Random Cool Pictures #178 - 182 (The Toys Are Awesome Edition)

Scarface School Play

This can't be real?!?!?!?!

Crushes

Man do i have a crush on Torry Castellnao. She's the way underrated drummer for the Donnas.

She's an attractive enough girl but it's the way she rocks that makes me crush her. Hell i think the whole band are as cute as ladybug buttons but she is so ballsy i melt every time i watch her play drums. In fact it was this performance on the Conan O' Brian show that sealed the deal.

For the uninitiated -
All members were born in 1979, They all became friends by eighth grade and formed as a band in May 1993, The only girl band in their town Palo Alta, California, and more specifically...
Before the release of the album Gold Medal, Torry developed tendinitis. In October 2003, she had surgery for it. During her recovery, she had to take drum lessons to re-learn to hold drum sticks the correct way.For Gold Medal, she recorded with her recovering wrists, but could only play for short periods of time.

UPDATE-
I just found this. How weird. It's like someone pulled this out of my head...

Try to deny her awesomeness!!! Torry VS. Bun E.

Randomness

Boy i haven't been here in a while. Not a heck of a lot going on i guess. The tumblr blog is gestating nicely. I picked up a complete Heroscape set at Goodwill for $12. I tried to avoid this collectible game but the thrift gods thrust fate upon me and i'm starting to get hooked.

My son has really taken to Taekwondo. He's also retaining the aspects of discipline and obedience to us (his parents) as well as teachers and such. I would highly recommend this to any parents looking to bolster their kids confidence but also instilling respect within them.


Speaking of the little demon...the other day on the car we were on our way to a used book fair and he started requesting his favorite songs on the ipod.(Motley Crue-Come on and Dance, Guns and Roses-Welcome to the Jungle, and M.I.A-Paper Planes. are his favs at the moment.) Since my wife and i have heard the same songs hundreds of times over we said no. He started to plead but i just turned up the song that happened to be playing. (Pat Benatar's Shadows of the Night) He placed his hands over his ears and said "My Goddamn Ears! My Goddamn Ears!" i laughed so much i almost literally puked. And as anyone knows who has kids once they make you laugh they keep going. So my son kept yelling "My Goddamn Ears! My Goddamn Ears!" over and over while i laughed and my wife yelled at us both.


I just finished Assassin's Creed 2. Spoiler alert!!!!!!
Storming the Vatican to assassinate the evil pope has been one of my favorite gaming moments this year.

I also know more about Victorian era Italy than one man living in Illinois needs to.


Chicago's Comicon is coming up in April. Me and the family will be there on Saturday. If anyone is going let me know.


I feel like there was more i wanted to say but i'm blank now......

Collecting 3

To recap...
1. Moved to suburbs.
2. Lucas ruins Star Wars for me.
3. Art production to zero.
4. Stops collecting Star Wars, starts collecting board games.
5. Gets into Space Hulk.
6. Which leads to Warhammer 40k.

So every Wednesday i go to Games Workshop and sit around with 15 year olds painting minis. As sad as it seems I've really enjoyed it. So here is some of the stuff I've made and painted. These are the Blood Angels from the board game Space Hulk.

I then started building and painting a "City of Death". This has been beyond fun.  I also "simplified" the rules for Warhammer 40 k so my son and me can play without remebering a million stats and spells etc.

I even found a shelf at a thrift store to hold my Figures. It originally was a shelf for golf balls. I don't know what's sadder. That someone, somewhere had a shelf with divets in it to hold his golf ball collection. Or that i now own it and have miniature army men i paint on it.

Why Haven't I Posted This Yet?

Random Thoughts On Music

So there's a video game based on Dante's Divine Comedy and more specifically on Inferno and the 9 circles of Hell. I think it's as ridiculous as it sounds. It's like making Moby Dick an R.P.G. or Lord of the Flies a F.P.S. Then i saw this commercial..

It gives me chills. But why?
It's the song playing. Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Wither. It's the juxtaposition of this sad love song from the 70's playing while this person fights for his love. If it were a Megadeth song or a Wu Tang song it wouldn't work for me. Its the "not fitting" that fits and its genius. It reminds me of the video i posted earlier of the anime masterpiece Metropolis and the soul crushing transformation scene, while Ray Charles sings I Can't Stop Loving You.


Other people probably get the same charge out of scenes where they play aggro metal while guys fight. I get that and i can get behind this as well, i guess.

But would the Dante's Inferno clip been as haunting with aggro-metal playing? No Way.

To prove how music can set the mood someone put sinister music with the opening of Different Strokes.

Wow that's scary!

Random Cool Picture # 173-177 (the Cosplay Edition)

R.I.P. Anniversary

This man died at the young age of 24.
R.I.P Biggie.
May 21, 1972 - March 9, 1997
So senseless...

Vintage footage of Biggie crushing someone who stepped up in a street battle.

Goodnight Forest Moon.....

Noah Dziobecki's Goodnight Forest Moon is a downloadable book to print and assemble at home that combines Star Wars and Goodnight Moon.
Download PDF here

I Love Nerds

Thanks to the chive for these.

Music Videos Of Relevance

Scars On Broadway

They Say..

Collecting 2 Electric Boogaloo

So what do i collect? For the longest time its been Star Wars. Since getting the early bird kit as a kid (yep, i had it.) Star Wars has been an obsession with me. I was 8 years old when that film came out and my destiny was chosen. That of a nerd. In a time of no V.C.R.'s and no Youtube i went to the theater to see movies. And see it i did. Dozens of times. To this day i can still recite the movie verbatim. So many childhood memories center around that film. Going through the Sears Christmas catalog and circling all the Star Wars toys i wanted. Sleeping on Star Wars sheets. Bathing with Star Wars  foam soaps. Collecting all the Star Wars dixie cups. Begging to go to Burger King to get the latest Star Wars glasses.

As i've documented in this blog i have fallen out of love with this franchise.As such, my need and want to collect has dropped to just about zero with Star Wars. The last thing i think i bought was a Slave Leai figure that came with alternate "laying down" legs.

With such a huge gap in my collecting heart i filled it fast with something i have always loved, yet had very few(except of course Star Wars ones) BOARD GAMES!

 

As a nerdy kid of the 1970's its a pretty easy deduction to guess i was into Dungeons and Dragons. A board game is much like playing AD&D. I like to think of it like this- It's playing with toys With rules. Its a self contained adventure that is not as selfish as say, collecting action figures for myself that (my son still doesn't understand this) i don't open out of the package. Having these lets our whole family play together.

This collection became a gateway drug to collecting something i swore i would never get into...

Warhammer 40k 

This has become such a major focus lately that i will save talking about this so it can have its own post. Suffice to say i am once again (as i did when i was younger playing AD&D) painting minis and writing down new adventures.

Let's move on...

The next few things would be classified more as inactive collecting. Example. With board games i am always collecting and thinking of board games. I like to go to thrift stores and garage sales to look for board games. I am an active member of boardgamegeek.com/user/kenchan13. At night when I'm not playing video games I'm painting minis. I troll Ebay looking at prices and whats available in board games. I know i know, Obsessed right? Look, some people like to golf.

Lets move on...

I have a collection of gas masks. I'd say around 30 or so in adult and kid sizes.

I can't really pin point any connection to why i collect these. I think they look cool. I like the fetish/apocalyptic undertones of them. Every county has a different look and some even have various looks and colors depending on the weather. Funny story- When Y2K was nearing i had a lot of friends asking where i bought my masks at.

 In also like to collect Anatomical Aids.

 

These things are beautiful. Us in our purest, rawest form. They are humbling and haunting. What i don't see when i look at these is what most THINK i see."gore cool blood SLAYER!!!" etc. Nothing could be further from the truth and i grow weary sometimes having to explain this to some visitors to our home.

I see a lot of the same humbling beauty in my next collection. Religious Iconography.

I know some people of my generation like religious tchotchkes, and i do as well but i really like the more pious,serious stuff. My collection is multi-religious as well. Buddha, Christ, Guadalupe, Ganesha all are represented in my collection. Tracing this collection kind of leaves my mind blank as well. I was raised going to Catholic Church (which i ditched for years). But also would go to the Buddhist temple. (My dad is Buddhist my mom Catholic) Even then the Iconography around me fascinated/scared the shit out of me. I guess that line right there is the answer in a nutshell. I love the art and it scares me. As I've talked about earlier in this blog i tend to collect what i fear.

Whew. Looking back on what I've written if i didn't know me i would think i was a weird dude! Well there are the active and inactive things i collect. I didn't include things like records or tattoos. Things like that are like buying food or water. It's assumed.

Collecting

Sometimes i feel bad about the various things i collect. Collecting is a somewhat selfish act. My family could care less about the "blue jumpsuit-Kiss boots" Snaggletooth. They don't get the same warm feeling i get from the 12" Alien figure or finding a Saved by the Bell board game at a thrift store. Whenever i start to feel silly about what i collect i think of the things i would like to collect if money and (more importantly) space weren't an issue.

Tabletop Video Games

 

When i was a kid this was the next best thing to being at the arcade. Remember, i come from a generation that was on the cusp of the home video game systems. I remember these being really expensive as a kid and they are equally expensive now. The design of these are so beautiful. I realize this is absurd but i like, and have bought, things strictly because of the design. Much like the next thing i would like to collect..

Hand Held Video Games

 

Most of these are garbage. It's the design that i love. Especially handhelds that have the futuristic 1970's look.

I collect board games and i have even purchased utter crap ones strictly based on the design.

They made a board game for Berzerk!! How dope is that !

Transferring these video games to board game form took brilliant ingenuity in design and function. Whats great is most of these are considered crap so they can be had somwhat cheaply at garage sales/thrift stores.

Since i have a theme going here, the other thing i would love to collect are..

 Skate Decks

 

How dope are these. Look at those hand held ones! Fucking killer. The board company i actually like a lot is Hook-Ups. My wife bought me one of their boards a few Christmas's ago.

I'm a sucker for pretty much anything design wise from the 1970's. This book has more amazing photos of bubble chairs and shag sofas than you can shake a hippie at.

What's always appealed to me is not just 70's style but what designers in the 60's and 70's thought the future would look like. It's 2010! Where are my orgy couches and bubble t.v.s!

If your saying to yourself,"self, what does this crazy bastard collect then?" Come back for part 2 where i will show you.