| Cyberpunk Parody of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack? 2019-03-25 21:39:54 ET |
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Did you guys say that you've wanted to hear a cyberpunk parody of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack?
Well then!
https://youtu.be/T_6fJmct1-Y
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| Look at me, ma! I'm a critic! 2019-03-23 13:40:24 ET |
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So Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse is really, really good. It's funny because when I first heard about it, before it was released, I thought it was going to be another one of those animated Marvel movies that you hear about but never actually see because they seem to be direct-to-video things that seem kinda cheap from the previews and so you never end up watching them or caring about them much. That's what I thought this would be with the exception of this one getting a theatrical release. Welp, turns out that that wasn't the case. Ignoring the story aspect of it, the animation alone is freaking fantastic. Not only was it some of the best cgi I've ever seen in movies or cartoons but just the lighting and visual tricks were great. And, if you see it in a theatre with good sound then it's even better. I was surprised when it didn't get nominated for an oscar for best audio editing since that really stood out when I was watching it. Anyways, the story is also good so it's a win win.
Also it has Nicolas Cage in it.
So I think that good acting needs to have 2 parts to it:
Part 1: It needs to be realistic. The character needs to be seen rather than the actor. Doesn't matter if it's a lead actor or some supporting actor or side character or random extra in the background. They're supposed to convey that they are who they're supposed to be. Even when they're not talking and aren't the focus of the scene.
And then there's part 2: It needs to be entertaining. Doesn't matter if you're the most realistic actor in the world. If you're not entertaining then the movie becomes boring or the performance becomes boring and drags scenes down. That's not fun.
So Nicolas Cage is like the master of the 2 parts. When he's in a shitty movie, he focuses on Part 2 and when the movie's good then he does both parts to the best of his ability.
I remember that, in some interview I've read, he said that he wants to be his generation's Vincent Price. When I read that I went "holy shit" because, yeah, I can see that.
So, yeah, Nicolas Cage is always fun and the Spider-verse movie having him in it was like icing on the cake. And it has John Mulaney as Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham. Now, don't get things wrong, Spider-Ham isn't a spider-pig. Nope, he's a pig-spider. A mild-mannered spider who got bitten by a radioactive pig (apparently it was Aunt May, the cartoon pig version, who went temporarily nutzo after her nuclear-fusion-powered hairdryer malfunctioned.) So, uh, that's that.
Also, the movie is another one in recent years that makes NYC seem exotic. Now, when I was a kid back in the final breathing years of the Soviet Union, I read some children's book (seems to have been written by VItaly Bianki, if the clues in my memory are still accurate) that made the life of a field mouse, who ends up living in a barn, seem exotic and interesting. And now I know that some people are pushing against the treatment of their cultures and places as being exotic but I honestly think that's the wrong approach. That book (or maybe it was a long story in a book of stories?) taught me that anything can seem interesting and exotic. It's just a matter of perspective. That being said, I've tried to casually seek out movies that try and make NYC seem that way. Not just as a background for a story's events (like Taxi Driver) but as a character in the movie itself. The James Bond movies are good examples. Not all of them but some of them do focus on the locales. And then there's the future LA of Blade Runner. Stuff like that. Recently movies finally started doing this with NYC. I first noticed it with Ocean's Eight (which I think is underrated. It's not a gender-swapped reboot but a sequel/fork of the original series. There's some weird plot issues but overall the movie was better than Ocean's 12 and probably on the same level or better than Ocean's 13. Actually there was a part that seemed to have been a giant middle finger to Ocean's 12. I really appreciated that. Fucking Ocean's 12.) which was very "ooh, NYC is cool" and that was fun. The Spider-verse movie did the same thing as well with the city. My favorite scene, in terms of visuals, was when Spidey's in the cemetery on the side of Trinity Church. Uh, I probably had something else to say but it's 14:39 and I've done nothing useful all day so....
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| These caffeine pills are expired 2019-02-26 14:37:07 ET |
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The expiration date on the bottle says that the expiration date was in May of last year (2018). It's like an inverse Russian roulette of efficacy. Every once in a while a pill seems to work. I used to use caffeine pills as chemical alarm clocks back when I had a job. If I was going to sleep at 6am or later, I'd take a caffeine pill and fall into a slumber. In about 2 hours, the caffeine would kick in proper and I'd wake up refreshed and ready to head out. These ones, however, are like munching on sugar free placebo. Nothing happens most of the time. It's a CVS brand but it's their NoDoz copy. I've got a different CVS generic. It's newer and resembles Vivarin only with cheaper packaging. I....
I shouldn't listen to William Gibson audiobooks while working on my resume. It makes me want to write a bit.
Maybe I'll sell an article to some paper or zine. Some cyberpunk anthropology bullshit. I can usually take on the writing style of whichever writer I'm reading. Probably should dig in to some Mondo 2000. Write a barefaced optimistic early 90s cyberspace prediction-type of article for Wired or something. How hard can it be? What's the word count anyways? And I've the physical copy of the zine. Their printed version is so much worse and so much more dumbed down than their online zine version. It's the difference between Cosmo and the Kama Sutra. I guess what I'm saying I can increase my chances by aiming for lower standards.
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| The times are a-changing 2019-02-26 14:03:09 ET |
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I've not been able to follow my goal of 3-5 written pages a day but I've been doing well with these SK posts so I guess they'll have to do for now even though they're short. I can knock them out whilst sitting on the porcelain throne however so I've got that going for me, which is nice.
So the weather in London at the moment, in the evening, is warmer than the current San Francisco weather during the day. And the warmth is going to last for at least a week. Interesting times ahead. I need to finish my resume ASAP and send it out to a bunch of places. Should probably get a haircut too. I also need to keep on learning. Manage the lethargy time into something that will last.
Fuck, I'm living in the future so I should make sure I'm in a position to make the most out of it. I remember hearing about how one could buy other's debt as if one is some sort of collection agency. That would be a good thing to do with extra cash. Buy a lotto ticket and debt. Write off the debt, play the lotto. Somebody's bound to win.
People complain about the exotification of cultures or whatever. I think everything needs to be viewed in an exotic light. The mundane becomes romantic. I remember some quote from some letter that H.P. Lovecraft wrote to somebody. In it he said that he didn't like cowboy stories but some writer's book or short story was really good and it transcended the subject matter or something to that effect. That's something to aspire to. See the cool stuff in things. Of course the downside of it all is that it kinda fucks up the selection process for what to do next. Sort of like asking somebody what they want to eat and them realizing that they like everything and thus can't narrow the choice down to something that will allow a choice, even if it'll require a cointoss in the end.
Anyways, time to get off the chamber pot.
See ya!
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| small science news 2019-02-24 10:24:33 ET |
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oh and it seems a patent for a room-temperature superconductor has been filed by the navy but that's just small news just like this post is small and all lowercase
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| A/S/L? 2019-02-24 10:21:18 ET |
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"Now why would he call this SK post'A/S/L'?", you might be wondering. In a word: cyber.
Turns out the FBI has a cyber most wanted list.
The link's here:
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/cyber
I stumbled upon it (though, come to think of it, I may have known about it in the past but memory is like a warehouse of failing hard drives: you might never know what you know and what you think you know might not be as accurate as you'd want it to be) after searching for info on Behzad Mesri. An Iranian hacker who might be contracted out by the Iranian government. From this Foreign Policy article, it seems that he's part of an APT group (Advanced Persistent Threat) called "Charming Kitten" but it seems he's also been sought in relation to an extortion scheme where HBO got hacked and a Game of Thrones script was threatened to be released unless some Bitcoin ransom was to be paid.
God, we're living in a cheesy cyberpunk future, aren't we?
Side thought: We might be living in a novel co-authored by William Gibson and Thomas Pynchon a la The Illuminatus! Trilogy. The names. The names should've been a good clue. I might've mentioned this earlier but it would've been apparent if I looked up Anne Hathaway's Wikipedia page. Turns out that's not a pseudonym. A popular actress in Hollywood actually shares the name of Shakespeare's wife from birth. Ain't it spooky, Mulder?
Anyways, so this Air Force intelligence agent named Monica Elfriede Witt's been charged by the DoJ (Department of Justice) for defecting to Iran and apparently helping out Charming Kitten with their spearfishing campaign. More info here on the justice.gov site.
But that's just a bit of a side note. I'm just posting since the HBO hack thing reminds me of DarkOverlord.
Uh, shit, I need a link, don't I? Hold on.
...
Here's a Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Overlord_(hackers)
They basically hacked a studio associated with Netflix and held episodes of shows for ransom (threatened to release the episodes if money wasn't paid.) This m.o. reminds me of Behzad Mesri's m.o. (modus operandi aka method of operation) and so I thought I'd write this up. DarkOverlord has been in the news lately. Seems like they hacked a law firm involved with 9/11 lawsuits which, if I remember correctly and am going to check later, was representing Silverstein Properties (the company who owned the property) and DarkOverlord stole a bunch of documents or something. They're using it in another extortion attempt. It's all very weird since we're kinda living in a weird age of news through extortion. So maybe it's all the same group? This is all pure speculation on my part though. But it's fun to speculate sometimes.
Incidentally, while looking for a link regarding the whole DarkOverlord group, this RT article popped up with no author's name attached. Not really going to link to the article since all it basically says is that D.O. released the decryption key for a 3rd batch of files regarding 9/11. The link is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Overlord_(hackers)
Anyways, time to go and brush my teeth!
Also, the download speed for LibreOffice ended up slow because the default mirror was fucking up. Switched download sites and the download just finished!
Adios!
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| 2019-02-24 09:38:06 ET |
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SO yeah, I passed out after less than a page and the download failed good times.
There's an MC Escher exhibition in Brooklyn that's closing in a week so I'm going to try and make it there today.
There's also a KGB museum that's somewhere on 14th street. Might try to go to that too.
Gotta work on my resume
Gotta study
Gotta get a job
Gotta go fast
Also, Alita: Battle Angel is really good, in my opinion. I'm going to brush my teeth now.
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