I spotted this in Wired's roundup of weird usb gadgets -- they call this an "eyeball baby" but actually, it's a webcam designed to look like Pops from Gegege No Kitaro, only the best ghost manga ever written!! The great things about Pops, is he lives in the empty eye socket of his dead ghost son. No, really! We've loved Gegege ever since it was shown subtitled in NYC back in the early 90s. I seriously think I need this webcam. Not that I even use a webcam. But...it's Pops! (okay, I don't know that "Pops" is the official translation, in fact I'm pretty sure it's not. But the subtitled version we saw called him that. So, to us, he's always Pops.)
Isn't this illustration adorable? It's the cover of the latest Babybug -- a junior-junior version of Cricket (if you remember that) for 1-3 year olds. We got Emily a subscription right before her 1st birthday when I got a good price on it through the mail, and she loves every little issue. They're like little books, and mostly are really cute and not too painful to read and re-read. (With a few notable exceptions.) This cover is by far my favorite illustration we've seen so far! The artist, Holly Berry (for real!) also does a two-page spread inside that's great, it could totally be from an old Golden Book or something. I found out very little about her, but she's illustrated at least a dozen children's books, (check out this page from The Impudent Rooster! So pretty!) some of which will definitely be going on Emily's wishlist!
Reader Sandy T alerted me to Pancake Meow--a collection of handcrafted miniature fake food jewelry!! And as we all know, there's not much I love more than mini fake foods...but what to get? There's an amazing array of confections which you can buy (or use) as necklaces, earrings or charms. As a bonus, you can get them scented (although that's not for me--ugh). A bunch can even be customized! I'm personally leaning towards a pink cupcake with white icing (see the one on the left in the pic)...what would you get? Oh, and if the cuteness that artist Leslie makes herself isn't enough, she's going to start carrying an adorable line of Japanese goods from Decole soon. I am so there.
My galpal Mary discovered this incredibly cool retro-licious Housewives Tarot and it only took me about 2 minutes to add the (real) deck to my Amazon shopping list! You can also do a reading right on the site, which is pretty fun. Here's my reading!
Mm, don't those french fries look good? But wait - that's actually dessert! These are deep fried custard sticks, disguised as fries by the new and trendy Mamido Burger stand in Toyko, which styles all its sweets and cakes as fast food. The signature sweet, the "Mamido Burger" is a sponge cake bun, with a chocolate cream "hamburger" and kiwi slice "pickles". Clever, clever!! And of course I want to eat there right now. [From Trends in Japan as seen on Treehugger.]
Last October I wrote up Target's Ready. Sit. Read! book club promotion, but I never got around to the follow-up, which was the awesome stuff that we got for signing Emily up! I was shocked to get a huge box that contained a whole load of stuff, all illustrated by J. Otto Seibold (of Olive, the Other Reindeer et al). First came out the heavy cardboard backpack, with everything else stuffed inside. Parts to convert the backpack into a jetpack or angel wings (or bird wings? not sure), stickers, a book, an electronic bookmark (very cool), door hanger, and book club flag. I'm not sure if they are still sending it all out (they didn't say when I signed her up that she'd get all this stuff!) but it's worth a try. (I'm tempted to get someone to sign up at their address so we can stash extras for Emily!!) Photos of the swag are up at flickr (although it'll take a wee bit of time for that link to be working, I think - in the meantime, click on the photo above and just go backwards through the photos).
Notice that I did not say "super-cuteness!!" because I just noticed that I've had an exclamation point on every entry for a month. Yeesh! Anyway, this is a wooden puzzle, called "Magic Mushroom" that we got Emily for her birthday (her first wooden puzzle, and she loves it. Well, she loves taking the pieces out, anyway). I spotted it on moolka.com, and fell in love with it and its companion puzzle "Magic Tree" right away. I was happy to see that there was a design credit on the packaging, because I love the art. It's by Nadia Berkane, who I can't find much info on, other than some listings on amazon.fr which appear to be a totally different style (or by a different Nadia Berkane?) and a site with baby items illustrated by this Nadia Berkane which are adorable. I want them all!
Does anyone else know anything about this artist? I love her work and would love to find more stuff by her. That, you know, is actually available for purchase to us Americans, that is...
This is one of my all-time favorite treats, leaf pie. I first had it at the Takashimaya Tea Box many years ago, and since I don't come across it often, it's one of my most longed-for treats. My favorite leaf pie of all time is the one on this page, which is the one I had at Takashimaya. But these were pretty good - "Chef Tool" brand, bought from the big Xmas gift display at Mitsuwa. And, half of them were chocolate! That was a new one on me. I think I'm going to be sticking with the classic version though. More leaf pie photos here.
When I posted about Bon Bon Panda last night, I went to check the link at jay is games and discovered another time waster -- SnowDays! Cut your own paper snowflake and see the work of others. Two things I learned so far: look at the little dots in the snowstorm, they're paper flakes you zoom in on too (I suppose it's obvious but it took me a while....); and, I suck at cutting out flakes in flash. In the real world, I'm actually good at it. But I'm terrible at these. Might be because I have a trackball and not a mouse. But anyway. It was still fun! And the most snow I'm seeing this month, most likely...
A while back I came across this Bon Bon Panda flash game, I have no idea how. Anyway, it quickly became a House of Fun addiction! Evan of course got obsessed enough to beat it one night (20 levels in all, "nothing exciting happened" he said, but then again we've been playing the Korean "bootleg" version so the official version might be different), but I haven't gotten near the end. Cute and fun, but easy to walk away from if you have to stop playing. Enjoy!
More on the limited Jones Sodas: you may know this, but the whole concept started in 2003 with a Turkey and Gravy soda. In 2004, they had a whole Holiday Pack which added Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potato & Butter, Fruitcake and Cranberry flavors to their Turkey & Gravy Soda. I heard about it, but it's not like we found it anywhere for sale (not to mention, those are probably not flavors that an often-nauseated pregnant woman should even be thinking about, much less drinking). So, you can see, they've had a history of disgusting flavors that led up to those scary halloween sodas at Target.
And now the Holiday Pack for 2005 is about to hit. They're being coy about it on their own site still, but I find it listed as containing the famous Turkey and Gravy, plus four all-new flavors guaranteed to make you sick: Smoked Salmon Pate, Broccoli Casserole, Corn on the Cob and Pecan Pie. Now, I would definitely give Pecan Pie a shot. But...smoked salmon flavored soda? I swear, they make these sodas as a dare to the general public.
Go get yourself these cool Halloween comps from Oddio Overplay and have a great night!
My September tie one on apron was made from a vintage towel with "Swedish Weaving" or huck embroidery on it. As it turned out, another tie one on contributor had a collection of similar towels and almost had made an apron like mine! She ended up doing some research on the technique and has some lovely photos of it here.
Evan's comic shop radar is still in effect; on our way home from Duke last week we pulled off the highway to find a Subway and a few doors down from the sandwich shop? A comic store. It's ridiculous, really it is.
You know those Target Halloween sodas we forgot to buy? Well, a kind fairy left some for us at our hotel!! So now we know what they taste like. And can I just say, "Ewwww!!" "Caramel Apple" ought to be called "Poisoned Apple", and "Candy Corn"...well, it didn't taste like anything but chemicals. At least Caramel Apple tasted of apple in a really nasty way. But thanks, kind soda fairy!! It would have irked me forever to not have known.
 As someone who prefers to eat small amounts of several foods at any meal possible, I love bentos -- looking at them, eating them, thinking about them...and I have often thought about how much I would love to make them when Emily goes to school someday. (Of course, I doubt I'll have the time and patience to make fancy anime bentos like these!) But the idea of sending her off every day with a lunch that's attractive, fun and well-balanced really appeals to me.
My only hesitation was that it might be too strange for an American kid to take to school. As I read here, the experiences of kids taking bentos to US schools has been mixed. But then, I discovered the waste-free lunch movement, and the accompanying Laptop Lunch Box, and I started thinking that maybe it wasn't such a weird idea after all. With bento-like lunch containers coming out here, by the time it's an issue I think it just might seem normal!
And then yesterday I came across the Vegan Lunch Box, which documents the (vegan, obviously) lunches packed every day by a mom in WA using the Laptop system. Great ideas, feedback on how the system works (and doesn't -- more lids are needed, I agree), examples of bento-style lunches of (mostly) Western recipes, and some idea of how well it goes over in her son's 1st grade class (very well, apparently). I'll be keeping an eye on this one and taking notes!
So, looks like Emily will get bentos and I get to have fun in, well, another 5 years or so!
More resources: fantastic bento photo blog from Mizuko Ito (this a great companion to the Vegan Lunch Box blog); flickr bento box group (drool!); Cafe Japan , which I have; Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go, which is on my wishlist; and if the Laptop system doesn't work for you, there's also the Zojirushi "Mr. Bento" lunch set and Zojirushi "Ms. Bento" lunch set.
I've been watching WildCam Africa on the National Geographic website whenever I get the chance lately. It's a live webcam (with sound!) that's bringing you video from a pond in Botswana 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, since it's live the best viewing hours are not East-Coast-living-with-a-baby hours, but even so we've seen elephants, zebras, steenbocks, hyenas, a jackal, an ostrich, and loads of other birds. It's very science-fiction, the idea that you really DO have a window that can show you sunset in Africa live as it happens, and it's really fun to watch animals in the wild without actually having to go there. It'll only be running until December 8th -- but I hope it's only the first of many such experiments!
The September Tie One On gallery is up! Some very cute submissions, too. I forgot when I wrote about my apron to mention that I had really wanted to track down a set of Nigella Lawson's cupcake-motif towels for my apron. But, they're UK-only and incredibly expensive for kitchen towels. Close to $30 for kitchen towels? That you're going to get dirty? Even for a set of 4 that's a lot. Still, if I could have bought them around here I might have thought about it...
So, earlier this week we stop at a Target to check out this year's Halloween stuff (they've had better offerings but there's some cute stuff) and in the candy aisle we notice some soda cans with Halloween graphics on them. "Hey, look!" I say. "Someone made soda you can give to trick-or-treaters!" "Mmm, yeah," says Evan (or something like that, actually I don't remember). Both of us thinking it's going to be some crappy house brand orange and grape sodas, we keep walking. So imagine my dismay when I find out we passed up this year's limited edition Halloween Jones Sodas!! And we won't be near a Target again for months, most likely! And you all know how we like trying out ridiculous sodas....feh.
Who knew? All this time, I had a theme song!! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go here.) Of course, I have no idea what they're actually saying but still, it's pretty funny and actually a really good song. I wish I'd found it years ago!
Now that's an apron! From eatliver.com. I only wish they'd say where these pictures came from.
UPDATE: mystery solved!! Thanks to Popgadget, I found out that it is (as we suspected) an artwork, by Japanese artist Aya Tsukioka, and is part of a series.
In honor of the tie one on project, there's a massive set of links to apron images over at red current. Some pretty neat stuff to look at! I have to add two of my all-time favorites though, the catbus and totoro aprons (officially licensed) that you cannot get anymore.Which is sad because I need that totoro apron!! I bet I could make one someday... (there was also an apron of Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service but I guess I didn't save the link)
So, I'm only like, a year behind on links to things here. But let me try and slap a few up so I can clean them out of my "things to link to" bookmarks!
Mei & Satsuki's house. At the World Expo in Aichi, Japan, there is a replica of Mei & Satsuki's house from Totoro. Apparently it's such a popular attraction that going to the Expo does not guarantee that you'll get to see it! They are planning to move it elsewhere at the end of the Expo though, so perhaps it'll find a permanent home somewhere.
amaztype. A super-cool little thing someone dreamed up where you can spell any word out of book covers from an amazon search. If you use an author's name, it'll spell it in their books! Yes, I've done both our names, it's pretty fun!
Uwajimaya. Also amazon-related, asian grocery store Uwajimaya is now online at Amazon. Get your Pocky fix no matter where you live, straight from Amazon!
Retro Arcade. Found this flickr photoset on scrubbles, and man is it a killer. Evan was mesmerized.
The Lewis Carroll scrapbook at the Library of Congress. Not exactly enthralling but a really interesting object. Note his clippings from Punch!
Superdickery. You've seen this, right? Everyone probably has, but just in case...it's a hysterical collection (one of the many) of vintage comic covers. No wonder it's been so hard for the medium to get any respect, right?
The Mod bullet is public domain. (warning: link is to a pdf file) Okay, a little dry and you'll want to skim, but I actually found it fascinating reading. And on that note, have you seen our ska baby clothes? That "Rude Baby" is so cute on Emily it kills me.
and finally for today:
My "Diry" of My Trip to Peekskill, a really entertaining photo tour of Little Lulu's home town!
Oh, I only desperately want to get this kid's Hello Kitty bike for Emily!!
And some of the moms! Available in Japan only from Combi (their US strollers aren't quite so spiffy) is this:
Can you tell what it is? Yep, it's the "M78 ultra man dream baby buggy". I'm normally not too into character goods on this scale (you may find that hard to believe but it's true). And I love the stroller I got for Emily. But for this, I might have made an exception (and I know Evan would have!). All you need is $350 and a trip to Japan to find one.
And when baby's too big, you can move on up to the "M78 ultra man dream junior seat":
All I can say is wow. Why is it that here baby character goods seem limited to Mickey Mouse and (urgh) Precious Moments? We want cool characters too!
 This Hello Kitty phone from Nokia & Cingular would have been my dream phone once upon a time (okay, it still kind of is, except that I have this really nice LG phone and a Verizon service plan....) and must be the dream phone of a bunch of other people too. This is the NYC phone, but they also have them on the West Coast and one or two other areas. There's also an actual HK credit card, but I lost that link....the things you can get these days astounds me. All this stuff used to be so difficult to track down (although some of it still is!).
In other news, today is the last day of the WFMU marathon. If you're a listener that hasn't pledged, please do so! And if you're not a listener, go check out the archives and find out why WFMU is the most essential radio that there is today.
You know, I knew there was some link I wanted to post. Actually, there's quite a few, but this is "time sensitive" as all my junk mail likes to say. Kids or no kids, you must check out the Kiddie Records Project and start downloading all the amazing vintage kid's records they will be putting up (one a week) this year. I'm already amazed by the selection! I'm hoping that they somehow will have a copy of my personal favorite kid's record, which, of course, I can't even remember the name of right now (it's this very odd beatnik/jazz fairytale record, with the stories narrated by this very world-weary Susan Tyrell type -- it was one of my favorite records when I was little and I Wore. It. Out.) Anyway, bop on over and start your collection today!
Long-time readers will know that I've been a big fan of Kiki's Delivery Service for (gulp) over a decade now. For years, every time we were at the NJ Kinokuniya (sadly now closed, and the replacement bookstore isn't half as good) I'd look at the original Kiki novels and wish I could read them. Finally, last year, the first installment was translated and published in North American by Annick Press (where you can read a brief excerpt), and then finally, last month I got off my ass and ordered a copy. I'm giving it two thumbs up -- if you're a fan (not necessarily a Miyazaki fan, but a Kiki fan) you'll definitely want to read the original stories. And the translation is very good, at might not be precise but it reads really well and that counts for a lot as far as I'm concerned. The cover art is off-putting (the original book design was so nice!) but they did at least retain the original illustrations for the interior. Now I just have to hope they decide to translate a few more!
A funny aside -- in 1992 we were in London for UKCAC, and while walking around one day came across the London office of Yamato Transport. We loved the logo and scored some stickers of it from the nice office ladies (for years I kept seeing t-shirts of it in Japanese magazines, but never got hold of one!). It was years and years before we knew that there was a connection between Yamato and Kiki!
It's amazing how there are products coming out these days that really are as "new and exciting" as they claim to be. Take the Magic Eraser, which really might as well be magic, it works so well. We've used them to clean things nothing worked on for years. Tonight, my new miracle product I'm in love with is the J&J Advanced Care bandage system. After getting a rave recommendation from a good friend, we picked some up yesterday to try out on Evan's nasty scrape. I'll let him explain why we had to replace them after just 24 hours -- but I have to say, the difference underneath was astounding. Between myself and my four brothers, I have been looking at scrapes and cuts and scabs my whole life, and I've never seen anything heal like that. We'll be using them until the arm is better, and I think he might actually escape with minimal scarring (and it is certainly a better option for day-to-day wearing, especially on a drawing arm!). I looked them up and they come in small sizes too -- including a special "finger wound" assortment. Not that we'd need that around here or anything. I'll definitely be stocking the first aid box with these from now on! Next time your arm looks like unbaked pizza, you should check them out too!
My favorite holiday is officially on the way! (I think September should be off-limits for Halloween stuff, as far as I'm concerned it's just the whole month of October.) And this year you can all start the Halloween season with the October 1st showing of the Scary Godmother special on the Cartoon Network! Yay!! It's going to be on at 8pm EST. So fix yourself some creepy halloween recipes, curl up in front of the tv and kick off the holiday season!!
If you've got access to a color printer, you can build your very own video game arcade thanks to the Way of the Rodent's Paper Arcade project. Get the current set (much larger than in the original article) here -- I have a feeling that URL will change when the next piece goes up, so grab them now. I'm not exactly sure what I would actually do with a paper arcade but that's really beside the point anyway.
Please, tell me, is there a special effect involved in this Japanese "how-to-fold-a-t-shirt" clip? Because it is freaking me out.
Did you know about the Joe Strummer Memorial Forest? I didn't. Very neat.
Betty Crocker gives us the cake for reformed alcoholics (or not-so-reformed): the Strawberry Margarita Cake! I'm assuming you could do this with just about any drink mix you like and make a cocktail cake recipe of your own. Mmmm! (although, I think I'd use real whipped cream and maybe call my lime peel "zest")
Being of the XX chromosome persuasion, I do carry the gene for handbag lust. (I try to keep it controlled -- and when I don't, my little Jiminy Cricket I call "Evan" is uaully there to say "ahem, you don't need that..." But even so, without moving from my seat I can see...6 bags. Yikes!) So this new service, Bag Borrow or Steal absolutely slays me. As the NYT said, it's like a Netflix for swanky handbags. Amazing! If I had to work in an office or went out a lot, I would so be signing up! I bet everyone in the fashion industry will be claiming their memberships on the tax forms next year.
First, NY: if you are a freelancer working in NYC, Working Today needs 300 more freelancers to take their survey rating the top NY companies to work for. Of course, if you hate everyone you've worked for in NY I guess you can skip it!
And if you're in LA: White Castle is opening up it's first (temporary) West Coast location to promote that movie coming out. Totally bizarre. It'll be at 8301 W. Sunset Blvd., and they'll be giving away burgers and prizes from July 22 to Aug 11. So if you're an East Coaster who lives there now, here's your chance to get your fix! And if you've never had one, here's your chance to find out what all the fuss is about. (And your chance to find out why so many people ban White Castles from their homes around here.)
Spotted in the NY Times today -- the Pokia cell phone accessory. More form than function, but pretty clever! I think the hotline is my favorite. Surely there were more attractive handsets out there though?
Today I bring you the Fossilized Skull cake and the Flayed Goblin cake, created by Kimberly Chapman. Lots of other amazing cakes that are much less gruesome, too!
And everyone else who likes goofy stuff in their house...we went to ikea (in an unsuccessful search for a living room chair we've been trying to get) and found this super-cute spider lamp in the children's department (also comes in pink, not so cute). The point of the spiderweb is to keep kid's fingers out of the lamp, but we thought they were just cool. So we promptly got two to replace the dying VÄRD lamps we'd had in the bedroom since we moved. Add in some shelving we needed and a big plate of swedish meatballs and I call that trip a success, chair or not.
Things have been just too, too much. And our weekend left me completely wiped out and feeling ick, like I may have picked up some bug at the show (it was still a great show, other than the minor jerk incidents Evan mentioned). Working on catching up now.
The links have been piling up, so here's a few:
Super-exciting: ImaginAsian tv -- dumb name but great idea, a 24-hour asian-american digital cable station with dramas, movies, etc. They're also opening a movie theater/cultural center here in NYC this summer. Seriously looking forward to this and keeping my fingers crossed that it happens!
Scariest human beatbox ever: Dokaka! A japanese beatbox artist who has to be heard to be believed. Start with his "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and go on from there.
Bringing out the envy in me: photos of a day at the Ghibli Museum. Ooh and aaah. Last time we were at Mitsuwa we saw a poster for the museum in the travel office and the lady started trying to sell us on tickets...oh did we ever wish we could have said yes.
And the yummiest: kid's cartoon character bentos, found by reader Marc. I have a couple books of these, but the ones on this page look like they might be homemade versions. the Anpanman bento is my favorite, but I find the goofy keroppi incredibly endearing.
...it's a dream!! Dakin (now part of Applause) has just reintroduced their Dream Pets line, a toy series that began in 1957 and continued through the 70s. The amazing thing is that it's the first launch of "retro hipster" etc toys that is cheap and widely available -- retail is just $8 and they're at most card stores (and Cracker Barrels, wherever they have those). Evan brought the Flying Tiger home Thursday night and we are absolutely mad for the whole line (well, okay, most of it). Go look now!! (And yes, Rikki, you will be completely broke before I'm done with you ;P )
In comical news, the Funnyrama appearance we had yesterday went really well, I thought. It was more of a mini-con than I had expected and very busy. I was wiped out by the end, it's so over-the-top, but we had a good time (and whether or not we go back, if you're in the general area I completely recommend checking it out in the future).
How cool is this? A home DNA mapping kit? For kids? My god do I wish I could have been sequencing DNA in middle school. Put this on your xmas list for any kids over 10!
Best. Comics. Ever. (via scrubbles)
Why videogames are good for you!
Alright, I'm getting ready to leave tomorrow on a quick business/pleasure trip, so if I don't check in again, see you all again Monday!!
If you thought Sky Captain looked amazing, then check out Casshern...I'm hoping this gets a limited release here so we can see it on the big screen.
First up -- thanks to reader arved, who let me know that the original Ghost Town page (a girl's rides through Chernobyl) is not only back online, but newly updated! Go. Read. Now.
Second -- why I was going to post. We took a little time out to do some organizing this weekend, and one of the things we did was finally tackle the CD collection. We have too many CDs we don't listen to, and even getting rid of those, the ones we want to keep are taking up an enormous amount of space. Finally, I got the chance to try out the CD sleeves I'd bought -- let me see -- in 2001!! And we are totally into them. I only had 100, but the amazing thing was to see all 100 of those CDs (with their tray cards and booklets) in a box about 10" deep. A big thumbs up to this system from us -- if you have too many CDs you might want to check these out.
Some quick links:
Brief story on Puffy, mentioning their thoughts on the US cartoon.
Interesting BBC story on manga, note the comment from the "yaoi expert" who seems to be saying yet again that the men in these comics are not, in fact, gay. Just in love.
Excellent commentary from Devo's Gerald Casale, found via Bob Mould's blog (an excellent read in its own right).
And for pure fun, check out the gallery of Toy2R's qee's at Queester. I love Qees, too bad they're so spendy for such little things. (Currently drooling for: series 4 monkeys and 3 of the cats -- cheshire, girl and xray.) Saw an 8" at Toy Tokyo yesterday, so cute I could barely stand it!
Speaking of yesterday, we attended the big Adult Swim season launch party. It was interesting. A little weird (in that it was a big party paid for and planned by marketing people, so...there was some stuff going on I wouldn't have chosen myself) but we got to hook up with a number of people we know and rarely see, including the producers we are allegedly still doing development work for on the series. So that was good.
The new t-shirt for the Glen Jones Radio Programme Featuring X. Ray Burns is close to finished! It's the $60 (whoops, $120) pledge premium for the show during this year's marathon at WFMU. And pledging to Glen's show (or making a large online pledge) is the only way you will be able to get this shirt! I'll try to have at least line art up for it soon, since they may not have time to get the art up on their site before Sunday. Even if you don't want it though, please consider giving WFMU whatever you can if you are a listener (or if you just want to support the idea of true, commercial-free, free-form radio). Okay. PSA over!
Here's some luck -- last week, I'd found this photo album/travelogue written by a young woman who lives near Chernobyl and rides through the "dead" zone often, bookmarked it and meant to post it, but she took her site down. Today, what do I find but a mirror of the site!! Yay! Thank you, ninja assassin, who ever you are. This is a must-read when you have a few minutes (and don't wait, this mirror might vanish as quickly as the original). I've never seen anything like the photos this girl has taken, and I've read a lot of National Geographics. It's absolutely haunting, and beautiful in that weird freaky way that ruins can be.
Okay, a quick post just to link to these movies. Some of you have already seen these, I'm sure, but if not, check out the incomparable Phantasmagoria's Mario Bros. movies. These things are hysterical, I can't even believe how good they are. (Evan thinks they're better directed than the Harry Potter movies, but you probably know how he feels about those.) There will be 5 parts, but only 3 are finished. Go watch them (do yourself a favor and download them so you can show your friends over and over and over...)
Part I
Part II
Part III
Just a quick heads up, the Zojirushi NS-KCC05 rice cooker I wrote up in the cooking pages is 44% off today. That's even better than the deal we got on it. If you're in the market for a rice cooker, I loooove this one. Drawback -- it does not make a ton of rice, but it's perfect for 1-2 people. And I don't know if anyone else cruises the Friday sale on a regular basis, but they've been putting Le Creuset on sale every week lately. I'm very tempted, but I don't even know where to start.
The Subcultures opening Friday was apparently a resounding success! There's coverage in a few places, but the best pics are here. You can see pics of our figs in their display case about 9-10 rows down. I'm a little bummed that we don't have photos and stuff around our display like other figure designers, but ours did get finished right at the last minute. So maybe at the next stop. Rumor has it the show will go to L.A. next and then NYC -- we'll keep you guys posted!
And how about the entire wall of Ugly Dolls? I'd like to take that home!! It all looks great though -- I'm looking forward to (hopefully) seeing the show myself eventually!
We got a photo today of the finished action figures we designed for the Subcultures art show that opens in Ft Lauderdale this weekend. Hopefully we can put a photo up of the whole set asap. They came out so great, I really was totally impressed. Hopefully the exhibit will travel after its run down in FL is over. (With Kid Robot as a sponsor I'm hoping they bring it up here!)
Update!! Got permission to post a photo of the whole set! It's up now at the HOF page!
And I have a small favor -- would a couple people go look at the front page of the HoF site and then comment here to tell me what they see? I need to know what the newest headline is for you in the news section, and if you see the images on the page. We're having some inexplicable problems that I think are somehow, magically confined to any computer Evan touches, but I want to be sure. (No comments on the news page, please, the template went wonky and I have no time to fix it). Thanks guys!!
Those of you who know me, know I have an obsession with fake food, miniature food, or food that pretends to be something else. Today I have seen the ultimate in food fakery -- Koo-Ki Sushi. Seriously, the stuff is to die for. Every single thing on their site is a thing of beauty. I would love one of the big boxes (although I'm also very into the maneki-nekos!). All I want to know is, why isn't this place in NY? That's just ridiculous. I want my Koo-Ki Sushi! (spotted on not martha)
Well, if that movie is going to prompt a new design wave of 30 futurism, kitchenware company DeLonghi is all over it already with this new Metropolis line we saw part of today. I mean, this toaster is to die for! Too bad it also all costs an arm and a leg. And doesn't go with anything we own, really. But still...a robot toaster? What more can you ask for? (Aside from, okay, an toaster that's an actual robot...!)
Just because I keep forgetting to mention it:
dig the trailer for Sky Captain and the World Of Tomorrow!!
How about those Fleischer-esque robots, huh?
Okay, as part of my year-end cleanup, I'm trying to get rid of tons of bookmarks I don't need, and a pretty big handful of them are things I wanted to link to or write about here. Oops. Here's the top 5 (not actually in order though). If I uncover any other good ones I'll go ahead and post them later.
1. The iduck. Only 16MB, but pretty cute (if overpriced!) I can only hope more cool USB storage devices come out as the world gets rid of its floppy drives. (Evan's new computer is our first with no floppy drive! Crazy!)
2. The Thunderbirds. Long trailer for the upcoming live-action version of the Thunderbirds. I think we'll be seeing this one, but not because we think it's going to actually be good...
3. Deleter USA. The manga supply company has a US division now, selling pens, paper and tone screen (never thought I'd see that stuff for sale again anywhere!) for making comics (and no, they don't have to be manga style). Of special interest to me are their software packages (one for doing screen tones, one for coloring) as they're the only apps I've ever seen specifically for comic creators. (If the tone screens in ComicWorks can be imported into PhotoShop, it'd be worth the price for that alone!) They also have their own tablet, which I'm interested in finding out more about. Hopefully I'll have time to look into their stuff more next year.
4. Time magazine covers. Time has made every single cover of their magazine available online (and you can buy prints if there's one you love). A little hard to search if you aren't sure what you're looking for (have there really only been 5 Christmas covers in 80 years?) but it's all there for the browsing. (Oh, and the cover I found? Mystery writer Craig Rice, whose collaborations with Stuart Palmer we just finished reading.)
5. Elsa Schiaperelli. Celebrated in an exhibit that's unfortunately about to close at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and if it's travelling anywhere else, I can't find anything out about it). The website is really informative and well-done, though. I'm seeing the exhibition next week (yes, cutting it close, I know!) and am really looking forward to it.
Alright, that's it for today!
Monkey Brains Move Robot Arms, and I'm not talking about a new Kochalka series, I mean seriously, monkey brains moving robot arms. Very cool.
Mullins' new mom Branden is in a really cool art show this month, "Woodland Creatures From Outer Space". I wanted to be in it too, but with what time was I going to get anything done? Sheesh. See more of Branden's work here.
Highly annoying event of the weekend: buying an expensive art book that was defaced in production. Yay. Not only is it stupid and wretched, it's disrespectful to the artist, and now, the only English edition is annoying. Did I say annoying enough?
Best event of the weekend (okay, I'm counting Monday): getting the new DVR box from the cable company. It does almost everything that tivo does, but it's just part of the cable box. It doesn't make suggestions or any of that stuff but who cares, we didn't pay for it. Today when we ate breakfast we watched last night's I've Got A Secret off of our saved list. Ooh, so exciting!
Got stuff in on my new Tokyopop job, so far I'm liking it a lot. Very neat art. Very girlie though.
I'm rereading Tik-Tok of Oz for the whateverth-time, we finally have gotten a bunch more of the gorgeous Books Of Wonder editions, because they've been showing up at BookCloseouts.com for $10 each. Yes, they're clearance copies so they have a marker streak on the bottom (of the paper, I don't know what you call that part of a book) but so what? That's a serious bargain. We had some but stopped buying them years ago. Now, we're close to having all of the Baum Oz books. Yay!
Back to work. Yeesh, this weather is the pits.
Things are finally starting to settle down. The new Dork trade, Circling the Drain is printed, we're just waiting to see our copies. Reports are good, however.
Mullins is settling in nicely to his new home. I think he's going to be a very happy cat, and that the story of the Little Girl and her poor little kittens can have a happy ending. (Oh, yeah, and she didn't have rabies, so my dad doesn't have to get the zillion shots in the stomach or whatever it is they do to you if you're attacked by a rabid animal.)
I've turned in the very last volume of Kodocha (boohoo), which was actually pretty emotional, I swear I'm as attached to those characters as if I'd invented them myself. And I've just today tentatively confirmed my new projects at Tokyopop, although not only it is not 100% settled what I'll do, they're titles that aren't announced, so I can't discuss them yet. However, I highly doubt you'll have heard of any of them. (I can say they're shoujo books, though.) I'm looking forward to doing more stuff, I hope I'll enjoy the new books even half as much as I enjoyed Kodocha.
In other work news, we're now hard at work (along with a few other things) on the new development stuff for the Cartoon Network. It's fun, we're enjoying it, hopefully it'll turn into something. More on that later, obviously.
In house news, this really should be part of the unfinished "my favorite tools" bit for the cooking class, but since I've had no time I just want to push on you my latest favorite thing, the in-drawer knife block that was delivered today. I've been wanting one of these for ages, but they all seemed too expensive or too junky. This one is great—it holds 6 knives, 6 steak knives (or small knives) plus your steel. And it only cost $17! (Most I've seen didn't hold that much and ran about $40.) The regular knife block on the counter was just bulky and annoying, and got so dirty. So, a bunch of stuff came out of the drawer and went into my new cool Fiestaware tool crock (mine is turquoise) and then the knife block went into the drawer. It's all so much neater and easier to get to now.
Finally, Evan's been having all the fun talking about movies lately, so I'm chiming in first with a report on The House Where Evil Dwells, a horror movie we thought might be quick and goofy and which turned out to be one of the most ludicrous things calling itself a film I've ever seen in my life. One IMDb user calls it "high camp", except it's not supposed to be…the best user comment is "Be Drunk. Very Drunk." It was hysterically funny, I have to admit. Giant talking cursing crabs going up trees? Talking heads in soup? Evil ghosts who act like naughty children? Awkward out-of-shape white man martial arts? Worth catching for a laugh, if you've got some downtime to spare.
Got that minor little server problem ironed out…lots going on, slipped up to the top level of busyness. So just a couple quick notes before I start forgetting them all:
Astro boy has been confirmed for Kid's WB!
Been reading Science Blog a lot lately, pretty great stuff.
And here's a great article from the NYT about asian ghost movies, basically, exploring why they do the supernatural so differently from us (and some would say, better). They specifically discuss the HK movie The Eye, which we saw a while back. I totally recommend it if it plays near you. Very creepy and effective (although, don't think I'm saying it's the greatest movie ever, but it's good).
And speaking of asian film, here's an interesting look at the state of animators in Japan right now. (Today's new word: kime, those pauses and stills in Japanese animation.)
Finally, I checked in at BookCloseouts the other day to see if anything I wanted was remaindered, and they've got a big children's book sale going on. Don't know how much is left, but it's not often you can find cool books by artists like David Kirk for $1.50 a pop. If you need to come up with kid gifts over the next year or so, it might be worth stocking up (books suitable for up to teens are in the sale, too).
Anyway, that's all for now. See you soon!
The Five Kinds Of Busy. At the moment, Evan is without a doubt "way too". Last week I was "too" but now I'm slowly downshifting to "perfectly". Here's hoping I can stay there for a bit.
Came across the acclaimed UK Honda ad that will presumably soon be running here. It really is something else. (secondary source)
At Evan's request, I tracked down the Star Wars Teen at waxy.org. I don't have any idea where he heard about it, (either WFMU or NPR, I think), but if you haven't seen it yet either, there you go.
Crayon Shin-Chan gets some props. I'll always be sorry that the attempt to get him for the Cartoon Network wasn't in time. I doubt the current licensee will ever get that show on the air. But you never know.
Here's some info on an exhibit of advice books for women at the U. of Delaware. From this I learned that there was once a "New York Female School of Design" (at Cooper Union). I also learned that I really want that Munro Leaf book of advice for young women!
Abbie the Cat is back after an extended absence. Still one of my favorite daily reads.
The new Reynolds Wrap Release foil is brilliant. Totally non-stick, and if you like roasting vegetables or doing any other sort of cooking where food normally sticks like mad (see this roasted potato recipe, you've got to try it. Seriously, it's completely changed the way I cook several things (not to mention how often I'll cook them now).
Anyway, as you can see, the busy level in the house has prevented me from bringing you the greatest essay ever published in a comic book. Will try to get to that in the next day or so. In the meantime, a quote-in-the-way-of-teaser from said essay: "Your world of men has not ended." See you there!
Hopefully you all already know that we'll be appearing in Toms River tomorrow (Saturday) at the library at their big comics event thing. Should be interesting, and a nice road trip if nothing else! Things have been crazy hectic around here, but looks like we'll have lots of small-but-interesting projects to announce later this year. I've been saving links to post, and here's the first few. Quote of the year coming up this weekend!!
The Great Sasuke still won't take his mask off.
Anyone remember the Green Machine? Did you know it came back?
Finally, wrist-phones are here! (Well, in Japan, anyway.) (follow-up: the phones sold out in 20 minutes!)
And best link of all, the World of Mary Blair, an officially sanctioned Blair estate website with art, merchandise, info and more. Just getting started, but already amazing. J'adore Mary Blair. Link via scrubbles.
Since most of you read Evan's journal, I don't have to go into the miles of stuff we've been dealing with. It's been overwhelming, but for the most part positive stress. (If nothing else, having finally gotten health coverage means that Evan's finally being sent to a neurosurgeon to try and find out what exactly is wrong with his back and neck.) I have been dealing with the stress by spending what small bits of free time I find in the garden since the weather's been so lovely. Things are bursting into bloom all over the place! Well, I'm off to make Evan's birthday cake (actually, a vintage brownie recipe that doesn't taste anything like modern brownies but is delicious). But before I forget, I want to leave you with this:
If any of you have not seen the video for Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt", I stumbled across it online today. We just saw it for the first time a few days ago and it's absolutely breathtaking. Maybe "devastating" (as one reviewer put it) is even more accurate. Anyway. Watch it.
For some reason, the last few days, everytime I've tried to sit down and write either my browser has flipped out (actually, it's not the browser, it's another certain resource hog of a program) or something's happened to distract me. So know I know I've got a bunch of links and things with no coherent idea of what I was going to say about them. So, I'll just get them out of the way and just get going again!
See, now that is exactly what I'm talking about. Just as I got to the end of that sentence, I had to leave off to discuss an important work call we got, by the time that was all finished with it was time to go fix dinner, and now it's a couple hours later. This lack of focus in my life is driving me nuts! I'll try again:
Ebay—we've got some art and stuff going on ebay (time to pay for that root canal!), a couple things are up right now.
Astro Boy's birthday (not the anniversary, his actual day of birth) is coming up in a little over a week. There've been nearly daily articles about it, this article is one of my favorites.
Have you seen Gamefly? Basically a NetFlix for gamers, looks like a great deal if you actually play games regularly, which I do not. (Since I can finish a game, oh, every 3-4 months at best, this isn't a good deal for me. I wish it was!)
This shopping site, Fred Flare has some neat stuff, but really. Five 25¢ superballs for $8? Are you kidding?
I've got a new regular read, thanks to Scrubbles. It's Abbie The Cat's blog. It reminds me of one of my favorite childood reads, I, Scheherazade, if it had been written by Kay Thompson rather than Douglass Parkhirst. (By the way, if you've ever read I, Scheherazade, yes, I really did read that as a "kid's" book and no, I did not get quite a few of those references. I still think it's a great book, I have my copy to this day. And I'd totally let a kid read it.)
The Gameboy Advance SP has shipped, how I am restraining myself I do not know. (Oh, yeah, that money-in-the bank issue…) I haven't actually seen one in person, so I'm curious to see the lit screen in action. I'm surprised to see that reviewers are wondering why Nintendo would bring this out when the GA is still pretty new. I think it's obvious that the GBA is for kids (colorful, cute, wide and easy to hold), the SP for, ahem, big kids.
And finally, I've mentioned Go Home Productions before—his recent mash-up "Ray of Gob" now has a video, amazingly enough. Download either track or video at his site while supplies last!
A couple articles of note—first this coverage of the Japan release of the new GBA. Wow does that thing look swanky. Can't wait til it's on sale at the end of the year.
And this article I found today is absolutely fascinating, on the life of Winnifred Eaton, a writer who was apparently "rediscovered" in the 1970s, but who I never heard of before today. She's one of those people whose lives will probably interest people long after her work will—I can't really summarize this article in less than half a page so just go check it out (and notice, as of today, the article is from the future! how cool is that!)
The new system is all good to go, and I've got my old system apart to clean (and move a few things out of). While trying to decide which extras to put where (settled on USB 2.0 in Evan's system, Firewire in mine) I came across a gadget I really want in that I-can't-justify-it-for-one-sec-but-omigod sort of way. And I'm saying this as someone who succesfully did not buy the Hello Kitty USB hub back when it showed up. But this is killing me (and Evan too): the Hubzilla 4-port Firewire hub. Which I don't need in the slightest. But ooh, do I want it…he's even posable!! (I told Evan, well, someday I'll get an iPod and I'll hate reaching around back of the computer everytime I want to add a song, and he said, yeah right, while Asimo is going outside to bring in the mail.) Almost forgot to point out, ThinkGeek is an all-around cool site where I moon over stuff on a regular basis. If you haven't spent some time checking them out you really should.
 For all the other Pucca fans out there, vooz has given Pucca her very own website with tons of new stuff that isn't on the vooz site. Most fun: 2nd link under "Pucca Is" for the interactive "Pucca's Room"; 1st link under "Amusement" for links to all the flash cartoons; under "Downloads" you'll wallpaper, icons, screensavers…and cross-stitch patterns. Yes, I said cross-stitch. There's also a game, but last time I tried to play it my broswer crashed and I haven't tried again.
I'm sure everyone's seen the Academy Awards Nominee list by now. The most amazing thing to me is that as far as I can tell, we have seen exactly one film on the entire list. (Far From Heaven.) We even have a copy of Spirited Away and we haven't had a chance to watch it. I am a little gratified to see that some of the major "we're-gonna-shove-this-down-your-throat" industry nomination campaign didn't pay off.
If you want to feel really cold, check out the newest photo at the No Bush art project website. (Umm, you should probably be over 18 to click that link, but it is art…). A friend of mine is (literally) freezing her ass off in the "N". (Although I'd rather be in clean snow than on the streets of NYC anyday.)
And finally, if anyone's sitting around bored at home (or, ahem, work), this would be a good time to check back in with the Distributed Proofreading project. They were doing really well for the last few months, but this month they are falling short of their goal every day.
I totally forget to mention yesterday that there's been some updating to the cooking lessons, incorporating comments and emails. I know I have some more info on other lessons saved but I'll have to find it…
Also, there's now camisoles available in our cafepress shop, which is, I suppose, really about my own wishful thinking about spring.
Poor Ev is working like a dog roman slave. An 80-hour work-week is a mere fantasy at the moment. But soon he'll have his Agent X fill-in all wound up and things can get back to normal. Speaking of which, I don't know Gail Simone (the current writer) at all, as far as I know we've never met her, but she has been nothing but gracious and friendly to Evan about his coming in after her. An absolute pro. Actually, "pro" doesn't cover it, considering how most so-called pros actually behave. A sweetheart.
And finally, you may have seen these little weather girls (boys are available too) on various sites and wondered where they came from—well, I did, anyway, and I went to the home base, The Weather Pixie and got my own. Since I don't think anyone really cares what my local weather is but me, I haven't added it to any pages, but opted to use it on my own computer so I can see the weather at a glace when I start work each day. (This is my own pixie, actually, so that's my daytime and weather there.) To get your own, go to the site and click on "My Pixie". You are offered a version for your active desktop, but I just took the html code and put it in my browser's custom start page.
note: I've exercised my prerogative to change my mind, and added my pixie to the sidebar, at least for now.
So just when we thought things had been so difficult they could only get better, our basement flooded Saturday evening. In an amazing stroke of "luck", I caught it just after it happened and so there wasn't much time for the water to soak into things. What kind of things? Boxes of magazines with interviews with one or both of us; the storyboards from various shows we've worked on; a box full of lithographs and art; some vintage clothes; and lots of more water-resistant items. Virtually nothing was damaged, but we spent hours hauling stuff out and getting it out of wet boxes, and our whole house looks like we just moved in. But it could have been so much worse.
And now, some fun: go download the tetris-clone Viva Los Straighjackets for hours of fun—although the constant yelling might make it hard to play at work…
I've been busy (setting up the new computer system) and my brain is full of things I keep meaning to mention, so here's a go at it:
NPR covered Shonen Jump and wrote a little about manga in the US, audio of the report is included on the page.
On manga, yesterday ¡Journalista! covered some discussion of digest format and manga and how they're affecting comics. Dirk is so right on what's really going on there. But I just have to refute a comment made by, hang on, Steven Grant, who says the success of Tokyopop and Viz doesn't help American creators. Because, if you'll look in the new issue of Previews, Tokyopop has begun publishing work by American creators, and it may be an experiment, but they are doing it. There are a lot of American creators who can very easily pick up manga fans eventually (Chynna Clugston, for one), in my opinion. Just because manga readers will never want to read the latest revamp of Superman doesn't mean it can't have the potential for good for US writers and artists too.
Added later that day: And, dopey me, as Evan pointed out, several US creators, including Jamie Rich and myself, are already employed by Tokyopop, albeit in a minor way. (And I know people who have talked to Viz about work, although I don't know anything about who may or may not be working for them.)
Because of an article I read in Business 2.0, I've become fascinated with the whole idea of category management and what it could mean to comics and to books in general. (In super-brief: all books are assigned to categories, like "Food and Cooking" and a "captain" of that category is chosen from the publishers of that category; the captain is then responsible for the research that decides what books get carried in that category. Scary, no?) The publisher's viewpoint is pretty negative. Ralph Nader's viewpoint is (go figure) decidedly negative. But interestingly, writer George Loper's viewpoint is wary but slightly positive. Whatever your viewpoint, if you read or write material that is sold in bookstores, this will affect you sooner or later. Borders will eventually apply this system to their entire inventory, and you can bet that since it apparently is working for them really well, that everyone will be doing it sooner or later. My questions (this may not make complete sense to you if you haven't read any of the articles): will graphic novels be their own category, or get lumped into a category headed by some publisher who couldn't care less? If they are their own category, will they be a "destination" (i.e. important) category, or dismissed as a "fill-in"? If they are a category, who on earth will be offered the captaincy? If certain publishers who are already known for filling up rackspace with garbage to shut out other publishers got chosen, we'd all be doomed…although I think chances are good it would be offered to a manga publisher. The possible goodside to this is that market research into what is actually selling, and what people are really coming in for, could really help keep graphic novels in the stores, rather than going through the whole flameout everyone's expecting (assuming market research doesn't tell them to kick all graphic novels to the crub). And really, you know they'll lump superheros together—will I cry when they say only 12 superhero "novels" can be in each store? I'm thinking…no.
On a lighter note, my friend Paul sent me this site the other day—it's the C.Y.B.O.R.G.E.R. from Brunching Shuttlecocks. I am, yes, "S.A.R.A.H.: Synthetic Artificial Repair and Assassination Humanoid".
He also has finally started this site, The Impending Singularity, which talks about, oh, little things, like the inevitable downfall of all systems and the world we live in. Is he kidding? Who knows! Go read the evidence for yourself, and submit your own proof (for or against)!
Last weekend I had opportunity to see the new Eloise book, over at Evan's sister's house. She got it for Evan's niece, and she handed it to me and said (in front of the niece) "take a look at this and tell me if you agree…I think this S-U-C-K-S." I took a look, and all I could say was "rawther…". You just can't fake Kay Thompson, is all I'm sayin'. And you know, it's more proof that: A. When someone doesn't want a work of theirs published, maybe their wishes should be respected; and B. since no-one respects your wishes after you die when there's money to be made, if you don't want something published you better just burn it right now.
Oh, and we finally saw Far From Heaven. What a fabulous movie. If you haven't seen it yet, please go and see it while it's still in theaters—I'm sure it'll look great on DVD (and I'm sure I'll own it) but that over-the-top technicolor lushness will just not look the same in your living room no matter what.
Whew! Okay, my brain's not entirely emptied out, but that's much better!!
Wow, the new Game Boy Advance is to die for. Tiny, sleek and backlit…what more could you ask for? My friend Christine sent me more info, and it should be out here by March for $100 or so. Probably won't be buying it then, but it'll be on my wishlist in 2003, that's for sure.
Another entertainment in 2003 is definitely going to be the marvelous 365 days (thanks to Matt for the link!) A reformat of the page scared me, but everything's archived away neatly now. Today's offering: the amazing Murray Wilson. Yup, the ultimate stage father of our time.
Added 2003-01-10: 365 days has found help in mirrors and archive space, so the site is back up to full speed! Enjoy!
 I came across this marvelous Alice site the other day, which has a listing of Alice illustrators other then Tenniel. The complete color plates for several are represented (including my childhood fave Arthur Rackham, and Mabel Lucie Attwell, pictured here) with the promise of more to come. I didn't even know about all these alternate versions, and I'd love to see them all someday.
Comics note: for one day only, until tonight at midnight (your time zone), there is a huge sale going on at Comicraft. So if you need a good lettering font or one of their great display fonts, run on over and pick yourself up a bunch.
 I came across this amazing resource over the weekend; it's the Los Angeles Public Library's Menu Collection Index, which you can search through, or simply browse (by searching with wild cards). As someone who is interested in food, restaurant history, vintage ephemera and design, there couldn't be a collection more interesting to me. I found it looking up the NY Public Library's similar collection, which is on display until March (we heard about it NPR and I've been meaning to get the details for ages). Coincidentally, the NY menus are being exhibited just down the hall from the Charles Addams gallery, so we'll definitely be making a trip over there!!
Another interesting page I found doing research this weekend (although I'm not allowed to say what for) is the Poisons & Antidotes section from a 1942 medical dictionary. My favorite symptom has got to be the "staring eyes" you can get from aconite poisoning.
And by the way, Happy New Year to all!
After I mentioned the Digital Vinyl CD-R that I wanted, a kind reader sent me 2 blank CD-R from 5inch, a place that specializes in printed CD-R and nifty cases. I got lp and notepad, which are even cooler in person than on the site. There are 50 designs, all pretty neat. I think my favorites other than lp and notepad are composition, template (obviously!), and sakura. But I couldn't decide if I had too!! These are obviously not Best Buy specials, they'll run you about $1-$1.50 each depending on how many you buy. But for gift CDs, they beat the heck out of blanks with giant Memorex logos on them—in fact, they'll make a homemade audio CD look like much more of a "nice present". And couldn't you spend an extra $1.50 when you're making someone's gift? They have a u-pick deal for 15 CD-R, which is what I might have to think about. (And, they have Digital Vinyl!)
I was happy to find a few days ago that the English-language version of Tezuka World was back in operation! At first glance it appears to be exactly the same, but the difference is that tons of sections that had been eternally "under construction" are now open! You can now look at clips of all the anime based on Tezuka's comics (stuff I've never heard of like Don Dracula or The Green Cat), including pilots and experimental shorts. The book section itself is greatly expanded to include novels and picture books as well as manga. In fact, so far as I can tell, every section is now open. (Although the site is huge so I'm sure there could be some I haven't gotten to yet!) Possibly one of the most interesting features on the site is the "on-line comics" section, which is only available in Japanese right now, but promises 5 other languages including English. From what I can make out, you can buy an ebook version of pretty much any Tezuka volume. This would be amazing if they did eventually have them in English, but I'm not holding my breath. There is apparently a system to browse them for free if you register and download their reader software, but I certainly can't figure it out. But it's still a huge step for them…Tezuka for everyone!
Also cute and found recently: the Mr. Winkle doll. Which is funny because we saw some Mr. Winkle calendar or something recently and I was saying, "Why isn't there a stuffed toy of Mr. Winkle?" And, well, apparently my wishes are the world's commands.
Isn't everyone living on a budget? Well, everyone I know is, anyway. In fact, it's now a lifestyle niche, apparently, since there's a new magazine, Budget Living, devoted to people who thrift and budget but are working professionals. Or something like that. Actually, their press packet stuff is pretty vomit-inducing (I don't even want to know anyone who would describe their house or apartment as "chic, if slightly funky") but: a friend of mine and I have been talking about this after seeing it written up a bunch of places, and I finally found a copy a few days ago and read it last night. And it's actually a pretty neat magazine. I didn't love it 100%, but I loved it more than most "lifestyle" or "decor" magazines I see, that's for sure. Unlike Martha, the crafts are accessible and quick, unlike Real Simple they write up items that are actually inexpensive. (I have gotten some great ideas, not to mention recipes, from Real Simple, but it drives me aboslutely mad when they have an article that basically says that "everyone" of course just must own a cashmere sweater, and here's a selection ranging up to $600. Simple, maybe, but doesn't speak to me at all.) The how-to stuff was better than anything I've seen in a US magazine, and the overall vibe was pretty great (completely unlike their online sales talk).
Anyway, my real point in posting this is not to tell you that you must go check it out, but to bring up an offer they are running—every $15 one-year sub can add up to 5 "gift" subs for $1 each. Obviously designed to inflate their subscription numbers to get more ads, but so what? It means that if you pool 6 people together a magazine that costs $24 a year on the newstands becomes just $3.34 for a year. Which, if you ask me, is good budgeting. So if you have read or seen Budget Living and you're interested in going in on our subscription pool, please drop me a line.
And you know, speaking of budgeting, it strikes me that it's only what, 7 days to Xmas? And I have nothing wrapped, and I have still got a few last things to buy. Yikes. Finding the time should be loads of fun. Usually I love the holidays, but this year…it's just kind of laming out. Oh well, maybe I'll get the spirit by next week!
Oh, yes, and by semi-popular demand, the kitty category is back!
As it turns out, Far From Heaven isn't closing tomorrow (at our local theater, anyway). It runs until Friday, and then goes to an evening-only schedule. So looks like I get to see it after all—'cause it certainly looks like a film one must in a theater…although I'm sure I'll want my own copy just to drool over the sets and clothes, if nothing else.
Speaking of films, we scored two of the new Disney Treasures sets at Costco last week—the Behind the Scenes compilation and Mickey Mouse in Black and White. There's a third set, the Complete Goofy as well, but while some of the early Goofy shorts are entertaining, I really don't need to see them ever again. We haven't watched much more than some of the supplemental material, but they look great. But they've got to do the Donald set already!
And speaking of the 1950s…who doesn't love those old phone exchanges? I've been checking in to the Telephone EXchange Name Project for ages, and there's so many entries now that if you aren't on an original exchange, you can certainly find one that'll match. Why tell people your number is 555-1212 when you can say "EL Dorado 5-1212"? I was pretty excited to discover that we are on an original exchange for our area that dates back to 1931.
I loved Betsy McCall paper dolls when I was little; my mom had lots of old magazines (and I mean old, going back to when she must have been pretty young) and the Betsy dolls were a big favorite of mine. She even let me have the ones out of her new issues to cut out. Years later, I found the older Betsy pages in vintage magazines at sales and so forth, and really fell for the late 50s ones—I even own a handful now. These pages were, in fact, the original inspiration for the Action Girl Activity Page series of paper dolls. All the Betsy outfits would have little stories and details for every outfit, and to me they seemed just like comics. Anyway, I've been slowly trying to clean up my bookmarks (it's way out of hand) and I found this link I'd forgotten about, to a huge collection of Betsy strips pages (see, there I go again, I keep typing "strips"!) My favorites are right around 1959, although all the 50s ones are great. Someday I'd like to get mine in order and maybe track down some more!
And thanks to sharp-eyed Bill, here's a couple of Christmas Betsys!!
 We haven't had a full-size tree since we moved two years ago. For about 6-7 years we had a nice big, artificial white tree which I loved. But after we moved we had a little cat destruction and…no more tree. Right now I've got two tabletop trees (one pink, one silver) but I was hoping to get a full-size again this year, so I've been looking around. Because our house is decorated in a sort of—cartoony interpretation of mid-century modern is probably the best way to describe it—a couple of people have suggested the classic aluminum tree to go with the 50s-ish look. Now, while I think they're pretty, I'm not a big fan of any tree without lights. But I thought I'd look at a few. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that, contrary to popular opinion (and most eBay sellers), the aluminum tree is a 1960s icon, and didn't even exist in the 1950s! There's a great history of the tree at Bill's Antique Christmas Light Site, which even includes a copy of the patent, and as it turns out, the very first Evergleam aluminum tree went on sale in December of 1959. So, you learn something new every day. A little research through my own 50s magazine collection shows that for the 50s look, artificial trees came in white and green…but both live and artificial trees were often heavily flocked in any and every color you can imagine. For me personally, finding out that even the modern aluminum trees still can't have lights on them makes me think that white is once again the way to go. Oh, but one last silver tree link: the Aluminum Tree and Ornament Museum is actually only one of many museums I came across devoted to the silver tree, but this is the only one with pictures online. Check out the "growing process"!
In comic book news, I found this really interesting interview with Toshio Maeda, most famous (or infamous) here for creating the Urotsuki Doji (Legend of the Overfiend) stuff. It's part one of a series, which I will be checking back for. This one was particularly interesting because he makes several comments about the American comic industry, some perceptive and some showing that it's not just the American public that thinks adults don't read comic books.
Well, today we made one run at the mall for a little Xmas shopping, and I have a few things to report:
The Glamourette doesn't quite cut it in person. The colors are great, the makeup seems good, the thing itself is adorable…but the lipstick is the deal-breaker. It's tiny and cheap-feeling, and I couldn't get it to lock in place. Still a great gift idea, especially for someone who's going to keep it on a dressing table. But not as great as I thought it would be. I skipped it (but that's okay, I got an Amelie Kubrick for myself instead).
Old Navy is an absolute hole. It's so horrible. But they've got some great men's pants on sale right now.
The promo they're running in Best Buy for the Glengarry Glen Ross DVD is hysterical, since it has to be 100% "clean". So, basically they tell you something about the DVD, then cut to a shot of…someone pausing. Or saying one or two weird and out-of-context words.
And I am almost completely finished with Xmas, aside from a few small things. Next, my favorite part: wrapping!
 How cute is this? Looking up some stuff for Xmas shopping last night, I stumbled across BeneFit's new Glamourette, a swell retro-ish (and definitely glamourous) compact with everything you need in one neat package. And, the system is interchangeable, with extra colors to switch out! If you're stuck for a present for some fab girl you know, keep it in mind. I know I'm going to be picking this up in my shopping this year for Xmas presents—and giving it to myself!
I want these. I'm sure they're completely overpriced (especially when you're spoiled by $9-for-100 spindles at Best Buy). But I still want them.
A fantastic article on copyright, discovered in the forums of Distributed Proofreaders, which is an awesome project to get more books into ebook form. Go and help, and if you don't want to proofread, you can scan, run OCR or just donate.
I've been spending a lot of time going through boxes of old letters, zines and mini-comics and packing up more stuff for Duke University, where they are archiving my entire collection and archive of zines and comics by women/girls. It's always a little weird to go through that stuff—on the one hand, it's so nice to reread all these great and inspirational letters that I got from people who really appreciated what I was doing, but on the other, looking at the not-so-nice mail I'd saved for no comprehensible reason made all the reasons that I got really get burned out on the whole thing came back to me in a flood.
Going through comics for the first time (I had kept them all initially) was also a little sad when I realized how many creators have disappeared. Some of them have become illustrators, and some are doing comics today. But a large number of them seem to have simply vanished.
On a brighter note, I talked to the archivist who deals with my stuff for the first time in ages, and she told me that the collection is being used heavily, and that five classes used it for a major project this term! She's going to send me a handful of the top papers. It's really exciting to think that all of this really ephemeral work has gotten a second lease on life—that was my hope when I started sending my stuff there, so I'm really thrilled to see it happening. It's really eased all my reservations—I had trouble letting go of a lot of things, many of them had small notes to me written in them (don't worry, letters and truly personal notes were all excised) and of course there were reviews and interviews with me that I do not have copies of. But you can't save everything. And I can always go and visit it all.
The process of making a little monkey pastry. The written instructions seem to be missing the step where you make him look drunk and prop up a bottle of champage in the crook of his arm.
Sure enough, the sky was glowing from haze and lights and we didn't get to see any meteors last night. If we'd had more time we could have tried driving somewhere with a better shot at seeing them but…it was cold, anyway. We did watch Night of the Hunter on TCM, my first time seeing it. What a crazy-great movie. Spent part of today revamping Evan's journal due to a number of problems we had. It's all nice and cozy now over at the House of Fun. And now I'm waiting for some aleve to kick in. If it doesn't, I'll just go play Super Bust-A-Move 2 until I feel better…(pssst, to unlock Weepey and Smiley in the PS2 version, press triangle, up, down, triangle at the start screen.)
It looks like it'll be too cloudy to see the Leonid meteor shower. Not that you can see much of the night sky here on a good day…light pollution being what it is. (Those of you with clear, dark, skies have no idea how lucky you are. And boy do I miss them.) Trying to find a good location to meteor-watch (before I saw the weather reports) I found Darksky.org, which sounds like a super-villain group, but is actually an educational non-profit working to improve the night sky.
In other news, I've finally finished our little store (I saw "we" because Evan has helped quite a bit, although he can't seem to finish my Mr. Bunny drawing!). My original idea, was, of course, a lot more complicated. But what it's boiled down to is a way for us to make little, limited run things of cute designs we come up with. "Cute" doesn't sell that well, so these are either the kinds of things that we know will only sell a few at most. Or they're things we only want to make available for a limited period of time. And if nothing else, we can make more stuff for ourselves. (That's all I've used Cafepress for over the past two years!) I know I'll be doing some X-mas shopping there myself.
Wow, time flies when you're in over your head. I've got a couple notable things to mention…
I've never liked Martha Stewart (regardless of her business practices, I think she's a phony) but I admit that the magazine with her name on it can have some pretty good info—and recently they started putting together graphics and projects you can download and print (or cut out and xerox) which is pretty cool. The newest batch is a set of vintage-style gift tags for the holidays. Check them out here: here (in pdf format).
I've known about Kodansha's "Bilingual Comics" line for a while, but I had no idea how many titles they'd been putting out! They're published for Japan, but you can get them from Amazon Japan, or Japanese bookstores in the US. Wednesday night I checked the only listing I've ever found for them (here, and you can order from this page as well) and discovered that among the many titles they'd added were three volumes of GeGeGe No Kitaro (a series we've loved since we watched it on TV here about 8 years ago)—less than 24 hours later, I had all three volumes in my hands thanks to a trip into the city by Evan to the Asahiya bookstore. Wow, is the internet a great thing or what? (He also got me vol. 1 of Princess Knight and my missing vol. 1 of Kindaichi Files).
Everyone I know has IMDb on top of their bookmark lists, but did you know there's a similar site for Broadway shows? The IBDb (note the clever name) is nowhere near as comprehensive, but there's a surprising amount of information on it. We found it trying to find a cast list for Phil Silvers' 1951-1952 show Top Banana, and while we didn't actually find the exact info we needed, we did at least find this resource. Top Banana was actually filmed as a play, and while what's left of it (the only copy that appears to survive is a cut-up one, and I mean drastically cut—scenes actually abruptly shift, numbers are chopped off, and where's that talking wonder dog?!) isn't exactly great, it's still worth catching as a very early satire on the entertainment business.
And finally, for a little goofing off, check out this game, Los Straightjackets in Viva Los Straighjackets!, which is your basic jeweled tetris-style game, but with cool graphics and music courtesy of LS.
Been snooping around the library of congress again and rediscovered this great exhibit in their digital collection: Origins of American Animation. Like all their digital collections, it's incredibly well presented, with viewing options that include downloadable mpegs, so that if you've got the time and/or the broadband connection, you can burn them to a VCD and watch them on your tv. (Which is what I did, I loathe watching things on the computer.) Some of this early stuff is truly fascinating. While you're there, snoop around some more, their online collections seem to grow every time I check back. Next time I think I'll check out the vaudeville recordings!
Check out the amazing art at this Navy WWI gallery. You can see the original oils as well as the posters they were used for. Fascinating stuff! If you have time, explore the site more, there's tons of galleries (including the scary Bikini Atoll art collection, which according to their info was painted on site! Yikes!) Thanks to Elizabeth for the link. By the way, I'm thinking of setting up Greymatter, which is vastly overpowered for my needs but will help with housekeeping in the long run. Any pros or cons?
And a note—the Armstrong Vinyl catalogs are at a new URL.
A quick note for those of you drooling over Oneida's Russel Wright remakes—the yellow is on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond! Dinner, salad and soup will only set you back $10 a place setting. Too bad it's the linen I want…
It's beautiful out, which reminds me of something I keep meaning to mention here. I've always been annoyed by weather forecasts. Living in the NY metro area means that a forecast you hear could very easily have no relation to where you are. I live about 12.5 miles from the weather station (Central Park) most reports are based on. I did find I could get better reports by looking up a city that's actually closer, but still, it was 10 miles away. But one day, I stumbled across a personal weather station that is in my neighborhood. No forecasts, but accurate weather information from just blocks away. How cool is that? And if I knew how to forecast weather, I'm sure I could from all the info they provide. I had never even heard of this concept before, but apparently it's becoming pretty popular because of the web. So try and see if you can find your own truly local weather! You've got a couple of options. First, try Weather for You, a big compiler of private station info. Also try Roswell Weather, or doing a websearch for "private weather station" plus your area. When you find a station, see how far it actually is from you by looking up latitude and longitude and then plotting the distance between you and the station. And then you'll always know if you need a jacket or not before you walk out the door!
Just finished up a load of work and have a few days to catch up on mail etc…been crossing stuff off my list pretty well today but didn't get to the site like I'd planned. To hold you over, please enjoy the viking and punk kittens at Rathergood.com. I'll tell you, those kittens were killing me today…
I guess it's technically the 26th, actually. Anyway for those of you that have cats—I've been meaning to mention that we've just switched to this wheat-based litter and it's really working out well. I'm not a big fan of clay-based litter (if the dust chokes me, what's it doing to the cats?), but none of the alternatives we tried over the years worked out. Somehow I came across this stuff, we tested it out in one box and it was a huge success. For the first time, the cats liked the new litter better. It's scoopable, and apparently flushable and compostable, although I won't be trying either. Anyway, you can look into it for yourself, but if you do try it, one tip from me: after cleaning the litter box (you do clean it regularly, right?), dry it and give the inside a light coating of canola oil. Trust me on this one.
Finally, the weather has changed and it's really Fall, not just technically Fall, and it's almost October. October has always been my favorite month, and Fall my favorite season, for a number of reasons: my birthday is in October; my favorite holiday, Halloween, is in October; it's the month that you get to start wearing sweaters and eating warming foods; nature goes into her whole Autumn display; and it holds the promise of Winter, which I really like in concept, but don't actually like when it's here. I also love the whole iconography of Halloween (yes, I'm one of those people who sometimes decorates the whole house for it) and making Halloween food and treats. Here's one recipe I'm definitely going to do this year—how cute are those? Now to just find the time to plan the party and…think of a costume. Guess who has zero ideas this year?
 Recently, I came across this really cute space-cat toy on ebay (and if you know me you know I love space cats, I even have my own, Jinjur), and zooming in on the photo provided me with the URL for Tamala2010 (This will open in a new window because of its annoying multi-redirects). All I could really learn from the (Japanese) site was that Tamala is a "punk cat in space" and the star of an animated feature coming out this Fall involving some mega-corp called Catty & Co. taking over the "galaxy of cats". But I did grab some wallpaper, check out some cute animations (with music!), and follow a link to the official Catty & Co. homepage which offers up pics of tie-in products that include jeans, candy and tomato soup. And a link there took me to Go To Hell With Me game, (which is a "PlayGirl.3" game for "Adult Cats"). Now I am fascinated with Tamala, the Punk Cat In Space! (The toy, by the way, was the official Kubrick, which I'm pretty sure I will never, ever obtain…)
BookCrossing is a positively brilliant idea! (Thanks to Matt for finding it!) If you're done with a book (that hopefully was interesting, at least), instead of dropping it in a charity box, release it into the wild and see what happens! I like both the idea of leaving books for people to discover—and the idea that people might find a neat book on their way home from work or school or whatever. The site itself is also a good resource on its own, with load of comments and reviews of books. Next time I pack up books for the Salvation Army, I'm definitely pulling some out to—hmmm, "to BookCross"? "for BookCrossing"? Whichever.
I have so many tile and laminate samples sitting in my living room, it's not funny. I had no idea everyone (well, practically everyone) would send you samples at no cost! Now to pick from all these choices…in other news, sanrio.com has added comics to their "Happy News" feature. They're pretty…entertaining. See Pochacco say, "I am sharp, and my scoot is aces."
Did a little more research today (shockingly, all the tile samples I requested yesterday arrived today, which was nice but slightly annoying since we were waiting for a package that never came, and just got floor tiles everytime the doorbell rang) and found a great if slightly bizarre reference for period flooring. It's at a law-firm's website, and is apparently a guide to asbestos-containing flooring. But for my purposes, what's important is that this flooring guide [sorry, the link is now dead] consists of excerpts from Armstrong sales booklets from 1954 up to 1980! Great reference if you're decorating, great nostalgia if you're not. (And yes, there's plenty of avocado as you go down the list.)
Doing some research on flooring for the long-planned kitchen re-do, I came across the site for Johnsonite, a company I'd never heard of—the highlight of their site is an design-your-own tile page (needs shockwave) where you can design all kinds of flooring and floor tiles. Lots of fun. And apparently, you can order your custom design, but I didn't really look to see how (since I'm quite sure that would be out of my price range!). Still tons of fun to play with—and maybe someday I will design my own floor tiles…
Looking up an urban legend today at Snopes.com I came across an entry for Buster Keaton (the urban legend being whether or not he was contractually allowed to smile) which made me wonder if anyone had pictures of Keaton smiling online (last time we checked we couldn't find any…but that was probably years ago) and sure enough, I found The Great Stone Face Cracks Up, a collection of images of Buster smiling, smirking and laughing. You just knew he couldn't keep that straight face every second.
We're still in deadline hell, but at least it looks like we'll make it with no trouble (other than being tired and half-starved from not eating well, that is!) Checked in with an old favorite site today, My Favorite Failures, a listing on a marketing firm's site. Intended for companies to learn about marketing, but highly entertaining for anyone. The other categories are interesting too, I learned that Surge is apparently a failed product now. I hadn't even noticed it missing from the shelves!
As I predicted, I completely forgot about the existence of the Anna Nicole car-wreck show until a mention today in Entertainment Weekly (apparently, her assistant has a tattoo of her face—ewww!!)
For actual entertainment yesterday, I spent far more time then I should have at the Chrysler Design Institute which has some truly amazing archival material available. You can access a history of concept and limited production cars going back to the 30s, with photos, information, and in some cases extras like original concept sketches. Some of the info is truly fascinating—for example, did you have a clue that the 1952 Crown Imperial Limo was color-coded by city for parades? (Black for NYC, green for Detroit and cream for Chicago.) I sure didn't. Some other fun facts: Lana Turner owned one of only five 1940 Newport LeBarons; and the 1953 D'Elegance came with luggage matched to its upholstery. Extras like wallpaper and e-cards are available as well (do not miss the 1941 Thunderbolt wallpaper!). A lot of work has gone into this, and I for one appreciate it.
Ah, the heatwave has broken at last.
On a "diary" kick—yesterday I came across a reprint online of a long-forgotten book called The Unexpurgated Diary
of a Shanghai Baby by an apparently long-forgotten humor writer named Elsie McCormick. All I can find out about her was that she was an American living in Shanghai in the early 20s, and that she wrote at least two books of humor while there. Shanghai Baby is really funny, not so much for the portrait-of-Old-China stuff but for the baby-thinks-its-parents-are-idiots stuff, which if you've seen any baby with new parents doesn't seem too unrealistic to me. Disclaimer: yes, it is 1920s humor, so keep its era in mind.
Forgot to watch the premiere of Thunderbirds on TechTV yesterday. Did, however, remember to enter their contest.
 More and more people seem to be into the non-Sanrio sanrio-type characters from companies like San-X. One of my absolute favorite characters is Pucca, from a Korean company called vooz—she's the star of several flash cartoons on their website (that's a link to the english version), which is a lot of fun (now that you can actually access it again, they were impossible to access during the World Cup!) There's all the flash cartoons, plus free downloadables of every sort, including two icon sets (which those little pics are from). I only wish I could use their cell phone downloads!
This week we ripped off all of the ivy that was covering the garage and menacing the house, triffid-style. It was a ton of work, but very satisfying. Best of all, I got to try out my brand new Foxglove gardening gloves. I found them looking for something that would protect my wrists and lower arms better while working outside—everything I found was big, leather and spendy, until I came across these. They're like 50s dress gloves and come in tons of colors so you can look all glamorous; they're machine washable (although I'll need spares so I can toss them in the laundry and still have a set available); and very flexible so you can feel what you're doing (not waterproof though, if you hate getting your hands wet). Surprisingly, they do not feel as flimsy as they look—I was handling some rough bits and never felt a thing. Seriously, I can't recommend these enough. A tip though—look on their site for a local shop carrying them. My local price was much better than the best internet price I found!
Today Amazon offered me a $500 woodworking "jointer". I don't think I need to click on the gold box anymore. Yesterday I found out that Anchor finally is re-issuing Jadeite (a.k.a. Fire King) glassware! I haven't seen it in person (although everyone seems to be putting out their own version these days) but I came across it looking for something else at Linens 'n Things, of all places. I wish they'd made the swirl bowls so I could complete my set…but I might have to get the cake pans!
Just an observation—if you use Amazon, you may have noticed that little "gold box" thing going on in the corner? Well, I bought some books to get through jury duty, and when I placed my order, decided to check out the gold box. In it was something I actually wanted, a Microplane zester. Which is a cooking tool. But ever since, the gold box just offers me...power tools. Expensive, basement filling power tools.
 The weather is so nice! Yesterday I discovered a fun time-waster—Clairol has a huge "please buy our stuff" website with all kinds of bells and whistles, and one of them is the Try It On Studio which allows you to upload your own photo, and then superimpose loads of different hairstyles and haircolors on said photo (for free). Not did I find a couple of haircuts that would look good on me, I found one I should never ever allow anyone to give me, and I also learned what I'd look like if I was a Senate wife. (And yes, boys can play too, although the "men's" selection is somewhat limited. But hey, feel free to see what you'd look like with a nice blonde upsweep!)
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