“So You’ve Grown Attached” is a charming tale of a young girl and her imaginary friend, both facing the bittersweet reality of growing up:
An impressive story with an appealing theme, conveyed through some strong natural performances, makes for a wonderful short! For writer-director Kate Tsang, I believe this is her third foray with a short story involving imaginary friends, all of which you can watch @ her Vimeo page.
Written/Directed by Kate Tsang / Produced by Bella Wing-Davey, Kimberly Parker, Shiva Bajpai / Director of photography Michael Rossetti / Production designer Mimi Bai / Costume designer Amanda Bujak / Music composer Sasha Gordon / Starring: Simon Pearl, Madeleine Connor, Cindy Cheung, Jake Miller, Patrick Fleury, Levi Abrino, Luke Matheny. For more information visit: http://katetsang.com/syga.html
And it wouldn’t be right of me not to share my own thoughts on the matter of imaginary friends now would it. No, I don’t have an imaginary friend (let’s just nip that in the bud), but I do have some knowledge of comic books that relate to Tsang’s particular interest — If you too enjoy stories about imaginary friends, you may appreciate these:
In 2006, Michael Turner’s SHRUGGED (a personal favourite) was released, published by Aspen MLT (Soulfire, Fathom). SHRUGGED faced ongoing delays due to co-creator Michael Turner’s struggle with cancer. Sadly, Turner died in mid-2008. SHRUGGED is one of the coolest stories told and probably one of the best mini-series Aspen has ever had; it’s a shame it doesn’t get mentioned that much. Written by co-creators Turner and Frank Mastromauro, SHRUGGED tells the stories of Ange, Dev (the angel and devil personifications on your shoulder), and Theo (whose shoulder they’re on). This tale is less about imaginary friends so to speak, and more about humans being born paired with two invisible entities, one righteous and one unruly, and the delicate union that affects their respective worlds. What if every decision and indecision you have ever made had been influenced by invisible friends? Theo deals with alienation among his peers while pulled in an otherworldly struggle for control. I’m being really vague, but know that this is the story that got me back into comics after a decade of zilch. Makes me wonder how many stories I missed out on.
Story by Michael Turner, Frank Mastromauro / Art by Micah Gunnell, Jason Gorder, Don Ho / Colors by Beth Sotelo, John Starr / Cover by / Jason Gorder / Publisher Aspen Comics.
Writer Brian Joines / Artist Bachan /Publisher BOOM! Studios.
Where do your imaginary friends go when YOU grow up?
Another comic you may like is IMAGINE AGENTS, a four issue mini-series published by BOOM! Studios, released 2013. The story tells of a bureau that are like an investigation unit for wayward imaginary friends, tasked with the job of keeping the peace.
Meet Dave and Terry, agents for I.M.A.G.I.N.E., who are responsible for keeping your children’s imaginary friends in line. Little do they know that an abandoned figment from days past has a plan to change the status quo. What happens when the imaginary friends become the ones who are seen?
And in a recent development; actor Michael Keaton (Birdman, Beetlejuice, Night Shift), after starring in a movie about comic book movies, is now developing an actual comic book movie! That’s right, Fox has closed the deal with Keaton attached to star and produce IMAGINE AGENTS, an adaptation of the very same Boom! comic. How’s that for life imitating art imitating life imitating art huh! …Go watch Birdman.
Check out the Zine Market for 2015, with works from 60+ zine makers and artists, displaying and selling a wide variety of creative endeavours! We’ve got a load of other fun and mostly free workshops and events! Please visit our events page for more information http://www.aucklandzinefest.org/events/ Entry is FREE but remember to bring cash for buying all the cool things on offer!
Event art by Sophie Oiseau Illustration!
Auckland Zinefest is proudly supported by Auckland Council Creative Communities Scheme, Auckland Libraries and K Road Business Association.
Electro-pop artist Tei Shi makes hypnotic pop melodies glide across icy electronic beats look amazingly effortless. In her latest music video for See Me, the blonde beauty coos over scattered rhythms while posing in some of the most beautifully scenic landscapes:
I woke up during the early hours of the morning, crying. Yes, I cried. And then I remember crying some more, before I cried myself back to sleep. In my dream, I realised something truly worth being afraid of — loneliness, and the importance and frailty of the impressions we give each other. I used to think people who came close to the brink of life shared some common form of intelligence, like they all had seen what so many couldn’t, shared a more beautiful vision of the world than the one they themselves had experienced, and understood some unseen disparity within society; but I was wrong, they are all foolish, foolish for not wanting, for themselves, the only thing that matters in life. Friendship. The truest reason to live — simple human connection. This was my initial reaction the next day to my dream induced sadness, and I suppose I could read more into it if I tried, but that is not something I actually feel like exploring.
In my dream; a man was yelling at me on the sidewalk over a near-miss he blamed me for inciting, something to do with an expensive trailer or boat parked in his driveway. I argued with the man telling him that nothing happened so he shouldn’t be so upset. Then he poured something over my head, laughed about it, and went back to his group of mates. I just walked away. No use fighting. Held my composure. I passed some people I knew who were calling out to me, but I just wanted to get to a bathroom, clean myself. Someone tried following after me, and I heard someone else say; “Let him go, you know how he is.” I turned a corner and at that point in the dream, I felt weak, shortly after collapsing to the floor in tears only a few meters away from the door. Someone came to help me up but I told them to leave me alone. There were more dreams before that, but that is the one that I woke up from. Waking up sad and crying isn’t actually the thing that I’m concerned about though. It’s that I continued to… IDK. Did I figure something out or did my brain just get the better of me? One thing is for sure; at least my tear-ducts are in working order. Thanks subconsciousness, you cryptic trickster, you!
Huge explosions at a chemical warehouse rocked residential areas in the port city of Tianjin, China on the night of Aug. 12, that were so huge it registered on earthquake scales. When I first saw the pictures, I thought the story was unreal. It looked like a scorched battlegrounds, or a Hollywood movie stage, but this is a tragic, very real freak event, with many details still largely unknown:
“As of Aug. 14, the death toll was 56, including 17 firefighters and soldiers, and over 700 were injured. The explosions seem to have originated from a warehouse owned by Ruihai International Logistics, a company authorized to handle chemicals that explode on contact with water. Some outside specialists suspected that firefighters may have inadvertently contributed to the explosions, however the details of how the massive explosion occurred were still unclear.” ~ By Emily Z. Fortier
According to reports, more than 1,000 firefighters were sent to the the disaster site.
Rescuers work among hundreds of burned cars and several destroyed buildings after a huge explosion rocked the port city. China’s earthquake bureau said the magnitude of the second blast was equivalent to 21 tons of TNT. (Wu Hong)
Firefighters carry the body of a victim from the site of the explosions on Friday, Aug. 14. (Jason Lee)
Hundreds of new cars awaiting export were reduced to shells by the flames. (Jason Lee)
Chinese police help a man to safety on a highway near the explosion site. (Ng Han Guan)
A man looks at a row of damaged cars outside a damaged residential building. (Greg Baker)
Windows of a nearby high rise building were shattered. (Wu Hong)
The shock waves from the explosions broke furniture, windows and other property in nearby residences. (Chinatopix via Associated Press)
Aerial footage shows smoke billowing from burning containers the day after the blasts. (Xu Li)
Workers clean debris form the road near the explosion site, where stacks of shipping containers had crumbled. (Jason Lee)
“Most of what I’ve learned about human nature in my twenties has happened after dark,” Palomo said in a statement. “People are just kind of more honest then. More deliberate. I like to call the places I go to Night Schools.” ~ Neon Indian, aka Alan Palomo.
From his forthcoming album out October, ‘VEGA INTL. Night School’, the followup to 2011’s ‘Era Extraña’.
My dad, using the online alias @BranePowerGuy, submitted a science fiction story to a blog dedicated to all things science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science and technology. The twist being, all submissions had to be no less than six words long. My dad’s micro-narrative was one of the featured best-ofs, nothing serious of course, something fun among readers, and a very funny thought for me:
Jetpack Locked! FUCK! Missed monthly subscription.
Having exhausted their brains and written their very own six-word science fiction mini-epics, these writers are some of the finest six-word storytellers to watch out for — featuring two lonely time-travelers locked in a doomed inter-dimensional romance, a cyborg frantically searching for their lost charger, and a typewriter with something to prove—and they’re all told in just six words:
Time Traveler seeks partner; have met.
“Lost charger,” the cyborg said, dying.
“I won’t lose”, the typewriter vowed.
First Officer’s log: redshirt killed captain.
Darkness spread, undeterred by the sun.
The god needed rebooting yet again.
Cells, plants, fish, mammals, humans, nothing.
Alternate timelines make great vacation getaways!
My clone is perfectly me. Unfortunately.
Kind of ridiculous, but kind of neat too. Think you can write a story in six words?
A young couple enjoys a quiet evening at home, over and over again, caught in some time-loop, temporal paradox. Revitalizing the found-footage approach, TIMƎLIKE is a well told lo-fi science fiction mindbender, riddled with cryptic clues of an unstable future.
March 1993, Madeline and her boyfriend are enjoying a quiet evening at home when they are interrupted by a visit from a stranger bearing a message from Madeline’s future self:
Written & Directed by Rich Boylan / Produced by Mel Hoy / Sound by Thomas Thompson / Madeline: Eva Jonn, Chloe: Mel Hoy, Rich: Richard Boylan.
Unnerving, right? I love its aesthetic, how it was all recorded on a VHS camcorder, and the flannel shirt and NOFX cassette playing in the background were nice touches too. The short is open to interpretation and theories, what remains clear is how amazing TIMƎLIKE is at creating atmosphere and intrigue from 8 minutes of film, while Hollywood seemingly struggles to produce original ideas — All credit to Boylan and his crew. Here he elaborates about the process;
“Footage was shot, captured and edited on Adobe Premiere, then the edit was dumped back to VHS and copied from one tape to another as many times as was necessary to get that nice worn out look. I did a few run throughs where I really messed up the tracking as it copied for scenes where I wanted additional distortion.”
Richard Boylan (definitely a person to watch) is a cinematic designer for video game developer Bioware, where he’s worked on the Mass Effect series and is currently working on Mass Effect: Andromeda. He also contributed this hilarious video to the Shia LaBeouf memosphere:
I suspect TIMƎLIKE is going to go viral, if not in this universe’s current timeline, then definitely in another. And this… Because my mind just went there
From their earliest cinematic appearance in Georges Méliès’s “A Trip to the Moon” in 1902, to 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, our conception of life beyond Earth has changed to reflect our hopes and fears, the technology we’ve mastered, and our growing knowledge of the universe. Watch our depictions of extraterrestrial life change over nearly 100 films and 112 years:
Edited by Adam Schleichkorn & Bryan Menegus / Music by Radiohead, Album: OK Computer (1997).
| (1902) A Trip to the Moon (1922) Himmelskibet (1924) Aelita (1940) Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1951) The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) The Thing From Another World (1953) The War of the Worlds (1953) Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1956) Forbidden Planet (1956) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1957) 20 Million Miles To Earth (1958) Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1959) The Angry Red Planet (1967) Quatermass and the Pit (1968) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Barbarella (1968) Gamera vs Viras (1971) The Andromeda Strain (1972) Solaris (1973) Fantastic Planet (1976) The Man Who Fell to Earth (1977) Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978) Superman (1978) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1979) Alien (1979) Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1980) Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1981) Heavy Metal (1982) E.T. the Extra-Terrestria (1982) The Thing (1982) Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1983) Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi (1984) Starman (1984) 2010 (1984) The Last Starfighter (1984) Dune (1985) Cocoon (1985) Enemy Mine (1986) Flight of the Navigators (1986) Critters (1987) Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) Predator (1987) Spaceballs (1988) Alien Nation (1988) They Live (1988) The Blob (1989) The Abyss |
(1990) Total Recall (1993) Coneheads (1194) Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla (1994) Stargate (1995) Species (1996) The Arrival (1996) Independence Day (1996) Space Jam (1996) Mars Attacks (1997) Starship Troopers (1997) Men in Black (1997) The Fifth Element (1997) Contact (1998) The X Files (1998) The Faculty (1998) Dark City (1998) Lost in Space (1998) The Shadow Men (1999) Galaxy Quest (1999) Muppets from Space (2000) Pitch Black (2000) Mission to Mars (2001) K-PAX (2002) Signs (2002) Men in Black 2 (2003) Dreamcatcher (2004) The Chronicles of Riddick (2005) War of the Worlds (2005) Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2006) Slither (2007) The Mist (2007) Transformers (2007) Spider-Man 3 (2008) Cloverfield (2009) Avatar (2009) Star Trek (2009) District 9 (2009) Monsters vs. Aliens (2011) Super 8 (2011) Cowboys and Aliens (2011) Paul (2011) Battle: Los Angeles (2011) Attack the Block (2012) Prometheus (2013) Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) Pacific Rim (2014) Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Guardians of the Galaxy |
Do you believe in entities free of any physical constituents? This recording taken by a baby monitor showing a misty light floating over baby Rosie in her crib, may test your opinion:
I do believe in “mysterious things” that our bodies can perceive, but I don’t believe we have any way or form of technology to define these things as what they truly are. The best we can do is name them, at worst, wrongly personify them. That is why I get annoyed when, everything undefinable automatically gets clumped in the too-hard/strange-so-it-must-be-paranormal-with-an-agenda-pile.
The above video is rather cool, but that is as much as I’m willing to think about it. What else is there to go on, you know. Actually, come to think of it, I do happen to have a personal ghost story to share with you all that may further test your thoughts on the matter, complete with photos and corroborative testimonies from around the globe I’ve been collating for the last decade, but I think I’ll save that for October — trust me when I say, you and your friends will never look at your homes and telecommunications the same way again. …You may have been watched. 👻
4:30 p.m. after Uni I had to deal with this nonsense.
Afternoon ice, not so common in central Auckland.
Oh, that’s Indiana, Jenny5’s guardian skeleton — my car.
Kia ora! Hola! Bonjour! سلام! こんにちは! नमस्ते Namastē! مرحبا! 您好！Hallå! Hallo! Selamat Datang! Welcome! ⭐(★´♡‿♡`+)⭐ You have found ditb
🎭 