Last week I blogged about the Dee Dee Ramone Mr. Potato Head. This week it’s a Mr. Pötatöhead Lemmy Kilmister by self-proclaimed “Potato Head Master” and artist, Jason D. Johnson.
With thanks to Cherrybombed
An eye-opening news report from Kent Shocknek exposing parents anger over their children’s obsession with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. And yes, therapy may be required.
“But no matter how you play the game, or which game you play, things have definitely come a long way since Pac-Man.”
Via BuzzFeed
Would you trust this woman to public office?
Did you guys know that this election cycle brought us the first openly gay Senator, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin? Did you also hear about Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu in Congress, or Mazie Hirono the first Asian-American woman Senator, both from Hawaii? Well who the hell cares?!?
We all know the real civil rights issue of our time is not race, religion, gender, or sexuality; the greatest victims of our society are our noble nerds. Have you ever been on Kotaku or a particularly esoteric sub-reddit? Nerds live under oppression you couldn’t even imagine!
Colleen Lachowicz, a Democrat from Maine, was recently elected to the state senate amidst a fury of anti-nerd controversy. Her opponents created a really, really terrible website hellbent on admonishing her using the harshest accusations possible.
Colleen Lachowicz is a Democrat candidate for Maine State Senate. In Colleen’s online fantasy world, she gets away with crude, vicious and violent comments like the ones below. Maine needs a State Senator that lives in the real world, not in Colleen’s fantasy world.
Daaaaaaaammmnm dude! Harsh! And what quote do they use to expose her unnatural predilections?
So I’m a level 68 orc rogue girl. That means I stab things … a lot. Who would have thought that a peace-lovin’, social worker and democrat would enjoy that?!
So she admits it?!? For shame!
Luckily, in the grown-up world, no one really gives a shit, and Lachowicz won. I mean, if I were a Mainer, I’d be impressed, but demand to know her stance on Zelda, obviously.
Creator, Martin Bircher writes,
“…moi non plus is an interpretation of Serge Gainsbourg’s song “Je t’aime… moi non plus” in the form of an audio game. By operating the joystick, the human components of the song can be controlled according to selected preferences.”
You may wanna turn down the volume if you’re at work. Lots of sexy moanin’ and a groanin’ going on here.
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Via Nerdcore
An extremely odd ode to Pac-Man, I must say!
One question though: Why is Pac-Man so small? The proportions are all wrong.
Via Geekologie
For that special Whovian in your life: A handmade Doctor Who chess set by Emmi Visser.
In time for Christmas, this is a completely unique, highly detailed, high quality chess set inspired by Doctor Who. Every single one of the 32 pieces is handcrafted from scratch. Finally you will be able to have your own adventures in time and space! And when you have briefly set your interstellar quarrels aside, this set is sure to attract the attention of your visitors!
Only ONE set will be sold. I will NOT make another set! So this one is completely UNIQUE. (I did make a chess set last year featuring the tenth Doctor. This one features the eleventh Doctor.)
The chess set is for sale at Visser’s Etsy shop, priced at $949.00 + shipping. Damn, I wish I had the money for this.
Via Neatorama
Bored on your commute to work? Then try out this rather cool game Man-eater, by Daniel Disselkoen, who explains:
For four years, each day I took the same tram to art academy. Why would you then look out the window with curiosity when there is no reason to expect anything new. I decided to change the daily journey for my fellow passengers and myself. I wouldn’t move the tramway track, but maybe I could add something. Make something so that what already exists would look very different now.
Man-eater is part of my graduation project Remake Reality for the Royal Academy of Art, The Netherlands.
Check out more of Daniel’s work here. And if you can come up with any similar game ideas, do let us know.
Via b3ta
Today is Andy Warhol’s birthday and here’s a little something I think Andy would have appreciated - a video game in which the player takes on the role of Valerie Solanas.
“I Shot Andy Warhol” (a mod of Nintendo’s “Hogan’s Alley” made by Cory Arcangel) is a perfect example of a Warholian appropriation of pop culture. But instead of just watching, we get to participate in the process of the modern world eating itself. We have the choice of missing our target and keeping Warhol alive for eternity in our gaming consoles.
This is a guest post by Zoetica Ebb, a Moscow-born, LA-based artist, writer, photographer and style technician. Follow her on Twitter @zoetica.
Read Part I of Ghosts of the Moscow Kremlin.
Fanny Kaplan lived her turbulent life in the early 20th century. A young Jewish anarchist in Kiev, she partially lost her sight at the age of twenty, during preparations for a terrorist action, when explosives accidentally detonated. Arrested while trying to flee the scene, she was sentenced to death. Because Fanny was under twenty-one, she was sent to a labor camp instead, where she spent most of her time in ill physical and mental health, eventually losing her vision entirely.
When the Revolution of 1917 came, she was released. Free again, Fanny underwent a series of treatments and her vision partially returned. She joined an anti-Marxist socialist party and, one year later, was arrested for the attempted assassination of Lenin, who was shot three times at a large-scale meeting. In a considerably shady turn of events, she was captured by the militia holding a gun and saying, “I did my duty.”
Considering Fanny’s impaired vision -at this time she could only make out shadowy shapes- and the fact that the well-aimed bullets weren’t extracted from Lenin to be checked for a match to her pistol, this confession was dubious (also see: Lee Harvey Oswald). Nonetheless, since she wouldn’t name any accomplices, Fanny Kaplan was executed at the Kremlin without a trial or an investigation three days later. She was shot and stuffed in a barrel, which was then set ablaze, leaving no room for confusion in least in one aspect of her story, making her a perfect candidate for eternal unrest.
A pale, trembling Fanny with uncombed hair and a gun is sometimes seen inside one of the Kremlin towers to this day.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin remains an iconic figure in Russian history, though national reverence and enthusiasm have waned since the fall of Communism. As someone who grew up during Communism’s final decade, I still find Lenin difficult to write about, since the shiny dogma we were taught in school and the details surfacing over the past twenty years are at considerable odds. Even so, his accomplishments are many and his work ethic alone is awe-inspiring, even if all of his ideals and doings were not.
He was the erudite revolutionary who fought the Great Civil War, helped overthrow the last tzar and built an entirely new government, transforming Russia into a Soviet State with a socialist economic system. He worked sixteen-hour days until his death, wrote entire books without the help of a stenographer, all the while managing to maintain communication with friends and allies. His pamphlets, reforms, and long, impassioned speeches before huge crowds made him into a national hero. Despite being a slight man with unremarkable looks, the propaganda spun by Lenin’s eventual successor, Joseph Stalin, inflated his newly broad-shouldered and strong-jawed image to near-leviathan proportions. After decades of his trademark hostile intolerance toward faith, which dubbed religion “a mass opiate to be eradicated”, Lenin became god. Stalin continued to cultivate this personality cult to legitimize himself during and well after Lenin’s lifetime.
Before he eventually worked himself to death in 1924, Lenin fell gravely ill, and, partially paralyzed, was ordered rest at his summer house outside of Moscow. Shortly before his end, a Kremlin security chief saw what appeared to be Lenin walking briskly through the corridor up to his former apartment on the premises. Confused by Lenin’s lack of cane and entourage, the chief made a call – only to confirm that Lenin was at the summer house, resting as prescribed. Numerous similar eyewitness accounts followed, in direct opposition with the anti-spiritual doctrine of the times. The matter was quickly covered up with a false story of Lenin visiting Moscow one last time.
After his death three weeks later, Lenin’s body was embalmed and displayed in the Kremlin Mausoleum, per Stalin’s orders, where it lies to this day, accumulating layers of mortician’s wax with each passing year. Lenin’s baths and maintenance are no longer funded by the government, but continue thanks to public donations. It’s been speculated that it’s this unnatural process that keeps Lenin’s troubled spirit trapped within his Kremlin apartment, which has been locked and sealed for decades. Sounds of restless pacing, shuffling paper and creaking furniture are heard by guards late into the night.
Read the rest of Ghosts of the Moscow Kremlin (Part II) after the jump…
