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Posts tagged as “Awesome”

PELbO’s “Join Their Game”

November 17, 2011 |

Music and Music Videos

Wow. I love this. What a simple yet incredibly effective concept for a music video. And, shit, there’s dancing, which you know quite well is always good with me. Unless it’s taken too seriously, then I have no love for it. Whatever. This video is amazing, the song is catchy, and I think you’ll dig it as much as I did. Super bonus points for getting the band into the video without having even a lick of performance.

This track comes from the band’s new release Days of Transcendence which I had never heard until I watched the video. Hell, I’d never heard of the band at all before this. Color me ignorant. Luckily, it’s on Spotify!

The record is super solid, a mix of dreamy electronics and driving rock with a dissonance that I find very compelling. It’s dark and sad and wistful and triumphant all at the same time. Singer Ine Krsitine Hoem’s vocals are wonderful, kind of like a more forceful St. Vincent. Listen to this record. One of the most interesting new things I’ve heard in a while.

Learn more about PELbO at their website.

> Continue reading...PELbO’s “Join Their Game”

Time-lapse from the ISS

November 14, 2011 |

Film and Film & TV

Have you ever wondered what I, as reigning Space Pope, sees every day as I sail over your puny, insignificant world deciding whether today shall be the day I raze your filthy planet with fire? It looks a lot like this. Of course, I see many more worlds filled with many more people more deserving of life than you pitiful humans.

> Continue reading...Time-lapse from the ISS

Happy 3rd Birthday, The Black Laser and Sienna! And Happy 1000th post!

November 11, 2011 |

Thoughts

Me and SJ
The Black Laser and this peanut share a birthday. We make serious faces.

A few weeks ago, it became clear to me that I would probably be able to hit my 1000th post on The Black Laser’s third birthday. As the date (11/11/11) got closer, I realized that not only would I hit 1000 posts but that I would actually have to plan on how to do it so I didn’t overshoot and post my 1000th before the 11th. Exciting!

So what does 1000 Black Laser posts look like? Here’s the breakdown!

Not surprisingly Music and it’s subset Music Videos are the overwhelming majority here. But, what I do find surprising is that I have more than twice as many Writing posts as I do Photography posts. I was fairly sure that Photography would be in second place behind music, but it’s in fourth place behind Thoughts AND Writing. Interesting! I guess I do a lot more writing and blabbing about random crap that I thought. Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s all I do here. Why do you people keep coming back? Is it my charm? My devilish good looks? My witty repartee?

To be honest, fewer and fewer people are coming to The Black Laser every day. What’s with that? It used to be I’d get a hundred fifty to a couple hundred hits every day, even if I didn’t post very much. Now, I’m lucky if I break a hundred. Where have all the people gone? I suppose it will just slowly wind down over the next three years until it’s just me, alone, yelling out at the internet, unread, unloved, and uncaring. Hermit mode—ACTIVATE!!!!

As in previous years, I will take this opportunity to wish my favorite person in the whole world a similarly magnificent 3rd birthday. Happy birthday, SJ. I hope I get back to read you more bedtime stories and turn you into a baby burrito soon.

Here’s to another successful year of infecting the internet with my own brand of madness. Cheers!

EDIT///

Here’s the proof!

> Continue reading...Happy 3rd Birthday, The Black Laser and Sienna! And Happy 1000th post!

Die Antwoord’s “Fok Julle Naaiers”

November 7, 2011 |

Music and Music Videos

Hell yes! Die Antwoord is back with a fresh single from their forthcoming record TEN$ION to be released on their new indie label Zef Records after a messy, public split from Interscope. You can’t blame them for leaving Interscope either since the label tried to water down Die Antwoord’s sound and image, to make them more pop-friendly. And that’s just plain wrong. Good on Die Antwoord for sticking to their guns and taking the artistic—if not commercial—high road.

The title of this track translates loosely to “Fuck you fuckers,” which is a perfect title. I was going to say the this video had a paucity of penises compared to their other ones, and then I got the end of the third minute and DJ Hitek came in with his “I’ll fuck you in the ass” section and all my worries about a lack of penises dissipated.

> Continue reading...Die Antwoord’s “Fok Julle Naaiers”

Quantum levitation

October 21, 2011 |

Thoughts

I know, I know. You’ve seen this. I’m slow to the party. But you know what? You can go to hell. This is too awesome not to put on The Black Laser.

DO YOU SEE THE THING!? IT’S FLOATING. SCIENCE IS AWESOME.

It’s Okay to Be Smart has a description of how it works:

What you start with is an inert disc, in this case a crystal sapphire wafer. That wafer is then coated with a superconductor called yttrium barium copper oxide. When superconductors get very cold (like liquid nitrogen cold) they conduct electricity with no loss of energy, which normal conducting materials like copper can’t do.

Superconductors hate magnetic fields (when cold enough), and normally would just repel the magnetic force and float in a wobbly fashion. But because the superconductor is so thin in this case, tiny imperfections allow some magnetic forces through. These little magnetic channels are called flux tubes:

The flux tubes cause the magnetic field to be “locked” in all three dimensions, which is why the disk remains in whatever position it starts in, levitating around the magnets.

Drier explanations here and here.

Charles sent me this video the other day and the thing we started talking about immediately was whether or not the floating would decay over time or if the super cooled slug would just fall when it warmed up so much that it was no longer able to maintain the quantum lock. And then we recognized that we were total nerds, but you knew that already, didn’t you?

> Continue reading...Quantum levitation

Fuck the Facts Die Miserable stream

October 6, 2011 |

About Music and Music

ARE YOU LISTENING TO THIS?! WHY AREN’T YOU LISTENING TO THIS?! GO LISTEN TO THIS RIGHT NOW!!


Fuck the Facts Die Miserable stream.

Holy shit, I am so excited about this album. I preordered the LP yesterday before even listening to the stream. Let me tell you, I was right to do it. This album is amazing. Ridiculously amazing. I regret having missed them play the last time they were here in NYC.

God damn, Mel Mongeon’s vocals on this shit are so brutal. She out-metals nearly every male vocalist I can think of except for maybe Erik Rutan. MAYBE.

If you’re a fan of grind and you’ve never heard Fuck The Facts, prepare to have your face blown off, your wallet lightened, and all your stress blasted out of you by Montréal’s finest.

> Continue reading...Fuck the Facts <i>Die Miserable</i> stream

Behemoth’s “Lucifer”

October 4, 2011 |

Music and Music Videos

Call me crazy, but I am going to go out on a limb here and venture that the visual motifs in this video were inspired by Nergal’s recent battle with leukemia. I know, I know, I might be reaching here, but I think I’m onto something.

The models doing their high-fashion Hellraiser thing are pretty funny too. Pink eye shadow is the most EVIL of all eye shadow! Well, here at The Black Laser it certainly is.

Evil unicorn! With red eyes!

The devil in a red smoking jacket speaking Polish!

Crispy corpse paint!

Drinking blood (messily) from a chalice!

Chewing on a rosary!

Ash falling from the darkened sky!

Hammering stuff!

Reversed footage of sparks!

Floating little girl!

A priest with tears of blood!

Really though, I think the most evil thing in this video is the crown-bearing chick’s unfortunate breast implants. Oy vey, those things are horrendous.

All in all, some fun, silly, horror-movie evilness from Poland’s death metal masters. It’s about as frightening as your average Halloween haunted house at the end of the cul-de-sac, but it’s still pretty awesome.

> Continue reading...Behemoth’s “Lucifer”