February 28, 2008
Origami Cthulhu:
Here's a tantalizing little build-log from a project to fold the world's greatest origami Elder God. Legend has it that an ill person who folds a thousand origami cranes will get well. I wonder what you get if you fold a thousand Cthulhus? Devouring of your entrails? LINK
February 27, 2008
February 24, 2008
Zombies In TX | Night of the Living Dead's 40th:
I just taped a large "zombie walk" yesterday in north Texas. It was in honor of the 40th anniversary of Night of the Living Dead. There were over 100 people dressed as zombies walking down a busy street in front of a mall. I got some great pics and a video, which I posted here. They were actually walking up to a local horror con, which had George Romero and the entire Living Dead cast as guests.
February 22, 2008
February 21, 2008
Australian Penis Artist Bids For Top Prize:
SYDNEY - A cheeky artist who uses his penis as a brush has entered a racy self-portrait for Australia's top art prize. Australian Tim Patch, who calls himself Pricasso, usually exposes his talents at sex product fairs around the world, but has decided to go upmarket by entering a painting for Australia's Archibald Prize -- the nation's top award for portraiture. In a unique painting style, Patch does not use paint brushes, but his penis to apply paint to the canvas. "I had to use my bum to paint in the background, because you have to have the occasional break," Patch told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Wednesday. Patch entered a painting of a plastic surgeon in last year's Archibald Prize, but failed to impress the judges. This year's entry depicts a nude Patch, wearing only a hat, holding a blank canvas to hide his "brush". The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney expects up to 700 portraits to be entered for the 2008 Archibald Prize, with the finalists to be announced in March.
February 19, 2008
Manga Bible | Genesis to Revelation With Killer Robots:
In a blurb for the Manga Bible, which is published by Doubleday, the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, is quoted as saying, “It will convey the shock and freshness of the Bible in a unique way.”
In the Manga Bible, whose heroes look and sound like skateboarders in Bedouin gear, Noah gets tripped up counting the animals in the Ark: “That’s 11,344 animals? Arggh! I’ve lost count again. I’m going to have to start from scratch!”
Abraham rides a horse out of an explosion to save Lot. Og, king of Bashan, looms like an early Darth Vader. The Sermon on the Mount did not make the book, though, because there was not enough action to it.
Link, Link to the Manga Bible on Amazon
February 18, 2008
Victoria Reynolds's Meat Paintings:
Victoria Reynolds creates oil paintings of raw meat. Seen here, "Flight of the Reindeer," (2003, 32" x 43.75"). LINK to meat paintings, LINK to more info at SeƱor Enrique.
February 17, 2008
Hot Dogs Around From The World:
No doubt lots of hot dogs, hamburgers and brats were consumed in honor of the Super Bowl on Sunday (we stuck to chicken wings at my house). I was doing some research for another article when I came across something called ‘Hot Dog Variations’. I guess I had really never considered Hot Dog Variations before. I mean, sure, there’s the chili dog and the Chicago dog, but other than that?
Yeah. Apparently there’s a whole world of hot dogs out there I haven’t even considered.
When I was soliciting ideas for my upcoming trip to L.A., more than one Flosser suggested that I try out Pink’s. I fully intend to, because the Martha Stewart dog sounds delicious - mustard, relish, bacon, tomato, sauerkraut and sour cream. My husband will probably enjoy the Ozzy dog, named after the Prince of Darkness himself. It’s a polish sausage with nacho cheese, American cheese, onions, guacamole and chopped tomatoes.
In Venezuela, expect to be offered an incredibly wide variety of toppings for your dog. Just a few that might be found include carrot shreds, french fries, corn niblets, garlic sauce, chili sauce, mayo and tartar sauce.
In Columbia, you’ll find the perro caliente comes with mashed chips, strings of ham or bacon, ketchup, mayo, mustard, onions and pineapple sauce.
West Virginia likes to top their hot dogs with chili sauce - not so weird - and sweet cole slaw.
From what I understand, Sweden loves hot dogs. One of the most popular variations is the “tunnebrod rulleor”, a dog wrapped in flatbread and stuffed with various toppings. Mashed potato is apparently a local favorite.
Georgians (especially those in the southern part of the state) enjoy scrambled dogs. You can find it in Columbus, Ga., at Dinglewood Pharmacy, where your dog is not complete without dill pickles, ketchup, mustard, chili, onions and oyster crackers. Lots of people also say your meal isn’t complete unless you top it off with an icy Coca-Cola, since it also originated in Georgia.
Guatemalans know there’s nothing like topping your hot dog (”shucos”) with more meat. In addition to toppings like boiled cabbage, mustard and mayo, you have the option to add bacon, pepperoni, salami, chorizo or longaniza to complete your shuco.
The granddaddy of the shuco is sold in Antigua, Guatemala and is called “La Ballena” - the Whale. You get chorizo, longaniza, salchicha, ham, bacon, pepperoni, german ham and sausages, chicken breast, beef steak fajitas and polish sausages. It’ll set you back between $5 and $7 depending on the toppings. I have a friend who might move to Guatemala after hearing this. His idea of a perfect meal is one which has a “meat trifecta”, so this would be right up his alley.
Although ‘hot dogs’ can be found Down Under, a more popular option in Australia is called ’sausage sizzle’. It’s a barbecued sausage on bread, optionally with condiments and onion. ‘Sausage sizzle’ is a versatile word, though - it’s kind of like the word barbeque. It can be used to describe food, but it also describes a gathering of people, grills and adult beverages (at least that’s what barbeques consist of in my world). Corn dogs have all kinds of aliases - battered sav, dagwood dog and pluto pup.
February 16, 2008
St. Patrick's Day Moved To 15th March For 2008:
St. Patrick's Day in Ireland has only ever once been moved and that was in 1940 when St. Patrick's Day clashed with Palm Sunday – which was the first day of Holy Week.
But don't worry if you're coming to Ireland next year to soak up the excitement and atmosphere of the Paddy's Day celebrations, as the festivities and parades will still go ahead as normal and take place on the 17th March.
CLICK THE PIC
Zombie By Mail - Made To Order:
Len sez, "For the summer, I'm drawing unbelievably low cost zombies for all lovers of monster art. $20 gets you a zombie that you can then hang on your wall or let roam freely around your house to shamble around like a drunk. You also have an option to get a video of the monster or a t-shirt." LINK
February 11, 2008
History Of The Evil Eye:
The greatest modern protection against the evil eye was made through the work of an unsuspecting Italian American rocker, one Ronnie James Dio. Growing up in an traditional Italian home, Ronnie was accustomed to seeing the horned hands or “mano cornuta” displayed against the evil eye. All crescent shaped objects ward off evil (hence the lucky Horseshoe) and the horned hand (representing pre-Christian minotaur horns, not devil horns) was yet another way of warding off bad luck and the evil eye.
Ronnie James Dio’s grandmother often deployed the horned hands and when Dio became the front man for Black Sabbath, he replaced Ozzy Osborne’s peace symbol with the corna or as most of us know it, the metal hand. From an Interview with Dio at Metal-Rules.com
“It was symbol that I thought was reflective of what that band was supposed to be all about. It’s not the devil’s sign like we’re here with the devil. It’s an Italian thing I got from my Grandmother called the Malocchio. It’s to ward off the Evil Eye” LINK
February 10, 2008
Nerdy Valentine: Wii Belong Together:
LINK to Etsy item, a Gocco print in "bright white ink on red cardstock. The paper is acid free, archival, 30% recycled and measures 5"x7".
February 07, 2008
Wiener Poopie Ransom Note For Jesus:
"It has to be a young person because they put these lines around Jesus, no adult is going to waste their time doing that," (Mansel said before the statue was returned). "And referring to weiner poopie…my gosh."
Jean has four wiener dogs and admits there was a complaint last year about their leavings. But she says she's cleaned up every pile since.
"I take my dogs for walks; I carry a plastic bag with me and pick up anything that they do. I thought something like that would be safe in our yard, it wasn't, it wasn't."
Link to YouTube video, Link to WZZM13 article
February 06, 2008
Star Wars Unintentional Celebrities:
By Zach Oat
Nowadays, it seems like every celebrity under the sun has an action figure. Corey Feldman just got one, and Cary Elwes has one on the way, and if that isn’t a sign of the apocalypse, I don’t know what is. (Granted, it’s for the long overdue The Princess Bride, but still…Cary Elwes!) But what about the toys that unintentionally resemble celebrities? In its early years, the Star Wars line suffered from a lot of terrible likenesses, and while we couldn’t find any that looked like Cary Elwes (although there were too many who looked like Corey Feldman to count), we did find ten figures that were the spitting images of actors they were absolutely, positively not intended to resemble.
10. Luke Skywalker / Brian Thompson
When Star Wars figures first came back in the 1990s, Kenner (for some bizarre reason) beefed up all of their characters to ridiculous proportions. So the scrawny farm boy played by Mark Hamill came out looking like the muscle-bound Alien Bounty Hunter from The X-Files, complete with overly defined facial muscles. Would Thompson have improved Star Wars? We doubt it. Would Mark Hamill have improved X-Files? Mark Hamill improves everything.
9. Han Solo / Josh Brolin
Apparently, Harrison Ford’s rugged good looks are hard to capture in three dimensions—that’s the only way to explain all the Han Solo and Indiana Jones figures that look like everybody in Hollywood except Ford. This particular figure is a little too long-faced for Han, but just right for Brolin, the star of No Country for Old Men. If only he were playing Indy in this year’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, rather than that Ford mummy.
8. Malakili / Denholm Elliott
There’s something about the sensitive eyes and tight mouth of Jabba the Hutt’s palace employee and rancor keeper Malakili that reminds us of Indiana Jones’ Marcus Brody, who got lost in his own museum once. The Nazis never would have caught him if he’d had a trap door and a Rancor monster.
7. Mon Mothma / Laura Bush
As the leader of the Rebellion, Mon Mothma was one of the first to recognize the sheer evil of Emperor Palpatine, as he subjugated outlying planets to his will and undermined the power of the Senate. Similarly, as the wife of President Bush, Laura oversaw the destruction of Alderaan and personally struck down four highly trained Jedi.
6. Slave Leia / Christian Bale
A mannish Princess Leia action figure? Say it ain’t so! To be fair, Carrie Fisher was not the daintiest of leading ladies, and Christian Bale is not the most rugged of leading men, so the fact that their action figures would kind of look alike isn’t so surprising. The fact that we’ve seen Bale naked and not Fisher? Not so much surprising as gravely disappointing.
5. 12-Inch Han Solo / Zach Braff
One year after our #10 figure was released, Hasbro again attempted to capture the majesty that is Harrison Ford in their 12-inch Collector’s Series. This time, the sculptor tried to give Ford a little more schnozz but overshot, landing squarely in Zach Braff territory. Sadly, Dr. Dorian has only had fantasies where he dressed as Luke Skywalker—otherwise, this could have been the first Scrubs figure. Is anyone excited by this? You know, besides Braff?
4. Dengar / Johnny Cash
When Cash did all of those drugs, was he mystically transported to another planet in the distant past, where he hunted men for sport and profit? Man, that would have made Walk the Line a lot more interesting, if fraught with legal complications. Still, you can’t deny the fact that the worn, lined face of the Man in Black is the spitting image of the Man in Bandages, who hunted Han Solo (unsuccessfully) for Darth Vader. Fun Fact: Boba Fett was the best man at both of their weddings!
3. General Rieekan / John Kerry
This Rebellion general commanded Echo Base on the remote ice planet Hoth. We’re not sure, but we think that’s where John Kerry is now.
2. Yak Face / Robert DeNiro
“Are you yakkin’ at me? I’m the only yak here.” DeNiro was already a major superstar when he was asked to play Saelt-Marae, a.k.a. Yak Face, in Return of the Jedi, but he owed Lucas a favor, and so he tried to bring a lot of the energy he brought to Travis Bickle to the performance. Namely, he asked Ree-Yees if he had fucked his wife, then savagely beat him to death.
1. Princess Leia / Virgil the Chimp
Word has spread far and wide of the legendary “Monkey-Faced Leia,” but few have noticed that she bears an uncanny resemblance to Project X star Willie, who played Virgil. Sadly, it was Willie’s only film role before he was sent to bomb the Soviet Union, but he’d be glad to know that he got a toy out of the deal—and with such a nice dress!
February 03, 2008
Oreo Pepperoni Cheese Snacks:
Chris writes in with his Triple Stuf Deluxe Superbowl snacks, which contain Oreos, pepperoni and cheese (topped with a sprig of parsley), artfully arranged. He promises that they're "actually really tasty in a perverse way." He's documented the creation with a spiffy photocomic. LINK