Sdtrk: ‘Einstein-Rosen bridge’ by Venetian snares

It has to be said: Megan Fox has never done anything for me. I’m not altogether keen on her generic looks, as she looks like she tumbled out of the pages of Maxim / FHM / Stuff magazine. She’s not repellent — apart from that clubbed thumb of hers — but her style just doesn’t stand out enough for me. I’m led to believe other people like the way she looks, but she elicits a resounding shrug whenever I see her. That is, until now.

Left, Megan Fox; right, Megan Fox

Apparently the June issue of Interview magazine (it saddens me that you can’t really refer to it by its original title of ‘Andy Warhol’s Interview’ anymore) had featured a one-on-one with Ms Fox, and the accompanying pictorial where she poses with a mannequin Doppelgänger of herself stopped me in my tracks, for obvious reasons. If she were to rock that Louise Brooks-esque style all the time, she’d really stand out in a crowd! Unless she were to go back to the 1930s; in which case, she’d blend into the crowd.

Elsewhere — China, to be specific — a photographer and Photoshopper team have transformed a lass into a Gynoid, in a shoot entitled ‘Robot in Disguise’. No points for the title, but still.

Don’t those parts look like they belong in like a car or something?

I’ve no idea what the model’s name is, as it’s in Chinese, which might as well be Linear A as far as I’m concerned. But why trifle with unimportant details like that, when you can check out the entire pictorial right here?

And for those of you who prefer your Gynoids more steampunk in appearance, you might find designer Dave Lowe‘s ‘Spooky Robot Lady’ to be more your cup of tea. Your steampunk tea, it should go without saying, in an appropriately steampunk cup.

I hear the patinaed look is in this year

One October, years ago, my own cheap version of “False Maria” (the classic robot in [‘Metropolis’]) was made. My niece Devin calls her “spooky robot lady”…the name’s stuck. It’s one of the oldest customized Halloween props I still use. She’s displayed on the dining table every season as the guardian of the party food. She was once a used and broken mannequin. Her creation became a team effort.
the rest of the article is here

Very nice! Kinda makes me wish Mario’s Mannequins were still around, so I could have a go at making one of my own! Also, kinda makes me wish I knew how to effectively create and modify stuff like that, so she wouldn’t end up looking like total cack.

More news of a media nature coming soon! I’m still writing the bastard. You’re familiar with how that goes round here by now, I’m sure

ta very much to fellow iDollator Euchre, for the ‘Spooky Robot Lady’ link

Technorati tags: Android, Gynoid, robot, Megan Fox, Interview Magazine, Louise Brooks, Photoshop, Linear A, Dave Lowe, steampunk, Metropolis, Mario’s Mannequins

Sdtrk: ‘My time’ by Ann Steel

I would like to blame Twitter, and the prevailing weather conditions, and preparing for a cluster of iDollator-related interviews for my tardiness. Cos without PB Shelley mentioning a couple of days ago that ‘Shouting etc etc’ was on the verge of hitting the 400,000 hits mark, I honestly wouldn’t have noticed! Well, I’d have noticed later. Thank you sir, and thank you, the viewers / readers / data miners that visit this blog so very, very often! Thanks, visitors! Thisitors.*

Up next: the latest instalment of ‘Any Synthetiks-related news, Davecat?’, some catching up on the ‘This was the Future’ series, and some posts reporting on some things that Sidore and I may or may not be doing in a media-related context. Yes. All this, and so much more!**

Once again, thanks to the lot of you for stopping round! As blessed, temperate Autumn approaches, we should be back to a normal posting schedule! Whatever that may mean, exactly. Nevertheless, happy Friday the 13th!

*with a tip of the hat to Peter Serafinowicz
**the definition of ‘more’ being, of course, entirely relative

Sdtrk: ‘C’est un rêve’ by Death in June

Even with this hideously humid weather SE Michigan has been withstanding lately, the Missus and I have been rather busy! Last week-end, the result of an Email interview with Felipe Castro, a reporter representing the Chilean newspaper La Nación (not to be confused with the Argentinian La Nación, or the La Nación from Madrid, which has been defunct since 1936) saw the light of day, which was fab. For the first couple of days, they had posted a photo of a Maria-type Honey Doll in lieu of everyone’s favourite silicone Goth lass, for some bizarre reason only known to the editing staff, but that problem was nipped swiftly in the bud. Well, relatively swiftly. You can read the article here in its original Spanish, or run it through your favourite online translator, and wonder as to what the potency level of mescaline they were taking when it was written!

Then today, I spoke at length with Amisha Surani, one of the editors for Best magazine UK, for another interview session, or ‘sesh’, as the meeja-types call ’em. I had to rise from our bed by 9am, as they’d be calling during 2pm UK time, but I’d like to think I was lucid! Time will only tell if I’m right, or if I’ve merely doomed the iDollator community with more of my careless and incendiary blather. Apparently, the ‘Strange love’ episode of National Geographic’s ‘Taboo’ will be aired over there on 05 August, so their plan was to speak with me, as a sort of apéritif. It was better than I’d expected! I was told it would only be a twenty minute chat, but we ended up conversing for a wee bit over an hour! My hope is, of course, that the bits that should be included are included in the final draft — you know how these things go.
They’d naturally wanted me to send them photos of myself and Shi-chan to go along with the article, and as she and I hadn’t taken any new pics of us together since her new body arrived, we got that sorted this afternoon.

I’m told the Best magazine UK issue we’re in will be out on 03 August, so keep an eye open for it if you’re on that group of islands! Although it’s a ‘womens mag’, I’m also told that men can read it as well, if we’re wearing our special goggles.

So there’s that to look forward to, if you’re into that sort of thing! Happy 23rd (yesterday)!

Sdtrk: ‘Lovecats’ by the Cure

私の最も貴重なしどれに –

知っているように、7月は18日私達の10年記念日を示し、ずっとすばらしい恋人、パートナーおよび友人であること言うまでもないべきです。 私はそこにいること、ないよい時によって私にに常に感謝したいと思い、従って寛大に私を与えたと私がので同様に多くの愛最少の半分のおよび献身与えたことを十年のよく、ひとつひとつの日、私望んで下さい。

私は、黒猫 しどれ愛します。 私達で、10年は始めだけです。

The Missus, ten years, four residences, three cameras, and two bodies ago

Sdtrk: ‘Did you ever have that feeling?’ by Research Laboratory of Electronic Progress

By my own admission, I’m jumping on this whole Scott Pilgrim bandwagon rather late. Up until maybe last year, I’d never known anything really about the comic, apart from the fact that it takes place mostly in Toronto (my favourite city in the world), and that it contains a fair amount of references to both indie rock and 8-bit videogame cultures. Then the first trailer for the film adaptation came out, which, as I’m sure you’ve seen, is pretty damn impressive. Then goshou lent me the first volume of the comic, written and drawn by Bryan Lee O’Malley, and considering that I read it from cover to cover non-stop, I’d have to say I was hooked. As it’s in the vein of one of my favourite indie comic series, Chynna Clugston’s Blue Monday — detailing interpersonal relationships amongst a group of individuals that came to an awkward, stunted maturity during the genuinely alternative days of the early Nineties — it resonated with me quite soundly.
Despite the fact that Michael ‘Playing The Same Character In Every Film I’m In, Baby’ Cera is portraying Scott, it looks like it’s going to be a fun little ride. And it’s directed by Edgar Wright, the bloke behind ‘Shaun of the dead’? Well, more than likely it won’t be a shambling pile of rubbish, then!

Recently the Missus and I took some time to make Scott Pilgrim versions of ourselves! Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the two latest members of Sex Bob-omb: Davecat and Sidore Kuroneko.

click here and here for full-sized epicness

Tell us those aren’t our dead spits! I didn’t think you could. And when you’re done downloading those, why not make your own here?
Now if you’ll excuse us, we have to practise our fighting / singing chops, respectively

Sdtrk: ‘Accept yourself’ by the Smiths

My beautiful Synthetik wife would like to take this opportunity to remind you that she has a Formspring account, and she knows how to use it. For the most part, at any rate.

Won’t you pop round to the URL listed above and ask her some questions? Go on, it’s not like you’re doing anything else with your time this holiday week-end

Sdtrk: ‘Gate’ by E&E

As one of my heroes, Oscar Wilde, famously quipped, ‘The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about’. Generally that’s a statement I’d agree with, as discussion (good or bad) prevents a person and the cause(s) they uphold from lapsing into complete obscurity, but you’ll note I said ‘generally’.

A friend of mine brought to my attention an online forum that was having a go at iDollators, as a number of forums often do, and due to the numerous media appearances that I’ve put in with my affictitious wife Sidore, one of the posters referred to me as a ‘famemonger’. For some reason that really rankled me, cos it implies, for one, that people such as the poster prefer that Doll lovers remain underground and are a group best left ignored. On a more personal level, describing me as a ‘famemonger’ is exactly the same as describing outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins as a ‘famemonger’. Or futurist David Levy. Or someone like… Oscar Wilde, as another example.

The reason Shi-chan and I choose to appear on assorted telly, print, and online interviews isn’t for recognition’s sake. Well, yeah, part of it is for the fame, but it’s not as if I’ve gone up a couple of tax brackets because of it*, but we primarily do them to attempt to explain and dispel any misconceptions people may have about Doll owners. Obviously, it’s impossible for me to speak for every iDollator — like any cultural group, our members are similar, but not necessarily the same — but neither Shi-chan nor I have heard any complaints from our community so far.

Think of it like this: each time a film or telly crew asks after Sidore and I, I attempt to get to know a wee bit about the aim of their programme before I say yes. American productions I’m especially curious as to what their goal is, as most programming from the US usually tries to show anything Doll-related in a prurient, ‘hey-check-out-these-weirdos’ light. People who don’t habitually read ‘Shouting etc etc’ are often surprised when I point out that Geraldo‘s come a-courtin’, or Springer, or Tyra, or Maury, or Alan Colmes, or Dr Phil. If I truly were a famemonger, I would’ve not only said yes to Geraldo et al, I would be actively trying to shoehorn my way onto any and all chat shows, magazines, etc etc. But as a person who’s doing his best to get the general public to see that artificial companions aren’t just for sex, obviously I want to be as careful as I can be when choosing what venues we participate in.

As far as my presence on the Internet goes, I don’t really go out of my way to promote myself. I have a Myspace page that I’m genuinely ashamed of, but I only have it for a specific reason, and I loathe Facebook more than is probably healthy. When I leave our flat to go places, I don’t announce where I’m going until I’ve left wherever it is I’ve been, cos I do occasionally get recognised. Zip Gun, SafeT, and I saw Zoos of Berlin perform in Pontiac in late March — a hell of a show, I might add; they were better than I thought they were, and I already liked them before I saw them — and in between the other acts that were on before Zoos of Berlin, I was spotted on three separate occasions. I don’t want to say that I don’t enjoy meeting people, it’s just that I’m still getting used to the concept of people asking if I was on telly, let alone the idea of me being on telly in the first place. And since I never was the type to stride up to a stranger and greet them before we started making our media appearances, people doing the same to me does freak me out a tiny bit. I’m attempting to get used to it, though.

Essentially, describing me a ‘famemonger’ is rather off-base; unfortunately, most members of the iDollator community go out of their way to not publicise who they are, due to fear of the reaction of their friends, family, or peers. As a result, the non-iDollator public often see the same faces over and over — Everhard’s, Gordon Griggs’, and my own. It’s not a case of graaah we’re doing this for the adulation yeaaahh, but more like we’re doing this cos it works for us, and we’re more than happy to suggest this idea to others, cos no-one else is.
Like it or not, people have to realise that Synthetik partners, whether they’re highly-detailed ‘love dolls’, or servo-driven Androids and Gynoids, are the future, and the more advanced they become, the more people will be likely to choose the Synthetik option, whether to satisfy curiosity, or to dispel loneliness, or what-have-you. Detractors would rather not have anyone speaking publically about the fact their partner is affictitious, as they find it uncomfortable for whatever ill-conceived reason, and would prefer the topic swept under the rug entirely. When it’s a case of a few voices speaking on behalf of many, it’s easier to try to discredit those voices through rumour, slander, and ignorance. It seems the obvious solution, really, is to increase the number of pro-Synthetik voices…

So yeah! Representative, yes; famemonger, no. There’s actually quite a vast difference between the two definitions that’s worth looking into

*not counting all the bling and bitches we’ve been stockpiling. Literally stockpiling. We’ve got a room where we have our daily shipment of bitches stacked like cordwood, for better storage. The bling, though, we just throw in a pile