Family Guy Gets it Right... Sort Of

Family Guy is one of the only comedy shows that I will watch, not sure why. And while Peter is the biggest dumbshit you're likely to see on television next to Homer Simpson, every once in a while the show gets something right. Such is the case of the episode that just aired a couple minutes ago "Saving Private Brian." And no, I'm not talking about the whole deal with Stewie and Brian getting signed up for the army and going over to Iraq, I'm staying safely away from everything and anything political. Instead I'm talking about how Chris finds his talent in singing for a hardcore band at his school. Unfortunately, Chris also adopts the stereotypical persona of a metalhead. He turns into such a little punk bastard and starts disobeying his parents and generally causing trouble. And of course the first thing Peter and Lois blame it on? The music itself that he's started listening to, specifically Marilyn Manson...

O.K. I'm not the biggest Manson fan or anything but he definitely doesn't deserve the crap that the Griffin's give him. Most artists don't. There's still a few who are reported to be total jackasses out there so I can't say all of them don't deserve it in good conscience. Thankfully, Manson manages to sort everything out... Just in a really sappy way. Everyone learn a lesson from this please! 1) Music doesn't corrupt kids and if you don't want them listening to it then monitor them and make sure they don't and 2) Undergrounders are not the total punk bastards you think we are, some can be but we don't turn into one as a general rule when adopting an underground lifestyle.

Living Dead Dolls

I'm not entirely sure how these little darlings managed to escape my notice. In fact, I'm tempted to feel ashamed of myself for not including them earlier considering I've wanted to start collecting them since I was about 16. Living Dead Dolls can be considered the Goth/horror alternative to those nicely packaged Barbie collectibles I made fun of before. They have 21 different series of the dolls in total and each series has between five and seven dolls for you to enjoy or get terrified of depending on how you feel. And don't get me wrong, some of these dolls even freak ME out. Yeah... imagine that. You can find all of the dolls in every series on their official site. The site's pretty interactive, like the Little Apple Doll and Vamplets sites. So far one of my favorite dolls comes from series 17 called "The Unwilling Donor" (on the right). I know she looks sad but it's just so cute especially with her little robe and everything. And what's even better is that each doll comes with their own specific poem that describes how they died. For Donor it goes something like this...
Her mother always told her
"Never accept a drink!"
However this little rebel
Was not one to think.
So off to the strange party
Did this foolish girl run
With visions of laughter
And way too much fun.
The next morning she awoke
Buried in a tub full of ice.
Missing one kidney
One hell of a price.

Isn't that so cute and horrifying at the same time? They've even done a series specifically for things like Alice in Wonderland, House of 1000 Corpses, Saw, Beetlejuice, Friday 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and have a set of dolls fashioned to look like Edgar Allen Poe and Annabel Lee. The Poe and Annabel set was actually what initially drew me to the dolls. They just look adorable together. Go on over and give these a look if I haven't already scared you too much with them. Unfortunately, the only place I've ever seen selling them is Spencer's gifts, but there's always the good old standby for the site and Amazon.com.

Character Spotlight: L

For those anime freaks out there like me, feast your eyes on one of the most fascinating characters in all of anime-dom. Or at least he is in my opinion. L from the Deathnote series is probably my biggest cartoon crush. I guess you could call him the protagonist of the series depending on who's side your really on. Either way he is the nemesis of the main character Light Yagami, who is determined to turn the world into a utopia using a paranormal notebook called the deathnote which has the power to kill anyone in any way that the owner can think of. L is the world's most brilliant detective and takes on this case in the midst of criminals dying left and right thanks to Light. Now call me crazy, but I think L is sexy. He is mysterious, reclusive, and is incredibly intelligent. Not to mention on the rare occasion that he smiles, it's absolutely adorable. If you haven't heard of this series already go and check it out and enjoy all of L that you can.

We Don't Own Our Own Media

Just to keep all of you guys updated on the goings-on of that delightful little mammal Foamy the Squirrel, I give you the latest video courtesy of Jonathan Ian Mathers and his youtube account. This time, Foamy aims his wrath towards those who are the most responsible for the dwindling existence of the "used market" or places like The Exchange and Buybacks. This can come as a blow to the majority of the people in the Underground for one specific reason... Most of the time we are broke-ass people. We like deals and clearance items because it makes it easier for us to find the things we like and thoroughly enjoy them without having to scrape money out of the savings account for rent or food or gas. When places like these start to die out, then what are we going to do? Yeah, I have no idea either...

Diseases Get Supersized

Yet again about a subject that has been on the market for a while now but I was skipping along thinkgeek.com and I just had to go and do this post as an extension of my "alternative toys" post. Now these ones are called Giant Microbes and I have no shame whatsoever in saying that not only do I own their version of the ovum plushie, but I've also given my dad a "petri dish" of their lyme disease plush. Long story short, these things are what you would see if you looked at their microscopic counterparts, minus the fuzziness and the eyes and a couple of other added details depending on which microbe you want. And their creators pulled out all the stops with these guys, you can get everything from a simple little sperm to the mother of all viruses MRSA to cuddle with. And they're still adding more into the mix, the most recent microbes to join the family are the stem cell, food poisoning, and diarrhea. Now you can buy them in bigger sizes or you can get the "petri dish" deal I mentioned before and get three mini giant microbes. And on the giant microbe official site, there's plenty to keep you looking around for a while. In fact, they've come out with so many microbes, they've had to separate them into their own categories depending on what kind of microbe it is. When my dad actually caught lyme disease, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get him the plushies in the petri dish for Christmas. A bad joke I know but that's our sense of humor. I'm sure that if I ever caught one of these disease he'd probably do the same. Nonetheless these things are ridiculously cute for how lethal some of their tiny counterparts are.