Lulus.com Fashion Blog

Photoshop Touches Up on Some (Alternate) History

August
30
2011

There are some things that the U.S. government doesn't want us to know about, but Pittsburgh-based, NYU film grad Matthew Buchholz is finally clueing everybody in. Well, that's actually not true, but Buchholz does dream up some pretty convincing re-imaginings of history, with a fantastically off-beat and brilliant sci-fi vision.

Map of Washington, DC

The Defeat of General Frankenstein at Bunker Hill

Homestead Robot

Photoshop is his medium of choice, with a healthy backdrop of witty, deadpan captions detailing the sci-fi'd, pseudo-historical events depicted in the images. The descriptions alone pack as much punch as the clever pictures; check out his hilarious explanation of the Floating Saucer Crafts and the Chicago Fire, below:

"The Great Fire at Chicago, Oct 8th, 1871. The Great Fire commenced on Sunday evening, Oct 8th and continued until Tuesday, Oct 10th, consuming the Business portion of the City, Public Buildings, Hotels, Interstellar trading depots, Newspaper Offices, Rail-Road depots, and extending over an area of Five Square Miles. The fire began when Immigrant Aliens, feeling cheated in a business transaction, took to the skies in their Floating Saucer Crafts and employed their Destructo-Ray. Interstellar Trading was suspended in Chicago soon after the fire.”

The Burrowing Beast in Hollywood

Prints of his work can be purchased via his Etsy site, as well as cleverly campy greeting cards to brighten up those special days.

An Unidentified Floating Craft Above Fifth Avenue

Inauguration of Vilnar the Destroyer

The Signing of the Declaration of Independence

Pittsburgh Zombie Outbreaks: A Map

Zombies in Schenley Park

This is just a taste of Buchholz's willdy entertaining collection, so check out his website to witness beer-guzzling sea-nuisances, monstrous, banana-loving ape-creatures, a giant Andrew Carnegie wreaking havoc on his beloved Pittsburgh, and good old-fashioned zombies galore.

Now I just need someone I know to get pregnant so I can send her this awesome card.

(images courtesy of renegadehandmade and alternatehistories)

Facebookers Beware the Robobuddies!

April
27
2011

You know those little welcome screens that pop up with flashy news stories and celebrity gossip when you sign in to check your email? Well, this morning I was sucked into one headline in particular, and I'm glad I was. So I clicked on "You've Got: Hidden Dangers on Facebook," and it all became clear. Thanks AOL.

I don't know if the rest of you had this all figured out, but I have been pretty darn confused by the random friend requests on Facebook from what I've been calling "fake people." And I don't mean phony human beings; we're talking about people who I've never met, heard of, seen, or known, a friend of a friend's cousin who knows a guy who went to school with this person. Seriously.

Enter Alison Haislip. You may recognize her from G4 or her gig on the brand new TV show "The Voice." In the video below, she explains that these "people" (who may have used stolen picures of real people and claim to have gone to your high school and live down your street; they don't!) are really robots created by hackers, who access your personal information, then sell it to the highest bidder. Scary!

The moral of the story here is: if you're pretty sure that you don't know a person who's sent you a friend request, you probably don't! You're better off denying it and risking the hurt feelings. I'm pretty sure most robots can't process emotions anyways...

Have you ever been robobuddied?