Posted by Brad.
At a loss for what to do when multiple parties exist at an impasse?
A modern multi-player melee of many mains, that’s what! Although I had seen it long ago, this image cropped up once again on the wonderful/terrible 4channel.
All credit apparently goes to David C. Lovelace.
Posted by Brad.
Brad here, time to get some nerd on! Apparently Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates now has free servers. I’ve played the game during free trials twice before, and now I’m finally setting off on a world of puzzle piracy like never before.
Obviously, the game is not for everyone. If you don’t care for cutesy graphics and/or dislike puzzle games, you might want to make sure that you don’t waste your time registering a username. If you might like it, give it a try, by all means. I mean, I love puzzle games, and maybe I did spend hours playing this last night. A few friends and I are on the “Hunter” server, my pirate’s name is the infamous Sogeking. If you happen to see me, don’t hesitate to invite me to be your heartie. I could go on explaining the game, but I’d rather be lazy and provide you a link.
Speaking of pirates, I’ve started watching One Piece again. For those of you who don’t know me, One Piece is to me what most people would commonly refer to as “my favorite”. However, the format that Kaizoku-Fansubs started putting their files in put me off (along with a disinterest in the Skypiea storyline, due to spoilers) , and I was split from the series for a good half year. I’m back, and I’m enjoying it just as much (more?) than before. Luckily, I’ve yet to pick up some of my more detestable demons such as Bleach, or even worse, Yakitate! Ja-pan (brame and Jamie mocked me for watching this nonstop). For this reason, I’m excited about some One Piece movie that has already come out in Japan! It’s like the eleventh movie this year or something! It’s got robots, and a really old woman! Anyways, view that shameless promotion and fanservice in the video, HERE!
I like to put pretty pictures in nearly every single one of my posts, so you may want to get used to it (Of course, only if we have any readersl… *sob*).
I’ll leave you with some little video tidbits that I love, in relation to the last post. Well, just Ten. Six. One. You’ll laugh until you cry. And watch it over and over. A woman punches a teacher in the face at a PTA meeting. The video isn’t as good as the satisfying “thok” sound that occurs when the punch lands. View this senseless violence HERE!
posted by Jamie and brame.
Since we were bored as crap at 1:30 in the morning waiting for adult swim to loop, we decided to look for some hilarious vids on you tube. Here’s what we found:
Tripped : A kid gets tripped, best five seconds ever.
Ownd: Fat Mexican kid gets ownd by his friends.
MK II: Every Mortal Kombat II fatality to some Metallica song.
8@115: A kid gets kicked. Might be fake, but looks like it hurts either way.
Cat/Dog “fight”: This is funny because the cat wails on a dog that looks like Dakota.
That’s all we got for now. I’m sure we’ll find more and let you know about them.
posted by brame.
“A Scanner Darkly,” in a few words, is “Fear and Loathing” in suburban America. The movie was quite good, I thought. Not only did I think it, but I also said it. Though I never read the book, the script was apparently a good representation of the it. I plan on reading the book (after I finish South of the Pumphouse and now Emma), but I’m yet to purchase it. Anyways, Terry Gilliam (the mastermind behind “Fear and Loathing”) planned on making this film years before Linklater picked it up. Gilliam’s ideas were scrapped, but it seems Linklater’s script may have been somewhat influenced by the dialogue of Hunter S. Thompson (or Raoul Duke, whoever you wish to refer to him as). The movie’s script is now a major selling point for me. I thought I would be impressed solely by story and animation, but the script truly takes gold to animation’s silver and plotline’s bronze.
Moving on, the art direction (I hate to be that guy) was insanely awesome. I believe Brad agrees with me on this one. He said on the way out he really liked the animation. And apparently cel-shading is much harder to accomplish than normal CG animation. So I beg you Disney/Pixar, stop making bad CG children’s films. All of them are crappy minus two (“A Bug’s Life” and “Toy Story” if you must know). Anyways, toy bugs aside, the cel-shading was perfect for this movie. Elements such as “scramble suits” (a suit cops wore to protect their identities that constantly change their appearance) and the opening “bug scene” were balanced perfectly between a cartoonish imagination and a realistic portrayl of the future. Perhaps the film’s animation style will open the door for even television series to work with this concept. More from Wired.
Scramble suits
Freck and the “bugs”
Although I said before that Linklater had not found his niche he certainly pulled this one off very well in my opinion. His portrayl of the characters was flawless. When I walked out of the theatre there was not a character that I thought was underdeveloped. All of them also well acted. I was especially impressed with Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayl of James Barris. Let me tell you, I hate Robert Downey Jr., but I can’t say any other character was acted better that his own, James Barris. He is the character that you are supposed to love and hate, but I only loved him. He was such a douche, yet he was a hilarious douche.
“I could be mur… dered.”
I would highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to see drugees get angry with each other with a couple of plot twists. I called them both, but they may be unexpected to some. Still, just the dialogue is worth my five dollars. Hilarious, period. Not truly what I expected, but still great on so many levels.
“We meet again… Star Fox.”
posted by Jamie
Hello. The newest collection to any Radiohead fan’s compilation “The Eraser” was released July 10th. This was Thom Yorke’s debut album and has done moderately well to say the least (#2 on the charts). The track listing can be viewed at Amazon. After listening to the album the first thing that struck me was how much it sounded like Kid A/Amnesiac (a few songs were actually written during this time), but after 3 weeks of play it has created a new “Era” of music, at least coming from Thom’s side of things.
Remnants of a guitar are hidden beneath the heavy electronic beats and synths. Musically the album contains portions of great detail but also areas of somewhat basic beats. Lyrically the album is one minded; Knowing a little about Thom’s view on global warming makes this album’s focus evident. Songs such as “The Clock”, “And it Rained all Night”, “The Eraser”, and “Atoms for Peace” “inform” us that things are not as nice and blue as they seem. The single “Black Swan” is the reason the CD has received a PA from the man. Yorke uncharacteristically states that things are “fucked up” a subtle 14 times, although it has already appeared as Exit Music (for a film) in A Scanner Darkly. I consider it poorly written, and I dislike its repetitive nature.
As a whole the album consists of hit or miss songs, but is convincingly sincere and heartfelt in its content. A few highlights are “Harrowdown Hill”, “Skip Divided”, and “And it Rained All Night.” Yorke claims that the album helped ease his mind and release untamed thoughts, and despite rumors of a breakup the album has had full support from the remaining members of Radiohead. The cover art done by Stanley Donwood is a telling tale of the ravaging seas, storms, and troubles being parted by one man. The point being is that action can be taken to ease the situation, but no eraser can clear ink, and the environment is what it is. More Information
Posted by brame.
Tomorrow, we (as BBoW) plan on attending the newest Richard Linklater film, “A Scanner Darkly.” Within the next few days we will probably review the film in either one whole review or three smaller ones. Not to begin the process prematurely, but I have a question for Mr. Linklater. Why? Why did he make this animated “sci-fi, drama, thriller” that I hope is amazingly brilliant. A brief history of Linklater’s film career will have anyone else pose the same question. His career began with a decent success in “Dazed and Confused,” but was followed by multiple flops including “Before Sunrise.” Still he began with an indie hit, “Slacker.” These are his early works. Today Linklater is most known for his most mainstream hit with Jack Black, “School of Rock.” Given, he also contributed to such films as “Clerks” (a movie which needed no sequel) and “Kill Bill Vol. 2” (a movie which need not exist). My best guess is between these two options: Linklater wants to be that Burton-esque director who can do it all, or he is yet to find the genre in which he fits best. Either way, his latest endeavor is sure to be a cult hit.
In more future news, I recently purchased Les Claypool’s “rookie” novel. The book is sure to be no Catcher in the Rye (my personal favorite novel), but I hope Claypool’s musical genius spills onto paper. The book originated as a screenplay, but evolved into a novel. Still, South of the Pumphouse appears as though it will be a compelling and under-read title.
Posted by Brad.
If you haven’t heard of me, or don’t hang around me often, then you haven’t heard of my recent ventures into the lush, savage, world of tea. While at first it was simple tasting of common bagged teas such as Earl Grey and basic greens, there came a more experimental side of this endeavor, starting with hybrid teas, moving onward and losing the bag with a popular Chinese brand, and staving off into new directions. One of these directions has recently lead me to the discovery of the magnificent Red Tea.
Not an actual tea but a tisane, red tea, or rooibos tea as it can also be known, is not from plant that is associated with all common teas, Camellia sinensis, but is instead made from a bushy plant named, you guessed it, Rooibos. The plant is South African in origin, and perhaps may be one of the nicest things to come from there.
I love it.
The end result is really nice, and while I enjoy mine with a mix of spices, just plain black is just as satisfying. It seems to have a little more kick than regular tea, though that may be just my imagination. I have yet to try it with any milk or sweeteners, but as they say… Once you go black you won’t go…. – Oh, forget it. Anyways, with most other things we post on this site, all I can do is heartily encourage you to go to your local grocer, pick up a nice box of free-trade red tea, boil some water, and sit down in front of a cozy computer to enjoy your new cup of tea.
It’s certainly my new cup of tea. (Insert uproarious end-gag laughter, a la Speed Racer).
EDIT: According to wikipedia, it has no caffine content. Oh my.
Posted by brame.
I recently stumbled upon a huge music sale that included old Tooth and Nail cd’s for as low as five bucks. Given the oppurtunity I thumbed through the mass of crap to find that some of it was actually worth my time and money. Apparently compact discs such as As Cities Burn, Joy Electric, Haste the Day, andmewithoutYou are worth no more than a few dollars profit. Anyways, I continued to flip through I’d say atleast five hundred cd’s to find about 20 T & N cd’s in a row.
Now, I bought the new mewithoutYou the day it came out (October 5, 2004). I thought it was the most genius thing I’d ever heard at the time. Since then I’ve listened to more artists similar to their “genre” (such as Tiger Bear Wolf). I contemplated buying the old one, “[A --> B] Life,” multiple times. But! when I would stumble upon it in Best Buy, it would cost $14.99 or whatever insane price the store decided to slap on it. Plus, I had only heard two songs off thecd (“Gentlemen” and “Bullet to Binary”) and the latter song I was not very thoroughly impressed with.
Enough with the not so recent past and let’s jump forward to July, 18 2006 or the day I found “[A --> B] Life” on sale for $6.99. I don’t know why but I immediately grabbed it thinking “They can’t be frickin’ serious. Six dollars and ninety nine cents.” Oh, but they were serious. Very serious. I preceded to buy a few others as well. Most impressive of course is this “antique” mewithoutYou record I was so oddly excited about. I brought it home and listened to it twice through without stopping and thought to myself, “Why didn’t I buy this two years ago”? I’ll tell you why: it cost as much as a bottled water in Venezuela. Venezuela aside, I like this album better than “Catch For Us the Foxes.” Why? Well, I’ll tell you.
One, it’s raw. It doesn’t sound overproduced and as studio quality as the second record. It sounds as if they’ve recorded the record in a garage or storage unit. Songs like “Silencer” hold the bass that I loved on “Leaf” from “Catch For Us the Foxes,” but add a grungey (?) guitar effect and catchy hum in the background vocals. Don’t get me wrong, the second album has it’s raw flavor but nothing like the crunchy tone of the instruments in “[A --> B] Life.”
Second, the album art is sweet. A matter of opinion, yes, but be it that I nearly never download music, an album with good artwork is a necessity. And to be brutally honest, I tire of these new-fangled, no artwork, cardboard, oversize pieces of crap. (Yeah, stop doing that Morrissey). Enough about Morrissey though (he sucks), I like the basic two-fold layout they use and the color scheme, it is enough to be satisfying and not overbearing. Still no album art will top either of the “O’ God the Aftermath” releases.Original and Deluxe
The final feature that I believe tops “Catch For Us the Foxes” is the flow of the songs and the energy in the music. “Foxes” tends to put me to sleep. This endeavor however obviously has been created by the same Aaron Weiss who guest-starred in “Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste.” Here’s to you, past Aaron Weiss, I commend you on your past album and hope everyone that reads this will go buy it as well as the new record “Brother, Sister” on September 26, 2006.
Posted by Brad.
So, I decided we’d be here for a while, so I guess we’ll go ahead with the posting of actual subject matter and whatnot.
I’ve started watching cartoons again in my spare time. Not those newfangled Fooly Cooly cartoons or whatever you kids call them, but actual red-blooded American (read: animated in Korea) cartoons, like I used to watch back in the day. Two have especially caught my attention, which boosts my probable TV show interest capacity to a whopping four programs. Let’s start, then.
If you’re a loyal reader of the popular blog 4cr, then you may have seen the article for the pilot of The Amazing Screw-On Head. Apparently this is by the guy who made Hellboy, a movie I never saw (Or comic I never read). But that’s beside the point. This awesome show is about a robot head who works for Abraham Lincoln as the neutralizer of all threats, such as his arch-nemesis, Emperor Zombie. I love the humor in it, and if it were to see a full series release, it would be among one of two shows that I will go out of my way to watch. You can view the trailer on Sci-Fi’s website, right here. Be sure to watch it, and tell them your opinion of it (Hint: you love it).
Secondly is the now-popular series Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. McCracken’s sophomore release is ten times more tantalizing than his first, assuredly with a larger target audience than his first success (because seriously, what male would want to admit to watching the Power Puff Girls?). By all means I find Foster’s entertaining, and others seem to agree, garnering both children and adult fans, as well as taking home three Emmy Awards. If you’re into cartoons at all, I’d suggest you at least give it two watches, as it may grow on you. It’s on Cartoon Network almost every day now, so give it a look-see as to when it’s on. You can find the showing times on the site, right here.
You can also find a neat little look into to the development with the developer’s blog (that’s where the image above was found). On a little side note, if you didn’t know, it marks the first cartoon to be done in Macromedia Flash, which is pretty nifty.
Hopefully you’ll take a look into these cartoons, because really, you’re never too old to enjoy cartoons.
Veronica Corningstone and I had sex last night. And now we are in love.
