the Turing test as administered by Simon Cowell

Or maybe Clive Davis . . .


courtesy kmoriyama

Well past the parochial brouhaha regarding Milli Vanilli, supah autotuned vocals and other quaint pop music simulations, the HRP-4C Gynoid brings us all the way to Stepford.

Soon enough the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will have Iggy droids and Roy Orbitrons doing silicon moves.

Meanwhile, I'll be rewatching Blade Runner and hoping to fit in.

As seen on Waveformless.

If too intense, try this video of Hunter Thompson and a Hell's Angel on Canadian TV. Seen on Pathway To Unknown Worlds.

none other than

As seen on Pathway To Unknown Worlds.

Ghosts of the future convene in this ectoplasmic assemblage of pixels & sound.

Cathode irradiation of weeks spent curled by the icy warmth of the set waiting for this show to finally come on.

And here it comes bearing the vestments of Jerry Lee and Tristan Tzara. Ready, set, go.

coded for mass consumption by hermits

For the film enthusiast, a still pic of that goldurn Godard.

For the person with truly nothing to do and nothing to hear/read & generally puzzle over, this.

food fun & frenzy

courtesy thutranthutran

The ever lovin', ever loopy Food Party as kindly reviewed & generally contextualized on the ever groovin' Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire.

Bon appetit, mes amis.

dream a little dream

courtesy rongcentury

Well, it's hats off or it's heads off.

Either way, everyday is Pirate Jenny Day.

double shtick tape

Heino und Jerry im Über Space kindly brings us Nina Hagen and Don Rickles on Merv Griffin in 1985.

If that doesn't double your fun, there's always the story behind Evelyn Evelyn as told by singer/songwriter/force of nature Amanda F*cking Palmer.

Or perhaps the twin likeness of Philip Ahn/Master Kan from Kung Fu on If Charlie Parker Was A Gunslinger . . .

the last ping pong ball

courtesy mikecelona of www.mikecelona.net

once upon a time

courtesy ghamlen

insert clever robot related title here

My servos are majorly glitching so . . .

Robots! on North of Onhava offers up a fun and jargon-free look at our imminent enslavement by cybernetic beings.

Nerdbots, as seen soaking up the open bar at Chateau Thombeau, are the very best friends money can buy.

Lovingly fabricated by thrift store adventurers, they no doubt come with a boilerplate waiver for buyers to sign: "In the event of a silicon insurrection" etc. etc.

Speaking of electronic BFFs, Furbys evidently roam the earth amongst the People of Walmart.

And for those looking forward to spending the holidays with a robotic master race, Magic Carpet Burn's playlist, Magic Christmas Burn, has just the tune for you.

too true

"In today’s struggling economy you need to wear clothes, why don’t you wear these clothes?"

Kindertrauma is selling t-shirts.

Now I'm cheap & fully dressed. But maybe you need a t-shirt with a scary clown on it.

Or you need a laugh.

Either way, it's your move.

if I ever join Facebook

Y'know, it was weird.

Kevin McCarthy had just jumped off this produce truck screaming at anyone who could listen about big pod plants and aliens and such. I was unnerved.

But I woke up this morning feeling fresh and alive, and yet very calm (like after a long drifting deep space voyage).

And feeling so thoroughly renewed, I popped out of bed and signed up on Facebook.

Or, for those more familiar with the remake:

Brooke Adams, y'know, points at me and goes, I dunno, "Ahhhhhhhhg!"

So then I point at Brooke and I go "Ahhhhhhhhhg!"

We both go "Ahhhhhhhhg!" a couple more times before we fall to the ground laughing and saying "Dude, we soooo totally rule this planet--yeah!"

(Hope my wife will post this on Facebook . . .)

and now the laughter starts

Yet another cool blog populating my imploding Google Reader is And Now The Screaming Starts. Riffing on Poe and invoking Jung is only the start of the fun in the latest entry.

FABULON is taking a hiatus, but there's always plenty to catch up on there for the ironically minded.

Meanwhile, Magic Carpet Burn presents all sorts of fun greasy kid stuff like old how-to articles on making oneself up as a ghoul or a Martian. Halloween is just around the corner.

what are you doing here in Hollywood and who are you frightening?

courtesy Classic TV

Wisecracks, De Sotos and so much more.

Link and thumbnails for easy navigation . . .

sci-fi avatars & voices etched in chocolate

Respectively . . .

The Music of Sound

FABULON

And from what passes these days for a mad scientist's lair, analog video synthesis and tube-derived tomfoolery on Deviant Synth.

Poes over bros

And Now the Screaming Starts posts about The New Yorker's recent ruminations regarding one Edgar Allan Poe. And various fictional ones spawned thereafter.

Meanwhile, downstream from Richmond, there's skulduggery on the James.

Kinda an ub' thing again, but it seems not once but twice that one mandated Jamestown Ferry security dude or another (perhaps lacking the masonry skills to wall folks up in wine cellars) tried to poison a coworker.

Not cool . . .

In case it all reads like something penned by a lesser Poe, here's the text from the Smithfield Times:

Instead it’s been the security guards themselves that have committed the most serious offenses.
In 2004, a security guard put cleaning solution in a co-workers drink in an attempt at poisoning, according to media reports.
A second case occurred in 2006, when another security guard put hand sanitizer in a co-workers drink.
Both guards were arrested and charged with attempting to poison, a felony.

Evidently, when offered the milk of human kindness, one should run a tox screen.

my cathode youth vol. 5 1/2

My buddy Al Mundy's at it again. This time on a death flight where heedless scientists die on cue.

God, I totally remember seeing this as a kid.

John Colicos, whose misanthropic heavyosity has graced the likes of Star Trek and Battleship Galactica, comes on just a little lighter than usual to serve in the screenwriter's bully pulpit as a villain with a righteous cause.

Think of it as a kinda Malthusian/eco-terrorist rip of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians.

a piece of your own death

One of my favorite characters from one of my favorite movies.

Warning: mature language, surliness, cigarette smoking, humor . . .

Tho' different in many ways, he brings to mind an old acquaintance.

grid worthy

InfraNet Lab posts about the electrical power grid both as big damn infrastructure and the natural world's marginal respite from humanity.

Also mentioned is the On The Grid photo show ongoing in Providence RI, which seems more than a good case for the latter.

My agoraphobic, Stilgoe-esque reaction is that the world is too much with us sentient bipeds as well.

If you too are ready to switch off/on/out/whatever, you'll see me there. But only if I don't see you first.