Gently produce when random laughing monster a belated revenge until the tsunami

veach  |  GTC  |  bluesboyjr  |  beatsoul
          I began the first slice of this in March (and thought it was lost forever).  In this extremely bizarre composite of hilarious incongruity, the only theme I can identify is "country trademarking" (None-USA-England-Germany).

          It seems this is another corpse which ended up 15px short (only this time it looks like GTC overlapped rather than abutted  *insert brief laugh-track at innuendo here*)...which I've (now) learned is OK/within the rules.  I stand corrected.  Live and learn.

 also:

♫ Hap·py Birth·day Ner·gal ♪


          Today is the Mesopotamian God Nergal's birthday.

          A deity of certain sun-phases, as well as the desert (a negative aspect of the sun), war, pestilence, and the underworld, Nergal is represented by the summer solstice (high summer being the dead season in the cradle of civilization—portions of present day Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria).

          Rival religions (christianity and judaism) sometimes referred to Nergal as a demon or as a minion of beelzebub.

          Look how far we superstitious monkeys have crawled in...less than six thousand years.

Simple Math by Manchester Orchestra

         Remember, back in 96, when you heard Matchbox 20 for the first time?  How about the first time you watched Modest Mouse perform 'Float On' (which, for me, must have been 04 or 05)?  Well, this is just like that...this video hits me in the tender bits...this song is fantastic. 

Return to Oz - (☆☆☆☆) film review


          I never saw this 1985 film until now.  People mentioned it, but never recommended it.  In the mid-90s, after watching The Craft, someone told me Fairuza Balk played Dorothy in Return to Oz, and when I said I hadn't seen it they replied, 'you didn't miss anything.'   So I let it slip through the cracks.

          Shame on me for trusting them.  Shame on them for being a shitty film umpire.

          It has 80s-quality special effects (greenscreen bleeding, poor claymation, and clumsy puppeteering) which needs to be overlooked with today's CGI-pampered eyes, but its script, acting, editing, and story are tight.  If you continue to not see this humorous, non-musical, dark fantasy and - instead - pay to see anything currently running at your local movieplex...you are throwing away your money.   

         

New Phone


          No longer do I have:  a contract, minutes, overages, or any surcharges.  I regained control by replacing all of the above with a throw-away phone.

          I now pay $2-a-day (on the occasional day I use it to communicate) and $0 every other day (when it's a pocket watch / camera / 911-service).  My monthly costs should fall between $6 and $12...about $100 a year.

          It's topped-up with a few bucks when the tank gets low, turned on only when needed, I group my just-want-to-chat calls into a pile, and still have it when I might need to shout 'marco' and listen for 'polo' because we got separated in the crowd.

          FILE UNDER:  pleased as a truffle-swine swimming in shiitake.

I'm the death open the pod bay down route 666 started somewhere near

GTC  |  veach  |  angeleyes  |  quackling
          This corpse was a double lightning round.  Each slice was double sized from the "regular" at New Exquisite Corpse (600dpi, 900px by 400px - hint slices were 30px high) and lightning because there was a 48-hour turnaround for each slice.  All artists (listed above in top-to-bottom slice-order) completed their portion on, or before, the two-day deadline (however, a series of unexpected glitches forced the overall product to take twice as long to complete).

          I am extremely pleased with this outcome.  The added detail of 600dpi is fantastic.

          Thank you GTC for beginning such a great theme (which I built upon, relying on what I assumed—correctly—were rifle cartridges on the right and the word NECRO).  Angeleyes, your ability to wonderfully enhance the theme based on two vague hints (CRO letters and an old wrist) is superb.  Which brings us to quackling...who's hint slice—thanks to angeleyes—was amazingly complex (license plates, gears, signs, letters...oh my!) yet quack created a stupendous closing composition which contains humor, frivolity, and continues the subtext.  I love it.
 also:

U-Mix: SCHWARM [timelapse] / The Flower Kings [Attack of the Monster Briefcase]

1.  Turn your volume up.
2.  Start the music above without expanding the screen.
3.  Immediately start the video below and then fullscreen it.

Dearest Anon Wealthy Conservative Commenter (bless your heart),

          In order to not get confused by all the chaff, I always recommend picking one thing (the bloody socks analogy) but, for those who need several, here is my response to your comment:
  • The Affordable Care Act, provides coverage to the uninsured and tames runaway medical-cost inflation.
  • The Recovery Act contained both short-term stimulative measures and increased public investment in infrastructure, green energy, and the like.
  • Dodd-Frank financial reform, while failing to end the financial industry as we know it, is certainly far from toothless (as measured by the almost fanatical determination of Wall Street and Republicans to roll it back).
  • A bailout and deep restructuring of the auto industry that is rapidly being repaid, leaving behind a reinvigorated sector in the place of a devastated Midwest.
  • Race to the Top, which leveraged a small amount of federal seed money into a sweeping national wave of education experiments, arguably the most significant reform of public schooling in the history of the US.
  • A reform of college loans, saving hundreds of billions of dollars by cutting out private middlemen and redirecting some of the savings toward expanded Pell Grants.
  • Historically large new investments in green energy and the beginning of regulation of greenhouse gases.
  • The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act for women.
  • Consumer-friendly regulation of food safety, tobacco, and credit cards.
  • Elimination of several wasteful defense programs.
  • Equality for gays in the military.
  • Expanding targeted strikes against Al Qaeda (including one that killed Osama bin Laden).
  • Ending the war in Iraq.
  • Helping to orchestrate an apparently successful international campaign to rescue Libyan dissidents and then topple a brutal kleptocratic regime.
          QED.

          *Extracted from When Did Liberals Become So Unreasonable? - Jonathan Chait, 20 Nov 2011, NY Magazine

Toys

          My infatuation with gadgets began from watching The Man From UNCLE.  As a wee lad, I played with toy guns.  Everyone my age did.  That was the one-word noun we used—guns.  Playing guns.  I recall my favorites in the mid-60s would transform from everyday items (camera, radio, movie camera) into a plastic pistol, rifle, or machine gun.  From then on, the best gadgets were multi-functional tools.

           Although 'watch' is the label the Dakota company has placed on this timepiece, I call it one of my favorite gadgets.

          To describe it with more precision, it is an outdoor gear travel-clock (it's too large for a belt loop, body heat raises the thermometer, clothing blocks the UV sensor).

          I clip it to the shoulder strap of my hiking case or golf bag.  I keep it in the campsite.  I use it on my nightstand.  I take it to the beach.

          It has all the standard features of most waterproof watches as well as:  ultra-violet radiation level, moon phase, tide level, and temperature (centigrade/Fahrenheit).  

          The hinged clip is designed to act as a base which supports the clock-face at an easy-to-view, 60° from horizontal, angle.

          My favorite features are:  the nightlight automatically shuts off after five seconds and the alarm automatically shuts off after 30.  The only negative:  no quiet mode; when setting or scrolling through functions every push causes a beep.

          Price range:  $45-$60.

          For those Gidgets who are unfamiliar with gadgetophilia I provide the following:  Although my ability to gaze outside and skyward is undiminished—and, therefore, this pocket-sized back-up isn't a necessity—I revel in ΓΌber-preparedness and enjoy my increased potential to mitigate the effects of our overhead orbs (the blistering one and the waxing-waning one) with more/less clothing, sunscreen, flashlight, or an altered beach destination.

What Does It Mean? - Chapter 3


          ♫ Hand, hand, everywhere a hand...mockin phys·i·og·no·my...freakin my mind ♪

          “OK.  This is where you explain the unsettling not-face in Untitled Portrait of Self.

          “I suspect you won’t be satisfied.”

          “Why not?”

          “Because we-humans are innately head, face, and (especially) eye centric—a viewer’s natural inclination is to scan-and-lock on this area of an artwork; affording more time to above-the-neck images and less to the remainder of the work.  I chose images which would, hopefully, discourage that impulse as well as answer three questions:  What facial expression would my hands make?  Which animal lives inside my skull?  And (avoiding clichΓ©) how can I depict thoughts?
          "Other artists have addressed this in very unique ways:  Rauschenberg's self portrait, Booster, included his full-body x-ray; Magritte blocked his face with an apple; Dali depicted his soul's glove in Soft Self Portrait with Fried Bacon; Lichtenstein used a fragmented-cubist style; and the photographer Vivian Maier worked with reflections and shadows."


          “That’s your entire explanation?”

          “I said you wouldn’t...”

          “Why a rat-brain?  Why are the eyes closed?  Why is the tongue out so far you can see tonsils?  Why an oct...OK, I get that part...pretty ingenious, but what’s on the TV?”

          “There are so many, too many, correct answers.  Each answer obscures another. 
          “I’m nocturnal; squint in any level of sunlight; love cunnilingus (only obvious when the necktie—reinforcing dynamic motion—is examined closely); and the final scene of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samauri, are some answers.  But.  So is...I enjoy cave exploring; don’t enjoy direct eye contact; have no cavities (or tonsils); and the subtitle—again, we are defeated—could be pessimism, realism, or a comment on war.”

          “Hmm.”

          “You're nonplussed.”

          “This underscores my problem with understanding.  When something is ‘open to interpretation’ I feel like there are too many options and, inevitably, I pick none.”

          “What does the word ‘rat’ bring to mind?”

          “Dirty.  They eat garbage.  Spread diseases.”

          “What about an octopus?”

          “Camouflaged, intelligent, problem solvers.”

          “And what about this drawing of two hands melded into one?”

          “Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo Del Torro.”


          “My sensibilities are quite pleased with the interpretations you bring to these elements.  Moving on to hands...
          “The rat is looking at Geovanni Giacometti's Theodora, who is shielding her eyes with her left hand in order to gaze sharply downward, encouraging the viewer to do likewise.  Theodora’s vantage point suggests she is staring at Lichenstein’s Nude... (mentioned in an earlier chapter) who is staring back at her—people staring at each other are intended to create visual tension. 
          “I chose to repeat the visual trope begun with the face by having the SNAPPERHEADLINE NEWS (obvously a reference to my blog) being held by, and depicting, many hands.  The three-ring circus element needed to be visually different from that of the right arm (gun : limb : common sense/intuition) as well as from that of the head (rat-brain : octopus-avocations : doublepalm-face).
          “The monkey depicts dichotomy by taking/climbing on the paper, wearing a trinity nuclear explosion as a helmet, and allowing money to fall out of its tailhand.
          “The lobster depicts both good and bad repetitious behavior by holding the newspaper in its tailhand (no day-off in nine months) while grasping a golf club (practice makes perfect) and an antihistamine sprayer (a life-long addiction).
          “The top hand, merely displaying the paper, reflects my job.
          “Above the headline: brains never make same connection twice, is a melding of suggestive images which are open to interpretation, culminating in a banana near the monkey (visual/mental connections).”


          “Don’t be shy at this point.  Let's hear one of your intended interpretations.”

          “Masturbation.”

          “OK.  Maybe.  Male hand gripping a banana.  Fingers directing the eye along a disembodied female gluteal sulus.  Nipple shield.  It is so obvious.”

          “Sarcasm doesn’t change my interpretation.”

          “How about another for good measure?”

          “The progression of birth to death.”

          “Oh come on!”

          “Nipple shield—a symbol of birth, connected to female life-giver, connected to male pointing a metaphoric pistol at the war-monkey?” 

          “Bet you can’t do a third.”

          “A three-panel Exquisite Corpse.  One artist begins, folds the paper allowing only a small hint for the next artist who appends to that hint and then folds...”

          “Shit.  Now I see it.  But only after you pointed it out.  Who needs a chapter break?”

          “As long as the smoke from the campfire doesn’t waft up the nose on the leaf of the lilac bush (a favorite and a visual guide) causing an explosive sneeze (an unfortunate trait) to frighten the bee into a frenzy which causes it to buzz the thong-shaped streetlight pole and seek refuge on the concrete porch of the cliff-front condominium (a pipe dream) forcing one of Georges Seurat's models (staring at the viewer) to flee down the ladder, snapperhead will return with another chapter explaining the portion of the the story in, on, behind, adjacent, and surrounding the left leg of Untitled Portrait of Self.