Extended Mediography

I do some flickr trolling for cool portraits to use in games.  I found this guy's gallery - some of these folks are definitely getting into my next AW game.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stoneth/

This is a terrific find! This will come in quite handy when I finally get a chance to MC Apocalypse World.

I was thinking of:
--Roger Zelazny's Damnation Alley (Chopper saves a city by going cross-country with plague vaccine through the wasteland, remains a dick)
--Samuel Delaney's Dahlgren: sorta post-apocalyptic, but a mismatched group lives by its own rules in a midwestern city that is always on fire, everybody has funky names and the culture is plastic and malleable; at one point a second moon shows up in the sky and they name it after the biggest guy in town and have a party.
--Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog, so much so that I've been toying with a homebrewed playset, the K9.  A boy loves his dog. 

Ooh, that is a cool idea.

I just watched the original Children of the Corn last night. Man!

When the Scythelugger turns on the Hocus, all I could think was "there are no status quo's in corn world!"

Also, how Sarah uses Visions of Death is the coolest, ever.

If you're able to deal with the intensity of some of the movie's situations, watch Blindness. It's harrowing and utterly on-topic.

-Vincent

Wow. I watched this last night and it was seriously bleak and downright gut-wrenching at moments.

I watched Blindness and loved it so much I went on to read the book. Both were incredible. I need to pick up some of Saramago's other works.

David Brin's The Postman. Can't speak to the movie, but the book is right-on. Scarcity, fragments of lost civilisation, warlords, a weird AI turned Oracle, a small town just trying to get by, having to make choices that you wish you didn't have to make.

Paul O. William's Pelbar cycle (seven novels, starts with The Breaking of Northwall) is great for a post-apocalyptic world of scarcity. Though it's set a thousand years after a nuclear apocalypse, there are lots of little details of life that are perfect for AW. The entire society who were infertile—and so stole children from others—because they scavenged lead pipes to make their super-awesome cookware is the sort of thing I'd use in a game of AW.

This might seem like ass-backwards obvious but ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse

seriously.  I can't believe I've never looked at it before.

"An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception"

What about AW-appropriate hip-hop? Do you have any? I've been thinking about it but haven't had any good finds yet. I'll keep listening through my stuff.

I MEAN, except for cLOUDDEAD. I have the album "ten" and while I have no clue what it's about, or even what they're saying most of the time, it's weird and chopped-up and I think is good mood music for AW.

I've watched the Bad Romance video extensively, lately. It gives me inspiration for Apocalypse World.

One thing I love about Apocalypse World is how self-respect, humanity and the value for human life cannot be taken for granted, and I see the same thing in the freaky-decadent images of Bad Romance, particulary in the end when Lady Gaga seem to degenerate into desperation: "I don't wanna be friends!" she wants the hurt and the misery that comes with love. This hunger, this loss of integrity is what comes to the people of earth who've lost society. They've lost their norms, their safety and what it means to be human. They're lost themselves.

What about AW-appropriate hip-hop? Do you have any? I've been thinking about it but haven't had any good finds yet. I'll keep listening through my stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjlbCM-2t4c

I haven't listened to the rest of the album but if I remember right it has a post-apocalyptic theme.

What about AW-appropriate hip-hop? Do you have any? I've been thinking about it but haven't had any good finds yet. I'll keep listening through my stuff.

I MEAN, except for cLOUDDEAD. I have the album "ten" and while I have no clue what it's about, or even what they're saying most of the time, it's weird and chopped-up and I think is good mood music for AW.

dude - the self titled album is even better for that.  plus just about anything Odd Nosdam ever made.  sound collage and weird.  especially his later, dronier stuff.

What about AW-appropriate hip-hop? Do you have any? I've been thinking about it but haven't had any good finds yet. I'll keep listening through my stuff.

I MEAN, except for cLOUDDEAD. I have the album "ten" and while I have no clue what it's about, or even what they're saying most of the time, it's weird and chopped-up and I think is good mood music for AW.

Aesop Rock not only has some passingly apocalyptic stuff, they are really flipping good. "No City" is probably the best for AW that I've heard, "The Harbor is Yours" reminds me of Poison'd, and "None Shall Pass" is what I'd recommend for a first listen.

But all of their tracks are suitably creepy and/or violent, and the lyrics are just plain good.

What about AW-appropriate hip-hop? Do you have any? I've been thinking about it but haven't had any good finds yet. I'll keep listening through my stuff.

I MEAN, except for cLOUDDEAD. I have the album "ten" and while I have no clue what it's about, or even what they're saying most of the time, it's weird and chopped-up and I think is good mood music for AW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znQQ0uzwufg

Prophet of the Psychic Maelstrom

I've watched the Bad Romance video extensively, lately. It gives me inspiration for Apocalypse World.

The Alejandro video has me convinced Lady Gaga is a Brainer with Unnatural Lust Transfixion and Preternatural At-Will Brain Attunement. It's the only explanation.

(Skim to 2:18 to see what I'm talking about. Although a handful of the other outfits she wears in the video aren't bad for apocalyptic wear in general. The gun-bra might be over the top, depending on your game.)