Friday, February 22, 2008

Carousel friday!


Huzzah! It’s Friday, and while I don’t condone you slacking off at work, it’s ok during your lunch hour to wander around and around a bit.

I have yet to come out of the geek closet, though it’s clearly written on my face as “Lola” the embodiment of a 6ft Tina turner is in a “queens” show. This is what happens when you get an inexplicable smile on face while looking at the economist magazine, and reading Lord of the Rings four times in a row. So, I ask you….why didn’t anyone tell me about Skywhales?! This is incredible. Have you seen it? What about you there, in the back, wearing the Dragonriders of Pern tee shirt? Ever heard of Skywhales? Yeah?


DAMN it. I’d never even heard of Skywhales until just now. What a huge, unsightly gap in my nerducation.

An old friend and I were just wasting many precious hours of life watching old-school music videos and cats having psychotic episodes on YouTube when he suddenly asked “wait, time out, have you seen Skywhales?” Nope, never heard of it. He made with the clickies and I promptly spilled wine all over myself.


Completed in 1983, Skywhales is an animated short about a race of green-skinned humanoid aliens who live on a floating island in the upper layers of a gaseous planet’s atmosphere. To survive, they hunt enormous manta ray creatures in pedal-powered airships. As this fansite author puts it, Skywhales “is a window onto an alien way of life–language, culture, taboos… as complete a picture as a short film has ever painted, and its final revelations are nothing short of haunting.”And how! The “boo bee boo boo bee” stuff is a bit grating at first, but hang in there. It’s epic, some would say. Uber, even. Circle of life. See it! Skywhales! (Sorry, I just really like saying that. “Skywhales!” While making jazz hands.) But seriously. It’s gorgeous and poignant and disturbing. Like your mom. With a Mohawk.







Onward through the dorkdom forest, I also thought it would be a good idea to resurface The End of the World video. I saw this a long time ago….junior year of high school I think, but it’s still kinda funny if you ask me. It has no basing, besides stereotypes, and some people may find it somewhat offensive. But….have a look-see at amateur hilarity. Word of advice though, this has some profanity in it…so it’s not necessarily a good idea to watch it with loud speakers…if you’re at work or something…







And well cupcakes, that’s about it for now. Maybe later on today I’ll post a mini. Happy Friday!