Needing Validation = LAME!

Once again Jonathan Ian Mathers has hit the nail on the head and driven it into the very hearts and minds of posers. In his newest installment of Foamy the Squirrel (awesome online cartoon series, you need to watch it NOW) the loveable, human-hating squirrel rants about those who call themselves when they are really just among those who feel the need to validate themselves as a member of a particular outcast group in order to have a sense of identity. This is STUPID. I have known several people who are like this and I have drop-kicked their asses out of my life in a heartbeat. Just because you call yourself a goth, metalhead, punk, wiccan, or whatever, that does not mean it entirely consumes who you are. You need to be yourselves people and not latch onto whatever social group is convenient for you in order to have a legitimate form of a personality. And when you get the people who are always going on about how they are "enlightened" because they think a different way, that just makes me want to repeatedly bash my head against the wall. My friend Jeff gave me the perfect example of this. He regrettably got caught in a conversation with someone like this who kept going on and on about how he "sees the world differently." Jeff's first reaction? "Within the past few minutes I've figured out at least twelve different ways to kill you." Now that's seeing the world differently people, not to this whole "enlightened" bullshit. Foamy actually says it really well, watch and learn.

What Do Undergrounders and Dragons Have in Common?

Another movie-based post but hey, who cares? This time the culprit is the movie How to Train Your Dragon. If you haven't seen this movie, you have to... like now. It's utterly fucking adorable. And yes I realize the oddity of an undergrounder talking about something being adorable, but I already covered that area in my toy blog.
Now the adorableness and relation to undergrounders comes in when they introduce an awesome dragon called the Night Fury. Now this guy goes from be all ferocious like this...


to being utterly cute and adorable like a kitten...

This is not unlike the attitudes you'll see in undergrounders. If you piss us off or go after us just for the hell of it to be an asshole, I wish you luck. Because odds are, it will be something along the lines of a dragon taking revenge including but not limited to: impaling, burning, biting, ripping apart, and other such activities. But if you're nice to us, then we'll turn into the cute little kitten-type dragon and we will love you forever even if we show our affection a little over-zealously.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

This is seriously one freaky computer game. Yeah, sorry guys, its only in computer format, but on the upside its cheap. Basically the whole premise of the game is you play a character who has absolutely no freaking idea who he is. Well, he does remember his name but that's pretty much all you get. Meanwhile you're wandering around this dilapidated castle that's falling down around you and trying to avoid running in these freaky creatures that you never get a good look at unless you die. Oh yeah, that's the other fun thing... YOU CAN'T FIGHT BACK. All you can do is run your ass off while screaming like a four-year-old girl and hope that the thing isn't fast enough to follow you. Throughout the levels you have to complete different tasks in order to keep going through and when you do complete them you regain some sanity. And another thing I forgot to mention, if you stay in the dark too long you start going crazy, but you have limited light supplies and if you stay in the light you're easier to spot. It's a real no-win situation, yet its nonetheless fun. Don't believe me? Just watch this highly entertaining video of someone playing it.



Doesn't that just make you want to turn off all the lights and play this game in total darkness? Yeah... Me either.

Bad Guys Get All the Cool Songs

Yet another Disney-inspired post. Sleeping Beauty can once again take the blame for this one, but this time its a good thing. You ever notice that in Disney films, if there's a lot of singing, the bad guys always get to coolest songs? They're always real jazzy or smooth and not really poppy? I came up with three right off the top of my head. Even if Maleficent doesn't get a song these ones do.

1) Scar from The Lion King with "Be Prepared"




2) Ursula from The Little Mermaid with "Poor Unfortunate Souls"



3) Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective with "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind"



You can't tell me that any of those songs aren't awesome and get stuck in your head more often than the rest of the soundtracks. They get in there and stay for days. Which villain song do you like best?

Now I Know Why I Watched This Show

So for the first time in about six years, I happened upon the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series. Yeah, it's still airing. How crazy is that? It's still showing on the Logo channel and it's the really old episodes too. You know, the ones where Buffy still completely hated Spike and Dawn didn't know she was the "key" and Tara is still alive. I'll apologize profusely now if I spoiled anything for anyone who hasn't seen the entire series. But I've already mentioned the main reason that I watched it...

Yup, that's right, the big bad vampire himself, Spike. He's way too much of a bad-ass to ignore in this series. One of my favorite moments was when he's painting his nails (traditional black of course) and Buffy slides the lid of his coffin out from under him. His first reaction? "Hey! Watch it! These are wet!" It's no wonder I loved this show when I was a teen.

Mirrormask

One film that not too many people have heard of and they all need to. I wasn't even introduced to it until at least two years after it was initially released. I don't know how I managed to miss it. While I ponder that question in the back of my mind...
Long story short, its about a girl with these wicked artistic skills, Helena, who's family owns and runs a small-time circus. Being the typical moody teenager, she hates her life in the family circus and constantly argues with her mother about it. Until one night when her mother falls unconscious and is rushed to the hospital. Sometime before her mother needs to have brain surgery done, Helena finds herself in a very, very strange world where everyone wears masks. In this world is this creepy thing called the "darkness" which kind of turns people into statues. It's hard to describe. But it comes from the mind of Neil Gaiman so what else can you expect? Anyway, Helena eventually finds out that the queen of the world she's in has fallen into a deep sleep and hasn't awoken yet, which is allowing the "darkness" to spread. And everyone keeps mistaking Helena for this creepy looking Princess even though its pretty obvious she isn't.
The world's full of weird characters like sphinxes that eat books, these creepy walking eyeballs, and a myriad of others. The movie's a bit hard to find but a quick look over on amazon yields some good results. Have fun getting a look inside Gaiman's head, because honestly, if this is what this guy can think up in his head, he's a bloody genius.

Disney Ink

Even the old Disney cartoons that inspire so much nostalgia in us all have worked their way into the alternative scene. While I was browsing around on boingboing.net I happened to scroll across a small post that featured a Snow White tattoo.



How awesome does that thing look? Completely. The detail and colors alone are enough to set a bod mod fan drooling. Granted I would hate to see how much this thing cost this girl because 1) It's huge. Any piece that big tends to cost a lot regardless of color or detail. 2) It is incredibly detailed and colorful. I would go so far as to say that it beats out the original work. Blasphemy I know, but come on. Look at it. It's completely gorgeous. Here's the full page if you want to wander over to BoingBoing and take a look.