Julie Bell's Star Trek Quiet Book

I love this interactive book! The artist has Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Beatles themed quiet books in the works.

The book is available at Julie Bell's Etsy Shop

julies blog
Thanks for the link, Bruce.

People Who Became Nouns

Wanna Live Forever? Become A Noun from NPR on Vimeo.

Joseph Guillotin, Henry Shrapnel and Jules Leotard became immortal -- by entering the English language. But NPR's Robert Krulwich and Adam Cole discover that when your entire life is reduced to a single definition, the results are sometimes upsetting.  

Via The Curious Brain

Jack The Sheepish Sheep Dog

If I were part of that flock of sheep I might accuse Jack of collaborating with the enemy.

Nothing To Do With Arbroath

Thanks Bruce!

Things Could Be Worse

No matter how bad things get it could always be worse. Check out artist Benjamin Dewey's blog about calamities you never imagined.

Via Neatorama

Don Draper Presents Facebook Timeline

I've been missing Don.

Via Kottke

How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds

How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.

Via Clusterflock

Taxidermy Comes Alive!

Whenever one of my beloved pets dies I flirt with the idea of getting them stuffed. The idea of having them to pet and gaze upon always is, I suspect, more satisfying than the stiff, glassy-eyed reality.

A 1930s photo Walter Potter's Rabbit School diorama, when it was still on display at his Bramber, Sussex, museum. Image via Wikipedia, Creative Commons license.

Sarina Brewer's taxidermy art piece "Capricorn" caused a stir on the Internet. Image courtesy of Custom Creature Taxidermy Arts ©2011 Sarina Brewer.

 Collectors Weekly looks at the current penchant for taxidermy in the home.

Sam Gellman's Photos of North Korea's Mass Games

Photographer Sam Gellman's photos of the Mass Games in Pyongyang from a four day trip in North Korea - September 9-12, 2011.

Link - Via

Captain Alcohol

In 1973 the government of the North West Territories decided that it needed to battle alcoholism among native groups, so it commissioned Captain Alcohol comics.

Captain Al comes from the planet Barkelda, almost a utopia except that the Barkelda civilization never learned to control the use of alcohol. Read the entire first issue here

Produced by Arctic Comics for the Department of Information for the Department of Social Development, Government of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. With story/design/artwork by Art Sorensen, Phil Clark and Dale Austin.
Via Shrine of Dreams

Beetle Wing Dress

A Victorian dress decorated with 1,000 real beetle wings worn by Ellen Terry, one of the most celebrated actresses of the age, is set to go on display at Smallhythe Place in Kent following 1,300 hours of painstaking conservation work carried out by a team led by Zenzie Tinker.

Ellen Terry portrait by John Singer Sargent

'We had collected the beetle wings that had fallen off over the years so that the conservator was able to re-attach many of the originals, plus others that had been donated to us - 1,000 in total. 'The one hundred or so wings that were broken were each carefully repaired by supporting them on small pieces of Japanese tissue adhered with a mixture of wheat starch paste.'

Link - Via The Shrine Of Dreams

The Bolas de Fuego Festival of Remembrance

Rituals and festivals take many forms. The Bolas de Fuego Festival of Remembrance in Nejapa, El Salvador commemorates the eruption of a volcano. Young men act out this horrifying calamity through a ritual firefight waged with gasoline soaked rags.

This looks like a disaster in the making.
Via The Daily Undertaker

Scopitone: ’60s Music Videos You’ve Never Seen

Before MTV, and long before we could stream music videos on our cell phones, mid-1960s American hepcats gathered around 500-pound, 7-foot-high contraptions to watch 16-millimeter Technicolor films of B-list pop stars gyrating to their latest hits. The contraption in question was usually a Scopitone, one of several audio-visual jukeboxes found primarily in bars. Their reign, if you can even call it that, was brief, and by the end of the decade, the novelty of these then-high-tech devices had faded entirely.

Web of Love by Joy Lansing is a good example of the genre:

Lots more at Collectors Weekly

Here Kitty Kitty.

These pussy cats by Rhys Owens just need a warm saucer of milk and a tummy rub.

Link - Via Colossal - Via Bruce

STOP THAT GRANDPARENT FROM CROCHETING ALREADY!

Crocheting is so old school. Grandma. Switch to solitaire - it's so cutting edge!

vintage_ads
Thanks Bruce!

The Things They Did To Themselves In The Name Of Beauty

I guess some of us are just as daft today. I can't be bothered with anything that's time consuming or uncomfortable. I'd just as soon be ugly. The source is actually The Illustrated London News, 20 October 1928, page 720.



























Link - via blort

Surprise!

I arrived home to find my sweetie had rearranged the library. I like it.

Embroidered Wine Stains

I love these pieces by Amelia Harnas. Needlework and wine - a match made in heaven.

These portraits are created either by using a wax resist (much like batiks) and repeated wine stains with embroidery as a reinforcing drawing over the original design or wine on paper with machine sewing. 

Artist's site - Via Colossal

A Typewriter That Transforms Words into Cocktails

Created by the artist behind Morskoiboy.com, this contraption is composed of drugstore finds — keys are replaced with syringes, while clear pipes rule out traditional wiring — the innovative machine converts words into colors and drinks via a main line of alcohol that is infused with rainbow-hued syrups and liqueurs every time a letter is pressed.

Via Flavorwire

Music from a Dry Cleaner

Sound designer and composer Diego Stocco creates music from dry cleaning machinery.

Diego Stocco - Music From A Dry Cleaner from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

Link - Via Neatorama

La collection d’art forain de Fabienne et François Marchal

Fabienne and François Marchal's collection of vintage fairground items will be auctioned in Paris on September 28 -29.

La passion de l’art forain - Via Frogsmoke

Victorian Kitchen Discovery

Guess what Archie and Philippa Graham-Palmer found in their basement? A perfectly preserved Victorian kitchen.

There was a spit for roasting pigs on, as well as a table and benches in the middle of the room which could easily seat 20 staff. The kitchen is thought to date back to the 1830s when the house had a full complement of servants.

Read more about this find at Mail Online - Via My Rusty Sieve

Surf cuff links

Cathie Carlson's surf cuff links are the perfect accessory for the surfer boy in your life.

Hand Gestures From Around the Globe

You too can be manually multilingual.

Meaning: “Shut up”
Used in: France
Meaning: “You are a dickhead”
Used in: United Kingdom
Meaning:“Your wife is unfaithful”
Used in: The Baltics, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Portugal, Spain

From Romana Lefevre’s Rude Hand Gestures of the World, with photographs by Daniel Castro

Via clusterflock

Debating Russian Style

This is one television debate on the global economic crisis that captures public attention. Mr. Polonsky had just said he felt like “bashing” Mr. Lebedev in the face. So Mr. Lebedev did just that to Mr. Polonsky. The blow sent the towering Russian tycoon sprawling to the ground.Mr. Lebedev subsequently explained his sudden attack on Mr. Polonsky on his blog: “I had to listen to his very aggressive behaviour for an hour and a half. He insulted everyone in the room.”
Read more here

Alain Delorme's Amazing Bike Couriers

Alain Delorme's photos of bike couriers in China are awesome.
Via Dude Craft

The Burning House Project

The Burning House Project asks which of your belongings you would take with you as you flee your burning house.

OH NOA feels compelled to comment on the choices people have made. The objects below get a thumbs up.

But Noa calls bullshit on the choices below:

It's worth a look. Thanks Bruce!

Old School Swiss Army Knife

Via Book Of Joe

Apache Dancers

When I was a kid an I Love Lucy episode featured an Apache Dance and my friends and I got great pleasure out of recreating the moves.

The dance was popularized by the Apache street gang which operated in Paris around the turn of the last century. It reenacts a violent dispute between a man and a woman with lots of slapping, pushing and punching.

What is This has a neat collection of pics and videos of Apache Dance history to coincide with Prada's release of an Apache Dance video for their new Candy perfume.

Installing Windows?

Via Geekosystem

The Evolution of Music - Statistics

The Evolution of Music - Statistics - a few facts you probably never knew about the music industry.

Via

The Effects of Lacing.

Just when I was entertaining lacing as a possible solution to my expanding waistline Mostly Forbidden Zone posted this:

Now I'm conflicted.