HBS from Eric Fensler on Vimeo.

Via Fuck Yeah Steve Zisso

Let's head on down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch...

Click to read more ...

I began plotting novels at about the time I learned to read. The story of my childhood is the usual bleak fantasy, and we can dismiss it with the restrained observation that I certainly would not consider living it again.

- James Baldwin

Via She Walks SoftlyIt's been said that heroes are only as good as their villains. In order to have an interesting hero, he or she must face an interesting and truly threatening adversary. In genre fiction, this is usually done by one of two ways. Either having the villain be a threat so large that it seems unlikely anyone can stop it. Or else have the threat be of a complimentary nature, the flip side of the coin of the hero (dark vs. light, etc.). In either case, when the villain reveals his or her potential for destruction and true horror, it makes the heroes seem even mightier and their (inevitable victories) that much sweeter.

Unfortunately, that doesn't always work out. This can be especially true when the budget limitations of films are coupled with the imagination limitations of most film producers. Toss in the need to adhere to certain formulas (or to create another line of toys), and suddenly you have an impotent villain who is not the definition of threatening but instead the definition of wasted potential. These are the top 5 worst offenders, the supervillains who seemed cool but were just...just awful.

Click to read more ...

Today's word of the day is Aggro:

(via SenorGif)

Cyanide & Happiness presents "Dogs"

You know what? I AM saying she's a gold digger.

Click to read more ...

Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know.

- Sarah Vowell

Rob Dean examines the overlooked, unappreciated or unfairly maligned movies. Sometimes these films haven't been seen by anyone, and sometimes they've been seen by everyone - who loathed them. This is Missing Reels.

Revenge is a confession of pain.

- Latin Proverb

In the 21st century, critics have lent more credence to revenge movies - positing that they're cathartic expressions for audience members who are unable to visit their anger on the various trespassers they believe worthy of such treatment. The driving force behind this sudden renewed bloodthirst was usually identified as the amorphous, generalized anger people felt in the wake of the terror attacks and subsequent wars beginning in 2001.

There was no clear cut "Us" vs. "Them," the definitions were more subtle and thus harder to picture and more difficult to envision fitting punishment. In essay after blog posting, critics posited that since the enemy was more an ill-defined idea ("Terror"), Americans (usually the driving force behind movie trends) needed villains with faces and, more importantly, needed to see these villains pay.

Personally? I think that's a load of shit. Not that Post-9/11 films weren't full of cathartic escapism where Liam Neeson or Denzel Washington slapped people around, or Jack Bauer used "enhanced interrogation methods" on his own brother. Of course that was catering to a collective unconscious need for such vindication, usually wrought in a very visceral and primal fashion. But I don't think that 9/11 is the root cause for revenge films' popularity.

The Theatre of Vengeance has been popular in the arts since the very beginning. Theatre of Vengeance is beyond international borders and cultural mores, pervading every medium and thriving in societies throughout history. The schadenfreude experienced by watching great kings undone by their own stupidity and hubris on stage (Shakespeare, Aristophanes, Sophocles, Goethe); the giddiness of readers exciting at the tales of a wronged man or men targeting their antagonists and ripping them asunder (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Iliad, Richard Stark's The Hunter); and the past century has brought us many classic tales of revenge writ large on the silver screen from Cape Fear to Get Carter to Enter the Dragon to Django to Kill Bill to Oldboy to today's entry, 2008's The Horseman. The tale as old as time isn't star-crossed lovers - it's the journey that begins with digging two graves and ends with both of them filled.

Click to read more ...

Today's word of the day is Nadir:

(via Senor GIF)

[ney-der, ney-deer]

–noun

.

In all seriousness, this is a pretty cool real life recreation of Portal - I just wish the music was a bit better:

Via Reddit - but I can't find the link!

Wrapped Up Like a Douche Another Runner in the Night!

Click to read more ...

I think the destiny of all men is not to sit in the rubble of their own making but to reach out for an ultimate perfection which is to be had. At the moment, it is a dream. But as of the moment we clasp hands with our neighbor, we build the first span to bridge the gap between the young and the old. At this hour, it’s a wish. But we have it within our power to make it a reality. If you want to prove that God is not dead, first prove that man is alive.

- Rod Serling

Remember how in last week's Immodest Proposal I was talking about characters on The Simpsons aging and I wrote:

And I know that it seems like this is just an extension of the Fanboy mentality that wants the stuff he likes to age with him and not to serve younger people as it served him in his youth. Maybe, and I'll address that next week

I was planning on using this week's post to talk about the issue of continuity, about preserving narratives for some communities and how it may come at a price of alienating other groups. Honest, I was! And, more importantly, I was going to examine the inherent tension that exists between aging groups of fans and the need to bring in fresh blood and new eyes. Luckily, Divine Providence has dropped this story into my lap in a fit of cosmic synchronicity (I'm guessing that's what Jesus was up to instead of Rapturing folks): Starting in September, DC Comics (that's Detective Comics Comics, for you keeping score) will relaunch all their titles (about 50 or so) with new #1 issues. The editors are saying some continuity will be preserved while others will be jettisoned, or updated; what this probably will mean is that it'll be a big mess of old stories blended in with Clark Kent tweeting and everyone meeting this newfangled Wonder Woman for the first time, or something.

But it underscores a real issue in the world of comic books: how do you honor the lifelong fans without distancing yourself from potential new ones? How do you serve adults and children without condescending to the adults or exposing children to subject matter that's too mature for them? My immodest proposal is that comic books need a new dynamic based on a carefully plotted strategy to attract new readers.

Click to read more ...