June 2006 Archives
After Xmen: The Last Stand, I thought, "Bryan Singer better make Superman Returns so good that I pee myself for turning Xmen over to Brett Ratner and wrecking it for everyone." Well my friends, last night I saw Superman at Imax in 3D, and did one teardrop's worth of pee depart from my body over that crap? No. No, it did not. What sort of physical reactions were present instead?
1. Arm movements resulting from constant watch checking.
2. Looking at my maniure shining in the moviescreen glow.
3. Poking broken fixed retainer wire with tongue.
4. Taking 3d glasses off in utter disappointment.
If Superman was that flat at Imax, with certain parts in three-d (granted, crappy, hard to see what's happening three-d), then I can't even imagine how poor moviegoers are going to keep their eyes open at a normal theater. Feel free to consult Stephen, Karen or Dylan on the matter. I'm sure you will find no discrepancy.
I have nothing more to say on the matter.
Alright, as of 5 minutes ago I've finished mixing my band's awesome entry (Go listen now!)to the Be a Guitar Hero contest. Wish me luck! If you want to submit a song, you have till midnight tonight.
Grand Buffet, amazing wierd hip-hop geniuses, creaters of such excellent songs as Ben Franklin Music (not to be confused with actual Ben Franklin Music), have created a new rock band called COBALT BLACK. They only have one song, but you know its pretty awesome. I have a lot of hope for these youngster. Anyway when I was on their myspace page I ran across this video. Its retarted, but for somereason I couldn't stop laughing. Awesome or idiotic...YOU DECIDE!
It's over. The ashes have been sprinkled in Monterey Bay, and the people are slowly going back home.
Thanks to everyone who has been supportive during this difficult time.
Kevin
My Heritage lets you load a full frontal face shot of yourself and then it scans its dateabase for what celebrity you most look like. Not very accurate though, since again and again, I just kept getting Asians! (And not very famous Asians at that!)
Janie Tienphosuwan
So, last night I went to a friend's birthday party in south Williamsburg. I left at around 2:30 AM, fairly trashed, and low and behold two desperate youths approached me at the intersection of Keap and Hope, demanding "the money". Unfortunately for them, drunk people are difficult to mug and "the money" consisted of 3 crumpled, sweaty dollars. As I handed them the money, the blinding halogen headlights of a black SUV suddenly turned on, and the driver started the engine and peeled out toward us. The blood-thirsty babes quickly handed the money back, and ran off. Thinking nothing of it and being drunk, I continued on my way toward the subway, when the SUV pulled up beside me. The driver rolled down the window.
"Those guys were robbing you, right?"
"Yeah, they tried to. Thanks."
"No problem. Have a good night."
In my mind the guy also calls me "Citizen". Thank you so much Brooklyn vigilante!
Monday, June 26th, 2006 - Will Wright and Brian EnoWill Wright, creator of the video games "Sim City," "The Sims," and the forthcoming "Spore," will speak (with Brian Eno) on playing with time.
This talk will be at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco
--- Summary ---
In a dazzling duet Will Wright and Brian Eno gave an intense clinic on the joys and techniques of "generative" creation.
Back in the 1970s both speakers got hooked by cellular automata such as Conway's "Game of Life," where just a few simple rules could unleash profoundly unpredictable and infinitely varied dynamic patterns. Cellular automata were the secret ingredient of Wright's genre-busting computer game "SimCity" in 1989. Eno was additionally inspired by Steve Reich's "It's Gonna Rain," in which two identical 1.8 second tape loops beat against each other out of phase for a riveting 20 minutes. That idea led to Eno's "Music for Airports" (1978), and the genre he named "ambient music" was born.
They played their first show a month ago, but I've already heard about them from a few different sources, including Gothamist today. From their myspace page and the videos available it would seem that they are pretty fucking awesome, and whats more they are playing on saturday at Sin-e. For the record, I am calling it right now, this is going to be a quick rise to fame for these lucky awesome bastards. Check it all out now.
See if you can see what I did here....
1. Tautonyms especially the non-taxonomic ones.
2. Thusly, Xiu Xiu
3. In turn, perhaps incest albiet between cousins could have an exception for these two:
Jamie and Carolee are cousins. not sure to what degree. All I know is some small, bisexual fiber in me wants to jump into that bathtub and nuzzle them with all the might from nape of neck to tip of nose.
Oh my god. They are adorable.
Ugh. You just know our child would just end up being in a Doors cover band. Playing bass. Also, possibly autistic.
Is this
a) All the awesome shit you can do on your DS Lite with the new Opera browser?
2) The new 6 Deadly Sins Of The Internet, bundled with a DS Lite with a new Opera browser?
marmalade) Aweome advertisement for a firewall/filtering service to protect the wee ones from drugs, parents bickering, lipstick smears and unflattering swimwear on a DS Lite with the new Opera browser?
Please answer in a small essay, 50 to 57 words. There is a pencil and a cynaide capsule underneath your seat.
Angelo Badalamenti "The Pink Room" from Fire Walk With Me 1992
Angelo Badalamenti "Red Bats With Teeth" from Lost Highway 1997
Angelo Badalamenti is, without question, my favorite film composer. Although some of his best work has been for Jean-Pierre Jeunet films, he is better-known as the composer for pretty much all the David Lynch films, and for good reason. Without his mix of smokey lounge/jazz, 50's instrumental guitar, and early Romanticism the Lynch films would never achieve the insiduous brooding nature for which they are known. We here at the Juggernaut threw a Lynch themed party a week ago, and it was a pleasure to break out some choice Badalamenti cuts on the decks, two of which are presented here. I definitely count him as a large influence of my own stuff. Interesting side note: David Lynch usually plays all the guitar in Badalamenti scores.
I got quoted and linked by BrooklynVegan in his post about the Final Fantasy show! In fact, he quoted and linked me and thatsplenty twice! (from this post and this other post). I haven't been this happy since yesterday when my boss bought me a chocolate bar (with pretzels inside!). But really, it's great. I mean, maybe it's not that big a deal, but I was excited.
Venture Bros. Season 2 started up. Choice quotes "are you raping me?" and "Her name is Skye. We're going to have a child." Later on, a rotund ex-henchman at a henchmen support group is found to be wearing a shirt proclaiming porkchop sandwiches. I was reminded of one of the funnier Fensler GI Joe PSAs, straight from the youtube teet for you mothers and sisters and fathers and sons. (didn't take me long to go full circle on that inner meme... wonder if that Voxtrot album ever came out.) Not sure if this is a 1 for 1 nod SLASH tilt of the hat, as legend has it that people have eaten porkchop sandwiches sometime after the mammoth went extinct.
Anyone ever see that episode of Northern Exposure were they thaw a preserved wooly mammoth and chow down on it? I don't think I'd eat extinct animals, however. Oh, I miss thee PLiF
I know we don't all live in Brooklyn (sorry Ryan) but just thought I'd let you know that there's a new blog about Brooklyn: Brooklyn Record.
The Good:
Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) does everything live on stage. He records each layer of song right there, loops it, plays over it, and everything on the violin, he beats on it, slaps the strings with the back of the bow, plucks it, screams bits into the distortion mike attached to it, etc, etc. It was mesmorising to see one person turn one instrument into an orchestra. His performence was flawless and fun. I couldn't believe it was only him. If you ever get a chance to see him live, do it. It's amazing to see the power over music (and live music too!) that technology can give to one man. He pulls it off beautifully.
The Bad:
Final Fantasy's crowd was the strangest collection of people I've ever seen at a show. There's nothing bad about that in itself, until they started being jerks. While Owen was recording his loops, people kept screaming from the crowd, trying to be a part of the loop. Jesus, let the guy do his show! This happened, repeatedy, throughout the entire concert. He was a good sport about it, but he did have to start over about 3 times to try and get a clean loop. Then there was spastic LARPer-type dancing everywhere, (but not everywhere enough so that it was communal dancing, it was one person here, one person there, amongst the normal crowd, who were standing still (have you heard Final Fantasy? It's not really the type of music you boogie down to). I saw at least two people singing along...at parts where there were no words! Were they trying to sing the notes of the violin?! It had a very creepy holy-rollers-speaking-in-tounges effect. There was the kid on his DS the whole time (playing Final Fantasy, I wondered? I was too far away to tell, but I could definitely make out anime). And of course, the chubby, frizzy-haired drama major who you can read about in the post below this one.
All in all:
Final Fantasy: Good
Other People: Bad
Last night at the Final Fantasy show at Tonic, Dylan and I were attacked by a chubby frizzy-haired drama major and her boyfriend as they blatently ignored the unspoken but obvious set of rules that exist at small New York shows. Here is a simple set of guidelines that she could have benefitted from before attending this concert:
Concert Rules and Regulations:
1. If a crowd is tightly packed in, do not tap someone who is standing up front on the shoulder, and then shove yourself in front of her as she turns around to see who's tapping her.
2. If you are up front (I'm talking leaning on the stage, here) and you leave to get another beer, do not act pissy when people are reluctant to give you your "spot" back. You can't save spots at a show. You want to stand up front, you have to just stay there.
I saw this on Neatorama today and was surprised to find it weirdly touching. This guy, Matt Harding, quit his job in 2003, and used the money he saved up to travel around the world. He videotaped himself dancing (sort of) in different countries and continents. His video gained the attention of Stride "long-lasting" Gum (what the hell is Stride gum?), and they PAID for ANOTHER TRIP around the world to dance some more. Some people have all the luck. Anyway, here you go! (Also, here's his site.)
Best jingle ever. Take a guess what publication this ad is for.
We Feel Fine is an amazing applet that allows you to read snipets of personal blogs in countless, incredibly interesting ways. The is one of the most beautifully put together interfaces I have ever seen, go look at it now!.
From Dishwasher Studio(Aka. Gekko):
Dishwasher Studio is proud to launch its 1st Single Reel Film & Video Festival this year. Dedicated to developing a platform for personal films, the festival’s goal is to create a forum for emerging independent filmmakers, animators and artists working with film as a medium of artistic expression rather than a tool for entertainment. The festival is in a series of installments throughout the year.
Deadline for submissions is August 25. (You should submit, video kids. It's a new goal to get you working again...)
Also check out this claymation by Gekko and Vuk (Such beautiful puppets):
Black and White
Ohhhh Sammy, this one is for you.
Evidently, AIDS patients have achieved a near-vampiric status. We already know that people with AIDS are frequently feared and reviled in our society, but the upswing to being a vampire has come around, too. According to a new Rolling Stone article, there are weirdos out there fetishizing the AIDS virus and looking for people to infect them, lusting after their moment of infection as the most erotic moment of their lives.
Hey, whatever dooms you to extinction, right?
But all in all, I can't decide if it's the article that's making me feel sick to my stomach, or the Todd Solondz-level upsettingness of co-worker Claire Square's music video for Cripple & The Starfish.
One of the animations I did for work is on the internet! In fact, it's been there for months, but I sure wasn't informed. If you want to see it and you don't mind a little ever-loading flash, then go Here, then click on What's New, then click on Bb. Shine and Hair Powder, then click on Explore, then click on the picture farthest to the left. Now, it's certainly not my best animation, and don't ask me why the other three videos are actual video and the first is animation (consistancy?), but look at me mom, I'm famous!
What do you get when you mix Tv On the Radio, Peter Murphy from Bauhaus, and Trent Reznor singing for about 15 people?
By some weird stroke of fate, my roommates and I haven't been paying our electric bills. We don't know why, exactly, but when I tried to sign up for Con Ed, they said someone else was paying for it. We had a suspicion it might be our landlord, but we had a nervous concern that our downstairs neighbor was inadvertently keeping our lights on. But whatevs, we said, free electricity!!!
But today, a turn of events has complicated and confused us all.
The greatest-song-ever-written's first public performance, live in 1983 on the BBC's "The Tube".
It must be a slow news day over at Pitchfork, cause they posted a YouTube link-fest of a hundred random music videos with short reviews. They aren't, in a very un-Pitchfork mannner, ranked; they do however vary from being good to being "so-bad-its-good". Ah well.
So there is this girl who fellated me once about six personalities and one hundred thousand years ago. When I recieved a message from an old friend today, I was reminded of this girl, so I went and visited her livejournal. Even though we never connected and only saw each other once, I remember her lj address because her username is 'motown.' Motown. I always think of the label on the Stevie Wonder CD that I had as a kid, and how it said MOTOWN across the front of it in blue ink.
Anyway, not much to report. Visiting her LJ always tells me the same thing: I don't know her, but I feel like we could be friends. But I have no way to contact her and she probably wouldn't like to hear from me anyway.
Which is boring, a dead end. I don't have enough time to see my own wife these days, let alone my friends, let alone some kindred spirit I spent the weekend with once.
The only reason I'm posting about her at all is because there was a link on her LJ that I followed, and I think it's worth checking out. I was really impressed.
Presented here is Dave Guion's lecture "Spy Rock", from Brooklyn's own Little Gray Book Lecture series. Enjoy.
If you don't mind shelling out $10.75 for a an action movie that is totally awesome in the first 45 minutes, with the rest of the movie lagging behind, then this is the movie for you. In fact, this film is best enjoyed up until you hear about the bomb. Then get up and leave.
Second half should have focused on the ultra-gritty reality of a ghetto walled off from the rest of society. Instead, they went the corny ass preachy route. Is it just me, or are movies losing their balls?
Trailer
Okay, so, can thatsplenty be honest with me for a minute here? If you saw an adult (and for argument's sake, let's say that "adult" was me) wearing a pair of these, not just wearing them, but skating around on them, would you think, "Cool!" "Lame!" or "I don't care". Please check one. This will have an effect on my life. Thank you.
Comments greatly appreciated. Seriously, I'm serious.
Heelys for Women
This Saturday Dylan and I went to McCarren Park for the Renegade Craft Fair. Snap, it's huge! Tents cover the entire circumference of the park, with almost 200 vendors from all over the country and Canada. There was everything from art prints to teeshirts to stuffed animals to homemade journals, calenders and posters, jewelry, clothing, wallets, etc. etc. You know, crafts. But super cool crafts. There were a lot of really great styles that were pretty inspiring.
It was really refreshing to see what people our age are making all over the country, and totally made me want to make stuff. If they can do it, I can, right?
I bet the research assistant who got to repeatedly stab the liquid armour really got to let out alot of pent up rage. "Take that. STAB. This is for STAB calling me a geek STAB and stuffing me STAB in my locker STAB. I hate you Erick Johnson STAB. STAB STAB STAB.
The liquid - called shear thickening fluid is actually a mixture of hard nanoparticles and nonevaporating liquid. It flows normally under low-energy conditions, but when agitated or hit with an impact it stiffens and behaves like a solid. This temporary stiffening occurs less than a millisecond after impact, and is caused by the nanoparticles forming tiny clusters inside the fluid. "The particles jam up forming a log jam structure that prevents things from penetrating through them," Wagner explains.
A suit of this stuff and I am well on my way to being a fully fledged superhero.
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392807
Joshua over at Roadside Picnic has put up a new edition of his awesome podcast. Check it out
My bros the Bellmer Dolls are playing tomorrow night at Union Pool. Not only are they one of THE BEST NYC bands, but they were recently included in Paper Magazine's "Most Beautiful People" issue. They are really really The Birthday Party-ish. The video above is pretty much exactly what you can expect. Sidenote: all their clothes are designed by the bassist, Anthony Malat. Here's the Info:
Last night Dylan and I watched a movie that gave a whole new meaning to, "it's so bad it's good". And that movie, my friends, is Blood Feast by the great Herschell Gordon Lewis. It was made in 1963, when Gore Films just didn't exist. Apparently real actors, decent scripts, boom mikes, sound effects and props didn't really exisit then either, because they were nowhere to be found in Blood Feast. What does exisit is really shiny and gross pieces of raw meat being held in our killer's shaking hands. And HILARIOUS crying scenes, especially the boy on the beach weeping. I was laughing my head off. Believe it or not, the movie isn't the real gem of the DVD. It's one of the extras, an educational short called, Carving Magic, staring none other than the detective from Blood Feast, William Kerwin. He is led by some famous home economics superstar to change his meat carving skills from downright embarassing to mindblowing expertise. It looks like a film they would show in Home Ec in the 60's and it probably was. It's 20 minutes and goes into intense detail in the art of meat carving. She carves every meat ever, and I guess they didn't have nice cuts of meat back in the 60's. It was supposed to look appetizing, I'm sure, but I'd rather eat the raw meat from Blood Feast. It's just delightful, the whole thing. Rent the DVD (but skip the rare deleted scenes: they aren't deleted scenes at all, but bad takes of scenes in the movie. No bloopers here, no sound either. Just bad takes. 70 minutes of them. Not joking.)
I really wanted to watch HBO's Carnivale when I saw the first commercials previewing it, but I was in college at the time and couldn't bring myself to watch it on the communal tv next to the snack bar. It smelled greasy there. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine informed me that she had the first season on dvd, and kindly lent it to me. And here are my findings: It is the most original tv show I've ever seen. It's set in the Great Depression and the costume/set design alone is astounding. The characters progress seamlessly and are complexly layered, the scripts and acting are masterful, and the plotline is like no other. It doesn't rely on excessive violence, sex, or swearing, it just uses the power of good storytelling. It's refreshing, and addictive. I like 6 Feet Under and The Sopranos just as much as the next guy, but Carnivale is truly unique, and an extremely difficult storyline to pull off. With magic Realism abound, mysterious curtains hiding mysterious creatures, ghosts, telepathy, mind reading, healing powers, religious phenomenon, and of course, a midget, things could quickly and easily get corny. In fact, I was waiting for it to. But it never did. It just got intense. Super intense. Right up until the season one finale, which was the cliffhanger of all cliffhangers. I felt like crying, first of all knowing that the second season doesn't come out until July 18th, and second of all knowing that season 2 ends with and even bigger cliffhanger, and then there's NOTHING! Because HBO cancelled the series!!!! WTF?
Truncated and re-edited from Wikipedia:
Her recording career began in 1966 with a rare one-off single for A&M Records, the title song from the film Breakaway. It wasn't until 1981 that she recorded a follow-up, the international hit song "Mickey". Toni Basil has appeared in movies such as Easy Rider, as the prostitute Mary.
If being a two-one hit wonder isn't enough.... now check this out, Bruce Conner, artiste de cool, whose films are almost all made from found films, shot an art film with Ms. Basil with the song Breakaway. Here is a link to the video, with an embedded one below, and here's a semi decent essay on the film. (She gets naked in it, be warned) Conner also made a Devo video for Mongoloid (has an into by Mothersbuagh which isnt on the DVD hmmm) as well as a video called America is Waiting (also embedded below) with music by David Byrne and Brian Eno.
Conner is one of my favorite avant garde film scribblers, and went on to be a mentor to Craig Baldwin who makes fairly lengthy revoiced, appropriated films and once bought me a burrito. (Heather worked at his theater.) The Toni Basil film is a lot of fun, and the song iss catchy. I like it better than Mickey, I think.
(She now is a choreographer for Sandra Bullock movies. I hate this town.)
I found this really great hour-long Velvet Underground documentery on youtube. It's got a ton of great footage and interviews with all the members. Here is part one, and the rest can be found here
An Inconvenient Truth is a movie and a statement unlike any other. It covers some information about global warming that you probably already know, and then some that you might not. But the remarkable thing about this film isn't the way in which the very real and inevidable threat is presented as hard cold scientific fact. It is the way you feel when the movie is over. You leave feeling ready and desperate to make changes in the way you live. The fact that this movie was made and realeased is heroic: politically, and moreover, morally. More than anything else, it is an appeal to the people of America to do what they can, it makes the immediate nessesity of such change crucial and relevant. I personally was strongly affected, and I know Dylan was too. Even if you already know all there is to know about global warming and you're well educated in what you can personally do, see it anyway. And tell you friends and families.
Today my job requires me to engage in the lowest form of editing known to man. Bloopers. I'm making a fucking bloopers reel.
To celebrate, I thought some karate bloopers might be fun for everyone here at thatsplenty. (when I took karate in 8th grade, i was sparring with my friend and I accidentally punched her in the mouth. She bled for an hour and wouldn't talk to me for two days. Her big sister also came up to me and said, "Jesus! Be more careful! You're just supposed to tap!" I guess you could call that a blooper, kind of.)
Without further ado, enjoy the accidental crotch kicking:
I think it was inevitable. We were both from Connecticut. Her father had been a lawyer, mine a manager of Chuckie Cheese. Her mother is part of the local republican party. My mother is a redcoat; British with the teath to prove it, stretching back to England a long line of periwig makers, keep the heads of British lawyers warm and cozy. She's a head on polemic, myself a apologic.
I explained this all to her, apologizing if it was all to obvious. I'm the ying to her yang, the cliché to her tripe. We disrobed and took turns holding each other's frail frames up to the 100 watt bulb, placing us on a phantasmagoric state of human lightboard. I traced her fallopian tubes with my finger as she did the same to my vas deferens, with the skill of needleworker imbred and endowed with all the thimbles the Daughters of the American Revolution had to go without.
Speaking of thimbles, monolopy and the like, Annie (as she lets me call her) allows me to remove my man thimble and we get to business.
I put on The National, the world's best highschool band. I hope their patriotic name and local venue/battle of the bands sound conjures up images of mincemeat pies. Slowly, our frail forms intertwine, like a metaphoric phrase repeated in sucession, resting on the brain of the reader like a pallid soup. We are a human sex pretzel, a bipartisian pretzel, a pretzel of sweat, smegma and scales. Ann's reptilian brain and dark iron cold blood are pulsating in full effect, as she uses her long narrow toungue to lick moisutre from her eyball and then the creviced dimple underneath my nose.
The power of the moment grinds me in reality. How am I fucking Ann Coulter while I'm bound to this wheelchair? thank god for this Space Station and its zero gravity.
Our fluid exchange complete, I inform Ann of her upcoming pregnancy and my planned compulsary third term abortion for our child. I take off my robe and wizard hat to comfort her, and ask her if tail will grow back.
Dear reader, please read on
Last night I was involved in a heated discussion involving the word, "Methuselah". I repeatedly claimed that Methuselah meant giant monster, not unlike Leviathan. My adversary in turn kept changing the subject, trying to tell me what Leviathan means, even though I already knew (a biblical sea monster (often considered a big crocodile) and is commonly used as a synonym for large creature). Eventually I stopped arguing because I was too lazy to look it up and because my adversary clearly didn't care one way or another.
Well, adversary, and thatsplenty readers, I'll tell you anyway. I was pretty much right, but also sort of wrong. Methuselah is, like Leviathan, originally biblical. It is the name of the 969-year old guy. According to the Book of Genesis 5:27: "And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died." The word today can be used to refer a very old person, "I feel older than methuselah today. damn."
Methuselah is also the name of a 4700 year old tree in California. It used to be the oldest living thing in the world. Until they discovered a creosote bush was discovered that is thought to be 12,000 years old. But it doesn't even have a name, so it's probably a lie.
Wouldn't normally do this, but I am really proud of the solo song I just finished...cause it has harpsichord in it! The coolest instrument on the whole damn planet!
Hail SATAN
Thom Yorke "Black Swans" 2006
Thom Yorke "the Eraser" 2006
Here are two tracks off the Yorke solo record coming out next month. I don't know how you guys feel about radiohead; maybe you are obsessed, maybe you hate on the hyped up Kid A period and what not. Either way, stop reading this right now, dust of your copy of Ok Computer and crank it up. Remember? The guys deserve some worship. I say guys plural, because the Yorke by his lonesome is not making the big ass super-radiohead record alot of people are hoping for. Its pretty good, don't get me wrong, but unless mid/late 90s Aphex beats really blows your hair back, then don't get too excited. Ah well, if anything I would say this bodes well for a pretty big departure on the radiohead record due out next year. Nigel Goodrich, their long time producer and producer of The Eraser will not be touching it. They got the Keane guy. We'll see.
It's true what they say about Xmen 3. Storm's new hairstyle looks like shit. Oh yeah, and it's not as good as the other two.
So, I basically spent my weekend on YouTube. I don't know why I never thought of this before, but I started searching for things live "echo bunnymen live", "MC5 live", and "Stooges live". Turns out there is a ton of footage on youtube of the greatest bands of all time. Really amazing stuff. I started looking for the earliest live footage of all my favorites. Its great to see these legends before the drugs and what not, when they are good looking babies who are utterly invulnerable.
The above was taped in 1970.
God of War is easily the best looking game I've ever played. The story is set in Greek Mythology, and it is pretty much the most awesome vision of Greek mythology ever. The scenes are huge and with great details, greek statues and colomns abound. Every aspect of the design in considered, from the potted plants to the hanging tapestries to the stormy skies, down to the cracks in the stone floors. The character design is excellent as well, bad guys like Gorgons (medusas) slithering around on snake bodies, and stomping minotaurs that show every muscle as they attempt to crush you with their stupid mallets (takes away lot of health, those). The special combos for killing them are great, like ripping the gorgon's heads off with a wave of blood pouring out (using specific analog stick rotations), or repeatedly stabbing the minotaurs in the skull (using button combos as they appear on the screen (A little like PaRappa the Rappa. Remember him?)). The magic you can do as the game progreses is equally gorgeous, from the crackling blue lightning of Poseidon’s Rage (my favorite magic) to the writhing green beam of Medusa's Stare that turns your enemies to stone (which the gorgons in turn can use on you). Also, the Sirens, so sexy. (and snap, the Oracle! She's the hotness, and you have to save her from peril at this one point and you totally feel like such a man, she's all like, "oh oh, hurry Kratos, save meeeeee! pleeease!!!" while you're swinging on robes and climbing walls and walking on ledges and saving her ass.)
Warning: Storyline Spoiler Ahead...
You know how when you put a mentos in a diet coke it creates a geyser? These guys used 200 2-liter bottles of diet coke, over 500 mentos and lots of artistic vision. Video
NYT Magazine article, reg. required, blah-blah, about someone playing an Eno ambient peice on the jukebox at a bar. Hour and ten minute piece. 3 seconds. Hahaha.
I don't remember doing that. But I'll come running to tie your shoe.
Could really go for a Shamrock Shake about now...