My new Twilight merchandise.

Twilight.

A series of books embraced by teenagers (predominantly female) and women everywhere. This series was immensely popular – still is – it was almost as if something needed to fill the massive hole left after the Harry Potter series wound up.

Now I’m not against popular authors, some of my favourites are Crichton, King and Grisham and anything that gets the kiddies reading is always a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

But, (there’s always the but) the mania that follows these publications when a movie gets made almost makes you want to leave the country.

Especially when the house one lives in is also inhabited by females, the majority being teenagers.

It becomes a Circus.

Twilight if you have been living on Mars for last couple of years is the story of a young lass who falls in love with a Vampire, who can tolerate sunlight and sparkle. Somehow she gets into a love triangle with the Vampire and a Werewolf and…. Forget ..just read the books.

Boronia Library has heaps of copies.

Recently the third installment of the Twilight series “Eclipse” was released and there was the usual hysteria. The local cinema the Metro had to show special presentations running at Midnight  with a double feature of the two previous films in the series shown before the big event .

I don’t know why because most of the fans buy the DVD’s as soon as they are released and have watched them a million times.

In some states in the United States fans camped outside cinemas for days before hand  so much was the anticipation, I’m not sure if it was as bad here.

Now this brings me around to the main point of this article.

Films made from books and the actors that play the parts.

When an incredibly popular book series like the Twilight series is made into a movie, it’s usually because it’s sold a gazillion copies and the movie studios of course capitalize.

It always amazes me that when the movies are released (and they do this with the Harry Potter films) why do they advertise as if the film holds secrets that no one will have a snow balls chance in hell of guessing unless they see the movie? I’m pretty sure most of the females in Australia and possibly the Western world know who Bella ends up hooking up with.

Recently the star from the movie, Kristen Stewart who plays female lead Bella came to these shores recently for promotion purposes, scamping behind her was her co star Taylor Lautner who has been gaining bigger parts with each movie.

Robert Patterson who plays the male lead Edward couldn’t make it because he needed more sparkles or something.

Anyway put any of these three in front of the fans and they go berserk.

Hysteria not unlike Beatlemaia breaks out and any sense of reality goes with it.

I suppose every teenage boy would look at Robert Patterson and then the girl he has crush on and going dribbling silly over this pasty , stone faced bag of skin and bones and wonder what they have to do to get noticed.

I can empathize, when I was a lot younger a girl I liked had an unnatural crush on the drummer from the Bay City Rollers, something I couldn’t fathom and couldn’t compete even though he was married lived in another hemisphere and was as ugly as anything.

I recently went back on the internet to confirm this and yes he still looks like he fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.

As for Kristen “ Misery Guts” Stewart, one of the main things  she is renown for is her hatred of her celebrity status. What does one expect when you’re the star of one of the biggest franchises of the decade and you’re young and single? The world will ignore you? Actually I wonder what would happen if it did? She’d probably change her tune.

As for the Taylor Lautner fella, I like him , he smiled a lot and signed autographs, apparently he still lives at home with Mum and Dad. (and he’s really good at Martial arts)

I have a house littered with Twilight merchandise (I suppose it could be worse it could be Justin Beiber) and with every movie it is thankfully getting less frantic and annoying and since some of the things are becoming passed there use by date I can do something I’ve wanted to do for some time.

Create my own anti Twilight merchandise.

This is my first. I call it the:

“How to make parents happy and end the series early Edward”doll or the Deadward.

Originally published in the BBCN August 2010

(c) words & photos Shidot Prod.

The Purple Filth

These are  a couple of clips from a Cartoon Network show The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (i think)
The first is the Purple Filth playing as themselves.
You have to love the armpit farter.


The second is some mash up video using some other bands song.
I just like the music.
It's "Into The Darkness" by SPF1000 if your interested made by Artifactconcept

All I can say is .......

All I can say is it's about time.
All this pissing around was getting boring.

LINK

Bits of background

Something fanboys made up 3 years ago.

Cartoon Cat & Mice through History

Originally featured at Robert Berry's most excellent RETROCRUSH site.
This version is slightly edited.
I strongly recommend this site to all fans of things 50s thru to 90s counter culture.

The fictional depictions of cat vs. mouse is  a long tradition that spans nearly 100 years. From early comic strips to modern cartoons, there’s something elemental and simple about a cat chasing a mouse around. There’s something about the mouse that we can all identify with. Most of us have a cat of some sort in our life that’s trying to get us, be it an overbearing parent, a school bully, or perhaps the government.

Perhaps the earliest illustrated example of this was the wonderful Krazy Kat, which had an often bizarre storyline of the title character having a crush on the Ignatz Mouse. Krazy’s efforts would typically be thwarted with a brick thrown to the head. This is certainly not a relationship formula that was duplicated again, but it may be the earliest fictional account of struggles between these two species. The strip began in 1913 and was published for over 30 straight years.

But it’s really Tom and Jerry that got the ball rolling on the modern day cat hunting the mouse tradition. Created by the immortal William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in 1940, the duo produced more than 100 short features for MGM in the 18 years that followed. These cartoons set the standard for wonderful cartoon violence that’s still imitated to this day.

I didn’t like Tom and Jerry much as a kid, and though they were kind of boring, but looking back on them now, I can appreciate how beautifully animated they were and complex their relationship was when compared to their copies. Tom and Jerry were sometimes best buddies, and sometimes Jerry was in the wrong, so there at least was some variety to their antics.

Herman and Katnip first appeared together in 1950 and though they were an obvious swipe ofTom and Jerry, they were often more crazy and violent. The theme song was pretty fun, as well. I first watched these as a part of The New Casper Cartoon Show in the late ’70s/early ’80s and saw them in other Harvey Comics, but I didn’t realize that they existed as toons before Harvey bought them in the late ’50s (along with Baby Huey).

Tweety Bird and Sylvester were a bird/cat variant on the theme, and though the duo first appeared together in 1947, they had individual cartoon appearances prior to that. Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote debuted a year later taking the tried and true animal formula and running with it.

In 1958, Tom and Jerry’s creators threw an extra mouse into the mix when they launched the shorts of the awkwardly titled Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks as a backup feature for the Huckleberry Hound cartoon. The episodes were largely forgettable save for Mr. Jinks great catchphrase of “I hate you meeses to pieces!”

Of course, no look at great cat and mouse combos can be done without wrapping it up with the Tom and Jerry on speed tribute The Itchy and Scratchy Show, which was a toon within a toon ofThe Simpsons. With outrageous titles like “Flay Me To The Moon”, “Planet of the Aches”, and “Why Do Fools Fall In Lava?”, the shorts are some of the most insane and gleefully violent variations on the formula to have ever been shown.

There’s something elemental and basic about two animals chasing and/or beating the crap out of each other that transcends the ages. I’m sure some form of cat vs. mouse abuse in media will exist in some form for the next 100 years.