Category: Pop Culture/Media

Analysis, criticism, studies on American propaganda (otherwise euphematically called “popular culture”)

  • Blender 2.71 New Feature Freestyle NPR Rendering

    Blender 2.71 Freestyle NPR Rendering

    http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.71/Freestyle

    If I read their update correctly, my reading comprehension was never that good, then Blender now has the ability to render out a 3D model into a convincing looking hand-drawn sketch. That doesn’t make sense to me. You’d have to model out the entire object before you get output that is a bunch of simple strokes.

    The problem I have with it is that is should be the other way around. Much like ZBrush makes sculpting digital 3D models almost too intuitively, 3D modeling can be even easier if you could translate a line drawing into a fully 3D realized object.

    So, that is the next challenge to master, Blender! I dare you!

  • $18 Million in Bitcoin!!!

  • Effects of a USD$10,000 Bitcoin

    http://www.coindesk.com/will-10000-bitcoin-help-hurt-transactions/

    By Chongchen Saelee

    What would happen if the value of a single Bitcoin became USD$10,000? First of all, a lot of Bitcoin investors would get filthy rich. Second, they’d get rich for nothing as they can’t really spend it.

    Maybe the real issue here is what fuels economy and what defines currency. Bitcoin is a valid currency and you can buy things. But is it secure? No. It’s not. At least with the US Dollar, one friggin dollar is still worth one friggin dollar. I don’t have to worry about not being able to use it at a vending machine.

    Then how do you define currency? Currency implies that people control the current of their economy. They are the lifeforce or bloodstream of their ecosystem. If people aren’t happy or content or confident with their neighborhoods, cities, governments, then they won’t recirculate their currency, thus making their economy suck. For the most part, Americans don’t understand how to put value into the US Dollar because they live so comfortably. Maybe it’s something they take for granted. After all, the value of money is imaginary. Whatever you were going to do, you didn’t require money to do it, it’s just exists as a social construct. It’s almost like manifest destiny.

    So if Bitcoin’s value ever goes up to $10,000, then it’s because the investors that created the hocus pocus game that is Bitcoin are afraid they will lose their fortunes in American dollars. So being the greedy fucks they are, they convert that magic imaginary monetary value into Bitcoins, because now that people that do control the value of American dollars cannot control the value of Bitcoins.

    I think I know what I’m talking about. It has something to do with great empires minting their own coins and currency. That means in the upcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar should actually have his ape people pass around leaves or bark chips with his face drawn in poop on them. Then, when the heroic white man enters their forests looking for monkey magic water beer, then Caesar can say, “Your paper money is no good here, human. Caesar money is God in the jungle.”

  • Jackpot Bloom Cover Demo

    Jackpot Bloom Cover Proof 2
    Jackpot Bloom Cover Proof 2

    This cover preview is a little more abstract. Although it’s a story for younger readers, I think this cover shows that there’s more creativity in the artmaking process, that it’s adults who make the magic.

  • UW Green Bay Lecture About Race in Superhero Media

    It was strange that the talk was done through American Intercultural Center (if I’m not mistaken). Overall, it seems as though the audience wasn’t too sophisticated about comic book or mass media culture. They seemed uninterested or a little distant. That might be a genuine problem because it implies the audience members are truly marginalized and not consuming mainstream media. You can pick that up during the Q&A session where they ask questions about racial progress in the depictions in the media as if they didn’t have any control over it. It’s as simple as sitting down and drawing yourself into a superhero and publishing it, but it doesn’t seem they know that.

    Anyway, as I’ve joked before, it looks like my run at UW-Green Bay via my Pen Tonic comic strip featuring Agent S as its first Asian superhero made an impact. And anyone who has those actual printed issues of The Fourth Estate are going to have somekind of keepsake increase in value.

    Don’t worry, dear fans (not that many), Agent S will return.

  • End of the Great Roman Empire

    I just read an article about Bitcoin and other types of local currency popping up all over the place. Before the fall of great empires, all the kings and noblemen started coining their own currencies. Yet, ironically, the Almighty US Dollar is still the basis for Bitcoins, Xbox points, etc, etc. Sure, I’d love to make a profit from my share of Bitcoin, but I also understand that most of its power comes from the almighty dollar. The Great Roman Empire isn’t going to fall quite yet.

  • Green Bay’s First Kid Superhero: Jackpot Bloom

    By Chongchen Saelee

    Wouldn’t you know it, Green Bay’s got it’s FIRST KID SUPERHERO: JACKPOT BLOOM!

    Who is Jackpot Bloom? Why do all the other kids hate him? Why do all the adults want to exploit him? What makes him so special?

    What if I told you there was a special school that trained young children with special gifts? The children’s powers are harnessed by adults who seek personal gain, but also to make decisions about running the government, society, and the world. After several decades of research, and many failed attempts in finding a breakthrough gifted apparatus child, along comes Jackpot Bloom.

    He is a chipper, bright-eyed young man. At age 9, he is a master tennis player. He lives with his adoptive parents at their elegant tennis club/mansion estate that caters to the wealthy.

  • Erotic Photography Services For Only $200!!!

    http://greenbay.craigslist.org/bts/4540969435.html

    If you’re an aspiring model, actress, or just need some schmexy photos of yourself, you can hire me to photograph you for ONLY $200!!! Check out my samples at the link.

  • Mom Wants Me To Get Married + Have Kids

    By Chongchen Saelee

    EVERY single 30-something-year-old, at least in American culture, is going to get nagged by their parents to start their own family. Maybe it’s a good sign your parents finally acknowledge you as a full adult. Or is it just because your other relatives, cousins, siblings are getting married and having children? Because I’m no fool. Of course it would make my parents proud that I could spawn the next generation for them to witness, but I know that once my parents are gone, the burden will solely be on my shoulders to raise my own family, and that’s not something I’m willing to accept yet. (more…)

  • Real Style Talent Agency Out Of Michigan

    Real Style Talent Agency http://rsol.us/

    I got another e-mail update from Real Style today, saying they had a typo earlier about their military/law enforcement scenes. They had sent out earlier that the shoot was suppose to be June 24, but now it is June 27. They are still looking for extras to play these types: military, law enforcement, EMT, etc.

    I figured, what the hell, and put my voucher in. They’ll show my updated pics to Zack Snyder and I just want to get an email saying I was booked to fuck with them. Even though, yes, I am technically available, I just don’t want to drive up there to Michigan. They are paying $8/hour for up to 12 hour shoots. That’s legit, but I don’t care enough to be in a stinking Batman v Superman film. Besides, I was initially excited about that original Transformers 4 casting but now we know what the final product looks like. So…

    Anyway, Zack Snyder can consider me for the role of Robin. Just a cameo though. You have my agent’s number, don’t you? Schmooze.

    Asian Actor Cast As Robin in 'Batman V Superman'
    Asian Actor Cast As Robin in ‘Batman V Superman’
    Asian Actor Cast As Robin in 'Batman V Superman'
    Asian Actor Cast As Robin in ‘Batman V Superman’
    Asian Actor Cast As Robin in 'Batman V Superman'
    Asian Actor Cast As Robin in ‘Batman V Superman’

    And I updated my profile on their site, too, because I gained my weight back and grew out my facial hair and mop of hair. So maybe I can play a wicked hacker, druggie, or bum or Robin. Who knows?