Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

I’m really loving my recent ventures into animation and video as an artistic media… I’ve begun with 2D animation using the primitive — in a good way — freeware software Pencil, but am stoked on teaching myself After Effects, Digital Fusion, and other fun stuff. As I mentioned before, one of my favorite things has been exploring the tools and then using my new knowledge to really appreciate the projects that I see from other people — sort of like how understanding context through art history gives you a deeper appreciation of a walk through an art gallery or museum. Anyway, one of the recent comments here on my blog was from Goda, whose profile linked to his digital portfolio, which included the sweet video below.

Oh, and I watched the UFC 111 pay-per-view last night and wanted to comment on three of the fights. So stop reading if you don’t want UFC spoilers! First, the Shane Carwin versus Frank Mir, in which Shane Carwin continued his frightening trend of never letting his opponent survive the first round. Damn that guy is scarily brutal… what a knockout. There were a few strikes to the back of the head peppered in there, and it went on long enough — I was amazed the ref didn’t stop it sooner — and I was afraid that Mir had suffered really serious damage. I’m pretty sure Carwin could kill me with a single punch. So scary. I suspect that the eventual Carwin versus Brock Lesnar will be one of the biggest Pay Per View financial victories for the UFC corporation, and a very intense battle of gargantuan robots that’s going to remind me more of daikaiju than humans. Yeah, now that I think about it, Lesnar and Carwin are America’s daikaiju.

The other headlining fight, the brilliant and perhaps “best pound-for-pound fighter” Georges St-Pierre versus Dan Hardy really bothered me. GSP completely outclassed and dominated Dan Hardy, and Dan Hardy pulled the same dishonorable conduct as Royce Gracie while being defeated even more solidly by Matt Hughes. Both Dan and Royce were put into solid joint locks, and so as not to have to “give up” even though they knew they had lost — too big of an ego, and too much bragging and shit-talking before the fight to admit they had been bested — but then refused to tap out, forcing their submitter to choose between breaking their arm or letting them go. In each case the winner chose to let them go. For some reason the commentators commended them on how much “heart” they showed in not tapping out — and in the post fight interview Dan Hardy even said something asinine like “I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘tap’” or something like that — but in my opinion it reflects poorly on them as a martial artist. This isn’t a bloodsport. Great lengths have been taken to make the sport safe while still being as “extreme” as possible. Very few people — I hope — get into the sport just because they want to hurt others, and most of the people at the top of the ladder have great respect for the spirit of the art forms involved. Saying “if you want to win, you’re going to have to break my arm” is in terrible taste, and just a shitty way to behave. I haven’t expressed this as well as I want to, sorry, but I hope you know what I’m saying.

At the other end of the submission behavior spectrum was the fight in which Tomasz Drwal lost to Rousimar Palhares by a heel hook less than a minute into the fight. Tomasz tapped very obviously, first on one part of Rousimar’s body, then another, and then the ref tapped as well, and it seemed like his response to the tapping was to apply more and more force to the heel hook, with a look of obsessed angry aggression on his face. It really looked to me like he was going out of his way to do damage and cause pain, which bothers me, as I’ve always liked joint locks because they allow you to control your opponent with a minimum of violence — there is a real beauty, a real elegance to ending combat with this perfect dance. Rousimar, who is a BJJ black belt and experienced enough to know better, spat in the face of this and the fight didn’t end until the ref pretty much pulled him off of Tomasz. I certainly didn’t buy his “I didn’t want to hurt him” apology, and thankfully he was suspended for 90 days, in addition to taking an impressively fast and decisive victory that should have been on his highlight reel and turning it into something shameful.

Anyway, yeah… I’m looking forward to Lesnar versus Carwin.

America’s daikaiju for sure.

As you know if you have slept in my bed and noticed Mr. Piggily-Wiggily, I am no foe to stuffed night-time friends, and as you know if you have any memory for the volumes of the stuff BME put out under my reign, I am no foe to merchandising and an emotional attachment to corporate icons, so it should come as no surprise that when we were in Vancouver we got some discounted-now-that-the-event-is-over Olympic toys. Quatchi is described as “is a young shy sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Canada and loves to explore new places”, and I think I relate to him a bit on account of sharing the friendly bearded appearance among other wide-bodied traits. I have been a big Quatchi fan since I first heard his voice — it’s just too hilarious. Could I have resisted hugging a full-size one? The other little guy is Caitlin’s Mukmuk (a marmot, and their sidekick), and then of course Piggily-Wiggily. Quite a few people have complained that these mascots were too Asian and not Canadian enough — excuse me, have you not seen the Asian-heavy demographics of Vancouver? — and Imma let you finish, but these are some of the best Olympic mascots of all time. Of all time!