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Disclaimer: Please note that the writer is not responsible for dead, boring, mind expanding or dangerous website links and/or software, follow links and install programs at your own risk! Friday, November 08, 2002
Readers of my ElectroZine (ok, ok, It’s a weblog, but I’m into self-created conjunctions these days) may have noticed that I like to use a lot of strange words, like “cruxtaposition”, “anticipassion” or even “denimoxyribonucleic acid”.
For me, it’s pretty much second nature to mangle words to fit my moods and or situations, and I would like to encourage all my friends and readers to do the same! But, I do understand that some folks may not be exactly comfortable or even able to do this “on-the-fly”. Well, for anyone that’s ever needed a little encouragement there’s now the perfect motivational tool! The Pseudodictionary! With over 12,000 made-up words, the site is chocked-full of all sorts great material that you can begin to add to you everyday vocabulary! I’m sure everyone knows a few Wackjobs (Someone who is so stupid, annoying, or just plain retarded she might as well be whacked by a hitman to put her out of her misery.) Employ a Wonky (messed-up, gone wrong, esp. in reference to technology) Firewall with confidence! You may even want to visit Zandar (zandar - 1. The fictional planet on which a person is landed during states of extreme intoxication or pleasure. 2. The hypothetical planet on which ludicrous opinions or behaviors are possible and even logical.) on a regular basis! (Heck, you may even live there now and didn't even know it!) And from now on I’ll be sure to add lots of Zazz (like jazz, only for images) to all my digital art! The possibilities are endless! And once you have enough confidence using made-up words in your everyday conversations you can go on to submit you very own words to The Pseudodictionary! Have fun all you Blogzombies! posted by Kusari 11:50 PM Guess what Kiddos? It’s time for another installment of “Female Singers that I have a Crush on”! Voila! This time we’re going to look at a lady who most folks know as a Model and Actress: Milla Jovovich. What a lot of folks don’t know is that Milla is actually quite the accomplish poet and musician, who released a very cool CD called a "The Divine Comedy” back in 1994. Her record deal was based on a demo song that she had cut when she was only 12 and unfortunately the record company apparently attempted to stuff Milla into a Brittany Spears pop mold. However, and quite respectfully, she fought for her creative freedom and created one of the finest hidden musical treasures of 90’s. The only song from this CD that ever received any real air/videoplay was “The Gentleman Who Fell”, a rather unique song, which, like the whole CD is rather difficult to classify. Personally, I loved the tune from the first time I saw the video on Much Music and not just for the lovely lady singing it, but for the very interesting lyrics, which, at the time, reflected a lot of my own feelings on relationships: Reaching over life to life feeling sugared skin my poor baby kissed him so too ashamed to lift his chin a voice is speaking he's the prophet blinded by the light a heart is breaking I can hear it dropped when gone beyond my sight hey there, Mr. Talk Too Much what's in store for us now? I don't know how to speak to you I don't know how to trust you I don't know how to live for you I don't know how to love you the gentleman who fell before the court I feel your closeness like a shotgun a chill within my soul I touch your finger know your darkness your passion takes its' toll can't see that this talk is cheap let the suffering go Part the official Milla J. site: http://www.millaj.com/, this page has various downloadable MP3s (far more useful than the standard RealAudio clips normally available on musician related sites), including some really cool unreleased material. Other really notable songs from “The Divine Comedy” are: “Bang Your Head” they said "what makes you different, from us?" we're gonna bang your head, down “Don’t Fade Away” Whitewashed liars Stupid teachers Blinded are these broken dreamers Little rulers Who will teach them time ... time “The Alien Song (for those who listen)” As we stopped on this pavement and saw your dying mind Paper, for which you're killing brothers life And the lyrical Ukrainian Folksong: “In a Glade”, which, while impossible to understand (unless you speak Ukrainian or have the following translation), is still somehow recognizable as a very sweet love song: In the forest near the Danube river, there is a nightingale singing, he sings to gather everyone from his family In the forest near the Danube river, there is a bass vibrating and a fiddle crying, I think of a place where my lovely one is strolling now In the forest near the Danube river, I am sick with my loneliness, crying, I want to fly like a bird, to where my lovely one is now. Milla has taken part in several other musical projects, however, one that’s not really noted on her official site is the unfortunately unavailable “Peopletree Sessions vol.1”, while definitely more electronica in nature, still has that irresistible Milla Touch©. posted by Kusari 10:48 PM Thursday, November 07, 2002
Growing up on an Island on the Canadian side of the 49th parallel surely had its ups and downs. One of the biggest ups was easy access to Amerikanski TV stations (as every Canadian knows, 99.5% of Canadian TV sucks mondo snowman arse) .
So, the better part of my childhood was spent being bombarded with TV advertising from our Amerikan cousins in Michigan. Place names from the cherry and fudge loving state like “Gaylord” and “Alpena” always seemed like some sort of paradoxically near, yet distant Shangra-La. One of the greatest mystical places in this Shangra-La was an eating establishment of unparalleled excitement and interest known as “Elias Brother’s Big Boys”. Many a childhood daydream was spent drooling over the imagined wonder of what had to be the most fascinating chain of eateries in history. Oddly enough, in all of my nearly 29 years, I had never actually been able to visit Michigan and bask in the glory of its many, many wonders. This all changed this past September when I was invited to road trip to the Michigan Renaissance Fair, near Holly, MI. Among other adventures, such as seeing a Giant 500lb. Man Eating Clam at Sea Shell City and just missing out on exploring the space warping potential of “The Mystery Spot”, I was finally able to "worship" at the Holy Shrine of the Big Boy. As awed as I was, I did have the presence of mind to have one of my "Road Tripping Allies" take photographic proof of this monumental event: 
I was even bestowed a gift by one of the kind priestesses of the Big Boy... As I was standing in line to pay for what had to be one of the greatest meals of my lifetime (Mostly due to being three-quarters-starved after wandering the Ren Faire in 20lbs of armour for the day), I watched in stunned silence as the priestess betstowed a holy relic upon one of the younger visitors to the Shrine. It was difficult to believe the treasure that was before my very eyes! 'Twas a rainbow coloured slinky, emblazoned with the Holy Symbol of the Big Boy! All I could managed was a quiet “narrrrrrrrffffffffff, I wonder if I could be allowed to take home such a glorious treasure?” The priestess smiled as I approached, and then uttered the most amazing words “Would you ~really~ like a slinky?” I simply couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste! The words practically leaped from my lips “Yes Please, Ma’am!” I was appropriately respectful as she placed the relic in my hands and said a small prayer to the honor of the Big Boy: “It’s ok sir, I can tell that you are still a kid”. posted by Kusari 11:02 PM Being a child of the video game era has left me with more than just a few scars involving long forgotten video game characters and their various exploits. I mean, did Yar ever get his revenge? What happened to Atari Force? Was there really a solution to Swordquest: Earthworld or was it all just a mass hallucination? The answers to some of these questions are most likely doomed to be lost in the annals of time. Of course, the biggest video game question of all time is just how did the eternally pie-shaped Pac-Man get the equally pie-shaped, yet bow clad, Ms. Pac-Man pregnant? Well, finally there is a site with the answer to this question and discussions (called “nodes” on Everything2)about a million other weirdly esoteric topics! In case you aren't interested in the sexual habits of Pac-People, their main URL is: http://www.everything2.com/ . Alas, we may never know the answer to the next biggest burning video game question: Just why was Baby Pac-Man, the supposed child of two video games, half-Pinball Machine? posted by Kusari 10:18 PM It may not be immediately obvious, but I have this long-standing habit of developing huge (and "mostly" harmless) crushes on various female singers. The habit first started years and years ago, when I began listening to various CD to help me fall asleep. Invariably I always choose some smoky-voiced lady to lull me into dreamland and to a certain extent I’m still search for the perfect female voice to “sing” me to sleep each night. So, I thought it might be cool to introduce y’all to some of my favourite female singers for your nocturnal listening pleasure. Tonight I’m starting with a lady that I just discovered: Aimee Allen. Now, this one is a bit unusual for me, as her debut CD: “I'd Start a Revolution If I Could Get Up Morning”, although ranking #3,098 on Amazon.com’s Sales chart, isn’t scheduled for release until sometime in 2003. I wouldn’t have even known about her if it wasn’t for the fact that her first single, aptly titled “Revolution”, was chosen as the theme song for one of my favourite new TV series, the WB’s “Birds of Prey”. (Hey, any show where the main villain is Ms. Harley Quinn has got to be good, especially when she exposes the virtues of Eris, goddess of discord.) Anyhow, the rocking female voice behind “Revolution” grabbed my interest, so after downloading the tune wtug WinMX, I just had to do a little more research. Her official website: http://www.aimeeallenrocks.com/ (She sure does!) was a little sparse, but did provide a few interesting tidbits, such as musical influences like Jeff Buckly and Ani Defranco (Rock On!). Of course, I also discovered that the lady is absolutely gorgeous, I mean, dark punky hair, big dark eyes, a smoky voice, singing about revolutions? What more does a boy need to spawn a massive crush? There’s a link on her site to some sort of corporate fan site: http://www2.fanscape.com/aimeeallen and while they will probably misuse my demographic information for nefarious purposes, I couldn’t resist entering the contest for a 10gig nomad MP3 player. Anyhow, it’s not hard to see that this lady is going to be a totally hot property next year, so keep your eyes peeled and you can be the first on your block to say: “Ya, I knew about her before she was hip”. posted by Kusari 1:41 AM Tuesday, November 05, 2002
Well, every now and again you just happen to come across something so ridiculous you have to tell "the world" (or, at the very least, the 4 people that actually glance over this blog ;) about it. So, here you go, just what every pervy-hobbit fancier has been looking for: “The Very Secret (and rather funny) Diaries” of various Lord of the Rings’ characters.
Whatever you do, don’t start fancying Frodo or Sam will kill you... And, BTW, mucho thanks to the "pouty one" who sent me the link for this site! posted by Kusari 11:09 PM Monday, November 04, 2002
The last time I was in the city at Costco I found a deal that I just couldn’t resist; A boxed set of the illustrated version Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” and “The Universe in a Nutshell” .
I’m sure that the copy of the Illustrated version of “A Brief History of Time” at Chapters was covered with drool stains, as I had been ogling it for a couple of years now, but it was always just too expensive. So, finding this boxed set and for $25 less than the single book as just too good to pass up! Unlike your average Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Oxford There is a lot to be found in these books, not just in understanding our universe in a scientific sense, but also in a philosophical sense as well. You’d never expect things like Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to relate to philosophy, but it does, proving, to my thinking at least, that all reality is indeed simply based in each person’s perceptions of the universe around them. Anyhow, this boxed set is definitely worth checking out! You may also want to check out his site. posted by Kusari 11:18 PM OK, time for another peek inside the world of my digital art. Recently I've been converting some of my designs into T-shirt transfers and in the process I found that one of the pictures didn’t look quite right when it was printed. So, I decided to go back and correct the problem and add a couple of enhancements, I’ve placed the before and after pictures below: The original version was OK, but when it was printed it became obvious that the plate of poutine in his lap was an addition to the original photo, as it was too sharp and too bright: 
In the new version I blurred the plate slightly, as well as dulling the colour with a overlying shaded layer. I also managed to figure out how to create some enhanced creases to add to the “aged look": 
The results are quite pleasing. Spending as much time as I do repairing old photos, it was fun to reverse the process for a change. posted by Kusari 10:42 PM |
