Snorkmaiden

theomeganerd:

Halo4/Reach Needler

by Volpin Props

VALENTINO haute couture fall 2013

They say it’s all in the details. Many of the gowns in Valentino‘s Haute CoutureFall 2013…

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(NCS contributor Austin Weber steps up, but not on my toes, to provide this round-up of new metal.)

Normally these songs and album news round-ups are all Islander, and I would dare not step on his toes lest he cut mine off. However, I had a few things to discuss, and he was busy so here are a few bands to check out.

UNHUMAN

The first item on today’s agenda is Unhuman, a name many do not know yet, but should. They are a supergroup from Canada, with a high degree of quality metal pedigree in their insane line-up.

Which really starts with the sole remaining founding member Youri Raymond (Secret Chiefs 3, Cryptopsy), who brings some punishing and varied vocals to the mix while also composing on guitar. He is joined by Kevin Chartré, the badass guitarist from Beyond Creation and the also excellent Brought By Pain. Following those two is Mathieu Bérubé on 7-string bass; he is also the guitarist in Teramobil, a group I wrote about earlier this year here at NoCleanSinging. Rounding out the line up is the excellent mechanical precision drumming of Alexandre Dupras who also is in Teramobil and also drums for The Plasma Rifle. Together, “Chaotic Equilibrium” shows the totality of what such an incredibly skilled and creative line up can achieve.

“Chaotic Equilibrium” traverses a diverse melding of melodic and aggressive ideas fighting back and forth trying to reach resolution, much as the title would suggest. As much as I hate most metal lyrics, this song is the exception to that rule. The lyrics are intriguing, a sort of positive philosophical musing with a powerful message I can get behind. If you go to YouTube from the link they can be found in the “show more” section.

Please don your metal diapers, because you may uncontrollably evacuate your bowels after the almighty “Chaotic Equilibrium” takes hold. This song is such a complex mind-melting vortex that it makes many other people’s take on death metal look like the products of puny primitive babies.

Their self-titled debut will be out November 1st, so make sure to grab a copy.

https://www.facebook.com/UnhumanOfficial
http://www.unhumanofficial.com/

 

NEKROGOBLIKON

By now we’ve all pretty much seen “No One Survives”, the excellent viral video from California’s own Nekrogoblikon.

But it seems many people don’t yet know of their new EP Power, which I was lucky to review for my other writing gig and loved. Power carries on their brand of power metal meets melodic death metal tinged with cheesiness and lots of keyboards. Well this time, there are more keyboards, and wild keyboard solos too. Then they have another song about animals, this time a song called “Giraffe”. The song is a metal ode to the odd event of suddenly seeing a giraffe, and it expresses that feeling in the most metal way, with an added Mario-sounding keyboard thrown in there for good measure.

But my personal favorite from Power has to be “Powercore.” A catchy death metal tune that cements its greatness halfway through when the music pauses and orchestral keys pulse, soon accompanied by a bass solo buildup that then suddenly crashes into a metal finale laced with some catchy lead guitar work that get’s stuck in my head. The song then culminates with weird lyrics that follow in a slow enunciated manner. Lyrics that are as follows: “More disgusting than a box of rats on christmas / More worthless than a dumpster filled with pogs (POGS!) / More disgusting than the time I took a bath with lots of slugs / More revolting than a barrel full of ears”.

Nekrogoblikon to me are the new kings of shtick metal, except unlike some other bands of this ilk, they can actually play their instruments and are capable songwriters.

https://www.facebook.com/nekrogoblikon
http://nekrogoblikon.bandcamp.com/album/power

ANAGNORISIS

Anagnorisis are a local black metal band from my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, who just released a new album entitled Beyond All Light. I’m picky about black metal, but I’ve really been enjoying this album quite a bit. I urge everyone to give it a chance. My favorites have to be “This Cursed Blood” and “Bountiful Godless Night”. I reviewed Beyond All Light for my other gig, so here is what I had to say about
it:

“Within the ever-changing musical landscape of Louisville, a crop of black metal acts have emerged and quickly become a force to be reckoned with. Among these groups lies the thriving madness of Anagnorisis, an act who revel in the creation of filth and blackness. On Beyond All Light, Anagnorisis spew forth a compelling darkness, an effort enhanced by a theatrical bombast of symphonic and atmospheric keyboards. They wisely break up the tremolo-picked rage with a slower sorrowful side that lends a sense of balance to the music. The album highlight, “This Cursed Blood,” annihilates you with a writhing assault of disdainful aggression that never relents. Beyond All Light further illuminates the rising profile of Anagnorisis, and the album’s reception has rightly seen them garner worthy national recognition.”

Reprinted from LEO Weekly Magazine.

https://www.facebook.com/anagnorisismetal
http://music.anagnorisis.com/album/beyond-all-light

Siggi Eggertsson

gronkwena:

Gender tapas. Edit:- Fixed for Viewability
Click for full size

via http://www.tumblr.com/dashboard

Excerpts from an essay at Salon:

When I was growing up, it was assumed that America’s shared prosperity was the natural endpoint of our economy’s development, that capitalism had produced the workers paradise to which Communism unsuccessfully aspired. Now, with the perspective of 40 years, it’s obvious that the nonstop economic expansion that lasted from the end of World War II to the Arab oil embargo of 1973 was a historical fluke, made possible by the fact that the United States was the only country to emerge from that war with its industrial

capacity intact. Unfortunately, the middle class – especially the blue-collar middle class – is also starting to look like a fluke, an interlude between Gilded Ages that more closely reflects the way most societies structure themselves economically. For the majority of human history – and in the majority of countries today – there have been only two classes: aristocracy and peasantry. It’s an order in which the many toil for subsistence wages to provide luxuries for the few. Twentieth century America temporarily escaped this stratification, but now, as statistics on economic inequality demonstrate, we’re slipping back in that direction. Between 1970 and today, the share of the nation’s income that went to the middle class – households earning two-thirds to double the national median – fell from 62 percent to 45 percent. Last year, the wealthiest 1 percent took in 19 percent of America’s income – their highest share since 1928.

Capitalism has been doing exactly what it was designed to do: concentrating wealth in the ownership class, while providing the mass of workers with just enough wages to feed, house and clothe themselves.

The United States will never again be as wealthy as it was in the 1950s and ’60s. Never again will 18-year-olds graduate directly from high school to jobs that pay well enough to buy a house and support a family.

More at the link.

By Liz Emery  Published: September 20th, 2013  A zealous dog owner will tell anyone who will listen (and most who won't) that their dog is soooo cute and super smart and does all the best tricks. Tricks like sit, lie down, roll over, play dead, and possess a coherent theory of mind. Wait, what wa

For some, fashion week is the ultimate opportunity to gorge oneself, wholesale, on the personal style choices of those who are purportedly amongst the world’s most fashionable people.  The collective gawking, chronicling, and obsessive analysis that follows is now so firmly entrenched in contemporary fashion culture as to render the very [fashion] itself common, digested in the time it takes to scroll through the day’s instagram feed, leaving a voracious hole of desire for newness that gains momentum season after season.  For this reason, books like the new “I am Dandy: The Return of the Elegant Gentleman”, out now on Gestalten, are such a vitally important source of inspiration today.

Writer-photographer duo Nathaniel Adams and Rose Callahan spirit us away from this fashion system, behind the scenes, and into the delightfully anarchic sartorial world of people whose fashion choices stem from a deep inner conviction, rather than collective influence.  Their profiles of some 56 men from England, France, and the United States – several of whom attended last night’s genteel launch party at Gieves & Hawkes on London’s famed Savile Row – offer ample opportunity to laugh (Simon Doonan’s professed love of Liberace), drop one’s jaw (the internal syringe pocket in Dickon Edwards’ three-piece velvet suit, inherited from Sebastian Horsley), nod in agreement (why yes, Winston Chesterfield, women do appreciate elegant men) or simply take note of fun facts (Hamish Bowles now wears mostly Dries Van Noten, Paul Smith, and Tom Ford suits. Got it).  But more than that, they espouse the deeply important notion of dressing as one’s most authentic self, unswayed by the turning tides of fashion, rooted in a profound understanding of, and ease with, the alchemy of style.

Co-hosted by Gestalten and Gieves & Hawkes, the launch party brought the authors, minglers and sartorial wizards themselves together for a lovely evening at their store on Savile Row, replete with a tailor live-chalking  jacket patterns, a jazz trio providing the essential standards, and a portraitist snapping those looking to step behind the camera.  Below, a series of our favourite shots from the evening.

Special thanks to Lina Kunimoto at Gestalten, and to the book’s authors, who have given us such a riveting book to add to the collection.

Teenage wunderkind tailor Zack MacLeod Pinsent.

Works in progress and finished specimens pop against a wall of pattern slopers.

Dickon Edwards in his famous silver velvet three-piece suit, inherited from Sebastien Horsley.

Two dandies discuss pressing sartorial matters while the spectre of Nick Wooster looks on in the background.

Happy guests enjoy their drinks against the ideal closet, Gieves & Hawkes-style.

Drinks. Lychee martinis, elderflower cocktails, whiskey, and champagne.

Fun times.  Also, stripes.

A Gieves & Hawkes staff member sitting pretty.  Very pretty.

Photographer Khalil works his magic.

Two dandies serenade a striking young lady.

The woman and man of the hour, elegant co-authors Rose Callahan and Nathaniel Adams.

Conversations are happening.

Gustav Temple and Michael “Atters” Attree ham it up outside on the ‘Row.

…yes, that is a taxidermy-ed bat on Mr. Atters’ lapel.

Fin.

-Kelly René Miller

 

Fendi Spring 2014 Collection       &nbsp [...]

nativeamericannews:

Obama nominates Diane Humetewa, Hopi, as a federal judge

President Barack Obama has nominated Diane Humetewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe, to serve as a federal judge in Arizona.
If confirmed by the Senate, Humetewa would be the first Native American woman in the federal judiciary She was the first Native woman to serve as U.S. Attorney.

Alberta Ferretti Spring 2014 Collection     & [...]

theyoungsocialist:

Many of you may have noticed i have been gone for sometime, this is because i’ve been busy with the elections over here, and now its done, sadly the election went the way of the right wing parties side, with the right party, and the Norwegian progress party aka the Norwegian tea party as winners, sadly this means Norway is no longer a socialist country, we have fallen for capitalism, and the our new leader Erna Solberg is called the Norwegian margaret thatcher, that should make most people understand what shit we got ourselves into, we can now look forward to private health insurance, private prisons, more private schools and lower taxes for the rich, higher cost for most, and a bunch of tea party wannabes in control of our country, We are fucked!

petermorwood:

psych-facts:

In a simple experiment, researchers at the University of Chicago sought to find out whether a rat would release a fellow rat from an unpleasantly restrictive cage if it could. The answer was yes.

The free rat, occasionally hearing distress calls from its compatriot, learned to open the cage and did so with greater efficiency over time. It would release the other animal even if there wasn’t the payoff of a reunion with it. Astonishingly, if given access to a small hoard of chocolate chips, the free rat would usually save at least one treat for the captive— which is a lot to expect of a rat.

The researchers came to the unavoidable conclusion that what they were seeing was empathy— and apparently selfless behavior driven by that mental state.

Source: http://0c6cada9.linkbucks.com

Calling someone “a rat” may not be the insult it seems to be…

tracingbackjordan:

durbikins:

I tried this on a female before.

She took the bottom-middle donut that says “GIRL” and handed the box back to me, leaving me with 5 donuts that read “Will you be my friend?”

*tips fedora in shame* friendzoned again by another succubus 

this story makes me laugh and cry

morning coffee

she-hulk-smash:

kerrsplat:

birdsy-purplefishes:

gracebello:

Most minimum wage earners are adult women, not teenagers.

Holy shit.

Both of these charts make me rationally angry.

Jesus fucking Christ.

setbabiesonfire:

sodomymcscurvylegs:

dorkly:

Culture of Violence

For Elisabeth Hasslehack.

Best thing I’ve seen all fucking day.

Doodle Time by Sarah Anderson [tumblr | twitter | facebook]

deerthing:

holy shit holy shiiiiit

osom bedrooms