I'm not sure if there's a compelling reason to keep this side blog open. I am content to let my freak flag fly. Please follow Pluck You, Too! if you don't already. The content normally going here will be there instead.
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14 hours ago
Monday, October 5, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
The Queen of Denmark and the Hobbit
Queen Margerthe II of Denmark illustrates and paints under the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer, and her woodcut style art was used to illustrate some editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
I think they are excellent depictions that inspire the imagination instead of replacing it.
And they place the story in a realm of myth and Dark Age lost history that makes it seem even more alive. They were used in the 1977 and 2007 editions, and I'm looking for a copy.
Pretty cool. America's leader might read Conan comics, but Denmark's illustrated Tolkien. They have out-nerded us! We must not have a nerd gap!! Thanks to my pal Sonny for educating me on this and finding these illos.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
he rules with a mighty sword and a troubled brow
Arnold admitted on Twitter that he keeps the sword from Conan the Barbarian in the Governor's office, which is the awesomest thing ever. This is how you cut spending!I saw this from his Twitter feed, but over at Crom! the Ultimate Conan fan blog, they have more photos of his office.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thundarr the Barbarian
Thundarr the Barbarian! In the year 1994 from out of space comes a runaway planet hurtling between the earth and the moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Man's civilization is cast in ruin! 2000 years later, Earth is reborn. A strange new world rises from the old. A world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery! But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage and his fabulous sun sword against the forces of evil. He is Thundarr! The Barbarian!
Thundarr was a loincloth clad swordsman taken to bellowing outbursts like "Lords of Light! Demon dogs!" and cutting mechanized minions in half with his sun sword. Or the weapons of the bad guys. How I loved this show as a child. This was when you could watch R-rated movies like Conan the Barbarian and Escape from New York on HBO at all hours of the day, and Thundarr was a child-friendly amalgam of two of my favorite films. In the first episode, he fights a group of rat people called groundlings led by the evil sorcerer Gemini in the subway tunnels of "the Ruins of Manhatt," so how could you not be hooked? Sure Thundarr sounds more like a '60s era Indian brave than Snake Plissken or Arnold, but Ookla, his Brak meets Chewbacca sidekick, makes him sound quite eloquent.
He was a lovable character, speaking only in snarls, and about as patient as the Incredible Hulk. In the first episode, Thundarr wants him to fly a helicopter, but he tears the steering wheel out, and kicks the controls out, and crashes it with a rather hilarious growl of triumph. What I liked best was how the show made kid-friendly versions of things like Alien and The Road Warrior, other favorites of mine. In the episode "Stalker from the Stars," a vampiric alien haunts an abandoned themepark and wraps its victims in webs. It looked a lot like the Alien. And several episodes had tribal thugs on Mad Max-esque vehicles. And of course, Thundarr's "sun sword" was a lot like a lightsaber.
The character designs were worked on by legend Jack Kirby and Alex Toth, and they look like fine art compared to many other cartoons of the era. I was watching them on my laptop but it just died, so my long post full of screenshots is just not meant to be! But I'd recommend giving them a second look if you have any nostalgia for them. They kick Orko and He-Man's ass for the somewhat subversive commentary on our civilization, and how many references they manage to cram in.
It's apparently memorable enough that people dress as Ariel for cosplay, and action figures were made.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Mickey Rourke is patriotic about punani
This is from the movie Spun which I heard about because Rob Halford plays the porno store clerk in this scene. He looks the part. However, Mickey Rourke is hilarious in this meth-addled version of Requiem for a Dream, which seems a bit more like Trainspotting in that it's not entirely soul-crushing. This scene's very funny. The audio is NSFW so use headphones, ya dummy.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Nanner Puss
Another stupid commercial a co-worker has gotten stuck in my head. So I pass this torture on to you...
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