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Best Of 2012/Technoccult Gift Guide

December 18, 2012 / Klint Finley

It’s the end of the year, which is a good time to reflect on what my favorite bits of media were for the year. I figure this list can also double as a guide for any last minute gifts.

I’m sure there’s stuff I’m forgetting in each category, so I may update this again later. Feel free to recommend stuff I might’ve missed!

Comics:

This was a big year for artist/writer Brandon Graham. Three of his releases were favorites of mine this year:

King City cover by Brandon Graham

King City, which was the subject of my interview with Graham.

Prophet: Remission cover

Prophet, a book written by Graham with a rotating cast of artists.

Escalator by Brandon Graham cover

Escalator a collection of short stories written and drawn by Graham. I think this is actually my favorite of the three.

Casanova Volume 3: Avaritia

Besides all the Graham stuff, I really liked Casanova Volume 3: Avaritia by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba.

I haven’t finished Hawkeye – Volume 1: My Life As A Weapon by Fraction and David Aja yet, but I’m enjoying it so far.

Also, I haven’t read Glory Volume 1: The Once and Future Destroyer by Joe Keatinge and Ross Campbell yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

I don’t buy very many single issues, but here are some that I bought and liked:

COPRA # 1 by Michel Fiffe. This was a pleasant surprise. I hadn’t heard of Fiffe before I saw it promoted by Floating World Comics. It reminds me a bit of Graham’s Prophet in that it’s an indie artists’ take on super hero comics of the past. I haven’t read the second issue yet but plan to pick it up soon. There’s a preview of issue 1 here and issue 2 here.

The Secret Voice

Secret Voice # 1 by Zack Soto. If you don’t feel like paying, you can check this one out online, along side The Yankee and other great stuff at Study Group Comics.

The Secret Life of DB Cooper

The Secret History of DB Cooper # 1. Really dug the first issue, still waiting for the trade paperback.

Music

Bruxa victimeyez cover

Bruxa: Victimzeyez, a free digital album that I’ve mentioned before. Elements of dubstep and chopped and screwed hip hop with a trace of witch house.

Monolake: Ghosts cover

Monoloake: Ghosts. Minimal techno with a hint of dubstep.

Filastine: Loot cover

Filistine: Loot. I’m not sure how to explain this one — a fusion of lots of different styles of electronic music from all over the world.

The Seer album cover

The Swans: The Seer. New album from an old school no wave band.

Tweaker: Call The Time Eternity cover

Tweaker: Call the Time Eternity. Long awaited third solo album from Trent Reznor’s former right-hand man.

I bough X-TG’s DESERTSHORE / THE FINAL REPORT, but because I’ve been working on my own album I haven’t listened to it yet.

Movies

I didn’t see many movies this year, and I liked even fewer. Here are the ones I liked:

Looper

Cabin in the Woods. Technically I guess this came out in 2011, but I think most of us saw it this year.

I haven’t seen The Master yet but want to.

Books

I didn’t read many new books this year, but I did read and like:

Non-fiction:

Information Diet

The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption by Clay A. Johnson

American Vampire in Juarez

An American Vampire in Juarez: Getting My Teeth Pulled In Mexico’s Most Notorious Border Town

Fiction:

Psychopomp Volume One: Cracked Plate by Amanda Sledz. My interview with her is here and an excerpt from the book is here.

The Rise of Siri by Shlok Vaidya. Science fiction that reads more like design fiction — this is all about the ideas, not the characters. Already a little dated since Apple has announced that it’s bringing some of its manufacturing back to the U.S.

Neuromancer Casting? Cyberpunks Weigh In

December 22, 2011 / Klint Finley

Damage from Planet Damage asked his “22 major arcana of cyberpunk” who they thought should be cast in a Neuromancer movie. I was honored to be included.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

[CASE]

Klint: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Anabelle Cat: I love Cillian Murphy-superb choice and Joseph Gordon-Levitt Matt: An Unknown Rob: As for Case, the only person even slightly close to the target age that I feel could pull it off would be Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I think a lot of that has to do with his role in Brick, which was seriously perfect. M1k3y: Ryan Gosling as Case, if only to see him cyberpunk’d up. But mostly because he’s talented as shit.
Majority verdict? Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Planet Damage: (Warning: some of the sidebar images may be NSFW)

Trailer for Film Adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Radio Free Albemuth

March 2, 2011 / Klint Finley

io9: First trailer for Philip K. Dick’s Radio Free Albemuth with Alanis Morissette

A few years ago I would have been excited to see something like this coming to the mainstream. Now I cringe with the anticipation of the tedious conversations with n00bs and normals that this film will probably lead me into. Not to mention the the probability that it will become a Truther/Tea Partier favorite instead of a mind opener. One more sign that I’m getting old, or at least jaded.

Gus Van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis teaming up to write screenplay about Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake

October 15, 2009 / Klint Finley

Gus Van Sant and author Bret Easton Ellis will team to write a feature about the double suicide of artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake.

PalmStar Entertainment, Celluloid Dreams and K5 Film have acquired screen rights to “The Golden Suicides,” a Vanity Fair article written by Nancy Jo Sales. […]

The couple descended into a paranoid spiral when the artists developed a consuming belief that government and religious organizations were conspiring against them. She killed herself in 2007. Blake found her body on the floor of their bedroom, and walked into the Atlantic Ocean a week later, ending his life.

Variety: Scribes make suicide pact

Previously:

Vanity Fair coverage of the deaths of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake

Dead Woman Blogging: Theresa Duncan at 10 Zen Monkeys

(via Jorn Barger)

Dave Gibbons interview plus new Dave Gibbons art

January 28, 2009 / Klint Finley

watchmen sketch

We would talk at great length every time Alan started to script an issue, he’d run by how he thought it might be broken down, then I’d give him my suggestions on that, and then based on the various thing we were talking about – we would both go off into reminiscences, and speculations about how we came through music to comics to childhood experiences to vague feelings about things – somehow we’d come back to the topic of Watchmen again, and this stuff, largely contextual and largely sort of, er, mood as much as anything, would find its way into the finished comic book. We just talked and talked a lot, and then Alan typed and typed a lot and I drew and drew a lot. And then John Higgins – I shouldn’t leave him out – he coloured and coloured a lot, and I very much would talk things through with him, and then just leave him to his own devices. I think good collaborations are like that; you have to trust what the other guy’s going to do, have him put into it, stir the pot, throw in what you’ve got and leave it alone.

Full Story: The Quietus

Plus: New Dave Gibbons art on Ain’t It Cool

Radio Free Albemuth movie, starring Alanis Morissette, in post-production

January 28, 2009 / Klint Finley

Another Philip K. Dick movie is coming soon: Radio Free Albemuth, starring Alanis Morissette as Sylvia, Jonathan Scarfe as Nicholas Brady, and Shea Whigham as Philip K. Dick himself.

Official movie site

IMDB entry

(Thanks Joe)

Fox Eyes Keanu Reeves to Star in a Cowboy Bebop Movie

January 18, 2009 / TiamatsVision

“Twentieth Century Fox is bringing the Japanese anime TV series Cowboy Bebop to the big screen, with The Day the Earth Stood Still star Keanu Reeves attached to star as a bounty hunter traveling through space in 2071, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

One of the big titles in anime, Bebop is set in a time where “astral gates” make interstellar travel possible. Humanity, decimated by a lunar explosion resulting from a gate accident, spread out across the solar system, as did crime, which gave rise to the use of bounty hunters. Reeves would play Spike Spiegel, a bounty hunter and former member of a crime syndicate.”

(via SciFi Wire. Thanks JK!)

Inside The Church of Satan

May 10, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“New, controversial footage, from within the Church of Satan, has been released. It has been more than forty years since in-depth footage of the Church was shot, and a new Satanic ritual has been documented and publicly presented for the first time. It’s revealed and confirmed that public servants and various celebrities are, or have been, members of the Satanic Church, including Sammy Davis, Jr. and Jayne Mansfield. In interviews leading up to the un-cut ritual, one Satanist says, if there is a God who feels Satanists should roast in hell, “He can go _ himself,” and that all people are not created equal. Another said Christianity is “like a rabies.”

The footage was captured by independent filmmaker Joshua P. Warren. He was granted unprecedented access to the Church, traveling internationally to live with Satanists and document the most intimate aspects of their philosophy. He has now released it in his new documentary, Inside the Church of Satan.”

(via Alternative Approaches)

(“Inside The Church of Satan” site)

Lead singer of Iron Maiden directing movie about the reincarnation of Aleister Crowley

February 14, 2008 / Klint Finley

chemical wedding

s the lead singer from Iron Maiden the new Rob Zombie? Bruce Dickinson, the old school hard rock band’s lead singer, penned the screenplay for Chemical Wedding, an occult thriller which, according to Variety, “stars Simon Callow as the reincarnated Aleister Crowley, an occult scholar who was once labeled as the most evil man in Britain.” Crowley wasn’t just “an occult scholar.” His very existence struck fear into the hearts of the U.K. residents throughout his lifetime.

Full Story: Monster Fest.

(Thanks Danny Chaoflux).