Music: I haven’t forgotten you

January 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Well 2012 is firmly upon us, and a quick reflection of updates reveals that if I were to have a resolution for the new year it really should be along the lines of update frequency, forgetting quality of content for the moment.

So with that in mind I bring you just a single track. As I’m in Canada, and my readership mostly not, today  we have a lovely track by Quebec artist Coeur de Pirate“. That’s Pirate Heart for the hard of French out there.  Juno award winner and generally well-lauded  by critics. Given that most of her songs remain in French, her popularity with anglophonic-Canadians should speak for itself.

Mmm Tasty Microphone

 

Danse et Danse is a great track to introduce you to the style and range of her vocals with a solid beat that defies you not to move to tap your feet. The pacing of the song really works well; with crescendos down to lulls that draw you right back in.

Coeur de Pirate – Danse et Danse (MP3) (Can’t recall the source but this was a freely distributed track, will update if I figure it out)

If you are into that, I do recommend checking out her song ‘Comme des Enfants‘, its got a lovely little video over on youtube, unfortunately its not embedable so I can’t share it here. However, the song is beautiful, and lyrically it best resides in the wonder that is the French language. My skills with that are a little bit rusty, but it was worth looking into to appreciate.

And of course, given that it is me posting we can’t get around the inevitable coversong, there is something about the total turnaround of a song while it still being unmistakably ‘the same song’ that really gets me, but that is a topic for another day. For now, enjoy Coeur de Pop:

Apologies for the tacky video, but it was the best version of the track I could find on your tubes.

Runnerup: Grimes – Genesis. An ethereal female poptrack which is enjoyable, but mostly forgettable, and lyrically indecipherable in the way that only breathy backed by electric pianos only seem able to pull off.

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Superwho?

December 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

What's a Clark Kent?

Just a quick post. The mocking of the conceit of superman’s identity coupled with an adorable art style just work so well together. I’m pretty proud of the shrewd Kent’s and their dismissive opinions of them dumb city folk.

(via See Mike Draw)

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Community Find!

December 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

For all you community fans out there, I have tracked down that wonderfully ridiculous song that has become another of Abed and Troy’s in-jokes.

 

The adult contemporary, some might rather ‘elevator music’ track is: “Michael Haggin – Daybreak” here in all its glory.


For the uninitiated to the wonder that is Community, first off shame on you, second here’s the first time we encounter the song (I believe, feel free to correct me if I am mistaken).


 
The episode contains other such ‘scary stories’ that allow us to peak into the neuroses of all our favourite dysfunctional characters. Do watch.

Filed under Moving Pictures, Music Tagged with , , ,

Best Cosplay Ever This Week – 11.14.11 – ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

November 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment


Hot Damn.

 

Best Cosplay Ever This Week – 11.14.11 – ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews.

This is just great. Especially when its the first thing you see after days of pure marking.

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Superman’s Supersenses

November 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment


Superhearing?

 

Superman Has Super Tinnitus | The Mary Sue.

This joke is so simple, yet so wonderful.  The fact that the shooter(s) have not been dealt with but they are so tickled by the mishear that they are falling about laughing is just the right level of ridiculousness to match the golden age art style.

Though it does beg the question why wouldn’t his super-hearing compensate given the proximity of the speaker and his usual ability to hear virtually anything on the planet (admittedly from space). But we wouldn’t want to be accused of being ped-antic.

 

(Those in the audience who aren’t too keen on punning should be pleased to note that I threw out a ‘Supersense of humour’ line, though I couldn’t resist alluding to it here…)

 

(source: 9gag)

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Hallowinners

October 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I know, I know, I’ve already posted some brief nonsense on halloween, but this couple of things really raised the bar on halloweening that I had to share them as well.

First up is this lovely comic, ostensibly based on a true story which I really hope happened.

If this really did happen it would be the greatest thing to hit halloween since people really stuck to the latter disjunct in “Trick or Treat”.

We must end the halloweenery with adorbs. I present you with clearly the best thing this October.

This Dog just won Halloween.

Halloween 2011 Champion

(via Katie Maria’s facebook)

Also I really hope they called him ‘Chewbarka’.

Filed under Manga, Comics etc., Miscellanea

This is Halloween

October 30, 2011 by 1 Comment

Halloween is upon us, most adult-type folk have already done their celebrations over the past couple of days, and as a result we get wonderful internet nonsensery before the occasion actually occurs.

Stay Puft Marshmellow Baby!

(via Fashionably Geek)

Quick aside, as a child I always thought it was the ‘State Puft Marshmallow Man’, which given that the name is printed on the hat marks me as a particularly unclever child. Though I’d like to think it had something to do with the Red White and Blue colouring of the beast. Man kids are dumb, amiright?

Halloween is much more of a thing back on the other side of the pond, North America, and over there the costuming of houses and parties is almost as big a deal as that of people. From cotton spread super-thin for spiderwebs to renting a fog machine and throwing a stuffed mascot suit of a dog off the roof tethered to a dynamic climbing rope to scare the little costumed urchins begging for sugar-based sustenance. And yes, if you are wondering, that oddly detailed example come from your authors checkered past. However, if you think you’ve done a good job decorating, think again. I present an animatronic zombie. Sorry, a remote-controlled animatronic zombie.

(via Hackaday)

I defy you to watch this in full screen, preferably in silence in the dark but not everyone is that emo, and not be creeped out by it.

Let’s wrap things up with some good new fashioned super-high speed photography. Of pumpkins. Being smashed. Because really that’s why 1000fps cameras were created, slow-mo destruction. Which incidentally is a great name for a prog-rock band.

(via nerdist)

This is Halloween: Costumes, props, kids,  pumpkins, and all kinds of fun.*

 

*Yes I know the whole candy side of things is unrepresented, as is the standard approach to female costuming that I’m sure is being overblogged about at Jezebel and other such sites. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as pro-feminism as the next guy, I just can’t be bothered to beat the undead, yet startlingly sensual, dead horse of  ”Sexy ____”ing on the 31st.

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FYI There is an Avenger’s Movie

October 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment

In case you have been living under a rock for the past few years, superhero movies are not only in vogue but 2011 may just go down in history as the year hero-flicks choked the boxoffice. Hopefully 2012, with The Dark Knight Rises & The Avengers (more on that in a second), will be the much needed Heimlich for the summer blockbuster. But I digress.

Last week was my birthday, but for the rest of the nerd-net, because there really is partition of nerdy vs. not internet; how far we have come. It was the day the Avengers trailer premiered.

Oh did I mention its being directed by Joss Whedon, as if you didn’t already know.  So this looks like it could be pretty good, and the pedigree of the writer(s)/director certainly seems like we won’t be seeing the theoretical sequel to “The Green Lantern”, which I will have to deal with at some later date.

Ever since the Jack Black vehicle “Be Kind Rewind” sweding has entered popular culture. For the uninitiated this is the artistic approach of remaking something with the production values of bored junior high students, it being the main plotpoint of said film. It may doesn’t sound that entertainnig, but somehow it seems to work. Here then, is “The Avengers Trailer: Redux”

Just in case there are any naysayers who are questioning why I would bother writing a couple hundred words to present a trailer. 1) Come on its film and comicbooks, whose blog are you reading anyway. But more importantly it was important enough for NMA to make one of their hilarious animated news pieces. I really hope NMA isn’t news to you, it is not only always good for a couple visual gags but also a really good measure of the world impact of, usually pop-culture, events. Jay & Conan’s late night strife, and our friends over at Occupy Wall Street.

Ah the wonders of the internet and mixed media remixing.

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Ke$ha, Seriously.

October 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Now before you immediately jump ship at the mention of  Ke$ha, and increase my bounce rate on gAnalytics as a result, just bear with me for a moment. I’m guessing you are in either of two camps. 1. You have no idea what a Ke$ha is, or 2. You know well enough to think that there is nothing worth seeing here.

For the uninitiated, or those who want a stark reminder go ahead and watch the first 30s of her breakout single from waay back in 2009 “Tik Tok”. Spelling obviously was not her strongest subject in school, though she is still the frontrunner for ASCII abuse for the third straight year.

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? The key line to remember, is the bit about “brush my teeth with a bottle of jack” because WTB? Cultural scholars are still trying tro wrap their heads around her cavalier approach to referencing, and the dentists are just salivating at the idea of her fans following suit…

So now he have the standard pop starlet story, albeit with some more obscure leanings. The moment my opinion slightly turned on our dollar-sign embedded chum would probably have to be when the, usually hilarious, people over at Funny Or Die made this video explaining the source of the ASCII abuse.

Not supremely hilarious, sure, but at least there is evidence of self-awareness. And the premise is highly entertaining. So at least she knows that her persona is ridiculous. If we left it here, I would be with you in thinking that that is definnitely not enough and why have I wasted time reading this mild exposition. That’s why you need to watch the video for ‘Blow’. As a song its what one might expect genericy pop sounds and a decent beat. But the video itself is some sort of amazing mashup of self-awareness and meme-mashing up. It opens with the disclaimer that “No mythological creatures were harmed in the making of this video.” Her costar, and barely love interest (for music video standards), none other than Dawson from the creek: James van Der Beek. And trust me he knows exactly what part of the cultural arena he inhabits in this day and age. To coin a phrase that is already a victim of linguistic inflation: “This video is all kinds of epic.”

Regardless of your opinion, previous or current, of Ms. Ha, you have to admit that this video is clearly the product of the internet circa early 2011 and proof that these silly people probably know exactly what triggers the silly faces you pull when confronted with their particular breed of nonsense.

A final note, for you Van der Douche fans, you should check out his brief role in the otherwise terrible “The Big Bang”, Antonio Banderas vehicle. The man knows his limits, and is seemingly revelling in them.

(Also its really hard not to type ‘s’ after the $ because mentally one is typing ‘Kesha’ and $ don’t make sounds…)

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Stream the New Feist Album

September 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Hey folks, this is just a quick note letting you know that you can stream the new Feist album, “Metals”, which comes out on October 2nd and 3rd, depending on your location.

Having only just listened to a handful of tracks, I can say that this is definitely a Feist album, however no track has really jumped out at me and proclaimed itself in the way one wants from their music.

Perhaps I will write more on the album if it grows on my in subsequent, non logic-homework filled, listenings.
To get the coveted streaming link simply dump an active email address into the box below. And you gmail users don’t forget you can add as many “.”s to make filters if you are spam-worried. It seems I’m having some plugin issues on the new website so if you can’t see the feist’s fancy flash thingy below, just click through to here.

 

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