I Kissed a Girl - Power Metal Version

Katy Perry + Heavy Metal = I Liked It

Medieval fantasy is something so magical and powerful that permeates not only books and games, but also music. Mainly heavy metal. With the exception of medieval music, properly speaking, and a few works of classical music, perhaps no other type of music complements medieval fantasy as well as heavy metal. Perhaps because the word "metal" remits to the metallic sound of metal swords and armor, war and knights.

Some bands in particular represent this mixture with praise. To cite a few: Manowar, with its lyrics full of epic and mythology; Savatage with its Hall of the Mountain King; Cirith Ungol with its name taken directly from The Lord of the Rings, and Blind Guardian, with its lyrics also inspired by Tolkien literature. Of course, we can not forget Rhapsody of Fire (formerly Rhapsody).

Rhapsody is known to "sing" an epic and fantastic saga in their songs, the Emerald Sword Saga. Spanning over five albums, the saga is like a medieval fantasy book packed in heavy metal format.

For fans of medieval fantasy and heavy metal, it is a true "eargasm". Rhapsody masterfully proves that heavy metal and medieval fantasy complement each other as bread and butter, a blend that can not go wrong. But what if metal is mixed with something not so complementary, and even something totally opposite?

What happens when we mix Rhapsody with Katy Perry? Well, listen to this "mashup" made by a guy named Andy Xiong and draw your own conclusions. Is it like mixing water and oil, or heavy metal makes everything better? In my opinion, Katy Perry would make a great metal singer!

Music written, recorded and performed by Andy Xiong
I Kissed a Girl performed by Katy Perry, owned by EMI

Gargamel finally eats the Smurfs

A bit of dark comedy... or would that be "dark blue" comedy?

Smurfs, the movie (2011), although having received much criticism, was a box office success. I'm no film critic, but as someone who enjoyed the Smurfs cartoon in the '80s, I liked the movie, and I think it was decent, and a good movie for the whole family. My five years old daughter, who had never heard of the blue gnomes, loved it.

But if you ask me to point out what is great about this movie, I would have to say that Gargamel steals the show.  Hank Azaria's Gargamel  accomplished the feat of being one of the few elements of the film acclaimed by the merciless critics, such as the one from USA Today, and deservedly so. His Gargamel may be a little more "friendly" and funny, along with the cat, Azrael (which my daughter loved), than the Gargamel you may remember, but in my opinion, this is an improvement over the cartoon.

Another difference from the cartoon Gargamel is that in the movie, the inept wizard is after the Smurfs for their essence, which is able to enhance his magic. In the cartoon, Gargamel wanted the Smurfs to use them in a formula to make gold or ... eat them.

That never happened, of course (otherwise we would have an entire traumatized generation), but what if it happened?

Well, the best answer I found was in the YouTube channel Elephant Larry... Not recommended for children!

Bonus Video: And what happens after Gargamel eats the Smurfs? Well, as we see in the video below, Smurfs are a good substitute for hallucinogenic mushrooms ...

The Zelda rap - Link the gangsta rapper

Zelda rap - Link with an attitude problem

Smosh.com  presents a fantastic and very well produced video, in which we see the hero Link, from Zelda video game series, with an unexpected gangsta rap attitude, complete with Link bragging about all his money (Rupees in this case).


In fact the video is so good that I'll leave you now to watch it for the umpteenth time.


Oh, and thumbs up for the parts in which the princess Zelda herself sings, and the part where Link and Ganon engage a rap duel.


Watch and enjoy, bro!

It's Magic Cards! With gOOgly EyEssss....

What do you get if you have some female Magic players coupled with a (probably) boring day?


Magic cards with googly eyes! DUR!

This wacky style of "art" is by a group of female Magic players that call themeselves the Lady  Planeswalker Society. According to their Tumblr page, it all started when one of them, Mercedes, brought some "googly eyes" (the kind you find in some art and craft stores) for one of their meetings. The rest is history.

The "activity", apparently unpretentious, went viral, and many people have contributed their own creations:

Atogs, by Drew Sitte, known for his 3D Magic cards alterations

Don't know about you, but I found it very funny. And it's a relief from all the seriousness that many Magic players impinge to the game.


Below is a selection of the best googly eyes (click to enlarge):