Man, I know I say it a lot, but I just fucking love the Japanese. Especially back in the day when they didn’t give a flying fuck about American copyright. Ghetto Vader control panel, the bowing before the (interrupted) light saber battle, great jumpin’ wookiees? They’re a special people man. Damn special.
Oh, hells bells, this is pretty damn awesome. Christopher Lee, the second-best Dracula of all time, is making a metal album, a tribute to Charlemagne. No, seriously, check this out
Christopher Lee, famed star of Hammer horror movies, Lord Of The Rings, and much, much more will be coming soon to some earphones near you. Videogum and The Guardian have the news that the 87-year-old actor plans to release a “symphonic metal” album about the life and career of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor and a direct ancestor of Lee himself. “To my surprise and indeed great pleasure, I have suddenly found that there is another string to my bow,” Lee announced.
This is, quite simply, one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever heard, purely on concept. If it’s half as face-meltingly awesome as it should be, we’re all going to be in for a good time.
Allow the lovely ladies of the LA Derby Dolls to explain basic principles of electricity to you, accompanied by a catchy little tune. Mmmm, I love science.
For years, it has been thought that Man alone (and okay, maybe a few birds/simians/mammals) used tools. Essentially though, creatures with spines. Alas, tentacled doom has revealed itself anew with the news that a certain species of octopus has been found to carry around halved coconut shells which it then uses as body armour when it feels threatened. From New Scientist:
When the octopuses come across these on the seabed, they drape their bodies over and around the shells, hollow-side up, leaving their eight arms dangling over the edges.
The octopuses then lift the shells by making their arms rigid, before tiptoeing away in a manoeuvre Finn calls stilt-walking.
When the octopuses feel threatened, they flip the half shells over themselves and hide. Some even use two shells to create a more spacious shelter with an opening through which they can keep a lookout.
Well, you know what this means. First, they build protection, then the weapons. Next thing you know, Ol’ Uncle Cthulhu has an army where every soldier has us at a two-to-one limb disadvantage. I dunno about you, but I’m going to go source some octopus-spray…
This’d be one of those things Bill Hicks would call a good drug story. In Baseball, for a pitcher, one of the most impressive feats is to throw a straight no-hitter, practically winning a game single-handedly for your team. On June 12th, 1970, Dock Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates did just that, against the San Diego Padres, while tripping balls on acid. This adorable little video illustrates his experience while he narrates in the background. Some good stuff, maaaan.
Why don’t we get after-Hallowe’en statistics like this in Vancouver? I’m very curious as to how many crimes were committed by popular fictional characters. I’m pretty sure Boba Fett tried to roofie a friend of mine. Or was that me?
Sometimes in your life, you sit back and look at what you have wrought, and you feel good inside. I can only imagine how fucking awesome the person who made this felt afterwards. So pretty you’d almost want to not eat it.
Okay, so I know I’m a few weeks (okay months) behind on this one, but I can’t just let it pass me by. In China, land of the really freaking bizarre, some old lady found this mutant snake that was sporting a full on leg. Crawling up her wall. So she killed it. From the article:
“I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw.”
She then proceeded to beat the thing to death with her shoe, and popped it into a jar of alcohol. You know, I know science would probably have loved to check this thing out, but frankly, I can’t blame the lady. If I woke up to see that freak of nature slowly creeping up my wall, I’d kill it faster than you can say “horrible snakey death”. Because I’d assume it was gunning for me. Of course.
Someone made a Li’l Cthulhu cartoon. I don’t know if this is a legitimate project or not, but it’s freakin’ awesome. I’d watch this so hard, it’s not even funny.
Simply awesome! This video clip from a German TV shows shows a pair of T-Rexes, mother and child, facing down a triceratops. Totally real construction, no CGI, and simply amazing. You can really get a feel for the scale of these gorgeous monsters. So damn cool.
This looks terribly dangerous, yet pretty damn awesome. I’m kinda amazed at the co-ordination that went into this. Plus, the balls it’d take to skateboard down hills in fucking San Francisco…
Mexican wrestling, true crime, cryptozoology, exploitation cinema, weird news, overuse of the word "awesome", real-world steampunk, outsider music, low-brow culture, surrealist comedy, pulp fiction, and other ephemera. Welcome to the circus.