.
Hey, everyone. Sorry I haven't been around. I keep thinking I'm going to post more often, and then I don't. I think I might be tired of the internet. *sigh*


Anyway, I know some people don't like spiders, so I thought I'd post this. Lucas is an animation project by Joshua Slice, who decided to do something about people's arachnophobia. Thus, meet Lucas - the cutest spider in the world.

Watch on YouTube

Lucas the Spider
He has too many eyeballs.


Lucas is voiced by Slice's five-year-old nephew, and is designed with all the visual tropes used by animators to humanize animals - big eyes that blink, short limbs, unthreatening postures. He is, in truth, the cutest spider I've ever seen.

Lucas has his own Youtube channel, where you can watch him playing in the sink, dealing with the new "polar bear" in the house, and cleverly escaping capture in a wine glass. (The one where he plays a tiny harp and sings a song will lay you out flat, it's so adorable.)

Here's a video about Lucas's origins and process.

Watch on YouTube

Lucas's creator explains how he makes people
fall in love with spiders.


Enjoy!

.
Hi everyone!

I'd like to introduce you to a wonderful Youtube channel called Townsends. It's run by Jon Townsend, a historial re-enactor. It's all about life, and mostly food, in the 1700's. Fantastic recipes, lots of great info on life in the 18th century, and Jon, who is truly a lovely narrator: genial, gentle, enthusiastic. I've made several of the recipes and they are delicious as well as being interesting. This is a great channel for hobbit writers, as it gives you a great view of life around the time (maybe a bit before) that parallels the level of development, more or less, of the Shire. The channel has been running for about 10 years, I think, with an episode around every 1-2 weeks, so there are LOADS of things to watch! Please check it out, and please pimp the channel to other hobbity folks. I'm sure you'll like it and will want to watch it further.

Here are a couple of their vids to start your off:

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Here's a recipe Sam would absolutely have known how to make:

Watch on YouTube

And a recipe for the holiday table. Frodo and Bilbo would have enjoyed this at Yule!

Watch on YouTube

And now, a reminder: I still have a lot of hobbity stuff on my sale page. If you're looking for gifts for hobbity friends, please take a look! And please let other people know it's there!





Enjoy!

.

.
Get the tissues ready, this one's a waterfall.

Karim Sulayman - I trust you
Meredith Kaufman Younger


.

.
Found this lovely video and thought you all would enjoy it. During this stressful last week before the possible End Of All Things, take a moment to relax and appreciate true, amazing artistry.

Please click make the video fullscreen, sit quietly, take a deep breath, and enjoy...

The Balancing Art of Miyoko Shida


.

.

Beautiful Chemical Reactions


*ssssssssssssssssst*

Enjoy!
.

.
The first trailer for Starz' series of Neil Gaiman's American Gods is out.

This looks AMAZING. I love that book, and am really hyped to see what they'll do with it. Great casting, great atmospherics. Am having YUGELY BIGLY hopes for this thing.

.

.

Bears catching salmon at Brooks Falls, Alaska


That is all.

.

.
An early edition. Just because.

Rosalita - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band


Always did love this song. Such lively enthusiasm, such joy. When that long whooooooaaa! happens at the climax, it's so easy to see the scruffy handsome youth running and dropping into a sliding fall on his knees, riffing on his axe all the way, to stop at his lovely lady's feet and shout her name in that adoring chorus.** Along with everything else, Bruce is just so goddamn, achingly, adorably romantic. His love songs are so fucking passionate. How many performers are there anymore who do this sort of thing without a lick of irony or self-awareness? Just all-out, punch-drunk, tell-the-fucking-world LOVE.

Our American Sonic Shakespeare. How lucky we are to have had him, to still have him, setting our lives down in riff and chord, meter and rhyme, thunder and flame. Hail to you, prophet of the street. If you're not the Boss, you're definitely the Bard.


** Bruce has always had a delicious talent for conveying concrete images using the sound of the instruments being played. Every now and then, you can see a picture very clearly in the music. He's great at that kind of punctuation. Artists who can play your brain the way they play a guitar are rare.

.
Here's a neat little snippet of Josh talking Ethan and his Daddy issues...

And here's another, about filming Ethan's story in Spain.

And a half hour interview with Josh about Season 3.


SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Yum... Enjoy!


P.S. Is anyone else as amused by that hat as I am? I keep thinking for Father Guido Sarducci...

.

.
Haven't seen this posted yet, so...

The cast of Penny Dreadful talk about Season 3


Damn, how'd that plate of sliced tomatoes get under my ass all of a sudden?

I do miss Ethan's mane, though. *sigh*

.