As you can imagine, it is difficult being a goth in the summer time; our wardrobe choices aren't really formatted for heat, sunlight, or being outside in general. And Portland has experiencing a heat wave (well, hot for US, anyway...usually there's a smooth transition from spring right into fall), which makes me want to tear out all of my hair. But, one of my favorite things to do this summer has been to sit in Mr Muffin's house at night, with the door open and the breeze blowing in, drinking a Ninkasi (mmmmph) and watching silly things on Youtube.
Fun fact: I get nearly all of my neat internet things from Mr Muffin. I, singularly, am not neat at all.
Now, as hinted at in a previous post, my Mr Muffin is departing Portland all too soon, leaving poor little me to drink IPA's all by my lonesome, so its time to get me a new
(wait for it)
INTERNET GIRLFRIEND.
I present, to you, candidate number one: Youtube's Vi Hart.
Vi Hart is a math nerd (a self-described 'recreational mathemusician') who, in addition to having the unique capability to turn your brain into spaghetti, is funny as hell. Check out her recent video on sound, and her channel on Youtube.
So we all have those times when someone rips your heart out of your chest, sticks a fork in it and declares it to be done. The classic response is to get a pint of Haagen Daaz [Oh, who am I kidding. Several gallons of Haagen Daaz.], curl up with "The Notebook" and complain to everyone that will listen for the following three months about how your life is over. But if you're like me, you have "comfort foods" that require a console and controller. [No, not power tools...put those away! Your buzz saw wont bring him back!....unless....]
Here are three of my favorite games to nurse you through a break-up with your snuggle-buddy...from the end of your epic fairy tale romance, to a nasty break-up with that fuckface, to your Mr Muffin moving far away for a [admittedly fantastic and certainly well-deserved] job promotion. Chin up, you. Somewhere, there's a princess in another castle....so to speak.
Click the jump to feel better about your lonely life!
So if you're like me, you have approximately 19,000 t-shirts, from various places and saluting various thing. [doesn't stop me from wearing the same one over and over, though!] Ah, the t-shirt...so simple, yet so sophisticated. So classic, yet so modern. [wash off that mustard stain, fool!] So, you can imagine my delight whenever I come across some cool-as-shit t-shirts and immediately order one of everything.
Out of Print designs is featuring some sweet-ass literary shirts; emblazoned with some classic book titles on vintage-looking threads, and quite frankly, most would need to do a double take to know the shirts were featuring book titles cause they also just look pretty cool on their own. ["whatchoo mean, 1984? that aint the year it be!"] AND they feature women's cuts, SQUEEEEEEE!
People do a lot of silly things for art. Famous silly art projects include filling fields with umbrellas [one of which later blew away and killed somebody...death by umbrella?! how lame AWESOME is that!?!?], sticking mirrors on trees [which, probably, due to the reflection of the sun light, burned the entire forest down a la ants under a magnifying glass] to show the life cycle of the pines or something, or gathering 1500 naked people around a historical monument [by the by, this is a good way to define the kind of naked that is in no way sexy at all]. However, this has to be the weirdest one I've ever come across, courtesy of the Super Mutants at Geekologie.
French artist Marion Laval-Jeantet has been injecting herself with horse's blood in her recent project, "May The Horse Live in Me," bringing horrifying irony to the term 'art installation.'
She could not inject the plasma initially but had to build up a tolerance by injecting horse immunoglobulins and glycoproteins over several months. In February of this year, she was ready for plasma that contained the entire range of foreign immunoglobulins. What happened was interesting in that her body did not reject them, but entered her blood stream and bonded with her own proteins. The results are stunning.
"The artist, during and in the weeks after the performance, experienced not only alterations in her physiological rhythm but also of her consciousness. "I had the feeling of being extra-human," explained the artist. "I was not in my usual body. I was hyper-powerful, hyper-sensitive, hyper-nervous and very diffident. The emotionalism of an herbivore. I could not sleep. I probably felt a bit like a horse.'"
I'm just gonna come out and say it...WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?
[source]
Two things to look forward to this month, if you happen to be on the west coast. [Which, sadly, Felix is not. Come home!]
The first is a super amazing art show, taking place in LA beginning August 11th [today!!], the legendary iam8bit. [As you can imagine, we here at 8bit Runway are quite fond of the name.]
iam8bit is a company that wears a lot of different hats; they do promotions as well as providing consulting services and the like. [also, iam8bit has been affiliated with Bethesda Softworks, so I'm already working on my marriage proposal.] They've been doing this show on a yearly basis, to celebrate old-school video game nostalgia; here's a blurb [is that a word?] from their website:
Over 100 artists will reimagine their 80's gaming fantasies, delusions and secret desires via all sorts of media - painting, sculpture, plush, and even some more interactive experimentation. Highlights include:
*A special tribute to Galaga's 30th anniversary featuring the world's largest "arcade cabinet"
* The transformation of the entire gallery into an 80's gaming wonderland by designer decal collective BLIK *An interactive, "retro-fied" Kinect hack from Double Fine super-artist Drew Skillman
*And much, much more!
Unfortunately, LA is a bit of a commute for Little Portland Lulu, but if someone is down to let me borrow their jetpack, you can bet your sweet Goombas I'll be there.
The other mega awesome thing that is actually happening IN Portland [so you know I'm not talking about PAX and that I actually get to go] is coming up on August 24th at Lola's Room; The Protomen are coming to town! The Protomen are a little hard to explain; they're sort of like a Megaman tribute band, but they're also sort of a rock opera, sort of Les Miserables for nerds, sort of the best fucking thing that has ever existed. Their act is based on the first six Megaman games on the NES released by Capcom. While Megaman has an existing storyline going across the manga, cartoon and [duh] video games, the band looks at it as more of a "jumping off point" [says the Wikipedia article], and has created a dystopian epic. Also, Dr Light's singing voice, jesus christ. IS THAT YOU, JEAN VALJEAN?
I'll see you there! Their songs are available on Amazon, and also through their website for smooth groovin'. I highly recommend checking out the lyrics either first or while you listen through, as it makes it a little easier to follow the storyline, and often includes stage direction/plot points, which is especially nice if you're a little fuzzy on your MegaHistory.
Click the jump for the lyrics/narration to go along with "The Hounds," courtesy of Lyrics.Wikia.com:
Remember all of your favorite Disney princesses from back in the day? One of the best parts of geek culture is nostalgia, and what better way to embrace that than by taking something from your childhood, raping it, and then putting it on the internet?
Just kidding, this is amazing.
Check out the series "When The Fairy Tale Ends, Real Life Begins," by Dina Goldstein. These are a couple years old, but definitely worth a second look.
I'll leave it up to you to figure out the inspiration for today's post, but since we're a girly blog, lets talk about periods. Aunt Flo. Lady time. The opening sequence to 'Saving Private Ryan.' That scene in The Shining when the elevator doors open, and ... well, you get the idea.
[for the love of god, stay out of the ocean this week]
Click the jump to discover four nerdy ways to cleverly allude to the fact that everyone should stay the fuck away from you, and a few ways to cope. Sorry, fellas!
Today, two weird-as-shit things that can be controlled by the Wiimote, one that is very cool, one that is very not-cool. Unfortunately, the latter is the one that is available immediately, right now.
I'm mostly lazy because I spent last week working (on an amazing play with some amazing people), and beating Portal 2. Yes, I almost cried when the singing happened. No, I don't want to talk about it [now]. Here is a lazy roundup. Some cute, some Futurama and some other stuff, too.
I already bought these here because how could I not?
I don't need to caption this, your reaction is the same as mine, no matter who you are.
All hail... Zoidberg?!
+d12 cool points to whoever made this.
BENDER!?
So. Good.
It's true.
Not our boyfriends, they'd have to know the real names.
Follow THIS LINK to learn to make a Weighted Companion Cube subwoofer.
Watch this to have nightmares for decades:
The aforementioned upcoming things we mentioned afore (...is that right? fuck it, it is now) are still in the works. We're just busy/slow/without great internet/lazy/bitches. Pick one.
