Showing posts with label recommended. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recommended. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Prisoner (1968)

During last weekend’s live stream, I was astonished to find that my viewers didn’t know about “The Prisoner,” the 1968 BBC TV show starring Patrick McGoohan that turned the spy genre on its ear. Episode 1 is an amazing piece of work. Once you start watching, you can’t stop. The rest of the episodes are hit-and-miss, and some of them are a complete mess. The first season was never finished, and McGoohan had to rush out a sort-of-ending to meet the BBC cancellation date. The final two-part episode is even more surreal than what you see here. It’s kind of like “Magical Mystery Tour.” Pure paranoia and weirdness. You owe it to yourself to see The Prisoner.


The Prisoner - Arrival by tvchannels

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Monday, February 3, 2014

Monday, January 27, 2014

The Angriest Girl in Star Wars


The Angriest Girl in Star Wars by theultrafem

Camie was one of the Anchorhead teenagers cut from the original Star Wars. She was on-screen for less than one minute, and she spent that minute BOILING WITH RAGE. Koo Stark's acting spoke volumes of hate in those few precious seconds. I felt the need to provide captions for her inner voice. I CAN'T STOP WATCHING THIS.

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Streaming with HASHD.tv

I've been streaming for the last few days with HASHD.tv, who have worked with me to set up a private stream. It's "official" now! See you tonight!

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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Sketch Blog —
I've begun posting sketches every day on my Tumblr blog. You should FOLLOW IT!

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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Support Slimy Thief! Get Stuff! —
Regular visitors here know Slimy Thief! Sidney Lima is a semi-regular visitor to my live streams, and he drew this awesome ULTRA FEM art last year! Toss a little dough his way and make Slimy Thief keep happening!



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Shorty Awards? —
Somebody nominated me in the Shorty Awards! Who?? How??
Anyway, VOTE!
http://shortyawards.com/Ultrafem

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Monday, August 15, 2011

Brunhilde —
Last week, I discovered an old archived radio show from NPR called The Ring and I, which "explores the impact and influence of Wagner's Ring Cycle." (I strongly recommend you give it a listen!) I learned a heck of a lot of stuff. Stuff I SHOULD have known already. I grew up in a household filled with classical music. Rossini, Verdi, Beethoven, and even Gilbert and Sullivan were everywhere. All that great music from the Bugs Bunny cartoons? I could NAME that stuff! The Marriage of Figaro, The William Tell Overture, The Hungarian Rhapsody, and yes, of course, The Ride of the Valkyrie. I knew all of it.

We certainly knew who Wagner was. There were Wagner records on the shelves, but I guess my folks weren't much into him. I never learned the stories of these huge operas. When I got older and got into comics, I became a fan of Thor, and later when she showed up, Valkyrie. I always liked the idea that they came from ancient mythology, and again, I knew about the Wagner operas, but I never bothered. Even when the Ring Cycle was sort-of-incorporated into the comics back in Thor #300 (One of my favorites!), I didn't look it up. Somehow, I never read about the operas in college, or even on Google, until now. It's kind of embarrassing.

But today... after hearing the NPR show and doing some much-needed reading, Brunhilde the Valkyrie is all new for me. And here she is.


Here's my super-short summary of the four operas:

  • Odin gives Brunhilde, his favorite daughter and leader of the Valkyries, a series of contradictory orders. When she can't follow them, he strips her of her godhood and abandons her on Earth. She ultimately gets even by DESTROYING THE WHOLE DAMN UNIVERSE.


There. See?

She doesn't do it with her mighty spear or while riding her mighty winged horse. She does it almost as an afterthought. Brunhilde is not supposed to be the hero of the story. It's supposed to be the mortal idiot man-child Siegfried. When he is killed, Brunhilde's takes the ring from his finger and destroys it, ending everything.

People who saw the operas for the first time (The whole thing is 18 hours long!) wouldn't have expected this ending. It's all about the ring. It was forged by Alberich the dwarf from magical gold which he stole from the guardian mermaids at the head of the Rhine river. It gives its owner the power to rule the universe. Odin, meanwhile, has contracted Fafnir the giant, the world's greatest magical architect, to build Valhalla, a new realm for the gods to move into. Its awfully expensive, and Odin has no way of paying for it. Fafnir agrees to take the ring as payment, so Odin steals it from Alberich, who curses it as it's being carted away. All who know of the ring will desire it, all who possess it will be murdered by its next owner, and when it's destroyed, all works gained by it will be lost.

So now Fafnir has the ring. He kills his brother in a quarrel over it, and slinks away into a cave filled with gold where he sits in paranoid seclusion, in the form of your typical gold-hoarding dragon. Odin wants the power of the ring, but he can't own it himself for fear of being killed. So he sets in motion a series of events that he hopes will result in somebody he controls coming into possession of the ring. This includes having lots of babies with innocent mortal women. (Doesn't it always?)

Enter Brunhilde. Odin has been gathering an infinite army of slain warriors to defend Valhalla against the power of the ring, and that's her job. But then, word arrives that two of Odin's mortal children, Siegmund and Sieglinde, long-lost twins, are having an affair. Not good. Odin sends Brunhilde to bring Siegmund to Valhalla, which means killing him. But she can't do it. Siegmund is ultimately killed in a fixed fight arranged by Odin, who then punishes Brunhilde by turning her mortal and putting her to sleep. He places her in a ring of impenetrable fire.

Sieglinde dies giving birth to Siegmund's son Siegfried. The boy is raised in seclusion by Mime the dwarf, Alberich's brother, in hopes that he will be able to kill Fafnir and obtain the ring for him. The 18-year-old Siegfried DOES kill Fafnir, but he also kills Mime. He takes the ring and jaunts off to find more adventure, being severely naive, uneducated and fearless. And having never met another person ever. Of course, he turns out to be the one guy who can walk through fire and awaken Brunhilde. He falls for her on sight.

When Siegfried sleeps with another woman, Brunhilde tells Gunther, the son of Alberich, that Siegfried has one weak spot in his back. So Siegfried dies. Literally stabbed in the back. Then Brunhilde learns that Siegfried's so-called betrayal was arranged by Gunther with a magic potion. So she takes the ring from Siegried's dead hand, orders the Rhinemaidens to come get it, then throws herself into the funeral pyre. Valhalla, paid for by the ring, burns.

I had to read through this stuff a few times to get all the relationships right, and I left out tons of details and other characters. Actually though, now that I think about it, the whole thing can be summarized in four words:

  • Odin is a dick.


Yeah, that's it.

One of the things I find so exciting about all this is that Wagner didn't create any new characters or stories. He took existing mythology and folktales and crunched them all into a convoluted mish-mash that makes a weird kind of sense. (As Nina Paley says, "All creative work is derivative.") He ret-conned it. Just like they do in comics. And along the way, he created a new way of telling it.

I have my own views on Brunhilde. Some day, I'll write down my own version of the ring. If Wagner could make shit up, so can I.

Oh, and you all know how much I admire Steve Gerber's work. Looking back on his stint with the Defenders now, his handling of Valkyrie as a lost goddess with no memory of her past or her husband makes a perverse kind of reverse-sense. I get it now, Steve. I get it.

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Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Biggest Boobs at FetishCon! —
We officially crowned the winner! 38JJ boobs! I'm not kidding!
http://biggestboobsintampa.blogspot.com/

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Thursday, May 12, 2011

Janice Marvel —
Amy Mebberson's drawing of Muppet Janice as Ms. Marvel is THE MOST PERFECT THING I HAVE EVER SEEN.

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Saturday, April 16, 2011

I Wish I Were the Moon —
Cute game.



There's a variant with more endings HERE.

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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Big Lots —

I was ranting on Twitter and Facebook about shopping at Big Lots. Here are three reasons.

Bill Moyers hardback = $3. Modesitt short stories hardback = $3. 500 minutes of Three Stooges / Our Gang / Abbot & Costello / W. C. Fields = $5.

There was more.

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Friday, March 11, 2011

Red Cross —

I've been remiss over the years in not donating, even a little something, to any of a number of relief efforts. It's so overwhelming. There's always a crisis somewhere. I can't spare much, but every little bit helps, right?

Donate to the Red Cross

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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

This is Emmy —

You guys have seen me commission super-cute art from Emmy? Well, this is HER! (art by Morozov)

Dudes! She's FRENCH! And this is her latest Warcraft art!

Go get some commissions from her!!!!! HERE!

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Saturday, March 5, 2011

Fisher Price Cthulhu —

This is real! Saw it at Walmart today. HOW AWESOME IS THIS?!!!


Bringin' the pre-schoolers to the Old Ones!

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Friday, March 4, 2011

Exciting Comics! —

How did I go all my life without seeing this?? This is AWESOME!


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Monday, February 7, 2011

2011 will be a busy year! —

It's been a busy month for Ultra Fem!

The Complete Lisa 2010, part 3, is out! And so is 50 Futas part 4!
Both are available at the Ultra Fem store!
http://ultrafem.blogspot.com/

I have also just released a FREE collection of 100 sketches!
That's right: FREE! You can get it RIGHT NOW at this address:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/adyxb3

I thought I was slowing down. I mean I can't keep up last year's pace, can I??
But I've already completed nearly 30 drawings for 2011!
There's plenty of new stuff coming, so please keep watching!

And please also remember the donation drive to replace my stolen computer.
http://powergirlart.chipin.com/computer-fund
It lasts until the end of February. ALMOST half way there, and only 3 weeks left!

Thank you all for your support!

*Lisa

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Friday, February 4, 2011

Why? —
This is a perfect example of how effective simplicity can be. Art doesn't have to be complex!


art by KingXCabbage, reposted with permission.
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