Tuesday, May 8, 2012
avengers
Avengers vs Gutsman
Created by Freakajebus
Artist’s Note: The Avengers take on the classic Mega Man enemy, Gutsman…with ease. Nick Fury finds the utter devastation a little too much to handle, so Black Widow keeps him calm.
'Where Wild Things Are' author Maurice Sendak dies
Maurice Sendak didn't think of himself as a children's author, but as an author who told the truth about childhood.
"I like interesting people and kids are really interesting people," he explained to The Associated Press last fall. "And if you didn't paint them in little blue, pink and yellow, it's even more interesting."
Sendak, who died early Tuesday in Danbury, Conn., at age 83, four days after suffering a stroke, revolutionized children's books and how we think about childhood simply by leaving in what so many writers before had excluded. Dick and Jane were no match for his naughty Max. His kids misbehaved and didn't regret it and in their dreams and nightmares fled to the most unimaginable places. Monstrous creatures were devised from his studio, but no more frightening than the grownups in his stories or the cloud of the Holocaust that darkened his every page.
Rarely was a man so uninterested in being loved so adored. Starting with the Caldecott Medal he received in 1964 for "Where the Wild Things Are," the great parade marched on and on. He received the Hans Christian Anderson award in 1970 and a Laura Ingalls Wilder medal in 1983. President Bill Clinton awarded Sendak a National Medal of the Arts in 1996 and in 2009 President Obama read "Where the Wild Things Are" for the Easter Egg Roll.
Communities attempted to ban him, but his books sold millions of copies and his most curmudgeonly persona became as much a part of his legend as "Where the Wild Things Are," his signature book and a hit movie in 2009. He seemed to act out everyone's fantasy of a nasty old man with a hidden and generous heart. No one granted the privilege could forget his snarly smile, his raspy, unprintable and adorable dismissals of such modern piffle as e-books and publicity tours, his misguided insistence that his life didn't matter.
"I didn't sleep with famous people or movie stars or anything like that. It's a common story: Brooklyn boy grows up and succeeds in his profession, period," he told the AP.
Sendak's other books, standard volumes in so many children's bedrooms, included "Chicken Soup With Rice," "One was Johnny," "Pierre," "Outside Over There" and "Brundibar," a folk tale about two children who need to earn enough money to buy milk for their sick mother.
"This is the closest thing to a perfect child I've ever had," he told the AP.
Besides illustrating his own work, he also provided drawings - sometimes sweet, sometimes nasty - for Else Holmelund Minarik's series "Little Bear," George MacDonald's "The Light Princess" and adaptations of E.T.A Hoffman's "The Nutcracker" and the Brothers Grimm's "King Grisly-Beard." His most recent book that he wrote and illustrated was "Bumble-Army," a naughty pig party which came out in 2011. In recent months, he had said he was working on a project about noses and he endorsed - against his best judgment - Stephen Colbert's "I am a Pole (And So Can You!)", a children's story calculated to offend the master.
Colbert's book was published Tuesday.
Sendak also created costumes for ballets and staged operas, including the Czech opera "Brundibar," which in 2003 he also put on paper with his collaborator and close friend, Pulitzer-winning playwright Tony Kushner. He designed the Pacific Northwest Ballet's "Nutcracker" production that later became a movie shown on television, and he served as producer of various animated TV series based on his illustrations, including "Seven Little Monsters," "George and Martha" and "Little Bear."
None of Sendak's books were memoirs, but all were personal, if only for their celebrations of disobedience and intimations of fear and death and dislocation, sketched in haunting waves of pen and ink. "It's a Jewish way of getting through life," Kushner said last fall. "You acknowledge what is spectacular and beautiful and also you don't close your eyes to the pain and the difficulty."
Revenge helped inspire "Where the Wild Things Are," his canonical tale of the boy Max's mind in flight in a forest of monsters, who just happen to look like some of Sendak's relatives from childhood. "In The Night Kitchen," released in 1971, was a forbidden dance of Laurel and Hardy in aprons and the flash of a boy's genitals, leading to calls for the book to be removed from library shelves.
"It was so fatuous, so incredible, that people would get so exercised by a phallus, a normal appendage to a man and to a boy. It was so cheap and vulgar. Despicable." Sendak said last fall. "It's all changed now. We live in a different country altogether. I will not say an improved version. No."
His stories were less about the kids he knew - never had them, he was happy to say - than the kid he used to be. The son of Polish immigrants, he was born in 1928 in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. The family didn't have a lot of money and he didn't have a lot of friends besides his brother and sister. He was an outsider at birth, as Christians nearby would remind him, throwing dirt and rocks as he left Hebrew school. The kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby son terrified him for years.
He remembered no special talent - his brother, Jack, was the chosen one. But he absorbed his father's stories and he loved to dream and to create, like the time he and his brother built a model of the 1939 World's Fair out of clay and wax. At the movies, he surrendered to the magic of "Fantasia," and later escaped into "Pinocchio," a guilty pleasure during darkened times. The Nazi cancer was spreading overseas and the U.S. entered the war. Sendak's brother joined the military, relatives overseas were captured and killed. Storytelling, after the Holocaust, became something more than play.
"It forced me to take children to a level that I thought was more honest than most people did," he says. "Because if life is so critical, if Anne Frank could die, if my friend could die, children were as vulnerable as adults, and that gave me a secret purpose to my work, to make them live. Because I wanted to live. I wanted to grow up."
Sendak didn't go to college and worked a variety of odd jobs until he was hired by the famous toy store FAO Schwarz as a window dresser in 1948. But illustration was his dream to be an illustrator and his break came in 1951 when he was commissioned to do the art for "Wonderful Farm" by Marcel Ayme. By 1957 he was writing his own books. He claimed Emily Dickinson, Mozart and Herman Melville as inspirations.
He worked for decades out of the studio of his shingled 18th century house in Ridgefield, Conn., a country home reachable only by a bumpy road that seem designed to shield him from his adoring public. The interior was a wonderland of carvings and cushions, from Disney characters to the fanged beasts from his books to a statuette of Obama.
Sendak spoke often, endlessly, about death in recent years - dreading it, longing for it. He didn't mind being old because the young were under so much pressure. But he missed his late siblings and his longtime companion, Eugene Glynn, who died in 2009. Work, not people, was his reason to carry on.
"I want to be alone and work until the day my heads hits the drawing table and I'm dead. Kaput," he said last fall. "Everything is over. Everything that I called living is over. I'm very, very much alone. I don't believe in heaven or hell or any of those things. I feel very much like I want to be with my brother and sister again. They're nowhere. I know they're nowhere and they don't exist, but if nowhere means that's where they are, that's where I want to be."
3 times this mouth every 4 days
Today just raining @txuenergy @oncor #txu thanks to them for waking up to no power on backside was sleeping good now mad 3 time in 4 days http://t.co/FtqPOGtB -- big k (@thundercatsnyy)
Monday, May 7, 2012
Monday night
Thessalonians I 4:9 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
God Monday
Romans 13:9 The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
10 BEASTIE BOYS SONGS THAT ROCK
The music world is mourning the loss of Beastie Boys member Adam 'MCA' Yauch, who passed away on May 4 at the age of 47. The Beastie Boys’ legacy was cemented just a few weeks back with their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and it’s fitting because no rap outfit ever showed as much rock influence as the Beasties. Yauch himself was a visionary, directing many of the band’s videos under the pseudonym Nathaniel Hornblower and helping to evolve their sound to include some of their hardcore roots by picking up the bass on their 'Check Your Head' album. There’s no doubt that while they got their first taste of fame as rappers, they definitely rock and we salute them with the following list of 10 Beastie Boys Songs That Rock:
'Rhymin' & Stealin''
From: ‘Licensed To Ill’ (1986)
Yes, ‘Fight for Your Right’ was the song that put the band on the musical map in ‘86, but ‘Rhymin’ & Stealin’ was the first track people would hear from ‘Licensed To Ill’ when popping their cassette in the tape player back in the day. The chugging track features a guitar sample from Black Sabbath’s ‘Sweet Leaf’ and a drum beat from Led Zeppelin's 'When the Levee Breaks.' ‘Rhymin’ & Stealin’’ showed everyone that, yes indeed, you can headbang to rap music.
'An Open Letter to NYC'
From: ‘To The 5 Boroughs’ (2004)
The trio’s love letter to their hometown inspired by the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks also generated a great amount of love amongst Beasties fans as well. And leave it up to the Beastie Boys to make things interesting. Who would have ever thought to build a track around a sample from punk icons the Dead Boys and their hit ‘Sonic Reducer’ and pair it within the same song with a sample from crooner Robert Goulet? The Beasties, that’s who! Classic.
'So What'cha Want'
From: ‘Check Your Head’ (1992)
After experimenting with innovative sampling on 1989's 'Paul's Boutique,' the Beastie Boys were ready to rock on 1992's ‘Check Your Head.' With the single ‘So What’cha Want,' featuring distorted vocals, full-on attitude and powerhouse drums, the Beastie Boys were announcing an air-horn warning to the rock scene that they were taking over. Speaking of those drums, Beck sampled this track for his 2005 hit ‘E-Pro.'
‘Sure Shot’
From: ‘Ill Communication’ (1994)
For the baddest flute-rock since Jethro Tull, you need look no further than ‘Sure Shot.’ The Beastie Boys took a sample from Jeremy Steig’s ‘Howlin’ for Judy,’ added their own hardcore attitude, and blended it all together to make sure that ‘we can’t, we don’t and we won’t stop’ ever wanting to hear this song.
‘Egg Raid on Mojo’
From: ‘Some Old Bulls—’ (1994)
Before they were rappers, the Beastie Boys tried their hand as hardcore rockers but eventually tired of lugging gear up and down the stairs to MCA’s apartment to play shows. Evidence of those early hardcore days turned up on the compilation ‘Some Old Bulls—,’ which featured some of their ‘80s work. ‘Egg Raid on Mojo’ is about as punk as it comes with its fuzzed out guitars, yelling and somewhat sneering vocals, and a mosh-ready vibe that all clock in under two minutes.
‘Heart Attack Man’
From: ‘Ill Communication’ (1994)
Speaking of moshing, there may have been no song in the Beastie Boys catalogue that inspired such audience free-for-alls as ‘Heart Attack Man.’ With Mike D. on vocals, MCA laying down a sick bass line, and Ad-Rock pounding on the guitar as fast as he could before frequently smashing his instrument to bits after performances, this one was made for the pit dwellers.
‘(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)’
From: ‘Licensed To Ill’ (1986)
This youth rebellion anthem is a straight-up classic, with its opening guitar lick and the declaration to “Kick it!” It’s still a favorite at rock radio and you can hear it some 26 years later blaring at sporting events. There may be no greater testament to its staying power than the star-studded 2011 ‘Fight for Your Right Revisited’ short film directed by Adam Yauch and featuring a star-studded case of actors including with everyone from Will Ferrell, Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Elijah Wood and others.
‘Gratitude’
From: ‘Check Your Head’ (1992)
The Beastie Boys showed everyone a thing or two about how to use a distortion pedal with the classic track ‘Gratitude.’ Ad-Rock’s in-your-face vocals are perfectly complimented by a heavily distorted MCA bass line and funky drumming from Mike D. About the only un-rock thing from this song was Ad-Rock’s fuzzy Kangol from the video, but it was the ‘90s.
‘No Sleep Till Brookyn’
From: ‘Licensed To Ill’ (1986)
The Beastie Boys rapped on this track, but you could see rock producer Rick Rubin’s influence all over this classic. The song pulls loosely from AC/DC’s ‘T.N.T.’ and Rubin snagged Slayer’s Kerry King to lay down the memorable guitar solo on the track. Despite the emphasis on rap early in their career, the Beastie Boys ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ remains a favorite at rock radio years later.
‘Sabotage’
From: ‘Ill Communication’ (1994)
How’s this for rock? The Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’ was deemed one of the five most dangerous tracks for drivers in a survey conducted last year. Those surveyed likely saw their blood pressure rise from Ad-Rock’s face-melting vocals and Yauch's punishing bass line, while the adrenaline-filled nature of ‘Sabotage’ led them to put the pedal to the metal. ‘Nuff said.
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