NBC’s ‘Community’ Goes 8 Bit For Season Finale
Thursday, 17th May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: 8bit, community, nbc, tv
For those of you plugged into the universe that is prime time television, Community will be wrapping up its third season tonight with an 8-bit episode dubbed “Digital Estate Planning.”
The episode will be part of a three part finale, which will last two hours, and will have 30 Rock’s finale squeezed in between (sure, why not).
According to TV.com, the storyline goes something like this: Keep Reading
When Good Monks Do Bad Things: High-Ranking Buddhists Caught Drinking And Whoring
Wednesday, 16th May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Offbeat, Pop Culture
Tags: Buddhist, Buddhists, diablo 3, drinking, Hookers, monk, Seong-Ho, South Korea
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When you think of all the hardcore religions that have inspired such acts of sacrifice mindfulness and passive resistance, it’s Buddhism. You think Buddhism, you think the Dalai Lama, the monks who protested Vietnam by setting themselves on fire… general acts of sacrifice that most other religions can’t hold a candle to.
You can let that imagery rest a little easier: According to The International Business Times, several South Korean Buddhist monks were caught on tape — indulging in drinking, high stakes gambling, and even sexual debauchery with hookers. This is particularly bad news in South Korea, where gambling is against the law (except in Casinos)… Keep Reading
What Would Pacman and Pong Look Like In Real Life?
Tuesday, 15th May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: classic games, In Real Life, pacman, photography
Photographer Patrick Runte labels the following series “Jump’N'Run” but we simply call it epic. There’s very little explanation needed, really, the collection combines moments from our favorite games, classics like Ballerberg, Pong and Space Invaders and shows what they could look like in real life.
As the guys over at petapixel point out, the art is an excellent touch, considering many current video games are trying to create graphics as real to life as possible, heck why not just come up with the real thing and see what Space invaders could look like in a loading dock or what Pacman finds in an open field instead of a busy arcade. Keep Reading
Man Auditions For Every Sci-Fi Character…Ever
Tuesday, 8th May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Online Video, Pop Culture
Tags: bill and ted, Frank Gorshin, Lorenzo Lamas, Sci-Fi, science fiction, science fiction audition, star trek
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Upon first watching this, I could have sworn the ‘Centauri Stripper’ was from the Arnold version of Total Recall, and that ‘get out of my mind’ line is by that crazy bald b*tch from Dune who melts Paul Mu’Diib’s hand in a box. That’s the point: in Jake Fleisher’s “Science Fiction Audition” they’re all supposed to sound familiar, because they’re all token tropes from the world of sci-fi pop culture.
Thus Mr. Fleisher manages not only to give several impressive auditions, but also call to attention the various stereotypical plot devices of what feels like every sci-fi movie ever made. There’s the ‘it’s not where are we… but when are we’ line, which sounds like it could be Bill and Ted via Tom Cruise; the “why do your eyes make water?” line, Keep Reading
Diablo 3 Gets a Short Film Tie-In
Tuesday, 8th May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Gaming, Pop Culture
Tags: aeon flux, animation, battle, diablo 3, Diablo III, Imperius, Metalocalypse, Peter Chung, titmouse, wrath
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Like many other titles as of late, Diablo III is getting a short movie tie-in that takes place well before the events in the forthcoming game. The short animated film, called Diablo III: Wrath, really sets the backdrop for the game’s overarching storyline (via Kotaku).
“Angels, demons, I fear their conflict will soon engulf the world of men… And when it does what hope will there be when even the wrath of angels cannot be quenched.”
Well before the events in the upcoming title there was a great war between archangels and demons. The film sets out to depict an extremely important turning point in that battle, bringing the archangel Imperius into to a head on battle with Diablo. Keep Reading
No Boys Allowed…In The Classroom? How Girls Are Trying To Get Ahead In Math and Science
Tuesday, 8th May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: girls, math, NBA, no boys allowed, science
For every male that has ever kicked a girl out of their treehouse, due to the timeless mantra that ‘no girls are allowed’, prepare to meet your new fate.
A High School in Oregon is developing classes that are dubbed NBA or “No Boys Allowed.” These range from Math and Science to Woodshop.
“Just because we’re girls doen’t mean we can’t do the same thing, if not better…we’re perfectionists more than them,”
says one student. Keep Reading
Samuel Jackson Lashes Out Against “Avengers” Critic – Does He Have a Right to Be Pissed?
Monday, 7th May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: A.O. Scott, avengers, critics, fans, film, Samuel L. Jackson, superhero, Twitter
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With the exception of a few, reviews for The Avengers have been overwhelmingly positive. Its tomatometer ranking currently holds at 93% fresh with critics, and 95% with fans. Arguably, it’s not always that easy for any movie to achieve such high rankings — so why isn’t Samuel Jackson happy?
Seems Mr. Fury has a bone to pick with one A.O. Scott, amongst the film’s detractors and a Chicago-based film critic who criticized the film for, amongst other things, a Tony Stark that too closely resembled Downey’s character in Sherlock Holmes. And more specifically: “the light, amusing bits cannot overcome the grinding, hectic emptiness, the bloated cynicism that is less a shortcoming of this particular film than a feature of the genre.” Keep Reading
Stars Remember The Beastie Boys’ MCA and The Artistic Legacy He Left Behind
Friday, 4th May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: adam yauch, beastie boys, Ben Stiller, death, eminem, MCA, passing
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As most of you guys probably already heard, MCA aka Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys passed today, reportedly due to cancer. Yauch joined the group when they were still a trio, releasing the incendiary License to Ill and 1992′s Check Your Head, which skyrocketed them to mainstream success.
The impact of Yauch’s work with the Beastie Boys and elsewhere, meanwhile, is still sending shock waves throughout the musical/artistic world. Hours after his death, Eminem – who’d often admitted to being heavily influenced by the Beastie Boys — paid tribute with the following statement: Keep Reading
Been Caught Stealing: Romanian Charlatan Passes Off Others’ Concept Art As His Own
Friday, 4th May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: charlatan, Concept art, Craig Mullins, Daniel Dociu, Ian Pompadopol, Mathias Verhasselt, Sparth
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In this week’s second episode of Utterly Random and Psychologically Head-Exploding Human Behavior, a Romanian artist by the name of Ian Papadopol held an exhibition of mind-blowing (all about highly cerebral adjectives here) concept art in a local gallery. It consisted of your kinda usual fantasy/sci-fi movie designs, only to the nth degree of CEREBELLUM-FUSING ASSKICK-NESS.
As was expected, Papadopol was also asking a fair price for each print of the work — and some people were willing to pay. After all, who the hell ever heard of this guy? We should buy now because someday they’ll obviously be worth a sh*tload of money. Keep Reading
Is This Iron Man Cosplay The Greatest Cosplay Ever (For a Guy We Mean)?
Friday, 4th May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: cosplay, Iron Man, Mark 7, Master Le, suit
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It’s pretty rare that we’ll feature any male cosplayers on here, but damn if this guy didn’t build the motherf*ckin’ sweetest Iron Man Mark 7 suit.
According to ObviousWinner forum, this costume is actually getting some hate, but really, we’re hard pressed to find a lot wrong with it.
This may be the next closest thing to the one that Downey Jr. wears in the movies – or even better: most of the movie version’s pop-up and motorized gadgets were probably done in After Effects/Houdini/whatever anyways. With this guy, Keep Reading
FoxConn’s Apple Sweatshops Are Horrible — “What’s Wrong With That?”
Thursday, 3rd May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: apple, factories, foxconn, labor, qiang li, terry gou
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If one thing could be said about Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, it’s that he’s brutally honest. Sort of, anyway.
Earlier this year, when China Human Rights Watch founder Qiang Li denounced Apple ‘factories’ in China as sweatshops – which, along with the lack of safety regulations and rapid-pace assembly lines, was likely a reason for the company’s high number of suicides — he got a fair share of flack from Gou in return. Keep Reading
Celebrate Free Comic Book Day With FAN WARS At Meltdown Comics
Thursday, 3rd May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: fan wars
To those of you who thought May 5th was just another holiday promoting sloppy drunkenness, you couldn’t be any more wrong. Sure this Saturday is Cinco De Mayo, a holiday supposedly celebrating Mexico’s victory over the French Army but in actuality allowing frat guys to get slightly more wasted than usual and throw a sombrero into the mix.
But This Saturday, May 5th is also Free Comic Book Day, which like Cinco De Mayo is a pretty simple translation.
For those of you in the Los Angeles area, members of The Jace Hall Show team will be at Meltdown Comics casting for Fan Wars, giving fans a chance to prove their comic book geekdom in the series starring Stan Lee, Jace Hall and other comic book legends. Keep Reading
Seattle “Superhero” Phoenix Jones Now Has a Real-Life Arch Enemy
Thursday, 3rd May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Offbeat, Pop Culture
Tags: Phoenix Jones, Rainy City Superhero, Rex Velvet, villain
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Ever since he accidentally (and then not so accidentally) revealed his identity to Seattle and the rest of the world a few months back, Rainy City Superhero Phoenix Jones seems to have suffered a bit of backlash from cops, as well as a somewhat diminished social profile.
According to Comics Alliance, that hasn’t stopped him from fighting crime, however – he’s managed to intercede in a couple fights, as well as handily deter May Day ‘anarchists’ with MMA skills and a huge ass bottle of pepper spray, reportedly. Keep Reading
Disney and Marvel Want You to Abuse Their Avengers Clips
Tuesday, 1st May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: disney, Facebook, marvel, remix, The Avengers
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Go figure — when there’s a 200 million dollar sci-fi property no one’s ever heard of (John Carter), outside the usual billboards here and there, you never hear a word about it. But when there’s a movie that needs almost no promotion, Disney will do anything short of sell their firstborn to get the word out (anyone not know who Joss Whedon/Thor/Iron Man are?).
Thus in addition to opening The Avengers overseas and around the world early, before it’s even released in North America (and reaping a nifty weekend profit of $175 million), Disney’s pushing full steam ahead with yet another marketing strategy.
This time, they’ve launched a video-making tool that allows Keep Reading
Boycott The Avengers Movie? Here’s a Better Idea…
Tuesday, 1st May 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: comic books, hero iniative, The Avengers
Some comic enthusiasts are refusing to see The Avengers this coming weekend on the grounds that the film will be making close to a billion dollars for the current actors, writers and executives on the film– but not many of the original people who helped CREATE the original characters in the first place will be reaping the profits.
As noted by Calamity John on his tumblr:
…Shamefully, the people who aren’t making a big profit from these movies are the people…who did the essential work of creating them in Keep Reading
AVENGERS Cosplayers In Hong Kong Garner International Attention
Friday, 27th April 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: avengers, cosplay, cosplayers, hong kong
We’re all of a week until the official theatrical release of The Avengers, and despite some early iterations of the film in both porno and super low budget versions, anticipation couldn’t be any higher for the $170 million film.
Now comes this from some cosplayers overseas, showing off their Avengers garb in all of their glory, arguably some of them representing the best we’ve seen, yet (check out Hulk in particular). Keep Reading
Microsoft To Unveil Cross Platform Music Service At E3
Wednesday, 25th April 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: android, e3, iOS, iTunes, match, spotify, Windows 8, Woodstock, XBOx 360, Zune
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According to The Verge, inside sources at Microsoft have confirmed we will be seeing a sneak peak at the company’s new music service come E3 2012. The Zune replacement, codenamed Woodstock, will bring Microsoft further from the Zune brand to make the shift into the popular Xbox platform.
The inside sources have revealed that although Microsoft is slowly shifting away from the Zune brand towards the Xbox platform, this new music service will Keep Reading
James Cameron Promises Manga Classic ‘Battle Angel Alita’…At Some Point
Friday, 20th April 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Pop Culture
Tags: Anime, avatar, Avatar 2, Avatar 3, Battle Angel Alita, James Cameron, manga
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It’s a bit of a generalization, but there seem to be two types of Cameron fans: the ones who loved Avatar and the ones who didn’t really care for/about it. The former know that Cameron is already prepping the sequel to his 2009 hit; the latter have given up hope ever seeing the legendary manga on the big screen before Cameron bites the big one.
But fear not, naysayers: According to Comic Book Resources, in a recent interview Cameron said he’d let go of Battle Angel Alita when it was ‘pried out of my cold dead fingers.” Keep Reading
Are You The Biggest Comic Book Fan On The Internet? Let STAN LEE and JACE HALL Decide
Thursday, 19th April 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Online Video, Pop Culture
We’ve hosted our fair share of debates over who is the BIGGEST comic book and superhero fan on the PLANET, but now Jace Hall and Stan Lee are giving fans the chance to PROVE they are the most epic.
Fan Wars, a new online series produced by Stan and Jace themselves, is giving fans the chance to say why they are the most amazing — with Stan, Jace and other industry celebrities weighing in with the ULTIMATE DECISION.
Choose from a list of 10 debate questions, Keep Reading
Are Video Games TAKING OVER Hollywood? Why Generation XBOX Is Threatening The Survival of The Movie Industry
Thursday, 19th April 2012Posted in Blog Archive, Gaming, Pop Culture
Tags: book review, generation xbox, new media, video game industry
It’s not often we do book reviews, mainly because a) we don’t like vampires and b) I lost my kindle last month when it overheated in my car trunk drastically setting back my reading schedule.
But if you’re a gamer who lives up to popular stigma’s, and there’s only one book you read this year, we recommend GENERATION XBOX: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood by Jamie Russell.
Russell has a history of writing about all things Zombies, which most likely made writing a book on the state of Hollywood a seamless transition Keep Reading
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