Sunday, 2 October 2011
“Of the Month” October 2011
Link of the Month:
Urban Threads
While I don’t like their name (“Hey, let’s add the word ‘urban’ to our company’s name to make it sound hip end exciting to the youthful demographic” – they might have well as added a “Z” to the end of “Threads” instead of an “S”), I do like that Urban Threads is taking embroidery out of the realm of the 55-plus-year-old ladies and putting into the hands of artist who actually make legitimately cool stuff. Urban Threads specializes in quirky, spooky, and steampunk designs (they collectively refer to it as “stitchpunk”), all of which are perfect for Halloween costumes and decor.
Game of the Month:
Barrr
An incredibly addictive game wherein you run a pirate bar and have to manage your flow of customers (all pirates) as they drink beer at a bar, get a tattoo from an adorable redhead, play some darts, need to pee, and play some video games or some Rock Band. The art style is incredibly kawaii, and Pirates are kinda Halloween-ish, right? Available for Android devices.
Movie of the Month:
Trollhunter
A surprisingly engaging “found footage” horror movie in the vein of Blair Witch and Cloverfield, about a group of enterprising journalism students who hope to track down and interview a bear poacher in Norway. They quickly discover that bears aren’t what he’s actually hunting. A great use of a low budget and some very effective CGI as the group encounters increasingly dangerous categories of trolls, with some amusing discussions of troll physiology and behavior along the way. There’s a wonderful scene where this badass trollhunter sits down to eat breakfast in a diner in a sweater vest and glasses and you realize that he just looks like someone’s kindly grandfather or uncle. I really appreciated how quickly the movie got into the business of getting the trolls right up there on the screen in plain sight and dealing with them instead of keeping them a shadowy secret until a big climactic reveal at the end.
Categories: Of the Month.
