New Zealand’s Election & Eminem on ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’

•September 22, 2014 • Leave a Comment

That’s right, the story I thought about writing on last week before realising nobody cared, has been covered by professional satirist, John Oliver. A commercial for a political party here in New Zealand (NZ National Party) had a soundtrack with an opening guitar riff that sounded awfully reminiscent of Eminem’s Grammy and Academy Award winning song “Lose Yourself.” Here is that advert, if you can bear it:

The word is that Eminem’s hit song was used without permission, and worse, for political reasons, which Eminem is no political boy scout for endorsing. The thing is, the advert music isn’t actually his song nor does it directly sample it. It’s just the most lackluster production music crap a political party could deliberately want to licence and pay for. I’m not defending anyone’s position here, I’m just stating the facts and the videos you need to see to come to the same conclusion as everyone else; who honestly gives a shit, really? If it involves money, it’s all politics. Bon appetitty:

Funny moment in the New Zealand election campaign —
Eminem’s lawyers feel that the National Party have ‘stolen’ his property.

Well, the election was last Friday and National won. I’m not sure what the story is with this case now, but I do know I don’t care enough to want to know. Play us out B-Rabbit:

The Sub-Zero MORTAL KOMBAT Elevator Prank

•September 22, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Edge of the Spider-Verse #2 — The Mary Janes “Face it Tiger” (Married with Sea monsters) [comics]

•September 22, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Spider-Man-Across-the-Multiverse

Over the years, Spider-Man has had a number of alternate reality variations, and recently Marvel has embarked to retell them all in a major Spider-Man crossover event; featuring every incarnation of Spider-Man & Spider-Woman ever, that will undoubtedly culminate in a battle of epic proportions.

3716609-spider-verse_dell'otto_banner

One such story is a one-shot (single issue comic) that introduces a new alternate universe Spider-Woman, Gwen Stacey. Edge of the Spider-Verse #2 (a miniseries prelude to Spider-Verse) opens with Gwen Stacy playing drums in The Mary Janes, an all-girl rock band fronted by none other than Mary Jane Watson.

edge-of-spider-verse-2

Well, some clever musos have gone out of their way to elevate the fictitious song from the pages of the comic. Indie rockers Married With Sea Monsters added a few more lyrics and a tune to The Mary Janes’ song “Face It, Tiger”, recorded and then released it for webcrawler fans and punk-rock fiends in the world to enjoy, and all because they “dug the issue so much“:

Nice. Ahh theme music; tell’em how it is Jack Spade:

That movie looks like shit. However, the character for alternate Spider-Woman seems to be gaining popularity and is available now from all good comic retailers, sucka!

Edge of Spider-Verse (Issue 2 2014) written by Jason Latour

The Diatomist — a Fascinating Look at the Aesthetic Beauty of the Microscopic World

•September 19, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Meet Klaus Kemp, master of the Victorian art of diatom arrangement. Klaus Kemp, you are my new favourite person in the world. I find this incredibly life affirming for some reason; incomprehensible geometric organisms to the naked eye I otherwise would not have known about, that are as complex in their simplicity and just as mysterious as the wonders of our expansive non-declarative universe! And aren’t diatoms just the prettiest:

Soundtrack by: Ryuichi Sakamoto “Grasshoppers” / Bernard Herrmann “Brave New World” / Cults Percussion Ensemble “Circles”.

diatom-1

Diatoms are single cell algae that create jewel-like glass shells around themselves. Microscopists of the Victorian era would arrange them into complex patterns, invisible to the naked eye but spectacular when viewed under magnification. The best of these arrangements are stunning technical feats that reveal the hidden grandeur of some of the smallest organisms on Earth. Klaus Kemp has devoted his entire life to understanding and perfecting diatom arrangement and he is now acknowledged as the last great practitioner of this beautiful combination of art and science. THE DIATOMIST showcases his incredible work:

Key & Peele Fight off Alien Imposters (Season 4 Premiere Clip)

•September 18, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Something about the performances of these two comedians just works, but especially Keegan-Michael Key who manages to get me every time. I was a fan of his during his MADtv days so it’s cool to see him continuing what he’s so effortless at doing; giving me the giggles. In this brilliant sketch, alien invaders are able to take human form, and their only weakness is that aliens can’t understand human racism:

He’s OK folks:

Me with Key and Peele shooting 'alien impostors'. I'm the racist guy in the last scene

Childish Gambino “Sober” [♬]

•September 16, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Childish Gambino is prepping the release of his new Gangsta Grillz mixtape called STN MTN / KAUAI which is due for release within the coming weeks. Today, Mr. Glover liberates a new song called ‘Sober’ from the KAUAI side of the tape which has no rap, just straight singing.

Dogs Sitting on Cats, Because They Can

•September 15, 2014 • Leave a Comment

C.S. Lewis on True Friendship — “Friendship … has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which gave value to survival.”

•September 15, 2014 • Leave a Comment

“Lovers seek for privacy. Friends find this solitude about them, this barrier between them and the herd, whether they want it or not.

[…]

In a circle of true Friends each man is simply what he is: stands for nothing but himself. No one cares twopence about anyone else’s family, profession, class, income, race, or previous history. Of course you will get to know about most of these in the end. But casually. They will come out bit by bit, to furnish an illustration or an analogy, to serve as pegs for an anecdote; never for their own sake. That is the kingliness of Friendship. We meet like sovereign princes of independent states, abroad, on neutral ground, freed from our contexts. This love (essentially) ignores not only our physical bodies but that whole embodiment which consists of our family, job, past and connections. At home, besides being Peter or Jane, we also bear a general character; husband or wife, brother or sister, chief, colleague, or subordinate. Not among our Friends. It is an affair of disentangled, or stripped, minds. Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.

Hence (if you will not misunderstand me) the exquisite arbitrariness and irresponsibility of this love. I have no duty to be anyone’s Friend and no man in the world has a duty to be mine. No claims, no shadow of necessity. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which gave value to survival.”

[The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis]

8-Bit Philosophy: Nietzsche “Time is a Flat Circle?”

•September 14, 2014 • Leave a Comment

“How would you have to live in order to desire repeating every moment endlessly?”

‘Mega Man‘ Game Style.

Manukau Police Giving Crowdsourcing a Go

•September 12, 2014 • Leave a Comment

https://twitter.com/manukaupolice/status/508759400387854336

Yeah nah yeah…nah. I think there is less validity to a snap-chat picture than there is to a human voice, but whatevs. This made me smile. Like anywhere, there have been some disturbing stories in the past decade about law enforcement response times and misconduct, but Police do good work here in New Zealand.

bv8siZd 2oYPySa XTBuH1J 5f9Vw4k Snapchat with ManukauPolice

NBC Airs Kardashian Interview on Breast Implants Instead of 9/11 Moment of Silence

•September 11, 2014 • Leave a Comment

NBC Airs Kardashian Interview on Breast Implants Instead of 9.11 Moment of Silence - kris-jenner

Possibly the Best ‘Pendulum Wave’ Contraption Ever Built

•September 11, 2014 • Leave a Comment

Sixteen bowling balls + an acceleration of gravity = prepare for three minutes of staring:

Large-scale demonstration of the interaction between period and pendulum length: “The length of time it takes a ball to swing back and forth one time to return to its starting position is dependent on the length of the pendulum, not the mass of the ball.”

“A longer pendulum will take longer to complete one cycle than a shorter pendulum. The lengths of the pendula in this demonstration are all different and were calculated so that in about 2:40, the balls all return to the same position at the same time — in that 2:40, the longest pendulum (in front) will oscillate (or go back and forth) 50 times, the next will oscillate 51 times, and on to the last of the 16 pendula which will oscillate 65 times.” [http://www.arborsci.com/cool/pendulum… / http://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harv…]

Here is one from New Zealand. It lacks the weighty swing of a bowling ball in momentum and that nice clinking sound, but it looks fantastic:

Penduluminosity, a giant pendulum wave machine made by Craig Neilson and Reza Fuard for Art in the Dark, Auckland 2013.