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MacGuffin,
It’s that time of the year again. The hours are shortening up and it’s getting nippy at night. And since I’m so far from home, I’m getting nostalgic for Christmas by the fire. To that end, I’m throwing together a list of things for you to consider. After last year’s fondue fiasco, I suggest we each do this until the Yule is upon us.
Up first is a shirt which combines two of my favorite things: general nerdery and Nine Inch Nails! Well, Pretty Hate Machine at least, which is now old enough to buy booze. But, we’ll discuss the passing of time later.
Of course, you’d be lost looking for such obscurities on the internet, but it can be purchased here.
Our shared passion for this movie almost makes up for the price tag.
Again, it can be purchased here.
My last entry for the first list reminds me of someone else’s childhood. I’ve never really cared for racing real, virtual, or other. But look at how much fun these people are having. SO MUCH FUN!
So much fun had by all. Everyone would love me.
Scalextric makes the sweetest racing cars of all time. You know I don’t recognize Nascar by a treaty signed with the United Nations, so this would be the only car racing allowed in my republic. Of course, I need friends. Ones who could possibly look so happy while waiting for the inevitable defeat at my hands.
I trust this finds you well and look forward to our constitutional next week. The coast is lovely this time of year.
- Puffin
Macguffin,
This poster was seen floating around the city as I strolled home. I think I must have one for the living room.
Yours,
P
Dear Puffin
DeviantArtist Mr Bluebird has done some lovely minimal Pixar posters! We have the Sunnyside Daycare and Al’s Toy Barn from Toy Story.
Everyone remembers the Pizza Planet truck, right? The 1978 Gyoza pickup truck that shows up in every Pixar movie? And Insuricare is the company that Mr. Incredible works for while trying to be a normal-type person in The Incredibles. I still love that movie.
This one is my favorite. I loved Ratatouille, and this poster just nailed the movie’s aesthetic. Well done Mr Bluebird.
I also found some great minimal fairy tale posters by Christian Jackson of Square Inch Design. For sale here.
Disney has done a neat little cross-promo, putting Sam the American Eagle in Captain America’s outfit. Via Comicsalliance.
I won’t be writing tomorrow Puffin, since I’ll be bitching my way through a house move. Fortunately I’m moving out of a 6th floor Manhattan building with a flukey elevator, and not into one. Thank god for small mercies.
Love
MacGuffin
Dear Puffin,
I have received a communiqué from one of our reporters in the field. Bigwig, of The Album Project and Animal News; The Podcast has been working in South Korea for last year or so, and has finally managed to smuggle out a dispatch hidden, as is traditional, in the navel of a lady who is beyond reproach and unlikely to be groped by the TSA. I decoded it for you Puffin, and here it is:
Dear MacGuffin and Puffin,
As a huge fan of your blog, I’ve been keeping my eye out for contributions to it. I love your Asshole stamped posts, and I really enjoy the internet tourism, but by far, my favorite is the various Art related posts that you guys do. So, when I stumbled across Tommervik’s Picasso inspired cubist Star Wars paintings, I knew that I had to send it in.
Look, I love Star Wars. I love the Original Trilogy. I appreciate the intent of the prequels. The iconic visuals of the series are actually embedded in my brain. I remember when I made my first home movies, I purposefully aped the whole thing. So, whenever I see the mask of Vader, or the lightsaber, or R2, I feel my body get involved.
This is why this was such a cool find. Picasso and Star Wars together?
Really, all of them are pretty damn beautiful, but my personal favorite is the Yoda one. I would love to get a print of that for my wall.
Anyway, hope you guys liked these as much as I did, and I hope you guys like this letter. It’s not as good as yours, but it’s words!
Bigwig
PS. If it is cool for me to plug my stuff, I’d love it if your readers would check out my podcast, The Animal News or my music blog, The Album Project. Thanks!
Well Puffin, what do you think? I think Bigwig has stumbled on something quite wonderful. I checked out Tommervik’s site, and there are more Picasso Star Wars pictures as well as some really neat sports paintings. He has a lovely expressive way with curves, which works well with the already exaggerated body shape of football players in their padding. The Star Wars ones would be golden purely for their nerd-cred, and I’m no art critic, but I think these are pretty damn fine art. Certainly a worthy addition to my over-crowded bathroom nerd shrine. Why the hell do I keep my nerd art in the bathroom anyway Puffin? I must move them all at some point.
Love
MacGuffin
Dear Puffin,
The Old Spice Guy is BACK and he saved the football season! This has got to be the best ad campaign of all time.
Look at this video:
Now look at this video:
Now look at this video.
The rules of the internet duel apparently include NIGHT VISION TOP HAT!
Round one- Love letters:
I think the 30 sec mark is the funniest thing I have ever seen. Honestly, while I am a card carrying member of team Old Old Spice Guy, I think Fabio won this round.
Round 2- Staring contest:
Watch both of these all the way to the end. Old Old Spice Guy definitely won this round.
Go to the Old Spice Mano a Mano in El Baño channel on Youtube to see more videos.
I can’t in all honestly sign this letter ‘yours’ or ‘love’ as I usually do. The Old Old Spice Guy has stolen my heart Puffin.
Sincerely
MacGuffin
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MacGuffin,
It seems I’ve found my way back to this side of the globe. You’ll be relieved to learn that my time was well spent. What did I find upon my return home? More talk of defecits! What I find particularly troubling is this stalemate over a “debt ceiling.” Whenever I run into such trouble, I simply apply for another AmEx Black under an ex-wife’s name. They’re usually so embarrassed by our failed nuptials that they don’t press charges before I’ve paid for my next vacation. However, I can imagine that the US is not so fortunate in its negotiations.
What I find particularly troubling is the fight over the Bush era tax cuts. While, you know my position is a strict return to the levels of Eisenhower, I acquiesce that those may not be the levels everyone finds appropriate. However, these recent cuts, which take our tax rates to the lowest in imagined history, are particularly offensive to me. Ms Maddow, on her lovely blog, has described the problem quite eloquently.
So, what do these colors represent? The dark blue at the bottom shows our deficit over the next 8 years which will come from our current spending level. The giant brown pile in the middle (ok, not terribly brown, but the visual is important) represent the monies spent to cover the tax breaks enacted under Bush. Those tax breaks were given not as a reward for being so successful in the modern economy but in order to stimulate job growth. It’s important to remember that much of the spending that was agreed to (medicare, social security, etc.) were not created in the time since those tax cuts were enacted. They were prior commitments that the government recognized would have to be paid for.
There are a myriad of charts and graphs showing exactly how few jobs were created in the meantime. Jobs that not merely should have made up for that revenue but were morally obliged to do so, but I like this one.
In the last 10 years we’ve lost 18% of the jobs which we went into the 2000s with. 18%. But what does this graph really show? Jobs are created not when taxes are low. If they did the 1950s and 2000s would be reversed. Thanks to Greg Smith for the picture.
Again, I’m sorry for my lax attitude in writing. But I hope this proves useful at your next dinner party.
-Puffin
Dear Puffin,
Rupert Murdoch is sort of an obvious candidate for asshole of the day/month/year at any given time. There is rarely a moment when the guy isn’t doing something I find disgusting, immoral, or downright douchy. And with the phone hacking scandal, he’s been even more douchetastic than usual. But this editorial cartoon which ran in today’s London Times is…. well, horrendous.
I think The Atlantic’s headline pretty much summed it up: Murdoch’s Times Would Like to Change the Subject. I think they’ve made that very clear!
The real kicker for me is the words they have put in the mouth of that little drawing of a starving child. “I’ve had a belly-full of phone hacking.” GEDDIT?? It’s funny cause he hasn’t had a belly full of anything in a long long time. You can tell because he’s so obviously starving! Hahaha! Isn’t that just so fucking funny?!?!
And admittedly, while the context makes this really despicable, it makes a good point. We do need to pay more attention to the crisis in Somalia, and the international media has been over focussing on Murdoch. There is, after all, nothing the media likes to cover more than itself.
But Rupert, that crisis does not exist so that you may divert global scrutiny away from your sordid and damaging crimes. The Somalian people’s suffering is not a PR strategy for your fucking media empire, and to treat it as such is fucking disgraceful. It sure is convenient that all those millions of people are starving so that you have a humanitarian crisis to point to. Of course, you aren’t pointing to it for its own sake, or because you really think it should be covered. You only care about the famine because PR-wise it’s better for the world to be focussed on starving babies than on investigations into your crimes. This might be the most insincere thing I have ever seen.
As Mediate put it:
There are several methods of dealing with a much-publicized scandal, some less advisable than others. Issuing a public apology for mistakes or poor judgment? Pretty much always a good idea. Holding individuals responsible for their roles and dealing with them accordingly? Usually works out pretty well. Publishing a tacky, potentially offensive cartoon making light of serious allegations AND life-threatening poverty? Oddly enough, that rarely ever works.
It sure isn’t working here.
Rupert Murdoch, and whoever decided to run this cartoon, are assholes.
Love
MacGuffin
See the gallery of past Assholes here
Dear Puffin,
As you know, I’m kind of an art nerd. Hence my obsession with poster designs and stuff. I’m also deeply enamored with mashups. I love the idea of combining two totally unrelated but somehow complimentary things. So this was right up my street: Modern Renaissance, renaissance portraits of modern celebrities (although plenty of these stray far fat away from the renaissance). Some of them don’t really work- either they’re too photohopped, or the expression isn’t right, or whathaveyou. But there is an awful lot of awesome hanging around in there, and I’ve picked a few of my favorites. I chose some because they were just plain cool, some because the execution was especially good, and some just because I liked them. But go poke around in the galleries, there are tons and tons more to see. So the challenge: merge the faces of modern celebrities with the kind of art you’d see in a museum.
Challenge accepted! (Click on each image to see the original)
General Neil Patrick Harris, by Katdamage; based on Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington. Neil Patrick Harris, if you ever read this, I hereby demand that you have a copy of this made, put in a gilt frame, and displayed proudly in your home. Normally that would be an Alex Rodriguez level of douchery, but in this case sir, rock on.
King Connery I, by MarcusAurelius; based on the portrait of King Edward VII by Sir Samuel Luke. It is a goddamn shame that this is not, in fact, reality. King James Bond? Oh I think so. See also King Connery VIII.
Mr Bean, aka Rear Admiral Sir Bean, by potikare; based on the portrait of Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, by Lemuel Francis Abbott. See also Sir Horatio Wilson. Yes it’s Owen Wilson, yes it’s awesome.
Harrison Ford, by oilcorner; based on the Portrait of John William Mackay by Alexandre Cabanel.
Jack Nicholson is a mother fucking badass, by Toothfairy; based on ”Self-portrait of the artist in the guise of a mockingbird“ by Joseph Ducreux. And yes, this also came up as the fisticuffs meme. Remember this one?
Save Us Gary Oldman!, by Silkenfairy; based on Portrait of a Knight of Malta, by Caravaggio. See also, this.
This makes me uncomfortable on a lot of levels. Ozzy, by Carol Coelho.
Hugh Laurie, by Mandrak (yes, again. He did a lot of these). Based on a self portrait by Jaques-Louis David. This is just really really good.
Johnny Depp by Ziaphra; based on Willem Coymans by Franz Hals. I feel like this could very well be an accurate depiction of Johnny Depp’s life.
Robin Williams, by mandrak; based on Albecht Dürer’s portrait of Jakob Muffel.
On the left: Kevin Bacon, by mandrak; based on Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington. On the right: George Clooney, by Silentjonny;
The Death of Mr Bean, by Stadsman; based on The Death of Marat by Jaques Louis David. In some ways I think this is the best of the bunch.
I will leave you with this…. picture.
Justin Bieber, by Scott Cecil, who has a really sick sense of humor. I need some eye bleach immediately! Based on Bia de Medici, by Angelo Bronzio.
I put a couple more interesting pics behind the cut. I hope you like these Puffin. You’d better, since this post took forever to write.
Love
MacGuffin
Other posts tagged as art
Christopher Jonasson’s Photography: A Guessing Game
Art Nouveau Slave Leia, sinful Disney princesses, and more
Dear Puffin,
Remember the Firefly travel posters I have in my nerd shrine bathroom? And the art nouveau Doctor Who posters from Bill Mudron, that I talk about constantly? Well, everything seems to have come together. Megan Lara has just released this incredible series of art nouveau, Alphone Mucha style Firefly posters.
I’ve often felt that you can learn a lot about a guy by which Firefly girl he goes for. 99% go for Inara or Kaylee, the occasional one goes for River, but I’ve never once heard a guy go for Zoe. Clearly, none of you have ever been with a warrior woman!
You can buy them all here.
I also found some art nouveau versions of Starbuck and Boomer, from Battlestar Galactica, by Deviantartist Moon-Pookah.
Mudron’s got a new piece out too, although it isn’t art nouveau. It’s more of a Japanese woodblock print knockoff, featuring Madame Vastra and Jenny battling a pair of Cybermen. And it’s awesome! Click to embiggen.
And finally, a little piece of whimsy to brighten this horribly hot and sticky day: The Doctor and the Little Prince, by Deviant artist JaviDLuffy.
Love
MacGuffin
Other posts about Poster Art
Art Nouveau Slave Leia, sinful Disney princesses, and more
Late Breaking Doctor Who Art News!
Star Wars Propaganda posters, redux. Also Doctor Who, Mad Men, Battlestar, etc
Variations on a theme: Game of Thrones
Poster art roundup: Ghostbusters, Narnia, Tron etc.
Dalek Propaganda Posters and Doctor Who Miscellany
Vintage Star Wars Posters (its a compulsion, OK?)
With the recent confirmation of the Good Omens TV series, which is apparently under the care of Terry Jones (yes that Terry Jones, not that Terry Jones), Puffin and I have been wondering how they’ll manage to fuck it up. Which is not to say that I don’t like Terry Jones. I do, very much. And actually I’ve quite liked the SkyOne adaption of Hogfather. But Good Omens……lets just say that there have been some frantic IM conversations between Puffin and myself, fretting about everything from cuts to mismanagement to the ever looming threat of Tim Burton, and worst of all…… casting. If ever there was a story that needed the perfect cast to pull it off, this is it.
The usual Imaginary Casting Couch rules apply:
- The space time continuum does not apply- actors can magically go back in time and star as their younger selves. (This rule was established primarily to allow MacGuffin to keep Leonardo DiCaprio around indefinitely.) Similarly, the dead can come back to life, which allows Alec Guinness to star in everything ever.
- The space time continuum may not apply, but accent rules do apply. MacGuffin and Puffin do not endorse Americans attempting British accents. It never works. In certain cases, however, you can simply let the character have an American accent. I truly believe that the uncanny valley of accents is a real thing that exists. An American can do a technically perfect imitation of a British accent, but it can still just be skin crawlingly awful. Take, for example, Peter Dinklage in Game of Thrones, or Robert Downey Jr in Sherlock Holmes.
- We reserve the right to ignore certain facts about an actors career. The fact that Michael Caine was in The Swarm, for example, will not be held against him.
- Certain movies shall not be meddled with: The original Star Wars, The Man Who Would be King, The Godfather pts I and II, anything by Billy Wilder, Casablanca, Firefly, A Fish Called Wanda, and finally and most importantly, Buckaroo Banzai.
- Tim Burton is banned for life.
- Johnny Depp is banned for life.
- Michael Cera is banned from playing Michael Cera for life.
So here we go, our initial picks for the dream cast of Good Omens:
Further ideas? I’m especially happy about Simon Pegg as Newton Pulsifer. I think he’s perfect. I mean, think of him as a slightly nerdier Sean of the Dead.
What are your thoughts?
Love
MacGuffin
Other Imaginary Casting Couch posts:
