Month: August 2009 (Page 1 of 2)

Yes, Disney has acquired Marvel. Mickey Mouse will own Spider-man. I’m posting the press release after the jump, but here’s a few predictions about what this will mean:

When Marvel’s movie deal with Paramount expires (this deal includes Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor and The Avengers), Disney will take over distributing Marvel’s movies.

The cable channel “Disney XD,” which used to be called “Toon Disney,” will be renamed “The Marvel Channel” within a couple of years.

Some of the Disney comic book properties currently with Boom! Studios will move to Marvel, but not all of them.

Marvel charactes will exit Universal Studios theme parks and move to Disneyland and Disney World.

The toy licensing deals will take years to unravel. Mattel currently holds the master toy license for Disney (and for Marvel’s rival, DC Comics) while Marvel is in a multi-year toy licenisng deal with Hasbro. This could prevent some cross-merchandising for a few years.
However, that doesn’t mean that The Disney Store won’t get exclusive Marvel product, if that chain even stays in business.

This is all speculation, but most of what I wrote could be considered “educated guesses.” It will be, as the Chinese curse goes, interesting times.

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Believe it or not, the image you see above is a digitally-assaulted photograph, based on the same root image from which I derived last week’s Monday Morning Art, which was the abstract-looking color bar sort of thing.

After the jump, you can see the original image, and a few of the steps along the way that saw the above image of me and Melanie in Pittsburgh turn into this.

You can also click on the above image to see a larger version.

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No rhyme nor reason to the vids this week. Above you see a parody of Japanese video game promos. “Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend” is sure to provoke an all-caps “WTF” from even the most seasoned of internet viewers.

After the jump, a few totally unrelated clips. Also, RFC 80 is being delayed until September 7, due to computer issues.

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The PopCulteer
August 28, 2009

A MILESTONE OF EPIC PROPORTIONS

Four years ago today the I wrote the very first PopCult post. It wasn’t much. A goofy item consisting mainly of alliteration, but it was the start of what is the longest-running single-author blog here at The Charleston Gazette. Also in the early days of test posting, I wrote about my since-changed stance on seafood, posted the first piece of my digital art and composed what is still one of my favorite brief bits of silliness.

Since then I’ve written about toys, comic books, movies, television, animation, art and music. With Radio Free Charleston, I’ve brought you tons of local music, film and animation. I made a concerted effort to make this blog as much like a personal blog as I can while still focusing on pop culture as much as possible.

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RFC 79 "DOMO Shirt" from RFC Archives on Myspace.

Above you see “DOMO Shirt,” the 79th episode of Radio Free Charleston. In this episode you will find the special means by which to enter The First Great Guitar Giveaway! You’ll also get to hear music from Columbus Ohio’s Melty Melty, The Drunken Gentlemen and Douglas Imbrogno, backed up by Casi Null and Jeff Ellis.

In addition to tall that, you get a brand-spanking-new Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie, and our host segments, which were filmed just last night (as I write this) at Appalachian Power Park. We decided to tape there because RFC’s camera mistress and resident diva, Melanie Larch, was called in at the last minute to sing The National Anthem. If you can’t see RFC 79 at the top of this post, click here to watch it.

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The above piece of art, presented to kick off this week, is actually a digitally-assaulted photograph of Melanie and me, taken recently in Pittsburgh. Sometimes, when digitally-assaulting a photograph, I go a bit too far. Next week, I’ll post the original photo and an assaulted version that isn’t quite so extreme.

Still, I like this one. Click it to enlarge.

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Above you see the closing minutes from the 38th Episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. This little set of fake promos for fictional BBC comedy shows was cut from most prints of the series in the early 1980s, and has rarely been seen since. This clip comes from German TV, where it was shown, as a fluke, once in the 1990s at the beginning of episode 39.

Nobody’s quite sussed out the reasons why this sketch was excised from the show. Speculation is that it was mistakenly thought to be a real promo for the BBC, since it came after the end credits, and as such was surgically removed by an overzealous editor. I know that in the 1980s, before there were easily-accessible episode guides for Monty Python, I was confused as to where this sketch went.

Thus far, this sketch has escaped inclusion on any of the “Complete” DVD boxed sets of Monty Python’s TV series. It’s not on the 14-disc set, the 16-disc “more complete” set, nor the 21-disc “way more complete set.” Perhaps one day this 108-second chuck of the show will be released as a boxed set of its own.

After the jump, more Monty Python, because the world needs more Monty Python.

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The PopCulteer
August 21, 2009

Turning Out The Light

This is no revelation. I’ve already outed myself here in PopCult. I’ve been watching the soap opera, Guiding Light, for thirty years. On September 18, the final episode of GL, the longest-running show in broadcast history, will air on CBS. It looks like there will be no reprieve. No announcement has been made about moving the show to another broadcast or cable network, and production ended last week.

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I’m proud to be part of this multi-artist show at The Good News Mountaineer Garage Gallery on Hale Street. Thanks to Chip Tantlinger of Marshhouse for putting together such a great show. Read more about Chip here.

This week’s Monday Morning Art is a digitally-assaulted photo titled “Bloonz.” It’s based on a photo taken at a Karaoke party at LiveMix Studio last year. Along the way of digitally assaulting this photo, I found that there were two versions of it that I liked. The one you see above is the image processed through an eggshell paint filter. On the other side of the “Read More” link, you can see the image with just a little brightening plus an aspect ratio change and rotation. See which one you like best.

Click the images to enlarge, and be sure to head out to The Good News Mountaineer Garage Gallery this Thursday to see my first gallery work in twenty years as part of Marshhouse Art’s Dog Days exhibit.

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