Christopher Lantz

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It is definitely now the future.

A new venture is joining the effort to extract mineral resources on asteroids. The announcement of plans by Deep Space Industries to exploit the rare metals present in the space rocks turns asteroid mining into a two-horse race. The other venture, Planetary Resources, went public with its proposals last year.

Michael sez, "Someone has gone to the trouble (I don't know how but would suspect using Melodyne DNA or somesuch) of processing REM's minor-scale downer hit 'Losing My Religion' so that all the minor notes are now major. When I followed the link I thought it'd be a cover, but no, it's the original, processed. It's uncanny - the song is just as familiar as always but the impact is utterly different. Kind of like finding a colour print of a film you'd only known in black and white, or seeing Garfield minus Garfield for the first time. I like it."

Major Scaled #2 : REM - "Recovering My Religion" (Thanks, Michael!)

From Veronica Varlow: "The story behind it is even more intense, as the girl featured in the video is Tora, who was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed her father and step-mother and six others. ... Burke Heffner directed this brilliant video - they built a make-shift room furnished with stuff from craigslist and built it over a swimming pool. They sank it while she played and filmed underwater."

From the 1996 film Vibrations. (via @chris_carter_)

“Are ye legal age adults ready to watch some porn?”

Adult film company WoodRocket has released SpongeKnob SquareNuts, a live-action hardcore porn parody of the animated kids show, SpongeBob SquarePants. The movie’s trailer gives a short (and censored) sneak preview of the wrong that will be found in the full 15-minute flick. The film is directed by Lee Roy Myers who claims on Twitter that he makes “vaginas funny.”

via Guyism, Gawker

These words to live by are provided by Jake the dog from the animation television series Adventure Time.

The Sundance Film Festival has treated Brit Marling exceptionally well over the past few years. She was the big breakout story of the 2011 event, with the one-two punch of Mike Cahill’s Another Earth and Zal Batmanglij‘s The Sound of My Voice, and she got to return in 2012 with Nicholas Jarecki‘s Arbitrage. This year, she’s back once again with Batmanglij for The East, a thriller about a shadowy anarchist collective (called The East, hence the title) and a private intelligence operative (Marling) who goes undercover to stop it. The first trailer has just hit the web, and you can watch it after the jump.

Click over to Apple for HD, or watch an embed below via The Playlist.

Yes, that’s Ellen Page voicing those menacing threats. The cold edge in her tone may come as a surprise if you know her primarily as the lovable, whip-smart lead of Juno, but those who’ve seen her in Hard Candy should be well aware of just how intimidating this sweet-faced actress can be. In The East, she plays a member of the group and the ex-girlfriend of its charismatic leader Benji (Alexander Skarsgård) — who just so happens to have attracted the romantic interest of Marling’s undercover agent. Uh-oh.

We haven’t seen too many reviews for The East yet, but the few that have come out so far seem mostly positive. The Playlist calls it “stylish and sincere,” while HitFix praised Batmanglij’s “serious directorial chops” even as the reviewer admitted to not being able to take it too seriously. Look for more reactions (including our own) to emerge in the coming days.

Fox Searchlight hasn’t set a release date for The East just yet, but expect to see it in theaters sometime this year.

In THE EAST, Sarah Moss (Marling) is a brilliant operative for an elite private intelligence firm whose top objective is to ruthlessly protect the interests of their A-list corporate clientele. She is assigned to go undercover to infiltrate an anarchist collective known for executing covert attacks upon major corporations. Living amongst them in an effort to get closer to their members, Sarah finds herself unexpectedly torn between two worlds as she starts to fall in love with the group’s charismatic leader, finding her life and her priorities irrevocably changed.

• Casting Bits: Nicole Kidman Options ‘The Family Fang’, Olivia Wilde, Jessica Biel, Judy Greer, Etc. Shortlisted for ‘Burt Wonderstone’, Shiloh Fernandez Joins ‘The East’
• Casting Bits: Patricia Clarkson in ‘The East’, Octavia Spencer in Diablo Cody Project, Michael Angarano in ‘The English Teacher’
• Casting Bits: M.C. Gainey in ‘Django Unchained’, Rose McGowan in ‘Napa’, Toby Kebbell in ‘The East’
• Casting Bits: Ellen Page Joins ‘The East’, Anthony Mackie Developing Jesse Owens Biopic, Tom Everett Scott Boards ‘Us & Them’
• Alexander Skarsgård Joins Brit Marling in ‘The East’
• ‘The East’ Is A Tense Eco Thriller About Infiltrating Fight Club’s Project Mayhem [Sundance 2013 Review]

Welcome to the world of the weirdest massage ever.

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Well done indeed.

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gpoy

Internet activists celebrate the one year anniversary of blackout protests by declaring January 18th as the Internet Freedom Day.

Lets start 2013 with something of a round up. A quick reality check, refresh, and splash of Eau de toilette. 

What we have here then is a brief sampler straight from the Sci-Fi-O-Rama barometer, a long awaited update on a selection of the finest, past featured contemporary artists.

**

Silence Televison

We begin this post sandwiched between the wonderful work of Peruvian Designer and Illustrator Gianmarco Magnani, better known in design circles as Silence Televsion. Heading the article is a simply stunning metallic screenprint celebrating Robert Zemeckis’s 1989 blockbusting sequel ‘Back to the Future II’, a recent commission for Mondo, whom we have of course interviewed before, In fact Mondo is a common theme here as you’ll see…

The Mondo Screenprint alas is long since sold out, though I imagine as with other Mondo material they’ll circulate occasionally in eBay (set up a watched search).  What I particularly love about this DeLorean DMC-12 rendering, aside from the typical hyper detail is of course the angle, admittedly it’s a while since I last saw the film, but I can’t remember ever seeing a shot of the car at this viewpoint, can you?

Just to further extend upon some of the details; chipped and scratched paint, an actual real world design flaw the short lived car manufacturer was infamously haunted by. For me though the mastery of the illustration lies within the assorted wiring & tubing that circumnavigates the vehicle slivering inside and out. Designing this mayhem must surely be the most enthralling part, techno illustration with a distinctly psychedelic edge. All of this of course is similar in ethos to the work Japanese cyberpunk maestro Katsuhiro Otomo of whom Gianmarco pays tribute too below.

‘Akira’ developed for Mondo Gallery

Once again this is another Mondo commissioned limited edition screenprint, a beautiful design that’s very true to the styling of the Otomo originals. For myself as a teenager Akira offered probably the most complete escapist Sci-Fi, but admittedly as 36 year old I’ve paid less attention recently.  Studying this piece It’s strikes me that I never realised how very 80′s it all is, particularly Kaneda’s jacket with it’s asymmetric fasteners, power shoulder padding and oversized collars. It’s construction presumably would be red leather, though dyed suede and corduroy could work too… anyway I digress!

I hope to bring you more from both Gianmarco Magnani and Katsuhiro Otomo this year, in the meantime it’s certainly worth bookmarking and tracking the Silence Television blog.

**

Tyler Stout

Continuing with the Mondo related artists theme, here’s a taster of the work of Illustrator Tyler Stout, another master of deadeye minutia  whose style is set apart by a more frenetic edge,  clearly seen below with this Gremlins 2 inspired sample. This T Shirt print  - at time of press – is still available if you follow this link to the Mondo Store.  Just a quick note on the original Gremlins movie, IMHO it’s got to be one the best Christmas movies no? for me it’s up there with Die hard. Bollocks to It’s a Wonderful Life…

‘Berserker’

Below we have another classy movie led illustration featuring probably the best helmet ever designed for the silver screen, which appeared of course in quite possibly the greatest sci-fi film ever made. Alien, what more do you need to know? Actually one thing I’m not 100% sure on who the character actually is, the title reads simply ‘Navigator’. Well nothing wrong with a little mystery I guess!

As a quick sidenote it’s nice to see Tyler has included the original Weyland Yutani winged shoulder patch, this of course was orginally designed by John Mollo whom I profiled mid 2011 (Oscar winning Starwars costume designer). If you’ve not had a look you can check that post out here.

‘Navigator’

For more information on Tyler Stout visit his site & shop here at www.tstout.com, or see a selection of his work featured as part of the Sci-Fi-O-Rama special feature on Mondo.

**

Martin Ansin

Staying with the Mondo connection we move on towards Martin Ansin an artist I’ve somehow managed to not include on Sci-Fi-O-Rama  before (ok, admittedly I’ve been slack of late). Here the subject matter for this limited edition screenprint is Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil‘, the classic dystopian satire that was released in cinemas back in 1985. With regards to the print, lets start by saying it doesn’t get much better than this; composition, mood, colouring and of course the rendering itself are all as close to perfection as one might dare to quantify. Love the diffused texturing, really helps to bring the whole thing to life. I’ve included the poster and two close ups of the detail. Wow!

Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’

So just art from a single ‘super sample’ here, Martin is definitely someone I wish to profile properly, in the meantime though you can marvel at more from his gloriously rich and expansive portfolio via martinansin.com - utterly, utterly enviable!

**

Jasper Goodall

Moving out beyond Mondo territory we home in upon Jasper Goodall another personal  favourite of mine, and of whom I featured back in 2011 (you can read that here). I’ve chosen a couple of fairly recent images via his site. Note that upo visiting the home page is in fact a blog reel so do  be sure to scroll down and view the perfect balance between lavish commercial illustration and personal projects. I’ve pulled out a couple of examples of which I’ll annotate below.

‘Druck Berlin’ 2011

Here we have an image that totally encapsulates the essence  of what Jasper does best  - sublime beauty with a gleefully sinister edge – a totally mesmorising style. This offset 2 colour piece, was produced as part of the 2011 ‘Druck Berlin‘ screenprinting festival.

‘Five Deities’

Following on heres a a Vimeo short (above) that pushes the tribalist face masks further, Jasper notes this video is a ‘bit of a new direction’. It’s a supremely atmospheric piece with subtle but very effective animation, perfectly synchronised with an eerily atmospheric score.

As I footnote I must say it is always a pleasure to check out Jasper’s site, there really is something effortlessly cool that exudes from his work. What would be nice is to somehow absorb the genius via the osmosis of viewing, hasn’t quite worked for me yet!

**

Simen Johan

Next up we have a return to the work of Norwegian born artist Simen Johan whom I first featured back in 2009. Though his site has an extensive bio it hasn’t been updated past 2011 so I’m not 100% sure what Simen is working on at the moment, presumably still exhibiting. Definitely an artist I’d like to focus on again this year so watch this space for a more in depth profile. In the meantime here’s a little more from the breathtakingly beautiful “Until The Kingdom Comes”.

‘Until the Kingdom Comes’

Underpinned by unrivalled technical prowess Simen’s work resonates with layer upon layer of mystique and otherworldly magic.  If wish to see further enchanting samples from ‘Until The Kingdom Comes’ visit www.simenjohan.com.

**

Vincent Fournier

Finally we follow up with another photographic based artist you may well be familiar with, Vincent Fourier. whose imagery constantly circles pops up the major design sites. Suffice to say Fourier has an extremely interesting and diverse portfolio that I thoroughly  recommend perusing. I’ll skim the surface and pull out a few examples to give you the lead in.

‘TV Tower’ and ‘The National Congress Palace’

Two brilliantly composed, almost painterly photographs taken from Vincents 2012 project ‘Brasilia’, a study of one of the world’s most modern cities, certainly in terms of utopian 20th century thinking.

Brasilia, the federal capital of Brazil since 1960 was conceived and developed in the mid 1950′s, it’s a masterpiece of large scale urban planning and development, and a glittering reflection of the modernist themes of the day.  Viewed from above the Brasilia appears as a plane or butterfly, and at it’s visionary helm were a group of three that included urban planner Lúcio Costa, landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx and Oscar Niemeyer as the principal architect. A a quick side note; all three of these men were extremely long lived, and in fact Niemeyer who is considered as one of the fathers of modern architecture lived to an astonishing 104 years of age, only passing away on December 5th 2012. ‘O belo Brasil!’ The key to a life longevity?

‘Kjell Henriksen Observatory #1 [KHO], Adventdalen, Spitsbergen Island, Norway, 2010′

From the steamy sub tropical savanna of Brasilia we warp to the icy wastes of Spitsbergen, a vast and empty archipelago that lies deep inside the Arctic Circle. This another sample from Vincent’s extensive ‘Space Project’ series.

What could possibly be more real world Sci-Fi than a row of hi-tech telescopes, nestled in desolation, scanning the universe through convex glass blisters? Well perhaps only this…

‘Kobian Robot #1 [Takanishi Laboratory], Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, 2010′

We bookend this post with an image taken from Vincent’s ongoing ‘The Man Macine’ series. A fly-on-the-wall, impartial study of mankind’s nascent flirtation with robotics and automatons, It’s both fascinating and strangely moving.

For more on Vincent Fournier, check out his site at www.vincentfournier.co.uk or for visit vice.com for this ‘picture-perfect’ 2011 interview: http://www.vice.com/picture-perfect/vincent-fournier 

**

So that’s that, there and back again. A somewhat disjointed post, or at best a rambling stream of consciousness, still, I hope there’s something you’ve enjoyed. More posts to follow soon.

Wandows stahp.

Submitted by: Unknown

Gif your butt (!) over to Animal Gifs for MOAR cyoot and funneh on loop!

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Arresting Judge: Judge Francisco
Changes/Reduced: RETUN ON BENCH WARRANT
Plea: 2 = CONTEST    Finding: 412 = INSANITY
Sentence: 71 months(s) isocube, no parole
Probation: 3YRS    Appealed: Y = YES, Rejected

I believe that’s the lead singer of Sküllböï

I was initially pleasantly surprised to see that in the new Dredd movie, Zombie (Rick Genest) seems to play the part of a Peyote Kings gang member, although it’s a brief part because he is almost immediately murdered by the rival Ma-ma gang. Every rigger, gaffer, muffin wrangler, and fluffer is listed in the credits, but for some reason they decided Rico wasn’t worth including among them. Then I realized an odd thing (and maybe someone more familiar with the Dredd franchise has an explanation) — there is more than one person in the movie wearing his skullface tattoos. At first I thought it was a reflection in a mirror, but no, it’s a doppelganger (different hair, and one has stretched ears and the other thin hoops) — and then I realized that the mugshot above likely isn’t Rick either, judging by the throat tattoo. And then I started to become convinced that none of the characters are actually Rick!!!

Like I said, Rick doesn’t appear to be listed in the Dredd credits. I can’t find any mention of him appearing in Dredd anywhere online, and while I’m willing to accept that my google-fu can be weak at times, I find it highly dubious that Rick would make a major appearance in a movie as big as Dredd and not mention it on his blog or facebook page. But ripping off his character rights seems like a shocking oversight for a major film to make… Isn’t it? I think it’s important to note that this isn’t “coincidental”… It’s not as if it’s just someone tattooed like a skeleton. Many specific details of his tattoos have been copied — for example, the spiderweb on his right ear — in a way that makes it obvious they’re exploiting the theft of his character and likeness, and ensures almost everyone will believe it is him.

Here are some side-by-side comparisons… what do you think? Am I imagining this?

But then I reminded myself that it’s pretty common to see people “draw inspiration” from Zombie’s tattoos and mimic him in various mediums. It’s no big deal if someone makes a YouTube video of themselves in makeup looking like him, but it becomes a problem when a movie rips off the character that Rick has created without getting his consent first — and this is just what happened in the first episode of the first season of the show American Horror Story. One of the characters in the show appears with Rick’s tattoos done so precisely that it’s obvious that it’s been directly copied and he’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see the image. Here’s a pair of screencaps of the episode:

They might have gotten away with this if Rico was still a Montreal gutterpunk, but now that he’s ascended into one of the glitterati he had his lawyer slap them silly and Fox settled out of court for what I assume is more money than Rick had made in his entire life up to the point he was first unleashed on the world with that glib “you call yourself a misfits fan” ModBlog post back in 2006. Perhaps that is what’s happening right now — an ongoing legal matter would certainly explain the complete lack of mention of this online. Ah, the wages of fame.

Well, if anyone knows the truth as to what’s up with ol’Skullboy’s presence in Dredd, please let me know. Either way, Rico really is one of my favorite rags to riches stories — what a wonderful unexpected adventure his tattoos are bringing him.

Evan sez, "Just released: the trailer for the upcoming documentary "TPB:AFK" about the founders of the Pirate Bay. The film will be released for free online at the premiere of a major film festival. Release date to be announced during Jan 2013. Staring Peter Sunde (Flattr Co-founder), Gottfrid Swartholm Warg (PRQ), Fredrik Neij (PRQ) Directed by Simon Klose."

I blogged this back in 2010 and helped support it on Kickstarter. Got a very cool t-shirt!

The Pirate Bay: Away From Keyboard (official trailer) (Thanks, Evan!)

When you read about a guy named Kaleb Lechowski getting a gig directing some expensive sci-fi film, this short might be the reason. Lechowski made the CG short R’ha over a period of seven months, animating it on his own while studying film and animation at Berlin’s Mediadesign Hochschule. Lechowski’s people are happy to note that he’s only 22, and will turn 23 in March.

The short presents and interrogation between an alien and a machine. It’s well-animated, if not exactly crafted with much nuance. Lechowski has probably earned himself a career in digital animation with this, at least. Coming as it does just as Zero Dark Thirty goes wide, the subject matter is interesting — the same blend of interrogation techniques that are at the center of the debate over Kathryn Bigelow’s film are the core of the story here. While I’m not wild about this short overall, I do like seeing that controversial subject matter put into a different context.

See the short below.

[THR]

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For the past three years, YouTuber iiGethii took a picture of herself everyday to document her transition from a man to a woman. Check out the mind-blowing result.

I have mentioned Marc (Little Swastika) and his multi-person tattoos before — you can click here to see the first two (four?) that he did. Over four presumably epic sessions he’s completed his third double-canvas tattoo, which you can see below. It’s not uncommon for someone to get a tattoo of their partner’s name, or to get little matching tattoos with their best friend, but this takes it to a whole new level… It resculpts the body into something that doesn’t make sense on its own any more… It creates a world in which you are forever — like it or not — unified with another person. The bond is so extreme it’s almost mindboggling to think about… And heartbreaking to imagine what it would be like if the two were separated, be it by death or be it by the foibles of love. If things don’t work out, one is forever broken in half. And while you’re thinking about this, look carefully at the tattoo — it’s not just a tattoo that runs across the beast with two backs. The tattoo is designed to look it’s best only when the one is holding the other.

Submitted by: Unknown

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