Hypnagogic State

My last post was in January. It was not meant to be my last post. I fully intended to keep up with a fairly regular posting schedule, despite my continuing lack of publishing success (which might be due to the fact I’ve sent out two stories thus far).

2010 started hard and got worse. But I’m dusting off the debris and trying to find my damn horse so I can get back on the saddle. (Here, horsey, horsey, horsey…)

Life lesson: Never declare you’re going to have the best year of your life in January of said year. That’s just asking for trouble.

Pediophobes- and pedophobes- may want to avoid viewing Alma, an animated trip into the doll shop from hell (redundant?).  Gorgeous animation filled with bright colors and peppy music cover the nagging feeling that something isn’t going to end well for the tiny heroine. Sure, the ending is a bit Twilight Zone. But multiple views make certain aspects (boy on bike, hellmouth window) extra creepy.

(Via Drawn!)

During a presidential debate in fall 2007, Joe Biden infamously said:  “And the irony is, Rudy Giuliani, probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency, is here talking about any of the people here. Rudy Giuliani… I mean, think about it! Rudy Giuliani. There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun, a verb, and 9/11. There’s nothing else! There’s nothing else! And I mean this sincerely. He’s genuinely not qualified to be president.”

It was funny because it was true. But recent comments by Giuliani show his reliance on 9/11 mentions is mighty selective:

“We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we’ve had one under Obama,” Giuliani said on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Assuming that Giuliani hasn’t lost control of his faculties, it’s a glaring omission to ignore the largest domestic attack in American history in order to highlight a recent domestic event that was, thankfully, a non-starter.

The first edition of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast is up at Tor. Hosts John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley talk zombies, apocalypse, and video games.  The gaming talk focuses on Valve and includes an interview with Left 4 Dead 2 lead writer Chet Faliszek.

(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.

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)

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)