The Cultural Gutter

taking the dumb out of fandom

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

100 Master of Animated Shorts

Watch the work of 100 masters of animated short film in 9 minutes.

Pregnesia!

The ultimate in amnesiac pregnancy romances, Pregnesia! (Thanks, Tars Tarkas!)

Banned Book Week at Book View Cafe

Book View Cafe is observing Banned Book Week with a series of articles. The first post is, “50 Shades of Burning Books” by erotic romance author Marisa Day, responding to the burning of 5o Shades of Gray. “The attempt by any would-be moral elite to control access to ideas, even profoundly icky ideas like women [...]

Kids Do Read Comics

Comics Beat ‘s Torsten Adair goes through The New York Times bestseller list and draws some conclusions, “Right now, it seems that diversity is the zeitgeist, as non-fiction, non-comics publishers are selling well to the general public, and that kids’ books are a growing market.”

What Did You Want To Do In 1994?

At Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, Sarah shares answers to her question, “What did you want to do in 1994?”

RIP, Phyllis Diller

Comedian Phyllis Diller has died.  The LA Times has an obituary.  Diller discusses crashing the all-male Friar’s Club. Female comedians pay tribute to her.  Funny or Die shares their 10 favorite jokes by Phyllis Diller.

Indian Superhero Roll Call!

Todd Stadtman assembles a list of India’s mightiest film superheroes for The Times of India!  

NYAFF 2012!

Who will dare face the New York Asian Film Festival?! Who will dare not to after seeing the festival trailer and reading, “Grady’s Guide to NYAFF 2012?!”  The full festival schedule and ticket information are here.

Summer Fun Time Reading ’12

Summer’s come early this year, with the hum of air conditioners and fans in the air and the grass peacefully brown beneath my feet, the fireflies rising into the trees and all around the internet, Summer Top Ten lists are in bloom, from the Top Ten YA Summer Reads to the Top Ten Summer Eggplant Recipes [...]

Fantasy Armor and Lady Bits

An armorer has some suggestions about balancing functionality, character and story in “fantasy armor and lady bits.”

“Why, Hello There, Citizen!”

All 14 of the guest star window cameos from the Batman tv series. (via Mike White)

Top 5 Canadian Films

Cultural Gutter Screen Editor Emeritus, screenwriter and Mayfair Theatre Mogul, Ian Driscoll shares his top 5 Canadian films with Canuxploitation.

In Defense of Liz Lemon

At The New Yorker, Emily Nussbaum feels compelled to defend30 Rock character Liz Lemon in the face of recent “Liz Hate.”  “[O]ne of the most radical things about 30 Rock [has always been] the way it has continually punctured Liz’s image of herself as a spunky brunette underdog.”  A reader suggests everyone read Tiger Beatdown’s, [...]

10 Things About Godzilla

At the Criterion Collection blog, Curtis Tsui shares, “10 Things I learned About Godzilla.” My favorite involves sugar wafers. (via Kaijucast)

“Whither Canadian Cinema?”

At Canadian Film Corner, Greg Klymkiw responds to Norman Wilner’s recent Now Magazine article, “Canuck Conundrum,” and Paul Corupe’s Canuxploitation blog post, “Canada’s Token 10?”:  “Celebration please, not castigation. Cineplex Entertainment is already doing a very good job in the latter department.” (via Mike White).

The Kitschies’ Red Tentacle Finalists

Our good friends at Pornokitsch have released the shortlist of finalists for the Kitschies’ Red Tentacle award and have an in depth look at one of the Finalists, The Enterprise of Death by Jesse Bullington.  “The Red Tentacle is awarded annually to the novel containing speculative or fantastic elements that best fulfills the criteria of [...]

End of the Year at Too Busy Thinking About My Comics

Colin Smith exhaustively examines the best and worst in comics in 2011 including thoughts on comics such as, Thor: Mighty Avenger, Journey Into Mystery, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969, as well as pondering “The Death of Narrative Comics” and the DC reboot. A deeply thoughtful read.

“Canada’s Token 10?”

Canuxploitation ponders the implications of the process used to select the Toronto International Film Festival’s annual top ten Canadian films. “Perhaps this is why TIFF’s list often appears more like a cultural promotional strategy rather than a bonafide ranking of quality. Each year the list appears to be carefully stocked with certain kinds of culturally polite Canadian films–a few [...]

Godzilla: 3 Reasons

Criterion’s excellent three reasons for its Godzilla (1954) DVD and Blu-Ray.

10 Comics I Liked in 2011

It’s the beginning of January, cold and dark where I am. The critics are all putting out their best of year lists, and maybe you’re looking for something to read. So here’s my entry into annual lists: 10 comics I liked in 2011 that I haven’t written about. Well 9 comics I haven’t written about [...]

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  • Of Note Elsewhere

    The Hollywood Reporter interviews director Takashi Miike about his new film, Shield of Straw: ” In Japan now, films are very safe. When I was young and went to old cinemas, they had a distinctive feel, an adult smell about them. As you got in your seat and the lights went down, there was a feeling of excitement: What if the film is scarier than I thought it’s going to be? You’re taken into that world. Nowadays, you can sit in the theater and know it’s going to be safe. That’s good for business, but not for filmmaking.”

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    The Atlantic profiles Spectral Motion, creators of monsters, “effects, and other mechanical grotesqueries that have since become household nightmares, if not names.”

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    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.”

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

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    “[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)

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    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.

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