https://www.feanorsworkshop.com/blog/logorss.jpg An online journal... of DOOM! Sat, 19 Nov 2022 23:08:00 +0000  by Fëanor

Hello folks! Been quite a while since I posted on here about anything other than my books, but I recently finished making my way through the first season of Netflix's horror anthology show, Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, and I thought I'd talk about it a bit.

Guillermo del Toro, if you are somehow unaware, is a film director who is known for fantastical movies about monsters. I'm a huge fan. This show is kind of his version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; he shows up at the beginning to introduce each episode, but it's a different director telling a different story each time, and there's no connection between the stories, besides the shared genre.

Episode 1 - Lot 36
This is one of the two episodes co-written by del Toro; it's directed by Guillermo Navarro, a cinematographer and long-time collaborator of his. It's set in America during the Gulf War and stars Tim Blake Nelson as a mean, greedy, self-interested, misanthropic veteran who buys the contents of abandoned storage units and sells off the items in them for as much money as he can get. He has no sympathy with, or interest in, the former owners of the units, and when one shows up to ask for some of her personal effects back, he refuses out of pure spite. He's the classic awful horror protagonist that you spend the whole story just waiting to see get his comeuppance.

His latest unit, it turns out, belonged to a former Nazi, and has some very creepy, but also very rare and valuable, items hidden away in it, including an infamous set of volumes on black magic. If he can find the final volume in the set, a collector promises him a huge cash payout - large enough to pay off the loan shark who's been threatening him.

This is a pretty solid horror story, with a creepy story, creepy and effective visuals, and some of my favorite horror tropes. But it does suffer a bit from having a completely unlikable and occasionally stupid protagonist. It also introduces some mysteries that are never satisfactorily explained. I'm okay with that sometimes, but this time I really wanted to know why that guy was skipping on the security cam footage. The conclusion of the story, though satisfying in its own way, feels a bit anticlimactic. You're told what's going to happen, and then you have to wait around while it inevitably happens.

Episode 2 - Graveyard Rats
This one's quite fun. It's written and directed by Vincenzo Natali, who made the original Cube. It has a darkly comic flavor to it and stars David Hewlett as a highly-educated man who, nevertheless, finds himself trying to scrape by as a graverobber. The cemetery where he plies his trade has had only slim pickings lately due to an extraordinary rat infestation - they keep stealing away the corpses, and all the valuable items buried with them, before he can plunder them. If he doesn't come up with some big ticket items soon, the sketchy guy at the dock who buys the goods off him may just bury him instead.

You may notice the plot here is very similar to that of the first episode: a down-on-his-luck guy engaged in a seedy enterprise must make a big score or likely die. This time, though, our protagonist is slightly more likable. Sure, he's a little pompous and awkward, but he has something of the sad, bumbling clown about him, too. Oh, and he's also claustrophobic. You can imagine what happens to him later.

This episode is a lot of familiar tropes presented well, with good effects and cool visuals. There's nothing astonishing here, but it gets the job done in the creepy crawlies department.

Episode 3 - The Autopsy
Another rather strong entry, this one directed by newcomer David Prior, and written by the prolific and talented screenwriter, director, and producer David S. Goyer. Our main character this time is a clever, likable medical examiner played by F. Murray Abraham. He's deathly ill, but facing it with wry equanimity. A sheriff who's an old friend of his has called him in to perform autopsies on a bunch of dead bodies recovered from the site of a mining accident. The "accident" was preceded by a strange series of disappearances, reappearances, and grisly discoveries, and the sheriff wants to know how it's all connected and what it all means. Our medical examiner hero discovers the answers, to his cost.

This is a disturbing and gory one. There were a couple of scenes where I had to turn away and squeeze my eyes shut until they were over. With Abraham in the lead, and other talented actors in the secondary roles, it's full of fine performances. There's a thoughtful, philosophical feel to portions of it, but in some ways I feel like it explains too much. The villain is an inveterate monologuer, and he gets a little tiresome. But if you want the creeps, this will give you the creeps!

Episode 4 - The Outside
Hoo boy. This one is something! I'm not familiar with the writer or the director, who are Haley Z. Boston and Ana Lily Amirpour, respectively. This episode features our first female main character, a bank teller named Stacey. She's played by Kate Micucci, with Martin Starr as her husband and Dan Stevens as the host of the unsettling infomercial that claims it can make Stacey's dream come true. Said dream is to be beautiful and popular, so she can fit in with the beautiful, popular girls at work. Why this is her dream isn't always easy to understand, as the other girls at work are pretty awful to her, and do nothing but gossip incessantly about all the sleaziest local drama, insulting and disparaging everyone they talk about.

After a hallucinatory interaction with a late night TV commercial, Stacey becomes obsessed with a skin cream that she's sure will help transform her into her perfect self. She uses it and continues to use it, despite the fact that it makes her break out horribly in red itchy spots. The cream is white and does a lot of splurting and squelching. The resemblance to another white substance is definitely not a mistake.

One thing I found interesting about this story is that, counter to the expected stereotype, Stacey's husband is not an abusive jerk! He is unflaggingly supportive and loving. It doesn't make any difference in the end, but still, it's refreshing.

This is really the only story in the whole anthology that features social commentary. It talks about the cultural obsession with a very specific kind of shallow, boilerplate sexual attractiveness, which television media encourages women to seek out and inhabit at the expense of all else. The pursuit of the destruction of idiosyncratic self in preference for this smooth, plastic ideal leads one woman into madness, violence, and death. It's surreal, darkly funny, and often deeply uncomfortable to watch.

Episode 5 - Pickman's Model
This was one of the episodes I was looking forward to the most, as it's based on a classic short story by H.P. Lovecraft that I quite enjoy. Sadly, I was disappointed. It's directed by Keith Thomas, another newcomer I was unfamiliar with. I did recognize the two male stars, however: Ben Barnes is our main character, Will, and the perpetually weird and creepy Crispin Glover plays the titular Richard Pickman. Will and Pickman are both art students at Miskatonic University, a school familiar to anyone who's read Lovecraft, and a school which is, most unfortunately, located in Arkham, Massachusetts. I say "most unfortunately" because this setting convinced the filmmakers to have Barnes and Glover speak all of their lines in absolutely atrocious Boston accents. Glover's is particularly egregious. It makes listening to the dialog a truly painful experience, far more horrifying and off-putting than any of the nightmarish sights we're presented with.

The plot is tiresome, proceeding in odd stops and starts, and sometimes veering off unexpectedly. It opens with odd outsider Pickman joining Will's art class. Will is fascinated by the man's unique, nightmarish paintings, and at first tries to befriend him, even calling him by the unfortunate nickname "Dickie." But Will quickly discovers that Pickman's work doesn't just look nightmarish - it also seems to bring nightmares to life in the waking world. The surreal visions Will experiences after looking at Pickman's paintings nearly ruin his relationship with his girlfriend and her family. Luckily for him, at this point Pickman inexplicably decides to pick up and leave, taking all his paintings with him.

Here the story makes a jarring time jump. All of a sudden, Will has gray in his hair and the girlfriend who seemed to have dumped him in the previous scene is now his wife. They even have a young son. This was such an unexpected and unexplained turn of events, I thought maybe it was meant to be a dream - but no!

Anyway, Will's successful, comfortable life is once again thrown off the rails by the sudden (again, unexplained) reappearance of Pickman and his oddly infectious paintings.

There's an attempt made to connect this story with the larger Lovecraftian Mythos by having some of the characters start chanting about Yog-Sothoth (the name of one of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones), but it doesn't go much of anywhere.

What exactly is the deal with Pickman's art? What does it do to people, and what does that have to do with his family history and the thing in his basement? It's not entirely clear. This adaptation does eventually recreate the shocking reveal that was the climax of the original short story. But since by that time we've already guessed as much, it's not very shocking. Furthermore, this adaptation seems to be telling a different story entirely, so the reveal doesn't make a great deal of sense. The final scene, though certainly horrific and effective in its way, is also a well-used cliche. After it's strongly implied that a certain horrible act has been performed, we crawl slowly toward the shocking reveal that...yes, that's just exactly what happened. Clumsily undercutting your own final revelation doesn't make for a great ending.

Episode 6 - Dreams in the Witch House
Another disappointing Lovecraft adaptation! Yay. This one was directed by Catherine Hardwicke and written by Mika Watkins, and it stars Rupert "Ronald Weasley" Grint in the main role, struggling with another very bad fake accent. He plays a spiritual investigator who, as a child, witnessed his twin sister's spirit being dragged away into another dimension upon her untimely death. He's been obsessed with finding his way to the other side ever since. With the help of a mysterious drug, and a stay in a haunted house built by a witch, he succeeds - unfortunately for him.

"Dreams in the Witch-House" is a lesser known Lovecraft story, but one I quite like, with fascinating ideas like mad geometry, impossible angles, and a creepy rat-like familiar named Brown Jenkin. Unfortunately, this adaptation doesn't really capture the flavor of that story, though it does include some of the characters and plot elements, and certainly features some really fantastically unsettling images. The crooked silhouette of the witch, lit only by her own burning eyes, lurking in the dark corners of the old house; the walls covered with strange symbols and creeping vines; and within those walls, the pattering feet of a rat with a human face...yeah, that's quality stuff.

Sadly, there's a lot of other stuff here that feels like filler, and doesn't work as well. The episode drags on a bit, and certain twists of the plot, including the final one at the end, feel random and arbitrary.

Episode 7 - The Viewing
A lot of horror stories can be broken into two parts: the slow buildup of tension and mystery, and then the horrifying revelation and payoff. The Viewing is like 80% buildup. It's well done, and super stylish buildup, but still...that's a lot of buildup. And the payoff, when it finally comes, is anticlimactic.

This episode was written and directed by Panos Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn, who are also responsible for the absolutely insane and surreal Nicolas Cage vehicle, Mandy. I was not surprised to learn this, as the music and visuals in this short reminded me of that film. The music and visuals are effective and fun - this thing is dripping with style.

Eric Andre, Charlyne Yi, Steve Agee, and Michael Therriault play experts in widely varying fields who are all called together for a mysterious "viewing" by a reclusive and fabulously wealthy eccentric played by Peter Weller. After a lengthy intro, a rambling conversation, and a lot of drug-taking, Weller's character finally reveals that he's brought this group together to look at a weird rock he found. The rock is much more than it seems (natch), and things go horribly awry (natch).

The climax is exciting and gory. But then the story just kind of...trails off. There's a lot of philosophical talk, and a pretty cool monster, but what exactly is the point of it all? It's not clear.

Episode 8 - The Murmuring
This episode is easily the best of the season. It's written and directed by Jennifer Kent, who made the modern horror classic The Babadook. This short is concerned with the same theme as that film - grief.

Nancy and Edgar, a married couple who've recently experienced a terrible loss, are researching why and how birds are able to move so swiftly and seamlessly in enormous flocks called murmurations. As part of their research, they head out to a secluded island to record the behavior of birds called dunlins. They've been provided an old house to stay in while they're out there, but the house is haunted by its own terrible secrets. As Nancy struggles with sleeplessness and terrifying hallucinations, she becomes obsessed with learning the history of the house and the family that once lived there, and her relationship with Edgar begins to break apart.

Powerful, visceral performances from Essie Davis and Andrew Lincoln give this story weight and realism. It's a slower, more lyrical story than the rest, but it has plenty of scares and terrifying moments. It's also far and away the most emotionally hard-hitting episode of the season. My eyes were definitely leaking by the end. It's a gorgeous, deeply moving piece - a wonderful conclusion to the season.

It sounds like del Toro is already planning a second season. The first one was uneven, but that's to be expected of an anthology series. I'll definitely be curious to see more.

Thumbs Up? (4)

Tagged: Horror, Lovecraft, Netflix, On the Viewer, TV]]> Horror Lovecraft Netflix On the Viewer TV Wed, 04 May 2016 12:59:00 +0000  by Fëanor

This audio book I just listened to was so great I thought I'd swipe the mothballs off the old blog to write it up.

The popularity of weird fiction author H.P. Lovecraft only seems to increase as the years go by. But so does scrutiny of his racist politics and beliefs, which were so often given such lurid life in his writing. One of the things Lovecraft found most horrifying, for instance, was miscegenation. For many years a bust of Lovecraft was presented to the winner of the World Fantasy Award, but just last year the bust was retired due to Lovecraft's history of racism.

I love Lovecraft's work, but had of course always been deeply uncomfortable with his racism. I hadn't heard of a modern interpretation of Lovecraft's horror universe that dealt in any meaningful way with this topic - until I read about Matt Ruff's novel Lovecraft Country. Lovecraft Country not only deals with the topic, but makes it its central theme. The book's purpose, in fact, is to wrest ownership of Lovecraft's universe away from its racist beginnings and place it firmly in the hands of people of color. (I'm a little disappointed, therefore, to have discovered after the fact that the author, Matt Ruff, is white. It seems like this story was for a person of color to tell. But there you are.)

The novel is set in America in 1954, and is told as a series of short stories, each an episode in a larger, over-arching story, each with a different narrator, with the final chapter bringing all the narrators and stories together in an exciting climax. All the narrators are members of, or close friends with, the Turner family. The novel opens with the story of Atticus Turner, a young black man still trying to find his place in American society after returning from serving in the Korean War. He receives an odd letter from his estranged father, Montrose, about a secret birthright that he's entitled to, and he decides to head home to Chicago to see what it's all about.

If you're expecting magic and monsters in the first few pages, you'll be disappointed. Ruff takes his time getting to that, first introducing you to the surreal insanity and horror that is the Jim Crow South. On his way home, Atticus is assaulted, harassed, and stolen from by a policeman for the crime of being black. As the story goes on, and incidents like this are repeated again and again, we come to realize that threats to your life and property from white men with power are just a part of everyday life for black people in America. And yes, sure, we should all already know that. But being a white guy, I need constant reminders, and Ruff forces you to really examine and internalize what it must be like to live like that: in constant fear, in constant danger of death, with little or no recourse to the law, the whole world against you, hating you and suspecting you on sight.

And that's just the baseline of horror in Atticus' world! As his story progresses, things get even more dangerous, and way more weird. A mysterious, untouchable, silver car with tinted windows seems to follow him everywhere as his search for his father takes him through a maze-like forest - where unseen things lurk in the shadows - to a tiny, insular town called Ardham. Ardham isn't Lovecraft's Arkham - not quite - but it is in "Lovecraft Country" (New England). And it is the home of a Manor House on a hill, where the Braithwhite family lives, leaders of a sect of a secret cult called The Order of the Ancient Dawn.

I won't tell you any more about the plot, because experiencing it for yourself will be fun as hell. But it includes intrigue, theft, espionage, double-dealing, murder, magic, devil dolls, ghosts, potions, curses, body-switching, and man-eating aliens. And still, even among all this weirdness and horror, we never lose sight of the novel's real focus: the real-life horror of being black in America. So not only is it a rollicking read - a brilliant, thrilling, enthralling, bone-chilling story - it's also a very important and powerful book. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Thumbs Up? (3)

Tagged: Book Report, Books, Lovecraft]]> Book Report Books Lovecraft Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:26:00 +0000  by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

• Egon 4-evah!


• Yep, been there, done that.


• This styrofoam cup art is pretty awesome.


• Mr. Hipp does it again with a couple of amazing Lord of the Rings pieces.


• A huge timeline infographic reveals what the future will be like, according to films. (Via)


• io9 offers you the chance to vote for the greatest use of pop music in all of sci-fi and fantasy. IIRC, I picked "You Could Be Mine" from T2, "Mad World" from Donnie Darko, "Johnny B. Goode" from Back to the Future, and "Day-O" from Beetlejuice.


• io9 has also collected for you the most amazing space pictures of 2011.


• Doctor Who My Little Ponies!


• What if Darth Vader's infamous "Nooooo!" were edited into other classic movies? In that same vein, here's Star Wars before and after blu-ray-ification.


• The first two episodes of a new Fringe web series.


• The trailer for Luke Cage! (OK, not really. Sorry to disappoint you there.)


• I usually avoid reposting Blastr's top ten lists, because that's all they ever post and it's kind of sad (although I don't have much room to talk...), but this one is rather fun: fake TV shows inside of real TV shows. Itchy & Scratchy is a classic, of course, and All My Circuits is always hilarious.


• Apparently carrots are only orange for political reasons.


• More of Sucklord's fantastic custom action figures.


• Cool piece of art created with tape. Also, Olly Moss' scary/funny Pikachu, and Kate Beaton's more accurate version of the Cheesecake Factory's logo.


• Lovecraftian lollipops! They're unspeakably delicious!


• Huh. Threadless is doing a pretty cool new thing.

Thumbs Up? (5)

Tagged: Art, Books, Business, Clothes, Comedy, Comic books, Craft, Doctor Who, Food, Fringe, Ghostbusters, Links, Lists, Lovecraft, Movies, Music, Parenthood, Photography, Recyclotron, Shirts, Space, Star Wars, Tolkien, Toys, TV, Video]]> Art Books Business Clothes Comedy Comic books Craft Doctor Who Food Fringe Ghostbusters Links Lists Lovecraft Movies Music Parenthood Photography Recyclotron Shirts Space Star Wars Tolkien Toys TV Video Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:24:00 +0000  by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

• Let's get the Star Wars links out of the way first. Here's a fun poster, here are characters sculpted in plasticine, and here are some Day of the Dead-themed pieces (among other things).


• A classic sculpture updated.


• io9 went to Disney's D23 Expo this past weekend where they got the latest details on Pixar's upcoming movies and saw new footage from The Avengers. I didn't read the spoilery description of the latter, but the first paragraph of the article is very promising.


• A while back I posted a rumor to Twitter that JMS was getting ready to bring back Babylon 5. Even though I'm not such a big fan of JMS anymore, especially as a writer, this was still pretty exciting news; I've always loved B5. Sadly, JMS himself says the rumor's not true.


• The dozen or so of you who wanted another Wolverine movie will be pleased to learn that it starts shooting in November.


• Super Punch presents a sampling of the amazing art of Giorgio Comolo.


• Noelle Stevenson's Broship of the Ring continues! (Via)


• Robot Monster is a terrible old movie where the title character is played by a guy in a gorilla suit wearing a deep sea diver's helmet with antennae on it. An artist named Rustam Hasanov wisely redesigned the character.


• UPDATE: A collaboration album between Lou Reed and Metallica called Lulu is scheduled to be released on November 1st. Um... wow.

Thumbs Up? (4)

Tagged: Aliens, Art, Avengers, Cartoons, Comedy, Comic books, Craft, Fast food, Links, Lovecraft, Monsters, Movies, Music, News, Pixar, Recyclotron, Robots, Star Wars, Tolkien]]> Aliens Art Avengers Cartoons Comedy Comic books Craft Fast food Links Lovecraft Monsters Movies Music News Pixar Recyclotron Robots Star Wars Tolkien Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:28:00 +0000  by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

• Some people are doing it right!


• A book of nursery rhymes in comic form by a bunch of famous cartoonists.


• Jaws as a Peanuts-style comic strip.


• What to expect from season 4 of Fringe. Exciting stuff!


• The Mars rover Opportunity is still running, finally arriving at its original destination, and getting ready to search for life.


• The School Board of Republic High School in Missouri banned Slaughterhouse-Five from the library, so the Vonnegut Memorial Library offered to provide a free copy to any of the 150 students who were originally supposed to read it.


• Along with the already existing nine (9!) film versions in development, there is now also a TV version of Frankenstein in the works. Naturally it is a "modern-day take" on the story. Oy.


• The Radiohead remix album is coming in September.


• Sam Bosma shows off a great commission piece featuring Lady Macbeth.


• Neat piece of Lovecraft-inspired art.


• SETI had to shut down its search for alien life back in April, but it's starting up again next month thanks to generous donations.


• It's nice to hear that J.J. Abrams would like to add a gay character to Star Trek.


• Apparently Disney announced it would be releasing two more Marvel movies in 2014 - one on May 16, 2014, and another on June 27, 2014 - but it's unclear who or what they'll be about.


• Blastr collects 24 wild and crazy newspaper headlines from sci-fi TV and films.


• 10 fictional games recreated in real life. I can't believe anybody really tried to play Kosho from The Prisoner. That crap was crazy, yo.


• T. Rex dressed as Batman.


• Scientists say spoilers don't really detract from your enjoyment of entertainment. Also, Rosebud was the name of his sled.


• The trailer for a modern-day update of Shakespeare's Coriolanus. Looks good!


• The descendants of snakes that escaped from the set of Raiders of the Lost Ark still roam Elstree Studios. That might be my favorite story of the week.


• An infographic of everyone killed by Jason in the Friday the 13th movies, including the method of their murders. Note that these are only the people killed by Jason, so the first movie is not included.


• Exhumed Films is doing their 24-hour Horror-thon at the iHouse again this year. Maybe someday when the kid is old enough I'll go to this with him. Assuming it's still happening then, and the kid likes horror movies, and doesn't mind being seen with me, and I'm still capable of sitting in a movie theater chair for that long without permanently injuring myself.

Thumbs Up? (5)

Tagged: Animals, Art, Batman, Books, Comic books, Dinosaurs, Frankenstein, Fringe, Homosexuality, Indiana Jones, Links, Lovecraft, Mashups, Movies, Music, News, Parenthood, Recyclotron, Science, Shakespeare, Space, Star Trek, The Prisoner, TV]]> Animals Art Batman Books Comic books Dinosaurs Frankenstein Fringe Homosexuality Indiana Jones Links Lovecraft Mashups Movies Music News Parenthood Recyclotron Science Shakespeare Space Star Trek The Prisoner TV Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:16:00 +0000  by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

• The ultimate "Spock is not impressed" image. (Definitely check out the Tumblr if you've never seen it.)


• Creepy-cool illustration of Wilbur Whateley.


• Very cool good-bye tribute to Harry Potter in the form of a poster.


• These illustrations make a very pointy point about gender in comic books.


• Hee hee.


• A lovely piece of Hobbit art by the always delightful Mr. Hipp.


• Scientists have found evidence of flowing salt water on Mars! Neat!


• I posted this video to Twitter/Facebook a while back, but it's so wonderful I'm posting it here again: a mariachi band serenades a beluga whale.


• The first official photo of Henry Cavill as Superman, the first official photo of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, and a very unofficial, Game of Thrones-mashed-up 'shop of the Catwoman photo (that was quick).


• This trailer for the upcoming animated series Tron: Uprising features lots of cool concept art, an exciting video clip, and bits of the Tron: Legacy soundtrack in the background - a soundtrack which, I may have already mentioned here, I am obsessed with to the point of mania.


• The new Ultimate Spider-Man is half-black and half-Hispanic. For some people, this poses a problem. Those people are wrong.


• Wondermark is very strange, and I love it.


• Steampunk Samus Aran arm cannon!


• NASA is sending LEGO minifigs representing Jupiter, Juno, and Galileo to Jupiter.


• Game of Thrones as a (NSFW) 8-bit (or is that 16-bit?) RPG.


• John "Walter Bishop" Noble is hosting a new show for the Science Channel investigating true stories of fringe science. It's called Dark Matters.


• Joe Quesada's Twitter feed isn't always all that interesting, but the other day he went through his process for creating a piece of art for the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, and it was really cool. Plus, the piece came out great. Luckily, Comics Alliance collected the entire sequence of tweets.

UPDATE:

• I'm certain at least one of you out there wants a desktop wallpaper version of the gender-swapped Justice League illustration, so here you go. (Via)


• The Protomen cover Queen.

Thumbs Up? (4)

Tagged: Animals, Art, Batman, Celebrities, Comedy, Comic books, Cosplay, Costumes, Craft, Fantastic Four, Fringe, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, LEGO, Links, Lovecraft, Metroid, Movies, Music, Photoshop, Recyclotron, Science, Sherlock Holmes, Space, Spider-Man, Star Trek, Steampunk, Superman, The Hobbit, Tolkien, Toys, Tron, TV, Video, Video games, Web comics]]> Animals Art Batman Celebrities Comedy Comic books Cosplay Costumes Craft Fantastic Four Fringe Game of Thrones Harry Potter LEGO Links Lovecraft Metroid Movies Music Photoshop Recyclotron Science Sherlock Holmes Space Spider-Man Star Trek Steampunk Superman The Hobbit Tolkien Toys Tron TV Video Video games Web comics Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:55:00 +0000  by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

• Shirt irony!


• A nice piece depicting a tense moment from Aliens.


• Dan Hipp knows how to push my buttons.


• The latest Awesome Hospital amused me. "That'll get you thirty CCs of Ripitupazine, braff." Heh.


• io9 talks about some legendary cryptids that turned out to be real. Yay, platypus! Also, dream on, bigfoot believers! Btw, send your cryptid photos to io9 - they're offering a $2,000 bounty!


• Wizard World was in town recently - right near where I work, in fact - but I still didn't make it over there, because it's super expensive and I just would have wanted to buy everything I saw. Also, kinda busy here. Get off my case! Ahem. Anyway, I can simulate a visit to Wizard World by clicking here and looking at these pictures! And so can you!


• Have I posted about Yog-Blogsoth yet? I should have if I didn't. It's a dude trying to draw every creature in every H.P. Lovecraft story. Love the title, the concept, and the art! But beware - some of the images are NSFW. (Via)


• A camera that lets you adjust the focus after the picture has been taken?? Wow. The future is cool.


• Turns out the Red Skull started life as the cherry on an ice cream sundae.


• I'm not convinced Steven Spielberg's dinosaur show, Terra Nova, is going to be any good, but these posters are fun.


• Click through for links to many beautiful photos of a wedding at a museum.


• Emergency stakes.


• I would like to have this cookies n' cream cake, please. (Via)


• Enjoying this nostalgic Zelda comic and this NSFW Tyrion fan art from this Super Punch link roundup.


• Check out a bunch of cool posters for Immortals, the mythological epic from Tarsem Singh that I continue to be very excited about.


• If you haven't seen the new Captain America trailer yet, you really should. It looks like they got Cap's character just right. So many scenes and lines of dialog in here are so perfect. Really looking forward to this one!


• A six-foot LEGO model of Sauron's Dark Tower. Sweet!

Thumbs Up? (2)

Tagged: Advertising, Aliens, Art, Captain America, Clothing, Comedy, Comic books, Cosplay, Costumes, Craft, Dinosaurs, Food, Gadgets, Game of Thrones, LEGO, Links, Lovecraft, Movies, Mythology, Photography, Recyclotron, Shirts, Star Wars, Steven Spielberg, Technology, Tolkien, Toys, TV, Vampires, Video, Video games, Web comics, Zelda]]> Advertising Aliens Art Captain America Clothing Comedy Comic books Cosplay Costumes Craft Dinosaurs Food Gadgets Game of Thrones LEGO Links Lovecraft Movies Mythology Photography Recyclotron Shirts Star Wars Steven Spielberg Technology Tolkien Toys TV Vampires Video Video games Web comics Zelda Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:39:00 +0000  by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

• Dude! Official pics from the set of The Hobbit! It's Bag End!


• Awesome poster for a Lovecraft-inspired exhibition and art book called Dead and Dreaming.


• Let's Be Friends Again unveils the newest member of the Endless.


• Now we know who Joseph Gordon-Levitt is playing in The Dark Knight Rises, and it's not really anybody I would have expected. A very obscure character! But it does fit in very well with the story Nolan has been telling throughout his Batman films, so okay.


• In case you haven't seen it yet, Warren Ellis started another redesign thread on his message board, this one for the cover of Fantastic Four #1. Some pretty great stuff in there.


• Super Punch presents another nice illustration roundup.


• Speaking of Super Punch, here are a couple more entries in the site's X-Men: First Class poster redesign contest.


• Cinematical picked out some fun bits from an interview with Billy Dee Williams, including the hilarious revelation that the guy has an Ewok head in his closet.


• There's going to be an Office Space Printer Smash in Philly on April 26th. Bring your tech rage!


• Voting has begun for the second round of io9's March Movie Madness poll. I am deeply upset that The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is currently losing to District 9. District 9 isn't a terrible movie, but it's not as good as some people say it is, and it's certainly nowhere near as excellent as the original TDtESS. That movie's a classic! C'mon people! Respect!


• What the hell is with all the Peter Pan movies in development?


• Michael Chabon might write Disney's Magic Kingdom. Huh. That movie just became more interesting to me.


• True Lies is a pretty okay movie, excepting a lot of the incredibly creepy first half, in which Arnold is basically torturing and abusing his wife for almost cheating on him after ignoring her for years. But a sequel? No, we do not need that.

Thumbs Up? (2)

Tagged: Art, Batman, Books, Celebrities, Comic books, Disney, Fantastic Four, Harry Potter, Links, Lovecraft, Michael Chabon, Movies, News, Peter Pan, Photography, Recyclotron, Star Wars, Tolkien, X-Men]]> Art Batman Books Celebrities Comic books Disney Fantastic Four Harry Potter Links Lovecraft Michael Chabon Movies News Peter Pan Photography Recyclotron Star Wars Tolkien X-Men Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:15:00 +0000  by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

• Farel Dalrymple draws Magik from the New Mutants and Black Bolt of the Inhumans.


• I'm loving this T-shirt which features Statler and Waldorf as Adama and Tigh. (Via)


• HBO has picked up a pitch for a new TV show by Michael Chabon called Hobgoblin, which is about "a motley group of conmen and magicians who use their skills at deception to battle Hitler and his forces during WWII." That sounds incredibly awesome. Here's hoping it actually ends up on TV some day.


• Blastr dug up some old stories that reveal how pivotal George Lucas' ex-wife was in shaping the plot of Star Wars and even of Raiders of the Lost Ark. This doesn't totally explain why his more recent stuff has sucked so much... but it kind of does.


• Custom action figure of Kane getting his face hugged.


• Truth.


• Link visits his mother. (Via)


• Super Punch highlights some great pieces from a recent art show.


• I was sad I didn't win this new Blade Runner T-shirt from Last Exit to Nowhere.


• I'm pretty depressed at the recent news that Guillermo Del Toro will probably not be making a film adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness after all. This may go down in history as one of the greatest films never made.


• This summer Philly is supposedly getting a restaurant that will serve coffee, donuts, and fried chicken. I WANT TO GO TO THERE. (Via)


• I don't know what this is, but I like it.


• Here's a great mashup.

Thumbs Up? (3)

Tagged: Aliens, Art, Battlestar Galactica, Blade Runner, Celebrities, Clothing, Comedy, Comic books, Craft, Food, History, Indiana Jones, Links, Lovecraft, Mashups, Michael Chabon, Movies, Muppets, News, Photography, Products, Recyclotron, Shirts, Star Wars, Toys, TV, Twitter, Video games, Zelda]]> Aliens Art Battlestar Galactica Blade Runner Celebrities Clothing Comedy Comic books Craft Food History Indiana Jones Links Lovecraft Mashups Michael Chabon Movies Muppets News Photography Products Recyclotron Shirts Star Wars Toys TV Twitter Video games Zelda Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:18:00 +0000  by Fëanor

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

• You can stream The Mountain Goats' new album, All Eternals Deck, in its entirety on NPR. Good stuff, but occasionally just depressing. So yeah, standard Mountain Goats.


• Another new preview for Game of Thrones. Longer! Still looking good!


• A very serious, dramatic, and action-packed ad for the new Thundercats show.


• A look at the swords of The Legend of Zelda.


• I've been trying to avoid posting casting rumors anymore, because they so often turn out to be BS, but man, I'd love to see Viggo Mortensen as General Zod.


• Here's a trailer for a Spanish film supposedly inspired by Lovecraft, although the only obviously Lovecraftian thing in it (and, coincidentally, the only interesting thing in it) is Cthulhu, who shows up at the end.


• Super Punch gives us a fun image roundup.


• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery is a pretty intriguing-looking iPad game. For those of you with iPads. *sob*


• Alex Robinson draws Frank Miller's Batman from The Dark Knight Returns.


• Game|Life interprets the visual warnings in the instruction manual for Nintendo's new 3DS.


• Cinematical/Moviefone runs down the winners of the Razzies and the Oscars. I'm glad to see The Last Airbender (my review) was roundly excoriated, and that one of the few Best Picture nominees that I actually saw (and enjoyed very much) won the award (The King's Speech). I don't usually enjoy Natalie Portman's performances, but I have to admit she was really good in Black Swan and probably deserves her statue. Toy Story 3 (my review) was obviously going to win Best Animated Feature Film, but again, well deserved. I also love that Trent Reznor has an Oscar now (and for one of my favorite albums of 2010, no less!). Who would have guessed that was going to happen back in the '90s, huh?

Thumbs Up? (2)

Tagged: Animals, Art, Awards, Batman, Cartoons, Celebrities, Game of Thrones, Links, Lists, Lovecraft, Movies, Music, News, Oscars, Photography, Recyclotron, Song of Ice and Fire, Superman, TV, Video, Video games, Zelda]]> Animals Art Awards Batman Cartoons Celebrities Game of Thrones Links Lists Lovecraft Movies Music News Oscars Photography Recyclotron Song of Ice and Fire Superman TV Video Video games Zelda