Pokey The Penguin

It's been around for a while, but if you haven't encountered this gem of a comic strip, you might want to spend a minute or two having your mind broken by it.

Created by who/what is cryptically called 'THE AUTHORS' (you can read the wiki article on it here if you want the mystery ended), Pokey the Penguin is an absurdist comic strip crudely written and crudely drawn using the everyman's photoshop: Microsoft fuckin' Paint. Its humour lies in non-sequiturs, belligerence, and the overstatement of the obvious. Three things that make me lol, and when combined make me LOL. I can never get enough of Pokey's debilitated internet style and its vague punchlines.

Mr. Nutty, a snowman and an alcoholic British capitalist

Its plots are even vaguer. A recurring theme, however, seems to be Pokey's struggle against the Italians, who are perpetually attempting to pilfer Pokey's supply of Arctic Circle Candy, which grows in the arctic. It is important to note that candy does not grow, and that penguins do not live in the arctic.

Did you know that Christian Bale is Kermit the Frog?

I'm afraid it's true. Your beloved Batman is really a frog. A famous one. Look:

Search your feelings. You know this to be true. There is a huge livejournal entry about the ways in which Bale and Kermit are one and the same. I abandoned all hope, once entered. Some of the images look a bit doctored, but some...

My god....some....

Just in case y'all didn't know: Cinemateque Waterloo

Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment (1960)

Ever wanted to see some older films on the big screen? The Cinemateque Waterloo is a local organisation that brings in great prints of classic must-see films that are made so much more personal by sitting in a theatre and sharing the experience. Getting your seat kicked and whatnot. Check their website out for their schedule. Their presentations run through the Princess Cinemas, and the Cinemateque starts the screening off with a brief presentation about the film's history and interpretations, which is typically pretty fascinating.

I managed to catch Lawrence of Arabia there, which was filmed on the kind of 70mm scale that demands to be seen on a big screen. I was watching it for the first time, and it was an experience I'm not soon going to forget. Some things you need to see sitting in the mystique-heavy dark room of the theatre, shadowy seat-tops and breathing people.

Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

They screen on Tuesday evenings. You should go. :3

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - This Friday!

A favourite silent film of mine and many other fabulous folk, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, is going to be screened this friday at 8pm over at First United Church, on king and william in Waterloo. And it's going to be backed by live music. Holy hells yes. Check out the NUMUS organisation's website for their 2010 schedule.

The 1920 film is German expressionism at it's best, and is filled with long dark shadows and spidery, crooked roads sided by spidery, crooked buildings. A weird world of fantastical evil and bizarre psychoses: this is the stuff that Tim Burton draws from.



Tickets are $24 a pop or $10 for students, and should be a wicked-cool time. Be there or be square! Square. Worst of shapes.