PCQOTD : 9-28-06

Plebian:
"I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay."

Erudite:
"Manuel, you are a waste of space."

PCQOTD : 9-27-06

Plebian:
"M'mm, m'mm, good!"

Erudite:
"We are bringing you an eyewitness account of what's happening on the Wilmuth farm, Grovers Mill, New Jersey."

PT Scarborough Is A Loner

Is this the loneliest, most pitiful-looking picture you've ever seen in your life, or what?

Accordions have the ultimate power to make anyone holding them look like a velvet painting of a sad clown.

Click here for the full pic.

Addendum: While posting this article, I suddenly compelled to make this.

PCQOTD : 9-26-06

Plebian:
"We're just trying to be friendly; come on, won't you sing and play?"

Erudite:
"Am I happy or in misery? Whatever it is, that girl put a spell on me."

PCQOTD : 9-25-06

Plebian:
"Someday the mountain might get 'em, but the law never will."

Erudite 1:
"A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist."

Erudite 2:
"They'll never stay home and they're always alone even with someone they love."

Each Erudite has its own Connection to the Plebian.

Candy Rapist

This is the kind of insane children's programming PBS had us watching in the 1970s. No wonder I turned out to be such a twisted freak. More evidence is here and here.

Also, Morgan Freeman used to be cool.

This one is my all time fave though.

PCQOTD : 9-22-06

Plebian:
“I searched the world over and thought I’d found True Love. You met another and TTHTP! you were gone.”

Erudite:
"Mom always liked you best."

CageMatch Revelation

Who or what is "B.S."? Stay tuned and find out here.

PCQOTD : 9-21-06

Plebian:
"I'm a little bit rock and roll."

Erudite:
"Next to the Playstation controlla is a full clip, and my pistolla turn a jacker into a coma."

PCQOTD : 9-20-06

Plebian:
"Filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law."

Erudite:
"It's official, I survived what I been through
Y'all got drama, the saga continues..."

Papertastic

Absolutely incredible paper art by Peter Callesen. I can't even begin to imagine the patience and depth of thought it must take to create these works. I particularly love the pieces he does that are transformations or dualities, like a skeleton contemplating his shadow. Positively astounding.

Link here.

PCQOTD : 9-19-06

Plebian:
"King of the wild frontier."

Erudite:
"Some folks call it Hell, I call it Hades."

PCQOTD : 9-18-06

Plebian:
"For fun it's a wonderful toy."

Erudite:
"Knowhutimean, Vern?"

Under The Weather

Pardon the lack of anything on The Transmutation Effect lately. I've caught a cold or a virus or something, and have been laid up at home. It's back to the halcyon days of watching cartoons, drinking orange juice, and overdosing on generic store-brand Nyquil. The PCQOTD should return on Monday with any luck. In the meantime, I have to get myself together for DSI's 24LIVE comedy marathon this weekend. Won't you come out and see us? It's all for the kids, more specifically for the NC Children's Hospital. You can't beat a good charity function. I have three nicely-spaced shifts as Tech King, and will hopefull be all rested up and ready to go by Friday at 6. Keep your fingers crossed. See ya in the funny papers.

PCQOTD : 9-13-06

Plebian:
"The UnCola"

Erudite:
"I've seen your smile in a thousand dreams, felt your touch and it always seems you love me."

CageMatch 9-9-06

We had another episode of CageMatch last week, as champions Cranpa Hester put up the CageMatch title against the internationally acclaimed duo known as Timbuk2! Timbuk2 unleashed some powerful weapons in their arsenal as they attacked with neighbours in an acapella contest and a schoolteacher taking a naughty shower, but Cranpa Hester countered with their trademark timeshifting improv and a bizarre scene on a twisted farm populated by miniature tractors, oversized genitalia, and a demonic chicken. In the end, the vote was close, but Cranpa Hester prevailed!

The promo video for the show can be viewed here. I liked the animation I did onthe yin yang symbol, but ran out of time to animate the rest of it. If you want to name the music, feel free to leave a comment here. There's three pieces, and I don't expect anyone to get the main one. Go ahead and try and identify the opener and the ending and why they were used in this context.
The team logo for Timbuk2 can be seen here.

Next week, CageMatch will be taking a day off from the competition series, so that DSI can host the 24LIVE marathon to benefit the North Carolina Children's Hospital. (Be sure to come by for that--it's a good cause!)

PCQOTD : 9-12-06

Plebian:
"Good to the last drop."

Erudite:
"Don't hit at all if you can help it; don't hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep."

PCQOTD : 9-11-06

Plebian:
"Australian for beer."

Erudite:
"Oh, de doo da day."

PCQOTD : 9-8-06

Plebian:
"The pause that refreshes."

Erudite:
"Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before."

PCQOTD : 9-7-06

Plebian:
"So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye? So you think you can love me and leave me to die?"

Erudite:
"Yes, Ive been brokenhearted, blue since the day we parted. Why, why did I ever let you go?"

PCQOTD : 9-6-06

Plebian:
"Tastes great. Less filling."

Erudite:
"Snowman, you got your ears on?"

CageMatch 9-2-06

This week's CageMatch featured Cranpa Hester defending their title against a very interesting quartet of hairless men who went by the name of BALD. I was pretty proud of this week's video. My song choices were appropriate, my audio edits were fairly seamless, and the team graphic for Bald was awesome. Based on comments I received, most people loved the clock bit the best, which is odd, since I didn't put nearly the effort I had originally planned into that segment. I'm a big fan of the menacing "sunrise of Tommy's head" sequence, which took about two hours to do in Photoshop and Flash.

The audio used for the CageMatch is usually picked to be a hidden joke or reference. Maybe next week I'll do a quiz to see if anybody can recognize what I used. This week, I'll just list the songs.

1. The first sound, which occurs during the initial flash of the DSI logo, usually has some obscure reference to the rest of the video. For instance, last week had the sound of a kiss, referencing the fact that NY152 was a romance-based improv style. This week, it's the sound of a squeaky balloon, a vague reference to baldness.
2. The spooky music that comes during the announcement of bad news in CageMatch is my old failsafe, Bela Bartok's Concerto For Orchestra. I'm not a huge classical fan, but I love me some somber Bartok.
3. As we move into the review of Cranpa Hester's victory, the music needed to change to something upbeat to get the taste of Biff out of our mouths, so I chose The Talking Heads' Once In A Lifetime, since Cranpa Hester uses time as one of their elements in the Close Quarters form.
4. As Tommy's evil gaze overshadows the crew from Cranpa, the music switches to Night On Bald Mountain. Heh. That amused me. It's actually a remixed version of the piece that I put together myself, and was pretty proud of. It jumps over the quiet parts of the piece to get to the dramatic parts and keep the energy of the video going. I was particularly pleased with the way it ends, leaping right into the quick string hits as the informational screens pop up. Worked perfectly!

Tune in next week for the CageMatch music identification quiz!

Costumery From The Kingdom, Pip-Pip!

Here's another bit of weirdness I stumbled upon that I felt I had to share with my loyal readership. The subject today is the website for Antiks Costume Hire, a British-based firm that rents out outfits for "fancy dress parties" and other nutty affairs that require one to dress up like a fool. Now, in America, there's tons (as opposed to tonnes) of ads for Halloween costumes, most of which use the same generic photographs of professional models sporting the outfits. What makes Antiks Costume Hire so hilarious to browse through is that a) a lot of the costumes suck, and b) they're modelled (apparently) by the store staff, folks who don't tend to be the most photogenic around. Go through all the costume sections and click on the highlighted names to see photos of the modelled costumes. They're fabulous. Start with the Characters section, maybe. Don't miss the Rocky Horror, the Pirate Wench, Ziggy Stardust, and my favourite, Adam Ant.

PCQOTD : 9-5-06

Plebian:
"I'm a ba-a-a-a-ad boy!"

Erudite 1:
"But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out."

Erudite 2:
"Oh, in the name of God! Now I know what it feels like to be God!"

(Each Erudite has its own individual Connection to the Plebian.)

Puzzling

My new favourite online game is "Gateway". Highly recommended to anyone who wants to futz around with screen after screen of intriguing puzzles. I love the simplistic design and the muted colours. And the little square robotty guy is cool too.

PCQOTD : 9-1-06

Plebian:
"B-O-L-O-G-N-A."

Erudite:
"Goooood cracker!"