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A few links for your Thursday morning.

by Aaron Williams on March 5, 2015 at 6:33 AM
Posted In: Articus Pharticus, Cineplexia, Sequential Artistry, The Idiot Box, You call that noise "music?"

• Even if you’ve never read the imaginative (and often creepy) entries over at the SCP Foundation, this bit of sci-fantasy storytelling, A Funeral On Mars is a nice little bundle of hopeful melancholy.

• Call this next Flash-based page another in a long line of “Spirograph-like toys for the internet age.” Or pick a better name, as that one’s kind of rough.

• Netflix is going to be airing a show centered around Marvel Comics’ Daredevil, and here’s Vincent D’Onofrio as the Kingpin. He certainly looks the part, though I wonder if he bulked out for the role or if that’s just amazingly realistic makeup? In other geek-casting news, Eddie Izzard will be playing a Puritan clergyman during the time of the Salem Witch Trials, which should be interesting. I wonder if he’ll be allowed to characterize the role using his famous James Mason voice? :)

• There are some song mashups I just have to admire for how well the songs involved are mixed together (in addition to being a catchy-sounding production). Here’s “Ms. Dangerous Will Rock In Black,” a mixture of AC/DC, Outkast, David Guetta, and Queen.

• I mostly look for re-used props in films, but now I might start paying more attention to the outfits I see.

• Some Canadians have been “Spocking” their paper currency in a tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy. The Bank of Canada finds this behavior most illogical.

• And finally some senseless monster-movie destruction in the game Nuclear Eagle. Feed hapless humans to your hungry nestlings, but watch out for the ones with firearms…

4 Comments

The Third Age of Ultron Trailer Has… Vision.

by Aaron Williams on March 4, 2015 at 2:35 PM
Posted In: Cineplexia, Mystery Clip Theater

Some quotable lines, amazing setpieces, and the return of Captain America’s original helmet (which i vastly prefer to the skull-hugging mask he’s been wearing). My only quibble? Maybe fewer mook-armies for the team to wade into in the future? It just seems so Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V sometimes. Not that it doesn’t look cool to see the Hulk mowing them down or anything…

Hmm… that last guy. He’s Mardi Gras Man? I think that’s the color of costume he wears, right? :)

2 Comments

You’ll have to just indulge me on this one. Also, cats!

by Aaron Williams on March 2, 2015 at 10:11 PM
Posted In: It Came from the Internet, It's got Robots and Lasers, Mystery Clip Theater

So there’s this video that’s been making the rounds of a cat that discovers some kind of cosmic truth via a toothbrush:

Somehow it becomes even more hilarious when you add a certain something many of us enjoy on BBC America:

1 Comment

There’s little I can add to Leonard Nimoy’s passing…

by Aaron Williams on March 2, 2015 at 4:09 PM
Posted In: From the Mouth of Madness, Mystery Clip Theater, Nostalgia!

I’ve been seeing the heartfelt tributes to Leonard Nimoy’s memory across the internet, but the more (wait for it) fascinating ones have included his seldom-remembered roles. Those involve things like the Outer Limits episode, “I, Robot”, Mission: Impossible, and more recently, Fringe.

But Spock is, of course, his signature role. Apart from the Star Trek movies and the TV show, there wasn’t a lot of “new stuff with Spock in it” for me to consume as a wee lad until the British puppet-parody show Spitting Image came along. Many will recall puppet-Spock appearing in the music video for the Genesis song, “Land of Confusion,” but did you know that “Spock” once tried to hijack a certain gold-statue-oriented awards show and give the glory to more… “deserving” actors?

I think teenage me was slightly offended that Mr. Spock would be portrayed like that, but perhaps this version was his doppelganger from the Dark Mirror universe? Maybe? :)

2 Comments

Mary Poppinsalooza, perhaps?

by Aaron Williams on February 27, 2015 at 9:02 AM
Posted In: Mystery Clip Theater, You call that noise "music?"

Mary Poppins is totally metal:

Now we need “Chim Chim Cheree” in a similar vein with a few more much-needed pyro effects.

2 Comments

I think I’ve got the next high-concept sci-fi economic thriller here…

by Aaron Williams on February 26, 2015 at 4:31 AM
Posted In: From the Mouth of Madness, It's got Robots and Lasers

fallout3sewerOn Wednesday, the PRI radio show Marketplace had a story about how Baltimore sewers are in desperate need of incredibly costly repairs. The sewers will eventually fail without repair/replacement, and the bill for that will be approximately 1 trillion dollars. I thought about repairs I’ve done to my own house and how much I wish I could travel back to whenever a previous owner was about to do something stupid from my point of view (especially involving wiring) and make them do it right. This made me wonder:

When will the cost of replacing or repairing inadequate infrastructure far exceed the cost of building a working time machine?

Much like how my theory that working A.I. will be invented (or caused) by someone trying to make a better spam-bot, I wondered if someone would think it cost-effective to use a method of temporal travel that would let someone “encourage” the Baltimore sewer designers of the past to beef up their blueprints a bit. These odd people with impressive credentials show up, demand specs far in excess of what the engineers of the past think is needed or rational, and use carrot (maybe precious metals?) or stick (knowledge of future events, like the foreman embezzling from the city or something) to make the Baltimore sewer of the future not require a total rehab.

It kind of sounds like a scheme the Doctor might try to break up for fiddling with the timeline. If Mr. Moffat wants to commission me to put together a script, I’m ready to give Peter Capaldi a lot of interesting things to say about humanity’s waste disposal systems, among other things. :)

7 Comments

Prepare your cartoon nostalgia receptacles…

by Aaron Williams on February 25, 2015 at 6:00 PM
Posted In: Nostalgia!, The Idiot Box

Disney says it’s bringing Ducktales back to the airwaves (or whatever you kids use these days) on their Disney XD channel in 2017. M’self, I’d like to see Gargoyles make a return, but continuing on from the final season when the show was a part of The Disney Afternoon and not the trainwreck the show became when it moved to Saturday mornings on ABC.

Not to be outdone, Netflix is looking to pull Inspector Gadget and Dangermouse out of the past, probably via Mr. Peabody’s WABAC machine. If you’re like me (and I know I am), you associate Dangermouse with the days when Nickelodeon was why you begged your parents to get this new “Cable TV” thing. Maybe it’ll lead to a comeback for the spinoff show, Count Duckula, which gave “Star Wars Day” its signature slogan:

I’m afraid to request many more shows I remember liking as a kid due to that whole “positive memory reinforcement” thing which allowed me to love Buck Rogers in the 25th Century without realizing how stiff Gil Gerard was. Maybe I’ll just leave it up to the professionals to decide. :)

3 Comments

Nudism in Portal 2 and other items of note.

by Aaron Williams on February 25, 2015 at 4:41 AM
Posted In: Articus Pharticus, Tabletop Gaming, The Idiot Box, Video Gaming


• The image above comes from a search for Portal 2 mods. I screencapped the forum post it came from just in case it ever gets deleted. :)

• While on the topic of games by Valve, it would appear that at least one headcrab has played a Grand Theft Auto game.

• I’ve seen dice made from many materials, but I can’t help think that depleted uranium dice would impress your fellow gamers the most.

• You kids don’t know how easy you have it these days. Back in 1941, if you wanted to make Superman fan art, you had to make it out of wood.

• Coming soon to movies and/or TV, it’s the Settlers of Catan boardgame. I’m not sure how this will translate to an actual script, and I guess the coveted bad-boy role will be that of the thief. I’m also certain there’ll be a betting pool about how soon in the production a “wood for sheep” joke will appear.

• And finally, if you need to spice up your role-playing campaign, you could do worse than give these clever Monster Pamphlets a try.

2 Comments

Where’d he go? At least we had comics…

by Aaron Williams on February 24, 2015 at 4:38 PM
Posted In: From the Mouth of Madness

There are times I’m really grateful that we live in a time where science and medicine have advanced to where they are. Without going into detail, I’ve had to be away from the blog to help out with an ill spouse. It wasn’t one serious thing, exactly. Without divulging gory details, one minor thing was mis-diagnosed which allowed other things to happen. When those were taken care of, other things decided to come out to play as well, and when those seemed to be getting better, a cold/flu/something was called in because the Powers What Is decided her lungs hadn’t been punished lately, and so on and so on. She was never in peril at any one time, but I figure if we lived in Ye Olde Times Before Yon Penicillinne, things would have become very dire.

But she’s gotten better, finally. I think all that Murphy’s Law can throw at her is a meteor strike, and if that happens, at least we get a free meteor. :)

So what news of the whole Patreon thing? Well, I’m announcing that starting in March, I’ll be posting one of two things (if not both) for contributors. One is a chapterized stab at a novel. I’ve got loads of decent concepts started, so all that remains is to pick one to inflict present to you for critique. I’ve also got a concept for a flash-fiction thing which I think is a rather novel concept, making fun of a type of narration common to video games and some horror stories. If it works (that is, if I can make it not sound like poo), it’d touch on just about any fictional setting where someone could make some kind of audio diary. This, too, will be up for critique and/or requests for continuation.

Thanks for sticking around, and I’ll be getting back to the “here’s some weirdness I found on the interwebs” stuff tonight!

Note: My own car has a dent, not quite as big as the one above, but significant, put there by a street sweeper. I’ve had my request to put a similar motto across it vetoed. The slogan “Hulk Smash!” was similarly nixed.

1 Comment

Someone at the BBC finally got the hint!

by Aaron Williams on February 17, 2015 at 3:26 PM
Posted In: From the Mouth of Madness, The Idiot Box

Let’s just cut to the chase: The BBC comedy panel quiz show, Q.I. (Quite Interesting) is coming to BBC America!

I’ve loved this show since the first season. Watch it. You won’t be sorry. When they finally get around to the current shows, you’ll even see Carrie Fisher make a guest appearance!

Oh, and if they haven’t agreed to do it already, the next petition is to get the XL version of the show aired in the U.S. Starting with Series F, Q.I. would repeat with an extra 15 minutes of material, which was often just as good as the other 30 minutes.

If nothing else, you’ll learn a lot more about parts of London and its environs, if only to grok all the zingers about places like Hull and Essex.

2 Comments

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