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2016/03/24

Neatorama

Neatorama

17 Memorable Screen Kisses

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 05:00 AM PDT

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

 1) The first screen kiss

(YouTube link)

The first-ever kiss in a movie took place in 1896. It was between Mae Irwin and John Rice. The kiss itself only lasts for a few brief seconds, but it caused quite a scandal in those simpler times.

“They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss and kiss and kiss in a way that brings down the house.”  -The Edison Catalogue

2) Most kisses in a single film

John Barrymore kisses various beautiful women a record 191 times in 1926's Don Juan, the first Warner Brothers Vitaphone film that mixed sound and music. A 167-minute film, 191 kisses- that comes out to a kiss every 53 seconds.
    
3) First girl-on-girl kiss

Okay, here's your question of the day: which took place first in cinema history, two women kissing or two guys? The first all-girl kiss took place a full 41 years before two guys caught up.

In 1930, the gorgeous Marlene Dietrich, dressed up in a man's tuxedo, presses her lips against another woman in the 1930 film Morocco. Marlene was nominated for an Academy Award for her role. This despite knowing little English and speaking her dialogue phonetically.

4) First guy-on-guy kiss

in 1971, in Sunday Bloody Sunday, Peter Finch kisses a guy and makes film history. This was to be filmdom's first guy-on-guy kiss. When asked about his historic kiss, Finch replied: “I did it for England.”

5) Man kisses cow?

Well, actually it was a small cow, a calf. What actor would ever kiss a cow?

Harpo Marx (who else?) The movie's zaniest comedian smothers a little calf with kisses at the end of the wonderful Marx brothers film Monkey Business (1931). We'll never know for sure, but I’d bet the scene was ad-libbed.

6) First open-mouthed kiss

In Flesh and the Devil (1926), John Gilbert and Greta Garbo make motion picture history and passionately kiss open-mouthed. The passion was, apparently, very real. At the time, Greta and John were carrying on a very hot affair, which led to them co-starring in three more films before their brief but intense affair ended.

7) Longest kiss in a movie between a man and a woman

In the 1941 film You're in the Army Now, Regis Toomey and Jane Wyman lock lips for a record three minutes and five seconds.

8) Stooge-on-Stooge kiss

In several Three Stooges shorts, Curly would kiss Moe, mistakenly thinking he was a beautiful girl.(This may be another movie first, as Curly Howard was Moe's kid brother in real life. Was there ever a previous brother-on-brother movie kiss?) Then, inevitably, Moe would spit the kiss out, wipe his mouth and utter “I’ve been poisoned.”

Of course, a hard slap by Moe would always follow. (What did you expect? This was the three Stooges not Wuthering Heights, folks.)

9) Elvis gets his first screen kiss

Elvis Presley did not kiss any girls until his second movie 1957's Loving You. In the historic scene, Elvis (as “Deke Rivers) presses his lips against the lips of Jana Lund, who plays “Daisy,” an impetuous girl who sneaks into his dressing room. The first “Elvis-initiated" kiss, takes place later in the same film between Elvis and his co-star, Dolores Hart (who is now a nun).
             
10) Biggest age difference between two kissers

Would you believe 49 years? In the cult classic Harold and Maude, Ruth Gordon, age 73, kisses her lover, Bud Cort, age 23.(The kiss does not seem "gross" or "disgusting,” but instead is very touching.)

11) First ever interracial movie kiss

The cinema's first interracial kiss took place in 1957 in Island in the Sun. The movie's plot is about the passions of four different couples (two of which are black and white mixed couples). The couples are Harry Belafonte (black) and Joan Fontaine (white), and John Justin (white) and Dorothy Dandridge (black.)

Because of the racist stereotypes at the time involving black men and white women, the studio decided it would be less dangerous/controversial to have the white man kiss the black woman, and John Justin and Dorothy Dandridge became the historic couple.

As a cruel sidebar, Joan Fontaine recalled receiving hundreds of "hate mail" letters for falling in love with a black man. Many of the hateful letters included dimes and quarters and said, “If you're so hard up you have to work with a n*****r"

12) Jerry Lewis kisses Dean Martin

Perhaps the most popular movie comedy team of all-time was Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Dean and Jerry made 16 films together from 1949 to 1956 and each one was a money-maker, the pair never had a box office flop.

But 1955's Martin and Lewis film Artists and Models was unique. In a touching scene in the film where Dean makes Jerry happy by reassuring him about his loyalty, Jerry kisses his comedy partner (albeit on the cheek).

13) Best Christmas film kiss

In the most beloved christmas film, It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Jimmy Stewart (George Bailey) locks lips with Donna Reed (Mary). According to Hollywood legend, Stewart was extremely nervous about his first post-World War II screen kiss and forget half a page of dialogue. The lack of actual scripted dialogue made the kiss seem more passionate and genuine.

When the assistant director informed director Frank Capra about the missing dialogue, Capra replied: “With acting like that, who needs dialogue?" This kiss remains one of the most realistic, unique and beloved in movie history.

14) The Spiderman upside-down kiss

No kiss of recent movie times has generated as much attention, passion and conversation as the Tobey MacGuire-Kirsten Dunst upside-down kiss in Spiderman (2002). It was perhaps the movies' first-ever kiss where one of the two parties is upside-down.

Poor Tobey didn't mind the kiss itself, but because the smooch took place in a rainy scene, Tobey said the worst part of filming it was the water going up his nose.
            
15) Most beloved and iconic screen kiss of all-time?

Although the question is debatable, perhaps the most beloved and iconic screen kiss of all-time is the Burt Lancaster-Deborah Kerr "on the beach while the waves splash them" kiss in the 1953 Best Picture Oscar winner From Here to Eternity.

The kiss was not originally intended to take place in the surf, but was a last minute inspiration of director Fred Zinneman. The MPAA banned the kiss on the grounds that it was "too erotic.”

Many prints of the film had shortened versions of the film because projectionists would cut out frames to keep as souvenirs.

The legendary scene has been satirized and copied in many films, including The Seven Year Itch, Shrek, Airplane! and Grease.

16) Rhett Butler kisses Scarlett O’Hara

Countless women the world over have swooned while watching Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) sweep Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) in his masculine arms and plant a steamy kiss on her waiting lips in 1939's immortal Gone With The Wind.

Ironically, although the legions of ladies have fantasized about kissing the king, the truth is, Vivien did not enjoy kissing the legendary Mr. Gable. According to Vivien, she hated kissing Clark because "his dentures stank.”

17) Kissing Marilyn Monroe "was like kissing Hitler"

One of the screen's steamiest-ever kisses took place between Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe in the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959). In the famous scene, Marilyn is trying to seduce Tony and she kisses him quote aggressively to drive home her point.

Locking lips with Marilyn Monroe was every male in the movie-going world's dream, but two things occurred during filming. One, Marilyn kept flubbing and forgetting her lines, causing take-after-take consternation in Curtis. And two, even worse, poor Tony had to keep taking a bite of a chicken leg before each messed up take, causing him to develop a severe aversion to chicken.

When asked later about the kisses by the press, Curtis, surprisingly and famously, said that kissing Marilyn Monroe "was like kissing Hitler.”

For the record, Curtis was very vague about the quote for the rest of his life, and sometimes even denied ever saying it.

       

Secret Menu Items at Your Favorite Restaurants

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 04:00 AM PDT

Nathan Yaffe and Caldwell Tanner present this helpful chart illustrating what you can order at popular restaurants. Not everything is on the published menu.

Also: try the "Millennial" at Advance Auto Parts. That's an engine air filter from a 2000 Ford Taurus served with a side of beans from survival rations.

Crawly Eyes - Look Out, Here Comes Two Spiders, Man

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 03:00 AM PDT


Crawly Eyes by Zerobriant

Isn't it funny how our obsession with a pop culture character can result in us seeing that character everywhere we go? Suddenly a trash can or mail box starts to look like Iron Man, or a mossy hill looks like the Hulk preparing to smash, or spiders crawling over a web look like the masked face of our friendly neighborhood webslinger. Wait a minute, those spiders look mighty dangerous man, we'd better step away and hope they didn't spot us...

People will marvel at your geeky sense of style when you wear this Crawly Eyes t-shirt by Zerobriant, it's the creepy way to show love for your favorite webhead!

Visit Zerobriant's Facebook fan page, official website, Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more geek-tastic designs:

Lord Of The 80sFeel The BernDeath PortalSandshoes, Chinny and Grandad

View more designs by Zerobriant | More Comic T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Cincinnati Zoo Easter Egg Hunt

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 03:00 AM PDT

You know who hunts eggs at the Cincinnati zoo Easter egg hunt? Gorillas! And it looks a bit like a human Easter egg hunt, except for the basket flinging, the immediate eating of real eggs, and the lack of crying.

(YouTube link)

A good time was had by all. -via Tastefully Offensive

Beautiful Cocktails Inspired by Famous Paintings

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 02:00 AM PDT

Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night is intoxicatingly beautiful--and now literally intoxicating. Rajendra Limbu, a bartender at the Artesian Lounge, a bar in the luxurious Langham hotel in Hong Kong, recreated it and other famous paintings in mixed drinks. They're painted on egg foam on the surface and accented by the base colors of the drinks themselves.

Blouin Art Info reports that they'll be on display at the Art Basel show in Hong Kong this weekend.

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí.

Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow by Piet Mondrian.

-via Fubiz

20 Fashionable Facts About <i>Miami Vice</i>

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 01:00 AM PDT

The days of Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs busting cocaine dealers on Miami Vice really do seem like thirty years ago. The show was very very much a product of its time, and at the same time, was very influential in shaping our memories of that time. My husband quit wearing socks and put a blazer (a cheap one) over his t-shirts for work. Whatever song the show played would be heavily requested the next day. And then suddenly, that all stopped, and the ‘80s were over. Let’s go back in time and find out a little more than we already know about Miami Vice.  

1. “MTV COPS” WAS THE MAIN CONCEIT OF THE SERIES.

There have been differing opinions as to who came up with the idea of “MTV Cops” as a summary for what Miami Vice should be. While many sources claim that it was Brandon Tartikoff who scribbled down the two-word idea as a brainstorming memo, show creator Anthony Yerkovich has maintained that he spent years developing the idea that would become Miami Vice. “I thought of [Miami] as a sort of a modern-day American Casablanca,” Yerkovich told TIME in 1985. “It seemed to be an interesting socioeconomic tide pool: the incredible number of refugees from Central America and Cuba, the already extensive Cuban-American community, and on top of all that the drug trade.”

Regardless of whether you believe the story about the Tartikoff memo, there’s no denying that Miami Vice did become a cop show for the MTV generation. “The show is written for an MTV audience, which is more interested in images, emotions, and energy than plot and character and words,” said Lee Katzin, who directed two episodes of the show’s first season.

4. THE NETWORK DIDN’T WANT DON JOHNSON.

Though the casting conversation kept coming back to Don Johnson for the role of Sonny Crockett, the network was against casting him, deeming him pilot poison. “I had made five pilots for Brandon Tartikoff back then, and none of them were picked up,” Johnson told Rolling Stone.

Well, the sixth time was a charm. The show went on to influence fashion, music, tourism, and even architecture. Read the behind-the-scenes trivia about Miami Vice at mental_floss.

A Pokémon Card Made from 12,987 Pokémon Cards

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 12:00 AM PDT

(Photo: Pokémon Company International)

The Pokémon entertainment franchise turned 20 this year. Early in its history, Pokémon was a trading card game. So to celebrate the occasion, British artist Quentin Devine created an enormous mosaic depicting the original Pikachu card.

Video Gamer reports that Devine arranged 12,987 cards into a mosaic measuring 770 square feet. This secured Devine a Guinness World Record for the largest trading card mosaic.

You can see a video showing how Devine made it here.

-via Nerd Approved

Abridged Classics

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 11:00 PM PDT

Face it, you’ll never have time to read those books you’ve heard about all your life. Most of them are pretty long. The Grapes of Wrath is probably the shortest of these, and it’s so depressing it may as well be nonfiction. John Atkinson has those stories boiled down to a couple of pithy lines, so you have the plot in a nutshell. And I heard that boiled pith and nutshells are full of fiber, if not flavor. These comics are from Wrong Hands, here and here.

Clever Invention Helps Brides Use the Toilet While Wearing Their Gowns

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 10:00 PM PDT

It's your big day! Everything is, finally, perfect. The planning and execution has gone off without a hitch. You're in your glamorous gown and ready to walk down the aisle. But first you need to visit the toilet.

How are you going to do that in your enormous, diaphanous gown?

That's where the Bridal Buddy comes in. This invention is a fabric bag that you put on before slipping on your gown. It has two arm holes built into the bottom, as well as a drawstring hem. When you need to heed Nature's call, then bag up your gown in the Bridal Buddy and get to work.


(Video Link)

-via Huffington Post

Smithsonian 2015 Photo Contest Winners

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 09:00 PM PDT

The 13th Annual Smithsonian.com Photo Contest has announced their winners. The Grand Prize went to image above, by Albert Ivan Damanik of Medan, Indonesia. It is the June 2015 eruption of Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra.



The Reader’s Choice Award photo is by Alice van Kempen of Rockanje, Netherlands. Her dog Claire is posing in an abandoned train in a picture from her series "Leave Only Pawprints: Urbex Adventures With My Bull Terrier Claire."

See all the winners and finalists at Smithsonian. The 2016 contest is now taking submissions.

Jabba the Hutt Marshmallow Treats

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 08:00 PM PDT

In the traditional version of the Easter story, Jabba the Hutt emerges from his tomb on Easter morning to give treats to boys and girls who have been good that year. And Jenn Fujikawa has the perfect breakfast treat for the occasion.

She shaped liquid marshmallow into Jabba's body as it cooled, then coated it with green sanding sugar. Then she added his face with brown and yellow icing. You can find her full recipe here.

-via Laughing Squid

Abandoned Glasgow: 10 Derelict Places in Scotland’s Largest City

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 07:00 PM PDT

The industrial metropolis of Glasgow, Scotland, has extra-large abandoned places. These include factories, stadiums, hospitals, railway stations, stockyards, pubs, and even a zoo. The institution pictured here is the interior of the imposing Gothic Gartloch Asylum.

Unnerving as it may have been in its heyday, Gartloch now is simply bleak – in a beautiful sort of way. Opened in 1896 and once serving 800 psychiatric patients, this grand, Grade A listed structure finally closed its doors exactly one hundred years later. While other buildings have been repurposed into flats, its haunting administration block has thus far remained eerily empty.

See many more pictures of the asylum and nine other sad and majestic abandoned facilities in Glasgow at Urban Ghosts.

(Image credit: Flickr user Skin - ubx)

If Randy Newman Created The Soundtrack For Batman V Superman

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 06:00 PM PDT

It's easy to identify a Randy Newman soundtrack song, and his scruffy dog voice and hammy piano tinkling has sent many a movie viewer home with one of Randy's songs stuck in their heads.

However, Randy's cinematic track record wasn't enough to convince director Zack Snyder to hire him for the new superhero flick Batman V Superman, which is why that movie is sure to suck.

(YouTube Link)

Cheers to Bad Movie Drinking Game for showing us what every single superhero movie has been missing- a soundtrack by Randy Newman!

-Via GeekTyrant

Midgar's Roller Girls - Skating Their Way To Victory

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 05:00 PM PDT


Midgar's Roller Girls by Coinbox Tees

What do Midgar's battle tested women do when they're finally done fighting to save their world? They play roller derby, because it's the best way to skate and scrap their way to glory when they're off the battlefield. And if you think battling a pack of Shinra soldiers is tough wait until you square off against these mighty fantasy femmes on the track, they'll limit break your line right through the boards!

Support the winning team with this Midgar's Roller Girls t-shirt by Coinbox Tees, it's a fun way to declare your love of derby and RPGs at the same time.

Visit Coinbox Tees's Facebook fan page, Tumblr and Twitter, then head on over to their NeatoShop for more mighty geeky designs:

Adventure TavernPlanet Zebes Roller GirlsWho Would Win?Animal Rescue

View more designs by Coinbox Tees | More Video Game T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

The Blood on <i>The Walking Dead</i>

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 05:00 PM PDT

The production team from the TV show The Walking Dead goes through buckets and buckets of blood. So much blood. Of course, it’s all fake blood, and it comes in many different types. Property master John Sanders explains the many different types of blood the show uses. There are different colors for the zombie blood, depending on how rotten they are, different viscosities for the specific ways blood is used in a scene, and some workarounds, too, because shooting blood on film is different from real life.   

If a weapon has to remain bloodied for more than one scene, they'll usually paint onto a plastic or rubber version of the prop weapon. This way the team won't have to worry about permanently staining the weapon, as the alcohol based blood is easier to wash off. This trick is especially handy because one scene may take multiple days to film, and constantly re-staining with prop blood may damage the weapon.

"We have a number of alcohol based paints that we’ll paint on there because they may have to match that for a whole scene," Sanders explained. "That weapon’s supposed to be bloody for the next 10 scenes of the show, but those 10 scenes may be over eight days. We have a lot of tricks."

Altogether, Sanders must keep track of a dozen different kinds of blood. Read more about the complicated world of fake blood in the production of The Walking Dead.  -via Digg

Six Times An Online Poll Ended In Hilarious Disaster

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 04:00 PM PDT

(Image Link)

When polls required respondents to mail in their vote far fewer crackpots chimed in and therefore most polls ended with usable results, but then the internet came along and changed all that.

Since everyone and their brother are online these days everyone gets a vote, including the people who think it's reasonable to name an important ship Boaty McBoatface or an endangered humpback whale Mr. Splashy Pants.

It seems online voters like a good laugh, which is why Nancy Upton came in first in American Apparel's "Next Big Thing" contest to find a new plus sized model.

(Image Link)

She made herself the most ironic choice by posing for a series of "sexy" photos taken by Shannon Skloss that lampoon those sexy American Apparel ads that make people lose their appetites.

Read Boaty McBoatface And Six Other Times When Online Polls Sailed Adrift here

Bananaman to the Rescue!

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 03:00 PM PDT


(YouTube link)

A naked man ran down Broad Street in Birmingham, UK, in front of the Saturday night crowd. The unnamed 47-year-old man run up and down the street, occasionally pausing to pose for the onlookers and their phone cameras, until police arrived. But that wasn’t the weirdest part of the caper. It was when a superhero showed up. 

Then the night became even crazier when a man dressed as the superhero Bananaman, in a yellow cape, yellow boots and blue bodysuit, sprang into action at the sight of the streaker.

New footage shows Bananaman bravely holding out his hand out to halt traffic and pedestrians while the streaker stops a silver car and is seen jumping in front of a double decker bus waving his arms around.

Female onlookers cheer Bananaman as the dynamic duo join forces and prance around on the pavement.

The streaker was booked on a drunk and disorderly charge. Bananaman went back to whatever it is Bananaman does.  -via Arbroath

Ten Of The Most Memorable Pop Culture Moments Shared On Twitter

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 02:00 PM PDT

Twitter has officially been around for a decade now, and in that time Twitter didn't revolutionize the way we share on social media, nor did it kill Facebook or Instagram like so many claimed it would.

Instead it quietly made history in one hundred forty characters or less, serving as a platform for discussion and promotion that even the POTUS could get behind.

There have been plenty of magical moments shared via Tweets in the last ten years, including Ellen DeGeneres' epic “selfie” at the 2014 Academy Awards.

The Fox show Drive became the first TV show to live-tweet with fans, which is now common practice, and Beyonce almost broke Twitter when she announced she and Jay-Z were expecting their first child.

It remains to be seen whether Twitter will be around for another ten years, but the first decade was certainly something to chirp about!

See the Twelve Biggest Pop Culture Moments On Twitter This Decade here

30 Happy Little Facts about Bob Ross

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 01:00 PM PDT

(YouTube links)

Everyone knows Bob Ross, the artist who wanted everyone to enjoy painting as much as he did, and feel good about the creative process. There were no mistakes, just “happy little accidents.” Ross’ television persona was familiar to everyone, but there was much more to the man to learn about. Elliot Morgan hosts this week’s episode of the List Show from mental_floss.

The Netherlands Will Have to Close Prisons Because It's Running Out of Criminals

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 12:00 PM PDT

(Photo: JvL)

If you're going to have a national criminal justice problem, this is a great outcome!

The Netherlands has 13,500 prison cells. Only a third of them are occupied and the government anticipates that crime will drop 0.9% per year for the next five years. So it's decided to shut down some unused prisons. The Telegraph reports:

“More than a third of cells are not used, and the predictions are that it is going to get worse,” said Jaap Oosterveer, a spokesman for the ministry of justice. “Obviously, from a social perspective, it is better because crime is down, but if you work in jails, it is not good news.”

This is not the first attempt at a solution to the problem. Another has been importing convicts from other countries:

The Netherlands has been innovative in trying to solve its jail problem. It has “leased” spots in jail to Belgium and Norway, so around 300 Belgian criminals have been held at His Dutch Majesty’s pleasure in Tilberg prison.

Meanwhile, the country signed a new three-year deal with Norway last September, with 240 Norwegian convicts taking up residence at Norgerhaven jail in the prison village of Veenhuizen in Drenthe.

Karl Hillesland, Dutch prisons' director, told the country's broadcaster RTV Drenthe last month that there is even a “small waiting list”, partly due to the success of promotional films shown in Norway.

11 Memorable Firefighters in Movies

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 11:00 AM PDT

How many movies have you seen with firemen in them? Probably more than you realize. When I saw this title, I thought of Backdraft, and then… couldn’t think of any others. But the list does contain a couple other movies I’ve seen. Still, Backdraft is the most memorable for the firefighters in it, particularly Lt. Stephen “Bull” McCaffrey.  

I don’t know about you, but when I think of “firefighter movies,” I immediately think of Backdraft – an intense movie with a great cast and a great director (is Ron Howard really that great? Eh, I suppose it’s a discussion for another time). Anyway, Kurt Russell plays McCaffrey, an aggressive firefighter who has no problem entering a building engulfed by flames, often in a pretty reckless manner. He leaves a lasting impression on his brother, Brian, who continues to fight fires after Stephen is no longer, uh, active.

Check out the others in this list of movie firefighters at TVOM. Then send it to a firefighter you know.

Village Set From The 1980 Popeye Movie Is Now A Fun Tourist Destination

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 10:00 AM PDT

The iconic look of that quaint seaside village featured prominently in the 1980 motion picture adaptation of Popeye makes it seem like a location from another time, but surprisingly it was built in Anchor Bay, Malta for the movie.

Designed by Wolf Kroeger, the elaborately detailed and fully functional set took a crew seven months to build, and when the filming was done they didn't have the heart to tear it down so they left it up for future generations to enjoy.

(Image Link)

Today it's a popular tourist destination dubbed “Popeye Village”, where visitors can rub elbows with scrappy, spinach munching sailors and spindly-limbed dames named after cooking oil.

(Image Link)

Read The Set From The 1980 Popeye Reboot Is Now A Quaint Vacation Destination here

How <i>The Force Awakens</i> Should Have Ended -in LEGO!

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 09:00 AM PDT

The YouTube channel How It Should Have Ended takes a left turn with their latest video. Instead of taking The Force Awakens and making it more logical (which they’ve already done), they imagined a scenario in which Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker face off in battle. And it’s in LEGO!

(YouTube link)

HISHE collaborated with Brotherhood Workshop to produce this video for SXSW’s Video Game Awards ceremony. They should do more of these. Contains minor spoilers. -via Tastefully Offensive

Masterful Paint Job Turns Millennium Falcon Toy Into Camera Ready Model

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 08:00 AM PDT

The differences between models used in feature films and the toys of today are negligible, and the incredible detail found on most licensed toys makes kids feel like they own a piece of their favorite films.

To demonstrate how easy it is to turn a toy into a camera ready model artist Tristan Elliott added a masterful paint job to Hasbro's Battle Action Millennium Falcon toy and turned it into a ship Chewie would be proud to co-pilot.

Tristan added damage and distress details to the otherwise dull gray ship, and with each new added detail another piece of the puzzle of how the Falcon ended up on Jakku falls into place.

See more step-by-step process shots here

-Via Toyland

Together Again...Again! - A Most Triumphant Return

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 07:00 AM PDT


Together Again...Again! by Kenny Durkin

Our beloved Muppets are back with their own TV show, where there's sure to be lots of slapstick comedy, singing and dancing numbers starring pigs and chickens and such, and of course the ever present strangeness that is Gonzo. But before you rush out and record all the episodes you've missed on your DVR consider this- how are we going to spread the word about our favorite puppet stars being back on the big and small screens?

Perhaps an amazing t-shirt will help get the word out, like this awesome Together Again...Again! t-shirt by Kenny Durkin, featuring a massive cast of characters we love celebrating their return. It's totally squee-worthy, and sure to make your fellow Muppets fans go all Animal on you to steal your shirt! Sorry in advance if this actually happens...

Visit Kenny Durkin's Facebook fan page, official website and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more delightfully geeky designs:

Don't Open, TOONS Inside!Smaug The TerribleAT-IGThe Cat In The Hutt

View more designs by Kenny Durkin | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Duck and Dog Are Best Friends Forever

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 07:00 AM PDT

Occy the dog and Biggie the duck met when they were just puppies/ducklings. Now they're inseparable friends at their home in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Frances Marsh, their human, told WITN 7 News two years ago that it's because Biggie is convinced that he's a dog himself:

Marsh says, "He definitely thinks he's a dog. He wont even eat duck food, he eats the dog's food and drinks out of the dog's bowl."

And now Biggie is just part of the family.

Marsh says, "I thought he would just join the other ducks behind the shop in the creek, but once he became part of the family, he became like a dog and didn't want to join the ducks and now he just lives with us and he's just part of our crew."

And she says, "Once they're worn out, you can come back here and Biggie will be sitting on top of Occy. They'll just be hanging out."


(Video Link)

-via Gifsboom

Multiple Talents Can Be a Curse

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 06:00 AM PDT

Neatorama is proud to bring you a guest post from Ernie Smith, the editor of Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. In another life, he ran ShortFormBlog.

The ability to do multiple things well, or multipotentiality, is a big problem for some people. Why? Because they’re often stuck having to choose one thing.

Sometimes, it sucks to be talented at multiple things. Just ask Louis C.K., the multi-hyphenate comedian, director, actor, producer, editor, and whatever else. Because he’s in film and television, he’s a member of a bajillion unions, and he has his own production company. One benefit of working for a union is that they help you cover your health care and contribute to your pensions, but Louie’s production company has in recent years been stuck in a lawsuit with some of the unions, because it didn’t contribute enough money for some of the jobs he did on Louie. He’s one guy, doing five jobs on a single show, and there aren’t 200 hours in a week. But the unions wanted him to pay for his health and pension like he was working full time in every discipline, despite the fact that he clearly wasn’t. And, in the end, the unions won, legal fees and all. Yes, it sucks to be talented in multiple ways. Today’s Tedium explains the pain of multipotentiality. 

The problem with being good at multiple things is that people usually want you to choose one.

The reason that Louis C.K. has managed to stand out as an entertainer in recent years is largely in part because he’s a singular talent. Yes, stand-up is his forté, but he has other artistic wrinkles he’s learned over the years, some of which he picked up when working on other things.

He spent years as a writer for a number of late-night shows, and he gained his chops with the camera by working at a public-access TV station when he was a kid. Every little failure eventually turned into a success.

And not everyone can do that, but Louie is fortunately in a field where such ingenuity is rewarded. Mitch Hedberg had a great joke about this, which you can watch here or read below:

I got into comedy to do comedy, which is weird, I know. But when you’re in Hollywood and you’re a comedian, everybody wants you to do things besides comedy. They say, ‘OK, you’re a stand-up comedian—can you act? Can you write? Write us a script!’ They want me to do things that are related to comedy but are not comedy. That’s not fair. It’s as though if I were a cook and I worked my ass off to become a good cook, they said, ‘All right, you’re a cook—can you farm?’

Hedberg, who died in 2005, was the opposite of Louie in every way that matters—he was a gifted joke-teller but one who leaned more on wordplay and one-liners than observational storytelling, and, like he says above, he got into comedy to do stand-up, not a bunch of other unrelated things.

That’s OK! Plenty of people are good at just one thing, but the problem is that, unlike in the entertainment industry, we expect people in most fields to stay in the lines. If someone is a good writer, we don’t ask them to design the cover for their book even if they have an eye for layout.

We don’t want our scientists to pursue creative interests, and we think our MBAs should be focused on the bottom line, not their garage bands.

But is it OK to be not just a jack of all trades, but a master of more than one?

(YouTube link)

“The notion of the narrowly focused life is highly romanticized in our culture. It’s this idea of destiny or the one true calling, the idea that we each have one great thing we are meant to do during our time on this earth, and you need to figure out what that thing is and devote your life to it. But what if you’re someone who isn’t wired this way?”

— Emilie Wapnick, the founder and creative director of Puttylike, speaking at a TED conference last year. Wapnick is an advocate for “multipotentialites,” or people who don’t have a singular creative focus—and she just so happens to be one of those people. She graduated from law school, spent time as a singer-songwriter, has web design skills, and (as you might guess by the fact she did a TED talk) is a talented public speaker. And Wapnick tends to give things up all the time! “Once I no longer feel inspired in a field, I simply move on,” she explains on her website. “Some people call this ‘quitting,’ I call it growth.”

Multipotentiality is cool, but what if you’re stuck trying to make up your damn mind?

The problem for “multipotentialites” is that, unfortunately, you can’t always combine your many interests into a single job, or even two jobs.

You may be a good writer, a budding scientific mind, an innovative visual artist, someone who knows their way around a Unix command line, and even a masterful home brewer. But the odds of you finding a job that brings together even two of these skill sets is extremely low. And that leaves you in a position where you have to decide: what the hell do you want to do with your life? Where will you make your money, and where will you allow your freak flag to fly?

Some folks, like author John Green, have managed to combine their skills in unique ways—he’s an author who moonlights on YouTube and is really talented at hanging out with his brother. But those people are few and far between. Combining skills is simply really freaking hard, especially if you’re working on someone else’s dime.

(Image credit: Gage Skidmore)

I don’t personally consider myself a multi-hyphenate—more a wanna-hyphenate, really—but I think the strategy here comes down to a willingness to embrace the side project, to admit that sometimes, fun is work and work is fun. That requires a degree of wanting to go into business for yourself, or maybe even admitting to yourself that you’ll never make money off of your passion project.

But sometimes, you might just be better off turning off or killing talents that you don’t really have any use for—not that you won't feel any pangs of guilt about it. That’s one argument made in “The Too Many Aptitudes Problem,” an essay by Hank Pfeffer, a guy who seems to be immensely talented, but is only known for one thing—this essay he wrote.

“Some of the feelings associated with strong talents are negative,” Pfeffer writes in his piece, which I recommend you read in full. “An unused aptitude is a source of frustration and restlessness. A talent is also a need. Ongoing in its functioning, an unused aptitude must either be stifled or ignored. It takes energy to stifle a part of yourself and to neutralize or ignore a natural and ongoing tendency. It also doesn’t feel good. This takes its toll in the long run. Motivational energy seems to be finite—the extra effort needed to stifle a part of yourself is an important factor in burnout.”

If Ryan Adams decided one day that he was interested in accounting, he wouldn’t have the bandwidth for it because he’s already decided his lot in life—unless, that is, he decided to drop his steady job as a musician and try on something else for size. He could always create an album about accounting (suggested title: “Mathbreaker”), but ten to one, he would probably alienate the audience he has doing the one thing he’s good at.

The problem is that lots of people with multiple skills aren’t like Emilie Wapnick, able to disengage easily. They have a bunch of things that they like, but they have no clue either how to get rid of any of them, or how to keep them around. For example, I can play guitar (barre chords and all), and I love doing it, but ultimately, I pull out the guitar maybe six times a year—not because I don’t like it, but because I can’t balance my desire to become the next Ryan Adams with my job and my newsletter.

I’m never going to make money being a rock star. I do, however, have a shot at getting a paycheck from writing. So writing takes priority, as much as I enjoy playing the ’ol Washburn.

(Image credit: ...some guy aka Flowizm)

So going back to Louis C.K., the question I go back to regarding his very expensive creative process is this: how does he manage to fit all that stuff in without going insane trying to balance all those skills? He manages to have his cake and eat it too, somehow, and as I mentioned above, that is not an easy thing to pull off.

In a 2014 essay for The Hollywood Reporter, he credited his network, FX, for leaving him alone so he could actually create things at his own pace, without shaking up the balance:

My process is very organic. It’s kind of like a garden, the way it comes out. And I’m only able to do it this way because FX doesn’t oversee the writing. If I had to go through the broadcast network approval process, I’d have to congeal every idea I have into an episode script! I’d have to know exactly what is going to happen throughout the season and then rewrite it over and over before shooting. FX approaches my show as if we are telling stories and being artistic. They’re never worried about stuff like, “Is this guy likable or good-looking enough?”

Now if he could only get the unions to follow the same strategy.

A version of this post by Ernie Smith originally appeared in the Tedium newsletter, which tries in vain to make dull topics slightly more interesting. You can follow along on Twitter or Facebook.

Kitten Is Fascinated by Her Reflection in the Mirror

Posted: 23 Mar 2016 05:00 AM PDT


(Video Link)

There's another cat in the house!

And he's a handsome fella. Kinda weird, though. He scrunches his body up in odd ways. Still, it's worth examining him closely.

So he is a permanent resident, or just passing through? Because I've got dibs on the couch.

-via Laughing Squid
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