Italian Body Parts

I'm not sure what it is about Italian and preserving the remains of historical figures, but two interesting articles about body parts showed up on BBC this week.

The first, is that Galileo's fingers and tooth have been found. That desiccated finger is without a doubt one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen in my life.

In addition to the remains of the great astronomer being found, Il Duce's brain has apparently been stolen. I think we all know where this is going: some sort of Franken-dictator is being fashioned in Switzerland. While this can't be good, I sort of have a feeling he'll just end up in a tree again.

Geography of DC Comics: Gotham City

When trying to think up names for Sim City 4 cities or fantasy football team names or for any of many others reasons why someone like me might want to make up place names, Gotham has always been a thorn in my side. No matter how hard I try, I cannot think of a name as good as Gotham. Part of that is probably because it is so ingrained in pop culture and my mind that it actually feels like a real place and actual names always seem more realistic than fake ones. Moreover, the fact that Gotham is actually a nickname for New York probably gives some added weight to it.

Still, the name is simply perfect. It is short and catchy, yet manages to evoke so many images. Goth elicits memories of barbarian tribes, towering Gothic cathedrals and darkness, while ham is a simple English town ending. Thus, it manages to be a reference, but still sound like a real place.

But because Gotham is not a honest-to-goodness physical place, the most important part of its reality is in the mind. Gotham is darkness, it is madness, an art-deco nightmare. It is shadow, towering skyscrapers and muggings on street corners. When you think of Gotham City it brings to mind images of a real place, just as if you thought of New York, London or Hong Kong.

I haven't been able to find quite as much information the geography of the city itself, but I did find some interesting things. Strange Maps, which actually began this endeavor, has a post with some information on various places in the city, as does Gotham and Beyond. I'm not well versed enough with comics to comment further on those particulars, so let's just get to the maps.


The first image comes from Batman: The Animated Series, and honestly isn't all that helpful. Though it's a nice sepia tone and I just like the way it looks.



This next map is the original from Strange Maps and wonderful for city details, but not great for larger area names. As far as I can tell Gotham City is comprised of three main islands, two secondary islands and a few other islands here or there (including Blackgate Isle, #41 on the map). The islands I consider secondary are the two triangular ones, the northern containing Arkham Asylum, the southern the Tricorner Yards. These seem very integrated into the city and important, with an expressway going through the northern and the shipyards on the southern. The other islands are not given much detail, only showing a few bridges connecting them to the main islands and one road.


Here is a subway map of Gotham, which gives some nice detail on neighborhood names. It also gives us the areas of Uptown, Midtown and Downtown (obviously modeled after NYC), but no names for the actual islands which these areas of the city are on. A non-subway map similar to this can be found here. It has a zoom function, lists all sorts of street names and is without a doubt the best map of the city I have found. Oddly, both of these maps get rid of four of the five islands in the south of the city.


From these maps we get the following neighborhoods.
Uptown: Granton, Farrow, Harrow, Jerold.
Midtown: Gainsly, Reatton.
Downtown: Haysville, Stevensburgh, West Harlow.

Additionally, there is the Narrows between Midtown and Downtown, and the island in the southwest corner is South Hinkley.

I would appreciate any input those readers with more comic book knowledge than me have.

Wet Riffs

If I'm not mistaken this is the first time we've mentioned XKCD on this blog, which is a travesty. It's an amazing webcomic, despite the fact that I don't understand math worth a lick. It's well worth at the very least a minutes of your time.

WetRiffs.com, is quite possibly the greatest site on the internet. I know our readers (especially those of the tentacle rape persuasion) will be surprised by that statement seeing as how amazing BSD is, but it's true. Water + nudity + guitars is simple too awesome for us to handle. And likely for all of you, they are still taking submissions.

Note: the other pictures on the site are much sexier than this.

Here is some bonus material for you all, which I also found through XKCD, of some hot, European chess action.

Capybara

I'd like to preface this post with something that I think I'm going to be saying more in the next few years and will probably result in the continual shaping of this blog. Matt and I started Blast Shields Down during our freshman year of college. Our original intent was to have a place to work as a team and put the things we made and wanted to say down together. But more than that too we wanted a way to stay connected and close to one another. Its been a few years. And, if the summers of little substance here are any indication than I think we have at least some anecdotal evidence that BSD has been serving its purpose. Also, its helped to keep us in touch with other friends of ours and other bloggers who we might rarely see. It hasn't always been a strong dialogue but its been a dialogue none the less. I say this because it hit me a few weeks ago that in a rather short time the distance between Matt and myself is going to be even greater. Unlike him I'm not graduating this year. Unlike me, he is probably going to be out of state for the next couple of years for Grad School. Almost in anticipation of this seperation Matt and I have started emailing one another much more; keeping up an almost constant correspondence through the weeks. But, because of my realizattion that soon it'll be bon voyage to Matt, I decided to post here on BSD something I easily could have emailed to him. This way he can see, you can see it, and BSD might learn again to serve its purpose...

"During the Christian observation of Lent, capybara meat is especially popular as it is claimed that the Catholic church, in a special dispensation, classified the animal as a fish in the 16th century. (cf. Barnacle goose) There are differing accounts of how the dispensation arose. The most cited refers to a group of 16th Century missionaries who made a request which implied that the semi-aquatic capybara might be a "fish" and also hinted that there would be an issue with starvation if the animal weren't classified as suitable for Lent."

...and if thats not weird enough, just listen to this....

Super Mario Bros. 2

I just beat Super Mario Bros. 2. I am so flipping mad. If you haven't beaten the game then this might come as a shock to you but ..... IT'S ALL A FUCKING DREAM! IT'S ALL IN MARIO'S HEAD! I feel so cheated. Worst deus ex machina ever.

Arrested Development Movie

During the life of this blog we've seen the return of X-Files, Futurama and Star Trek. And while those returns had varying degrees of greatness, I have high hopes for our next resurrected franchise.

While this has been bounced around for a while now, I have a lot more confidence in the creation of an Arrested Development movie now that Jason Bateman confirmed it on Inside the Actor's Studio. It is also up on IMDb and looking pretty real.

Also, for bonus points, try watching the series backwards. It's really interesting to see how the plot unfolds that way.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Name: Sonic the Hedgehog 2
System: Sega Genesis
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: 1992
Genre: Platformer

Sonic Team’s magnum opus, arguably the greatest game ever made for the Sega Genesis, or by Sega period, Sonic 2 is the embodiment of the franchise and its pinnacle. It improves upon its predecessor with the introduction of the spin dash, the best level design of any Sonic game and the pin point precision of its platforming elements. But what sets Sonic apart from the plethora of platformers of the 16-bit era, like all the Sonic games, is its sense of overwhelming speed.

Even though I could never manage beat the game as a kid, I always got much further than any of the other Sonics… I think it has something to do with the levels being easier, on average shorter, but also because I played the game to death I managed to know the levels better than in any of the other games. I would beat Chemical Plant, Aquatic Ruin, Casino Night, Hill Top and all the way to Mystic Cave, where I would undoubtedly die many horrible deaths, wasting continue after continue until I got frustrated and quit. I must have played this game more than any other in my Genesis days, but somehow it never got old. I even played the crappy two player game quite often… which was basically just racing against someone else to see who could finish a level faster, except everything was squished pretty horribly.

This game is brilliant in every single way, but truly excels in the area of control. Sonic moves quickly, agilely, but without the sense of loss of control (maybe with the exception of the speed shoes) of many games. The level designs are, in my opinion, the cleverest of the series, with Chemical Plant, Casino Night and Hill Top Zones leading the way. Chemical Plant was the first major test to anyone playing the game and delivered splendidly with divergent paths and the toxic sludge atmosphere. Hill Top was perhaps my favorite, mostly because of the wonderful music and the Loch Ness lava monsters popping up all over the place. There can be little argument that Casino Night is the best, though… it is by far the most immersive level. The true joy of the zone is that you don’t want to leave, you just hang around gambling for coins, bouncing off the plethora of bumpers and glowing chili dogs and enjoying the atmosphere. Yet, it never seemed to lose the sense of speed that is essential to the game.

The graphics were wonderful, with everything having just a little more depth than in the first game and a little more vibrant look. While the visuals certainly were not as pretty as those of Sonic 3 or Sonic and Knuckles, they have a charm of their own. The music is outstanding and fitting in every zone.

The biggest addition to the game was the spin dash, which contributes majorly to the game’s sense of speed, but Tails can’t be forgotten. This is his first game and while he’s up there at the top of the pantheon of annoying sidekicks, I always had a soft spot for him and he is a help at times in the game. The player has the option of playing as either Sonic and Tails, with Tails either computer controlled or being controlled by the second player. I never found controlling Tails to be all that easy, but he can be helpful at times, Sonic alone or Tails alone. Unfortunately, Tails cannot fly when player controlled like in Sonic 3. The new bonus stage is interesting, if only for its 3-D, and has Sonic running along a halfpipe picking up rings and avoiding bombs. It always gave me a headache, but it was decent.


From the rehashed Green Hill Zone, which never felt like a cop out, but simply a homage, to Wing Fortress and Death Egg Zones, Sonic 2 is an amazing game and one that I simply cannot do justice. While not a long game (it can be finished in one sitting if you’re good enough), it will surely take most players many hours to complete it. It took me about fifteen years. During that time, I took years off from playing it, but every time I picked it up it was as enjoyable as the last. It is rare to find a platformer that is this perfect, but Sonic the Hedgehog 2 surely does everything it sets out to do perfectly.

Score: 10/10

Space Cowboys and Werewolves

Happy Halloween everyone! While it seems our usual tradition of going to see movies at the Old Redford is skipping a year, I'm headed up to State tonight to reunite the BSD brain trust. I have no idea what we're doing, but it should be good.

The first clip is a nice homage to Firefly from Castle, which is a pretty good show. Nothing groundbreaking, but enjoyable none the less.



And, what is probably the greatest Halloween song ever.

Man's Best Friend

This is late, but I don't think that matters much. The following comes from Iowa football blog Black Heart Gold Pants:

"Senior linebacker Pat Argerer tore ligaments in his right thumb early in the Arkansas State game, but he said it won't affect his status for this week or beyond. 'You don't need thumbs,' he said. 'My best friend is my brother's dog. He doesn't have any thumbs and he's doing fine.'"

That just might be the most epic quote ever.

"....more like a cemetary than an avenue...."

Just as I finished the first book of Roberto Bolaño's posthumously published last work, 2666, my lending time form the library ran out and it was recalled. Someone else had placed a hold on the work and I will have to wait another month before I can enact my revenge, perpetrating the same grievous act against them.

I am left with a hauting feeling from the opening book of 2666, The Part About the Critics. It was a strangely interesting and obsessing read. Although for the most part while reading the book, carrying the massive 900 page slab from place to place with, trying to fit in a few minutes of reading and rumination whenever I could, I felt that the work was slow and retarding I could not keep myself from reading more. Unlike so many books that have presented themselves to me as being nearly plotless and void of direction of plot The Part About the Critics was strangely, and borderline upsettingly, obsessing. The story is about four German literature critics and scholars from all over Europe (England, France, Spain, and Italy.) Each is considered an expert in their field of study and on the work of the mysterious German author, held to be the greatest German author of the 20th century (with the exception of Franz Kafka), Benno von Archimboldi. As the four scholars become friends a love triangle develops within the group, Norton and English woman in her late 20s, and two of her male companions, Pelletier, a Parisian, and Espinoza, a Spaniard. As their private lives take over their work and daily tasks the critics find themselves suffer as a result of one another. The stroy windingly leads out of Europe and into a Mexican boarder town, Santa Teresa in Sonora, where, among a mystery concerning hundreds of young women's deaths, the critics hope to find the seemingly mythical figure of their mutual lives, Archimboldi.

The book reads like a Francisco Goya painting. Some figure like his Colossus or Saturn, devouring his son, hangs over the writing. The language is baroque and gothic but without the added weight of romanticism. So much of the story is interrupted by the dreams of the characters of their false memories of such that entire sections of the work feel surreal and unread after a time. As the characters slowly lose all connection to their own lives so does the reader and eventually you find yourself reading without purpose or direction or concern. The work is so disconcerting and unnerving that its easy to forget what you are reading and why. Some of its most stylish,stunning, memorable, and enjoyable lines and passages are constructed with such a dichotomy of grotesque beauty, of clarity juxtaposed with insanity that its hard to not feel upset reading them. Like when Norton, Pelletier and Espinoza, stopping their car along a Mexican highway leaving the city look out across the desert and into Arizona and "the sky at sunset looked like a carnivorous flower."