Recs and other cool stuff

[buggery]

First of all, an honestly *unique* game in which you play a fly exploring an apartment. Moving your fly is simple, using the arrow keys on the keyboard, and nothing tries to kill you. (This is totally my favourite part of the game.) The animation is primitive in the sense that it's mainly black-and-white line art with greyscale shading, but it creates a really nice effect, clean lines in contrast to the sometimes, well, more-to-a-fly's taste things you explore. (Alas, or thankfully, no, there is no monkey defecation.) If you're old enough to remember MTV's "Liquid Television" (speaking of late-night animation programming for adults) -- "Aeon Flux" premiered on it? -- the game reminds me a lot of, well, if somebody had made a Liquid-TV game, back then. It has elements of "Joe's Apartment" (the original; I never saw the feature-length film) and the buttered-toast-topping short and I don't know how many other of those brilliant bits of animation from days of yore. They even manage to evoke the fly/eyelash thing from "Aeon Flux" ...though without actual fly-eyelash contact, again 'alas-or-thankfully,' I suppose. Even the soundtrack that plays behind the game's visuals -- and runs down the time limit for exploring the animated apartment -- is reminiscent of some of the songs used for various "Liquid Television" shorts.

And actually the song that plays during the game is the second goodie I have to rec in this post. It's called "The Second Line," by a Manchester (UK) band that defies easy categorisation; their early work was often called 'post-punk,' and some of those songs do show that influence. But their more recent work is more identifiable by samplings of unexpectedly musical distortion sounds, bluesy-jazz bass-lines, and lyrics that make Phish's look straightforward. Apparently "The Second Line" was also used in a Levi's jeans ad at some point, and it's easy to see why. The song is catchy enough that by the time I was able to achieve one of the game's goals (you're supposed to try to find and acquire the 'golden drop' before time runs out, but you can do that without exploring more than half the 'environments' in which there are other points to earn by grabbing blue drops; the other quasi-compatible goal is a high score) I started letting the game run in the background, not trying to move the fly anywhere, just so I could hear the song.

Clinic's The Second Line -- the game has its own website. You can play online, or download it for Mac or PC (I can't vouch for whether those downloads run properly). You can also watch a QuickTime video, either based on or the basis for the game, but if there's a way to defeat the anti-copying protections on the video to save it for later watching, I couldn't figure it out.

Clinic's The Second Line -- the song (right-click and save) is impressively difficult to find a working copy of. It took me a few hours over the course of several days (I'm still borrowing time on Te's computer) to find a link that hadn't gone dead, including many that went to an apparently older and defunct URL at the epitonic site. In case the one I did finally find also gives up the ghost, there's also a YouSendIt download (left-click) available, but only so many people can use that one before it expires, so do try the other link first.

Several weeks ago, petronelle sent me and thete1 a package. Among other things, it contained How to Draw Batman Beyond, illustrated by toon-tie-in-comics penciller-and-inker team John Delaney and Ron Boyd, published by the Walter Foster under licence from DC. It's a cool book, tabloid-sized like the Alex Ross titles DC tends to put out, and designed to be accessible to complete beginners but not so dumbed-down as to be useless for people with plenty of drawing experience. And it will go very well with the Prismacolor pencils (in Nightwing and Robin colours, yay!) that I picked up at a discontinued-discount table at an arts-and-crafts store a few days before getting Petra's package. The section that explains the theory underlying female-character design vs. male-character design in the Bruce Timm style -- and really, I want to scan a couple of these pages so people can see what I mean -- were particularly striking given the discussion that was going on around LJ about the way women are portrayed in the comics awhile back. Hopefully I will be doing some sketches based on the book in the near future, and scanning them for y'all to see. I have to admit I'm (shockingly, I'm sure) tempted to do some sketches of Dick using the female-character model.

Another thing I picked up while shopping recently was a new (to me) variety of Whitman's Sampler. We're all familiar with the traditional needlepoint-design yellow Whitman's Sampler assortments, I think, at least those of us who have lived in some part of the US at some point. This one, in the odd weight of 7.13 oz./202g, comes in a silver-foil box, the top of which is gold-foil-embossed with a grid pattern meant, I think, to evoke the classic needlepoint design, and is called, as near as I can tell, the "Super Extra" assortment. It contains Pecan, Almond and Peanut Medallions (clusters with caramel, like Turtles); plain and Fruit & Nut Caramels; the richly creamy Vanilla Butter, Chocolate Butter and Vermont Butter filled chocolates; the Almond Nougat; the Molasses Chew; the Peanut Butter and Coconut Cluster Cups; and a Truffle Cup. It bears similarities to some of the Nuts and Caramels assortments Whitman's has put out, but it has chocolates that I don't believe those do, like the truffle. Basically, to my palate at least, it's the best of the Whitman's traditional assortment without all the creams (or cremes) I really don't care for -- not to mention those horrid jellies that were finally retired a few years ago. (Yes, I know some people like them. I don't care. They're an abomination.) I've looked at both the Whitman's site (company history only) and the Russel Stover's site (they apparently produce and/or distribute Whitman's products in partnership with or as part-owners; I couldn't find an explanation of the exact business relationship) in addition to googling for other sites that might sell or refer to this particular assortment, but came up empty. But if you should happen to see one of these in your local drugstore or other candy purveyor, do pick one up. It's well worth the couple of bucks for nineteen yummy, chewy, nutty chocolates.

Finally, a couple of comics-fandom-type recs. Audrey made fanart for me based on a story I wrote last year -- yeah, Audrey fanart *for ME*! ::dances:: It's full of happy swinging toon-Timmies and I totally love it for reasons other than just she made it for ME. Also, Petra -- my, this post is full of Petra, not that that's a bad thing -- has posted the latest installment in the 'How to Marry a Millionaire' series she has been co-writing with jamjar. If you haven't already been reading this, you need to be... though be warned, it will break your head in ways different from the way most Bruce/Dick pairings might. Because, thus far (and the series is at this point approaching novel-length -- go, Jam and Petra, go! -- the pairings involved are actually Bruce Wayne/Nightwing and Batman/Dick Grayson, with cameos by the GCPD MCU, Alfred Pennyworth, Matches Malone, and Clark Kent -- whether Superman also has a cameo is debatable. The way these authors are playing with their characters' multiple (layers of) identities is nothing short of brilliant, and I have to encourage everyone to read the series, even if Bruce/Dick isn't usually your thing, unless slash in general just leaves you completely cold. There is rather a lot of fairly explicit sex, so it's not for the littl'uns, either. And yes, I've audienced and/or beta-read for some sections of the series (and yeah, I am a giant Bruce/Dick OTP 'shipper), but that really doesn't have anything to do with why I'm reccing this series, aside from the fact that I'm not as behind with it as I am with most of LJ-land of late because Petra sends bits directly to me in chat.

Comments

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I am ever so glad you recced the Bird in the Hand series. I was going to go on at length why, but I need to save my energies for not killing the coworker who is presently interrruping my break, so I'll just say Identity Porn Yay!

[buggery.livejournal.com]

You tease! Now I'm going to be wondering all day about the why.

::waits for it::

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Oh, you should be relieved I was prevented from babbling. :) It all boiled down to "Identity Porn, Yay!" with a side of "amazingly excellent writing, yay!" and "intertwined stories supporting each other, yay!" And a lot more yay-ing all about.