Hipsters getting beard transplants

It's from the New York Post, so take it with a grain of salt. Here's the article written by Natalie O'Neill:

It’s shear madness! Brooklyn’s hipster beard craze has grown so popular that men in New York are rushing to doctors for “facial hair transplants” — surgery that helps make beards look thicker and less patchy, sources said.

Stubble-challenged guys are forking over up to $8,500 for the beard-boosting procedure, which has spiked in popularity in recent months, plastic surgeons told The Post.

“Brooklyn is probably the nucleus of the trend, it’s the hipster ‘look’ guys want. If you have a spotty beard, and you let it grow out, it looks sloppy, ” said Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, a Midtown-based plastic surgeon.

“[Clients] want full beards because it’s a masculine look. Beards are an important male identifier,” he added.

Epstein performs two or three beard implants per week — up from just a handful each year a couple years ago, he said.

The specific hipster-inspired style — a lumberjack-meets-roadie hybrid — was made popular in neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, Bushwick and Park Slope, doctors and patients said.

One happy patient is Danny, 27, whose beard used to be so patchy, he was forced to “fill it in” with an eyebrow pencil, he said.

Two years ago, he paid $8,500 for the surgery, which he considers a fashion statement.

“I have a baby face but now I’m able to look older. My fashion statement is a little edgy, and I do like the ‘rugged look,’” he said,

He added, “It’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made.”

During the procedure, doctors remove hair from other body parts, including the head and chest, before implanting it in the face.

New beards grow back normally and can be shaved.

The hair-raising trend is also popular with female-to-male transgenders, Hasidic Jews, and guys who simply aren’t very hairy, doctors said.

“It’s the style. It’s just more common now to see scruff than ten years ago,” said Dr. Yael Halaas, a Midtown plastic surgeon, who performs the procedure.

“We’ve been getting a lot more calls about it,” she said.

A 39-year-old New Yorker, who works in catering industry, got a beard transplant to make him feel younger, DNAinfo.com reported.

“I had contemplated [getting a beard transplant] for approximately eight months,” he said, “Knowing the results, I wish I hadn’t wasted so much time deciding,” he said.

Star Wars Clone Wars season 6 trailer launches

First, I love Star Wars music.

Second, this launches on Netflix on March 7th.

New Godzilla trailer is awesome!

I love Brian Cranston. I love disaster movies. I love this.
It's coming out May 16th. This and Guardians of the Galaxy are my most anticipated movies of 2014. Is it really 2014? I never thought I would make it to this year in 2000-- I am living science fiction.

Haven't you any romance in your soul?

Same Love of Mario/Bowser

The truth of this is disgusting. They are the same person. There is no doubt in my mind.


from MercWorks.

The Joker and the Occult

Bale's Batman. Property of Warner Brothers.

The year was 2009, in Dendermonde, Belgium. A man with white face make-up, blackened eyes, and dyed red hair wandered into a day care center. His goal was mass hysteria, and brandishing his weapon, he set to accomplish his task.

After all was said and done, the man, "Kim D", had murdered two baby boys, a woman, and injured 13 others in a "frenzied knife attack". A knife, small axe, and fake pistol were later confiscated, as well as a piece of paper with the address of another creche, perhaps what was intended as his next target. He was wearing body armor, similar to James Holmes almost three years later in Colorado.

"You see this kind of thing on TV and you think it's bad," a resident told Reuters. "You don't realize, but now when it happens in your own street, so close to us." The killer was later identified as Kim De Gelder, an unemployed Belgian from Sinaai. He was high on drugs and alcohol, and according to his attorney, had heard voices in his head. "In further media reports, De Gelder reportedly watched The Dark Knight an unusually high number of times ("film obsession"), appears to have quoted the character Harvey Dent at the start of the attack, and committed the attacks on the one-year anniversary of Heath Ledger's death" (Wikipedia).

"It’s a combination of reading all the comic books I could that were relevant to the script and then just closing my eyes and meditating on it," he says. "I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices — it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh. I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath — someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts. He’s just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown, and Chris has given me free rein. Which is fun, because there are no real boundaries to what The Joker would say or do. Nothing intimidates him, and everything is a big joke" - Heath Ledger (Empire Online)

Reading Ledger's account of how he created the Joker, it certainly seems like he was communicating with something beyond the realm of corporeal existence.

The process sounds terrifying. I imagine a man in a T-shirt and jeans. He is writing in a notebook, alone in a stale hotel room smelling of sweat, old candy wrappers and empty soda cans littering the floor and desk, bed unkempt in the center, with the light of the lamp harsh on his frame. The actor would later report having trouble sleeping, which would eventually lead to his death by overdose. I can't help but think that his role as the Joker may have contributed to that mental state.

On the 22nd of January, 2008, Heath Ledger was found unconscious in his bed at 421 Broome Street in the hip Soho neighborhood in Manhattan. The EMTs arrived seven minutes later, but were unable to revive him. At 3:36 pm, Heath Ledger was pronounced dead in his apartment. The autopsy produced toxicological analysis report declared that "Mr Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine. [...] We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications." Ledger had complained of being unable to sleep to his co-star, Christopher Plummer, and his ex, Michelle Williams confirmed this in an interview. The Joker's avatar was dead.

A year after Ledger's death, another man dressed as the character, US army specialist Christopher Lanum, would be shot dead as he pointed a shotgun at police. "Lanum's girlfriend [...] told investigators that the soldier idolised the Joker," it was reported in The Guardian. He was a suspect in the stabbing of another soldier just a few hours earlier, and in another case, this time in 2010 in Ireland, Christopher Clancey, who was also wearing clothes similar to Heath's, "filled six large jerry cans with petrol" and poured their contents through a broken window at his school. He had bought the 100 liters of gas from nearby stations days prior and had been storing the fluid outside the school. Clancey lit the fuel ablaze, taping it on his phone, and sent the destruction to his friends. "I am glad I did it," he told reporters, "because the people will realize they can't treat students as sub-human." The resulting damage was over $1 million.

Heath's character was no longer only affecting his creator, but also those who had come to see him as a hero.

S S S

About 20 minutes into TDKR's midnight showing in Aurora, Colorado in 2012, a man opened fire. He was armed with AR-15 assault rifle, a Remington 870 shotgun, two .40-caliber Glock handguns and covered in a suit of armor many had assumed was cosplay. It was the worst mass shooting in the United States' history. Children, teenagers, and even a baby were feared among the casualties. 12 dead. 58 wounded. Many others reported irritated eyes because of the tear gas he had opened his assault with. The man, James Holmes, was from San Diego and attending school in Denver for a PHD in neuroscience. He surrendered willfully to the police when they arrived on the scene. When asked his name, he replied, "The Joker, enemy of Batman."

The Joker...

Police rushed to his Aurora home. Ascending up the stairs wearing protective gear, the shooter had rigged his 850-square-foot, third-floor apartment with chemicals and explosives. An official later noted that Holmes' death-trap "seemed to mirror a chaotic state of mind." Waist-high trip wires were set up across the living room, one strategically placed against the front door. If a visitor had accidentally set the trap off, 30 live grenades would have exploded under their feet. Holmes' had improvised these particular bombs, filling empty jars with "explosive liquids and .223-and-.40-caliber bullets" which were connected to "'control box' in the kitchen" (LA Times).

The impending blast would have probably also ignited 10 gallons of gasoline which were nearby. At least that's what appears was Holmes' intention. "Overall," the official noted, "[...] if the devices [...] had gone off, the fireball alone would have blown up and consumed the entire third floor of the apartment building." Five buildings were soon evacuated. Many Batman-related paraphernalia decorated Holmes' flat. A Batman poster and mask were discovered on the scene. More booby traps were placed in another room, and connected to a lethal combination of acids. Because of the danger, evidence such as a computer and chemical compounds were carefully taken away. People wishing to collect their belongings from the evacuated area were told to hold off until the grounds could be fully secured.

This attack was reminiscent of the chaos The Joker championed in The Dark Knight, especially his followers' killing of Rachel Dawes and mutilation of Harvey Dent.



However, there was a strange inconsistency in Holmes: why did he warn the police that his home was booby trapped? Why did he so easily surrender? If Holmes' goal was the total over-running of senses through death and destruction, he apparently had had a last minute change of heart.

Holmes' face was covered in a red towel as he was led into the Arapahoe Detention Center. His hair and clothing were already red. It was clothing which had been hidden from the movie goers under a suit of ballistic gear. His legs were shackled. His hands were cuffed behind him. "He's spitting at everything," one of the inmates later told a reporter. "He was spitting at the door and spitting at the guards. [...] Dude was acting crazy." Holmes was locked in solitary confinement and put on suicide watch. His actions had off-put some of the prisoners, to say the least. Many talked of killing him. Holmes ate his meal in the morning, however, a breakfast of grits and sausage. His windows were blocked with tape. "Let’s just say he hasn’t shown any remorse," one of the jail's employees reported, "He thinks he's acting in a movie."

And madness was sweeping across the nation. A Maine man turned himself in a day after seeing the The Dark Knight Rises, telling the authorities that he was on his way to kill a former employer. After searching his car, police found an "AK-47 assault weapon, four handguns, ammunition and news clippings about the mass shooting that left 12 people dead early Friday" (Yahoo News). In New Jersey, 100 were evacuated from the Edgewater Multiplex after an emergency exist was opened. A man had stood up, walked outside through the door and spoke to another person, then went back in. After the authorities arrived and the opener refused to step forward, the showing was ended. Another was canceled in Norwalk, California when a male raised his cell phone up and shouted, "Does anyone have a gun? [...] I should go off like in Colorado." Shots were heard outside another theater in Florida. There were no casualties in the incident.

The country was going crazy.

The famous director Peter Bogdanovich blamed modern entertainment, writing that "violence on the screen has increased tenfold. It's almost pornographic. In fact, it is pornographic. Video games are violent, too. It's all out of control. I can see where it would drive somebody crazy," and America's gun laws, "Anytime there's a massacre, which is almost yearly now, we say, 'Well, it's not the guns. Guns don't kill people. People kill people' and all that bullshit from the NRA. Politicians are afraid to touch it because of the right wing. And nothing ever changes. We're living in the Wild West." The shooting has sparked an increase in gun sales across the nation. Buyers claimed, when prompted, that it was for protection from future shootings. Meanwhile, unrest in Anaheim has gone, for the most part, unreported by the press. Echoes of the Joker's speech from TDK about 'everything going as planned' comes to mind.

During his first court appearance the Monday after the shooting, Holmes looked despondant. Off-color humor was attempted in the press, many writing how the "Joker wasn't laughing now," but other observers noted his creepy appearance. Holmes stared down with tired eyes. He never said a word, his droopy head falling back and forth when spoken to. An appearance of remorse sometimes fluttered across his troubled face. However, it would quickly return to indifference, as if he didn't know what he had done. Later in the week, Holmes would ask a guard how the movie ended. A witness told a reporter of the event, "He was trying to look like he was sincerely curious. Like he had no idea why there was anything wrong with what he was saying. It was sick ... I think he’s trying real hard to act crazy.”


Smirking face of James Holmes, taken years earlier.


Death is not only a theme of Nolan's Batman franchise, but a specter that swirls around it like so many bats on the movies' logos. Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight hit a new macabre high. Not only because of his grungy, hilarious, terrifying, and sexy performance, but also because we were watching a dead man. The spirit of chaos, the trickster spirit, had performed his greatest joke. He had killed off the soul who had communed with him so closely, making the world awe at Ledger's walking corpse. It is a Faustian fable. When a person strolls too close to perfection, he is going to get burned.

Ledger's Joker was the perfect representation of sexy madness. Like the Bacchanalia in ancient Greece, he was a spirit to be communed with, begging you to let go of society's made-up rules and embrace the insanity within. He taunted the 'rule-makers', pleading with Gotham's citizens to opt out of their constructed game, and did this by pointing out the absurdity of it all, a theme epitomized in the Joker's talk with Dent in the hospital. "I'm like a dog chasing its tail," he said, "I don't know what I would do if I caught it!" It is this thirst for new order from unorder that is also symbolized with the likes of Tyler Durden and "Breaking Bad"'s Walter White. White, for his part, shows us another man literally sick to death of the modern world. Eventually, his evil acts spread like a disease, poisoning the whole community. One wonders if Nolan's Batman series hasn't had a similar result. Several actors and workers involved with the movies' production were accidentally killed violently, and it was around the time of the second film's launch that Bale was arrested for attacking his mother and sister. And now this.

At the 2008 opening of the The Dark Knight, I remember being in awe of Heath Ledger. It was late in the night, the veil between the worlds was less perceptible, and even when I watch it today, I relish the nuance of his performance. The way he inflects his voices, raises certain syllables into a whine but others into a rabid growl. His stances-- the way he sucks his lips, being "young, alive, and evil" as one reviewer put it. He fascinated a generation, but he is also dangerous, particularly to unstable minds.

The Joker killings in Belgium. The case of Christopher Lanum in the States. His image is so iconic that it has been adopted as an iconoclastic pog against authority. When I imagine Ledger's performance, I can't help but think of a bubbling, black ooze that is sliding under our streets, under our houses, in places we can't see but is always there, waiting to be discovered if we look too closely. He is tempting. An evil spirit who beckons us with duplicitous promises. In previous blogs, I have mentioned the Joker's link to Dionysus' mass hysteria. Dionysus is the god of masks, acting, drunkenness, and rebelling. He was the call of the wild to ancient Greece's patriarchy, bringing chaos to Pentheus, Orpheus, and countless helpless animals.

There was something in Ledger's performance that was utterly primordial, as if the ancient spirit of Bacchus was flowing through him to entertain a new millennium of mad people. Certain sites link him directly to the Anti-Christ. Our culture is in love with death. It permeates our movies, our political actions, even the clothing we wear. It is a symptom of a society that is not only unaware of its lunatic subconscious but denying it even exists, and it is societies like these which are ruled by the masculine left brain... mass killings, wars, racism, sexism, debauchery... We are so controlled, so tightly wound, that when we snap, we really snap. Hear it? That snapping? It's the sound of the Joker's cackling laugh. See that 1000 point drop in the DOW? See the failing EU? The US's crumbling infrastructure, wars, and economy? It's a house of cards that the Joker wants to kick, letting them fall across the earth.

It is interesting to note that the only card in the deck without hierarchy is the Joker. He is outside the system, willing to take on any role (i.e. mask) that he needs to defeat the enemy. Nolan's communicated with something evil, that's for sure. It was a finely tuned metaphor for the cracks on the dam's edifice, and the plaster used to cover it up. TDKR showed that this was only a temporary solution and delaying the inevitable: madness would eventually reign, flowing from the torn up dam and pouring across the streets of Gotham. TDKR has one literally burst.

The only thing standing in Dionysus' way was Apollo, the god of laws, numbers, and language. They were also rumored to be one in the same. Apollo, who lived in Delphi three-fourths of the year, would fly north for the other fourth. In his stead, Dionysus would rule. In other words, madness would overtake logic for a part of the year. Our modern culture has, at-large, forgotten this. We live in a world where men are expected to be rational 100 percent of the time. Maybe that's why it's the males who are the ones who snap these days while in ancient Greece it was the women. One can see The Dark Knight as a modern representation of this eternal struggle between the id (The Joker, Bacchus) and the ego (Batman, Apollo). The id, the Mother, is a sense of wildness and wholeness. The ego, harbored in the left brain and represented by masculine entities, is the place where language, mathematics skills, and laws are formed. It is individualistic, where 'I' is. The Mother's right brain is untamed, where sublime art is created, and where the community is king.

Most actors commune with otherworldly entities to play their roles. I posit that each personality trait is a spirit which exists within and without us. A typical person will communicate with one dominant entity, while actors are aware (subconsciously or not) that there are many, many more. If, like Heath Ledger, the actor starts communicating with a demon, there can be repercussions. It seems to me that Ledger accidentally performed ancient magic which summoned a dangerous spirit, releasing him to the masses. It was a spirit that had always lived inside him, buried but never forgotten, that emerged in his performance. And that spirit threw him aside when he no longer needed him. Not only that, but because it would be really funny in a dark humor sort of way. The Joker, this evil prickling in the back of our minds, is asserting his reemergence in the modern world. To be clear, this is one way to look at the world. The polar opposite, a pragmatic material universe, is another way. As are all myths.

Mass hysteria. Death. These are things that the Joker would get a kick out of.

Now the film franchise will have the ever-lasting burden of not only Ledger's death, but also the murder of the poor people inside that Colorado movie theater, and because of Holmes, we will never be able to look at the Joker the same way again either. This is not a symptom of the character's potency, but our society's attraction to him. We admire the Joker because there is something about him that we wish we could be. Leonard Shlain would make the link between the left brain's controlling ego and the need in society for a balancing madness. The more controlled the ego, the more uncontrolled the id. Thus, there is not something wrong with the Joker for existing, there is something wrong with us, our society. The people who paid for it with their lives were the people who loved him the most.

If the demonic spirit of the Joker is alive, surfing the paranoia and desires of our collective unconscious, he is getting his greatest laugh. Not only are the masses still knee-slapping and getting a thrill out of his dead puppet, Ledger, but now they are literally dying at his amphitheater alter. See them line up and perish in the name of pop chaos! In this regard, it may interest you what the mad author of one of the Joker's most iconic stories, "The Killing Joke", has to say on magic. In another example, Moore writes that "the way that people immerse themselves in alcohol, in drugs, in television, in any of the addictions that our culture throws up, can be seen as a deliberate attempt to destroy any connection between themselves and the responsibility of accepting and owning a higher Self and then having to maintain it.” The trickster is cackling in the night, making children afraid of the glow of the movie screen. He beckons them to him. He tempts them with anarchy, destruction, anonymousness. Yes, he is the 'man' that wants to watch the world burn.

What is it about our modern society that would drive a young man to throw his life away and shoot a bunch of others? As an economics minor, I think it has to do with incentives. Our culture idolizes the rich, famous, and successful. By killing a bunch of people, Holmes could achieve something his PHD degree never could do, earn national attention. Some on the internet were calling for his identity to remain a secret as to dissuade similar massacres. This is clearly a crap-shoot. In our age, this secrecy is almost impossible. However, what if we look at it from the other end-- there is something in our society that wants to admire men like Holmes. It's a sickness, a disease, like the one Walter White suffers. What is causing that feeling in men today? It is a question we should all be asking ourselves in the face of this new tragedy. My thoughts are with the families of the victims.

Celebrities in a mirror universe, and Nebraska

Here's the link to the pic and the original comments on reddit.

Madonna looks like a Lovecraft horror-monster living in a small Maine town... or a Jim Henson muppet. Either way, it's quite disturbing. Tom Cruise, I can see this being a reality for whatever reason. he looks like he should live down the street from me.

See? Celebrities really are like us.



I also watched Nebraska last night. It romanticizes the upper West-Midwest, and it starts in Billings, Montana, where I spent most of my life (3rd to 12th grade and many summers). I loved the little details Alexander Payne added: the bobcat insignia in their house, the many shots of the rims in the background and the Crowne Plaza, the mention of the Albertsons on King Avenue (totally how people would talk there), the train noises, the refineries. You could practically smell the sugar-beet air. Though all their license plates should have began with a '3'. Not sure why that was overlooked. The black and white added to the starkness of it, and even Forte and Dern's wide-eyed stares. They look like dudes who would live here.





I saw Payne on the Colbert Report. I thought it was one of the rare interviews where Colbert comes off badly, but the director said he basically resented the middle of the country being called 'fly-over states', and that no one questions Woody Allen why he sets most of his films in New York City. Either way, happy to see the love for a part of the country few see. There are a lot of old timers here, middle-aged people living dead end lives, and much of it is wasting away-- those old farms and ranches, big family reunions with 10 siblings, that's the truth. I live in Bozeman, Montana now-- the culture is different here, more hip, youthful, less real. Billings is grittier, downright unattractive in a lot of places. You have to respect that, but the follies of youth you know? And to be honest, it has never been like the rest of the upper Midwest-West. Billings has always been growing, and now the Bakken is accelerating that change into a bigger city. It is the meeting of the East and West. You can tell by the accent. Baaaaag. My friend from Florida even says I say VAGUE weird. Well, you say caramel and groceries weird, Sarah.

EDIT: I know the story necessitated it, but who would buy a truck in Nebraska when you could go home to Montana? No sales tax, bro. Though I have heard if you can prove you're a resident of Montana, you can get out of other state's sales taxes... oh whatever, it's a movie, Nick.

Bugz Bunny rap, because I mentioned it

Who says the bunny can't rap? You're buggin'.

Space Jam 2 is a thing that is happening

Seriously, it's actually probably happening.

Will the Monstars return? Will Bugz' girlfriend? Will this be the best movie of the year, ala how Angels was in the Outfield was for whenever that movie came out? The answer to the last question is clear: yes, obviously. This movie is going to redefine sequels-- it will be the Empire Strikes Back on steroids. It will be perfection (mind penetration), and I can't wait. I don't give a damn about Lebron... this is the looney gang's show.

And when is Disney going to buy them up? I don't care that they are basically mascots for an entire company, Disney, get on that. You own Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, the Muppets, and your own collection of movies, you got to get on this Looney Toons noise before you really miss out on the big bucks... no, for seriously, like for seriously.

This was LITERALLY my face when I heard the news.

Yeah. I just got back from the hospital.

EDIT: And now I shall weep.

New Godzilla poster for remake

This is one of my most anticipated films of the year behind Guardians of the Galaxy. The trailers have been amazing.

Hear Rocket Raccoon's voice

I have to admit I am pumped for this film and have watched the trailer several times already. I love the idea of a romp through space, filled with humor and crazy characters-- an 80's space opera with a modern blockbuster budget. It could be the closest thing to a SAGA movie we ever get.

Here's the raccoon's voice:

My opinion? I like it. If you've seen the A-Team remake, you know Cooper can be a lot of fun in these kind of roles. Like I said, I am excited.

Welcome, me.

Hi. My name is Brenton, though out of misguided nostalgia for a bygone era of gaming and a time when the InterNet was all about anonymity, I still go by the moniker of Kain or Kain424.

I met Nick through work and have been invited to join in a little meandering of my own here on his blog. I happily accept. You'll be hearing more from me for sure.

One of MCR's last recorded songs revealed

This band is one of my guilty pleasures. I have loved everyone of their album save their first. Their songs are emotional, dramatic, some might overly so, but that's what I liked about them-- they were a emo-power-ballad band. It was amazing and belong on stage. They even acknowledged it in some ways with the Black Parade. Man, I love these guys, even if I moved on, for the most part, from this kind of music. I still miss you MCR. Come back.

To refresh my memory on their break up over a year ago, I asked yahoo answers. The top answer was this:

Athina PoisonGirl answered 7 months ago

''The decision appears to be the result of a change in Mr. Way’s feelings about performing rather than any differences, creative or otherwise, among the band’s members.

Mr. Way made a point of saying what the reasons were not.

“I can assure you,” he wrote, “there was no divorce, argument, failure, accident, villain, or knife in the back that caused this, again this was no one’s fault, and it had been quietly in the works, whether we knew it or not, long before any sensationalism, scandal, or rumor.”

Instead, he attributes the breakup to an understanding the group had when it was formed in 2001 – a “fail-safe” or “doomsday device,” as he called it, which would detonate “should certain events occur or cease occurring.”

Those events appear to be a realization, which came to Mr. Way during a performance in Asbury Park, N.J., on May 19, 2012, that it was simply time to stop. After experiencing what he described as “a strange anxiety jetting through me that I can only imagine is the sixth sense one feels before their last moments alive,” he went onstage and found himself, for what he said was the first time, detached from the performance – more taken with how blue and vast the ocean looked than with the large audience.

“I perform, semi-automatically, and something is wrong,” he wrote. “I am acting. I never act onstage, even when it appears that I am, even when I’m hamming it up or delivering a soliloquy. Suddenly, I have become highly self-aware, almost as if waking from a dream. I began to move faster, more frantic, reckless – trying to shake it off – but all it began to create was silence. The amps, the cheers, all began to fade.

“All that what left was the voice inside, and I could hear it clearly. It didn’t have to yell — it whispered, and said to me briefly, plainly, and kindly – what it had to say.

“What it said was between me and the voice.” Source: The New York Times

The lead singer, Gerard Way, also writes the popular Umbrella Academy graphic novels, and My Chem has a greatest hits album coming out in May which this song will lead.

New Guardians of the Galaxy Pics

Getting pumped about this movie. I recently saw Thor 2 and enjoyed it quite a bit. I like the cosmic side of the Marvel universe and am excited for it to be explored.

Man in Godzilla suit destroying CITY

And here I thought Godzilla was an actual giant lizard.

On a side note, I am looking forward to the new American film Godzilla.

It looks properly Apocalyptic.

Jennifer Lawrence in Black and White

Big debate has been unfolding in my life recently: J-Law or Amy Adams? I know what side I fall on.

Newscaster from Dallas on openly gay player

One part of this hit me the hardest. Some people want to take government out of our lives but feel comfortable with it in our bedrooms, he says. I agree, that never made sense to me either-- I am no Repub or Demo, I lean Libertarian. You could also say the same about Dems. They want the government out of the bedroom, away from drugs, away from abortion, but they want it to regulate everything else to do with out personal lives. The only thing that makes philosophical sense to me is Libertarianism. Freedom should be our greatest concern because it gives us the right to live our lives the way we want to. If that isn't Godly I don't know what is. He kicked us out of the Garden for not obeying him. That wasn't a bad thing. I am not religious, but God gave us the change to choose our own fates without his interference. That is terrifying but beautiful.

VSauce 3 features wicked Ninja Turtles belt

I want this thing.

Have a seat... and listen

Have a seat...





Digging these beats... The whole album is sick...

Music Vid - Feb 09 - Glitch Hop

Shia Labeouf goes even crazier

Shia Labeouf wore a bag on his head to the premiere of Nymphomaniac: Part 1. I know I am indulging his weirdness and the world would be a better place without this navel gazing of celebrities... but this is so freaking weird... it almost demands to be gawked at.

That being said, I am interested in seeing this film despite Labeouf. I never cared for him in anything I have seen him in.

Music Vid - Feb 08 - let the swing revival happen

Wouldn't it be great if people danced to this stuff again in clubs? Plus it reminds me of one of my fave Japan movies, the Metropolis remake-- gots that old-time vibe... that Great Gatsby vibe... that ritzy gold vibe...

Gaming on the Go. Long Live Nintendo.

The Game Boy Advance is by Brent Clouse, the others unknown

'Morally Immature', children are left devoid by violent games study says

A recent article in The Mail by Fiona McCrae had this to say about violent games effect on young minds:

The Canadian researchers surveyed 109 boys and girls, aged 13 and 14, about whether they played video games, which games they liked, and how long they spent playing them.

Their findings found that 88 per cent of teens said they played games, and more than half admitted to playing games every day.

Violent games, including games where players have to kill, maim, decapitate or torture another human character, were among the most popular.

The teenagers also filled in a questionnaire designed to gauge their moral development.

For example, they were asked how important it is to save the life of a friend.

Previous studies have suggested that a person's moral judgement goes through four phases as they grow from children and enter adulthood.

By the age of 13 or 14, scientists claim young people should be entering the third stage, and be able to empathise with others and take their perspective into account.

The research found that this stage appeared to be delayed in teenagers who regularly played violent video games.

A lot of my friends played these games growing up. I think this is an overreaction-- I haven't noticed any psychopaths among them... yet

Paul Bettany to play The Vision in the Avengers 2

Here is an article about it.

It is not verified whether he will be only supplying the voice or giving a full performance. He also voices JARVIS, so the connection seems to be that Iron Man's computer will perhaps take physical form in this story.

I am curious where they are going with this at the very least, and am happy the rumored evil JARVIS storyline was false. It also dashes the Coulson-Vision connections that had been appearing online. We'll just have to wait I guess.

Sonic gets a redesign and new games for 3DS and WiiU

Sonic looks mostly the same, the only difference I pick up on is the scarf and wrapping around his legs. Knuckles is the one I see the biggest change, having grown in size by quite a deal. This is part of a major marketing push by SEGA to make Sonic relevant to a new generations of gamers and will be accompanied by a television series, which on the surface sounds bizarre with Eggman taking Sonic to court in one episode.

I am fine with the new designs. In fact, I kind of like them. What are your thoughts? Comment your opinion below.

Star Wars REBELS to premiere as early as summer

Disney CEO Bob Iger reportedly told investors,

We’re introducing Star Wars Rebels to television audiences this summer with a movie and a series of shorts on Disney Channel, followed by a continuing series on Disney XD.

I am excited as hell for this. I loved The Clone Wars series and am interested in where they will go with this one.

Another bit of information came out that Captain America 2 will feed directly into the next Avengers film as well as SHIELD. I am starting to care less and less about SHIELD, but from what I read early buzz is good for CA2. So much so that Marvel has already asked the directors back for round 2... Marvel rarely does this, so that's a good sign.

Magister of Worth Spoiler MTG

Looks like a card from a far-off set was spoiled, and intriguingly it appears to be geared towards multiplayer.

There is going to be a multiplayer set. I like this a lot-- usually we have three people sitting around the table swinging at each other. More people changes the dynamic a lot, and to have cards made specifically for that tickles my fancy. Color a casual player excited for this.

Meanwhile, I am going to dream of my devastating annihilator deck. I love those eldrazi. I know they are crap, but the thought of dominating by sheer cosmic horror intrigues me. I want to be a mage like that.

If you are curious I currently have seven decks-- aggro affinity artifact, aggro myr artifact, equipment white weenie, goblin haste, gruul dragon, multiplayer lockdown, and single player lockdown. All modern.

Link and Mario -- saving lives, suits ready

These were uploaded by dhlrn
The outfit is ready. Are you?

Youtube kid adored by reddit and twitter

The internet is a fickle place. One minute we are hating and the next we are loving. Why? The seething collective unconscious is having a good day-- the All-Father spoke and we were merry.

What is the internet but a visible representation of our combined ego? It's more human than any of us.

New pictures from Captain America the Winter Soldier

I wonder what's happening over there.
I like that Marvel isn't being coy on whom the Winter Soldier is. It's refreshing after J.J. Abrams' Kahn.

Youtube kid reminds of Jonah Hill

He gets excited about one like-- can't say I wouldn't do the same.

Philip Seymour Hoffman to be techno recreated in Hunger Games

After his tragic death, I am a bit worried that this will end up like the Jeff Bridges-Tron 2 weirdness. Hopefully that is not the case. I am still bummed about his death... it was too early for him. He had so many more performances left, but it seems this is happening more often with the reign of franchises. It was bound to happen again, sooner rather than later-- Paul Walker, Richard Harris, and now this. I guess we are going to have to get used to it as long as blockbuster series are popular.

From Truth Revolt:

According to Lionsgate, the studio behind The Hunger Games series, technology will be used to fill in the gaps for deceased actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who stars in the final two films as Plutarch Heavensbee. Hoffman reportedly had one week of shooting left on the film, including one important scene.

“These days the technology of using someone’s likeness is a whole lot easier to do,” Rob Legato, an effects supervisor on major films including The Wolf of Wall Street, told The Hollywood Reporter. “I won’t say you could generate a Philip Seymour Hoffman with all the acting ability, but you could certainly replicate him for a shot or two.”

A source told The Hollywood Reporter that their plans “don’t seem very complicated,” adding, “You can do digital things, you can have conversations where you’re not focusing on him but the people he’s talking to.”

A Lionsgate executive said that Hoffman’s death will “have no impact” on the film. “His performances in both [remaining] movies will be up to the best of his craft,” the executive stated. “We feel it will be a good tribute to him.”

Lizard drinking from pitcher plant.

headlikeanorange:

A day gecko sips nectar from a pitcher plant. (Madagascar - BBC)

He does love to drink tho...

Alan Lightman's quote on the Multiverse

I was reading a post over on Brain Pickings about Alan Lightman's "The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew". There was a powerful quote by Lightman included at the end:

If the multiverse idea is correct, then the historic mission of physics to explain all the properties of our universe in terms of fundamental principles — to explain why the properties of our universe must necessarily be what they are — is futile, a beautiful philosophical dream that simply isn’t true. Our universe is what it is simply because we are here. The situation can be likened to that of a group of intelligent fish who one day begin wondering why their world is completely filled with water. Many of the fish, the theorists, hope to prove that the cosmos necessarily has to be filled with water. For years, they put their minds to the task but can never quite seem to prove their assertion. Then a wizened group of fish postulates that maybe they are fooling themselves. Maybe, they suggest, there are many other worlds, some of them completely dry, some wet, and everything in between.

Lightman is esoteric. I don't mean to be pretentious. I have read a lot on this and love the topic.. It seems to all come back to the same idea: The universe is here because WE are here. Without someone to look at it, to ponder its mysteries, it doesn't exist. By observing, we are creating, and the deeper we look, the more there is.

In the City Brew near the mall, far from home, in Bozeman, in a parallel universe

Sarah editing my book!!! yes, that did require three exclamation points. Don't judge me.

edit: follow-up picture

Dragon Snake -- a living reality but rarely seen... until now

It's apparently quite rare. Not sure where in the world it's located, but my gut is telling me China.

It looks like a Goku-dragon, does it not? Goku should be on that thing, smiling and waving-- and the dragon balls should be circling him and dragon, dragon rock the dragon, dragonball z.

Anyway, pretty sure it's real and pretty sure you should be amazed at what this planet produces. It's mythology.

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

I fell in love with this card the moment I saw it. I know it's a noob thing to be in love with big creatures-- but look at this thing, it's Cthulhu on drugs ripping the sky apart in pure cosmic horror. I like artwork like this. I like stories like this. I like it. I like it a lot. But this mother is going for $35 bucks a pop. To build a deck around it would be even pricier-- you got a combo or Quicksilver amulet it out. But when I saw it I made it my mission to get this thing on the field, to build a spellbook around it, to tease it onto the table and let my opponents recoil in fear. Maybe some day when my bank account can handle it. But I will say this: you are gorgeous Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. LOOK AT THE ARTWORK!!

Where should we go to dinner? I don't know...

"Restaurant Decisions: The Musical" Tales Of Mere Existence

Lev has a perfect mix of woe and nostalgia...

Mutant Girl Squad and Mutants with tentacles Cthulhu-style rolling up in heyr

There is a cool article on Mutant Girls Squad, a new Japanese horror romp, over on Stigmatophilia. I have a hard time getting into these movies. I have grown to avoid gore. Nothing against those who enjoy it, I just don't, and I sort of love that the author of the review takes pleasure in abhorrent things:

What you certainly won’t be if you decide to check this movie out is bored. Where else can you see the aforementioned chainsaw ass woman (yes we were quite impressed with that one!), people blown up by a massive baby’s head, a giant pair of acid-milk squirting boobs, someone pummelled in the face by detached rocket feet, or a man with a weird bunch of creatures for his nipples and crotch? Mutant Girls Squad is where it is if you want to immerse yourself in copious amounts of blood, violence, and gore with some of the most far out mutants ever to have graced the silver screen. This feature was one of those rare movies you can just get lost in, a definate must, just enjoy, prepare to be baffled and have fun with this splatterific piece of pure indulgence.

What interested me about the film is the mutants. One thing that always bothered me about the X-Men was the lack of variety of powers. Yeah, they got the sewer mutants, the bone-marrow dude, etc. but wouldn't it be cool to follow a team of absolute weirdos-- tentacles, Total Recall babies, blood drinkers, chicken wings, or super-sensed samurai with cat eyes. The possibilities are endless. Think of The Island of Dr. Moreau stories, the Gattica tales. They could run into real Greek horrors-- a cyclops, a Medusa, a Circe-- and these characters could be actual people. Medusa is just a teenage girl who can't control her powers, much like Rogue. What about the sex industry in mutant America? What would that be like? And there has to be people with completely mundane powers like blinking traffic lights red or snapping their fingers and making everything clean. But honestly I want the crazy powers... the acid-spewing bikers, the little person who can morph into a giant skeleton horror, the hairy-backed pig-man with the dirty sun glasses, the Siamese twins with complimenting powers...

I want to see that book, Marvel. I would buy it-- I love world-building and want to see the big two do more of it. I like Superman and Wonder Woman because of it. Soule's series tries to bring the worlds together-- I actually am looking forward to this five year forward thing DC has brewing. The characters have become somewhat stagnant, but here's my idea:

What if at the end of Forever Evil the heroes win? What would happen? What would Superman do? What would Batman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, what would any of them do? Isn't that an interesting story? Five years after the villains are gone, Superman is living on a ranch with a kid of his own. He has married and settled down. He is happy. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is in Gotham drinking whiskey. He has lost his purpose. We see what all the heroes are like-- I mean it wouldn't stay like this for too long, but I would love if Superman had something to lose in a son. Or what if Batman is an alcoholic without a purpose? I just want a hammer in the status quo. It's the new 52, let's do something interesting. And beyond that, it gives the DC universe a history. Like I said, I love world building.

Music Vid - Feb 02 City Lights | Los Angeles by Colin Rich

The city, looking at it from a different vantage, is organic. I get so caught up that I forget that my life intersects so many others. The city is this big gem, and we are all functioning inside it, be it LA or Bozeman, unknowing in most moments, like an ant colony, with the taller buildings the mound in the center. Why do I try? It's impossible to describe.

The song is Outro my M83.

First Transformers: Age of Extinction trailer

The third movie was a guilty pleasure of mine. Kinda digging the robotic dinosaurs. Has that been done in a major summer tent pole before? I can't think of any.

Philip Seymour Hoffman has died

“Eventually something you love is going to be taken away. And then you will fall to the floor crying. And then, however much later, it is finally happening to you: you’re falling to the floor crying thinking, “I am falling to the floor crying,” but there’s an element of the ridiculous to it — you knew it would happen and, even worse, while you’re on the floor crying you look at the place where the wall meets the floor and you realize you didn’t paint it very well.” — Richard Siken

“Don’t confront me with my failures I had not forgotten them.” — Jackson Browne

He was a great actor and I am going to miss that voice.

It has been a crazy day-- sexual assault in Bozeman and the perp getting away from the Police station. This is a screwed up world we live in with a lot of screwed up people. No one deserves what happened to that girl, and the guy who ran away showed no remorse. He did something terrible and he couldn't even own up to it. Coward.

I asked someone I know last night if God loved us. She said to be a good author you had to care about your characters. So does God care about us?

Official Captain America: The Winter Soldier trailer

That was a lot of fun. I am actually looking forward to this movie now.

The Introduction

I've never participated much in online blogging, but I figured I'd give it a try. I'll start with an introduction. I'm sure google already includes my name, but what the hell. The name's Matt, and I'm a full blown nerd. Most of anything I write will likely have some basis in nerd culture, whether it be video games, comics, books, Magic the Gathering, or any number of other topics that catch my interest.

Alright, time for credentials:
-I've been playing Magic now for about six months. Not long, but definitely long enough to be pretty damn invested.
-Video games have been a huge part of my life since I was about seven years old. Nintendo was my upbringing, despite any recent transgressions.
-I'm more of a Marvel comics guy, considering the movies have played a fairly large role in my becoming interested in the first place. DC certainly has cool characters and stories as well, but the film franchise has been spotty at best. Beyond Batman of course.
-Movies are my favorite form of media right now. Placing myself into the shoes of an epic hero, or a regular guy caught at the wrong place at the wrong time is enthralling. They're an escape from reality, which I feel I frequently need.
-Science is awesome and I hope to write about anything interesting I happen to find.

I think I've blathered on about myself for long enough. I'll write again soon hopefully, and am looking forward to having this as a creative outlet. Thanks for reading.

Anti-Putin marchers rally in Moscow

MOSCOW (AP) — Several thousand protesters marched through central Moscow on Sunday to call for the release of 20 people who were arrested after clashes between police and demonstrators in May 2012.

Some of them face up to 10 years in prison if convicted for the protest, held on Bolotnaya Square on the eve of President Vladimir Putin's inauguration to a third term as Russia's president.

Putin's return to the presidency saw the passing of new laws aimed at cracking down on anti-government protests and restricting non-governmental organizations.

The protesters marched Sunday with portraits of the jailed protesters and a banner stretching across the street reading: "Freedom to the Bolotnaya heroes, the hostages of Putin."

Some also carried Ukrainian flags to show their support for the anti-government protesters in neighboring Ukraine, where demonstrations have been going on for more than two months.

Of the 28 people rounded up in the Bolotnaya case, eight were recently freed on amnesty. Several defendants have been under house arrest, but most of the others have been in jail for more than a year and a half.

Only three of the cases have been decided: Two defendants received light sentences after cooperating with investigators and a third was sent for forced psychiatric treatment. That man, Mikhail Kosenko, who was convicted of beating a policeman, had a history of schizophrenia, but rights activists charged the court was reviving the Soviet-era practice of using punitive psychiatry against dissidents.

Here's the link to the article. It will be interesting to see where Eastern Europe goes after this over. My eyes are still on Turkey.

Ed, Edd, and Eddy all grown up

The credits are on the bottom of the picture-- I loved this show, and this really nails the characters' inherent sweetness. Cynicism works when there is an undercurrent of humble love. See: Always Sunny's Charlie, Community, South Park-- my fave comedies.

Rowling admits Hermione should have been with Harry

Read the article.

During my many reads of this series, I got to admit... I wanted Harry and Hermione together. I think this was do to the actors having better chemistry on screen. As the series progressed, I could tell Rowling had the films more in her head as she wrote. Wish this wasn't the case, but I bet a similar thing is happens with Game of Thrones. One commenter on the article noted that Ron getting the girl was a boon for side-players everywhere. He wasn't the hero. He was the guy helping the hero, and he ended up with lady. Still... the chemistry... and Rowling admits that the couple would need therapy later. Hell, we'll all need therapy later.

This pic appeared on Reddit today in response to Rowling's recent comments:

Chinese Walmart -- There is Frogs and Crocs and Turtles

Found this interesting over on Reddit. Apparently these are pics from a Walmart in China:







The rest of the pictures are here.

Music Vid - Feb 01

It is a flamboyant Australian indie band... and I like it.