What is the Watercooler?
It's a haven in the middle of a harsh, 9-to-5 world. A place where you can gather with your fellow human beings and bond over a paper cup full of cool refreshment.
All sorts of randomness is welcome here. Post pictures, videos, special Chat information, or just discuss news and current events.
Want to be a guest poster? PM TimeChaser.
Banner by Red Tigress
Just a little something that Adam linked me to earlier today. I present Desbreko in twenty years! Enjoy!
Among the many elements of classic B-movies, one of the staples is giant, radioactively mutated monsters. They could be bugs, lizards, or even fluffy man-eating rabbits (no kidding). Join us this month in Movie Sign as we celebrate the fruits of our own misspent nuclear labors, those giant monsters that just can't help trying to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth.
What is Movie Sign?
Every Sunday night, we nestle down in Chat and watch an episode of the cult TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K for short) while spamming up the Chat box. Don't worry - we use episodes available on streaming sites so that we can all watch simultaneously.
What's MST3K?
A comedy show that ran from 1988-1999, it's like watching a movie with running commentary. Joel Robinson or Mike Nelson, along with 'bots Tom Servo and Crow, are forced to watch terrible films as part of a mad scientist's bid for world domination. To keep their (and our) sanity, they talk back to the movies and riff on them. A more detailed explanation can be found up at the SoL.
Next Episode
First it was grasshoppers, then a giant spider. Now insect terror is once again unleashed upon the world (and chat) in the form of The Deadly Mantis. An underwater earthquake frees a 200-ft-long prehistoric mantis from it's icy tomb, and (as all giant bugs are wont to do), it proceeds in terrorizing the human race, singling out Washington DC and New York. And once again science and the military work hand-in-hand to save us from being mantis food.
Host Segment Highlights
Mike and the Bots have been orbiting Earth in the far future, now in the clutches of Pearl Forrester. The (relative) peace is shattered by the arrival of a cult that worships an ancient nuclear bomb. Thanks to a slip of the tongue from Mike, Bobo and Peanut activate the bomb and... well, you can guess what happens next. But the gang's joy over their freedom is short-lived as Pearl, who survived the explosion, chases after them in her rocket powered VW van.
Come join us! We don't bite, promise. Movie starts at 8PM EST/5PM PST, room opens at the :30 beforehand.
The password for the room is: conad. Be prepared for the night by finding the videos here.
Giant Monster Movie July slithers to it's finale with...
7/26 - Episode 402 - The Giant Gila Monster
In August we celebrate the one-year anniversary of Movie Sign with...
8/2 - Episode 1001 - Soultaker
8/9 - Episode 315 - Teenage Caveman (w/shorts "Aquatic Wizards" and "Catching Trouble")
8/16 - MST3K: The Movie - This Island Earth followed by Poopie!
8/23 - Episode 403 - City Limits
8/30 - Episode 621 - The Beast of Yucca Flats (w/shorts "Money Talks" and "Progress Island, USA")
Next Meeting: July 18, 2009, at 10:00 PM Eastern (7:00 PM Pacific)
Next Episodes: Kannagi ep7-8 / Escaflowne ep15-16
Chat Password: catfight
About the Anime Club
The Anime Club is a weekly room in theOtaku's community chat where we meet to have fun laughing, crying, heckling, and spazzing together while watching a few episodes of anime. Rather than watching mainstream shows, however, we pick out good, yet lesser-known anime as an opportunity for people to enjoy new shows. Streaming links are usually provided for those without a copy of the anime.
Current Anime
Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens is a 14 episode comedy with bits of fantasy and romance sprinkled on top. When Mikuriya Jin (Shimono Hiro) carves a high school art project from the trunk of a sacred tree that had been cut down, he's visited by Nagi (Tomatsu Haruka), the town's resident land deity, who materializes from the wooden statue. Not only is Jin's project ruined, he now has to try and explain to his childhood friend Aoba Tsugumi (Sawashiro Miyuki) and other classmates why a girl is suddenly living with him.
Click to watch the opening and ending.
The Vision of Escaflowne is a 26 episode fantasy/adventure with some mecha thrown in for good measure. It tells the story of Kanzaki Hitomi (Sakamoto Maaya), a high school girl with a talent for fortune telling who gets transported to Gaea, a world of magic currently at war. She gets caught in the struggle against the invading Zaibach empire when she meets Van Fanel (Seki Tomokazu), the young king of Fanelia.
Click to watch the opening.
Schedule
Date..............Kannagi...........Escaflowne
June 20..........ep01-02...........ep09-10
June 27..........ep03-04...........ep11-12
July 04...........Canceled for 4th of July
July 11...........ep05-06...........ep13-14
July 18...........ep07-08...........ep15-16
July 25...........ep09-10...........ep17-18
Aug 01...........ep11-12...........ep19-20
Aug 08...........ep13-14...........ep21-22
What do you think of TheOtaku.com?
It's just a question I want answered by you. I'm making a card right now, so if you would like to tell me your reply as a short answer, I would be happy enough to put it on the card. Thank you.
P.S. The card won't be that nice or anything, but I want to try my best for TheOtaku.
Ayup. I was thinking about posting this originally as a news story, but Kei and I (and others) felt that perhaps this avenue would be a little more appropriate.
A'ight, so who's familiar with stage magicians Penn & Teller? How about their tv show "Bulls--t!"? Essentially, they take a topic or organization or something that's big on people's minds . . . and then, well, they call "bulls--t" on it. They've picked apart PETA, conspiracy theorists, even Boy Scouts (specifically for not allowing homosexuals/atheists join); they've also hit more controversial things like the War on Drugs, gun control, and even Creationism and such. In general, they're foul-mouthed about it, unflinching in their presentation, and for the most part funny as all hell as they tell it like they see it. They're not perfect, but they get their points across nicely.
Well, they tackled violent video games. They took a 9 year old kid who plays video games and put an AR-15 in his hands to see if he'd become a psychopath; they look into the apparent correlations between teen gaming and teen violence; they even interviewed Jack "The Disbarmentor" Thompson. It's funny, it's vulgar, and at the end, it's even pretty poignant. If you have half an hour to kill at all this week, take a watch.
That said, there's gonna be a lot of cussing and a lot of video game guns and gibblets. If either of those bother you, I'd recommend not watching the following linked videos:
http://kotaku.com/5313559/watch-penn--tellers-video-game-bullshit-episode
I'm still floored by the very last couple minutes of this episode . . .
