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The Media Universe Of Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto IV is not so much the apotheosis of modern console entertainment as the first post-modern video game. While it provides the usual bloody entertainment, the latest installment of Rockstar's hit title is also a fully-imagined alternate world—complete with a witty satire of 21st century media. Serbian hardman Niko Bellic, the game's central character, can browse a self-mocking version of photo sharing site Flickr ("perfect for hopeless losers who like to spend days categorizing, alphabetizing and organizing their online galleries") and scour the missed connections on Liberty City's craplist.net ("sorry for checking out your 13-year-old daughter"). Most absurd of all are the mock cable shows—though they contend with their real-world equivalents. The newscasters of Weasel News are even more rabid than Bill O'Reilly and his colleagues at Fox News. If you have a friend with a Playstation, get them to show you I'm Rich, a celebrity show which in this episode profiles a cocaine heiress called Chloe Parker and as absurd as Paris Hilton. A campy British narrator—resembling that of the Daily Show's John Oliver—provides the voiceover.Chloe Parker went from tycoon tot to tycoon twat... She's got it all. Daddy, money, and one of those tiny little dogs that rich people keep in their vagina... Her penthouse in Algonquin's exclusive Little Barkings district is a palace in the sky complete with a motor drawbridge, torture dungeon, and servants with scurvy. This is real estate we can only watch on television and masturbate over. (After the jump, the clip, and two screenshots from Liberty City's self-mocking version of the web; and here's blow-by-blow coverage of Grand Theft Auto's new release from Kotaku.)More »
movies
Stop Adapting The Wrong Comics
The movie-going public is experiencing an endless continuum of superhero summers, a trend that doesn't look to be abating any time this decade. The occasional comic-cum-movie is an artistic success, but generally the final product is nothing but a debacle, the latest of which is Sin City creator Frank Miller's mission to ruin comics legend Will Eisner's classic The Spirit. As bad as The Spirit with cell phones might well be, it pales next to the specter of forthcoming adaptations of the already troubled The Incredible Hulk, and the rest of the in-production or planned films ripped from comic book pages: Wolverine, Watchmen, Iron Man, Atlantis Rising, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Nick Fury, Madman, Hack/Slash, Largo Winch, Luke Cage, Whiteout, Wanted, Magneto, Superman: Man of Steel, The Sub-Mariner, Punisher: War Zone, Hellboy 2, Sin City 2, and Spiderman 4, just to name a few. There are absolutely worthy properties here, but the majority of these features will fade away like so many Daredevils. But fear not, Hollywood. Here are four comics tailor-made for the screen that may eventually be needed to bring the genre back to life. More »
newspapers
These mock newspapers are props from Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick's long-banned 1971 movie, starring Malcolm McDowell as a psychopathic gang leader in a dystopic 1990s England. The Ludovico cure touted in the headlines is a brutal and experimental aversion therapy. Science fiction site io9 has a roundup of other futuristic newspapers from the movies. Enjoy the imagery: before print newspapers disappear from circulation, they'll disappear from movie-makers' vision of the future.
Photo by Nick Poteri
When Papers Had A Future
These mock newspapers are props from Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick's long-banned 1971 movie, starring Malcolm McDowell as a psychopathic gang leader in a dystopic 1990s England. The Ludovico cure touted in the headlines is a brutal and experimental aversion therapy. Science fiction site io9 has a roundup of other futuristic newspapers from the movies. Enjoy the imagery: before print newspapers disappear from circulation, they'll disappear from movie-makers' vision of the future.
Photo by Nick Poteri
pic of the day
High dynamic range imaging, a technique which amplifies the tonal range in a photograph, is particularly effective in capturing cityscapes. This panorama, New York City at Night, by Paulo Barcellos, gives the midtown skyscrapers an ambience that looks borrowed from the computer generated imagery of the Batman movies. Click the image to enlarge.
Gotham
High dynamic range imaging, a technique which amplifies the tonal range in a photograph, is particularly effective in capturing cityscapes. This panorama, New York City at Night, by Paulo Barcellos, gives the midtown skyscrapers an ambience that looks borrowed from the computer generated imagery of the Batman movies. Click the image to enlarge.
science
The Greatest Science Fair Pictures Ever
The science fair: a traditional rite of passage for all American schoolchildren. The nerds who do it well, the losers who do it at the last second, and everyone in between. Add in the fact that science fair projects get assigned in middle school—when all of us are at our most disgustingly awkward—and you have all the ingredients for some of the most hilarious pictures you have ever seen. After the jump, the ten greatest science fair project photos [from a longer list at Photo Basement] on the Internet, or anywhere else in the universe. More »
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