#hacking arts 2016

[ancestral-steppe]

pokemon sun and moon - festival plaza artwork

[mrbopst]

Hacked by Russians. Pen and Ink. Bopst. 2016.

[personnage-neutre]

Free to Borrow Books about Tintin and Hergé

The only requirement is to make an Internet Archive account. (If you already have an account, check if it was compromised in the recent hack and change your password.) Note that this is in no way a comprehensive list of works or an ideal Tintinology primer, just the books that have been made available on the archive, which also means that it contains everything from picture books to highly academic texts. However, I've marked with a * the books I think are best to start with.

Includes works in both English and French (plus a few in Spanish). Please don't hesitate to ask if you have questions!

General reference

Tintin and the world of Hergé Benoît Peeters, 1989*

Tintin, Hergé and his creation Harry Thompson, 1991

Tintin: The Complete Companion Michael Farr, 2001*

The Pocket Essential Tintin (1st ed.) / (2nd ed.) Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier, 2002 / 2007

Les mystères du Lotus Bleu Pierre Fresnault-Desruelle, 2006

Captain Haddock Thompson and Thomson Professor Calculus Rastapopoulos (FR) Tchang (FR) Michael Farr, 2007

Figurines Tintin: La Collection Officielle Daniel Couvreur, Frédéric Soumois, & Dominique Maricq, 2012-2015

Hergé Dada magazine, 2016

Catalogues

Hergé, 1922-1932 : les debuts d'un illustrateur ed. Benoît Peeters, 1987

Hergé dessinateur ed. Pierre Sterckx & Benoît Peeters, 1988

The adventures of Tintin at sea Yves Horeau, 2004

Musée Hergé / Tintin : the art of Hergé Michel Daubert, 2013*

L'univers du createur de Tintin Artcurial, 2023

Biography

Hergé : portrait biographique Thierry Smolderen & Pierre Sterckx, 1988

Entretiens avec Hergé / Conversations with Hergé (excerpts) Numa Sadoul, 1989*

Hergé / Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin (abridged translation) Pierre Assouline, 1996

Les Aventures d'Hergé / The Adventures of Hergé Jean-Luc Fromental, José-Louis Bocquet, & Stanislas, 1999

Hergé, fils de Tintin / Hergé, son of Tintin Benoît Peeters, 2002

The adventures of Hergé, creator of Tintin Michael Farr, 2007

Hergé: lignes de vie Philippe Goddin, 2007

Analysis

Le Monde de Tintin Pol Vandromme, 1959

Tintin chez le psychanalyste Serge Tisseron, 1985

Hergé écrivain Jan Baetens, 1989

L’archipel Tintin A. Algoud, J.-M. Apostolidès, D. Cerbelaud, B. Peeters, P. Sterckx, 2003

Tintin and the secret of literature Tom McCarthy, 2008

Les Secrets d'Hergé dessinateur Bruno Cassiers, 2022

Fiction & Novelizations

Ma vie de chien Ariane Valadié, 1994

Tintin in the new world / Tintin en el nuevo mundo François Tuten, 1996

La vie cachée de Tintin Henri Roanne-Rosenblatt, 2005

Petit dictionnaire énervé de Tintin Albert Algoud, 2010

The Adventures of Tintin: a novel / Les Aventures de Tintin: le roman du film / Las aventuras de Tintín Alex Irvine, 2011

The adventures of Tintin : the chapter book (print disability borrow only) / Les aventures de Tintin: l'album du film Stephanie Peters, 2011

Tintin's daring escape / Les évadés du Karaboudjan / Fuga temeraria Danger at sea / Peligro en el mar The mystery of the missing wallets Kirsten Mayer, 2011

Trivia

Êtes-vous tintinologue? François Hébert, 1983

Tintin and Snowy Big Activity Book Guy Harvey & Simon Beecroft, 2006

[thetepes]

Let's go all of it

I'm going to try to keep this general.

Jack/Birdie/SpriteCranbirdie/Alias/DamagedCodA/sansbirdie the dreemur/strawberrix/churro the ferret/undini the jellifoosh/wendy the burrito tyronias/SophiaLuigi7/

Oh, fuck it, just have a doc

Born in Sept of 2004, they were a pretty typical zoomer era edgy kid on the internet that was a part of the animation meme community, not even necessarily a person of note outside of a certain very niche community known for having an ungodly amount of alts, art that will give you a seizure, and admitting to trying to get his ferret to eat him out.

Here's a taste, view discretion and seizure warning.

And inside that niche community was an even more niche community that just fucking hated his ass.

To a comical degree. Like they went way too far with it when he wasn't actually doing anything, but being an annoying kid on the internet and they formed an entire mob about it which was a big part of what drove him to more and more outrageous behavior along with being, well, severely mentally ill and a child of 6. Whatever is wrong with him just didn't get noticed by his family until it was too late.

It's hard to tell when shit really went off the rails because this all happened in a sphere that seems to be made up completely of children and adults with the maturity of children. They were all edgy, toxic, and doing the same shit he was so one moment it's a 12 and 13 year old accusing one or the other of grooming, SAing one another, someone's threatening to kill themselves or someone else, or someone's lying or being accused of lying and there's a big public fight about it, but ultimately it all ends the same way. They make up or forget or get guilted into deleting it or someone's mom finds out and

The proof of whatever happened is gone. All that's left is signs of a scuffle. This is an ongoing constant. It's hard to track what the fuck is going on because these kids all skip around accounts, change names, delete and remake, ect.

With Birdie though a pattern emerged, stuff started not getting deleted. The accusations that were left standing all started looking the same and people started documenting it and following and catching on to what he was up to and I'll be real ya'll you're reading about what is probably the youngest lolcow I've ever seen. Which is a feat. I think this all started when they were 11 or 12 and it has just destroyed them mentally and they can not stop themselves even now as an adult. This isn't some innocent victim, far from it. He is a victim. He now victimizes others. He speed ran the Chris Chan ending for himself. Self harm, abusing everyone around them, threats of suicide, living completely online and making their entire existence not only public, but accessible.

The callouts started around 2015 and by 2016 they were known for being DEEPLY mentally unstable in a sea of mentally unstable children.

Not actually from yesterday, just when it was archived.

I saw people mentioning him being exposed for drawing nsfw of Sleepykinq/Twisted-doctor, then doing the same with Kittydog. Kittydog has also had a drama involving supporting "nomaps" and zoos so Jack was already neck deep in that kind of content. A nomap is something you can google for yourself for a more detailed idea, but basically it's a pedophile that is against contact.

There was a whole thing with him shipping a 12 year old with a 40 something year old and then there was a hack somehow and a bunch of google + chats got leaked. Birdie gets more and more heat for making NSFW content as a minor and the content of that NSFW until youtubers, including Spocter, start making videos on him. If you know who Spoctor is then this will probably be funny to you.

This is one of their alts.

Just looking at any screenshots from him will quickly explain why. He's already off the chains and abusing himself and everyone around him. This is really where the cutting situation comes out and the cutting situation quickly turned into something by far worse when DiCE was dragged out into the public eye.

Which is something that is STILL ongoing

So catching A LOT of heat for, well, gooning to cutting and eating disorders and allegations of grooming kids younger than themselves into all this, Birdie went MIA around 2021 and popped back up with

Which was...just an insane thing to post, really. It's immature and petty to the point of not taking even their own suffering seriously. Dredging up all the old drama, reigniting it, and putting himself back in the spotlight, but I think that was on purpose because it was followed by

I knew something was fucked about this entire situation because of how edited and animated this video was because why the fuck are you going that hard for a video where you're outing your roommate for being a pred?

And it infamously ends with Birdie having animated them both as Panty and Stocking.

The entire this was fucking weird.

And not handled with any tact, maturity, or grace. The victims were a total afterthought. This was entirely about Birdie and how it effected him.

They came out about their roommate Synni grooming a child and how they needed help to move out of their shared apartment. This is probably where if you heard of Birdie, it was from this. These two nightmares of the internet moved in together and when Synni was getting a little too much heat for grooming a minor again-

Please note that again. She'd already been caught doing this before and had pwomised Jack she'd be a good girl and not interact with minors. They've both been caught doing this shit, it's only now they're adults so people are finally going "Hey now, that's not good" which is insane to me. Synni was also openly completely obsessed with Jack at one point which makes me wonder why Jack moved in with her, but Jack ALSO gets obsessed with people so two birds of a demented feather.

They're both two very sick people and I'm trying to keep this general.

I'll probably make a post for Synni later, but anyway,

He raised 11k to move out. A lot of that money went to...interesting places. I don't know how interested you all are on if spending donated money on sex toys and mlp shit and not groceries or anything he claimed to need so moving on,

He got kind of put on the backburner since Synni was the big bad in the situation. Birdie's abuse, now as an adult, of children faded into the background for Synni and JustARobot.

Then shit started leaking.

Friend after friend started coming out on Twitter about Birdie's behavior all topped off by Queen, his most loyal and closest friend, calling him out on Twitter and finally ceasing to defend him.

Then Birdie got caught talking to minors again.

And you know what happened?

Not a fucking thing. He's still talking to minors, he's still getting them to cut. He's still on Twitter, Discord, and Youtube.

Just making memes and doing what they've always done. No change. The internet is feeding this person children like he's a woodchipper.

Again, this is just the main beats. This is all more deep and fucked up than I explained it.

[emilybreadhead2009]

🍞My old breadwinners animation🍞

I found this old animation of buhdeuce I made on my old computer And really wanted to share it here because this community is really talented and it was really adorable!!



So back in maybe 2015 or 2016 I had a very old YouTube channel where I posted most of my old art and content even animations, but unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the channel and it got hacked and deleted causing a lot of stuff that I uploaded disappearing from the Internet forever.

But my old computer, which I uploaded this Animation originally still had the video intact along with some other animations But I might repost again.

 I know the artstyle here is different here because back then I was still learning how to draw buhdeuce in a couple of other characters at the time.

anyways, I hope y’all enjoy it and let me know if I should upload more animations.

:3



[incredibly-delirious-biznasty]

So now that I have an opportunity to scream about Kendrick Lamar’s Genius on Tumblr

Help yourself to this analytical essay I wrote in 2016 examining “To Pimp a Butterfly” and dissecting the stance that Kendrick is, by definition, a conscious rapper.

Shoutout to Drew Lindsay, the professor whose class I wrote this for. Also, please engage in lyrical analysis and music theory with me 🥺

Throughout his album To Pimp a Butterfly (TPaB), Kendrick Lamar is grappling with big issues of race and resentment. There are many layers to each song on the album and like any modern masterpiece, the true meaning lies below the surface and must be teased out. Many songs on TPaB come across as strictly fighting racism and helping along a powerful message in support of his roots. When digging deeper, we find that even the most overt black support anthems on the album have an argumentative element which questions Lamar’s roots and his thoughts on perceived racism. The conflict evident throughout the album is the incarnation of Kendrick’s personal struggle and reflects the conflict within the black community. TPaB’s message is not overtly positive or uplifting and is highly conflicted and therefore can not be classified as realist or conscious. At it’s core, To Pimp a Butterfly is not a conscious manifesto, telling the viewer exactly what to think, but a conversation about current racial issues that is not firmly positive or negative.

! “King Kunta” is the only track on the album that has a seemingly triumphant message all the way through; however this message takes on a sad note when put in the context of the rest of the album. When taken out of context, “King Kunta” comes across as a celebratory anthem, not only for Kendrick himself but for his homies and his people as well. The Lyrics, “Black man taking no losses” extends from his personal success to the triumph of a black art becoming the most popular music form in the mainstream. Even the title references the prolific slave “Kunta Kintae” who’s leg was

hacked for his “slights” against his white captors. Like a conscious track, it seems to have a clear surface meaning. However, as it happens over and over across the album, the traditional wholesome respectful themes of conscious rap are largely disregarded. The beat and production on this track are some of the most radio friendly and “trendy” on the album and the the first track to carry a piece of Kendrick’s Poem at the end. This seems to give “King Kunta” the high note before the gut punch of meaning. The message of “King Kunta” is predominantly “We made it guys,” but as the album progresses, we are made to beg the question “Made it where?”. As the next track on the record starts to deal with Kendrick’s old neighborhood and the clear negative points of contention start to reveal themselves, “King Kunta” becomes bleaker and more hollow in hindsight as the record progresses.

! “Institutionalized” compares Kendrick’s Compton neighborhood to a prison and starts to unpack conflicting feelings about the draw to his personal roots, and all the negatives that come with. As the preceding snippet of The Poem states “At fist you was conflicted,” it only makes sense that this theme rings throughout this song in many ways. There are many layers of conflict as well as many layers of persona in this track that should all be taken into account. Kendrick himself is “trapped in the ghetto” in more ways than one as he struggles to make a name for himself in the industry. Kendrick misses his home, but feels he can no longer relate to his old station after finding success; and yet he can never shake his ghetto roots and the baggage that comes with. There seem to be no positives left about Kendrick’s home and this displacement is furthered after he takes his homies to an award show and their first instinct is to steal from the celebrities around them. He so desperately wants to have a safe place in his

home when faced with the chaos and pressure of the music industry, but finds his home is now just as confining as the industry. As with most of the tracks on this record, Kendrick also acts as a surrogate for members of the black community to reflect common issues. The BET situation can easily be applied to any black kid who comes out of the ghetto and attempts to make something of themselves. The neighborhood and the attached stigmas follow any possible success and no matter how successful any one of these people gets, the inherent shame and conflict of their less successful or motivated peers and life station will always weigh on their minds. Throughout a predominantly conflicted and negative track, the chorus gives a single ray of hope through the mantra of “Shit don’t change unless you get up and wash your ass”.

! “Alright” uses a black stereotype to grapple with his personal struggle through life and compares it to the struggle of the black community as a whole. When we reach this track, the Poetic additions have reached “the evils of Lucy was all around me” and on the preceding track of “U” Kendrick and the album had hit their lowest point. As the track starts, a slew of new conflicts hits the table. Kendrick is facing his vices and the path he is headed down due to his fame and the influence of the music industry; comparing the game to “Lucy,” an incarnation of the devil in the form of a crafty woman. Again, he doubles as surrogate for the black community and the communal struggle, but fans out this connection to God. The “lawd lovin darkie” is a stereotype that Kendrick is playing on as a positive and embracing despite the pull against such topics in the mainstream rap industry. The voice of the track feels vastly positive; the bounce after the rock- bottom of “U”. However, “Alright” is nothing if not weighed down with struggle and sadness. The conflict of depression and hope clashes with every run of the chorus.

Lucy’s echo of Uncle Sam on “Wesley’s Theory” is a direct comparison of The Music Industry to Satan, a notion that Craig points out has been “a prominent, reoccurring theme [in music] for the past 30 years.”(Vigilant Citizen, 4). The bars have the same rhythm, but manage to hold their identity despite the change from 112 beats per minute(bpm) on “Wesley’s Theory” to the 56bpm of “Alright”. For a composition standpoint this is so impressive and Connor’s description of “...genius level record management in the tradition of Dr Dre”(Connor, 2) is not an exaggeration. The bpm change reflects Kendrick’s state in each song. “Wesley’s Theory” begins the album with a whirlwind ride to money and success with a fast beat and and a blasé attitude. By the echo, Kendrick has hit bottom and his life is crawling through the mud at a snails pace, prolonging his inner conflict and misery. “Alright” has the blurriest line between Kendrick as himself and Kendrick as the silhouette stand in for his people. Although the hook is positive and uplifting, the lyrics have weight and imply that Kendrick’s problems are also the problems of black individuals and the black community as a whole. The hook tells us that “We gon‘ be alright,” yet he describes his hope and his faith failing in times of deepest struggle, leaving the listener feeling (what a shock) conflicted.

! “The Blacker the Berry” is the summation of Kendrick’s struggle throughout the rest of the record; pitting racism against the existing problems perpetuated in the black community, resulting in an inconclusive conversation. This track is easily the most mind- bending and certainly the hard-hitting thesis of the record. Kendrick begins by claiming to be the “biggest hypocrite of 2015” in a mantra that gains weight as the song progresses. With the first verse confronting the white population and police brutality shattering the black community, the weight of the line “You made me a killer,” seems

obvious and, although striking, not extremely unique. As the track progresses, Kendrick accuses The Music Industry of making him a killer. Finally, Kendrick aims his accusations at his black brothers; gangbangers and thieves. If that wasn’t enough, the tracks introduction states “sometimes I get off watchin' you die in vain,” referring to his people. Although this could be the product of internalized racism, or Kendrick’s roots in the Blood/Crip war, nonetheless, it’s taking a stance that is not seen in conscious rap. Kendrick is facing that there is not one reason for violence or racism and therefore the problem can’t be fixed in any simple manner; certainly not one he holds the answer to. So who really made Kendrick a killer? Who made killers of any black man? As a representation, summation, and thesis of the rest of the album, Kendrick is having a conversation about where violence starts and presenting many possible options. They all repeat the same mantras, making them all equal and not singling any one out as more or less valid. In the end there is no clear resolution; just the statement of a problem and an intellectual presentation of thought. “The Blacker the Berry” states that many people and many groups are responsible for the perpetuation of racism, violence, and stereotypes, without attempting to “fix” the situation or even place blame as conscious rap is wont to do. When all of these things are called out, it is no longer about pointing a finger and starting a lynch mob. It becomes a critical reflection and the seed of a conversation. The running theme of the album persists as Kendrick becomes the echo of the black community and his inner conflicts become the conflicts within his community.

! As the album closes, Kendrick’s personal struggle is completely conveyed in a masterful comparison of himself to Tupac Shakur. His journey is not tied up in a neat

bow and the entirety of the album is left open-ended. We are not told explicitly “Kendrick will/will not meet the same end as Tupac,” but left to ponder and discuss. In the same way, we follow Kendrick’s reflection of the black community to its close without resolution. Many believe that “Underneath the tragedy and adversity, To Pimp a Butterfly is a celebration of the audacity to wake up each morning to try to be better, knowing it could all end in a second, for no reason at all,”(Jenkins, 3) and although that is a fair assessment of the album; trying to wrap up a record as complex and nuanced as To Pimp a Butterfly in a neat bow of optimism like that doesn’t do it any justice. TPaB would be nothing without its unending conflict and roller coaster of ups and downs. This blend of conflict and pain is our heart line direct to Kendrick’s soul as his confessional develops and our uniting point as a community under the problems he presents. As The World’s Busiest Music Nerd stated, “[Kendrick’s] not telling us what to think... [he’s] contradicting himself”(Fantano, 11:08). This inability to take a stand (among other explicit sexual and violent gangster themes) is ultimately what disqualifies To Pimp a Butterfly from the conscious spectrum. If the album was anything but what it is, we as the listener would not be able to discuss how we address the problems presented. The album would lose all intrigue and conversation if we were left with a solid resolution. To Pimp a Butterfly is a 78 minute conversation, to create a century’s conversation.

Sources Sited

Theneedledrop, and Anthony Fantano. "Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly ALBUM REVIEW." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Mar. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

An in-depth analysis of the formal elements of “To Pimp a Butterfly”. A moment I found really compelling was just around 11:18 when Fantano talks about the conflicted nature of the album. Alludes to Kendrick making a conscious album, but pays very close attention to the music beneath the flows and how it compels the message. The rare 10/10.

Connor, Martin. "Kendrick Lamar: Rap Music Analysis." The Composer's Corner. Blogspot, 24 July 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

Connor analyzes Lamar’s production unity despite multiple producers. He hails this foresight into record management as genius level: on par with Dr Dre’s production insight and Jay-Z’s ear for album unity. Connor goes on to compare the seeding of musical ideas across tracks to classical compositions. He uses the example of an echoing verse with identical musical rhythms; despite the bpm change across tracks (56bpm on “Alright” and 112bpm on “Wesley’s Theory”

Jenkins, Craig. "To Pimp a Butterfly." Kendrick Lamar: Album Review. Pitchfork Publications, 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2016.

“Underneath the tragedy and adversity, To Pimp a Butterfly is a celebration of the audacity to wake up each morning to try to be better, knowing it could all end in a second, for no reason at all.”

Business, Music. "Kendrick's Deeper Story." Vigilant Citizen. The Vigilant Citizen, 27 Nov. 2015. Web

[macgyvercairo]

Cairo Community Ask Game!

Hey, y’all! It’s ask game time! Below is a list of MacGyver or fandom-related questions (plus a few bogeys) that you can shoot to our ask box, or post to your own blogs you can answer them yourselves. Ready, set, go!

What was the first MacGyver (2016) episode you ever watched?

What’s your favorite episode?

What’s your least favorite episode?

Do you have any favorite fandom media you’d like to recommend? (Fic, edits, art, etc.)

What fandom work(s) of your own are you most proud of?

What is your favorite show dynamic?

How did you discover the show?

What’s one thing you couldn’t live without?

What is one of your favorite scenes?

Who is your favorite character?

Least favorite character?

Have you adopted any headcanons (your own or others’)?

What’s a song you can’t stop listening to right now?

Are there any songs that make you think of the show?

Have you learned any Mac Hacks?

What’s your favorite cold open?

Which episode to you go back to the most?

If you could wish an episode tag/missing scene fic into existence, which episode would you choose?

What's a food you never get tired of?

How many Cairo Days have you participated in?

What's on your mind?

Wild Card, ask what you will!

[omniversecomicsguide]

Jenny Frison’s art graces the covers of ‘Revival’ - one of the titles recommended in our TOP TEN STORIES FOR HALLOWEEN pod episode! Don’t miss it!

How’s about 10 eerie covers from Jenny Frison? Seems like the time…

Wonder Woman #11 (2016)

Red Sonja #18 (2013)

Vampirella #1 (2014)

Clean Room #1 (2015)

Catwoman #35 (2021)

Rat Queens #9 (2015)

Revival #29 (2015)

Hack/Slash #25 (2013)

Medusa pin-up (2017)

Revival #22 (2014)

[kerubimcrepin]

Exploring dofus-le-film.com and talking about movie-related events. [PART 1]

This will not go into the goldmine that is the interview Tot and Xa give about Joris. This is just a little, self-indulgent post. I hope you will enjoy it nevertheless.

The first silly action I took was extracting the site's icon and enlarging it in Aseprite, so here's your daily dose of cute official Joris pixel art. Anyway.

I love how the movie blurb literally lies about Khan being Joris's life-long idol.

CHARACTER BIOS.

Most of them include the information we already know, so I will only be pointing out things I personally find interesting.

For example - this art here depicts Joris's bald head under the hood as very round. Very useful info for us joris enjoyers. Reblog to slap his bald head, like to slap his bald head.

(Hacks up blood) Deeply caring in nature... papa poule... It is the second time, when Kerubim is called that, in his character bios, and I would like you to remember are these different explanations of this word combo:

I'm insane. I love him a lot.

Bakara is a pleasure to have in class :)

Anyway, I love how non-specific and non-alarming these character bios are. We can't scare the hoes by saying that beneath her cool exterior she wants to kill people around her and also drink 20 gallons of vodka, so "shy and stuck up" it shall be.

Again, it's hilarious how non-threatening these character bios are, considering Lilotte's whole parent thing is basically: (substitute "women" with "kids with families")

Coloring pages + Crayon Contest

A part of me wanted to be "haha, I colored all these coloring pages, for the Full Understanding of The Experience of this movie."

Then I realized that, as a person who is making a Joris painted music video, and had drawn at least 1:07 minutes worth of artwork of him and some other characters of this movie, I would rather-- [remembers that suicide jokes are bad] take cactus for a wife, than draw him for this blog too. I'm sorry.

Not much to be said about the contest, though this is epic:

This little Joris can be found at the bottom of the "win some crayons" page. It's cute.

BLOGPOSTS

This image was drawn for MIFA.

I want to unpack what is occurring here:

Goultard is holding his dragon boyfriend rather gayly on the shoulder. Interesting.

One of the candles landed in Nox's face?

Atcham, Joris, and Lilotte were holding the cake together. Lilotte is sitting on Yugo's shoulder, while Joris is standing on Kerubim's arms. It is reasonable to assume that Yugo turned to the camera, which made Lilotte turn as well, which made Atcham fall, which made Kerubim step away, and the only people carrying the cake who are still even a bit happy are Joris and Yugo.

Adamai is getting ready to catch Joris when in like 5 seconds all of them are going to be tumblring down Atcham-style.

Incredible. But this illustration is not the only gem that Annecy has brought us!

It also brought us more of Atcham being cool and awesome.

I'm insane.

There's more rare art here: these t-shirts featuring designs from a fan contest.

They were made in limited numbers. I'm including them here because we don't exactly have copies of the artwork, and I am insane about preserving art. It might be somewhere — but that somewhere is probably 2016 french facebook, so as far as I'm concerned, trying to seek these out is a lost cause.

Exclusive Merch

There were playing cards, and I am happy to report we DO have artwork for them in HD:

And also, here's a slightly higher definition little game sprite esque Joris:

This is the future crepinjurgenites want.

Kerubim VS Atcham Rigged Pet Contest

I am sad to report that Atchamheads have lost again, in this rigged contest. Imagine asking:

Would you like a fluffy guy you have watched an entire series about, or this bald guy who appears twice in the franchise?

At the very least, this gives us a canonical kitten Atcham design.

(Also, both of them were added, jsyk... Still salty though.)

Maliki Art

Maliki is a webcomic not made by Ankama, but with a long relationship and connection to Ankama due to being published by them in the past.

It's cute, really.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 5, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 06, 2024

The U.S. government continues to tighten the screws against Russian malign activity. This morning the Department of Justice announced an indictment charging Dimitri Simes for violating U.S. sanctions against Russia. Simes allegedly worked for a sanctioned Russian television station and laundered the money from his work. Simes advised Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. 

A second indictment charged Simes’s wife, Anastasia, with sanctions violations and money laundering through the purchase of fine art. 

The Justice Department also issued a grand jury’s superseding indictment against six Russian computer hackers. Five were officers in Russia's military intelligence agency; one is a civilian. The six are charged with hacking into and leaking information from, as well as destroying, Ukrainian computer systems. The hackers also attacked systems in European countries that support Ukraine and in the U.S.

The State Department has offered a $10 million reward for information on the defendants’ locations or their malicious cyberactivity.

The fallout from yesterday’s revelation that six powerful right-wing media figures were on the Russian payroll continues. One of the right-wing commenters referred to in yesterday’s indictment, Tim Pool, has pushed the idea that the U.S. is in a civil war, interviewed Trump on his podcast in May, and has been fervently against American aid to Ukraine. Today, he posted: “Upon reflection I now understand that Ukraine is our Greatest ally[.] As the breadbasket of Europe and a peace loving people we cannot allow the Fascist Russians to continue their crimes against humanity[.] We must redouble our efforts and provide and additional $200b at once[.]”

By this evening, though, he was making a joke of the news that his paycheck had come from Russia.

Notably, Trump posted on his social media site a rant that tied his own 2016 campaign to yesterday’s indictments, although the indictment itself did not do so. He accused “Comrade Kamala Harris and her Department of Justice” of “resurrecting the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and trying to say that Russia is trying to help me, which is absolutely FALSE.”

Vice President Harris is not in charge of the Department of Justice.

By tying yesterday’s indictments to his campaign’s involvement with Russian operatives in 2016, Trump might have been trying to suggest the story was old news, but it does highlight the parallels between Russia and right-wing operatives trying to get him reelected. Along with his colleague Donie O’Sullivan, Jake Tapper put it like this on CNN: “Today, the U.S. government is trying to peel back more layers of what officials say are massive and complex efforts underway to influence your vote in the upcoming election. One part of these alleged plots: replacing your average 2016 Russian social media bots with actual conservative Americans, right-wing influencers with a combined millions of followers, influencers promoted by Elon Musk, some visited by Republican politicians such as former president Trump.” 

Then Trump fell back on the old trope that his opponents are communists, posting on his social media platform: “We are fighting true COMMUNISM in this Country. We have to save our Elections, our System of Justice, our Constitution, and our FREEDOM, but that can only be done after we win BIG on November 5th, and proceed to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” 

Economists for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. say that a Trump win in November would hurt the U.S. economy, while a Harris win—if she also gets Democratic control of the House and the Senate—would make it grow. 

Trump’s 2024 campaign is not at all about reality; it’s about a worldview. When asked at an event at the New York Economic Club “what specific piece of legislation will you advance” to make child care affordable, the 78-year-old Trump answered:

“Well I would do that. And we’re sitting down. You know I was somebody. We had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that because—look, child care is child care. It’s—couldn’t, you know, it’s something you have to have it—in this country you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to—but they’ll get used to it very quickly—and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have—I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about Make America Great Again, we have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it.” 

There is no specific legislation here, or even a grasp of the specific nature of the problem of paying for child care. What there is, apparently, is an argument that high tariffs will solve all of the nation’s problems. In the New York event, Trump called again for slashing taxes on the wealthy and insisted that new, high tariffs of 20% on all imports, and as much as 60% on Chinese imports, will end federal deficits and bring trillions of dollars into the country, although he is wrong about how tariffs work. 

Trump insists that tariffs are taxes on foreign countries, but they are not. They are essentially taxes on imported products, and they are paid by consumers. Trump’s running mate, Ohio senator J.D. Vance, recently tried to claim that economists disagree about whether consumers bear the cost of tariffs, but as Michael Hiltzik explained in the Los Angeles Times yesterday, economists agree on this.

When he was in office, Trump launched a trade war in 2018 by putting tariffs of up to 25% on $50 billion worth of Chinese products. The next year he added another set of 10% tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, and the next year he did it again, this time on an additional $112 worth of Chinese products. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation calculates that this amounted to an $80 billion tax a year on American consumers, costing the average household about $300 a year and costing the U.S. about 142,000 jobs.

There are reasons to use tariffs. They can be used to protect a new industry from cheaper foreign products until the new industry can compete, or to stop foreign countries from flooding a country with cheap products that destroy a domestic industry. When he took office, Biden kept those of Trump’s tariffs that protected certain industries.

Trump’s insistence that tariffs will solve everything is not about economics, it’s about pushing a worldview from the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, one embodied by the 1890 McKinley Tariff. “If you look at McKinley,” Trump told right-wing media host Mark Levin on Sunday, “he was a great president. He made the country rich.” In fact, McKinley (R-OH) pushed through the tariff named for him while he was in the House of Representatives from his position as a spokesperson for wealthy industrialists. They insisted that high tariffs were imperative to the survival of the country, that such tariffs were good for workers because they protected wages, and that anyone who disagreed was a socialist. But in an era without business regulation, industrialists actually kept wages low and used the tariffs to protect high prices that they passed on to consumers. 

In the late 1880s, the American people demanded a lower tariff, but when Republicans in Congress went to “revise” it, they made it higher. In May 1890, in a chaotic congressional session with members shouting amendments, yelling objections, and talking over each other, Republicans passed the McKinley Tariff without any Democratic votes. They cheered and clapped at their victory. “You may rejoice now,” a Democrat yelled across the aisle, “but next November you’ll mourn.” 

Democrats were right. In the November 1890 midterm elections, angry voters repudiated the Republican Party. They gave the Democrats a two-to-one majority in the House—McKinley himself lost his seat. Republicans managed to keep the Senate by four seats, but three of those seats were held by senators who had voted against the McKinley Tariff, and the fourth turned out to have been stolen.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[arnab-factory]

My Art Instagram that I had since 2016 got hacked and the mother fucker that hacked it deleted everything and the biggest mystery to me is why is your ass going after a small account with only 300 followers at the very least the new Instagram account i made can still have my username since the cunt changed the accounts information before getting it deleted

[littleeyesofpallas]

whatever this sick i've got is fiddling with my brain. First I had a mystery song stuck in my head that turned out to be from the .hack//SIGN ost that I haven't heard in like 20 years. And then I got oddly nostalgic about how good Double Arts was before it got the axe. So I just had to see wtf he's been up to and it looks like he's been mostly MIA since Nisekoi wrapped in 2016. He's done two one-shots since, but neither took off.

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: Terrifier (2016)

Terrifier (2016)

Not rated

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2024/10/review-terrifier-2016.html>

Score: 3 out of 5

Terrifier isn't a throwback to '80s slasher movies so much as it is a throwback to what the moral crusaders of the '80s thought slasher movies were like, done as the best possible version thereof. It's an unapologetic 85-minute parade of sleazy, mostly plotless violence and brutality that's chiefly anchored and elevated by its villain, Art the Clown, a slasher villain for the ages who not only delivers the goods but is brimming with personality even as he never speaks so much as a grunt, let alone a line of dialogue. His victims get next to no development beyond serving as meat bags for him to spill all over the ground, to the point where one could in fact argue for him as the film's real protagonist and viewpoint character. As a slasher, the actual story is nothing you haven't seen before and better, but when it comes to its killer, the grisly gore effects, the atmosphere that writer/director Damien Leone built here, and the streak of brutal nihilism running through it all, there's a lot to enjoy. Even with this movie's flaws, there's a reason why Art the Clown became a horror icon almost instantly after he debuted, and this is a hell of a demonstration as to why.

The plot is simple: on Halloween night, a guy named Art puts on a clown costume and heads out on the town to hack people up, his rampage eventually winding up at a grungy warehouse. That's pretty much it. Everybody in this movie can be summed up in a few words: the drunken party girl, her sober best friend, the best friend's sister who comes to pick them up, the pizzeria employees, the crazy lady, the janitor, and the janitor's co-worker/buddy. The acting, while not exceptional, wasn't outright dreadful either, with Jenna Kanell as the best friend Tara being a highlight who gets most of the heavy lifting in the horror sequences, but the characters were all so paper-thin, and the story's structure so wobbly, that it made the movie feel like a series of random events as characters constantly entered and exited the picture. There's a twist at the end regarding the true identity of a character from the prologue, and it's a pretty neat twist that shows how traumatizing it would be to go through a horror movie even if you survive, but it's not that spectacular in the grand scheme of things.

No, this movie is about one thing and one thing only: serving as a showcase for Art the Clown. Once I sat down to write this review, my mind went back to In a Violent Nature, a slasher deconstruction that was far more overt about telling a slasher story from the killer's point of view, though while that film was a lot more contemplative and self-serious, this one is shameless pulp and, in my opinion, a better film for it. Art's sexism has been toned down from his debut in All Hallows' Eve (he still inflicts horrible, sexualized violence on women, but he doesn't scrawl outright misogynistic slurs on their bodies), as have the supernatural elements of his character (he's portrayed as mostly just a normal human in a costume and makeup here), but his general depravity and sick sense of humor have not. He writes his name in feces on bathroom walls, he goes out of his way to make dying at his hands the most painful experience you can think of, and his kills are both extremely creative and incredibly pragmatic when he needs to be. Furthermore, he's one of the rare horror movie clowns who, beyond just looking creepy, actually does "clown stuff" on top of it, as in humorous gags meant for his own amusement and that of an unseen audience. They're gags that mostly work, too, with David Howard Thornton (replacing the since-retired Mike Giannelli) giving his silent character a ton of personality through his facial expressions and body language alone. An interaction with one character implies some kind of troubled past involving his mother, but other than that, what we see is what we get with him. He's a remorseless sadist who loves killing and is clearly having fun doing it, almost enough to make the shocking, disgusting nature of his actions feel something close to fun. He's scary, but charismatic at the same time. Once I realized that he was the film's real main character, complete with a scene where he has his back against the wall only to come back with a "heroic" second wind (i.e. a dirty trick he had up his sleeve of a sort that way too many slasher movies consider to be "cheating"), and started watching and reacting to the film as though he was, it clicked.

And when Art gets down to business, Damien Leone gets to show off his skills behind the camera. The stalk-and-chase sequences are all fairly well done in how they combine traditional slasher scares with Art's trademark dose of black comedy, with one highlight being a scene where one character tries to hide in a closet and Art makes it clear that she didn't have him fooled for a second -- namely, by pointing at the closet where she's hiding with a mocking smile on his face, knowing she can see him. Every kill is gratuitously violent and would be among the highlights in most other slasher flicks, involving some very creative use of otherwise old-fashioned slasher movie weapons like knives and hacksaws, while the grimy setting and low-budget aesthetic lend the affair the feel of something made in 1986 that I might've found buried deep in Blockbuster's horror aisle as a kid. The characters may not have had much going for them in terms of development or writing, but I was still able to place myself in their shoes and feel some genuine fear as they ran for their lives in the face of what Art had in store for them.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to modern throwbacks to the slashers of the '80s, Hatchet is still my gold standard, but Terrifier, while undoubtedly flawed, still has its gritty charms to it, not least of all in its killer. I can't say I didn't enjoy myself watching it.

[e3khatena]

What're your top 4 favourite games of all time?

I actually pretty recently went through my Top 25 on Twitter but that's mostly a contextless image with no words to it, so I do wanna spend a little more time to highlight my four favorite games (1024 words):

4. Earthbound (SNES, 1995)

Earthbound is a truly superb JRPG, with a kitsch and a camp to it that feels simultaneously cheesily-dated and timeless to boot, with a charisma and world that's ripe for exploration, from a guy who is a master craftsman of compelling stories. This is by far my favorite game to actually play in the SNES' library.

3. Hypnospace Outlaw (PC/XBO/PS4/Switch, 2019)

Back-to-back 90s-flavored games with phenomenal storytelling, Hypnospace Outlaw is a game about playing the moderator of an alternate timeline's niche corner of the Internet. Users on Hypnospace create webpages with their mind so they can hang out and be productive while asleep, and the characters are deeply nuanced with tons of personal details and secrets in tow. It's fun to be an enforcer and track down cases, but it's just as fun to go down the rabbit hole and follow links, and your curious nature is handily rewarded with shortcuts, hacks to be a better enforcer, fun Angelfire/Geocities webpages with MIDIs or ripped MP3s for backing music, and an utterly stellar story of corporate mismanagement, cover-ups, and an attempt to pin this universe's Y2k bug on an innocent kid that makes up the game's final act, a retrospective as you work to archive Hypnospace for modern audiences and tie up any loose ends. Jay Tholen's world is eclectic, surreal, and so oppressively 90s that you *will* listen to their fake Linkin Park on its own long after you play this.

2. Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, & Hand Grenades (PCVR, 2016-)

Rust LTD's range simulator/physics sandbox stands out as one of the defining games in PCVR spaces. Being the brainchild of developer Anton Hand and having been in incredibly active development for eight years, H3VR's dedication to the craft of firearm simulation is matched with a quirky, lighthearted sense of humor that extends into the enemies; sosigs bleed mustard* and say cheesy one-liners or compliment the player before exploding into meat, and Anton's strict adherence to not including real-world human enemies or gore extends to the lore explanation of the seemingly endless number of enemies being a giant meat grinder and casing stuffer that brings units to life. This has pissed off *tons* of fans of other VR FPSes, but I've been long enamored with Anton's realization that what people want from gore (satisfying particles and deformation, cathartic violence) can be done super cheaply and in an approachable manner for all-ages while still maintaining a very strong network of AI pathing and handling systems.

Even if you aren't fighting the enemies, the game's core simulations are still fun to engage with, with lovingly rendered guns that let you see their specific oddities, effectively digitally preserving over 500 firearms, both real and fictional (including a handful of pop cultural pieces like the guns from Robocop, Blade Runner, and Team Fortress 2 in an official collab with Valve) and their inner workings while giving you an expansive sandbox for building scenarios, be they IPSC-style accuracy trials or a simple bed of targets to plink at. Anton still updates this game weekly, working on things like night vision goggles/scopes, thermal cameras, and a Hitman-inspired ImSim mode. Despite this, Anton still does not see the game as a 1.0 finished build, and has plans to continue updating the game for a long while to come.

Cruelty Squad (PC, 2021)

There is no other game like Cruelty Squad, man. Its roots lie in underground artist Ville Kallio, a Finnish creator of the strange, surreal, and visceral. So much of Kallio's art centered around video games and they way they depict and discuss violence, and he took his work to its logical conclusion with an Immersive Sim unlike any other. The visuals are garish, the music is shoddy, the maps are nonsensical with a bizarre fetishization of ad-soaked dystopia, and does a great job of putting you into the headspace of the depressed former Death Squad member Empty Fuck, who finds himself becoming a gig economy worker settling petty corporate disputes for his former boss with the aid of a slew of lethal, stupid weaponry.

For your trouble, you're paid out a pittance, so most of your income has to come from side hustles. Gibbing enemies lets you harvest their organs, which is fantastic for you as modern medicine has made death a thing of the past, stitching cadavers back to life and saddling them with medical debt. If you're not fishing or playing the incredibly volatile stock market that experiences a short squeeze that reaches MOASS levels, you're organ harvesting, which also nets you an opportunity to steal a fallen foe's weapons after you scoop up his liver and kidneys, as you can only get new guns by carrying them out with you on a successful hit. The game takes you to cultist lairs, cushy offices with armed guards, a bombed out nightclub in Helsinki created in the aftermath of a chemical weapons attack to blockbust the district, and straight up to Cruelty Squad HQ to confront the balance of life and death in the world.

Cruelty Squad is truly so beautiful in its unabashed ugliness. The NPCs complain about their life and financial woes while their bosses gamble the extracted value of their labor on buying new yachts, advertisements for the game's brands are everywhere, and though the wealthy bourgeois are free to flaunt their wealth and perversion, the common prole finds themselves in a constant loop of being caught in the crossfire of mass shootings and waking up an instant later with discharge paperwork and a hospital bill. Kallio has made a truly chaotic, bitter, visceral world mirroring our own frustrations with the modern technology and finance sectors, and displays an incredible understanding of game design through all of the design decisions clearly meant to draw the most ire and frustration. It's not an easy game to enjoy, Cruelty Squad. It's difficult with an unfair difficulty curve and some decently bad levels, but my GOD its marriage of Deus Ex and Hitman ImSim sensibilities and a passionate disdain for late-stage Capitalism make it an easy choice for my favorite game of all time.

[neine]

Looking at the same art 'hacks' i've seen in 2014 to 2016 on youtube trending on tiktok

[rosieblogstuff]

This might be too many but, for the MacGyver ask game:

4, 7, 15, 16, & 18?

(:

There's no such thing as too many. 😂 It's just a matter of how long it'll take me to write something for all of them. But here goes:

Do you have any favorite fandom media you’d like to recommend? (Fic, edits, art, etc.)

Hooooo boy, am I ever bad at picking a favorite of anything and sticking with my opinion the next time I come across something shiny. Has anybody not read Turkey Day yet? Everybody's surely read it. If anyone hasn't they should immediately run over to AO3 right now.

How did you discover the show?

It was October 2021 and I was suffering Peak Pandemic Loneliness. Friday night I watched a couple episodes of The Americans because one of my writing forums was having a big plotting discussion about it. I love spy shows generally and I really enjoyed The Americans the first time through but it was just NOT the mood I was in right then, it was too dark and too bleak. So at the end of episode 2 Amazon popped up a list of “also recommends” stuff and there was the MacGyver reboot, first thing on the list. I loved OG MacGyver, watched it after school and in the summers as a kid, there are episodes I managed to see enough at a time when you were stuck watching whatever the TV wanted to show you that I could easily recall major plot points and characters like 30ish years later BUT. I hadn’t seen the reboot because I’d seen friends panning it on Facebook when it came out. (I’m sure I’ve posted Rosie’s Theory of Why Middle Aged White Guys Hated MacGyver 2016 before. But I didn’t realize it at the time.) So I thought to myself, well I’m already in a bad mood and bored, why not watch something crappy that I’ll probably hate? and started up 1x01.

Obviously that did NOT go as anticipated because 1x01 is really a pretty awesome pilot episode and I enjoyed it enough to immediately start up episode 2, and by the end of episode 2 I was in love with the whole thing. Like, obsessively in love with it in a way I rarely get. I stayed up until 2am watching the first 5 eps in a row.

Have you learned any Mac Hacks?

Oh definitely, although I’ll admit my favorite (and most useful) Mac Hack of all time is from MacGyver 1985: the time OG Mac magnetized an iron pole by hitting it in the same way over and over, a trick that can also be used to magnetize a screwdriver. A few months ago I accidentally locked a door at the youth group where I volunteer. No one had a key and we really needed to get back into the room, and I got it open by user-testing an idea I’d come up with for a fanfic. 

What’s your favorite cold open?

Definitely 1x12, the truth serum cold open. The 1x02 North Korea escape is also pretty high on my list of favorites. 

If you could wish an episode tag/missing scene fic into existence, which episode would you choose?

Jack taking Mac to Texas to meet his family. We got a family/backstory episode for Riley, Bozer, even Desi, but we have to headcanon basically everything about Jack’s family.