pietrisycamollaviadelrechiotemexity

The original Shawshank Redemption scene, before it was altered due to usual Hollywood test audience lowest common denominator effect. Transcendent, moving, powerful.

Gilbert and Sullivan once covered the Earl of Mixalot's family anthem. The booty ripples backwards in time even unto the age of pirates.

Nerd music superstar Jonathon Coulton's heartfelt acoustic cover. Performance somewhat marred by the sort of thoughtless crass buffoons in the audience who insist on laughing at anything serious and beautiful.
posted by Gar @ 9:47 AM

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

While that may seem to be laying it on a little thick, I've gotta say--it's really onto something.
posted by Gar @ 1:57 PM

Dwarf Fortress is one of those games I periodically mean to actually sit down and dedicate the time to learn to play. It has the benefit of being free, so that's less embarassing than being one of the games I've actually paid money for and haven't learned. It's absurdly, ambitiously complex, to the point where it's probably one of the few games which can use the term "emergent" as something other than an idiot marketing buzzword. (Sidenote: Saint Bill Hicks on marketing. He will rise again, one thousand feet tall and clothed in holy radioactive fire.)

Also, it led to the epic saga of "Boatmurdered", the grand story of a dwarven stronghold besieged by demonic elephants, miasmic rotting clouds, total all-consuming insanity, and engraved images of cheese. It's a lengthy read, a bit slow to start, uneven due to the authorship switching that's part of such things--but well worth it.
posted by Gar @ 1:47 PM