Moldy Head Cheese

“Where tarot is an ancient game arguably revolving around free association and contemplation (reacting to a drawn card, then meditating on your own reaction), Card Wars and its ilk are modern-day bastardizations. While they both involve imagination, the former uses imagination as a vehicle for self-development, while the latter is for entertainment and ego-building experiences of victory. Card Wars is the wheel of karma on which Jake is trapped, a constant game of stick-and-carrot, where the pursuit of an illusory goal (what, Card Wars dominance?) has stunted his personal growth to an alarming degree.”

“In “Five Short Tables,” the writers take the narrative strangeness of fanfiction to ever greater heights, as they explore the ways in which random detail creates realism. In this view,we can consider the artist simply as the person who arranges said random details; the storytelling occurs purely in the viewer’s random associations and personal interpretations. “Five Short Tables” turns the idea of an anthology on its head by using similarly random, disconnected stories that, nonetheless, still manage to connect into an overarching message about the way we (both creator and viewer) create stories.”

“What’s unfolding now is the transition from adulthood to death, an ordeal which looks largely the same as Finn’s maturation. It’s impressive how Adventure Time has stayed true to the same core messages, elaborating upon them with concentric arcs. The fact of the elementals’ reincarnation lends an optimism to the series’ mythos: if destruction and reincarnation are both recurring, then there is no true destruction, only changes. We saw the same idea in childhood-centric episodes like “The More You Moe, the Moe You Know,” in which little BMO is anxious about growing up, fearing that his personality as he knows it will dissolve once he’s grown; the child will die, giving way to someone entirely different.”

“This public aversion to erotic animation only lends Belladonna of Sadness greater cultural gravitas as an act of transgression on multiple levels. Not only did it tell a story of unpent sexual energies, its artistic style reached for a liberated freeform style. Director Eiichi Yamamoto and artist Kuni Fukai looked to erotic-symbolist painter Gustav Klimt for stylistic cues, and incorporated experimental animation techniques such as live action sequences, and still panoramic paintings with narration. Just the simple fact of its ethos and existence flew in the face of sexually repressive cultural norms...”

“...the episode was essentially the story of a normal guy waking up in a world bent against him, who journeys to restore the world to normalcy by locating its rightful ruler. In the process, our Normal Man proved his sincerity, and so inherited the Earth (or more precisely, Mars). This episode’s for every person who’s ever felt like they’ve been slaving through life in recompense for some sin they don’t ever recall committing. But that’s the Magic Man lesson, after all, and in “Normal Man,” Normal Man proves that normal men can prevail.”

“The episode frequently references this separation between the animate and inanimate as a way to talk about both agency, and what it means to take a thing or person for granted: to take for granted is to objectify a person or thing, to assume that you have complete power over them and can replace them if you need to. To ‘talk to inanimate objects’ here isn’t a bad thing, it’s a way of recognizing the importance of things, and only now does Finn begin to realize that Finn Sword isn’t just an object. He constantly explains to Jake in various ways that he hasn’t just lost a sword or tool, he lost the tool, which is his understanding and respect for his own impulses. And of course, when you lose sight of your own judgment, you’re forced to do things antithetical to your being.”

“The era is reminiscent of 60s American counterculture, and its portrayal in “Lady Rainicorn of the Crystal Dimension” comes off as critical of the era’s youthful revolution, or at least certain superficial aspects of it. An early episode referenced a past war between Rainicorns and Dogs, and the flashback sees post-war Crystal Dimension society, where the mainstream folk are dogs, and seemingly all the disaffected hippie youth are Rainicorns. And Lee is the twisted expression of independence and rebellion, taken to an unhealthy and self-parodying degree.”

“The portal-within-a-portal device heightens the fixation on dreams, and dreams-within-dreams, which is appropriate, as the Whirlpool World beyond the grotto is as alien/familiar to Ooo as Ooo is to our world. As Adventure Time and all cartoons resemble reality, Whirpool World takes the familiar personalities of Ooo, retains their essential characteristics, but mixes up their material, outward forms.”

“One day, she found herself putting together a life-sized scarecrow for her garden, modeled after her late father. It was then that she thought of making similar scarecrows for all of the absent or recently deceased inhabitants of Nagoro. Today, the village’s population of 350+ scarecrows outnumbers its fewer than 30 living members.” 

Photos from Cat Art Show LA 2: The Sequel at ThinkTank Gallery in Los Angeles.

It was the sequel to a cat-themed art show that was good enough to get a sequel. 

They invited Luke Chueh, Tokidoki, Norman Reedus (Daryl from Walking Dead), Kat Von D, and tons others. 

Favorite piece was the Sistine Chapel-esque ceiling mural of cherub-kitties rolling around in the sky. Really detailed and surreal.

“Ice King’s bizarre behavior, and the imposing threat to his well-being, is masked by various preconceived notions of his (ab)normality. Marceline can’t tell if Bubblegum’s still just regarding him as a creepy old codger, and Bubblegum can’t tell if there’s something actually wrong with him, or if this is just business as usual. It’s a situation that expresses dramatically the difficulties of treating the neurologically atypical with both respect and appropriate care–warning signs become confused, relationships become strained. At the dinner table, PB’s creeped out that Ice King just called Marceline ‘Gunther,’ but Marceline explains that he calls everyone Gunther…”