Viral marketing: Greenzap

Classified under:marketing,
Normally I don't try to shill products, but this one interests me. Greenzap is the internet's new alternative to Paypal. Considering all the fuss that paypal has been experiencing, it's cool to see a company offer an alternative. Their business plan is a smart one too. For those who pre-register, they get 25 dollars in their account, plus 5 dollars for a referal. So, instead of spending money on advertising, they're rewarding word of mouth. Very clever, if you ask me. It'll be interesting to see if it pays off. Reguardless, if anyone is intersted in getting an account, click here and use the referal code flyingautobus.

And thus ends the shilling.

Music Track of the Day: Apparat Organ Quartet

Classified under:music,mp3,Apparat Organ Quartet
Hey kids, you remember when all the cool bands were coming out of Iceland? Remember how most of them were ethereal examinations of space whales fucking? Forget about it. Some Icelandic music actually rock. How so? You do it by bringing together four crazy -ass organists and tell them to go full bore on refurbished organs. The Apparat Organ Quartet does Sunday mass could never do. They make organ music sound cool and not draconian.

RIP BassWolf

Classified under:tagname,Guitar Wolf
Pitfork reported today that the beloved bass player of Guitar Wolf, Billy aka Hideaki Sekiguchi died from a heart attack.

Rock 'n Roll is NOT over, baby! Rock 'n Roll NEVER DIES!

Japanese love hotel report

Classified under:Japan,sex

Outside, the price list. There are some "shifts" to bear in mind. It's not as simple as "3 p.m. check-in, noon check-out". You can go with the "Stay" rate, which means "all night", but check-in for this rate is 9-10 p.m. It's the most expensive.

"Rest" means 1-3 hours. It can be done any time, but the rooms will probably fill for the night soon after 10!

The last, "Free Time" is available during the day, essentially "all you can screw" during set periods.

Notice that the prices end in "~". That means that the price is for the cheapest room in the house, which may already be occupied!

Music Track Of The Day: the Futureheads-Hounds of Love

Classified under:music,mp3,the Futureheads
When you breed above average capela with the renaissance of New Wave, you get UK's Futureheads. Their cover of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love is infectious. The pulse of guitars with the "ooh oooh" blips sounds like the musical equivilent of sonar pigning through a school of fish. This is fantastic head bopping dance rock recommended to me by Mike. It's easily one of my favourite singles so far this year.

Useful tools: CDisplay Comic Reader

Classified under:comics,software
For those of you who have been downloading comics torrents and have been fustrated with the .cbr file extension, I bring you good news. CDisplay is a program that allows you view .cbr files, comic style. It's pretty flexible too, allowing you to fit the pages on the screen without scrolling, and, if my memory serves, allows you to see double spreads on one page too. Go forth and download it. This is my good deed for the week, no doubt.

Aeon Flux movie website is up!

Classified under:movies,Aeon Flux
One of my favourite cartoons from the '90s, Aeon Flux is being adapted to the screen by Paramount Pictures. Juding by the website it looks to be a *very* faithful adaptation. Charlize Theron catching a fly with her eyelashes? Pitch perfect, baby.

More Mix Cd Goodness

Classified under:music,mix Cds
I found another website dedicated to mix Cds today. Judging by the fact that she puts enough time to create covers for the CDs with track listings and what appears to be back covering, this woman looks to have skills comparable to xtop's fantastic mix tapes. Her website hasn't been updated in almost a year, so it's hard to say if she'll respond with an e-mail and send me CD, but I'm crossing my fingers.

Audiopost: Grant Morrison on his alien abduction experience

Classified under:Grant Morrison,mp3
I've been a fan of Grant Morrison's work for a long time and listening to him speak is a special treat. In this audio clip, he talks about his alien abduction experience, what it signified to him and how it related to the Invisibles.

Time Traveling With Tesuya Mizuguchi

Classified under:video games,music
If you're not familiar with Mizuguchi's work, you're missing out one of gaming's most innovative creators, best known for his innovative use of music in games. He's the brains behind Sega's Space Channel 5 and the mind altering cult classic rez. Instead of doing the regular question and answer that most interviews stick with, 1.com opted to reanimate the music from Mizuguchi's gameography and used it to jump start old memories. It's a fantastic interview it's strongly recommended that you watch the video clips to get the full effect. Ace reporting.

Creepy new Burger King commercial (Windows Media)

Classified under:advertising,Burger King
It only seems like yesterday that Burget King was using subversion to sell burgers. Thakfully (or not, depending on your sensibilities), the King has once again has dipped into the well of well of post modern marketing with the help of famed music video director David LaChapelle. Although the new commercial lacks the creepy undertones of having the Burger King wake up next to a man pimping his new burger, there is something disturbing about women playing with buckets of secret sauce.

The Onion's Good Scenes/Bad Scenes

Classified under:webjunk,the Onion
In that last couple of years, on Tuesday, I've been looking forward to the Onion's AV Club moreso than the satire. This week's special on Bad Scenes in Good movies/Good Scenes in Bad Movies. Highlights features cinematic weirdos Christopher Walken and my favourite, Crispin Glover.

Sometimes, the strangest actors do their most subversive work in children's films, where their demented quirks stand in sharp relief to the family-friendly wholesomeness. (See also: Christopher Walken in The Country Bears, above.) As the prototypically cruel head of a orphanage, Glover forgets he's in an overlong Nike commercial and sets about terrorizing kids in his inimitably peculiar style. In the most twisted scene, Glover tries to squeeze information out of young Jonathan Lipnicki (the bespectacled moppet from Jerry Maguire) by holding a lighter under the sole remaining picture of his long-lost mother.

What is it? Glover inspired trauma.

Holy Shit! Gene Defcon is back!

Classified under:music,Gene Defcon
Olympia Washington, and (dare I say it?) quite possibly the world's best lo-fi indie band is back. Bingo, Gene Defcon is back with his long awaited (by me) follow up album to Come Party With Me 2000. Oh yes! We've missed you, Gene Defcon. Carry on, you party cowboy.

Movies that I want to see: Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan

Classified under:movies,Shaw Brothers

I had one of my Chinese friends, Chi, scout Vancouver's Chinatown last year for Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan. He said that he found it, but decided not to pick it up since he thought that it was a porno and he thought that I made a mistake with my film request. Is the film pornographic? Probably as pornographic as a shampoo commerical. Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan is one of the Shaw Brother's early exploitation movies, packed to the gills with sex and bloody kung fu action. The plot is typical revenge fare, an angry lesbian prostitute decides to kill all those who wronged her in the past. The reviews that I've say that the action is top notch and doesn't skimp out on the action. Something that I'll definately try to pick up this weekend in Vancouver.

Not pr0n

Classified under: webjunk,
Not pr0n is my favourite internet time waster. Where most games on the internet focuses on slaughtering strangers using a half the US military's armoury of weapons, not pr0n challenges you to use your brain. Fustrating but extremely rewarding, it's worth the countless hours that you'll sink into it.

Sam Fisher on Metal Gear

Classified under:video games,

A while back, I mentioned that I've been trying out the Metal Gear Solid games, just to get a taste of the competition. As I've said before, most of my experience with video games has been through military training simulators, which offer all the interactivity of a video game, with none of the fun. So I'm no expert game reviewer, but I'll give you my thoughts.

Let me start off by saying this -- in all my years of covert operations, I've never encountered robotic ninjas or rollerskating fat guys. I've never dealt with vampires or enemies telling me to do things with my controller, either. This is just ridiculous stuff here.

It's bad enough that your enemies are straight out of the comic books, but then there's the silly names. No self-respecting bad guy is going to call themselves names like Howitzer Platypus or Bazooka Marmoset. I'd like to meet the Japanese game developer who makes up these names, and make sure all aerosol products are kept out of reach.

Movies that I have to see: GI Samurai

Classified under:movies,
The title pretty much sums the movie up. It's a Sonny Chiba actioner where he plays a military officer that, get this, travels back to Feudal Japan to fight along and against samurai warriros. And did I mention that it has a tank fighting a platoon of samurai? Sold!

the Photography of Wing Shya

Classified under:photography,Wing Shya.

I found this on a livejournal community dedicated to Chinese photography from the 30s. It's a small example of Wing Shya's evovative photography.

Hooligans trailer

Classified under:Hooligans,Trailers
Thanks to Ain't It Cool News' coverage of this year's South By Southwest, I'm hyped up about a new movie called Hooligans. This is what they have to say about the film

Like Ong Bak, this movie is not about gangs or violence or even "football"...it is about finding what is missing from life and the journey of the protagonist to find it.

Matt Buckner just walks away from his future and his own talent in the beginning of this movie. We are given the superficial reason, but we cannot help but feel immediately that he gives up "without a fight" he just resigns himself to it and then "runs away". It seems maddening that he does this, but at the same time, so many of us do the same thing in small ways everyday that we relate. Essentially this is the set-up for his personal transformation.

He gets drawn into the completely foreign world of football firms or gangs. His naivety leads the way, because he really doesn't know how deep and dark this world is, even though we, the audience, are given a glimpse of it at the beginning of the movie. For the first time, Matt gets a taste of loyalty and friendship that seem to expand his world to a sense of belonging which has been missing from his privileged but solitary academic life. But he is still naive. As Americans in the same unfamiliar world of the football firms, we go right along with him because of the down to earth appeal of being a "regular" guy, and the treat of seeing a real West Ham United match with real fans complete with all the frenzy and excitement. But we are also drawn by the charm of Pete, the head of the West Ham United firm, who happens to be Matt's sister's brother-in-law. Pete is played brilliantly by actor Charlie Hunnam.

The violence of the brawls that ensue to protect the reputation of the firms and the teams they "represent" is handled extremely well in this film. Bloody, "gritty" and adrenaline-pumping bare fist fights without weapons where wit, nerve and fighting ability are all the tools the firms use to maintain their reputation. Occasional sticks, stones and broken beer bottles find their way into the fights and when they do, they are usually used as an indication of dirty fighting or survival. The movie in no-way glorifies violence or even justifies it. The fights just become an important part of the story and the transformation of Matt.

I will not say more of about this movie because people just need to see it themselves

You can check out the trailer here. Beware, tho', that it's not a trailer in the truest sense, but ratherm it's just a montage of violence. Not that there's anything wrong with that

Another year closer to the grave

Classified under:,Rob Andrews
That's right, I've been on this earth for 24 years. Happy birthday to me. Delight me with webjunk that is appropriate for this joyous occation.