Pepidemic

The Bat-Man Strikes Again

Mark K. — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:27:00 +0000

The Caped Crusader has survived nearly every possible depiction, from corny to epic — but how often is he drawn in the style of Edward Gorey?

And then there’s this: a 1920s-style Batman movie made up of authentic-looking title cards and eerily-appropriate footage from actual silent films. Very cool.

Highland Levee

Mark K. — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 17:00:17 +0000

In the auld days afore Facebook, the web was crawling with personal sites low on design but high on awesome. Now the majority are gone . . . but a few remain.

Here’s one such: a site with dozens of bagpipe tune scores (89 of which are not Amazing Grace!), together with lyrics and surprisingly-realistic MIDI renditions. Why you would care unless you love bekilted men or play the pipes (which, of course, you should) is beyond me, though — so here’s another musical link from Web 1.0 for the rest of you: a line-by-line explanation of the lyrics of American Pie.

James Joyce: apparent!

Mark K. — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 05:24:01 +0000

A confession: I still have not yet read any Joyce. Or at least, had not until I decided to write this post, at which point I read the first episode of Ulysses rather too fast, but still found it surprisingly easy to make sense of (on a surface level, at least).

But maybe that was because of this—

Great art and English-professor-style analysis make the impenetrable, not-so-rough.

(Also, I’ve now another decade under my belt! FYI?)

James Joyce, apparently

Mark K. — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:13:16 +0000

The newly nearly-memeified website IWL.me compares samples of your writing to the works of famous authors by analyzing sentence structure, word choice, and things like that. It’s not always accurate,¹ but it’s nifty.

Anyways, I fed a bunch of short stories I’ve written into it, and a good 50% of the time it claims that I write like James Joyce! Not, of course, that I’m as brilliant as he — it’s probably just that we us a similar amount of semicolons. Hopefully at least I’m not as confusing as the Irish genius!

But maybe it’s all wrong. After all, IWL.me is an initialism for “I Write Like . . . me.”

Now I gotta go read some Joyce.

Digital analysis of intangibles often tends toward mistake, though: Typealyzer gets my first three type preferences dead wrong.

Monstrous Magnificence in Miniature

Mark K. — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:00:46 +0000

300+ Monsters.

At a resolution of 30×30 pixels.

With facts.

Green? What’s that?

Mark K. — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:00:30 +0000

To build sympathy with the colorblind, try Wickline’s Colorfilter! Guaranteed to make any webpage look like you have daltonism, dichromacy, or a vision deficiency of another hue. Notice no difference? Perhaps this is no illusion!

Wickline’s Colorfilter. For Sympathy, Awareness, and Diagnosis-at-home.

(NOT FOR CONSUMPTION WHILE PREGNANT, INEBRATED, OR OTHERWISE INCAPABLE OF WALKING IN A STRAIGHT LINE AND LOOKING AT YOUR FEET AT THE SAME TIME. SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY. USE AS DIRECTED.)

Vader, kijk naar de bloemen!

Mark K. — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:00:46 +0000

Even dark lords have to take a break from time to time. And what more relaxing recreation exists than a stroll through Naboo’s countryside with a little kid and a jaunty parasol?

Also, it appears Robin isn’t Batman’s only lover . . .

Ha. Haha. Hahaha!

Mark K. — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:56:35 +0000

Laughter can make almost anything seem funny, as my friend Loren Crisp has demonstrated.

Tip for aspiring comedians: stock a well-paid laughing gallery, and you’ll go far.

Animated Discussion

Mark K. — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 06:21:01 +0000

Terry Gilliam, brilliant director of surreal films like Brazil and artist behind all the hilarious animations in Monty Python, knows his stuff. Here he lists what he considers to be the ten best animated films . . . of all time!

Future Fashion Now

Mark K. — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:13:53 +0000

“. . .Yet another designer goes so far as to believe that skirts will disappear entirely!”