Recently in Shout-Outs Category

I really ought to go to more animation festivals.

Okay, I am seriously effin' intimidated by this year's panel schedule. My eyes are glazing over, It's too much to take in at once.

So, this here's a double-purpose post.

HAY GUYZ: Who's going to SDCC, and what panels will you be attending? If you don't wanna post in the blog comments, email me and stuff. Gimme your cell numbers, so's we can meet up and figure out what we wanna do. Shaenon, Karen, Tone, Frank, etc., are you gonna be there? Lemme know what's up.

I'm gonna be in town early on Wednesday, won't leave 'til Monday, and I've got no table. I'm as free as the wind and CRAVE DIRECTION. All I've really got my heart set on is "Worst Cartoons Ever!" With Jerry Beck on Friday morning and "The Pitching Hour" Saturday evening.

Holy crap.

I already knew about Nina Paley. I knew about her affiliation with the Church of Euthanasia and her newspaper strip, Nina's Adventures, and all that already made her cool in my book. But I had no idea she'd done anything like this.

The Sitayana is the Hindu religious epic, The Ramayana, retold from the perspective of Sita, the wife of the god Rama. Via antique blues music.

And wow. Just wow. Not only is it beautiful, but it works. It's just utterly remarkable.

A little tiny bit of knowledge of The Ramayana isn't necessary to enjoy it, because Nina makes sure to clue everyone in at the beginning. But knowing the basics of Hindu mythology just makes it better. Especially the closing credits.

Wow, again.

Shiva can dance the destruction of my world any time.

I've really gotta stop being surprised every time I find a cartoon online that's ten times funnier than anything I've ever seen on television.

I am in love with Dead Monkey Comics. You should be, too. Check out EMAIL!!, and then maybe pester Tim to make more cartoons. Tell him we'll all chip in to buy him a new Sharpie, if that's what it takes.

Tomorrow: Templar.

Really.

If you're a dork like I am, you probably play video games. That means you might know who Will Wright is.

He's the Sim guy. SimCity, SimEarth, The Sims, The Sims2, etc. He was one of the first designers to mess around with the concept of video-game-as-toy, instead of a goal-oriented twitch muscle stand-off. And really, the world's a better place for it.

Wright's got a new project these days, called Spore. Control the development of a sentient species on an alien planet, from life in the tide pool to interstellar colonization. And I DEFY YOU to keep your hands away from your crotch for the entirety of its presentation to a crowd at GDCE 05.

The slide portion of the presentation doesn't want to load, so we can't see a few things that make the crowd giggle, or Wright's Quizilla "which Care Bear are you?" results (he's Funshine). But there are plenty of in-game walkabouts, and shots of every level.

You'll need to register to see the video, but it's so worth the hassle. Trust me. Just feed the form a BugMeNot password and get to watching.

And afterwards, start babysitting the official site, like I am. Nothing's up now, but the Flash intro's a lot of fun to watch over and over and OVER WHILE SOBBING QUIETLY TO YOURSELF. Because this thing probably has years of development ahead of it before it'll be ready to go gold.

Sigh.

Old John Brown left Kansas before the blood had dried
And as he rode his head did shine like the sun in mid-July
In a tiny farm house by Brunswick B & O
He warmed his boots by the fireplace and read aloud from Samuel

David rose to meet the Philistines with five smooth stones and a sling

One October morning his army did approach
The armory that sat between the Potomac and Shenandoah
The engine house flung open with report of several guns
When it was done he looked upon the bodies of his dying sons

David rose to meet the Philistines with five smooth stones and a sling

-- Clutch, David Rose. Hidden song on The Elephant Riders. Also compiled on Evolution's Finest Hour.

They just don't make violent, raving, evangelical Fundamentalists like they used to, do they?

John Brown bought his first class, one-way ticket on the crazy train today in 1856. His actions... namely, the wholesale slaughter of his pro-slavery neighbors, followed by a failed attempt to seize an armory with which to outfit his budding abolitionist army, capture, and subsequent hanging... was one of several catalysts that finally initiated the then already inevitable American Civil War.

Kansas was pretty embarrassed when it happened, but they've got monuments to the guy, now. Just goes to show.

So if you've got the time today, take a little break and read up on your pal and mine, John Brown. Maybe pour a little something out on the curb, in appreciation of all of the fabulous lunatic bastards in history who ever suffered for being right before their time. And wonder aloud why no one's thought to make little beanbag dollies of the guy.

Hell, I'd buy one.

I've got an Edward Scissorhands dolly.

They could fight.

1.) Install Firefox.
2.) Acquire and install the following extensions.

ForecastFox.
Adblock. (Preferably with the latest filter set here.)
Spellbound.

3.) :)

Hot damn.

See it.

Really. See it.

And if I don't see at least one Landlady or Axe Gang cosplayer at my table breaks this con season to take a picture with, I'm going to just be mortifyingly disappointed with you all.

Sweet mother of Jesus and I thought the movies Hollywood actually wound up making were bad.

Query Letters I Love is a blog maintained by an anonymous grunt somewhere in Tinseltown, and s/he uses it to post the worst film proposals they can find. And god damn, do they get bad.

Who's up for a movie about a Native American shaman and his spirit animal army installing a puppet president? No? Can I interest you in a deformed gypsy boy, then? Howabout A game of tag... WHERE THE LOSER BLOWS UP AT 100 MILES PER HOUR!! OH NO, WHO WILL SAVE THE MAYOR'S DAUGHTER??

"del.icio.us is a social bookmarks manager. It allows you to easily add sites you like to your personal collection of links, to categorize those sites with keywords, and to share your collection not only between your own browsers and machines, but also with others."

There. The site just put it better than I could.

I've only had a del.icio.us account for a day or so, so it's a little anemic. But I've already found a few decent new sites I didn't know about, so it must be worth the effort. Also, I have a pompous preoccupation with looking for sites no one else has posted yet. Yay, elitism.

Check me out here.