MVOTD: Wavves - "So Bored" - Home Improvement Wipes Version

So I always kind of hated Home Improvement for its insufferable "manliness" and general lack of comedic value (possibly also because I had the hots for JTT), and yet I always remember watching reruns of it because it fell in the line of Cosby Show, Simpsons, and Seinfeld reruns that would play on Fox after I got home from school. The show may not have been that funny, but it did contain a slew of interesting video wipe transitions between scenes, which have thankfully now been collected in a single music video set to the strangely appropriate Wavves song "So Bored."

So what's everybody's personal favorite wipe? Mine is playground swing that swings back and then comes straight at the camera. Unexpected, evocative of childhood, possible Ikiru reference. What's not to love?

IndieGamingLove: MineCraft

Do you like soft, soothing music? Do you feel the urge to create? Do you like exploring little 8-bit worlds seemingly created by the collective sub-conscious of the internet? Then MineCraft is right for you. Jump in. You don't need to download anything unless you somehow don't have Java.  The worlds are amusing and you'll be amazed by all the work people have put in to create these virtual kingdoms. I myself was sucked in and created my own 8-bit Playground. Look at my beautiful wonderland. Sometimes my server is running, too, under the name '8-bit Playground'. Join me if it's online.

I Just Want to Give Up and Die: Illegal Grasshoppers Edition

I have a hunch this feature is gonna get updated with increasing frequency as the immigration debate heats back up. Here now, United States Representative Ted Poe (R-TX), mystified as to why brown people can't be kept out of this country as easily as grasshoppers:


(via)

I just want to give up and die.

MVOTD: Ben Lee - "Song for the Divine Mother of the Universe"

Space Monkey from Leo Burnett on Vimeo.

I feel kinda meh about this song, but the video, in which a space monkey returns to a destroyed Earth, is pretty beautiful. It's very simple, and the message at the end is a little on-the-nose, but the science fiction references, the cinematography, and the facial expressions on the elderly monkey are enough to make this worth watching.

Online Super Mario Bros.

Just discovered this incredible new game, in which you can play Super Mario Bros. online. But that's not all - you can play it as any one of six different characters: Mario himself, Link from Zelda, Bill R. from Contra, Simon Belmont from Castlevania, Mega Man, or Samus from Metroid. Video game geeks or people just nostalgiac about the late 80s will, quite simply, freak the fuck out playing this. Play here.

You're welcome.

Amazing Lost Episode Posters

There's no new episode of Lost this week for some sad and insane reason, but we've got something pretty awesome here to tide us over until next week. Via /film, the artist Gideon Slife is creating posters for each and every episode of Lost. He's in the middle of season 4 right now, and his collection so far is really spectacular. You can check them all out at his flickr page, I've posted a bunch of my favorites below, either based on the art or the episode itself (or most of the time, both). You're gonna want to click to enlarge for a lot of them; each one includes a quote from the episode that is oftentimes pretty key.

A Not-Quite-Faustian Bargain

You die and go to hell, where the devil proposes a game of chance. If you play on the first day you’ll have a one-half chance of winning, on the second day a two-thirds chance, and so on. If you win, you’ll go to heaven; if you lose you’ll stay in hell. When should you play?

Unfortunately, it seems you should wait forever. After a year of waiting your chance of winning would be 0.997268, but even then another day’s (presumably finite) torment would earn you 0.000007 greater chance of infinite joy.

Maybe the mere hope of heaven is worth something. But is it a valid hope if you never realize it?

New Music of the Day: MIA - Born Free

Definitely a departure from Kala and Arular....

New Music of the Day: Twin Sister - "Something About Us" Daft Punk cover

Daft Punk is not an easy band to cover, yet (minus the mechanical voice) Twin Sister's cover is straightforward and faithful to the feeling of the song. Would love to have been on that rooftop last Friday.

Guest Post: Beatrice Njoroge and the Gallery of Contemporary African Art

Photo by Kamau Mucocki

New Game: Bouncing Balls

My friend Jack directed me to this new game called Bouncing Balls, which caused me to waste pretty much my entire morning (which admittedly only started at about 10:30). Basically you are shooting a ball into a bunch of other balls, and the ones you hit disappear, and you're trying to get rid of all the red ones.

Notice that I am at level 21 already because I am awesome. Actually there are things that happen that I don't really understand - I'm not sure what hitting the green balls actually does (something good though), and sometimes whole groups of balls disappear and I'm not sure how to get that to happen. But still, very fun. Play here.

Jin Trapped in Weird Sideways "Seinfeld" Universe

This is just an excellent find. But what does it mean? Has Jin gone back in time, switched places with Jack, and moved to New York in the late '90s? Is Kramer Jacob? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

(Note that in last week's Hurley-centric episode, there was a reference to "the Human Fund." The pieces are all falling into place.)

MVOTD: Madonna - "Like a Prayer"

In honor of tonight's Madonna-themed Glee (which I will not be watching until tomorrow because as much as I love Glee, Lost is a show of historically awesome proportions). This has always been my favorite Madonna song - the religious overtones creep me out overall, but the use of the gospel choir is pretty effective, and I find Madonna to be at her hottest with that dark and curly hair.

IndieGamingLove: GrowTower

Grow Tower is the next in a line of games from EyeMaze that make you experiement both with how things work, and how things work best together. It's a combination of trial-and-error and a little bit of a logic game. Mostly, though, it's extremely adorable and rewarding when you get another step closer and the final solution is enough to more than compensate you for the struggle to figure out the order. See if you've got what it takes!

Play Here! And be sure to check out their other games, too!

New Music of the Day: Sun Airway - Infinity

Oh, The Colors!


Sun Airway – http://sunairway.tumblr.com/

via: Delicious Scopitone

Bump!: Hipster Time-Traveler?

“Reopening of the South Fork Bridge after flood in Nov. 1940. 1941 (?)”

This photo was taken around 1940 and has not been digitally tampered with. So what's the deal with the young man in the contemporary-looking sunglasses, t-shirt, and camera?

R.I.P. Dede Allen

Stanley Kubrick once said that editing is the only original art form within the medium of film, cinematography being rooted in still photography, acting and directing in the theater, writing in literature. Dede Allen, a master and pioneer of this art form, passed away over the weekend at the age of 86. She edited groundbreaking classics such as The Hustler, Bonnie and Clyde, and Dog Day Afternoon. For those who haven't seen Bonnie and Clyde, put that at the top of your Netflix queue right now. Allen's contribution to the construction of that film's violent conclusion is deservedly famous, but for now check out the film's opening below. Pay attention to the way the cuts inside the bedroom intensify Faye Dunaway's performance and the sense of her character's sexual frustration, melting away into lengthier shots once she goes outside to meet Warren Beatty's Clyde.

Hardstalgia: VHS Batman Commercials

I'm pretty sure everybody had at least one movie that they would watch every single day as soon as they got home from school, for like several months.

"Pixels" by Patrick Jean

Via.

Not Cool, Claire McCaskill

You are from the state of Missouri, Senator. Do not make me start trash-talking Missouri. You will not recover. Your only noteworthy city exists exclusively because it was historically a place to stay before moving on to other, better places. I know you have to say I live in crazy town because of The Politics, but I actually kind of like it here so shut up. And stop using "nice" as a polite euphemism for "boring as all fuck."