So, this video starts out with Aurora stuck in a cage in a back of a truck and your natural reaction is to say, “Get her out of that cage!” Of course, as soon as she gets out, she kills a man, starts to spit up eggs, and eventually finds herself in one of those dystopian clubs that everyone goes to in the future. (I mean, even Britney Spears found herself stuck at one.)
So, maybe things were actually better in the cage. Perhaps that’s what the future holds for us all — a cage of our own on the back of a truck. Hopefully, there will be some variety as far as the cages are concerned. Myself, I’d prefer a big cage that has room for a bad and a couch and nice TV. It would appear that Aurora got suck in one of the cheaper cages, which just doesn’t seem right.
I believe that the point of this video is that everyone’s an animal, driven by animalistic desires. I have to agree with that and it certainly does explain a lot about what’s been happening on twitter lately. That said, I like the video mostly because I have a weakness for shadowy cityscapes. There’s literally not a single song that can’t be improved by a music video taking place in a dark alley.
Born and, with the exception of four years spent in Texas, raised in Pennsylvania, Mark Schneider’s interest in art was evident from a young age. He started his formal training when he was 16 years old and, a year later, he would win an art contest sponsored by the magazine, Open Road For Boys. After graduating high school, he moved to New York City and studied at the Art Students League while seeking work as a commercial artist. He quickly found employment in the growing comic book industry, working on titles like Keen Detective Comics and Detective Eye Comics.
His career was interrupted by the attack on Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the U.S. Army, saw combat in Europe and Northern Africa, and served through the entirety of World War II, reaching the rank of sergeant. After the war, he returned to New York and returned to work as a commercial illustrator. It was after the war that he painted the pulp covers for which he’s probably best known. Working for magazines with titles like Sir! For Me, Schneider’s covers often featured manly men and beautiful women in exotic settings or combat scenes.
Here’s a small sampling of his work:
The three Schneider covers below remind me that it’s been a while since I’ve been on a tropical vacation. Maybe this summer!
Or maybe I’ll just say home. Those vacations look dangerous.
Time to return to our latest Song of the Day: K-Pop Edition. While most of the entries, so far, has been K-Pop artists who fall under either the bubbly pop or the more mature sound, there are a bevy of K-Pop artists who we in the West would probably characterize as indie solo or group artists.
These are K-Pop performers whose music don’t easily fall under the well-known K-Pop music categories such as dancepop, bubble pop, R&B or Jazz fusion. Their songs are usually more indie pop or folk rock.
One such K-Pop artist is the duo Bolbbalgan4 or BOL4 for short. The group’s comprised of Ahn Ji-young and Woo Ji-yoon. The former handles the main vocals of the duo’s songs while the latter does everything else from being the group’s guitarist, bass player, rapper and back-up vocals.
The one song that’s gotten some major playtime and has become a favorite of K-Pop fans worldwide is their “Song” which talks about a girl at the cusp of puberty who is preparing to deal with her first love (or crush) and going through stages on how to prep, practice and go about dealing with it.
Well, there were slim pickings in this year’s Super Bowl commercial race. Mercedes Benz featured The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Stella Artois gave us the return of The Dude, and that Bud Light/Game of Thrones mash-up was pretty cool. But the ad that had everyone at the Super Bowl I attended roaring with laughter was this one starring Craig Robinson:
Yeah I know, it’s sophomoric, but also funny as hell!!
So, I’m sitting here like I do every year and I’m trying to pick my favorite Super Bowl ads. (After all, the commercials are the only reason that I ever watch the Super Bowl.) And I have to say that I’m having some difficulty doing it this year because, for the most part, all of the commercials were hella forgettable. There were a few good ones and a few bad ones but the majority of them were just kind of there.
The bad ones, of course, were easy to spot. There was that creepy Robochild who I guess is supposed to convince you to get your taxes done or something. The first Google ad — the one about people using Google translate to discover how to say “I love you” — was a bit too desperate to convince us that Google is a force of good as opposed to evil. (As long as I can always use it to check the weather, I really don’t care what Google does in its spare time.) I might have liked the Steve Carell Pepsi ads if they had been for Coke instead. You have to understand that, down south where I live, we kind of find Pepsi to be offensive.
To be honest, the best ads were the movie trailers but I just spent about 5 hours posting all 16 of those to the site. Here are 6 other commercials that, regardless of whether I liked them or even found them to be effective, I won’t forget.
1. Every Super Bowl, I look forward to the new M&M’s commercial. This year’s was as cute as always and Christina Applegate did a good job selling the frustration.
2. I didn’t necessarily like this Audi commercial but it did spark an interesting theological debate between me and my sister about whether or not anyone would really need a car in Heaven. Eventually, we concluded that the guy was actually in Purgatory, or at least he was until his life was saved. It bothers me that, at the end of the commercial, that guy has a half-digested cashew somewhere on his desk.
3. I preferred the robots from this Michelob commercials to the Robo Child.
4. I’m not really sure what’s supposed to be going on in these commercials for Turkish Airlines. I’m assuming that this is meant to be appeal to international assassins.
5. I did like this Olay commercial, mostly because of the horror angle.
6. And finally, there’s this commercial, which starts out as a Bud Light commercial but then quickly becomes something else. I know I already shared this earlier tonight but seriously, this was so obviously the winner of the Super Bowl commercial sweepstakes that I simply have to show it again!
It wasn’t pretty. Defense dominated the game, but a late scoring drive by Tom Brady led to a Sony Michel touchdown, and the New England Patriots beat the Los Angeles Rams 13-3. It was the Pats’ sixth Super Bowl victory, tying them with the Pittsburgh Steelers for most championships in the Super Bowl era. Say what you want about it, but this native New Englander remembers when they flat-out sucked, making all this winning soooo much sweeter!
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – FEBRUARY 03: Sony Michel #26 of the New England Patriots scores a touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams in the fourth quarter during Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on February 03, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Neither team could get anything going on offense, as the Rams’ #2 ranked defense and the Pats’ #4 ranked defense hit hard. Stephen Gostkowski nailed a 42 yard field…
Right after the game ended, PIXAR snuck in this little teaser for Toy Story 4. I have to admit that I nearly changed the channel and missed it. I’m glad I didn’t!
Anyway, it looks like Buzz is still getting into trouble and Woody is still trying to hold it all together. To be honest, I thought Toy Story 3 ended the series on a perfect note so I’ll be curious to see what they do with Toy Story 4. But you know what? It’s PIXAR and it’s Toy Story so I have faith!
Through the Shattered Lens 