Coupla fun things...
The Biology of B-Movie Monsters
http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/21701757/
I love weird creatures in my fantasy and science fiction, but it's also fun figuring out whether they would actually work. Granted, most of the B-movies mentioned are fun just because they're so implausible. Was E.T. really a B-movie, though? It got nominated for several Academy awards, didn't it? I'd think it a little too warm and fuzzy to fit the category - unless the criteria is merely having a strange creature in it.
Very fun video! Wizard Needs Food Badly!
(or iTunes podcast, Channel Frederator, ep. 36)
The video is the second one in the podcast, starts at minute 7:50, (after Dan Danger, which may look familiar to anyone who's seen Fairly OddParents, same animator).
I've had this damn thing on my 'pod since late June and hadn't gotten around to watching it. The animation is done by the same people who do the Esurance commercials, which have always reminded me of Samurai Jack. Nice surprise - I especially like the song; the lyrics could be talking about a few guys (and not a few gals) we've all known like that (it could also have described my mother and I), and the video's brother/sister rivalry reminds me a little of my own. My kids have asked to see it so much, I'm in danger of getting tired of it; and I keep hearing Angus going around singing the chorus. ^_^ The title is a reference to the 80's arcade game Gauntlet, which I remember playing quite a bit back in the day, although I never got very far in it.
(game voice: Wizard...needs food... badly!)
I know that you're probably mad at me.
I've come to expect that.
You know that you'll never have all of me,
you've come to resent that.
You say "tomato", I say "video games",
you're acting so solemn.
You'll take the precious remote control from me.
Do I sound like Gollum?
(It's) not that I'm escaping,
you charm me like the flame does moths,
it's just that you'd prefer me docile,
like a narcoleptic sloth.
The wizard needs food badly,
the Voltron can't be incomplete.
The things I love, you hate so madly,
I must not go down in defeat.
In the hunter-gatherer societies,
I'd bring home the bacon.
Public thought says men should try and be tame,
stirred but not shaken.
I say "baseball" then you start to cry,
I'm sorry I grieve you.
I think a motorcycle's a good way to die,
this must bereave you.
I know that you try so hard,
and I'm not saying it's a sin,
it's just that they don't feel my pain,
in Vogue or Cosmopolitan.
And I'm sure you have your reasons,
but listen to me please...
I want the G.I. Joe with the Kung-Fu action grip.
I want Nintendo with the extra-graphics-microchip.
Tackle football with rocks,
and sticks, and knives, and pain...
I want a truck with the four wheel drive train.
You'd rather see me get good at bookkeepping,
I could clean house in the time that I'm not sleeping.
I live to serve you, and I don't want to be rude,
but you should see that the wizard needs food.
(game voice: Wizard...is about to die...)
I found out since that the band, Five Iron Frenzy, is (or rather was - they've retired as a band) a Christian band, although it sounds like not all of their music is overtly such - it's not even mentioned much on their website, and the above song certainly isn't. This gave me pause for a moment, but if I enjoy Johnny Cash's The Man Comes Around, the occasional bit of gospel music, Gregorian chants, and the sometime bits of religious imagery that show up in Neil Finn's music, plus whatever other music in the world that may be influenced by whatever culture/religion it has as a background, a little ska by such a band should be ok. And true to form, another band I discover after they're defunct...
http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/21701757/
I love weird creatures in my fantasy and science fiction, but it's also fun figuring out whether they would actually work. Granted, most of the B-movies mentioned are fun just because they're so implausible. Was E.T. really a B-movie, though? It got nominated for several Academy awards, didn't it? I'd think it a little too warm and fuzzy to fit the category - unless the criteria is merely having a strange creature in it.
Very fun video! Wizard Needs Food Badly!
(or iTunes podcast, Channel Frederator, ep. 36)
The video is the second one in the podcast, starts at minute 7:50, (after Dan Danger, which may look familiar to anyone who's seen Fairly OddParents, same animator).
I've had this damn thing on my 'pod since late June and hadn't gotten around to watching it. The animation is done by the same people who do the Esurance commercials, which have always reminded me of Samurai Jack. Nice surprise - I especially like the song; the lyrics could be talking about a few guys (and not a few gals) we've all known like that (it could also have described my mother and I), and the video's brother/sister rivalry reminds me a little of my own. My kids have asked to see it so much, I'm in danger of getting tired of it; and I keep hearing Angus going around singing the chorus. ^_^ The title is a reference to the 80's arcade game Gauntlet, which I remember playing quite a bit back in the day, although I never got very far in it.
(game voice: Wizard...needs food... badly!)
I know that you're probably mad at me.
I've come to expect that.
You know that you'll never have all of me,
you've come to resent that.
You say "tomato", I say "video games",
you're acting so solemn.
You'll take the precious remote control from me.
Do I sound like Gollum?
(It's) not that I'm escaping,
you charm me like the flame does moths,
it's just that you'd prefer me docile,
like a narcoleptic sloth.
The wizard needs food badly,
the Voltron can't be incomplete.
The things I love, you hate so madly,
I must not go down in defeat.
In the hunter-gatherer societies,
I'd bring home the bacon.
Public thought says men should try and be tame,
stirred but not shaken.
I say "baseball" then you start to cry,
I'm sorry I grieve you.
I think a motorcycle's a good way to die,
this must bereave you.
I know that you try so hard,
and I'm not saying it's a sin,
it's just that they don't feel my pain,
in Vogue or Cosmopolitan.
And I'm sure you have your reasons,
but listen to me please...
I want the G.I. Joe with the Kung-Fu action grip.
I want Nintendo with the extra-graphics-microchip.
Tackle football with rocks,
and sticks, and knives, and pain...
I want a truck with the four wheel drive train.
You'd rather see me get good at bookkeepping,
I could clean house in the time that I'm not sleeping.
I live to serve you, and I don't want to be rude,
but you should see that the wizard needs food.
(game voice: Wizard...is about to die...)
I found out since that the band, Five Iron Frenzy, is (or rather was - they've retired as a band) a Christian band, although it sounds like not all of their music is overtly such - it's not even mentioned much on their website, and the above song certainly isn't. This gave me pause for a moment, but if I enjoy Johnny Cash's The Man Comes Around, the occasional bit of gospel music, Gregorian chants, and the sometime bits of religious imagery that show up in Neil Finn's music, plus whatever other music in the world that may be influenced by whatever culture/religion it has as a background, a little ska by such a band should be ok. And true to form, another band I discover after they're defunct...