Hypnagogic State

Apex Magazine is asking readers to vote for the best original story published in the magazine in 2009. The 21 finalists:

“59 Beads” (4300) by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
“Overclocking” (2600) by James L. Sutter
“After the Fire” (2900) by Aliette De Bodard
“Benjamin Schneider’s Little Greys” (2100) by Nir Yaniv
“A Poor Man’s Roses” (2400) by Alethea Kontis
“To Dream of Stars: An Astronomer’s Lament” (5500) by Peter M. Ball
“Fungal Gardens” (6100) by Ekaterina Sedia
“Advertising at the End of the World” (4100) by Keffy R.M. Kehrli
“Kenny 149″ (2700) by Brad Becraft
“Pimp My Airship” (6000) by Maurice Broaddus
“She Called Me Sweetie” (4500) by Glenn Lewis Gillette
“…That Has Such People in It” (2300) by Jennifer Pelland
“Hideki and the Gnomes” (500) by Mark Lee Pearson
“Clockwork, Patchwork and Ravens” (7500) by Peter M. Ball
“Waiting for Jakie” (3000) by Barbara Krasnoff
“Hindsight, in Neon” (2400) by Jamie Todd Rubin
“The Mind of a Pig” (3000) by Ekaterina Sedia
“The Puma” (6700) by Theodora Goss
“Dark Planet” (4300) by Lavie Tidhar
“Cai and Her Ten Thousand Husbands” (4500) by Gord Sellar
“On the Shadow Side of the Beast” (3900) by Ruth Nestvold
“Starter House” (5000) by Jason Palmer

Vote here. My vote went for Peter M. Ball’s brilliantly steampunk “Clockwork, Patchwork and Ravens”.

(The Christmas card I sent out last year.)

Dream Warriors is my favorite film from the Nightmare of Elm Street series. It was the first horror movie I ever saw and it traumatized and defined me simultaneously. I had terrible nightmares as a child, including quite a few hypnagogic episodes so vivid I was paralyzed. But I stocked up on horror movies as a form of immersion therapy and eventually came to love the genre.

The theme song for Dream Warriors was composed by the heavy metal band Dokken. The video looks like it was made with a heavy metal band called Dokken. That’s a compliment and insult simultaneously.

The Amanita Design Christmas Pack features Machinarium, Samorost 2, the soundtracks to both games, and some high res images for $10. That’s a savings of 60% off on a pack that includes a game that showed up on every best indies of the year list. Deal available until December 25th.

Steam has indie titles for up to 80$ off. A few of the deals:

Trine $7.99

Samorost 2 $2.49

Eufloria $9.99

Osmos $4.99

Crayon Physics Delux $9.99

World of Goo $4.99

Machinarium $9.99

Braid $2.49

Cogs $4.99

You can access all of the games from the Steam Indie main page. Deals run through January 3rd.

This 1960s commercial for Ronson Comet lighters features horror legend Boris Karloff.  Karloff ranks behind only Vincent Price in the list of cinematic figures I would like to have met. His cinematic legacy is matched by an enduring reputation as a gentleman, bibliophile, and generous spirit. Karloff died in 1969 at the age of 81 from emphysema complications.

(h/t: Igloo of the Uncanny)

The Zombie Experiment is a community developed and financed game with a good cause. A $10.00 donation gets you into the community boards, where you can make suggestions and interact with other members. You will get a copy of the game for free when it is released and have your board username listed in the credits. 25% of the donation money and the eventual game sales will be donated to Team Fox, Michael J. Fox’s charity for Parkinson’s Disease.

The arena style shooter game play looks like it will have a fun, tongue-in-cheek style. The story:

Welcome to G.A. Romero Comprehensive, a typical suburban school that covers grades 6-12.
Unfortunately, unbeknown-st to the students and faculty, something far more sinister than mere teen hormones lurks beneath the unassuming structure.

Deep underground lies a secret research lab. Crazed but brilliant scientist Dr. Alexander Boyle performs twisted research experiments here, using sewer rats, stray cats and dogs, and even lost bums as his test subjects.
Matters come to a head when Boyle perfects a technique for sustaining life past total brain death—and creates zombies as a result!

When his newest test subjects demonstrate that the alteration can be transmitted through blood or saliva, Boyle realizes he has gone too far. But is it too late? He struggles to create a cure as the zombies break free of his control and go on a rampage, working their way up to through the sewers and toward the unsuspecting school above.
Fortunately, four figures stand in the zombies’ way:

• Jimmy Murphy is a brainiac, a bit of a geek who loves to explore on his own and to create wild inventions.
• Barb O’Dea is a Goth who just wants to be left alone—and is more than happy to vent her rage on anyone who invades her privacy.
• Mr. Savini works in the school cafeteria—but is that really who he is? He seems to know an awful lot about weapons, tactics, and combat for someone whose job is dishing up meat loaf!
• Ms. Burns is the sixth-grade Civics teacher, a bombshell all the boys have crushes on and a former political activist who still enjoys getting up in arms when she feels strongly about a cause.

These four each discover the zombies below, and fall into the role of humanity’s defenders, blocking the zombie invasion and searching for its cause—and a possible solution.

At this date, the Experiment has raised $2,185.29 towards the production costs. Click here if you would like to get in on the braiiiiiny action.

Glen Brogan submitted this Mario’s Closet design to Split Reason. Vote up the design if you’d like to buy it printed on a shirt one day.

(h/t: GameSetWatch)

Bored Panda (the only Magazine for Pandas) has 31 Creative Ads from McDonald’s . The ads come from around the world but the list starts with a disturbing ad for a newly opened store in India.

The offspring of Ronald McDonald and the kid from The Grudge invites you in to try the McRib. Of death. (Redundant?)

Less unsettling is this coffee pole design from Canada:

See the rest at Bored Panda.

Obamitas are cookies “resembling” President Obama that are sold in Spain. Neos Brand designed the gorgeous packaging for the product but I’m not on board with their claim that the cookie design has “nothing to do with his color”. I don’t expect an exact likeness of a person in cookie form. But if the point was something beyond “He’s brown with big ears!” the icing faces wouldn’t look like they were applied by a drunk five year old.

Obamitas are only available in Spain so Americans will have to look elsewhere for inappropriate stocking stuffers.

(h/t Eat Me Daily)

(Via Flour Power, h/t Adam)