to move up and down
Giant Rubber Duck — A Rubber Duck created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman is towed along Hong Kong’s Victoria Habour Thursday, May 2, 2013. Since 2007 the 16.5-meter (54-feet)-tall Rubber Duck has traveled to various cites including Osaka, Sydney, Sao Paulo and Amsterdam. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) — Click to see more photos
New planets painted — Scientists using NASA’s Kepler telescope have found two distant planets that are in the right place and are the right size for potential life. This handout image from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows an artist concept of what these two planets, called Kepler-62-e and Kepler-62-f look like. The larger planet in the left corner is somewhat covered by ice and is f, which is farther from the star. The planet below it is e, which is slightly warmer and has clouds and may be a water world. (AP Photo/Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
Guacamelee! mixes the gameplay of Metroid with a frantic Mexican art style
Guacamelee! is fantastic, but it could have been a disaster. The game is a Mexican-themed open-world action platformer from Toronto based developer DrinkBox Studios and the developers two previous games, Tales from Space: About a Blob and Mutant Blobs Attack featured excellent level design and a quirky art style. When I heard Guacamelee! would feature combat and open world exploration, a first for the developers, I was reticent for sure. Many have tried the formula of non-linear 2D platforming popularized by Metroid and Castlevania to varying degrees of success, but few have mastered the form.
But after playing the game, I can say my fears were quickly allayed. If the first two games from DrinkBox were pencil drawings, Guacamelee! is a Rembrandt. It is chock full of so much goodness it shouldn’t be missed. (DrinkBox Studios)
Review: Bientôt l’été encourages players to rethink video games as art
Are video games art? At this point, it’s a debate which has raged for years. But most gamers would likely agree that yes, video games are indeed an artistic medium. Of course, just like other artistic mediums — music, film, etc. — there are those who place a greater value in the artistic value of independent games compared to big budget commercial games produced by multinational publishers.
In the eyes of this reviewer, video games can only be defined as art when the experiential nature of the game — that is to say the interactivity — becomes an essential part of the experience. That may be a stringent category, but it’s the single element that makes video games unique in how they deliver narrative, aesthetic, and intent when compared to other media. (Tale of Tales)
Museum’s ‘whale bone porn’ leaves Vancouver mother ‘extremely disturbed’; demands its removal
Never mind the Internet. A Vancouver mother and schoolteacher is sounding the alarm after stumbling upon another medium that she thinks may corrupt young and impressionable minds: 19th-century “whale bone porn.”
Ann Pimentel raised the concern — and coined the unlikely phrase — after visiting the Vancouver Maritime Museum (VMM), a modest institution on the city’s west side. That’s where a small collection of etchings and engravings on whale teeth and bone is on display, part of a larger show that also features example of maritime tattoo art.
Nine of the etched pieces on display show images of a sexual nature, some of them quite explicit. “A Whaler’s Hope of the First Night Ashore” is etched across a tooth that’s eight inches long, extracted two centuries ago from an unfortunate sperm whale. Underneath the title is etched a saucy scene. A man and a woman, flesh exposed. Mouths open, limbs entwined. You get the idea. (Arlen Redekop/Postmedia News)
Artists of the circus show ‘Cirque du Soleil’ perform during their show “Varekai” on March 20, 2013 in Bogota, Colombia. EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP/Getty Images
Edward Gorey, eerie illustrator, master of morbid humour, gets a posthumous Google birthday gift
Edward Gorey did not make it his business to be cheerful, despite the fact that a number of his titles are popular with children. “If you’re doing nonsense it has to be rather awful, because there’d be no point,” Gorey said of his work. “I’m trying to think if there’s sunny nonsense. Sunny, funny nonsense for children — oh, how boring, boring, boring. As Schubert said, there is no happy music. And that’s true, there really isn’t. And there’s probably no happy nonsense, either”
The macabre author and illustrator, who would have turned 88 today, was a fan of nonsense — his books and short stories are largely surreal, often completely without text, and are for their black humour popular among gothic subcultures. His illustration style was decidedly eerie: Gorey drew in black and white, mostly, anrd relied heavily on crosshatching method — his particular style, whimsical as it is chilling, significantly inspired filmmaker Tim Burton. (Tom Herde/Boston Globe Photo files; Google)
Heartbreaking picture of Palestinian funeral march wins World Press Photo top prize
Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo award Friday for newspaper Dagens Nyheter with a picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.
The picture shows a group of men marching the dead bodies through a narrow street in Gaza City. The victims, a brother and sister, are wrapped in white cloth with only their faces showing.
“The strength of the pictures lies in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the innocence of the children,” said jury member Mayu Mohanna of Peru. “It’s a picture I will not forget.”
(AP Photo/Paul Hansen, Dagens Nyheter; AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd; AP Photo/Wei Seng Chen; AP Photo/Micah Albert, Redux Images)
9/11 Truther vandalizes Statue of Liberty-inspiring Delacroix painting at the Louvre
A visitor to the Louvre’s newest extension, in northern France, has been detained after scrawling an inscription in marker on the famed canvas of Eugene Delacroix Liberty Leading the People.
According to Le Figaro newspaper, the woman wrote “AE911″ near the bottom of the canvas. The inscription stands for “Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth,” a group of individuals who believe George W. Bush is responsible for the collapse of the Twin Towrs in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. The group comprises architects, engineers and demolition experts who believe there is empirical evidence to suggest 9/11 was an inside job.
The 28-year-old woman was immediately seized by a guard and another visitor, then handed over to police, according to a statement from the Louvre-Lens on Friday. It said the painting should be easily cleaned.
Tegan and Sara look to surpass their idols with Heartthrob
Pop music plays a large and deliberate role on Heartthrob, a record that was designed to catapult the Calgary-born duo into a stadium-headlining act. After touring with The Black Keys and The Killers, and feeling frustrated with teetering record sales, they decided to go big on their new record with soaring choruses, singalong anthems and four different lifts on the same tune. Read more here: natpo.st/X9IQwv
Illustration by Kagan McLeod
The best little horror house in Texas: A graphic history of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Click here for Andrew Barr’s carnage-count of the TCM franchise thusfar, on the eve of the release of Texas Chainsaw 3D: natpo.st/WqYNgd
The Month Ahead: January
The new year may have just begun, but it’s never too soon to start planning your daily cultural outings and intakes. Click the image above for our day-by-day guide to the best in film, TV, music and more for January 2013. Get moving — it’s cold out there: natpo.st/WlnFWN
2012 in Review
Gary Clement looks at 2012′s highs and lows from A-Z
A brief, illustrated history of Quentin Tarantino
From Reservoir Dogs to Django Unchained, U.S. director Quentin Tarantino has joined the canon of great filmmakers with his distinct — if hyper-violent — filmic style. We take a look at his filmography, in a handy illustrated format. Click through for some history on the Tarantino film in which each character stars! (Illustration by Steve Murray)
