Skronker

September 30, 2008

A black bear, an AIBO and a severed robot head

Filed under: Uncategorized — elizabeth bromstein @ 8:11 pm

So, I was on Fark.com this morning and wound up watching this really really NOT NEWS story about a bear that almost entered a hospital in Lake Tahoe. It didn’t even enter the hospital, just walked through one entrance, got spooked by the second automatic door and decided to leave. Also, Tahoe is apparently full of bears so a sighting is nothing to get into a tizzy about. Bears there are like racoons in Toronto, or something. But I’m guessing not a whole hell of a lot happens in Tahoe and IHOP is overstaffed so the local news anchors have to keep their jobs somehow, which might explain why they got 2 minutes and 17 seconds out of the incident.

 

The bear itself, a black bear, looked awfully small set against the glass doors so I looked up the American Black Bear. Wikipedia (I hate to use Wikipedia. You can’t trust it. But it’s just so readily available), after first showing me a page that looks like this – Look carefully, it says “shit terd”…

Informed me that the American Black bear is usually between five and six feet tall and walks on all fours with a “pacing gait. Unlike many quadrupeds, the legs on one side move together instead of alternating, much like a pacer horse.” Tried to envision what this meant so went to YouTube, typed in “Pacing Gait,” wound up watching this AIBO and OK, I got it now but that led to more AIBOs and I know these little guys have been around for ten years or so but they still freak me out. This video at Tekkotsu Robotics  (that disappeared from YouTube after I watched it and before I tried to post it which is why it’s not embedded) is sad and disturbing, I think. Or perhaps I am crazy. But the little puppy is sad. Because he expects a reward and doesn’t get one. The AIBOs on YouTube led to this Japanese Robowoman and then NASA’s Eva. I understand that this clip is from 2006. Wonder if she got a body yet. Particularly interesting is the amount of vitriol spewed in the comments section. Clearly this little lady’s severed head makes people very uncomfortable. Have to notice, though, that there appears to be a neck in neck race for most lifelike woman between the Blow-up doll industry and and Robotics industry.

 

 

The two concepts meet with one David Levy, Artificial Intelligence researcher and author of Love and Sex with Robots: The evolution of human robot relationships. Levy believes that one day we will indeed have sexual relations with robots, a possibility (or inevitability) both fascinating and repellant that raises a lot of good questions. From an interview at Lavalife’s Click Magazine:

 

DL: I am most often asked about cheating — is sex with a robot cheating? I think not, just as I believe that using a vibrator is not cheating.

 

LL: In your opinion, might niche desires that are otherwise untenable in polite and law-abiding society be addressed by this new technology and is that a plus or minus?

 

DL: Yes, they will be. And I believe it is a good thing. If the niche desires are not illegal when practiced with humans, no problem at all when they are practiced with robots. And if they are illegal with humans, the same argument that I use for pedophilia holds — robots might be successful in curing at least some pedophiles, through therapy, otherwise it is better for pedophiles to use robot children than to hunt for human children.

 

See the entire interview here.

 

Katy Perry doll to hit stores. Liberace’s house was awesome.

Filed under: music, pop culture — elizabeth bromstein @ 3:56 am

If you’ve ever wanted to undress Katy and draw nipples on her or cut her hair — or take her head off and put it on G.I. Joe — and who hasn’t? — you’ll get your chance.

 

MTV says a 12-inch Katy Perry Doll will be hitting stores in late fall (they had similar but different ideas of what you could do with her). It’s made by Integrity Toys in collaboration with fashion designer Jason Wu and comes dressed in a wardrobe modeled after the I Kissed a Girl video. MTV says “It features 12 points of articulation and will be packaged in a box featuring exclusive ‘whimsical artwork.’ It retails for $49.99, and only 500 will be made, which might explain why — as of Monday morning (September 29) — there’s already a waiting list for the doll over at Integrity’s Web site.”

 

The doll doesn’t actually look anything like Katy Perry. It looks more like the company made a Dita Von Teese doll they couldn’t sell and decided to repackage.

 

I’m not a fan of Katy. She’s just a little too excited about having kissed a girl. I’ve kissed girls and, while I have found it exciting, I didn’t really feel the need to get so much attention for it.

 

I did like Jill Sobule, the original I Kissed a Girl singer’s comments about Perry. She said “Maybe I’ll write a third ‘I Kissed a Girl’ for fun. It will be about how I kissed her, left the dull boyfriend, got gay-married in California, and really no one gave a shit.”

 

Still, I’m thinking I might order one of those dolls so my Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper dolls can have a little fun. Ifyouknowwhatimean. Superstar Barbie and Scary Spice are getting kind of worn out.

 

I don’t have nearly enough Rock Star dolls. I just bought this house I’ll soon be moving into and will have all the space I need for my doll collection. MacFarlane apparently released a Slash doll in 2004. That would be good. I have sort of a thing for Slash, (despite my distaste for Velvet Revolver’s music) which I think is an emotional replacement for the thing I used to have for Axl Rose. Now that Axl seems sort of crazy it doesn’t seem like a good idea to have a thing for him anymore. Also, I’m not bananas about the cornrows. I’d buy an Axl doll though. It seems impossible that there isn’t one out there but, unfortunately, that does seem to be the case (though, there is this. Hee). Alas.

 

I did find a Liberace doll though. And gracious! It’s creepy. 

 

As usual, the minute I think of Liberace, I think of Clay Aiken. The only reason I can fathom for this is the whole gay denial thing. The original man of bling and furs denied and denied some more that he was pitching for the home team (or catching. I don’t know) and, even though that was cleary part of Liberace’s shtick, since long before Clay come out of the closet I wound up lumping the two into the same category: in the closet. So, now that Clay is out it’s too late and for me, he’s Liberace of the New Millenium.

 

Other than that, there aren’t actually many similarities between Clay and Liberace. Clay doesn’t run around in fur coats with trains and enough jewellery to hold a body down in the water. He doesn’t play the piano – or does he? I don’t even know. But it’s not his claim to fame. And I almost never see him with a candelabrum. Looking at this fantastic clip of the Liberace show — and OMG. Is that his fucking HOUSE??? –it’s kind of hard to believe that ANYONE didn’t know he was from Gayland.  

 

September 28, 2008

Digital revolution hurt hairfarmers but strong survived.

Filed under: Uncategorized — elizabeth bromstein @ 6:21 pm
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Wow. Yikes. I remember when every male at the punk rock club where I worked slinging beer when I was underage looked JUST LIKE THESE EARLY METALLICA PHOTOS. And there was this one guy with the longest, best blonde hair who was in this badass metal band and I had the biggest crush on him even though I didn’t actually like the music and wow. I am old. I dig 6 of 36 of these pics for Lars’ hair and Jason’s “Dude…wait, what?” facial expression. Also, how old is Kirk there? 14? Doesn’t he look like he should be chewing bubblegum and skateboarding in your empty backyard swimming pool until you come from work and catch him then have to call his Mom who snaps at you to butt out and not tell her how to raise her son Goddammit?

Then five years later he looks like this? (10 of 36) Dude. What did you do in those five years that aged you 20? Besides a lot of drugs and rocking, I mean. And growing that weird little half-arsed beard that makes me think of Anton LaVey… 

OK, a search for Lavey images for comparative purposes taught me Kirk’s facial hair actually isn’t anything like LaVey’s so I don’t know what I was thinking. The search, however, did turn up this creepy guy’s website that asks the age-old question “WAS BARBARA BUSH’S FATHER THE FAMOUS SATANIST ALLEISTER CROWLEY  [????]” Whoa! Yer freakin’ me out man.

Scroll down and the conversation turns to Ronnie James Dio but, despite the fact that the website is called Sabbath Rock, I get the distinct impression that this guy is anti Sabbath in the Ozzy and Ronnie sense of the word (lest you forget about Ronnie’s period fronting the band) and pro Sabbath in some other more religious and less guitar heavy kind of way – but still riding the Crazy Train – that has to do with world leaders being Satanists. But that’s all I could figure out before needing to get away from him – warning: gross pictures you don’t need to see unless you’re one of those people who enjoys rotten.com.

So, this gallery reminded me that I have yet to hear Death Magnetic and that I probably won’t be able to just hop about the web a bit and get it for free, Metallica being SO UPTIGHT about all this downloading business, about which they may have a point but which sucks when you want free stuff. Ha! Remember this video from Camp Chaos Productions? An oldie but a goodie. Fire Bad!

 

 

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