Starting off your Saturday on a bit of a down note, Ectomo presents Isao Takahata’s Hotaru no Haka, Grave of the Fireflies, based on the book by Akiyuki Nosaka of the same name. Released in 1988, with animation production by Studio Ghibli, Grave of the Fireflies tells the story of Seita and his younger sister Setsuko, orphaned after the loss of their parents in World War II; their mother in the fiire-bombing of Kobe, and their father who served in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Forced to live with a relative, who treats them as little more than a burden while selling their mother’s kimono’s to buy rice for herself, they eventually leave and take up residence in an abandoned bomb shelter.

Grave of the Fireflies is a tough film to watch, and a movie which begins with the death of the young, main character was probably not what many audiences were expecting to see when it was released in Japan as a double feature with Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro. It is also the only Studio Ghibli movie the Disney does not have the rights to distribute in the U.S., meaning that it has not seen the same, widespread release here. It is a film that should be seen at least once, whether one is a fan of animated features or not, remaining just as powerful now as it was 20 years ago.

Saturday Morning Cartoons XLIV: Grave of the Fireflies [YouTube]

One minute you’re digging through someone’s garbage can and the next some hairless ape has killed you, stuffed your corpse, and put you on display holding a serving tray bearing your own genitals.

The Fossils of SoHo [bioephemera]

Uzbek director Nazim Tulyakhodzhayev’s short, animated adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s short story of the same name. The tale of a robotic house mindlessly continuing its tasks even after the human residents have been wiped out by nuclear war.

There Will Come Soft Rains [YouTube] : DIGITAL DJ

Last week, while the rest of the staff suffered under the harsh, pungent glare of The Gauger’s awakening, I was continuing my annual tour of New England, a beautiful land from which I can flee in less than a day’s time when, invariably, the sun and other humans wear my sanity down to a raw nub. This year I was in the lilliputian state of Vermont, which plays host to rolling hills, rolling hills with cows, and W.A.S.P.s, who, if they roll, did so out of sight.

While traipsing though the cow-laden countryside, we came into the town of Barre which can claim one of the Northeast’s more elaborate cemeteries. Here immigrant stonemasons from Italy and Spain settled, working their magic upon the granite from the surrounding hills. It was here, after having soaked in the majesty of a solid granite stock car and having been admonished for forgetting the face of Jesus by a couple of verbose pyramids, that I noticed the first stony visage, bearing that most glorious of facial adornments.

So it began. Our excitement at having espied our first moustache barely contained, we stood, scanning the horizon. She noticed one and immediately set off for it. In this manner it continued, we facial hair connoisseurs, gazing determinedly into the distance before one or the other gesturing at a specific point, letting loose an exuberant cry of “MOUSTACHE!”, before gleefully bounding off, past the massive stone phalli rising majestically into the air, to capture its image.

Not the most appropriate behavior for such a place, perhaps, but we did not care, for with nothing but the stoic faces of long dead gentleman to censure us, and our jubilant cries swallowed up by the drone of the caretakers’s lawnmowers, I have no doubt that we did little to disrupt that place, leaving it no less reserved than when we came upon it.

The Moustaches of Hope Cemetery [Flickr]

Ah, Canada, that frozen wonderland to the north, with its lush, rolling fields of moose, beer waterfalls, and socialized medicine. Truly, it is a snow covered Eden. This week’s Saturday Morning Cartoons is (mostly) presented by Canada, featuring animators (mostly) from Canada, or films distributed (mostly) by The National Film Board of Canada. If you are so inclined (and you should be) all of these videos, with the exception of the first, can be viewed in a higher resolution on YouTube.

• The Cat Came Back: From Cordell Barker. Mr. Johnson has a yellow cat, which he is desperately trying to rid himself of. His efforts prove…unsuccessful.

• Last Time in Clerkenwell: Russian animator Alex Budovsky’s follow-up to Bathtime in Clerkenwell featuring more mind bending flash animation and infectious music.

• The Danish Poet: Torill Kove’s 2007 Oscar winning mediation on her birth, and the serendipitous events which led to it. Simple, clean lines lend this one a children’s book aesthetic which works perfectly.

• Ryan: Directed by Chris Landreth, Ryan is an animated tribute to Canadian animator Ryan Larkin. Thirty years ago, at the National Film Board of Canada, Ryan produced some of the most influential animated films of his time. Winner of an Oscar in 2005, it’s a film whose visuals tell just as much of its story as its dialogue does.

• How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels: Craig Welch’s fantastic, creepy, surreal, Gorey-esque little film about a scientist’s quest for knowledge that is, perhaps, reserved for beings other than mere mortals. Cross hatching should be used more often in animation.

• Yellow Sticky Notes: Nine years worth of Jeff Chiba Stearns’s To-Do lists, written on sticky notes, animated with, well, sticky notes. Trust me, it works.

• Harvey Krumpet: I’m a big fan of Australian animator Adam Elliot’s work, having first seen his shorts Brother, Uncle, and Cousin through The Animation Show. Harvey Krumpet, narrated by Geoffrey Rush, continues the tradition of Elliot’s intimate storytelling; detailing the life of Harvey Krumpet, from his birth in Poland to the end of his life in Australia.

Saturday Morning Cartoons XXXIX: Oh Canada (Mostly) [YouTube]

When he awakens, death will come to claim us all.

Not sure who the artist is. If anyone knows, make yourself heard in the comments.

Cthulhu Rises Through The Mist [My Confined Space]

“A bull sarcophagus in which a member of the Ubud royal family was cremated burns during the funeral ceremony Tuesday July 15, 2008 in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.”

A Royal Farewell in Bali [The Big Picture]

Designer Crispin Jones would like you to consider that you will, at some point, come to the end of your time here on Earth. Who knows when it will come. It could be 50 years from now, peacefully in your sleep or tomorrow during that underground, kangaroo boxing match you signed up for on a dare. It could also be when you are struck by a car while crossing the street; a car you failed to notice because you were too distracted by the existential crisis you found yourself in while checking your new watch.

The Accurate, from Mr. Jones Watches, featuring a mirrored dial that reflects the face of the wearer and whose minute and hour hands reminds them “remember, you will die.”

Today everyone has a mobile phone to do the really functional timekeeping, this means that the wristwatch is free to do something a bit different. The watches I design reflect and comment on society, both on the role that time plays in all our lives and also on the social impact of technology. Of course because I would like people to wear these watches, I also work very hard to make them beautiful objects in their own right.

It may be safer, however, to check your cellphone, at least when around moving vehicles. Just something to keep in mind.

Mr Jones Watches - The Accurate [Watchismo] : Thanks, nic0!

In presenting to his little readers “The Book of Accidents,” the Author conceives he cannot render a more important service to the rising generation and to parents, than by furnishing them with an account of the accidents to which Children, from their inexperience or carelessness, are liable. If generally studied it will save the lives of thousands, and relieve many families from the long and unavailing misery attendant on such occurrences.

So begins The Book of Accidents: Designed for Young Children, published in 1831, which catalogues an array of hellish contretemps that may or may not befall your children, or you if you happen to be a child. Indeed, if you are a child, this tome provides you with invaluable information such as:

• Playing “Firing Squad” with actual firearms may not be the wisest of ideas.
• Harassing dogs may lead to being disemboweled.
• Teapots filled with scalding water are not meant for pouring over yourself.
• Bother not the cook, lest ye be cooked.

Truly an eye opening read, it will, at the very least, make me think twice before partaking in the Annual Ectomo Rock Fight. That much is certain.

The Book of accidents; : designed for young children [Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library] : Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities

“I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.”

George Carlin, Splenetic Comedian, Dies at 71 [NYTimes.com]

What happens when you put a cellphone in a microwave? To a Luddite like myself who retains a healthy distrust and aversion to mobile communication the results are unsurprising.

Cell Phone In Microwave [YouTube] : Cynical-C

Channel 4’s look into one of modern western culture’s more enduring urban legends, the snuff film. An interesting look a the history of the idea and people’s obsession with it. Only one downside: the presence of Eli Roth.

NSFW

Does Snuff Exist [Google Video] : The Reverse Cowgirl

Work, Workspace, More Work [Friend or Foe : Drawn!]

Is it art? I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that it appears to be a creature out of The Dark Crystal with huge, pendulous testes, hanging from gymnastics rings and covered in stick-pins. Yup, thanks John.

Abdopus aculeatus octopi lead a life of sex, murder, and gender obfuscation but only once. After that they die. Thanks to Jenny and everyone else who sent this one in!

Welcome your new cephalopod masters with a t-shirt. Thanks, Vinnchan.

Hikashu, who appears to have been Japan’s answer to the Talking Heads, sings “Puyo Puyo”. Thanks, bubliki!

The trailer for Angels and Idiots, a new film by animation god Bill Plympton. Thanks, Monkey!

Photo: Pink chirashi apartment mailbox advertising in Japan [YenX] : Thanks, Mark

As a child you may remember the moments of abject terror that you felt between the time when the lights in your room being switched off and when you passed out from sheer exhaustion. Those minutes stretched themselves into hours as you huddled, alert to even the slightest sound, under your blanket, its protective shell broken only by a small opening in order to allow fresh, cool air to enter so that you could breathe. Wrapped in your cloth cocoon you were safe from Closet Monsters, Boogeymen, and Dire Otters.

Fast forward and you have, hopefully, outgrown your fear of the dark. Certainly, such ridiculous fears like being torn apart by over-sized aquatic mammals are best left in the hazy land of childhood. You know now as an adult — older, wiser, and with a trail of life experiences behind you — that such fears are totally unfounded, especially when cast in the light of real threats like Natural Disaster, Terrorism, and People — No Doubt Minorities — Coming To Take Your Stuff.

We’ve profiled other bedroom protection accessories before but they pale in comparison to the level of protection offered by the Quantum Sleeper, a device that takes the protective blanket and replaces it with a bulletproof shell, complete with a bevy of features from a rebreather and “Biochemical Filtered Ventilation” to a refrigerator, microwave, toilet system, and DVD player. That is to say that the Quantum Sleeper is not so much a bed but more like a smaller, safer house inside your house, that also happens to be a bed.

The inventors of the Quantum Sleeper are quick to point out that they developed it before September 11th, lest you think they are merely reactionaries or overly paranoid when, in fact, they are just being practical. Unfortunately this fantastic contraption is unavailable as of today, the inventors are still looking for funding. They estimate that a unit would cost somewhere in the area of one hundred, thirty-five thousand dollars to manufacture. They do, however, have a demonstration model that they made from wood, a decidedly less fire, tornado, chemical, and machine-gun resistant material than advertised, but capable nonetheless of giving prospective investors an idea of the device’s real world attributes and that is, at least, one step forward for your peace of mind. Isn’t it?

Quantum Sleeper [Product Page] : Warren Ellis