FRED Entertainment

October 31, 2011

My Favourite Things – October 2011

Filed under: Articles,My Favourite Things — Tags: , , , , , , — Aaron @ 6:48 am

my-favourite-things

October

lucyline.gif

I have returned! It’s that time of the month when I give you my Top 5 list of Top 5 things that I enjoyed in the past calender month. Some would say it’s a slightly OCD excercize in recounting my happiness, others would say “hey, back off man, let the guy make his list. This is America! He’s free to make lists if he wants”. I would argue that I don’t live in America but otherwise I’m proud of that made-up person for getting so defensive on my behalf.

… Lets get on with this, shall we?

1) Time Lapse Videos

I’ve been spending/wasting a lot of time lately over at Broadsheet.ie. They’re an Irish blog that updates at an alarming rate with many interesting, fun, and dumb things throughout the day.

One of the things I spotted there this month was a lovely time-lapse video made by photographer Joe Capra featuring the Icelandic landscape. Here’s what he says about the video:

During my days shooting this film I shot 38,000 images, travelled some 2900 miles, and saw some of the most amazing, beautiful, and indescribable landscapes on the planet. Iceland is absolutely one of the most beautiful and unusual places you could ever imagine.

And here’s the video:

To see some of the other time-lapse videos Broadsheet has highlighted CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME.

2) 32 Days of Halloween

Our friends over at NeedCoffee.com are renowned for their love of Halloween. Ever year their 32 Days of Halloween event is chock full of complete madness ranging from the genuinely scary to the down-right bizarre. You can find readings of classic horror tales and some rare footage of famous horror characters doing things you might not expect.

As there are multiple things posted every day on the site for the event, there is no way I could include all of the goodies here. But one thing I particularly got a kick out of was this film, posted in full on youtube, called The Beach Girls and The Monster.

It’s a black and white monster movie… on the beach… with girls. There’s not much that it doesn’t say in the title. I love these classic B-Movie’s, always fun to watch with friends. So go ahead and watch it.

3) Avengers: Sweded

I love The Avengers. I love the Michel Gondry film Be Kind, Rewind (I love Michel Gondry). So when I was shown the Avengers trailer that has been sweded just like the movies in Be Kind, Rewind well… I loved it. Who saw that coming?

Check out the cardboard goodness below. It syncs almost exactly with the real trailer and still manages to sneak in some extra jokes and clever ribbing of the real one.

4) Red Wing

Jonathan Hickman is a comic book writer I have lauded here before. He writes inteligent but also fun comics and with an industry often full of dumb, borings ones this is a treasure indeed.

This month saw the completion of his creator-owned mini-series Red Wing. With only four issues there wasn’t a lot to this one but Hickman manages to pack a tonne of mind-bending stuff. The story involves a futuristic air force who use time travel to fight their faceless enemy.

Time travel stories both fascinate and confuse the hell out of me. Maybe it’s because I’m always thinking through the possibilities and with so many paradoxes and anomaly mindfields out there, it’s both fun and a headache. Red Wing has that sort of madness at it’s core but also a haunting story of the connection between father and son and the looping consequences of that kind of relationship.

Can history repeat itself when time travel is involved?

Anyway, not only was it a good read but the art was great too. Check out a couple of panels below and try to pick up the series if you can.

red1

the-red-wing-20110809021223991-000

5) My New Logo!

As I’ve now hit the 6 month point of doing these lists I decided to freshen the page up with a new banner. Do you like? I find it sufficiently creepy. I always new I’d make a good Julie Andrews. Big thanks to Antonio Bay for the help putting my head in there… That didn’t sound the way I think it should.

——————————————————————

And that’s it! My favourite things of the last month.

– Aaron Poole is the creator of the touch-screen belt buckle. He is also more acurately an internet whore and rarely leaves the house. If you like what you read here check out his blog http://aaronfever.blogspot.com

September 27, 2011

My Favourite Things – September 2011

Filed under: Articles,My Favourite Things — Tags: , , , , , , , — Aaron @ 4:00 pm

my-favourite-things

September

lucyline.gif

This month has become a bit of blur for your faithful internet reporter. A trip to Dragon*Con in Atlanta at the start of the month combined with a tour of the UK towards the end and this Irishman is ready for a quiet October. However, it has resulted in my month’s Favourite Things to be a much more personal one than normal. So read on for my rambling recommendations of this past September, below.

1) Molly Lewis

I was lucky enough to be on two panels at Dragon*Con with Molly and hang out with her a little bit. Not only is she an extremely talented musician but she’s also a lot of fun.

I’ve been listening to her EP I Made You a CD, But I Eated It on pretty regular rotation and shall now recommend it to you.

You can purchase and listen to it and more via her bandcamp page. But for a taster check out this video below of her most recent song.

2) Sylvester McCoy

Since meeting the man during Con weekend I literally can’t shut up about it. He is such an awesome actor and genuinely down-to-earth human being. Not only was he hilarious over the course of the weekend but was a delight to everyone he met. I can’t wait to see him in the forthcoming The Hobbit movies. Gush, gush, gush.

We’ve shown it here on the website before, but it’s worth reposting until the cows come home. If the cows do indeed know their way. Sylvester McCoy cold reads the Pandorica speech originally acted by Matt Smith. Prompted by our very own Ken Plume.

3) Jonathan Coulton

The always personable (and hairy) Mr Coulton was another musician to make a dent in my September. His new album Artificial Heart was released this month and you should be listening to it or buying it here and then listening to it.

And for a hint of some of the musicality that lies within, listen to this hear thing with pictures.

4) The People’s Republic of Venture

Run by the wonderful Anne-Marie, PRoV does a kick-ass job every year of giving out cool Venture Bros. swag to the masses at the Con. Lots of badges, pin-up cards, cool tins, essentially anything you can think of. For example this great pin which currently sits atop my night stand.

dragoncon048

And she was even kind enough to make us some FRED ribbons for our Con badges too!

You should bookmark the Venture Compound blog page for updates and news.

5) The Bluetones

Everyone might be talking about R.E.M.‘s announcement to call it a day this month but they weren’t the only band hanging up their guitars. The object of my teenage musical obsession for a long time, The Bluetones, played their final ever gigs this month. After six studio albums and a 17 year constant touring schedule they decided to call it quits.

I have been a rabid fan since I was 15 (please note, that is not 17 years ago, I’m not THAT old) and have been to several of their gigs which often requires flying to England to do so.

This month I had the opportunity to catch two of their final shows, along with a bunch of friends I’ve met because of the band over the years. It was emotional.

Here is a song of theirs, the video was directed by Edgar Wright who happened to put their songs in both Spaced and Scott Pilgrim. So there.

——————————————————————

And that’s it! My favourite things (and people) of the last month.

– Aaron Poole is the creator of Rave Moth. He is also more acurately an internet whore and rarely leaves the house. If you like what you read here check out his blog http://aaronfever.blogspot.com

August 27, 2011

My Favourite Things – August 2011

Filed under: Articles,My Favourite Things — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Aaron @ 9:43 am

my-favourite-things

August

lucyline.gif

I don’t know about your area, but the weather this summer has been crap. August especially so. Which means there is no better reason to revel in some of the madness the internet has brought us in the last month.

It beats going outside.

1) Astronaut Suicides

No, I’m not sick. I don’t revel in the death of others. This is actually the title of an art project by Neil Dacosta, a photographer with a point to make about NASA’s lack of moon exploration.

It’s a series of photographs taken of an astronaut who isn’t taking the news very well. Here we see the astronaut reading about the story.

astronaut_suicides_neil_dacosta_01

Then, as the title suggests, we are shown a number of different attempts to end it all. Here are two of my favourites.

astronaut_suicides_neil_dacosta_03

astronaut_suicides_neil_dacosta_12

You can see all the pictures and in their full size by clicking THIS LINK. Despite the dark subject matter, they’re really fantastic looking photos and make an interesting protest towards the NASA budget cuts.

2) The Lonely Island – Threw It on The Ground

I’m probably not exposing a hidden gem, considering that at the point of writing this the video has accumulated 4,444,404 views (wow, that is a lot of fours) but this is a list of my favourite things after all and for that reason, it qualifies.

It’s not the best Lonely Island song either, not by a long stretch, but like others it is an ear-worm that you’ll find yourself humming a lot. I also actually laughed out loud at the phone bit. Enjoy!

3) Mattias Inks

Remember Jesse Lonergan and his comic sketches I had talked about before? Well he tipped me off to another sketch blog which he adores and now I do to. http://mattiasa.blogspot.com/ is the home of Mattias a Swedish illustrator with an amazing talent.

Just check out this “doodle” in his moleskin book.

cookingchannel

Click here for the large size so you can really see all the detail.

And this traffic scene. Look at all the car designs and other crazy things.

crowded

Click here for the large version.

Or how about this for insane design?

tintin

Click for enormo vision. Find the hidden crocodile.

For more of this brilliance go to his blog!.

4) Civilization Wars

Miniclip has created another game this month worthy of wasting your time. This strategy game is based around the idea of raiding buildings and controlling the land. It pits the Aztecs, the Romans and the Chinese empire against eachother in some sort of strange alternate universe where this was going to happen.

game1

Unlike some stategy games, you have to be quick on your toes if you want to win. Each level starts with a mad dash to cover as much ground as possible and steal the empty buildings before your enemy does. Then it’s time to try and take your opponent’s base with an attack dependant on having the most troops.

game2

You can employ some magic attacks too but I found that building up the stats of your troops after each round can be sufficient in taking down most enemies.

There are some big bosses which are quite difficult because they are timed challenges. So again, a frantic gameplay experience can be found at every turn with this one.

game3

There are lots of extra modes that you can unlock along the way, like Zombie mode, which really stretches the replay-ability of the game. To give it a go and waste away the hours, like I did, click this link here!

5) Shameless Self-Promotion Time!

Coming up very soon is Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia. This year once again both myself and Ken Plume will be doing some panels for your entertainment. I’ll just quickly plug the two we’re doing together as to give you the full list of our individual ones would take far too long.

So if you’re there please pop in to say hello at the following:

FRED Panel-Palooza-Extrava-Thingee-a-Doodle
Time: Fri 04:00 pm (Length: 1 Hour)
Location: Regency V – Hyatt

FRED Presents Yet Another Panel About Doctor Who
Time: Sun 01:00 pm (Length: 1 Hour)
Location: International North – Hyatt

Rumour has it we’ll even have an actual dragon there. Rumours.

——————————————————————

And that’s it! My favourite things of the last month.

– Aaron Poole is the creator of birthday balloons. He is also more acurately an internet whore and rarely leaves the house. If you like what you read here check out his blog http://aaronfever.blogspot.com

July 26, 2011

My Favourite Things – July 2011

Filed under: Articles,My Favourite Things — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Aaron @ 1:17 pm

my-favourite-things

July

lucyline.gif

The monthly edition of things I’ve enjoyed on the internet in the last 30 days or so. Shared with you in a list because I like lists. Let’s do this!

1) Depresstival – Marble Zone

The following video defines what I think is so magical about the internet.

Depresstival is the name of a young lady and her musical transgressions on her youtube account. She may do stuff outside of this, I don’t know. As far as I’m concerned she lives purely in the magical box on my computer screen.

While writing and recording some of her own songs she has also started a 30 Day Musical Challenge. You know the one, it invaded pretty much every social media this year and bugged the hell out of everyone, including the people who were doing it. In this challenge she has taken to doing some rather bizarre covers. Not only the most depressing version of ODB’s “Baby, I Got Ya Money” I’ve ever heard (making it also hilarious) but the theme song to the Marble Zone level from Sonic The Hedgehog.

Yes.

The reasons why I think the video perfectly defines what I love about the internet are
– 30 seconds of awkward introduction.
– 2 minutes of fun accordian music to the tune of Sonic The Hedgehog’s Marble Zone.
– A final minute of pure unashamed insanity beyond description.

Watch and enjoy.

You’re welcome.

2) Captain America: Shield of Justice

cap3

You’ve probably seen the film already (you lucky dogs, I’ve had to wait an extra week due to different international release dates) but if you haven’t, or want to relive the fun, you could do a lot worse than playing Marvel.com’s retro looking game Captain America: Shield of Justice.

In the exact same vein of the super fun Thor game they did for the film’s release, this is a platform bruiser and you have to save somebody or something-or-other from evil something something. Who cares? Just look!

cap2

Go Cap., go!

You can bounce the shield off the bad guys’ heads and the background music is awesome. He even has the little movie version costume.

Go play, kick some ass.

cap1

3) Flashing… lights…

Unfortunately, the following amazing thing can’t be shown to you on this page in a way that would explain just how wonderful it is. But as an attempt here is a picture of it and then I’ll do my best to make you understand.

lights

How it works is very simple, every time you light a square it makes a noise. This noise is determined by it’s position on the grid. The higher the square the higher the note and vice versa. What is quite a simple task becomes an incredibly addictive one as you make fantastic looping melodies by clicking in randomly placed combinations or meticulously designed ones.

Seriously, try it, you’ll be at it for hours. Click this to go see/hear.

4) Garth Ennis Smackdown

I love bullycomics.blogspot.com. If ever a man could give a shout out to a stuffed bull that he has never met, then today is that day. It’s a great blog full of funny and fascinating comic stuff and if you’re not reading it then I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but the bull ain’t one. Or you know, something more caucasian and relevant.

Anyway, one of the it’s more recent posts stuck out in my mind as being a doozy. It was a letter written to Garth Ennis and his Preacher book in 1998. Bully explains it all neatly and points out some good stuff so by all means check out the original post. But for the lazy of you, here is the letter itself and Ennis’ wonderful reply. WARNING: contains foul and stupid language.

preacher35commonsense

5) The Walking Dead season 2 trailer
Nearly five whole minutes of zombie goodness. Hands up who else is excited for this? Ok, hands down and click the video.

——————————————————————

And that’s it! My favourite things of the last month.

– Aaron Poole is the creator of the hippy-hippy-shake. He is also more acurately an internet whore and rarely leaves the house. If you like what you read here check out his blog http://aaronfever.blogspot.com

June 30, 2011

My Favourite Things: June 2011

Filed under: Articles,My Favourite Things — Tags: , , , , , , , — Aaron @ 7:33 am

my-favourite-things

June

lucyline.gif

So how about that weather? Am I right?! June has been an insane month. I’m sure the majority of you out there will be happy to see the back of it. But once again I’m going to hopefully give you a list of things worth hunching over a laptop for. Even if it is done in a bomb shelter, which sometimes might be the best place. Here are my favourite things from June 2011.

1) Aaron De La Cruz graffiti

I’m a bit of a graffiti enthusiast. I’ve never done it myself (don’t have the talent) but I love to see some good pieces and have often bought a couple of coffee table books on the subject to flick through on a lazy afternoon. I was directed towards this video on Vimeo.com of artist Aaron De La Cruz creating a piece in West Oakland, California. It’s fantastic.

West Oakland, CA from Aaron De La Cruz on Vimeo.

Not only does the design seem to be improvised without a predetermined layout but he also does the whole thing free hand which is incredible considering how even and accurate all the lines are.

Here is another even bigger one he did in Los Angeles.

La Brea Mural Project (1of 2), Los Angeles, CA. from Aaron De La Cruz on Vimeo.

Colour me very impressed.

2) Zombie Defense Agency

If, like me, you have an office day job that requires a lot of killing time then I may have just what you need. Miniclip.com has oodles and oodles of flash games you can play for free and quite a lot of them are great for passing the time before clocking out.

zombie

Recently I discovered the tower defense style game Zombie Defense Agency. Anybody who has played Plants Vs. Zombies will get the idea. Stop the zombies from reaching the other side of the screen. I found this game a little more interesting though as the map layouts were more complicated and you really have to think strategically to get it right.

zombie2

There are 15 levels and they do get more difficult as they go along but if you get your layout right they’re never too hard. I know I killed about 6 hours on this thing once so it’s well worth a go if you’re ever bored.

zombies3

3) Jon Stewart Vs. Chris Wallace

I’m not American so it’s strange that I find a show about American politics so good but that’s a testament to the quality of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The guy is funny as hell but also is able to cut through some political rhetoric to get to the real issue… stupidity. And no matter what country you’re from, stupidity is usually the main problem with government.

He recently appeared on Fox News to do an interview with Chris Wallace. Despite your political leanings, it was fascinating to see two men who were mentally sparring with each other on television like that. The back-and-forth is filled with debating traps and a fantastic bit of tension.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you can catch the 15 or so minutes below.

4) NerdBoyfriend.com

I am a male. I am heterosexual. I am interested in fashion. I know it may blow your mind but it’s true. I actually take an interest in the clothes I wear.

My problem for years has been that very little in fashion reporting has been aimed at me. Magazines, websites and television shows are either aimed at women or are made for the type of guy who wears leopard print tights and drives a ferrari (… Rod Stewart?).

costello

So I was extremely excited to find something for my taste which is nerdboyfriend.com. The lovely Veronica Belmont tweeted about it this month and it instantly got bookmarked.

redd

It does exactly what I need it to do; Show me some clothes and show me where I can get them if I like them. I don’t need to read about what’s “so hot right now” or what designer is trending in Milan. Here are some clothes, like ’em? Go get ’em. And it’s stuff I’d actually wear most of the time too! Brilliant.

bridges

5) John Barrowman

It’s not new but I first saw it recently and in celebration of Beyonce becoming the first woman to headline the Glastonbury festival this month I thought it apt.

——————————————————————

And that’s it! My favourite things of the last month.

– Aaron Poole is the creator of feather-knuckle-dusters. He is also more acurately an editor for FRED and rarely leaves the house. If you like what you read here check out his blog http://aaronfever.blogspot.com

June 1, 2011

My Favourite Things – May 2011

Filed under: Articles,My Favourite Things — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Aaron @ 9:40 am

my-favourite-things

May

lucyline.gif

My name is Aaron Poole. Some of you may remember me as the boring one from the FRED podcast Cabin Fever. Other’s may remember me making fun of their band with my Musical Myspace Tour. But most of you don’t care so let’s just get on with this.

In an attempt to send off the month of May the way it deserves I’m going to present you with a list of the things I’ve enjoyed in the past month. I’m hoping that we can share a common love or, if you missed it, I can show you something you might enjoy. Of course, if you hated anything on the list and think I’m a doo-doo head… well that’s what the comment section is for.

1) American Idol / Paul F. Tompkins

Listen, you don’t have to enjoy the show to know that it’s watched by the majority of people. I have a penchant for singing competitions (and judging people from the comfort of my armchair) so Idol ticks a lot of boxes for me. I don’t expect the winners to go on and be legitimate musicians. In fact, I don’t expect to ever hear from these people again once the show is over. But for the 3 months or so that the show is on, I dig it.

I get emotionally invested in geeky beardy kids like Casey Abrams. I get reminded by my girlfriend that I shouldn’t look at Haley Reinhart that way because she’s 8 years younger than me. Yes, I got shocked by Pia getting eliminated so early and yes I got shocked that Jacob is that camp. I’m a sucker for it all.

casey-abrams-and-haley-reinhart
Haley and Casey talking about how much they like me too.

In addition to the show was the wonderful Paul F. Tompkins recaps done for nymag.com. Or is it techincally vulture.com? I can’t tell anymore. MAKE SENSE INTERNET! Anyhoo… Paul would give a run down on his opinion of each show and cut through all the bull to ask the serious questions. Like, who does Randy really believe was in it to win it? And will Steven like any of the performances?

I laughed, I cried. I mostly read. Now that the show is over I would highly recommend reading his recap of his recaps which offers a nice run down on his thoughts on American Idol in general and the task of writing about it twice a week. But if you want to go back over his run and share in the laughs through hindsight just click this dang link here.

2) Jonathan Hickman on War Rocket Ajax

Jonathan Hickman is one of the best comic writers working today. There, I said it. Too controversial a statement? Let’s say that he’s one of my favourites then. But secretly I’ll know I’m right and that he’s one of the best. Whatever gets you through the day, reader person. His Marvel comics S.H.I.E.L.D., Secret Warriors and Fantastic Four are all great reads and considering I’ve never cared about the FF books before his run, that’s saying something.

hickman
“Bring me the head of Johnny Storm”

He recently guested on the podcast War Rocket Ajax which is hosted by big time blogger Chris Sims and Matt Wilson. Hickman talks openly about his work at Marvel and behind the scenes info about what he’s currently working on. It’s a fascinating conversation especially for anyone interested in working in the comic industry as he’s quite frank about what it’s like to create them.

You can listen to the show by clicking this fandabidoozy link. It would be rude of me to say that you can skip to his interview about two thirds of the way into the show so I won’t say anything like that.

3) Jim Henson

May saw the 21st anniversary of Jim Henson’s death. Jim was a man of unending heart and his creations influenced millions of children (and grown ups) around the world. The Muppets and Sesame Street still survive to this day and if you haven’t seen Labyrinth yet then for the love of god GO! DO IT NOW!

Upon hearing of the anniversary I decided to look for some video footage of Jim’s memorial service. I remembered hearing that there were some nice things said and done. Well, I had heard right and I ended up crying like a baby.

Here is a video of Jim’s long time collaborator and friend Frank Oz describing a story highlighting Jim’s crazy sense of humour.

And here are a number of Muppeteers singing a medley of Jim’s favourite songs.

If you’re not wiping away a tear at this point you’re a monster with no soul. FACT.

4) Jesse Lonergan

I discovered Jesse’s blog a couple of months ago and dug it instantly. He is a comic writer/artist who has been noted for his range of dancing Star Wars characters and Superheroes. But I personally enjoy his strips a lot more.

To give you an idea, his About Me page is littered with comics about him and his wry sense of humour is clear.

who_is_jesse_lonergan_09

who_is_jesse_lonergan_03

who_is_jesse_lonergan_08

But specifically in May he began regularly updating his blog with sketches from a moleskin notebook that he draws in everyday. About nothing in particular, they are a neat look into the daily life of a stranger to me.

dailies_051811

dailies_052611

So to check out more of the above head on over to http://jesselonergan.blogspot.com/

5) Barack O’Bama

Regardless of what you think of the man politically, it can’t be denied that the current President of the United States is a wonderful orator. He recently visited my home town of Dublin and gave a speech to 20,000 Irish men and women on the streets.

It was great fun for everyone involved and the speech itself is a nice comment on the relationship between my tiny island and America over the years. At the very least he got a good giggle from me by stating “I’m Barack Obama, of the Moneygall Obamas. I’ve come home to find the apostrophe we lost somewhere along the way.”

Try to ignore the guy talking at the very start. He’s our current head of state.
Click this linkymabob to watch.

——————————————————————

And that’s it! My favourite things of the last month.

– Aaron Poole is the creator of the “hustle” dance craze. He is also more acurately an editor for FRED and rarely leaves the house. If you like what you read here check out his blog http://aaronfever.blogspot.com

« Newer Posts

Powered by WordPress