Random Thursday (ˈrandəm ˈTHərzdā): the day on which Sarah plunks down all the odd bits and pieces she’s been sent by friends or has otherwise stumbled upon this week in an effort to avoid writing a real post, the assembly of which usually ends up taking twice as much time as sitting down and creating actual content.
If music be the food of life . . . then the apples are earwormy.
Or something.
It’s been a really long week . . .
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A Minor Anthem
No pun intended—I don’t know exactly which key or keys Chase Holfelder is using here,
and I’m too lazy to fiddle with the piano until I can figure it out.
But it’s very, very effective.
I think I may like this version better . . .
Is that wrong?
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Do You Wanna Topple Hydra?
(Via Watson, who knows how susceptible I am to both Disney earworms and little, baby Avenger memes. Thanks a lot.)
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Let Vivaldi’s Winter Go
I should probably apologize for this.
But I’m not gonna.
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Lest I be Accused of Marvel bias**
Found this on Stjepan Sejic’s deviantArt page, along with fantastic art
which wasn’t inspired from the most insidious earworm on this planet.
The result, which has been converted into piano notes, has a certain gravitas that Mr. Tolkien might have appreciated.
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*That, of course, is a lie. The whole soundtrack has embedded itself in my cerebral cortex and cannot be removed without doing further damage. I find myself singing things like this—no joke, this happened—to my children:
Do you want to pack an apple?
You can put it in your lunch.
It’s nice and red, will keep you fed,
And has a nice loud crunch!
You’re gonna contract scurvy
And then you’ll cry—
So what are you going to do?
Do you want to pack an apple?
It doesn’t have to be an apple . . .
‘Cause in the first time in forever,
We have a banana tree!
For the first time in forever,
No black spots can I see . . .
Just to see if it’s possible to pick up any clues about Coulson’s mysterious revival,
other than its obvious lack of Tahiti.
Or what exactly Fitz and Simmons are actually saying.
Or where and when J. August Richards got those shoulders?
Or to invent a new drinking game involving the SHIELD symbol, which is on a surprising number of items,
considering it belongs to a top secret organization.
Discuss. At length.
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Get a New Tattoo
This is sort of writing,
’cause I tried it with a Sharpie yesterday.
Works in boring staff meetings, too—or so I imagine.
(cough)
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Get Your MARVELous Nails Done
Hard to write with wet nails . . . Or while holding your hands together like that . . .
Or watching the how-to video . . .
Or deploring/defending/contemplating one’s levels of sheer geekiness . . .
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Take a Nap
Or as we like to call it, “refilling the well.”
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Do a Little Housewo—Clean the—Pick up the—
No, no, sorry . . . can’t even type it with a straight face.
Never mind.
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Search for ‘braaaanes
Or at least the ones in which you’ve already written your book.
There will be no post today because the blogger is too busy fangirling—fanwomaning?—and counting the seconds until seven p.m. CST.
Why?
Are you joking?
For those of you who haven’t paid much attention to any of my casualreferences to the show for the past several months, here’s a trailer:
And another example of the advertising power ABC and Marvel Studios are putting behind this show:
And at least one member of Joss Whedon’s Star Power Stable™ who’s making a cameo:
It’s RON GLASS.
From Firefly! And Serenity! And Barney Miller!
And now I’m dating myself.
But I don’t care! Because it’s RON GLASS!!
Not convinced? Really?
Try a different trailer:
And an interview that would have made me want to try the first episode, even if I’d never heard of Marvel, simply because of the comfort levels and chemistry of the actors:
Am I being just a tad . . . intense about a television program?
Could be.
But the only programs that have played on our television in the ten months since Leverageended
have been for kids or sports fans.
And while I haven’t really missed it, this show seems like an excellentreason to tune into something a little closer to my demographic.
Quick Random Thursday this time, as I’m running around throwing things into several suitcases, doing one last load of laundry, and packing I’m Boooooored Travel Bags for me the kids.
Just in case you missed Tuesday’s post and Wednesday’s heads-up, this may be the last post I’ll be able to do for about a week, unless the house we’ve rented miraculously has Wifi, or there’s a convenient hotspot within reasonable distance.*
If Verizon can find me, I’ll probably be able to reply to comments and e-mail through my phone, but I don’t think I have it in me to type out whole posts with my thumbs.
This is supposed to be a vacation, after all.
Oh, mercy, here come the shakes again . . .
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Taking Steps to Brilliant Bookends (or vice versa)
But it was his bookends—or bookstops, really—that I’m coveting:
See those leaves? See how they keep the books upright? See how the books form a literary railing?
Where did he getthose?
He made ’em himself out of dowels and curtain rod ends, and stuck ’em in the bannister spindle holes.
I want do do this so much, but that would mean either moving, adding a floor to the house, or building a staircase to nowhere.
Guess we’ll see how much of the Summer is left, once I get the garage cleaned out . . .
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#minicoulsonlives
I’d never heard of Hot Toys, a Hong Kong company that makes hyper-real 1/6-scale limited-edition figurines for serious collectors—or kids with seriously indulgent parents.**
But I’ve heard of them now. And I want this one:
Click the image for a slideshow of the amazing details—this guy comes with Captain America Trading Cards***
Before you start that comment telling me I’ve finally gone ’round the bend,^ at least one other person thinks these miniAgents are the bee’s knees:
So there.
But this does leave me with one question: Will Hot Toys be doing one for Clint Barton, too?
‘Cause I only really need one kidney . . .
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Random Crocheted Turtle Cozy!
My kids, who are waaaay more into MarioKart than I am (I blame Watson), immediately knew this was a Bowser-themed turtle sweater.
I just wanted to make one for All the Box Turtles, so they would be nice and comfy when they hibernated this winter.^^
(but only if there are knitting instructions, too, because crocheting and I aren’t friends^^^)
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Seattle Public Library:
Unlike Mike, the Seattle Public Library only wanted to keep their books upright just long enough to break he world’s record and score some great PR for their Summer Reading Program.
I’m not just envious of the stunt, I’m envious of all that gorgeous space they had to stage it!
Four people sent me this yesterday, including two librarians who thought it was awesome. All of my co-workers thought it was great, too, especially the Youth Services people.
But when I showed it to my boss, she said, “That’s great, but who’s going to get all those books back on the shelves?”
Maybe that’s part of the halfway prize in the Reading Program?
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*Of course, I’m bringing my laptop along—for writing, thank you very much, though I’m packing my legal pads, and favorite pens, too-. I’m too paranoid to leave it behind, sitter or no sitter.
*Not me, no way, no how. I don’t actually know how much Hot Toys are, but I assume they’re on the extortionate end of the collectible figure range and, as I commented yesterday on SMBT’s post about the Romance Novel Barbie & Ken set, my kids would have any limited edition I bring home, regardless of price or character, out of the box and indoctrinated into the Barbie Nudist Colony™ in their playroom before I could scream, “Collectors Edition!”
**If you don’t know why that’s absolutely perfect, go watch the first Iron Man, selected scenes from Thor(YouTube ’em), and The Avengers. And then come back and squee with me.
***And by the way, oh please, that bend was three bends ago—my brain is like NASCAR in a metaphorical canoe.
^”But Sarah,” you may be saying, “turtles are cold-blooded! Sweaters will have no effect on them.” To which I reply: I don’t knit sweaters to keep others warm. I am a mother—I knit sweaters for others because I feel cold on their behalf.
^^Ironically, there are too many random loops for me and I’m never sure which one I should be, for want of a better term, hooking.
Sunny said Princess America was the prettiest, but Jane said Princess Man had the best dress.
We all agreed that Captain Aurora looked like she could beat up the most bad guys. Maybe it’s the stance?
I’m personally just a tad envious of Iron Belle’s thighs . . .
(Four people sent me this—I love you guys!)
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“The extraordinary person in the ordinary circumstance”
Speaking of Awesome Time Sucks, and it wouldn’t be a Thursday around here if I didn’t, I’m completely hooked on Grrl Power, the weird and wonderful webcomic brainchild of David Barrack.
The story so far has revolved around Sydney, a scrawny übernerdette with delusions of might and fury* that, against all reasonable odds, she can actually back up. More or less.
Armed with a ping-pong ball of a brain, incredible chutzpah, and a mysterious case of even more mysterious floating orbs, she is currently in the process of being assimilated into a team of slightly more standard superheroes.**
But I have a feeling it’s going to end up the other way around . . .
To me, the most memorable moments in comics and shows are the scenes with amusing character interaction, you know the issue the X-men spend playing baseball, or the moments where you see the ice queen warming up to the underdog nerd character, or the scene that establishes that two tertiary characters have a buddy cop thing going. I find that’s the stuff I remember and enjoy the most, not what villain they fought that episode. If Wolverine fights Sabertooth for the 47th time, who really cares? But if the artist draws him drinking a Strawberry Yoohoo afterwards, that’s the sort of thing that people remember.
I wanted a comic that focuses mostly on those interstitial scenes I enjoy so much. So the comic is largely “day in the life” It is still a superhero comic though, and there will be some fighting of course but I suspect that any fighting Sydney gets involved in will be a little more slapstick than you’d normally get.
What are you waiting for? Go grab a Strawberry YooHoo*** and check it out!^
(Thanks, Rochelle!)
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Archers We Love and Respect
Methinks, lords and ladies, you have all been served.
By a man in tighttights.
Not that there’s anythingwrong with that.
(via Watson—who else?)
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Super Little Library
Little libraries are random and super, so it fits, okay?
And Nolita, New York, knows how to do ’em right:
Is it wrong to imagine Superman using it for a quick change?
Yeah, I know, rhetorical, sorry . . .
(Who sent me this? Did I find this on my own? When did I have time?)
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Adam WarRock Rocks
Adam Warrock, musician and comic book aficionado, wrote an ode to female superheroes a few years back—he’s a serious fan of Jubilee, by the way.
When he heard negative comments about Brian Wood’s new all-female team in X-men #1, he rewrote the lyrics to promote as many female supers as possible.
*The first thing I thought of when I saw her in action was the time my six-year old balled her fists and said, “Feel my tiny wrath!!” in her fiercest helium squirrel voice. Bemusement, yes. Intimidation . . . no.
**Not that they and their powers aren’t unique—they are. But when you look at them, you think “superheroes.” When you look at Sydney, you think “Ritalin dosage?”
***Or don’t. Yuck.
^I will warn you to look through it a bit before you hand it off to your kids so you know if it and your House Rules match up. There’s no nudity, per se, but there are still a lot of superheroes in very tight Lycra and discussions of same. Plus, as Mr. Barrack admits, Sydney has a mouth on her.
Earful of Cider 