Thursday, April 26, 2012

Site of the Week: My Drunk Kitchen

My Drunk (Sexy) Kitchen
Have I not told you about this before?  I thought I had, so I deeply apologize for not alarming you of uber-nerd Hannah Hart's awesomeness.  Ms. Hart provides us the best sort of entertainment: drunk cooking on her webseries My Drunk Kitchen (now in HD!).  Her witty puns and quirky personality are irresistible as she fumbles around the kitchen in an attempt to assemble something that looks like food and has been on the floor a few times.  Unfortunately, guys, Ms. Hart is not available to date.  But, ladies, she's all yours.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Book Review: The Steel Seraglio

Every now and then, a book comes along with a quiet power and dignity.  The Steel Seraglio is one of those books that will have gone under the radar for a majority of worldwide readers, but it shouldn't.  The book is fairly complex in its themes, characters, and even plot due to reasons soon to be expounded.  What is also striking is its ability to not acknowledge any genre boundaries.  It is written much like an ancient document, detailing the lost city of Bessa in the Middle East, but it draws from historical fiction/alternate history, as well as magical realism, all lending to an unnerving, gripping, thrilling, and unexpected page turner.  Though it's given these qualities of historical fiction and magical realism, it also brings forth the epic fantasy vibe, though not so much as journey of a fellowship of different races trying to save a world.  Rather, this is the story of the concubines a seraglio, or harem, of the fictional city of Bessa's sultan Bokhari Al-Bokhari.

Al-Bokhari and his wives and legitimate children with said wives are killed by a religious extremist Hakkim, who is also a trained assassin.  He believes it his destiny to eradicate all debauchery and sin from Bessa.  The seraglio managed to persuade Hakkim to send them as a gift to a neighboring sultan through the techniques they'd always used on political figures and men to do their bidding in subtle arts.  But the women of the seraglio have a different idea: take back Bessa.  Read on for a complete review, spoiler-free but very in-depth.



Friday, April 13, 2012

Every NES game attempts to get its due

Mario Bros.
Every day, artist Campbell Whyte sought to paint a scene based off every NES made, which would've been 799 games (They couldn't have 800?!), but he was sidetracked with another project: his own graphic novel.  So we're left with 375.  Find a few more favorites below, and find them all collected into five large images at Whyte's official website.  One even has Duck Hunt!  That brings back good memories!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Looking Forward 2012: Music

And now for your music update.  We've already had quite a few released in January, February, and March.  Many brilliant albums, mind you!  On top of the new Those Darlins album Screws Get Loose, here are a few notable ones coming soon.


Very soon

Mike Vass
December Well

Notes: There will be a limited release, so pre-order or get as fast as possible!

April 23
Jack White
Blunderbuss
Notes: This includes the duet with Ruby Amanfu (seen on The Sing-Off).

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Prescience of Better Off Ted

Like that clever use of the word "prescience"?  There were a multitude of reasons why Better Off Ted failed, and none of them were because it was less than brilliant.  It was genius, just like Phil and Lem.  Too genius?  And too critical of sociopolitics?  Recently, I've noticed that the show had been rather prescient in how they predicted the technological advances, based on then-current research and hypothetical situations, and the social climate in which we now live in today, two years after its demise.

Looking Forward 2012: Movies

I know I'm late on my usual business of examining interesting movies of the year.  So what all is coming up that would be interesting to those of a nerdy side?

Already out in select theaters
Directed by Timo Vuorensola
Written by Johanna Sinisalo, Jarmo Psukala, and Michael Kalesniko
Iron Sky is the newest sci-fi comedy to hit the screens where Nazis who colonized the moon in 1945 return in 2018 to continue their purity cleanse.  Supposedly the film is fantastic, but the sci-fi comedy genre is very niche, so it might even be better than the 7.8 rating on imdb.

May 1, 2012
Written and Directed by Dano Johnson
The sequel to Flatland arrives with Kristen Bell returning as Hex, Michael York as Spherius, and Tony Hale as King of Pointland.  Danny Pudi, Danica McKellar, and Kate Mulgrew join the cast for this mathematical adventure.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Pushing Daisies comic on hold...still

Page 1 colored, unlettered
I failed to mention that over a year ago, Bryan Fuller had once again reported on the Pushing Daisies comic.  He had mentioned that it would likely be a season 3 graphic novel with a multimedia experience, complete with cast songs (as previously reported here), but plans were stalled when the publisher Wildstorm was closed by its parent company DC Comics.  Fuller then expressed interest in attempting to get  third season by a cable company, specifically Starz.  I don't know if it may be soon.  It may depend on his involvement with The Addams Family remake if it gets picked up.  While expressing his hopes that we will get a wrap for the third season, Fuller posted the first two pages in black and white and another of the first page unlettered but colored.  Check out post-jump for the two lettered pages!