Monday, July 29, 2013

Revisionist fairytale art

One of the most popular categories of articles at Tech-media-tainment has been revisionist fairytale art.
What follows is an index of all articles to date on the subject on TMT.

Fairytale princesses reimagined as superheroes, college students, sloths. (July 28, 2013)

Sexy Tinker Bell art. (July 26, 2013)

Sexy Cinderella depictions. (July 25, 2013)

Fun art inspired by ‘The Wizard of Oz’. (March 8, 2013)

Fairytale art for adults. (Jan. 29, 2013)

The dark side of fairy tales. (Feb. 15, 2012)

Pop culture artists love to reimagine fairytale characters. (Feb. 1, 2012)

How artists and the public benefit from creative works in the public domain. (Dec. 24, 2009)

Horny artists like to sex up Disney, fairy tale art. (Dec. 20, 2009)

Twisted Disney princesses. (Oct. 21, 2009)

Photo: Snow White depiction by J. Scott Campbell. Check out his online store and website

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Fairytale princesses reimagined as superheroes, college students, sloths

Pop culture artists have reimagined Disney princesses as Pokemon trainers, lonely housewives, horror characters and Star Wars slave girls.
What follows are some other interpretations of these classic fairytale princesses.
Artist Aegis Kitty created a series of drawings that put Disney princesses in superhero costumes. Up top is Snow White dressed as Wonder Woman, who she dubs “Wonder White.” She calls the series Super Disney. (See article by Laughing Squid.)

DeviantArt user Hyung86 designed Disney characters as college students for his series called Disney University. For example, here’s Cinderella. (See article by Laughing Squid.)

Yehudi Mercado portrayed the fairytale ladies as street fighters for his Princess Fighter series. See Tanker Bell above.

Illustrator Phillip Light created a funny series that reimagines Disney princesses as sloths. Here’s Slotherella. (See article by Laughing Squid.)

Street artist Herr Nilsson created “Dark Princesses,” a collection of traditionally innocent Disney princesses wielding knives and guns in dark alleys and under bridges around Stockholm, according to Laughing Squid.

Illustrator Claire Hummel has made a collection of more historically accurate Disney Princesses wearing clothing from the time periods in which their movies are set. For example, here’s Snow White. Check out Hummel’s DeviantArt gallery. (See articles by Laughing Squid and GeekTyrant.)

Artist Hannah-Alexander made a series of Disney princess illustrations in the style of Alphonse Mucha with a touch of manga. Here’s Snow White. (See article by GeekTyrant.)

Amy Mebberson has created a series of humorous comics called Pocket Princesses. (See article by GeekTyrant.)

And finally, here’s a reworking of the Snow White tale called “Walt Dizzey’s Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins.” The artwork is signed “Alan Hutchinson ’82.” Unfortunately I can’t find anything on the Internet about the artist or more about this work. If you have any more information, please let me know.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Sexy Tinker Bell art

Continuing the theme of pop culture artists making female fairytale characters sexy, here are some depictions of Tinker Bell.
I’m a huge fan of comic book artist J. Scott Campbell. Here’s his illustration of Tinker Bell (top photo) from the upcoming 2014 Fairytale Fantasies calendar. (Check out his online store and DeviantArt page.)

Artist Nathan Seals portrayed a top-heavy Tinker Bell for his work “Tink Stuck in the Keyhole.” (Check out his webpage and DeviantArt page.)

Fernando Carvalho created this drawing of a curvaceous Tinker Bell in a green bikini.

Fabbrica dei Sogni of Italy made this picture of sexy Tink with a come-hither look.

And finally, check out the work of artist Justin “HungJudas” on DeviantArt. He colored a drawing of “Bad Tinkerbell” by Mike Springer.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Sexy Cinderella depictions

What is it about Cinderella that artists find so sexy?
Maybe it’s the fantasy of an ordinary, working class girl who is really a beautiful woman once she gets cleaned up.
There are sexy depictions of Snow White, Tinker Bell and other fairytale characters. But Cinderella seems to get more attention in this regard.
Consider the following examples.
Moscow-based artist Otto Schmidt does cheeky, comic book-style drawings, including the sexy Cinderella with the heaving bosom above. (Check out his Facebook page and blog.)


The king of sexy fairytale art is J. Scott Campbell, who does an annual fairytale calendar called Fairytale Fantasies. The 2014 edition is now available. Above is a sample of his Cinderella art from 2011. (Check out his online store and DeviantArt page.)


Artist Guillaume Poux of France made the racy portrait of Cinderella here. It’s done in Disney-cartoon style, though with PG-13 sensibilities. (Check out Poux’s DeviantArt page.)


Platinum FMD of Rio de Janiero did a series of digital art photos that put a sexy spin on fairytales, including the Cinderella scene above.


Buxom actress Scarlett Johansson portrayed Cinderella in a print ad for Walt Disney’s amusement parks. The photo is part of a series of modern interpretations of classic Disney films by photographer Annie Leibovitz.


Edmonton, Alberta-based artist and photographer Mike Roshuk reimagined a group of Disney Princesses, including Cinderella, as sexy and dangerous warriors, complete with armor and weapons. His work was written about by GeekTyrant and Laughing Squid. (Check out Roshuk’s Facebook page.)


Artist Madhanz recast Disney’s princesses, including Cinderella, as Moulin Rouge dancers with a mustached Mickey Mouse as their ringleader. (See articles by BuzzFeed and Laughing Squid.)


Artist Biaani of Mexico did a series of drawings imagining that Disney’s princesses were lingerie models. (Check out her DeviantArt page and coverage by Live for Films.)


And finally, photographer Jason Ell did a series of photos depicting Cinderella and other fairytale princesses wearing dresses by some of today’s top designers for Harrods magazine. (See article by GeekTyrant.)
All of these works were made possible by the fact that classic fairytales like Cinderella are in the public domain and free for anyone to embellish upon.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Bonnie McKee’s ‘American Girl’ could bring waves of foreign men to U.S.

Bonnie McKee’s hit summer song “American Girl” could inspire a flood of foreign men to invade the U.S. seeking sex-starved young U.S. women.
The tune is like an advertisement for America’s lovely ladies. The song is the first single from McKee’s upcoming album. McKee is a veteran songwriter, having penned hits for Katy Perry, Britney Spears and others. (Check out her official website and Wikipedia article.)
The song paints a portrait of young women who like to drink alcohol and are ready to party and do the nasty, according to lyrics posted to Direct Lyrics.
I just keep moving my body (yeah)
I’m always ready to party (yeah)
No I don’t listen to mommy (yeah)
And I’ll never say that I’m sorry 
She sings that she’s a “hot-blooded, all-American girl” who is “ready to go.”
“Put the key into my ignition.” Really subtle, Bonnie.
Time to beef up our border security to keep all the horny foreign men out.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Cancun chimp photo: A picture is worth a thousand questions

CollegeHumor recently ran a funny photo of a chimpanzee sitting on a street curb with a tourist in Cancun, Mexico, making an obscene gesture with both hands at the photographer.
The post gives no information about the photo (shown above), except a funny headline and caption. It says, “Chimp Didn’t Choose The Thug Life, The Thug Life Chose Him.” You can tell where it was taken because there’s a sign for the Barcelo Costa Cancun hotel.
A chimp in Cancun is odd, I thought. Plus, there’s a guy in the photo with his arm around the chimp. I wouldn’t do that. Chimps are strong and can get very aggressive. A woman had her face ripped off by a pet chimp in Stamford, Conn., in 2009.
I wanted to find out more about the photo and the chimp. I did a reverse image search on Google but couldn’t find the origin of the picture. It’s been posted many times online since at least May 2012. But as is usually the case with such viral photos, finding out where it came from can be very difficult.
The photo has been posted to websites like Daily Picks and Flicks, EgoTV and DayLOL.com.
A search of Cancun chimp yielded information about the ape.
Koko the chimp and her owner were detained and arrested by officials from Profepa, the environmental inspection agency for Mexico in September 2010, TripAdvisor reported. Koko had been a fixture on the Cancun scene, with tourists paying to take photos with the animal. The chimp was known for sharing drinks and smoking cigarettes.
Endless Tours provided more information about Koko and her owner in May 2011. Hopefully Koko is in a better place now.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Video game industry embraces the apocalypse

These are boom times for apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories to be told in TV series and movies. But such grim worldviews have been common in video games for years.
However, the number of video games set in post-apocalyptic times has been elevated the last three years.
In the 1990s, the industry released an average of six post-apocalyptic video games a year. In the 2000s, the number ticked up to nearly nine a year.
In the first three years of the current decade, we’re at record levels for the genre. In 2011, 19 post-apocalyptic video games were released. In 2012, 17 such games came out. And so far this year, 15 games have been released or are due out. (My numbers are based on game summaries on Wikipedia.)
This year’s post-apocalyptic video games include “The Last of Us” for Sony’s PlayStation 3. The critically acclaimed game sold 3.4 million copies worldwide in just its first three weeks of release, according to Forbes.
“The Last of Us” received a Metacritic score of 95 out of 100, for a rating of “universal acclaim,” based on 95 reviews.
Some titles in the post-apocalyptic genre have spawned multiple games, including “Fallout,” “Resistance” and “The Walking Dead.”
Upcoming post-apocalyptic games include “Wasteland 2,” expected in October; “Dead Rising 3,” due out in November; and “Mad Max,” set for release on April 30, 2014.

Related reading:

The End is Nigh: The Ten Best Post-Apocalyptic Video Games (Forbes; Dec. 18, 2012)

IGN’s Best Post-Apocalyptic Gaming (IGN; Dec. 21, 2012)

Top 10 Post Apocalyptic Games of All Time (Gameranx; June 14, 2013)

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

End-of-the-world and post-apocalyptic movies are all the rage

It’s been a big summer for movies about the end of the world and survival after the apocalypse.
Tom Cruise starred in “Oblivion,” which takes place 60 years after Earth has been ravaged by an alien attack.
Will Smith and his son starred in the box office bomb “After Earth,” which is set 1,000 years after cataclysmic events forced humanity to flee the planet.
Seth Rogen and friends faced the apocalypse in the hit comedy “This Is the End.”
Anna Kendrick and Craig Robinson starred in the comedy “Rapture-Palooza,” which depicts the Christian Rapture and its impact on those left behind.
And Brad Pitt starred in the zombie apocalypse movie “World War Z.”
More cinematic destruction and desolation awaits.
Up next is “Pacific Rim,” where the world is under attack by giant sea creatures. It opens July 12.
The Simon Pegg alien-invasion comedy “The World’s End” is set to open Aug. 23.
“The Colony,” a drama set during the next ice age, is scheduled to open Sept. 20. It stars Laurence Fishburne and Bill Paxton.
Another drama set in the next ice age, “Snowpiercer,” also is due out this year. It stars Tilda Swinton and Chris Evans.
Scheduled for release next year is “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.”
In production is “Z for Zachariah,” which takes place after a nuclear war. It stars Chris Pine and Amanda Seyfried.
Hollywood also has a couple of robot apocalypse movies in the works, as well as more zombie apocalypse flicks.

See also: List of post-apocalyptic movies.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Post-apocalyptic TV series are spreading

A record four television shows set on a post-apocalyptic Earth are currently airing. And that number is on track to hit at least six next year.
NBC has “Revolution,” set 15 years after a worldwide blackout. AMC has “The Walking Dead,” which takes place after a zombie apocalypse. TNT has “Falling Skies” and SyFy has “Defiance,” both set after devastating alien invasions.
Up next is “The 100” from the CW. It’s scheduled as a midseason replacement next year. “The 100” takes place 97 years after nuclear Armageddon destroyed civilization on Earth.
In summer 2014, TNT is scheduled to air “The Last Ship.” The show takes place after a global pandemic wipes out 80% of the world’s population. “The Last Ship” stars Eric Dane, Rhona Mitra and Adam Baldwin and is executive produced by Michael Bay.
HBO is working on a pilot for “The Leftovers,” starring Justin Theroux, Liv Tyler and Amy Brenneman. “The Leftovers” is based on Tom Perrotta’s 2011 novel of the same name. It concerns a small town dealing with the aftermath of a Rapture-like event known as the Sudden Departure, which saw people from all over the globe vanish in an instant. “Lost” producer and writer Damon Lindelof is shepherding the project.
But wait there’s more. SyFy is hoping to do a TV series based on the movie “Waterworld,” which takes place after the polar ice caps melt and flood the Earth.

See also: List of post-apocalyptic TV dramas.

Photos: Promotional art for “Revolution” season one and “The Walking Dead” season four.


Monday, July 8, 2013

Favorite websites in review, part 7

These websites have been featured on Tech-media-tainment and bear the TMT stamp of approval.
This is the seventh set of 25 favorite websites.

151. News Cats GIFs (newscatgif.tumblr.com)
152. The Fluffington Post (thefluffingtonpost.com/tagged/kitties)
153. Lolcats (icanhas.cheezburger.com/lolcats)
154. Awesome People Hanging Out Together (awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr.com)
155. Awesome People Reading
156. Rides a Bike
157. Mugshot Doppelganger
158. Celebrity Close-Up
159. Rappers Doing Normal Shit
160. Victoria’s Secret Babes (victoriassecretbabes.tumblr.com)
161. I Am Kelly Brook (iamkellybrook.tumblr.com)
162. Kate Upton (kateupton.tumblr.com)
163. Rihanna Glam
164. Hell Yeah Rihanna Fenty (hellyeahrihannafenty.tumblr.com)
165. Street Art Utopia (streetartutopia.com)
166. You Had One Job! (hadonejob.com)
167. Blackboards in Porn (blackboardsinporn.blogspot.com)
168. Would You Rather Questions (rrrather.com)
169. Lists of Note (listsofnote.com)
170. Letters of Note (www.lettersofnote.com)
171. Art Descriptions (artdescriptions.com)
172. Nonstartr (nonstartr.com)
173. Zombie Dead Blog
174. Time Travel (www.behance.net/gallery/Time-travel/8208445)
175. Engrish

Photo: Rihanna in a tourism ad for the Barbados (top), and a screenshot of the Zombie Dead Blog.


Sunday, July 7, 2013

10 interesting websites: HuffPo Spoilers, CDZA, Dear Photograph and more

Last week, I wrote about 10 fun and informative websites. Now I’m back with 10 more.

HuffPo Spoilers

HuffPo Spoilers is a Twitter account that provides the missing information to teaser tweets by the Huffington Post.
HuffPo uses Twitter to drive traffic to its news articles. It is notorious for tweets that leave out important details in order to generate clicks by creating mystery. HuffPo Spoilers tweets those missing details.
The creator of HuffPo Spoilers is Alex Mizrahi. (See articles by the New York Times, the Daily Caller and, of course, the Huffington Post.)

Amnesty International – Trial by Timeline

A Web application called Trial by Timeline from Amnesty International New Zealand scans your Facebook profile and determines how many times you’d be tortured or worse in various countries based on the things you say or do. (See article by Brandflakes for Breakfast.)

Dear Photograph

The website Dear Photograph describes itself thusly: “Take a picture of a picture, from the past, in the present.”
People hold up snapshots from years earlier at the same location where they were taken and shoot a composite digital image. The results mix the past with the present in a fascinating way.

Souvenirs


Freelance photographer Michael Hughes likes to take photos of souvenirs in front of the famous landmarks they depict. An avid traveler, Hughes has taken pictures of the Eiffel Tower, Giza pyramids and Statue of Liberty blocked by their souvenir representations. He has a Flickr collection titled Souvenirs. (See articles by Brandflakes for Breakfast and PetaPixel.)

Kill Comic Sans

Design firm Agency Fusion really hates the typeface Comic Sans. It even created a Web-based game, called Kill Comic Sans, that lets people shoot the much despised font.

Oyster’s Photo Fakeouts

Hotel review website Oyster has put together a great series of photos comparing hotel marketing photos with more realistic photos. It exposes the tricks of the trade in Oyster’s Photo Fakeouts. (See article by CNN.)

Park Slope Family Circus

Erin Bradley lampoons the pretentious residents of New York City’s Park Slope neighborhood using comics. Bradley adds new captions to Family Circus comics to make fun of people in the snooty Brooklyn region in her blog Park Slope Family Circus. (See Huffington Post article.)

CDZA

CDZA is a group of musicians that “creates musical video experiments.” The results are wonderful. My favorites are “Fresh Prince: Google translated” and “History of wooing men.” (See Wikipedia article.)

Mental Floss

Mental Floss is a website full of amazing facts, interesting trivia, cool lists and other diversions.

Incredible Things 

Incredible Things is a website that highlights the many wacky products available online. In addition to actual products, Incredible Things showcases oddball designs.

Photos: Comic from Park Slope Family Circus (top), sample photo from Souvenirs, and Amnesty International’s Trial by Timeline.


Thursday, July 4, 2013

GeoGuessr – the most addictive game on the Internet

One of my favorite websites is GeoGuessr. It’s a geography game that uses Google Street View images and challenges your ability to recognize surroundings and pinpoint the location on a world map.
GeoGuessr takes you on a journey around the world and drops you into unfamiliar surroundings and you have to figure out where you are. It’s a terrific game and downright addicting.
You get points for how accurate your guess is. Sometimes I’m spot on. Other times I’m way off, probably because I’ve never driven the back roads of Estonia or Australia.
GeoGuessr was created by Anton Wallén of Sweden
.