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Socially awkward partygoers
Dan, Kelly, and Arthur handed out these unbelievably hilarious fake restaurant menus at the Great Googa Mooga Festival in Brooklyn this weekend, and people are freaking out about them. Click through to see the whole thing. It’s a big batch of truly inspired gut-busting nonsense.
Yes, we did this. I am happy with how I’ve spent my time on Earth :)
I love this.
Julie Shapiro: But not all social awareness designs are wildly successful.
Terry McCaffrey (former manager of stamp development at the United States Postal Service): I think one of the biggest examples of a stamp gone wrong was many years ago, before I joined the group, there was this stamp: “Stamp Out Alcoholism.” But unfortunately, it was one of the biggest failures we ever had, because when the message was sent to another person, that person received it and got the impression that the sender was saying “you’re an alcoholic. You need help.” And they, and they found that offensive, so that stamp did not work.
— 99% Invisible, episode 47: Stamps.[video]
Yes. The answer is EVERY ISSUE.
The idea that political discourse, particularly in an election year, was EVER civil is the most delusional nostalgia.
That is all.
(Source: areasofmyexpertise)
Zachary Kanin, Roz Chast, and Paul Noth are the only New Yorker cartoonists worth a damn.
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Just saw an advance screener of the movie Battleship.
First off, I’m not going to do any stupid puns or references to the board game. Yes, it’s dumb that they based a movie off of a board game, but let’s let the movie stand on its own, right? So no “oh, you sunk my $17 into crap!” or “you missed, screenwriters,” or any of that shit.
Now, the surprise: Battleship was actually pretty good. In fact, I really like it.
I mean, at the beginning, you don’t even realize it’s going to be a movie about Battleships. It starts out on land, UNDERNEATH land, in fact, in a bunker. The bunker has a weird portal, like in Stargate (or in Stargate: Atlantis), which leads to outer space. “Oh,” you’re probably thinking, “so the Battleships are going to be spaceships.” Nope. Wrong. I thought the same thing. All that comes through the stargate is 1 single guy. But then the bunker starts to collapse, and the evil alien guy escapes.
Now the Battleship crew needs to be put together. Yes, exposition, blah blah blah, but what was really fascinating to me is that they made each member of the Battleship crew very different, with his/her own traits and abilities. Like, you understood each one very quickly. One of them is a captain, I’m guessing in the navy, and is super patriotic, and a bit old-fashioned. One’s a doctor (always good to have on a ship), very even-keeled (no pun intended) and relaxed. Then there’s some others (one guys shoots arrows! one’s a russian spy! one owns a robot suit!), who are also really cool.
And then, finally, BATTLESHIP! The entire crew arrives on a ship, a giant aircraft carrier, really, and start to plan how they’re going to kill this alien dude. The doctor and the guy in charge of technology/gadgets figure out a plan to track down the evil alien, which they do. In Germany. Pretty hard to sail to Germany, right? Well, that’s when the Battleship TAKES OFF AND BEGINS TO FLY.
See, that’s what is so surprisingly great about this movie. Most screenwriters would have stuck really closely to the original source material, the game Battleship (by Milton Bradley), and just kept the entire thing set in water, with a bunch of ships just firing back and forth at each other. Instead, they make it a constantly surprising, action-packed joy-ride. The flying Battleship goes to Germany, then to New York City, where it almost crashes (!) before finally the portal to the alien galaxy opens, letting in a bunch of alien Battleships, which look like giant worms out of Dune. Pretty cool stuff! The final fight scene is COMPLETELY INSANE, and I won’t even bother to explain all the cool plot twists that happen.
Anyway, I fully expected to hate Battleship. But, if other movies based off of board games are even HALF this good: Keep making them! GO SEE THIS MOVIE!