Hypnagogic State

(Via Flour Power, h/t Adam)

Finals are over and regular posting will resume tomorrow but for now, I wanted to link to some fantastic articles I’ve snuggled up with on this Sunday.

The Genesis 2.0 Project (Vanity Fair) LHC geekporn

Obama’s Big Sellout (Rolling Stone) Matt Taibbi tears into Obama’s economic team

Either/Or: Sports, sex, and the case of Caster Semenya (The New Yorker) A heartbreaking but thorough look at Caster Semenya, specifically, and intersexuality, in general.

How Can a Genetic Mutation Cause Muscle to Turn into Bone? (Scientific American) A discussion about the rare genetic disease fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.

Amazon has The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection box set of DVDs on sale for $20.48 (down from $61). The box set includes the first seven movies (everything except Freddy Vs. Jason), a disc of bonus footage that has extra fun stuff for the computer, a commemorative booklet, and two pairs of 3D glasses.

The family members who have been asking what I want for Christmas will now have an answer. Freddy Krueger wears green and red. He’s a festive guy. And stabby. Festively stabby.

Amy McDaniel of HTMLGIANT posted a grammar challenge. A grammar challenge taken from a college course worksheet written and taught by the late David Foster Wallace. Test yourself without the answers or just read through the questions and answers here.

I’m going to spoil an answer to highlight the wonderful examples provided:

4. I only spent only six weeks in Napa.

The adverb only modifies six, not spent. If it modified spent, the sentence would be implying that the subject didn’t, say, work or weep or dance six weeks in Napa–merely spent six weeks there. Clearly, not the author’s intention. Wallace had a funny way of teaching this:

You have been entrusted to feed for your neighbor’s dog for a week while he (the neighbor) is out of town. The neighbor returns home; something has gone awry; you are questioned.

“I fed the dog.”

“Did you feed the parakeet?”

“I fed only the dog.”

“Did anyone else feed the dog?”

“Only I fed the dog.”

“Did you fondle/molest the dog?”

“I only fed the dog!” [Here Wallace's voice cracked funnily.]

(h/t Jason Kottke)

Via Matt Taibbi, this picture shows the vanity plate of Morgan Stanley Vice Chairman Rob Kindler. The image comes from Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book Too Big To Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System– and Themselves.

There was a recent Bloomberg article about Goldman Sachs employees arming themselves in fear of a proletariat uprising. A better form of protection? Quit turning the douche up to eleven.

In honor of the action figure of David I posted earlier, here is a montage of footage from The Lost Boys set to “Cry Little Sister”, the memorable song used heavily on the film’s soundtrack.

Is the Twilight thing over yet? I lived in a blissfull state of unawareness that such a thing even existed until the first movie was about to come out. I did a small bit of research into what the books were about and every time I found out a new plot element, I honestly thought the person saying it was messing with me. “Sparkling vampires? Hahahahaha…oh, you’re serious. Wtf?” But since one of my pet peeves is people criticizing something they’ve never read/seen/etc., I gave it a shot at reading the first book. I made it a few chapters in and just had to stop.

I’ve completely backed away from vampires since the Twilight craze started. But my phase was mostly over before that, having reached its peak in my mid-teenage years when I devoured the Anne Rice books.

As for vampire movies, my top two favorites are Shadow of the Vampire and The Lost Boys. The vampires in The Lost Boys were teenagers with overly styled hair. But they were still scary and threatening and dangerous. Not sparkling emos.

If you’re a fan of the film- or live with someone that is collecting Twilight action figures that you need to counteract- this action figure of David (as portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland) is available for a bargain $9.99 at Amazon.

Syfy’s “Tin Man“ was fairly awful and “Alice“ comes from the same creator. I’m probably not the target audience for either theme since I find the world of Oz to be overrated and the world of the White Rabbit to have been beaten into dead horse mode. But this cast includes Kathy Bates, Tim Curry, and Matt Frewer. I am therefore obligated to watch.

I am a hardcore cookie addict. I can easily devour a dozen in one sitting. Buying slightly more expensive cookies (’sup, Cheryl & Co.) makes me express some moderation.

But I would withhold eating the tasty treats from Geeky Cookies because they’re too damn cute to turn into an instant crumb pile. The cookies are available in Zelda Heart, Yoshi Eggs, Codex’s Staff*, Starfleet Badge, U.S.S. Enterprise Away Team (uniform shirts), 360 Power Buttons w/RRoD, Super Mario Assortment (shown above), Super Mario Mushrooms, Super Mario Starmen, Pokemon Pokeballs, and Pacman and Ghosts Set.

$20.00 for one dozen or $30.00 for two dozen at Geeky Cookies.

(h/t Trek Today)

*Codex from The Guild. Go search Youtube if you don’t know what that means. And deduct 10 geek points.

Oh No They Didn’t posted this image of a promotional toy for the reboot of A Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s the closest look horror fans have gotten at what Jackie Earle Haley will look like as Freddy Krueger.

There’s only one reason I’m not protesting in the streets over this reboot: Haley made all of my Rorschach dreams come true in Watchmen. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt not the movie.

But there is and always will be only one true Freddy. Robert Englund’s performance is what got me into horror movies (after I recovered from the years of trauma that resulted from seeing The Dream Warriors when I was six). And the first film in the Nightmare franchise was so perfect there’s no possible way the reboot can improve upon it.  If they were proposing a reboot from The Dream Master on, it would make more sense. The latter part of the series had buckets of wasted potential.

I’m not a purist who’s against all remakes. Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead is one of my favorite movies of all time. The recent remake of My Bloody Valentine was, save the rushed ending, a solid film. The Friday the 13th remake was enjoyable up until the halfway mark, where the writers seemed to have called it a day.

The trouble is in rebooting a classic without either a) staying very true to the original material or b) adding a completely unique spin to it. Rob Zombie tried to combine the two methods in Halloween and it felt awkward. The Black Christmas remake was an abomination of epic proportions. It stripped away everything compelling about the original and substituted in cliches and squick. Someone should publicly apologize for that film.