Archive for February, 2010

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TV Tropes Is My New Wikipedia

[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 18, 2010 by admin in Popular Media

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Where else can you find information about Oscar Baiting, the rare element Unobtanium, Tom Hanks Syndrome, and the Ugly Guy Hot Wife phenomena just clicks away from each other?


Even XKCD is hip to TVTropes

As someone who has dabbled in screenwriting a bit and also has a tragically terminal case of Wikiphilia, I’ve become at least briefly obsessed with TvTropes.org. If you’ve done a lot of reading and writing, you may share a problem that frustrates me: I have a hard time getting engaged with a lot of fiction for the simple reason that I can’t help seeing past the poorly-written story to view the underlying plot mechanisms. You may have heard of the assertion that there are only 36 basic plots. At least that was Georges Polti’s conclusion in his 1917 book The Thirty Six Dramatic Situations; more recently, author Christopher Booker claimed there are only Seven Basic Plots. Which is what drives the content of TVTropes. It’s a wiki, but as they state right on their home page “We are not Wikipedia. We’re a buttload more informal.” Which makes it a lot more fun, but also makes it more likely that you’ll run into the occasional dead end than you would on Wikipedia. It helps if you start on a well-referenced page; we have a few links to get you rolling below. The site also seems a little over-run with Manga and Anime experts, but heck, even voyeuristically observing a basement-dwelling gamer obsess over cartoon nudity can be amusing. Rather than starting at the home page, start with something like the Ugly Guy Hot Wife page, which for me, quickly led to the Attractiveness Isolation, Hollywood Homely, and Beauty Inversion entries, which all explore beauty as a plot device. You’ll also find a nice analysis of how sci-fi and fantasy stories often resort to the Applied Phlebotinum trick, which often requires an heroic search for Unobtanium. They also explore things like how Tom Hanks Syndrome is really just an elaborate form of Oscar Bait. The Oscar Bait page suggests that “films are more likely to get nominated for Oscars if they are painful for the average viewer to watch“, and who could argue that Robin Williams in a dramatic role isn’t a slightly painful thing to watch? Come back and let us know if you find any interesting entries of your own.

Fame & Fugliness

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on February 17, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Is ugly the new hot?

It’s been said that beauty is in the eye of the beerholder, but you may find a sort of hideous beauty in these photographs by Phillip Toledano, even if you’re not holding a beer. The photos are from a series exploring the strangely compelling appearances of individuals that have undergone what many would describe as botched or excessive cosmetic surgery. Part of what gives the images their power is how they reference images from art that you may already be familiar with, as in the case of this image, which suggests both Portrait of a Young Woman in a Turban and the Death of Marat. On his web site, Toledano asks if – as a culture – we are “…creating a new kind of beauty. An amalgam of surgery, art, and popular culture? And if so, are the results the vanguard of human induced evolution?” I’d have to say “no”, in this case. I’m perpetually perplexed by how perfectly decent-looking people go to such great lengths to be more attractive, and when all is said and done end up looking literally monstrous, as in the case of Internet meme celebrity Jocelyn Wildenstein, or just a little more fake and not any more attractive (though a lot more famous!) as in the case of someone like Heidi Montag. And for me, the fact that a desire for fame is what often drives these surgical compulsions is especially ironic, when being “ugly” can be such a draw in itself. As evidence, just take a look at Nerve.com’s 20 Sexiest Ugly People or Ravi Vora’s Ugly Actors You Know And Love. There’s even a modeling agency that specializes in ugly called – aptly enough – Ugly. I’ve personally always been a little partial to the “ugliness” of Sandra Bernhard, Helena Bonham Carter, Bai Ling, and more recently Yolandi Visser. To me, it’s the exaggerated features of the sort Fellini relied on (see the book Fellini’s Faces for examples) that are the very thing that makes someone beautiful. Do YOU have a favorite “ugly but beautiful” celebrity? Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s Play Dunk The Dick

[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 16, 2010 by admin in Politics

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

If Dick Cheney loves waterboarding so much, I think he should subject himself to it on Sunday TV.


Dick Cheney LOVES
him some waterboardin’

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I wish Dick Cheney would just shut up. It’s not because I have some airy-fairy liberal stance that as a former vice president, protocol dictates that he shouldn’t speak in ways that undermine a sitting president’s actions; this Slate piece does a nice roundup of other former executive branch members who couldn’t keep their mouths shut either, and frankly, one of the worst in this regard was former democratic president Jimmy Carter. No, for me it’s a few other things. One is that I just get sick of seeing that hideous little face of his. Another is that I get sick of hearing about him when he makes some childish and angry remark on Sunday TV, and that’s all my liberal friends talk about for a week. But perhaps most importantly, it’s because I’m sick of a self-serving, sociopathic, sadistic prick trying to take on the mantle of dignified statesman, and getting airtime to do it. It would be a lot easier to tolerate statements like “I was a big supporter of waterboarding” if I knew he had at least tried it once. A different self-serving prick who gets on my nerves tried it, and although I’ll continue to disagree with lots of other things he says, I won’t take issue with his stance on that topic. So please Dick, do us a favor. You’ve already carved out your legacy with a Dickipedia entry and a place on Time’s Worst Vice Presidents list. Please, just shut up and get back to your other hobbies like running corporations that support rape and shooting your friends in the face.

February Holidays: Presidents, Parades, And Paczkis

[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 15, 2010 by admin in Holidays

Monday, February 15th, 2010

At most Mardi Gras celebrations, a woman will bare her breasts for beads. In Michigan, she’ll be wantin’ a jelly doughnut.


I think this is how they celebrate
Mardi Gras in Hamtramck, MI

Today is Presidents Day, which is a good example of our government at work. If you’re familiar with the details of the holiday, you know that it’s not actually in honor of multiple presidents, it’s just to honor Washington’s Birthday. But it never falls on Washington’s birthday, and kind of steals some thunder from Lincoln’s birthday. All so bankers and legislators can get a three day weekend, presumably to dream up more ways to destroy the free market. This week we also have Fat Tuesday, which you might think would be the annual holiday for Americans to celebrate how fat they are, but is in fact another example of Americans taking a Christian tradition and keeping all the fun bits while discarding the hard parts. Yes, a lot of Americans will feast and bare their breasts for beads this week, but few will then give up something for Lent. Most of us think of Brazil’s Carnival, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and decadent sensuality when we think of Fat Tuesday, but not here in the northern climes. Nope, here it’s all about…jelly doughnuts. Yes, this week we have Paczki Day, the decidedly unsexy day that everyone in places like Detroit and Chicago line up for deep fried and flattened dough filled with jam. Way to party, midwesterners! According to Wikipedia, it’s pronounced , which I’m sure doesn’t help much. Just say “poonch-key”. Growing up in Michigan (but in an isolated bastion of weepy liberal intellectuals surrounded by cornfields) as I did, I spent most of my early life confusing Paczkis with Pastys, which I thought was spelled “pasties”. Which would’ve made for a better headline for this piece. But I’ve since learned that Pastys are the main course, and Paczkis are for dessert. This being the midwest, the other courses are of course comprised of something else deep-fried or made mostly of cheese or butter, washed down with a Budweiser. Fat Tuesday indeed.

As If The People Of Haiti Didn’t Have Enough Problems

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on February 14, 2010 by admin in Music

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Now there’s a remake of We Are The World.

As if the original didn’t cause enough pain and suffering in the world, they’ve done it again, only this time with HD video and extra autotune. Especially autotune. I mean LOTS of autotune. It’s like a SONG MADE OF AUTOTUNE. More thoughts below the video.

We will remove this video if enough people donate to our “We
Will Remove This Video If You Donate To Us Instead Fund”

Call me cynical, but I had doubts about the real benefits of the original “We Are The World” recording, beyond making a bunch of mainstream artists and their fans feel good about themselves. In spite of assurances that all the artists and production people worked 100% for free, there’s little transparency in terms of what happened with the actual revenue from unit sales. If you review the Read the rest of this entry »

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