks, A-lister, D-lister - I can't help but think that some of these people get home after a long, hard day of back and forthing with Annihilus in the Negative Zone (and accidentally creating eleven new alternate time-lines in the process) and then sit down, turn on the news or surf over to YouTube to see who uploaded video of their throwdown with Klaw in Minneapolis, and proceed to compile soundtracks for that particular encounter while it's still fresh in their minds.
Or do they proactively compile a soundtrack for their next inevitable confrontation with Blastaar as a motivational tool? Does Johnny Storm keep Bad Company's "Mo' Fire" queued up on his iPod at all times just in case he has to burninate a bitch?
You know who would make soundtracks for their own fights? The Guardians of the Galaxy, that's who. (Except for Adam Warlock - Adam probably eschews that in favor of meditating to the music of the spheres.) But it is Marvel canon that Micromax listens to Primal Scream's XTMNTR before flinging himself into a fray against the X-Men.
Today's Indicator of Just How Long It Takes Me to Get Really Obvious Stuff: I just now, after reading the books for years, figured out one of the reasons that Jim Butcher probably chose "Dresden" as a last name for Harry. "FUEGO!" (If I need a wizard with the ability to firebomb a city into ash, I'll take Dresden, thanks.)
Other signs that I'm rocketing up the Does Not Succeed Meter: I tried (and partially failed) to watch a lot of Ghost in the Shell material again over the July 4th weekend. Naturally this involved watching GitS: Innocence again. Here I must pause, deeply reflect upon my moral and spiritual shortcomings, and set down in pixels a confirmation of my Ultimate Negligence: Somehow, and I consider this particular jewel of failure to be cryptogenic, I had forgotten how gorgeous the opening sequence was - I mean, of course, the sequence with Kenji Kawai's music and the beautiful animation and the minyoh singers. Perhaps it was due to domestic ecdemomania and a wanderlust fomented by a spontaneous desire to run to my makeup boxes and look at all my tins of expired Cargo eyeshadows during the opening credits. Perhaps it was due to an act of the Divine Construct for reasons that have not yet revealed themselves. Perhaps it is one of my Twelve Labors to be cursed with the opposite of foresight that I'm about to view some major win.
Anyway, I'd forgotten, and so here it is - and 'tis amazing.
Ghost in the Shell: Innocence
Click to viewNo, it's not the ethereal cosmic beauty of Yoko Kanna and Origa's work for the television series, but Kawai's music is perfectly suited for the darker tone of the film. (Although it's an obvious given that anything to do with the Ghost in the Shell franchise is going to have music that makes you run out and buy the soundtrack.)
My favorite recent post from metaquotes:
Also, I got to watch the most hilarious small-child Educational Film ever. I forget precisely what it was called, but the basic message of the film was LOOK AT THIS FUCKING FIRE TRUCK. The narrator put on this hilarious gruff voice and would say things like “This isn’t some kids’ game! These firefighters are on a team, but they don’t play on a field! I’d like to see you climb this ten-story ladder, kid!”** It was like watching a cleaned-up badass macro. (“Jesus you know this fire truck will save the fuck out of some shit! And don’t think you can go where the ladder can’t fucking reach you, cuz bitches will inflate a raft like a fucking schoolbus to catch you jesus goddamn.”)
padparadscha wins.
And now music! I was sifting through my music files the other night and have decided to share with you one of this instances where the cover of a song is as good as the original.
The track in question is "Lead Asbestos." It was originally recorded by World Domination Enterprises (and WDE were one of the things that proves that not all music in the late eighties sucked - they were critically acclaimed, put out a few great songs, and then promptly sank without a trace). Years ago I actually found a copy of the 12" containing this track (I think I found it at Amoeba or Rasputin's) and snapped it up.
So, here's the stripped down minimalist British aggro of the original:
World Domination Enterprises: "Lead Asbestos"
Some years later, when Meat Beat Manifesto put out the epic "Subliminal Sandwich" release, they covered this track.
And they did it really, really well:
I remember being very impressed when NME gave "Subliminal Sandwich" a rating of 9 - but then, that was back when NME was still a readable publication.
Since the sound quality on the MBM clip isn't so great, here, take this, crank up your speakers, and give it a listen.
In paleontology news, BBC is reporting that a remarkably well-preserved fossil of a hadrosaur was found in North Dakota, and the best part? Part of the fossil shows the hadrosaur's SKIN:
Incredible. That's a meter-long piece of skin, by the way, so behold the size of the scales.
I think I better end this entry by noting that yesterday I ate some dried pears. I haven't eaten dried fruit in years, and let me tell you, flist, now I remember WHY. I haven't felt this sick since I was struck down by a contaminated salad from Cafe Intermezzo and spent forty-eight hours shivering in agony on the bathroom floor.
Ugh.