So I spent many wee hours of this week’s nights redesigning it - and here’s what I came up with.  This iceberg image, which I purchased from iStockPhoto.com, seemed perfect for the feel of the site so I ended up designing the entire site around it, and really liked the blue tones I ended up with.  I also aimed at making it much more visual than before, both theme-wise and post-wise.

I know very little about jj but I’m really liking the song “New Work” from their new mixtape album, Kills, which was released as a free gift from Sincerely Yours on Christmas Eve.

In Pitchfork’s new review, they comment that on “New Work,” “the duo takes the piano melody from Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” and makes it the chassis for a song about being young and starry-eyed elsewhere.”  And admittedly, this dreamy, escapist feel riding on a relaxed, pedestrian beat is exactly what draws me in. I’m also a sucker for lines like “When we were seventeen / The sky was always tangerine / We ran through streets at night under the starlight / We ran through streets at night / When we were winning.”

You can check out the “New Work” MP3 and a review of the album at Pitchfork.

Sarah Bernhardt

Sarah Bernhardt fascinates me for many reasons: her admission to having to be ridiculous at times, her seriousness about her creative endeavors, her ability to ‘take’ great photos, her love of story-telling, her intrigue with death, and the fact that her son was the great love of her life. 

Today Diane Rehm had a rebroadcast of a great show on Robert Gottlieb’s biography of this woman who is said to be the greatest actress of all time.

Now, a part of me wants to play (I haven’t even tried the Kinect out yet) to see if I can get a picture of this, but… another part of me is really creeped out and just wants to get the hell outta and move now!

I did a search for this and found that other people have been seeing strange things in their Kinects as well.  In one forum someone posted:

EUREKA!!!! I found out why it does this. The Kinect can detect Thermal images, and as I was searching around, I realized that Paranormal investigators use Thermal imaging infrared devices to detect Ghost/Poltergeist activity in paranormal environments i.e. haunted houses, graveyards. Yep, you heard that right, the kinect is picking up passing semi physical disembodied energy forms. Your own personal Ghost detecting device, at home. Do some research with infrared and thermal imaging for paranormal research and ghost hunting, then look into the details of the Kinects camera technology, thermal, infrared capabilities.

That’s just… great.

So, anyone else out there experience something similar with the Kinect??

Now that I’ve been stuck in my novel for several months, I thought I’d better take advantage of this time to get rolling on it, before I forget what it’s supposed to be all about!

So this morning I thought about it, then I wrote a small Facebook post about it, then I thought about it some more, and then I thought I’d announce that I’m starting it here. 

Diversions… *sigh* … time to just tackle the thing.

A couple of weeks ago, I did get something that both my daughter and I found to be very cool!  I new Halloween craft book full of a variety of projects – Witch Craft: Wicked Accessories, Creepy-Cute Toys, Magical Treats, and More!

Witch Craft: Wicked Accessories, Creepy-Cute Toys, Magical Treats, and More!

This book comes complete with craft projects that younger and older kids can do, treats that the family can make together, as well as some great crochet and knitting projects (yippee for me)!

Upon first browsing, I immediately fell in love with these really cute crochet bones featured in the book and got started on those first.  Then my daughter and I made a night of fashioning the felt poison apples together (we’ve always liked making felt crafts anyway).  For our apple pictures, we each posed with our plushie apples, and she directed: “Hold it like the twilight.”

As Halloween approaches, we’ll definitely be trying out the treats and other adorable projects, and I’d say that with the vast variety of unique crafts this book has to offer, it’s definitely worth Amazon’s current $10.17 sticker price!

The best thing is knowing that Natasha treasures the things I make for her and the things we make together.  I went into her bedroom, where she has a special display shelf, and found that our new creations were on display.  Sweet!

The main problem is that I am not interested in simply making up a bunch of whimsical creatures and tossing them into the story, no matter how badass they are.  I feel that most of my fantasy characters need to be rooted in some kind of mythology or other idealogy resting in our collective unconsciousness, or represent something; not just some willy nilly meaningless blather.  Or, at the least, they need to be so very monumental that they are totally original (and would definitely have to be badass in this case) while still tapping into some deep rooted Jungian thingy.

And this is why I don’t read fantasy.

(Because I’m afraid most fantasy authors do this?  Because I believed my snobbish Literature professors who shunned genre fiction?)

I should say, I’ve never read any fantasy or science fiction (and I know there’s some good stuff out there, I just haven’t taken the time to find it), but it’s really probably time I gave some of it a chance.  I mean, especially if I’m going to try to write some.

I’m such an escapist and dreamer though, that I’d probably love it.

(On the other hand, writing some without ever reading any would ensure originality…)

The good news is that (I think) I’m better at fiction writing than I am at other types of writing.  At least I enjoy it more.

I had the great pleasure of seeing a Pixies reunion tour, and was disarmed of any preconceived notions that the show might be a little less than exciting by virtue of being a reunion show with the first song.  They rocked like it was 1989!

First they did a B-sides set, followed by the entire Doolittle album.  As fantastic as these were, the encore, with “Caribou,” “Gigantic,” “Vamos,” and “Where is My Mind,” is what really rocked my socks off!

Here are some shots I got, and considering that I was really far back, I was quite happy with them!

Pixies @ Tulsa's Brady Theater 9-18-10

Pixies @ Tulsa's Brady Theater 9-18-10

Black Francis, David Lovering, Kim Deal

Pixies @ Tulsa's Brady Theater 9-18-10

I Bleed

Pixies @ Tulsa's Brady Theater 9-18-10

Pixies @ Tulsa's Brady Theater 9-18-10

David Lovering

must be a devil between us

Black Francis

Pixies @ Tulsa's Brady Theater 9-18-10

Pixies @ Tulsa's Brady Theater 9-18-10

Black Francis

Joey Santiago

Kim Deal

Encore!!!

From Jason Santa Maria's "The Moon" design.

Outside is a collection of links and/or articles I’ve found interesting recently.

It was a week of sound & vision. 

Vision: three fantastic designers (Naz Hamid, Frank Chimero, and Jason Santa Maria) urged us to do more with fonts and took us to El Dorado, Atlantis, and the moon in Lost World’s Fairs.  And Kitsune Noir showed off some foxy Czech-inspired wallpapers in their Wallpaper Project.

Sound: Asthmatic Ktty announced that Sufjan Stevens will release a full length album on October 12, 2010, called The Age of Adz.  And you can listen to two of the songs off of the album, “I Walked” and “Too Much” RIGHT NOW at Bandcamp.com!

Asthmatic Kitty states:

The Age of Adz (pronounced odds) is Sufjan Stevens’ first full-length collection of original songs since 2005’s civic pop opus Illinois. This new album is probably his most unusual, first, for its lack of conceptual underpinnings, and second, for its preoccupation with Sufjan himself.

Sound & Vision: if you haven’t seen the Arcade Fire interactive video for “We Used to Wait,” written in HTML5, you absolutely MUST!  It’s a splendid surprise.

I also added three new blogs to my blogroll:

• Trent Walton design
• Kitsune Noir international art and design blog
• The very funny Bloggess

And making amigurumi (crocheted or knitted animals, dolls, and creatures) just got a whole lot easier with the onslaught of pattern books that have recently hit the market!

So many awesome amigurumi books, so little time and money…

So here are the ones I have already:

Creepy Cute Crochet: Zombies, Ninjas, Robots, and More!

Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet

Easy Crochet Critters

Amigurumi Two!: Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too

The doll my daughter has so sweetly tucked in was a vampiress from Creepy Cute Crochet. She also thought that this crocheted pie made for a cute home:

Vampiress in a Pie

I recently made a little Leo (just like me!) from Easy Crochet Critters for her.  Needless to say, it was a hit.

Little Leo

Now clearly I have enough patterns to keep me busy for years to come, but that doesn’t stop me from really really wanting these:

Crobots: 20 Amigurumi Robots to Make

CROBOTS?!?  How cool is that?!  Plus the thought of getting creative and adding various beads and doodads sends me reeling!

And finally, this delicious gem:

Tasty Crochet: A Pantry Full of Patterns for 33 Tasty Treats

Crochet apples, bacon, mushrooms, and MORE?!  Oh my!!

My daughter is requesting a cupcake to cuddle with, and as usual, her idea is a great one – I’m enamored with the thought of making rows of colorful cute cupcakes!  So Michael’s, here we come!