Smiths fans, this is wonderful.



There's also one for The Cure, though it's a little less over the top given the difference in song titles. They are much more easily integrated but are harder to catch in the conversation.

:)

Cheers to my good friends on the ground and across the pond, Ed and Anya, for the midday pick-me-up.

So, I saw Haywire over the weekend.



Seriously a good time. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, it has super fun casting, with Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Douglas, and MMA fighter Gina Carano in the lead. I loved the clean and lean look of the film, and I especially liked the lack of jump cuts in the fight scenes, which lent them precision and a gritty realism; it felt like a European action flick. Really well done.

OMG, and I so get the Michael Fassbender thing now. Holy everything that is holy. And let me just say straight up: I am a sucker who would totally be killed by Fassbender's sexy, charismatic British freelance assassin Paul. Oy vey. This is why: I was talking to Trevor after the film about Fassbender's role and how I thought he was made out to be a bit more sympathetic than the other black ops guys, and he laughed at me. "Paul is charming and handsome, but he was willing to frame an innocent person and kill her for money! Now you know what it's like to be a man around a beautiful woman." Touché.

But wait a minute: not only is he charming and handsome, he can kill a man with his bare hands while wearing the hell out of a suit. Hot. Oh wait, that also describes my husband. No wonder.

I first noticed Fassbender in the passably entertaining X-Men First Class as Magneto (also starring man-harem lifetime member James McAvoy as Xavier), though I had seen other films that he had smaller, ensemble roles in, like 300 and Inglourious Basterds. Most recently I saw him again in Steve McQueen's beautifully shot and acted, but sometimes wincingly trite, Shame. This film was when I starting sitting up and paying attention to Fassbender as an actor (I know what you're thinking, and no, really, it was the acting!). The sterility and quietude of a film like Shame requires someone who can convey a bevy of human emotion over the course of several uncomfortably long close-up still-shots, without speaking. He nailed it (and okay, yeah, that pun was intended). I was riveted.

Anyway, I digress. Haywire: fun, action packed film well worth the unspeakable amount of money you pay now for a movie ticket. The Fassbender Sexy: confirmed. And he's not only beautiful, but he's absolutely flawless as an actor in this film, as well as Shame. Looking forward to seeing if future projects and personal conduct deem him man-harem worthy.

William Gibson wears Vans.



















William Gibson reading from his terrific new collection of essays, Distrust That Particular Flavor at Diesel, A Bookstore, 1.20.2012 in Oakland.



















This NY Times Book Review really got it. One of my favorite things about Gibson is his focus on Japan; love this bit in the review:

In Tokyo, Gibson detects “successive layers of Tomorrowlands, older ones showing through when the newer ones start to peel.” Lurking in the back corner of a noodle stall, he watches a man playing with his phone. The gadget is glossy, “complexly curvilinear, totally ephemeral-looking,” shining with “Blade Runner”-ish reflections of the city around it. Gibson zooms in on an accessory hanging from the phone — a “rosarylike anti­cancer charm.” According to Japanese pop-­culture lore, such talismans are supposed to protect against microwaves. It’s the perfect Gibson detail: a hybrid of high technology and magic wand.

I love it when a plan comes together.



















Ohitashi at Geta in Oak-o-land-o




















(the first of several) Bulleit bourbons at Club Mallard in Albany

Soundtrack:



What ever happened to the saxophone solo? And why oh why must Monday come 'round?

Ooooooooh...



















Andrea Pompilio - Fall/Winter 2012

Lovely stuff. I imagine I may be able to afford only the (admittedly rockin') Cheetah tote. I see they have a showroom in Tokyo (where I will be traveling again in April -- yeee!) but it's by appointment only. That would probably be a (dis)appointment for them for a mere silkscreened tote. ;)

Oh well, my wallet may be thin, but lucky for me most of these looks can be brought together for my man in an afternoon in Goodwill.

photo by The Sartorialist

Soul Legend Etta James Dies at 73.

RIP.

Regarding the Costa Concordia/Schettino/Italian Coast Guard shitstorm, I suppose every cloud has a lulz lining.



















But seriously, "for every Schettino, there is a De Falco, thank goodness..."

omg, this is the best thing, well..at least all week.














You have to admit that is some AMAZING science.

Drinkify: Don't Drink Alone

Wow!



















Berkeley Sculptor Aimee Baldwin's 'Vegan Taxidermy'

Although what Baldwin creates isn't technically taxidermy, it is vegan because her creations - shorebirds, corvids, owls, raptors and extinct birds, as well as plants - are made entirely without animal parts. Instead, she uses crepe paper, glue, found objects and wire in the meticulous creation of birds so lifelike, they look poised to hop off their perches and flutter away.

Any notions associated with the term 'vegan' aside, Baldwin's birds are both incredibly realistic and breathtakingly gorgeous, and you can really see the love and care she puts into them. I also love to see someone so talented making a living doing what they love.

To see more of Aimee Baldwin's work, check out her website or her Etsy site.

I will own a first generation Honda Civic 3-door hatchback someday. But if unavailable, this 1972 Honda 600 coupe (or Honda Z) I saw yesterday at the gas station near my house could stand in nicely.

I often feel I am well-versed in poetry, given the predilections of my partner and many of my friends, and my own personal pleasure and interest in the medium. But what I need to remember is that I am not well-versed at all -- what I am is possibly better read in poetics than the average person.

This would certainly be an untrue statement in the early twentieth century, which was a golden age for poetry as a medium read by many, regardless of education, station, or what-have-you.

So, yeah, at any rate, I think I can definitely fake it really well at a cocktail party.

I am meditating on this as of late because I have just recently began reading the work of the late poet (and librarian!) Robin Blaser, one of the key figures in the San Francisco Renaissance. I had heard his name plenty of times, but I only recently have really taken a look at his poetry.

I know!

Will have to delve further into his work to make any deep declarative assessments, but as of now I can say I am feeling his earlier work enormously, and this one in particular speaks to me in a profoundly personal way. Enjoy.

Herons

I saw cold thunder in the grass,
the wet black trees of my humanity, my skin.

How much love lost hanging there
out of honesty.
I catch at those men who chose
to hang in the wind
out of honesty.
It is the body lies with its skin --

Robed in my words I say that the snake
changes its skin out of honesty.

And they
hanged there with some symmetry
died young
like herons proud in their landscape.

Now it is age crept in, nobody younger knows
the quick-darting breath is
our portion of honesty.

(1956)

A Map of Woman’s Heart (mid-1800s)



















LOL at how the two large lobes of the heart are filled with superficiality, with the "Country of Eligibleness" populated by the most grievous displays, including the "Province of Deception" and even a "Jilting Corner." How bitter (and probably single) was the dude who made this?

This idealized version of womanhood appeared everywhere: in advice manuals, fiction, newspapers, magazines and in American prints. Just as American prints employed a narrowly defined standard of beauty, images that showed exemplars of True Womanhood also imagined a limited sphere of activity for women.

The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and her society, could be divided into four cardinal virtues—piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. … Without them … all was ashes. With them she was promised happiness and power."

Take the meager ambitions set forth for Victorian women (marriage), what constituted success (not marrying poorly), and the consequences of not marrying (or marrying poorly), and pair it with the truth of what one often received in return for following the aforementioned virtues of True Womanhood, and I can see how reality may have necessitated the Country of Eligibleness.

Anyway, at the risk of lending credibility to the "Promontory of Golden Fetters," I will say those Victorians sure made some beautiful propaganda.

Happy New Year! Looking forward to new beginnings, travel, and some awesome poetry projects. Watch this space.




May your 2012 be glorious!

My friend Ayize's first book, The Liminal People, has been picked up by Small Beer Press (the press founded by the also fabulous fabulist Kelly Link), and he's getting some great reviews.


















Science and science fiction publication io9 calls The Liminal People, "the twisted superhero story that Heroes should have been" and a "damn good read." Bookotron calls it "seriously well-written, but also seriously fun to read" and deserving of "a sequel, sooner rather than later."

Ayize's book IS seriously well-written, as well as highly detailed and an exciting-from-the-get-go read, and I'm so glad it has been picked up and is getting the press it deserves. Read an excerpt here, and then support both the author and small press publishing and come and get it!

Yesterday, I did something I haven't done for a long time -- at least since I was unemployed. I had whiskey in the afternoon with friends, and it was glorious.















Need the reminder today to savor the simple joys in life, and that I don't need vacation or unemployment or free time other than normal time off to have them.

I guess I'm not the only one who is so over it.



















Word. Kathryn Janeway? Best. Captain. EVER.

I think it goes without saying, but I don't want anyone cursing my existence, so *spoilers*

It's holiday shopping season! This year, like every year, I like to recommend giving easy holiday gifts that can possibly make a bigger impact.

I've advocated buying local and making community-based gifts in the past, but I must admit that in the age of the big box, it always felt a little futile. But with the entrance of Occupy Wall Street, this idea finally seems to be taking off big time. Occupy's large media presence has brought the idea of being a conscious consumer to the mainstream, and with that, the crucial building blocks needed to get started.

So in lieu of my regular ol' holiday giving recommendations for nonprofits and gifts of conscience, I want to recommend this great article that was forwarded to me by my friend Bicycle Irish:

Occupy the Holidays: Ten Ways to Make Your Gift-Giving More Meaningful

Gift giving is an honored tradition that gives you the opportunity to share joy with those you care most deeply for. But now more than ever, we need to make sure our purchases are meaningful. Being a conscious consumer is imperative during this Holiday season. This doesn’t mean forsaking your seasonal celebrations, including gift exchanges. But it does mean taking some time to reconsider out habits.

These are really easy but highly effective ways to incorporate conscious consumerism into your holiday -- and perhaps, daily -- life.


















Okay, but you're not getting away that easily! I also want to share a great piece I read about the transformative and healing power of being generous with one's spirit.

Knitting Behind Bars

Each week the men eagerly await the women's arrival, then promptly get to work. “It takes you away a little,” Horton says. “You have to watch what you’re doing, otherwise your stitches will become loose or tight or you’ll skip stitches. It almost makes you feel like you don't have to be anything. You’re all sitting there knitting. You can just be yourself.”

[Richy] Horton was released from prison last December and now works in construction. He believes his involvement with KBB helped him get out of jail and onto parole, showing the parole interviewers his small but positive effort to help the outside community. He continues to keep in touch with the women of KBB and is currently knitting a beaded scarf. “They’re not normal people,” Horton says of Zwerling, Rovelstad, and Heirs. “They’re almost like saints.”


















"It almost makes you feel like you don't have to be anything." This is a program that works.

To donate to Knitting Behind Bars, contact Lynn Zwerling at lynnzwerling@verizon.net.

Whoa.



















Conspiracy Keanu

I die.

Good friend and all-around superb human being, the poet Eric Baus, has a new book out.



















It is called Scared Text, and not only does it promise some awesome poetic jams, it won the 2011 Colorado Prize for Poetry.



















Cole Swensen, the judge for the 2011 prize, says:

Baus has opened a new literary field: the linguistic bestiary, a new zoo where words pace like fauves behind ever-thinning bars.

I do love the new worlds that Eric creates (or brings forth from just outside our periphery) in his poetry. This is also true of his last two books, Tuned Droves and my favorite, The To Sound.

Come and get it!

Mine too. May your Thanksgiving be full of pie!

I've really really been trying not to write about the social implications of anything having to do with the Twilight novels, but I seem to have lost my resolve.

I know plenty of booksellers who had some reservations about recommending the Twilight series for consumption by teens -- teen girls in particular. This was for many reasons, but chiefly among them being the fact that the main character, Bella Swan, is not a strong female role model. But even this, along with abysmal writing, cannot blot out the fact that it is a series that spurred many kids to get excited about reading. Its appeal is undeniable, but so is its stunted message.

That is why I found this essay so fascinating.

Our Bella, Ourselves

I get the point about Bella coming from a place that is more identifiable for teens, especially teen girls. I also get that teens are more about internal dialogue. I was a timid, shy child who spent a lot of time playing alone. I was also not white in a town that was very white and very redneck. My internal dialogue was deafening. I also often thought about relationships and sex in a knight in shining armor context: a strong, controlling, patriarchal husband (not partner) who is somewhat hurt and damaged from his experiences, and thus excused for his controlling and patriarchal behavior because of said damage. It's unrealistic and wrong, and not only twists and stunts girls' expectations, but paints men into a corner as well. But it's also what has been shoveled to girls for ages. It wasn't until I discovered punk rock that I found freedom from the "norms" my community and society had placed on me, embraced my niggling suspicion that I could be anything I wanted to be, and began to act on that.
















I think it's damaging to say we should give room to Twilight and Bella and her controlling stalker Edward because it's how many young girls think, especially when juxtaposed alongside the "Buffy Summers maxim" with the implication that is equally damaging because physical power comes "at the expense of emotional clarity." I also don't buy that self-actualized heroines are exhibiting a "masculinist" understanding of what it is to realize your own potential. These exhibitions should be part of modern human wholeness. Teens are inherently obsessed with gender roles and are emotionally stunted, but they have SO much potential. I say we need female protagonists in media to model personal power if we want girls to develop the tools needed to seek out balance and emotional clarity. The alternative? Bella stunts her emotional development through being controlled, infantilized, and put on a pedestal, and then as an ADULT marries her controller and stalker. She has no personal power -- physical, intellectual, or emotional -- and never becomes self-actualized.







As I have matured into a strong, independent woman in a deep partnership with another strong and independent human being, the one thing that spoke to me in this essay was this:

...the Twilight saga, I would argue, has the potential to revitalize a number of our larger conversations about feminism...If, as feminists, we believe in girls’ and womens’ autonomy, how do we understand the autonomy-shattering power of desire? Do we determine that some desires (to be dominated? to be beautiful? to get married?) are bad and others good?

These are valid questions. I see nothing wrong with any of these desires; it is the motivation behind it that is the question for me. As a woman who is constantly questioning why I do things, I think there must be an encouragement toward self-actualization and independence in order for desire to intersect with the idea of choice. Investigating being powerful yourself -- even as you are developing emotional maturity -- allows you to make mistakes, own up to them, and then work through any resulting damage. There may be no "bad" or "good" at that conclusion, just what is best for you and who you care about. Twilight may have a glimmer of potential to add to this conversation, but much of it is eclipsed (har har) by the overwhelming, relentless, and frankly, offensive, two-dimensionalness of the personalities in the books. It's a reach that may only offer a mere footnote where other works could do much better.

On another YA and controversial literature related note, my friend Nina La Cour's book, Hold Still was challenged!

"All publicity is good publicity" aside, I find this challenge -- while possibly giving a greater audience for her terrific debut -- sad. But at the same time, I have always been so proud of Nina and her beautiful novels, and I am even more proud that her work is at the forefront of a censorship battle! While I'm sure these parents would also object to Twilight, I personally find Nina's exploration of the many rich facets of teenage experience a much more valuable read -- one that honors and respects rather than insults teens' multi-layered experiences and budding personalities by being profoundly open-ended and real.

Funny, though, this whole exploration of adults attempting to curate a child's experience, and what is valued.

While parents have the right to guide their child's education, Bonney and the ALCU contend that parents don't have the right to impose their views on everyone else in the community.

Do I think the world's going to end if a million kids read crappy ol' Twilight? No. Do I think those kids will get a better quality read in Hold Still? For sure. Do I think both books, to different degrees, inspire dialogue and shouldn't be censored? Yes. And with that, and discussion, there is room on the YA shelf for Caitlin and Bella both.

I've been cooling on Neil Gaiman lately, for ridiculous reasons unrelated to his writing that I will not go into here. Lovely bloke at each reading I've been to of his, but...oh, let's not talk about that when he's just an itty piece of my post, m'kay?

I know the departure of David "phwoar, come to my man-harem" Tennant as Doctor Who was eons ago, but as a yank I am really just getting to know Matt Smith as the new Doctor. Was very sad about the latest regeneration, but as all Doctors do, he is growing on me. Amy and Rory, however? I was on board from the beginning.

Those things said, "The Doctor's Wife" (spoilers at the link, sweetie) -- written by Gaiman -- was possibly the best episode ever. Really, truly.













I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Timelord and ran away. You were the only one mad enough.

Positively brilliant. And I mean, brilliant. Deliciously romantic and terribly clever.

So, am back in the saddle again boys, on both counts.

Amazeballs.



"17 countries and it has to be unanimous -- unanimous! I can't even get three friends to agree on a restaurant, can you imagine how hard it would be if none of us spoke the same language and our grandparents killed each other in WWII?"

Recent new fave How to Be A Retronaut is blowing up with good swag today!



















Art Deco Superheroes

Seriously worth the clickety-click. Lovely images all.

Also making my morning: a different type of hero.



















Alternative "Heroes" by Sukita 1977

Never been one of those gals (or guys) who was in love with Bowie, and a good photograph can do wonders for anyone, aaaannnnnnd youth and passion makes for a seductive soup, so I guess still question what I'm about to say in some ways, but OMG, how absolutely beautiful was David Bowie?

Trevor and I once found a treasure trove of old Playboys from the late 60s/early 70s (in an abandoned trailer out in the middle of nowhere, no less), and the one thing that stood out for us (besides the obvious) was the prevalence of "family relations" in stories and pictorials.

What up, Boomers? Gross.

Oh those swinging times...



















Via Sequential Crush, a "blog devoted to preserving the memory of romance comic books and the creative teams that published them throughout the 1960s and 1970s." Pure awesome.

That's right.



















Just like that, but maybe more clothes.

...as an 18-year-old, [Keene] came across a translation of The Tale of Genji in the Astor Hotel in New York. At the time, Keene was studying French and Greek literature at Columbia University, having won a scholarship to study there at the age of 16. He bought [The Tale of Genji] because, at 59 cents, the epic story, written 1,100 years ago, contained more words per dollar than any book in the store.

Oh, those days -- those wonderful and magical olden days.

Why U.S. Academic Donald Keene Became a Japanese Citizen

BTW, look up "romanticize" in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of me -- in sepia tones, of course.

Werd.

First, Eat All the Lawyers -- Why the Zombie Boom is Really About the Economic Fears of White-Collar Workers.

So true, and why even as I trudge wearily through the daily indignity of working in "Administration" I continue to keep up my skillz on the shooting range, as well as upping my oog threshold and getting my ag on by constantly picking fat, nasty worms off my homegrown kale. Oh, and I also work to keep up my cardio. Everyone knows cardio is numero uno in surviving a zombie apocalypse.

Anyway, timely, cute, but also sad and quite serious, read; however, forget the mere fear of the onset of obsoletism or feeling useless as a marketing executive in a literal flesh-eating zombie crisis -- we're already full swing into a walking dead crisis of the existential kind. After reading this, I was reminded of one of my posts from long ago that touched on the very real zombification through out of control consumption and the dulling of wonder -- two things that are brought on and exacerbated by white collar drudgery.











^^ Black Friday, (no) braaaaaiins...

In the 5 years since I wrote that post, these issues and the proliferation of zombie media have reached a tipping point as economies fail in a 21st century just beginning to assert itself. The rioting in Europe and the Middle East, the Occupy movements across the US protesting Wall Street's walking dead (who are always hungry for the meat of our livelihoods) and the reinvigoration of the minimalist and buy local movements -- are these likely to be mass crossbow bolts to a collective zombie noggin, or just a last stand by an exhausted populace constantly outmanned and undermined by the sheer number of both figurative zombies and the ones who have given up?

Where are we going, and who will we become along the way?

Wow, what a fantastic piece in the New York Times on Haruki Murakami, his new tome, 1Q84, and the odd and oddly intoxicating organism that is Japanese culture.

I read an excerpt from the 1Q84, "Town of Cats" in the New Yorker last month, and it was terrific. But this piece by Sam Anderson is so great because instead of focusing strongly on this single book, he so deftly zeroes in on the beating heart of Murakami's work -- that terrible and beautiful Murakami muse: the darkness and light, the "ennui and eroticism" that is Japan, and his self-described outsider status.

Anderson implies that Murakami is bemused by his unofficial Japanese literary ambassadorship to the world, as he thinks of himself as a sort of reject from Japanese society. But this is what I find so tragic and beautiful about Japanese culture: their wa (which means both "Japan" and "harmony") -- and thus their perceived homogeneity -- while working well on the surface, lends itself to an individual and private feeling of otherness, of outsider status. This paradox of rejection and complete Japanese-ness, and Murakami's ability to heave this sort of unrequited love out of himself and into the novels that he writes, is what makes him the perfect ambassador for this country in perpetual identity crisis. I don't think Murakami is alone, and I think both he and Anderson know that.

After a few minutes, a strange creature fluttered into my view of the garden. At first it seemed like some kind of bird — a strange hairy hummingbird, maybe, based on the way it was hovering. But then it started to look more like two birds stuck together: it wobbled more than it flew, and it had all kinds of flaps and extra parts hanging off it. I decided, in the end, that it was a big, black butterfly, the strangest butterfly I had ever seen...[m]oments after the butterfly left, Murakami came down the stairs and sat, quietly, at his dining-room table. I told him I had just seen the weirdest butterfly I had ever seen in my entire life. He took a drink from his plastic water bottle, then looked up at me. “There are many butterflies in Japan,” he said. “It is not strange to see a butterfly.”

I had two hits within seconds of each other on my blog the other day, from opposite sides of the country, one on a Mac and one on a PC, but for the same query...

"emergency", sexy

What? If this were an actual phrase rather than a grave misuse of search query punctuation, and had come from Japan, I wouldn't bat an eye as this is totally bitchin' and way appropo Engrish. But in the US of A? Can you 'splain, anonymous googlers? Am I missing something?

In any case, speaking of Japan, I love that this was the entry page.

I get really, really annoyed when bloggers have random paid product placement in their blogs. Yeah, I know, it's great if you can make money blogging blah blah, but c'mon, it IS kind of gross -- especially when the plug is inserted all pseudo-natural-like. Ugh! Totally gross. Admittedly, two of my favorite blogs do have product placement in some of their posts, but it is always posted as "sponsored content", which I can get behind an itty bit more.

That said, be forewarned that this post has some serious product pimping. But since I do not get paid to blog (unless you count blogging from work -- shhhh :P) you will understand that this pimping is completely from the heart. And if you have eczema, like I do, you will also understand why I want to pimp this motha out.

Griffin Remedy Bulgarian Lavender Body Lotion



















Griffin Remedy, based in San Francisco, offers vegan products that are 100% paraben-free, with no artificial colors or fragrances. I've been using Griffin Remedy's shampoo and conditioner for years now, because I wash my hair every day and want something less chemical-based but not so crunchy I get no hair shaft protection and end up with nasty hippie hair, and their shampoo and conditioner are THE BEST. So naturally, I decided to try out the body lotion because I needed some not chemical moisturizer for my super dry office. I found it very emollient, yet not super greasy. Great, that'll do.

But the unexpected side effect? Eczema on my fingers lessening significantly, and in some areas GOING AWAY.

This is big news in my world. Big enough (yet not TMI) to BLOG about it and maybe, just maybe, help someone else looking for relief and give one of my favorite little companies a little boost.

Their body lotions contain MSM, or sulfur. My understanding is that sulfur is used to control dandruff, another type of dermatitis. And you know that rotten egg smell at hot springs? The same hot springs that are touted as oh so good for your skin? Sulfur, baby. It also probably doesn't hurt that this lotion is free from parabens and other nasty stuff. And that it also contains lavender, which has been traditionally used to treat skin wounds and irritation.

The forever skeptic in me also acknowledges that there's a chance it's all psychosomatic (and full disclosure -- that seems to be my [Western, and very skeptical] doctor's opinion). But what if it ISN'T psychosomatic? Either way, I feel great knowing that I can support a local business by using a product I need to use anyway that is both natural and may be giving me this benefit, and share it with people who may have similar problems. For real, go get some!

WOO-HOO! Here's the New York Times Book Review of Harry Houdini, illustrated by my friend, the very talented Chris Lane.















"Beautifully illustrated." Big-time kudos.

Chris, as you may recall, also did the cover of Trevor's first book, Rarer and More Wonderful, and more recently, the illustrations for Zombies: A Record in the Year of Infection (in which moi was depicted as patient zero).

It looks like a fantastic book. So very excited for Chris!

Oh Japan, you so crazy.



















This, in combination with the eroding walls of internet privacy, are going to cause some problems, I'll tell you what. Off to sequester myself in a hidey-hole in the Canadian tundra...

QUALITY.














Photostream of Haunted House Patrons

Have you ever wondered how to dress your man like this?



















Or this?



















Or this?



















You *need* Nerd Boyfriend. Seriously awesomesauce.



















This one may be my personal favorite ('tis also the most complete). And for those times when I DON'T feel like caking on blue eyeshadow and wearing next to nothing, oh Chris O'Dowd/Roy/Officer Rhodes, you're my go-to guy.

Wow, seriously wow.














Abandoned Ekranoplan in Kaspiysk, Dagestan, Russia

This is a gorgeous photo display of this massive and one of a kind seaplane, built by Russia to destroy enemy ships.

From Wikipedia:

The Lun-class (harrier) ekranoplan was a seaplane designed by Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeev and used by the Soviet and Russian navies from 1987 to sometime in the late 1990s...Lun was one of the largest seaplanes ever built, with a length of 73 m (240 ft).

The only aircraft of this type ever built, the MD-160, entered service with the Black Sea Fleet in 1987. Eight Kuznetsov NK-87 turbofans were mounted on forward canards, and each produced 127.4 kN (28,600 lbf) thrust. She had a flying boat hull with a large deflecting plate at the bottom to provide a "step" for takeoff.

The aircraft was equipped for anti-surface warfare, and it carried the P-270 Moskit (Mosquito) guided missile. It was equipped with six missile launchers, mounted in pairs on the dorsal surface of its fuselage, and its advanced tracking systems mounted in its nose and tail.

Check out the Google Maps image. Stellar.

Always interested, but now super inspired, to seek out the forgotten, or merely hidden in plain sight.

Here is a terrific interview at Argot & Ochre with my friend, the super illustrator Jon Stich.





































(^^ one of my all-time faves)

This interview (like Jon) is very candid. Even though it is brief, I think it's a great tool for new illustrators, because Jon is very honest about the ins and outs of getting work, marketing it, and selling it.





































You can take a look at some of the prints and originals Jon has for sale and give him some love at his Etsy site.