Unabashedly the greatest movie review ever written. It doesn’t matter if (like me) you haven’t ever seen even a minute of Sex and the City—the sheer foam-at-the-mouth loathing of the entire ethos of the franchise is enough to have you howling laughing. Stranger writer Lindy West has out-done herself, surely peaking early in her career and doomed forever to languish beneath the shadow of this piece of withering hatred.
You doubt it? Here’s my single favorite line: “SATC2 takes everything that I hold dear as a woman and as a human—working hard, contributing to society, not being an entitled cunt like it’s my job—and rapes it to death with a stiletto that costs more than my car.”
Read on.
(PS: This post has allowed me to make use of tags that I never thought would be used again. My day is complete.)
Update via The Stranger:
Movie|Line has gathered and ranked The 9 Most Scathing Critical Responses to Sex and the City 2—and Lindy West’s Pulitzer-worthy screed tops the list.
This little guy is part of Christoph Niemann’s whimsical photo essay about the mini monsters that inhabit our everyday lives. Also making appearances: that last smudge of jelly that is impossible to get out of the jar; that one piece of pasta that dries out at the bottom of the pot; the missing writing tool that you really, really need at hand.
“After an assignment filming a hip-hop documentary in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro,Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn (better known as Haas&Hahn) decided to add their own flair to the neighborhood and help the community at the same time. There is rarely anything sexy about charity work, but Haas&Haan have succeeded in “bringing art to unexpected places” and creating some hope in an otherwise drab atmosphere. And you thought no good could ever possibly come out of an MTV hip-hop documentary.” —Flavorwire
How exactly does painting a wretched slum in rainbow colors help the community?
“Hey, extremely famous and wealthy archi-artists, thanks for traipsing through our poor favela with your expensive cameras and cool-hunting producers! We’re so thankful that you’ve decided to splash eye-searing colors all over our houses in an attempt to cover over the desperate, grinding poverty in our area, and then use it as a publicity stunt to claim you’ve helped our community! We’re certainly glad you didn’t use your influence and monetary backing to open a community center, a drug rehab facility or an after-school program to steer youth from street gangs. Rainbows for all!”
“Prince of Persia,” which opens Friday, is based on a popular video game. You could even argue that video games are what most Bruckheimer movies yearn to be: nonstop action, without the distractions of too much plot or complicated characters.”
—
Charles McGrath, New York Times May 25th 2010. “A Gamer’s World, But a Dramatist’s Sensibility.”
If that is what you think popular video games are these days—“nonstop action without the distractions of too much plot”—then it’s clear you haven’t played a video game in the last decade. If I can think of half a dozen titles that value drama, plot and character depth as highly as combat off the top of my head in five minutes, then certainly a writer for the NYTimes should have been able to come up with one in the span of composing his article. For Shame.
Sweet. I was right. The win goes to the man with the best name in sci-fi, and condolences to the people who must pronounce it during the awarding. Also, thank god Boneshaker didn’t win. :shudder:
I was gleeful to stumble upon this excellent online artist collective, evocatively intitled HonkFu. Six contributors post comics, in-progress commissions, doodles and pet projects at random, with little commentary but a lot of spunk. Some of the contributors adhere closely to anime tropes, while others are of a more graphic novel calibre and style. Need a new desktop wallpaper? They’ll have the perfect thing for you to snatch.
There is a hidden message in Friday’s Questionable Content. Without text, it tells the story of the unconsummated relationship between Dora and Faye. See ya, Angus! Of course, Faye will inevitably say something to ruin the moment..
Titanium Sporkestra crashed one of Seattle’s neighborhood art walks this week, marching their gypsy-steampunk-wigwearing percussivphonics in and out of galleries, cafes, bars and basements. (They stayed for hours in the bar. Hmm.) Their site claims they can be hired to play at any event, from birthday parties to bat mitzvahs to brises. However, since we keep stumbling upon them playing uninvited and unpaid in empty parking lots and jamming in parades, we think we’ll just crack a few beers on our balcony and assume they’ll make their way to us eventually.
Janelle Monae’s first album—Metropolis: The Chase—debuted in 2008 with a stupendous sci-fi android-fugitive love-story concept. Monae’s voice was a more powerful version of Gwen Stefani’s, the music was a crazy mish mash of retro seventies, energetic pop, sensuous balladry and high-brow orchestral (sci-fi effects thrown in for fun), and the plot was pure space operatics. With just an album’s-worth of songs Monae described an entire futuristic society built on the backs of enslaved androids who yearn for equality, justice and the chance to love whom they will—including humans. A winner all around, and an important introduction for an ambitious musician.
When the official video dropped for single “Many Moons” (above) it represented a second revelation. Set at a high-stakes android auction where dubious and powerful players vie for the best droid to come down the line, the video combined slick special effects, fabulous costumes and a caliber of dance not seen since, well, since MJ himself. The dizzyingly high production values and completeness of its vision make it play as if plucked from a longer, larger film: it stands on its own, but could easily be the dazzling centerpiece of an entire movie. One element I particularly adore about the setting is how it screams “the future” without having to rely on sci-fi tropes. No eighties neon, no sixties bodysuits, no aliens: just smart, sexy technology, and a cast of unique characters ready to fly off the screen. (Those elegant, prepossessed characters? All created by Monae. That guy in the sunglasses? ‘The Haitian’ from Heroes. Monae’s charismatic and confident performance? Her very first music video.)
The video cemented Monae’s debut as its own moment in music time, as well as setting the stage for the next movements in her futuristic Suite. And, happily, the second album—The ArchAndroid—will be released this very week. Keep fingers crossed for another incredible video to accompany the music of this totally groundbreaking artist!
How long has it been since we’ve talked webcomics here? Couple of weeks, now? Too long!
Let’s talk The Meek, by ambitious web comicist Der-shing Helmer. Helmer is not only a trained biologist, a tutor, a student and a self-taught artist, but is also undertaking the daunting task of mounting a fully colored graphic novel online with a tightly set schedule. Also, he’s all of 24 years old.
How is that graphic novel? Aside from being sumptuously colored, emotively written and cleverly plotted, it’s also damned compelling. The Meek follows a young woman raised in the wilds who has been sent to the world of powerful men and vast kingdoms to save her world.
Granted, that’s a little vague as far as synopses go, but thus far we’re only two chapters into the story. Still, those two chapters are uniquely intriguing and gorgeously wrought, and have certainly hooked a sizable—and vocal—fanbase in just a few months. For the impatient, Helmer has posted the Meekipedia, which is (you guessed it) a searchable encyclopedia of characters, terms and events in his fantasy world. Helmer has clearly spent an inordinate amount of time building this world and plotting the tempestuous events that will unfold deeper into The Meek, and his care should be applauded.
With so much on his plate, Helmer occasionally misses updates or posts pages late—and quite understandably so. Knowing that the comic updates rather slowly is useful: it’s a good strategy to wait a few weeks and months and read the story a few pages at a time, rather than piecemeal. Things are ramping up and getting quite exciting, so head over and see what The Meek is all about!
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