The Cultural Gutter

unashamed geekery

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." -- Oscar Wilde

The Fashion of Frida Kahlo

Messy Nessy Chic has a gallery showcasing Frida Kahlo’s fashion and it’s relationship to her life and work. And you can see her dresses, corsets, headpieces, jewellery and other articles on display in Mexico City at the Museo Frida Kahlo until Nov. 22, 2013. (Thanks, K.A. Laity!)

Thinking about Gail Simone’s Batgirl

Adam Bateham wrote a response to Gail Simone’s dismissal from Batgirl and his feelings about the character: “[Simone] ‘got it.’ She didn’t use Batgirl’s inability to walk as a cheap plot point. Simone wrote a character that struggled to move forward because she was weighed down from years of hurt, unfairness, and frustration. A character determined [...]

An Open Letter to D&D Next’s Art Department

Glitterdust has some suggestions for art in Dungeons and Dragons publications. “And you can argue, if you like, that this is just the opinion of a privileged white guy. Because, y’know, it is. I’m not a woman, I’m not a minority, and my only disability is depression. But I’m just the voice for a silent [...]

Good-bye, Oracle. Hello, Batgirl.

Comics Alliance says good-bye to Barbara Gordon as Oracle and hello her as Batgirl in the DC relaunch, with some nice art by Phil Noto.

Good-Bye, Oracle–Hello, Batgirl

As part of its massive “reboot,” DC Comics will make Barbara Gordon Batgirl again. This means, though that her 20 year history as Oracle, peerless hacker and information broker with an eidetic memory, leader of The Birds of Prey and one of the few examples of a differently-abled hero in comics, is gone.  Some readers [...]

Visit Marwencol

Marwencol is documentary about Mark Hogancamp, a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury after being attacked by a group of men. As part of his therapy, he retells his life as a soldier in World War II at 1/6 scale and photographs it. The official site has a trailer and gallery of his photos.

Hammering Away at the Here and Now

mapinternet-small.jpg

Let’s say you’re the newly-sentient internet. How would you decipher the meaning of all the bits and bytes whizzing past you? And what about the real world outside your electronic realm?

Even More Fewdio

Our friends at Fewdio are at it again with some new horror shorts, including “The Cellar” (“Vampires don’t sparkle, they burn”) and gangsters robbing a disabled old man in, “The Prey.”

Universal’s Years of Terror and Longing!

Beware the stalking half-human half beast!  Cursed with the thirst for human blood, unconscionable hubris,  and demanding a mate, the Monster Legacy site comes to life and walks among us! (as part of promotion for The Wolf Man remake). Thrills! Shock! Suspense!

More Reasons To Love Doom Patrol

The Most Insane Moments of Doom Patrol, according to Chris Sims.

The Brain-Twitter Interface

The Brain-Twitter Interface lets your brain send tweets. 

Learning from the Best

Everything you need to know, you can learn from Arnold Drake and Doom Patrol. (via Comics Should Be Good).

2008 Madness Begins

The 2008 Midnight Madness films have been announced.  If you’re in Toronto then, you’ll have a chance to see movies like Chocolate, Detroit Metal City, JCVD and The Burrowers (no trailer) on the big screen. I’ma be there.

Chocolate: Ass-Kicking, Autism, Revenge

“Autism:  Blessing or Curse?” the trailer for Prachya Pinkaew’s Chocolate asks. Instead of being a mathematical prodigy or cattle- whisperer,  Jeeja Vismistananda stars as an autistic woman who’s learned “every fighting move recorded.” 

Long Jeanne Silver

She

A short list of the some of the most bizarre, more outlandish XXX fare of the 1970s wouldn’t be complete without mentioning an eye-opening 1977 Alex De Renzy feature film titled LONG JEANNE SILVER. In fact, of all the porn films in my collection, I’ve gone though the most trouble to get this particular one, [...]

  • Support The Gutter

  • Of Note Elsewhere

    A novelist takes revenge on writers he doesn’t like via wikipedia. Slate has the story. “Qworty’s edits undermine our trust in this great project. Qworty’s edits prove that Wikipedia’s content can be shaped by people settling grudges and acting out of spite and envy. Qworty alone, by his own account, has made 13,000 edits to Wikipedia. And Qworty, as the record will show, is not to be trusted.”

    ~

    Diane Dooley writes about Mars’ need for women and ways to subvert it.

    ~

    “[T]he mainstreaming of Jane Eyre as a vanilla romance, or even as an exploration of a woman’s pure, uncompromising, and uncomplicated (and religious! and feminist!) integrity, says all kinds of things about our inability to speak honestly about violence and sex.” More on Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, consent, sex and submission, here. (via K.A. Laity)

    ~

    Comic Book Attic talks about comics about comics, with plenty of pages from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s The Newsboy Legion for your enjoyment.

    ~

    At Babbler Dabbler, Briana discusses female cyborgs in Ghost In The Shell and in Alien: Resurrection.

    ~

    Commander Chris Hadfield performs David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in space.

    ~

  • The Book!

  • Spilling into Twitter

  • Obsessive?

    Then you might be interested in knowing you can subscribe to our RSS feed, find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter or Tumblr.

    -------

  • Weekly Notifications

  • What We’re Talking About

  • Thanks To

    No Media Kings hosts this site, and Wordpress autoconstructs it.