Frivolous as Fuck

Photo

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:36:11 -0400

katieb003: rneerkat: whens chip skylarks next tour LOOK AUSTIN, CHIP SKYLARK. MY SHINY TEETH AND...

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:27:05 -0400

katieb003:

rneerkat:

whens chip skylarks next tour

LOOK AUSTIN, CHIP SKYLARK. MY SHINY TEETH AND MEEEEEEEEE

Great, that won’t be stuck in my head now or anything.

They’re harder because people make a conscious fucking...

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:24:54 -0400

They’re harder because people make a conscious fucking choice to put in their headphones and listen to their iPod when they walk around the mall. They’re harder because people text each other from right across the room instead of keeping the negative things inside or saving important things for later. They’re harder because people don’t know how the fuck to be where they are, when they are, in nearly any of their five senses. They’re harder because we get to feel a catharsis for every blog post we make bitching about something instead of bottling it up and either having a nervous breakdown, or working our fucking asses off to make the world a place we’d rather live in.

They’re harder because the worst thing about this generation isn’t its music or its attention span or its obsession with sitting around and doing nothing but watching ten shitty tv shows at a time.

Its how bad we are at being human.

New plan:

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:18:07 -0400

uprightbipedalist:

Start double-tagging all our anthropology posts with both spellings so that all the girls on the anthropologie tag will come to understand.

Seriously, it’ll only take a week of bones, chimp butts, and questions like “how do I get the remaining flesh off this deer skull?” before they start to respect the difference…

Photo

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:35:18 -0400

25-Million-Year-Old Primate Fossils Unearthed in Tanzania | Paleontology | Sci-News.com

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:23:12 -0400

25-Million-Year-Old Primate Fossils Unearthed in Tanzania | Paleontology | Sci-News.com

Where have you gone? How does time pass by so fast? Seems like...

Sun, 19 May 2013 17:35:00 -0400

Where have you gone? How does time pass by so fast? Seems like yesterday, you and I, we could relate, but you know how things change. But is it me, or is it time? Now I’m stuck looking back on something that I’ll never have again. All this time with regret. I just lost today, worrying about yesterday. Can’t live in yesterday. All this time with regret. I lost today. Worrying about yesterday. And no I’ll never forget about you. I just came to terms that I’ve lost you.

On with my life.

All in a year

mckelvie: wilwheaton: jenniferdeguzman: He said Star Trek is...

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:57:59 -0400

mckelvie:

wilwheaton:

jenniferdeguzman:

He said Star Trek is too “philosophical”? Screw that noise.

mechcanuck:

I don’t know when this interview happened but I AM SAD AND ANGRY NOW

The philosophies in Star Trek are kinda part of the actual setting. If you don’t get that, why are you allowed to make Star Trek movies.

Sigh. The whole point of Star Trek is that it’s philosophical. If you don’t want philosophical Science Fiction, there’s plenty of that for you to enjoy, but Star Trek is philosophical. Philosophy is part of Star Trek’s DNA, and if you’re given the captain’s chair, you’d better damn well respect that.

: /

Aye, see my below review once you’ve seen the movie. I get the impression that though my confusion is directed at an interesting aesthetic question, said question arises as a result of lazy conceptual footwork by this cockdick.

notalkingplz: Right.

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:51:30 -0400

notalkingplz:

Right.

Star Trek: Into Meta-Confusion: Ouch My Brain Hurts: Colon:

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:22:00 -0400

Seriously. Do not. Under any circumstances. At all. Read what follows if you haven’t fucking seen Into Darkness yet. Don’t do it to yourself. Go enjoy the film. You fucking idiot. Additionally, if you are avoiding spoilers or interested in attempting to avoid spoilers regarding the original Star Trek movies, or that shitty Adam Sandler remake of The Longest Yard, go read some shitty five-mile-high, useless review instead.

That being said, if you are someone who saw Into Darkness but did not see any of the original Star Trek movies, please contact me somehow, before reading this (assuming you are not avoiding spoilers) and before seeing any of the original Star Trek movies tell me about your experience of Into Darkness. Feel free to contact me also if you saw both and either shared or had insight into my massive, aneurysm-inducing confusion.

Also, titles are going to go from italics to quotes. Fucking deal with it.

In the original version of “The Longest Yard,” the character Caretaker is murdered by turning on a light-bulb which is filled with gasoline or kerosene or some kind of violently combustible liquid. Chris Rock’s remake version of the same character is also murdered, but by trying to change a radio station on a boom-box in a cell that was playing some type of hick white-people music.

Yet before he changes the radio station and sets off the booby trap that was set for him, we see him turn on the light in the cell. In fact, the director gives us a close-up shot of the moment that Caretaker yanks the pull-chain to illuminate the room.

Towards who is this moment aimed? Obviously it is directed at people who saw the original and were just waiting for Caretaker to die. For these people, the light bulb serves as both a direct homage to the original movie (even though we’re talking about a movie that, plot-wise, is an exact remake), and a moment of suspense for fans of the original movie who get to breathe a sigh a relief upon the light not setting Caretaker ablaze. Of course, they don’t get much relief, as the radio takes care of that rather shortly after.

But what about the people who didn’t see the original movie? This very suspicious directing choice seems to be just that: some wacky close-up of a light bulb that is either meant to make us, very indirectly, think it was supposed to blow up or— well, who the fuck knows. It’s meaningless. It’s just an odd cinematic moment for everyone not privy to this light bulb’s context in “The Longest Yard” lore. I think it’s safe to say that this moment is a not-even-thinly-veiled reference to the original, and only serves as a moment of any value to those who saw the original (or of some value to those who had the moment explained to them after the fact).

Enter “Into Darkness”: What are some of this movie’s biggest moments worth without an acquaintance with their context?

Before talking any shop about the rest of the movie, including the amazing acting (particularly of Benedictine Cumberbunson) and smooth-as-a-baby’s-supple-lips directing, I want to make it clear that this might be my biggest issue with the movie and is still, even as I write this review, confusing the shit out of me.

We’ll get there, though.

Open on a gorgeously rendered M-Class planet, where we’re immediately put face-to-face with the prime directive: the cardinal rule of non-interference belonging to the Federation which was really the one and only staple of the series missing from the reboot’s first outing (though understandably so). I loved that choice. It served to encapsulate this very important part of the Star Trek universe while at the same time serving as an important moment for understanding Kirk’s defiance, Spock’s attitude towards death as shaped by the events of this timeline, and his relationship with Uhura.

That’s damn good writing.

Enter Khan. All the speculation was out there, and here I was avoiding IMDB and every single fucking site I possibly could so that I could experience the moment where things got revealed, even though it was glaringly apparent from the very first time you see Cucumbersnatch’s face that he is playing Khan. And he played the absolute ever-loving shit out of that role. I want him to get every award ever.

In any case, all of the speculation at the very least led me to come to the conclusion that they would have to rewrite Khan’s awakening under the circumstances of the new timeline in order to wake him up that early. That’s exactly what happened and I thought the choice to have the terror of the Nero incursion turn Admiral Marcus into a jingoistic, war-driven, third reich-esque dickhole was a great move.

Unfortunately, when it came to having a final showdown with Marcus himself, it was readily apparent that his character only existed to allow for the early awakening of Khan and to have Alice Eve in her underwear.

I am, however, not upset about either of these things.

And even though I think the final showdown with Marcus felt a little ad hoc and rushed along, I think it still allowed Khan to shine. The skull crushing thing was too fucking perfect.

Enter Kirk’s death within the radiation chamber. His hand to the glass. Spock shouting “Khan!” This is the climax of the movie. This is where this movie has been headed. It is not out of place within the context of this movie. And it’s a fantastic moment for the series.

But how do I unsee the final act of “Wrath of Khan” here? How do I unsee Spock dying inside of the radiation chamber as we once saw; his hand on that side of the glass, slowly fading away after inserting his soul into McCoy. And how in the hell could anybody ever unsee Kirk looking up and screaming “Khan!” after being stranded by him?

I don’t know. On the one hand, these examples bare little similarity to that of “The Longest Yard” situation I mentioned earlier: this movie is not meant to be a remake of any sort but rather a new tale belonging to a separate timeline where things must happen differently.

On the other hand, that gives me all the more reason to scratch my head regarding my feelings of the moments during Kirk’s death. Yes, this is not a remake, and yes, these characters are certainly going to have traits that are shared across even alternate timelines: but isn’t this a really direct homage? We’re talking hands on the glass, someone dying in a radiation chamber, someone yelling Khan, someone saying, verbatim, at the beginning of the movie “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”— what the hell do I do with this?

The way that I aesthetically value any Star Trek movie is always going to be informed by my entire experience of the Star Trek franchise before-the-fact. One of the coolest things about the first reboot movie was that it provided me with an experience of the Kirk-Spock dynamic that I could never get in the Original Series because of the events that transpired. Someone without any knowledge of Star Trek, I’m assuming, could still enjoy that movie, and perhaps even that very theme within that movie, but only from what they would be able to glean about the relationship from the things that old Spock tells Kirk. It’s not a dynamic that they have any vested interest in going into the film: the movie has to generate that interest and make insinuations about the way things are “meant to be.”

Seeing as I can’t divorce myself from my experience of Khan trilogy of movies or the episode in the Original Series where Khan is introduced, I can’t speak for how this movie operates for someone who is coming in with nothing but the first reboot to go on. I bet it was actually a really good and compelling movie. Kirk’s death, Spock’s rage; these things (probably) function perfectly fine taken within the isolated context of this new timeline.

But what about the rest of us who attach a massive load of narrative baggage to these referential moments?

I don’t know. It’s a really odd feature of meta-storytelling to which I’ve previously given no thought. The references were certainly intentional, and the movie was certainly enjoyable, and there’s so much more that I could say about the film. But this is bugging the shit out of me. This is not a feature of cinema that people had to worry about before this, the age of reboots. And examples abound. Just look at the moment in Django where he explains the spelling of his name to the man at the bar: the actor who played the original Django. Of course he knows how it’s spelled. That’s the punchline. A joke that is completely vacuous to anybody not in on the joke.

But when these moments are more than punchlines, when they’re more than homages to original versions of characters or movies— when these moments are co-opted and flipped around to take on a completely new form without losing any of their referential power, are we able to sort out the value of the movie independently? Is the integrity of this evaluation even something about which we should be concerned?

I don’t fucking know… KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!!!!!!

gnarlycovers: Dazzer #35 (Marvel Comics - January...

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:49:46 -0400

gnarlycovers:

Dazzer #35 (Marvel Comics - January 1985)

Illustrator: Bill Sienkiewicz

WHAT THE FUCK

Wed, 15 May 2013 02:58:38 -0400

narutosensei:

WHY THE FUCK WOULD THE FUCKING NARUTO MANGA CHAPTER FUCKING END I’M PISSING SERIOUSLY FUCK

JESUS EATING A BURRITO WITH KETCHUP WHILE SCATING ON A KICKBIKE IN AN AIRPLANE CRIST

Guess I should read this chapter

Photo

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:34:13 -0400

westcoastavengers: Wolverine, Iron Man, Flash, Superman, Spider...

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:59:20 -0400

westcoastavengers:

Wolverine, Iron Man, Flash, Superman, Spider Man, and Hulk collages by Mike Alcantara

dwdesign: By Kilian Eng

Tue, 14 May 2013 01:35:44 -0400

dwdesign:

By Kilian Eng

incidentalcomics: Message to a Graduate WHAT?! This is fucking...

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:58:03 -0400

incidentalcomics:

Message to a Graduate

WHAT?!

This is fucking nonsense.

picapixels: 進撃の巨人の実写映画版ポスターを勝手に描いてみました　　… on Twitpic No way

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:51:14 -0400

picapixels:

進撃の巨人の実写映画版ポスターを勝手に描いてみました　　… on Twitpic

No way

Photo

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:46:51 -0400

adventuretime: BMO Rainbow Hair Perfect for the Roy G. Biv in...

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:45:17 -0400

adventuretime:

BMO Rainbow Hair

Perfect for the Roy G. Biv in your life, this Tee is now available exclusively at the Mighty Fine website.

Photo

Sun, 12 May 2013 22:27:13 -0400

Frivolous as Fuck

Photo

katieb003: rneerkat: whens chip skylarks next tour LOOK AUSTIN, CHIP SKYLARK. MY SHINY TEETH AND...

They’re harder because people make a conscious fucking...

New plan:

Photo

25-Million-Year-Old Primate Fossils Unearthed in Tanzania | Paleontology | Sci-News.com

Where have you gone? How does time pass by so fast? Seems like...

mckelvie: wilwheaton: jenniferdeguzman: He said Star Trek is...

notalkingplz: Right.

Star Trek: Into Meta-Confusion: Ouch My Brain Hurts: Colon:

gnarlycovers: Dazzer #35 (Marvel Comics - January...

WHAT THE FUCK

Photo

westcoastavengers: Wolverine, Iron Man, Flash, Superman, Spider...

dwdesign: By Kilian Eng

incidentalcomics: Message to a Graduate WHAT?! This is fucking...

picapixels: 進撃の巨人の実写映画版ポスターを勝手に描いてみました … on Twitpic No way

Photo

adventuretime: BMO Rainbow Hair Perfect for the Roy G. Biv in...

Photo

picapixels: 進撃の巨人の実写映画版ポスターを勝手に描いてみました　　… on Twitpic No way