tee, shrimpoluminescence....and donkeymonkeys

The King of Kong, with Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe. It was a lot more moving, than I expected, for one. And interesting - like, going into it, how interesting can a movie about Donkey Kong get? But, it's really...real, just real people, real emotion, real passions. And real douchebags, well set up to look all pleasant in the beginning, but then the true hero comes around, slightly autistic seeming and all. Of course, even he has his own (family-neglecting) kind of flaws, but, damn but if he isn't upstanding in every other way. I think it's worth seeing in taking some time to really view some real people dealing with stuff that's really important to them. Like a serious, and yet still kind of funny, version of a mockumentary.

Blue Harvest Uh, well, it's a Family Guy re-telling of A New Hope. Eeeeyup. That should about do it, explanation-wise. Pretty much standard for the cartoon - some really hilarious moments, but a lot of mediocre, too.

If Evolution's Shore actually comes about, I'm moving to Africa
-tangent to that, in Arthur Clarke being a source of inspiration for that novel

One might argue that pistol shrimp are like living flash-bangs (also, the term "shrimpoluminescence" is fun)

What's this Boskop Man business all about?

shrimpball

The real question is, what if one smacks right into your face, out of nowhere?

Article conferring Western science and yogic thought on lucid dreaming

crazy fruit art

What the hell is circular polarized..ing? light? Huh? What? Shrimp?

post Egg Day triviaball

Again from Brian - elephant cams. No, not like that kind of dirty cam, thank you. More, we have to find a way to attach a camera to Mattie. I'd say Tia, but all we'd get would be shots of food.

On Easter, in France (is there really a flying bell?)

A pretty awesome fighter, Tara Larosa [won for the US in grappling championships two weeks after her boyfriend died in Iraq, for example]

Wow, scientific extension of my favorite metaphor, the lotus as symbol of spirituality

I'll make a tshirt that says "dippily byzantine," because no one will get it

School for Scoundrels, with Bill Thornton and Jon Heder. And some girl from Real World? Eh, I could never get into those shows, however dippily byzantine. I don't know, Heder...I just don't see him as any sort of leading man, except in really dumb comedies. And this was just trying a little too hard to be not-so-dumb, and even went way too far as it got closer to the end, trying to suddenly make itself into a rom-com, what with the sweeping music. I suppose this film could have been better, but it was suffering from fragmented identity, trying to be too many things at once, when it probably would have been better served as just a straight up, stupid ass funny movie. Oh, and it didn't even pull off the interesting lessons contained within shady that Swingers did, considering it's kind of a parallel in subject - this was more just douchebaggery and sad-funny.

Shivaji seems like he was a gunslinger of a fellow

Hm, on combinations of food and digestion - alas, my beloved Brushfire combo of brisket and pork....heh, no, this requires experimentation and verification!

From Brian, a robot that would probably make me scream if it came upon me in the night in the forest. Especially if I tried to knock it over like that and it got back up....

seriously. not one thing up a butt.

Flesh Gothic, by Edward Lee. A strong showing by Lee, in his always grotesque-yet-fun slasher-novel style (like a slasher movie, but with more over the top sex and violence). But, not his strongest, I'd say, on a couple of counts. One, for as sexual as the premise is purported to be (the narrative more than revolves around it, it's fairly obsessed with it), there's just not as much actual sexy stuff going on, to match it. Though I will note some wide-eyed creative ideas near the end. But that's the other thing, the ending just kind of fizzles after a book's worth of buildup; I think the climax could have been, not to pun, fleshed out a lot more. Mmm, kind of double pun, there. Also, an issue I've had with Lee, though I'm sure he's kind of playing-to-audience, and this is really a complaint about all of similar genre, to be fair, I suppose, is that it's staunchly heterosexual throughout. Oh, there's a gay character....who's celibate. All told, it's just chauvinistic how nothing of equal craziness happens to the male characters in the novel, and there was plenty of opportunity for it in this one.

And to go along with that, some penile facts, for your enjoyment (that's a real adjective, right?)

Spice Islands has lots of interesting trivia on...well...spices

If only they'd taught us history this way....actually, the more I read, the more they're bloody hilarious (more here)

for Jake, on Trinity

Wow, never would have figured that name for that cactus...now I'll just smirk whenever I see one

As much as I adore geckos, the astronaut idea makes me blink (the video makes me more eager to see them when they come back in the summer, though)

I think if I saw a coconut crab in person and was not prepared I would scream like a little girl. And then eat it.

I want to try climbing a giant sheet now

The Gymnast, with Dreya Weber and Addie Yungmee. A lot better than I expected; well, to be honest, I was really just kind of going for a stuck-at-home-watching-movies-so-might-as-well-get-B grade-sexy. And lo and behold, it turns out to have twenty some awards from various sources, very little of anything actually too sexual, but even better, interesting characters in an interesting situation. And very graceful and lovely scenery, what with the trapeze act. Interesting to see relationship interactions played out almost verbatim from some things I've read lately, and that set within an interesting setting - I almost wish I had more of the characters' daily life to flesh it out even more, but I suppose it wouldn't really fit in a movie format, heh. I'm still torn on the ending, though. I appreciate the open ending of it, after all, one of my favorite authors is Frank Herbert, the kind of open endings...but in a romance, I wanted a romantic ending, dang it!

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel. Wow. This is going to take a couple more readings for me to really get the full weight of it. Written over the course of seven years by Bechdel, the author and artist of the great Dykes to Watch Out For, Fun Home is a thought provoking and depthful look at her relationship with her father, and that woven with the evolution of her identity in terms of sexuality, gender, and adulthood. The art is doubly interesting in that much of it was actually done from photo references, and yet retains Bechdel's clean and unique style. Between reading this, watching The Gymnast, and watching Secretary, I had a lot of similar themes to think about this weekend. Fun times!

From Ms Xuemei, badgers! Now we just need snakes and mushrooms.

Jim Loy seems to be something of a polymath - lots of short, interesting articles

I love ants, always so interesting

glass studded trivia ball

gerenuks look almost alien to me

whoa, go dolphin (and, animal intelligence/sentience plug!)

not sure anyone will get this, but to me alligators using their breath this way is an oblique commentary on humans using their own pranic vayu (the dimension of a person's manifestation that can be controlled with the breath)

how adorable are sunshine buddies? very. that's how much.

That's really what I should do with my gloves

vibrant

From a de Lint story, 'The Pennymen,' a pretty accurate description of what after-meditation feels like for a bit:
"...and made her feel that everything she looked at she was seeing for the first time. The art hanging from the walls was vibrant, the colors almost pulsing. The spiraling grain in the room's wooden trim, window frames, and wainscotting pulled at her gaze, drawing it down into its twists and turns. The smell of the turps and solvents from her studio behind her had never had such a presence and bite before. It wasn't so much unpleasant as so very immediate.

This, she realized suddenly, was what Jilly meant when she talked about the epiphany of experiencing magic, howsoever small a piece of the mystery you stumbled upon. It redefined everything."

Basically, we're looking at April 22 for ours

That is my philosophy on the matter. Yes.

renewed interest in transhuman(ism) triviaball

Does Pando creep out anyone else?

It's obvious, duh, he's a mutant, like in X-Men

I am the very model of a Singularitarian

I'm all about animal sentience/intelligence these days, and these little Aussie spiders are right up in that (also a tiny bit fae seeming, I'd say)

Reminds me, potentially, of the serafinas in MacDonald's Terminal Cafe; slash, this is Second Life we're talking about, when will they start having cybersex?

the random white circles and snowmen? perfect touch.

Swingers, with Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, and that guy from Office Space. As the movie began, I reflexively had thoughts of not liking it - it seeming to be about one really pathetic character, as much as I've been nigh exactly where he was, I just didn't want to sit through another experience of it, and some of the people I normally consider rank asshats. I warmed up to it over the course of the movie though, on account of little things, like in-narrative callbacks, the bit of metafictional element, and the characters actually seeming to really care about each other, and their shallowness actually stripping them any maliciousness I might have ascribed. That is, their attitudes towards women and a sundry of other things were varying degrees of superficial or immature, but they seemed somewhat nice at heart. So it was kind of true to life, to me, except with relatively nice guys maybe trying to be kind of jerky because they think they have to, which is actually nicer than the more true jerks in real life.

Also, there are a lot of little lessons for social life in it, in a whole spectrum of painfully-bad to kind of jerky, with the nice ones in the middle. That is, I know it might be easy to knee-jerk pass it off as about guys trying to manipulate girls, and, well, some of it is. But there are little things like when the girl sasses or asks what car the guy drives, we immediately saw how the response could have been better as a sass back, or a rejoinder with mirrored disdain, because that's where the narrative directed our thoughts. Or the attitude of confidence to go into meeting a complete stranger with, say. Anyhoo, interesting.

Wow, the wife of the French president is gorgeous, who knew?

Lots of fun info in the Cloverfield FAQ

Dresken Codak = sweetacular.

For some reason I find these two leglocks kind of funny

What a weird toy; this about sea cucumbers seems somehow similar

List of terror attacks thwarted since 9/11, interesting

That's....actually kind of an accurate summary of that autobiography I just read

I'd be all over that if it was legal

'touchfood' is poignant and 'act my age' was a good whack upside the head; Jen Wang

Hee! Tiny Carl Jung! Ok I'm done linking that fun comic now.

trivia disco ball

From the writer of 30 Days of Night, sci fi horror!

Hyenas have weird enough genitals I bet there has to be some niche furry porn out there involving it, slash, oddly inspired hentai

An update on one of my favorite charities, Seva, in Chiapas, Mexico

Sigh.

Woo! I don't have to buy new gloves! (I think)

I'd like to get into the habit (ba dum tshhhhhhhh)

Shoot 'Em Up, with Clive Owen and Monica Belucci. Candy, popcorn, bullets. If you go into it acknowledging that it has about the intellectual content of the Bugs Bunny cartoons it often references, then it's easy to enjoy. At the same time, it's kind of boring in that; maybe if I had more of a thing for gun ballets, but they never really held the same appeal for me as more physical action. Now, Belucci on the other hand, definitely holds an appeal for me. As does Owen. So yeah, ok, but....ridiculous.
p.s. I still think the nun-prostitute is sexy

-what a fun animal!

-Dark Tower's back! And it brought attendent goosebumps+ with just those few panels referencing the....third book, is it, I think?

-huh, spies's commentary on the Bond movies

I think it would go kerblammo

But what if it whacked into our planet?

Google Maps has street view for Tucson! The fact that I can look at the intersection directly next to my house kind of creeps me out, though.

Ah, someone who loves octopuses as much as me

I want one. I would eat much more red meat.

Sphere idea has potential, but I want to see some moving pictures

"Remember that guy who was in the flood and the boat came by, and the helicopter came by, and the superhero came by, and the whole time the guy's like, "It's cool, God's got this one handled," so of course he dies horribly, and then gets all snotty with God, like, "Why weren't you there for me?" And God's like, "When the fuck was I not?" "