Monday, December 26, 2011

Prince Albert Getting His Geek on in '77



Prince Albert of Monaco in a "Wizards" t-shirt.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Monday, October 17, 2011

WD Season 2 Premiere

Two notes: 

Last season, Andrea had a different pistol.

You will NEVER find a crucifix in a Southern Baptist Church.

‘Walking Dead’ writer Robert Kirkman talks season premiere (and that traumatic ending) | Inside TV Mobile | EW.com

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Can, Baby, Can!


The Zombie Who Would Be King

MSI love it when my dyvers interests collide.  In this case, it's Flashman-era Afghanistan and Romeroan zombie apocalypses.

While psyching myself up for tonight's premiere of Season 2 of ABC's The Walking Dead, I ran across this BBC article alleging that the actor who played SWAT Team member Roger in 1978's Dawn of The Dead is the direct descendant of 19th century American soldier-of-fortune Josiah Harlan, who won the title "Prince of Ghor" for himself and his descendants in perpetuity.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | US movie actor is 'Afghan prince'

It's Walking Dead Season 2 Premiere Day!

Pick your zombie survival kit of choice. Discuss.


Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Images




Action Typist Scoops The Atlantic

Today's Super Punch linked to a Sept. 13, 2011 post by Alan Taylor at The Atlantic comparing Vladimir Putin to Action Man.

I would remind my subscribers (all seventeen of you) that I scooped The Atlantic back in June with Vladimir Putin: Man of Action.

Gladiators

"It's like the end of Spartacus. I have seen that movie half a dozen times and I still don't know who the real Spartacus is. And that is what makes that movie a classic whodunit."
--Michael Scott

Long before Chris Pontius and Steve-O were playing Hot Potato with the nests of Africanized Guatemalan Insanity Hornets and before Johnny Knoxville and Ban Margera got the idea to play mumbleypeg blindfolded with a welding torch, the masses were entertained by other men whose shtick was doing harm to other men.  AoM has a great primer to those of you who have not watched every episode of Spartacus.

AoM » Man Knowledge: The Men in the Arena–A Primer on Roman Gladiators


Monday, October 10, 2011

Horror Biz

"You must admit, it's hard to imagine this place being conducive to anyone's mental health."
—Batman, on Arkham Asylum




I've pretty much abandoned Falling Skies, and I'm desperately hoping that the writers of Terra Nova develop something beyond dinosaur-of-the-week with only the badassness of Stephen Lang and its family-friendliness to keep it on my radar. But there is one show this season that has me eagerly awaiting the next episode.

FX's American Horror Story is the story of the Harmon family. Psychiatrist Ben Harmon moves his wife Vivien (played by Connie Britten) and his daughter Violet (played by Taissa Farmiga) cross-country to Los Angeles, leaving behing mundane misfortunes and misdeeds like miscarriage and adultery only to find supernatural horrors at their new Hollywood Victorian abode.

With the New House, New Problems trope as its central motif, AHS has all of the tropes that make for great horror: the Waif-Prophet, Creepy Twins, a Spooky Painting, and a delightfully Politically Incorrect Villain played by my nominee for Best Supporting Actress in a Dramatic Series Emmy, Jessica Lange.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

You May Be A Nerd If ...

I was just watching the last five minutes of an episode of The Big Bang Theory, my first glimpse of the show ever.  In the scene, LeVar Burton walks in, and, for a split second, I assumed he was blind.

It's That Time of Year Again...

Prep Work for the Apocalypse

Just in time for Halloween and the 2012 apocalypse,  Zombie Industries is selling life-sized 3D zombie targets that actually bleed when hit by a round.

And for those of us on a tighter budget, they're also selling zombie paper targets.


Saturday, October 8, 2011

Friday, October 7, 2011

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Xenophobia: 1, Georgia: 0

Usually, when folks suffer the consequences of their bad choices, we say that they are reaping what they have sown.  But, in the case of Georgia's Arizona-style immigration law , the state is NOT reaping what it has sown.  Millions of dollars worth of what it has sown. 

Not since Sherman's Army of The Tennessee dropped in for torch-lit Rape & Pillage™ has Georgia's farmland experienced the kind of ruin recently wrought by the state's legislative locusts.

Get-tough-on-illegal-immigration laws have inadvertently created manpower shortages on farms.  The result: produce rots in the vine, and those "Made in America" fruits and vegetables will be replaced with inexpensive imports.

The great irony here is that the same crowd that chants the mantra of "limited government" is the same one that pushed this business-busting legislation through.  The man who signed this into law is the same Governor who was smart enough and courageous enough to spearhead an initiative to clear his state's prisons of nonviolent drug offenders, the victims of Georgia's last bone-headed legislative crackdown, to make room for gang-bangers, rapists, and child molesters.

So far the conscription of these  criminals into a makeshift Convict Land Army directed to the fields by their parole agents is the only solution the government has tendered to deal with the great migrant farmworker desertion.

Many of these felons don't last a week.  These are the same offenders who prefer risking the shivs, shanks, and sodomy of jail to working eight hours a day in a nice air conditioned McDonald's.  Yet, for some reason, now they are going to toil from sun-up to sundown under Dixie's  infernal sun for a pittance? 

h/t 11alive.com

Palin-drones Lament

After much press, publicity, and serious Harold Hill hucksterism, Annie Wilkes of the GOP has announced that she will cease teasing the Ma-and Pa-Kettle wing of her party with the notion that she will be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States.

She is going to stay on the porch, cut bait, and get the hell out of the way.

That is all.

h/t Sarah Palin Will Not Run for President - ABC News

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Friday, September 30, 2011

Salt Mummy

Salt Mummies: Usually found in mausoleums and appearing as  bodies wrapped in spider silk in the fashion of mummies the touch of these mummies does not spread mummy rot, but rather drains the moisture from people (saving throw or lose 1d3 points of constitution; one point of constitution can be regained by drinking one gallon of water). Sewn into each mummy is a gold statuette worth 600 gp.

SALT MUMMY: HD 6+4; AC 3 [16]; Atk 1 fist (1d12); Move 6; Save 11; CL/XP 7/600; Special: Desiccate, hit only by magic weapons.

h/t THE LAND OF NOD: Hell Preview 4 - Iron, Salt and Fire!

Friday Night Videos

Night of The Living FedEx

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Mmmmm.... Methane *drool*

A few weeks ago, we received capital-N Notice that our local water authority has failed to do EPA-mandated testing for little things like lead and fecal matter for at least two years.

But at least it's not flammable.

Drillers Face Methane Concern - WSJ.com

From Our Man on (Off-Off) Broadway

Playbill reports that Qui Nguyen's She Kills Monsters, a comedy about us folks who play D&D, will open on November 17 at The Flea Theater.

The play focuses on Agnes who "is finally leaving her childhood home following the death of her totally weird sister, Tilly. When she stumbles upon Tilly's Dungeons & Dragons notebook; however, Agnes embarks on an action-packed adventure to discover more about her sister than she previously cared to know. A octane comedy fraught with hostile faeries, randy ogres, and '90s pop culture."

The Flea will also host a D&D-inspired art exhibit: "Doomslangers," artist Casey Jex Smith's works focusing on a "D&D adventure to save the mythical city of Dingershare from the evil Lord Ricaek."


Casey Jex Smith
Davroar Arboshare 2010

For more info, tickets, etc., go to theflea.org.

h/t Playbill.com

Links
  • "Doomslangers" D&D-inspired art exhibit at Allegra LaViola Gallery
  • Sunday, September 18, 2011

    Saturday, September 17, 2011

    QUOTE OF THE DAY

    "I am Shutruk Nahunte, King of Anshand and Sussa, Sovereign of the land of Elam. I destroyed Sippar, took the stele of Niran-Sin, and brought it back to Elam, where I erected it as an offering to my god."
    --Shutruk Nahunte -1158 B.C.

    Tatooine-like Planet Discovered

    Tuesday, September 13, 2011

    Sunday, September 11, 2011


    Gomdulla

    Star Wars Sunday

    Original version of Tim Bradstreet's depiction of an unmasked Tusker Raider. Due to the reluctance of Lucas to show unmasked Tuskenfolk, it was revamped to become bounty hunter Tagger Bren. h/t Green Skeleton Gaming Guild

    Tuesday, September 6, 2011

    Postapocalyptic Mash-up

    synthezoide on deviantART created this masterpiece depicting three of my favorite franchises all blended together in one nifty scene.