My Favorite Centaur

Possibly the best rap video ever. Tyler, The Creator as a centaur. Also dig the metroid crotch transmogrification ray.

E-Z Swords - Video of Actual Weapon Outfitter

I will satisfy you.

boiling blood

MU. About to go first level...

TSR's 1993 Wildspace Video Trailer: Spelljammer VHS Game!

Joethelawyer just posted the link to this. I found it to be so utterly amazing I just had to share it with you, my dear readers.

Apparently Wildspace was supposed to be a Spelljammer-based video game "cartridge". It seems that "cartridge" in this case meant VHS tape. Does anyone know anything more about this apparently abandoned venture?

 

UPDATE: Here's a picture of the Wildspace prototype game (from BGG - thanks to ze bulette for pointing this out!):

1903 Alice in Wonderland Movie

Like peeping into another dimension. The Cheshire Cat part is very weird...

My Player's Rad Homemade Miniature! IMPROVED PHOTO!

For our whitebox session last Sunday one of the players surprised everyone and brought along a homemade miniature of his character Franklin, Cleric of the Zymosian Time Demon! Check it out:

The player said that the hardest part about making the mini was getting it to stand on it's OWN TWO FEET! How many (non-Lego) minis have you used that stand on two feet? Awesome! The other cool thing is that the mini is wearing plate-mail underpants and you can switch around the torches and weapons!

This player is a crafty guy who does a lot of modeling (check out his blog : archaotics) and also does awesome stop-action animation:

By the way, another player (Mackie the Fighting Man) in the game also does some animation. I'll pimp his work while I'm at it:

What if Cugel Was a 60s Slovakian Pop Singer?

Michal Dočolomanský rocking the house in Na skle maľované. Hang on for a minute to see the disco dancing peasant babes...

I'm looking forward to ending the baby hiatus on our whitebox campaign this weekend. Viva la Los Angeles Whitebox Society's Dungeon Brunch!

Cthulhu in South Park

I'm not a TV guy, so sorry if I'm late to the party on this one...

World of Warcraft: Brief Insight Into a Cultural Phenomenon

UPDATE: As a tribute to this fan's awesomely deep knowledge, Blizzard will be including him as a permanent character in WoW!

Watch Philip K. Dick Going Crazy on YouTube

This morning I was surfing YouTube for interviews with f/sf authors. In so doing I ran across this bizarre 1977 footage of Philip K. Dick giving a speech at a science fiction convention in France. Actually, this is not as much a speech as it is PKD earnestly reading a written statement about how he recently discovered that reality is a computer program. All fans of PKD should be familiar with this authors' famously tenuous hold on reality, but to see this manifested on film is quite moving and also, for me at least, quite sad. This clip is painfully reminiscent of a close high school friend of mine who has been fighting problems with schizophrenia and paranoia for much of his adult life. Interestingly, this friend of mine (wisely) refused to read VALIS out of fear it would make matters worse.

In this video you can hear PKD saying things like "Some of my fictional works were, in a literal sense, true", "We are living in a computer programmed reality", and describing how books like Man in the High Castle and Flow My Tears the Policeman Said were based on true realities he had seen in visions. "I claim to remember a very different present life," he says.

MULTINAUTS IS HERE!!!

Two years ago Dungeon Majesty / Telefantasy Studios - the team that made the D&D World of Adventure video - released this nerdgasmic pilot trailer for an Encounter Criticalicious adventure show called Multinauts:



After two long years, last week Telefatasy finally released the first two episodes of Multinauts! There's even a tie-in music video by Geneva Jacuzzi! Check out the awesome adventures of THE MULTINAUTS!


THE MULTINAUTS- Episode One "Flashback" from Multinauts on Vimeo.


THE MULTINAUTS - Episode Two "Mirrorman" from Multinauts on Vimeo.


GENEVA JACUZZI "SPACE HEATER" from Multinauts on Vimeo.

WotC's D&D Red Box Commerical by Dungeon Majesty

Original Dungeon Majesty video (2006):


New WotC Commerical (2010):


I hope Hasbro paid Dungeon Majesty for this. I guess the real rip off is for the original illustrators.

UPDATE (10/15): Dungeon Majesty's Riley Swift, creator of the original World of Adventure video, confirmed with me that he was indeed hired by WotC several months ago to re-edit his original video into this new commercial. This is great news, and I hope WotC keeps Riley on, because his video and illustration work is supercool! Thanks for the clarification, Riley! I have accordingly un-sassed the original title of this post (changed "Rips Off" to "by")...

A New Look for Cyclopeatron

You probably noticed the new color scheme and banner art for Cyclopeatron. The black background was getting a little tiresome for me...

Does everything look okay on your computer? If there are any problems with size, color, or formatting on your browser I'd appreciate a note! Thanks!

Here's a nice pop video for ya! Be sure to stick through the first 90 seconds to get to the really good stuff!

For Aphex Twin Fans

Cool steel drum version of Alberto Balsam:

If you've never heard of Aphex Twin before, start by watching this Windowlicker video. The music starts at about 4:30, but the whole video is entertaining. WARNING: PROFANITY!

Let's Look at the Sun

Let's look at the sun today, shall we?

(CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE AWESOMENESS)

NASA's new Solar Dynamics Observatory is starting to pump out some lovely data. Here is a composite color image of the sun from March 30, 2010 showing hot plasma, UV radiation, and flares:

Speaking of flares, look at this amazing SDO video of the flare in the upper left corner of the above image:

 

Here's another nice flare picture:

Gigantic magnetic tubes of hot gas (aka spicules) on the sun's surface:

A sun halo over Cambodia:

Blue image of sun highlighting hydrogen-alpha spicules:

Martian sunset:

Images from NASA's APOD site.

Animated Moebius: The Incal That Never Was

In the mid 1980s there was an aborted attempt by Moebius and Jodorowsky to make an animated version of L'Incal. Sadly, the project was never completed. The small amount of material that was finished is presented in this trailer. Watch and weep!

Weird Hallucinations in Friskies Adventureland

Hopefully I'm not departing too far from the weird art theme of this web log by pointing out Friskie's new "Adventureland" cat food commercial. This animated bit of feline phantasmagoria lies somewhere between a psilocybin hallucination and a weird fiction daydream. The lucky little cat in this spot must truly be Ultharian.

Check out the wicker fish ship, the floating windmill islands, the hermit crab port guardians, the goldfish in the lighthouse, and the weird chicken band surrounding the interdimensional portal leading to the moist cat food. Very nice!



Slate wrote up an interesting commentary on this commercial, trying to find out why in the world Purina would make such a thing. The most poignant excerpt:

"Feeding wet," as Schlueter calls it, can for some owners be a highly ritualized and intimate pet interaction. The pop of the can primes kitty for excitement. The scents that escape set feline nostrils aflutter. This is a time for cats and owners to bond over a heap of moist, processed meat. And, according to Schlueter, many owners like to imagine what their cats are feeling and thinking during these moments of culinary ecstasy. This trippy ad, which is for wet food, is meant to capture the altered consciousness of the cat—the sensually heightened bliss it derives from chewing on a pile of damp Friskies.

Videos: Dark Magic of Jewels and Gems

Here's a pair of videos sharing magical jewels as a theme. 
Learn your lessons, children!

Rabbit

Awesomely demonic 2005 short by Run Wrake.

Yes, I know it's a bit long (~8min), but you must watch it. ADDers stick out the first 80 seconds to get to the hardcore black magic.

Willow Don't Cry

2007 rap video by Dungeon Majesty about the movie Willow.

Kicks off with a magical gem-encrusted D&D adventure!

D&D Music Videos

I posted some of these before, but they are so charming I'll post them again...

Harvey Benschoter animation

Fleshetables from Harvey Benschoter on Vimeo.