I’m decidedly taken with the image above, Magpie Witch by LiaSelena, and I figured it was a grand header image for a Magpie Monthly. (Via) Read on for other shiny bits & bobbles that caught my eye recently.
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Tilda Swinton is divine and she believes in education. Check out this article about the school that Tilda built and tell me you don’t see the value in that kind of education. In other education news, Nick Sousanis received a doctorate in education with his dissertation Unflattening, “a graphic novel about the relationship between words and pictures in literature” (and then it was published by Harvard UP and PW gave it a starred review).
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American Gods art by James Carson
Not news now, but I’m super-excited that Starz! has officially greenlit Bryan Fuller’s American Gods series based on Neil Gaiman’s novel. Check out a painting of the Bone Orchard here.
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The Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived is a charming animated short by Ida M. Schouw Andreasen (who did both the illustrations and the animation for Hulu) adapted from the children’s book by Daniel Errico and Mo Qovaizi. How can you not love a prince who makes pumpkin pie? (Via)
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For those of you interested in random acts of kindness, check out these two pieces for some ideas:
- The 7 Rules of Compliment Club by Joy the Baker–send positivity into the world!
- Konner Sauve, the 2015 valedictorian of East Valley High School in Yakima, WA, anonymously posted kind words about his classmates on Instagram for nearly a year.
What are some of your ideas for random acts of kindness?
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Solitude by Marion Fayolle (via)
A book I could have written, and maybe I did (via):
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Not directly related at all: In June, the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states, which is nothing short of amazing and something I thought I’d never see in my lifetime, honestly. Out of the literal tons of articles I read about the ruling and its effects, here are a couple that stood out to me:
- A 30-Second Guide to How the Gay Marriage Ruling Affects You at Cracked (a satirical site, important to keep in mind)
- Our Weddings, Our Worth by Frank Bruni at The New York Times
- A cop dancing at a Pride march the weekend of the ruling (he’s got some moves, y’all)
- At Fusion, 8 LGBT cartoonists share their reactions to legal same-sex marriage (via)
- If you want to celebrate same-sex marriage and buy some great speculative and non-speculative fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, consider taking advantage of the current sale at Lethe Press. Too many great titles to list all of them here, but some personal favorites are Bitter Waters by Chaz Brenchley, Red Caps and Vintage by Steve Berman, In Search Of and Others by Will Ludwigsen, The First Risk: Poems by Charles Jensen, and Heiresses of Russ 2014: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction, edited by Melissa Scott & Steve Berman (I have a piece in this anthology, so admittedly I’m biased). And so many more!
Even with all the joy in celebrating same-sex marriage, some queer kids are still apprehensive, sadly with good reason. Today’s moment of heartbreak: if you can look at this photograph and caption below (taken by Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York) and not start tearing up a little, or not feel at least a pang in your heart, I don’t know what kind of person you are, and frankly I don’t ever want to find out.
“I’m homosexual and I’m afraid about what my future will be and that people won’t like me.”
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Schubert’s “Ständchen (Serenade),” performed by Camille Thomas and Beatrice Berrut at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels on 5 June 2011.
Links to some other videos worth watching:
- The Late Night Players perform New Yorker cartoons live on Late Night with Seth Meyers: Episode 1 and Episode 2 (via). These skits really cracked me up.
- Jim Mahfood’s Grrl Scouts (subtitled “A drug-fueled action comedy) was made into a NSFW live-action short, and it is nuts (via). Speaking of, here’s another reason why the Girl Scouts (the other kind) totally rock: an anonymous donor gave the Girl Scouts of Western Washington a $100,000 donation, but only on the condition that the money “not be used to support transgender girls.” The Girls Scouts said hell to the no, returned the money, and then raised more than $330,000 on their own (their Indigogo campaign is still going, if you want to donate).
- The Making of Thunderbirds: The Documentary is over an hour long, but if you love(d) Gerry Anderson’s marionettes, then you’ll want to settle in. (Via)
- The Terrifying Aftermath of Disney’s Frozen at Cracked—when reality hits the fantasy.
- Why is Lady Justice missing from her own toyline? Violence is never the answer, except when it is. Clever satire here.
- Alphonse Mucha animated: check out The Meadow and Weather. Summer (you’ll need to be signed into Facebook to see the latter; I couldn’t find it on youtube).
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Artist Dan Cretu handcarves bananas and then paints them. My favorite is below, but check out the gallery on That’s Nerdalicious!
Dan Cretu
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I’ve always loved the title of Judy Blume’s Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, and never more so than when a student once sent me an email with the subject line, “Are you there, Stutts? It’s me, Kate.” But now xkcd has made perhaps my second-most favorite play on Blume’s title:
Geonn Cannon mashed together Garfield Minus Garfield with Saga (via):
Check out two recent comics at The Secret Knots by Juan Santapau: Lesser-Known Connoisseurs and the crazy-perfect 11 Habits of Highly Creative People (the first two panels are below).
Thanks so much to Molly for sending me this link: a new Emily Carroll comic illustrating the song “Wild Creatures” by Neko Case. Sublime!
And one more comic for you to check out: Egg Comic by Z Akhmetova (via). The first few panels below:
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Zolloc’s blink:
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This month in miniatures:
- I am totally swooning over this miniature self-portrait in triplicate, The New Norm (inspired by Norman Rockwell), by Amanda Klish.
- Chris Buck also gets in on the miniature self-portrait action by photographing his 10″ mini-me in a variety of settings. (Via)
- This miniature steampunk factory made out of watch pieces is pretty nifty. And watch gears make me think of this article about the man who saw time stand still (link courtesy of Eowyn on Facebook).
- Check out The Dreamer by Hurry Up Miss Jane.
The artists who do create those intricate sculptures out of the point of a pencil or a crayon amaze me. In the video below you can watch Russian artist Salavat Fidai carve the Eiffel Tower from a pencil tip (via), and then check out more of his miniature artwork here.
My favorite miniature is this Parisian kiosk by Goldie Hollander. Using a lantern for the “building” is just too cool. Click through here to see more images of the kiosk and here to see more of Hollander’s lovely work.
Parisian kiosk by Goldie Hollander
Oh, how I wish I could be in London to see this Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust exhibit (4 July-27 September) at the Royal Academy of Arts! The exhibit “brings together 80 of Cornell’s most remarkable boxes, assemblages, collages, and films.” For a long, long time, I wanted to try my hand at making some Cornell-inspired boxes—I even bought The Joseph Cornell Box to jump start—but the closest I’ve come are just paper collages. Ah well. Maybe some day? Do click the link above to visit the exhibit’s website, which is chock full of interesting things, much like a Cornell box but everything’s about Cornell! (Via)
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These Polypodis shoes, designed by Kermit Tesoro, may be a horror to wear, but they look so cool. Click here to see another photo.
Designed by Kermit Tesoro
Monster couture (via):
Valentim Quaresma F/W 2015 Menswear Lisbon Fashion Week
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Book lovers, check out the article “Welcome to the World’s Most Luxurious Libraries” at The Telegraph. Here’s the subtitle: “Private libraries are enjoying a renaissance, thanks to the specialist booksellers offering bibliophiles everything they need—from the shelves, to exquisite books that line them.” I’d like to get in on that line of work. (Via)
The library at the jeweller Jessica McCormack’s Mayfair atelier
And finally:
Time Enough at Last by Rick Finkelstein (2012), via
