Arrowhead: Signal, A Low Budget Independent Sci-Fi Film Short

Arrowhead: Signal is a low budget 10 minute sci-fi film short inspired by the upcoming Australian independent feature film, Arrowhead, which is about an escaped convict / mercenary named Kye who is alone and stranded on a desert planet, waiting to be rescued. Signal really has me wanting more. To help this feature film come to fruition, the crew of Arrowhead has set up a crowdfunding platform on Pozible, which has a similar fundraising model to Kickstarter. They have a great selection of backer rewards, such as being an extra in the film or even having your last name be the actual last name of Nye, the main character. You can learn more about the film and fundraising in their promo video.

Arrowhead synopsis:

Arrowhead is a movie about redemption and loneliness, set against the backdrop of a sun-baked desert planet. After an intense prison break, Kye’s heroism gains him the attention of a ragtag group of rebels, led by an ex-military general. With the promise of guaranteed freedom, the general lures Kye into a dangerous hostage mission which leads him stranded alone on a planet for several years.
While alone, our hero has to decide whether he wants to continue on his violent path, or undo the damage he has done. But inner peace is hindered when Kye becomes infected with a symbiotic alien creature, which periodically causes hideous transformations.
It’s Jekyll and Hyde meets Robinson Crusoe. The Incredible Hulk in the distant stars. A bullets-and-sand adventure that will introduce pulp science fiction to the cerebral, character-based intimacy of independent cinema.

Arrowhead credits:

Fantastically detailed miniature replica of Katz's deli

Miniatures sculptor Alan Wolfson was commissioned to make a teeny weeny, fiendishly detailed diorama of the legendary Katz's Deli. Wolfson doesn't do miniature people, so he needed a plausible reason to make an empty Katz's (it's normally mobbed). He opted for a "closing time" Katz's, complete with tiny dirty dishes. There's tiny neon outside, too!

Katz’s Delicatessen is one of those legendary New York locations. It’s been in business on the lower east side of Manhattan since 1888, and is New York’s oldest deli. Telling someone to “meet me at Katz’s..,” is almost the same as telling them to meet you under the clock in Grand Central - everyone knows where it is. The collector who commissioned the piece no longer lives in the city and wanted something that reminded him of the many times, when he was a boy, that he and his family had eaten at Katz’s.

Fruit salad trees with six different fruit-bearing branches grafted on them

The Fruit Salad Tree Company of Emmaville, NSW, Australia sells trees that have up to six different fruit-bearing branches grafted on them.

Interview with Ray Harryhausen

Here's a 1974 interview with SFX pioneer and "Dynamation" inventor Ray Harryhausen, whose stop motion magic brought to life such classic films as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and One Million Years BC

David Byrne and St Vincent performing each others' songs together

Pitchfork's got a couple YouTube clips from the ongoing David Byrne/St Vincent tour, which is in support of their new album and Byrne's new book, both of which are amazing. I saw the tour stop in Toronto and actually wept at one point. I've been listening to the new album, Love This Giant nonstop since, and it's become the soundtrack of my days. I can't remember the last time a new album took over my life so completely.

I Miss Drugs, A Web Series That Paints a Sadly Accurate Portrait of Aging Hipsters

I Miss Drugs is a humorous web series “that paints a sadly hilarious portrait” of “aging hipsters” created by Nathaniel Boggess and Jason Eksuzian. There are currently four ‘very short’ episodes available to view online. Each one covers topics like incorporating a new crocheted designer pillow into the home, drinking Trader Joe’s boxed wine with your girlfriend while watching Portlandia and other benign day-to-day signs of getting older and ‘losing one’s edge’. The ‘I Miss Drugs’ Twitter account has some humorous gems as well.

I_Miss_Drugs @I_Miss_Drugs

Spent 20 minutes adjusting the grind on my burr grinder this morning

Fiona Apple busted in Texas for possession of hashish

[Video Link] Police officers in Sierra Blanca, Texas made the world safer by arresting Fiona Apple for possession of hashish. She was scheduled to play in Austin.

Urban Camouflage Artist Body Paints Women & Stages Them Around London For a TV Show Promo

By Rusty Blazenhoff on September 19, 2012

At London’s Portobello Market

To promote the new season of television drama series, Covert Affairs, the UK channel Really commissioned make-up artist Carolyn Roper to camouflage woman in body paint so that they would blend into London’s scenery. One of them has been painted as vegetables and staged on the veggies stand at London’s Portobello Market. The new season of Covert Affairs premieres September 19, 2012 on Really and the full image gallery can be found at Huffington Post UK.

Here’s a fun ‘making-of’ video that describes Roper’s process on this project:

images via

The Viral ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ Video Gets A Horror Film Remix

The insanely viral YouTube video Charlie Bit My Finger, that was uploaded 5 years ago and now has over 480 million views, is back and was given a haunting remix as a horror film trailer thanks to What’s Trending. Little Charlie is not so innocent anymore.

my little pony.........yikes

Wrenniepooh isn't your typical bronie. In 2008/9, Wrenniepooh created a series of custom My Little Ponies, including this rather magnificent specimen, dubbed Eyeball Creep.

finally..............

And the Next President of the U.S.A. Is … Captain America?

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America stands divided, with a polarizing presidential election pushing things to extremes. When the populace gets tired of politics as usual, a write-in campaign lands a bona fide war hero in the Oval Office.

Hobbitt 2nd trailer

Mentos + Coke + Condoms

Mixing Mentos and Coke is a thing -- well-parameterized and understood. But what if you tape a condom over the bottle-mouth before you make the fateful introduction? Sheer hilarity!

Crocodiles Eat, An Anamorphic 3D Painting Installed Inside of a Home

German artist Nikolaj Arndt created Crocodiles Eat, an amazing anamorphic 3D painting that was installed on a floor inside of a home. You can see more of Arndt’s work at his DeviantArt gallery.

This is what the painting looks like from the reverse side:

iamges via

The Popinator, A Voice-Activated Popcorn Shooter That Launches Popcorn Into Your Mouth

Popcorn brand Popcorn, Indiana has been working on their Popinator Project, a voice-activated machine that listens for the command ‘pop’ to aim and launch popcorn directly into your mouth. While it’s not currently not for sale, you can see the prototype in action in this video.

The Popinator, A Voice-Activated Popcorn Shooter That Launches Popcorn Into Your Mouth

Popcorn brand Popcorn, Indiana has been working on their Popinator Project, a voice-activated machine that listens for the command ‘pop’ to aim and launch popcorn directly into your mouth. While it’s not currently not for sale, you can see the prototype in action in this video.

Guns that are also other weapons

On the Propadeucist, "objects that are guns - and are also other weapons," including a gun that is also several other guns.

William Gibson on Why Sci-Fi Writers Are (Thankfully) Almost Always Wrong

 

Author William Gibson poses for a portrait at the Last Bookstore in Los Angeles.
Photo: Jason Redmond/Wired

One of science fiction’s most visionary and distinctive voices, William Gibson maintains that he and his fellow writers don’t possess some mystical ability to peer into the future.
“We’re almost always wrong,” said Gibson in a phone interview with Wired. Gibson coined the term cyberspace in his 1982 short story “Burning Chrome” and expanded on the concept in his 1984 debut novel, Neuromancer.

Part 2: William Gibson on the Temptation of Twitter, Antique Watches
(Coming Friday)
Part 3: William Gibson on Punk Rock, Memes and ‘Gangnam Style’
(Coming Saturday)

In that book, which quickly became a classic, inspiring pop culture and science fiction for decades to come, Gibson predicted that the “consensual hallucination” of cyberspace would be “experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation” in a global network of “unthinkable complexity.”
Yet Gibson says he simply got lucky with his prescient depiction of a digital world. “The thing that Neuromancer predicts as being actually like the internet isn’t actually like the internet at all!” said the writer, who has since penned numerous critically acclaimed novels, including Count Zero (1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988), The Difference Engine (co-authored with Bruce Sterling, 1990), Pattern Recognition (2003) and Zero History (2010).
Gibson’s most recent book, a collection of nonfiction called Distrust That Particular Flavor, was published this year; he is currently working on a new novel, tentatively titled The Peripheral.
In this Wired interview, which will be published over the next three days, Gibson discusses a dizzying range of subjects, including antique watches, comic books, punk rock, fortune tellers, internet memes and the long-running plans for a Neuromancer movie.
Wired: Do you think the category “science fiction” is useful anymore? Your last few books, like the Blue Ant trilogy, qualify as science fiction, but they’re set in a feasible approximation of present-day reality.

Facebook to New Yorker: no nipples in your cartoons

 

Facebook forced The New Yorker to remove a cartoon depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden because the cartoonist drew in two dots representing Eve's nipples, which is a Facebook no-no.