Hey, should I be numbering these? - More Links of Interest!

So I figure since I'm on the T/TR summer schedule, if I'm going to spring a Links Of Interest post on you, it's going to be a super long one:

I have no idea how I missed this but in 2007, John Updike wrote an article about dinosaurs for National Geographic. Turns out he knows his Avemetatarsalians (a better word to use than Ornithodirans it turns out, but sadly not as catchy) and gets downright philosophical about them. And I love, love, love the paragraph that opens the second page. Holy guano!

The only downside of the previous article is that the illustrations are the generic CGI jobs that are so annoyingly popular nowadays (who electrocuted the velociraptor?) The same criticism cannot be applied to these AMAZING (and very strange) Lord of the Rings stickers discovered by chance by author Ethan Gilsdorf. Be warned, whoever illustrated these stickers had a mental picture of Tolkein's characters that was... different. And very sixties. On the upshot, this will be how I imagine Tom Bombadil forever.

Speaking of crazy ways of drawing familiar characters, Something Awful's Flashtub has done a pair of dead-on parodies of Dingo Pictures/Phoenix Games. They make a lot more sense (???) if you watch this first. See the parodies here and here. (Naughty language warning.)

Maybe this isn't new to southern Californians, but Disneyland commercials air only very rarely here on the east coast, and this new one advertising the long-awaited reopening of Star Tours is the Best Thing.

The Onion AV Club shared a wonderful interview with Norton Juster. And one of their local branches questioned the logic of the NKOTBSB tour, and of misaimed nostalgia in general.

Over at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, Dave alerted us to some new "Terra Nova" teaser images, which can be seen here. The most important thing to note is that we get a better look at the theropod critter from the teaser trailer which I had assumed was a Carnotaurus. Turns out it's one of Branon Braga's invented species and... sigh... Brannon Braga.

I mentioned in the last post that I am foaming at the mouth with anticipation over "Brave". And now even more so, as Cartoon Brew has revealed that the characters have a wonderfully eerie Brian Froud a la "Labyrinth"/Miyazaki a la "Spirited Away" look.

Speaking of, "Labyrinth" is 25 years old yesterday.

CHUD.com reposted the list of winners from this year's Saturn Awards. Yipes.

"X Number Best of Whatever" lists on the Internet are usually a load of poo-poo, but here's Time Magazine's 25 Best Animated Features. You know what I just said about the Saturn Awards? Yeah... same thing here.

GeekMom shared an awesome way to get kids into art on her blog. I should raid my overstuffed, OCD-affected art supply box and make a few of these to give out to my little cousins when they visit.

The good news is, there is a sequel to Lev Grossman's The Magicians on the way. The bad news is, we have to wait until August. The... neutral news is, we have a teaser image as well as a discussion between author and illustrator to tide us over.

A couple of fun Tumblers about animation art have come to my attention: Smears, Multiples, and Other Animation Gimmicks celebrates the (often very strange) art of the motion blur, while Out Of Context Animation takes stills out of context with... odd results.

Apparently, someone wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal that, according to GeekMom and i09 (and many, many others), might as well have been entitled "Badly Informed, Sensationalistic, and Deeply Patronizing Thoughts on a Genre I Lost Touch With Decades Ago and Now Only Notice the Very Worst Popular Recent Examples Of". As usual. This time it's young adult literature.

In happier news, I can't wait, I can not freaking WAIT, to go see this.

Speaking of dinosaurs and glee, Albertonychus has done a fabulous series on feathers which you all need to read starting here.

And Darren Naish has been sharing chapters from his bird biology book that, sadly, never happened.

Everything is Terrible gave us a brief reminder of why I kinda miss the "eff it, let's just slap some trash together and there's your costume" aesthetic of low budget 80's sci-fi movies. They also reminded us that there is nothing on God's green Earth that is more utterly confusing than Christian Furries.

Last week, I wrote about how "Jurassic Park 4" just refuses to die. Turns out the same thing can be said for the "Fraggle Rock" movie (and good lord, the comments on that article are depressing). I maintain that the Fraggles are Jim Henson's crowning moment of awesome, but my interest in a film gradually eroded when it went from "the original puppeteers will play the characters!" to "it's going to be CGI" to "and it's basically got the same plot as 'the Smurfs'". And then the report came in that the studio wanted a "darker and edgier" script and that's the point where I was just, f**** it.

io9 has a list of Things That We Will Never See Happen in a Green Lantern Movie. They've also shared a timely list of uncomfortable issues raised by the presence of the Popemobile in "Cars 2".

Legendary Bronze Age Disney animator Andreas Deja launched a blog called -what else?- Deja View. Definitely worth following.

Speaking of neat artist blogs, Jody Bergsma gives us a refresher on the color wheel. I should really practice my watercolor skills this summer. Her crab painting gave me some nifty ideas for the upcoming Carboniferous Gallery.

Cartoon Brew shared this charming teaser for an upcoming stop-motion film based off The Boy With the Cuckoo Clock Heart. Just try not to get the chorus in your head.

This theater disclaimer is both the most hilarious and the saddest thing.

Via "Hark! A Vagrant!", Strong Female Characters! Also simultaneously the most hilarious and saddest thing.

And Project Dryptosaurus hosted the Boneyard Blog Carnival!

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Sketch of the Day!

Squirrels!

Tulips Aplenty -and- Joy from E.I.T.

As you can see in the above photograph, my tulips took a beating from the winter storms. I certainly don't have as many as I did last year. I will definitely have to replenish them once it comes time to plant bulbs.

That said, I did get a nice surprise.



Look at these funky tulips! I know this kind of tulip has a special name (are they Darwins or Parrots?) Does anyone know it? I want to plant more of these.

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For the sake of a little more substance, I did a little archive binge-ing (?) at Everything is Terrible and found these life-altering films:

Remember that one weird play your whole elementary class had to do?

This one actually made me feel sad for record executives.

Oh, how I wish I could retroactively add this to the Art Evolved Elephant Gallery.

Watch this video immediately after the immediately previous one and you will have seen the whole of not-fondly-remembered early '90s superhero cartoons.

And this last one might be the most beautiful thing they have ever shared with us.

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Sketch of the Day!

I am sick! Here are for you Links of Interest!

So... remember how I said I was sick last post? Yeah. Well, guess who has been infected by the magnificent bacterial Bronchitis?

Penicillin is a hell of a drug, it turns out. At this point, I am really miserable and sick and tired OF being miserable and sick and tired. I hope I am really getting this blog post ready to publish and that this isn't one of those horribly vivid dreams I've been having.

Oh God, oh God, the dreams... My recovery schedule has been like, 1) Wake up and take drugs; 2) Pass right back out; 3) Dream an entire day; 4) Wake up and learn than only an hour or two has passed by and freak out; 5) Repeat for second and third doses during the day.

So in lieu of anything of real substance, here are some Links of Interest...

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Spa Studios has shared their amazing character design work from "Rio".

ToughPigs shared their photographs of an incredible Epic Muppet Mural.

If I could round up enough pictures, I would love to do a post about Mickey Mouse with totally random and unlikely people. This picture would be a grand place to start.

Speaking of two people from utterly different worlds meeting together and somehow the universe didn't implode...

Ladies and gentlemen, the magnificent (and very strange looking) Florida Softshell.

In bittersweet news, Lauren Faust has stepped down from Executive Producer to Consulting Producer on "MLP: Friendship is Magic". More immediately important: how am I going to survive the hiatus!

The beloved film "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" is - ready for this? - forty years old. The cast recently had a reunion to celebrate. This article reports on it and what every child who grew up with the film is secretly thinking.

Apparently Barry Sonnenfeld and Grant Morrison are working on a hopefully better than it sounds multimedia franchise informally called - and I promise you I am not making this up - "Dinosaurs vs. Aliens". (I move that we retitle "Independence Day" to now be, "Mammals vs. Aliens".)

Also apparently, if you liked "The Flintstones" as a kid, you are probably going to want to hurt somebody after reading this news. I can guess exactly what this series is going to be like and I'll bet you can too.

Speaking of strange dinosaurs, Tetrapod Zoology has written a fine article about a very weird theory about sauropods that I am very happy I didn't imagine.

Speaking of strange, er, Ornithodirans, guess who's back? Back again? Dave Peters is back. Tell a friend.
More serious stuff involving dinosaurs: our own Dave Maas has created an awesome CGI Archaeopteryx. OMG, that walk cycle!

Blacknick Sculpture scored a rare interview with stop-motion animator Lee Ashworth.

Here's a surprisingly poignant behind-the-scenes video of the lead animators of "The Little Mermaid" touring the long-awaited Little Mermaid ride.

And in other animation news, they finally released a trailer for the long-in-the-works Speilberg/Jackson Tintin movie! Now I promised I wouldn't make any assumptions about this movie until they finally showed what the characters actually look like. The fact that we haven't even seen MoCap!Tintin's face... let's just say it did not make me optimistic.

Wow, this trailer looks pretty especially the scene with the pirate ship and the desert near the end! Maybe they will finally reveal what Tintin looks like at the end of this trailer?



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Sketch of the Day!

I love designing T-shirts!



And yes, this lake monster might be from a Penicillin-induced dream.

Err, that is to say, drugs are bad, impressionable younger readers. Don't do drugs.

Let's Play Pokedex or Medieval Bestiary!

Yeah, It's going to take me a very long time to sort through all the Comicon stuff. Especially since the Evil Norway Maple in front of my house has been making up for time lost during the terrible winter we've had by spewing it's pollen everywhere. It feels like my entire respiratory system is coated with yellow and I've been coughing up a storm. Just took some famous name-brand medicine advertised with one of the most irritating ad campaigns ever devised and now I feel like I could never cough again ever. Or make typey fingers make sense of words in brain-thingy

So today, to save me some stress, we're going to play a game based off something I'd been wanting to write about for a while: the striking similarities between some of the crazier Pokedex entries and the descriptions of real animals in Medieval Bestiaries.

Consider: According to the in-game story, the Pokedex is the first collection of information about the Pokemon species in a new area. Bestiaries were apparently the first attempts at natural history field guides. And they both have some... *interesting* theories about the local animals' behavior and abilities.

So everybody get a sheet of paper and number it 1-10. Write down whether you think the following interesting facts about creatures (I will be replacing the terms "this animal" and "this Pokemon" with "this creature" to avoid dead giveaways) are from a Pokedex or a Bestiary. Then check the answers in Spoilertext (highlight to see it) and lie back with a strong drink and reflect on just how far the study of biology has come.

1) These creatures come from trees that grow over water. The young hang from their beaks from the trees. When they are mature, they fall from the trees and transform into birds.

2) This creature sleeps while cleverly balancing itself on one foot. As soon as it spots others of its kind, it congregates with them and then begins crying noisily in unison.

3) The mother nourishes her young with her own blood. After three days of mourning over her dead young, the mother pierces her side and lets her blood fall on their dead bodies to revive them.

4) This creature pines for the mother it will never see again. Seeing a likeness of its mother in the full moon, it cries. The stains on its face are from it's tears.

5) This creature arose from the spirits of people interred in graves in past ages. Each retains memories of its former life as a human.

6) To rejuvenate itself, it flies up to the sun, which burns off its old feathers and eyes. It tears off its old beak and claws with a stone. It then plunges three times into water, and its body is entirely restored.

7) The fierce nature of this creature makes it so hot that its blood can dissolve diamonds.

8) This creature senses coming disasters and appears before people only to warn them of impending danger. Mistaken as a bringer of doom, it fled high into the mountains. Its life span is over a hundred years.

9) This creature is always hermaphroditic, and must therefore never be eaten. They live near tombs and eat the dead bodies they find there. These creatures will circle a house at night, calling out words with the voice of a human. Anyone who goes out to investigate is eaten.

10) Its beautiful mane is made up of hair in every color and at the tip of its tail is a tuft of magical fur. If captured, the creature bites off the tuft so that nobody can get it. It cannot turn its neck, so if it wants to look behind itself it must spin its whole body around. It is said that if this creature looks at you before you see it, you won't be able to speak.

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An Swears!

Before I give the answers, I'd like to thank the Medieval Bestiary website and the Psypokes Pokedex. They were both invaluable in jogging my pollen-addled memory.

1) Bestiary entry for the Barnacle Goose. I'm honestly surprised there isn't a Grass/Flying type based off this legend yet. This was so widely taken for granted that it was considered perfectly okay to eat goose during Lent. After all, its really a plant, right?

2) Pokedex entry for Baltoy. Funny how one of the weirdest Pokemon has a fairly mundane entry.

3) Bestiary entry for the African Pelican. This is surprisingly prevalent in folklore of the time and helps explain why you may see stained glass windows of pelicans feeding their own blood to their young in churches. And how did the pelican's babies die? Well, sometimes they are killed be a hunter or another animal, and sometimes the mother pelican herself accidentally kills them. Thankfully, they always come back to life at the end of the story, but even so, I think the mother pelican needs to go have a string drink with Cubone. Speaking of...

4) Pokedex entry for Cubone! And this was absolutely the saddest Pokedex entry ever until...

5) The Pokedex entry for Yamask! Because it would have been too much of a giveaway, I left out the part where Yamask carries around a mask to remind itself of what it looked like as a human. "Sometimes," says the Pokedex, "they look at the mask and cry." Ye gods. The sheer existential horror of Yamask's situation is ridiculous. It changes everything about Ghost-types. These past two entries are the main reasons why I am hoping for goodness sake that the Pokedex is based entirely on folklore.

6) Bestiary entry for the Golden Eagle. Now you know where that ridiculous Powerpoint thing your aunt sent you came from. (The entry for the "Eagle Rebirth" over at Snopes is priceless.)

7) Bestiary entry for the "He-Goat". Honestly, if an animal with a body temperature that is hot enough to melt diamonds isn't right out of the Pokedex, I don't know what is.

8) Pokedex entry for Absol. The disdain for an animal based upon serious misconceptions about it reminded me a great deal of the next bestiary entry.

9) Bestiary entry for the Hyena. For my money, this is the craziest entry in the whole book.

10) Bestiary entry for the Ethiopian Wolf. To which one can only say, "what?"

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On a lighter note, a post over at SomethingAwful brought this very very very weird and undeniably awesome piece of animation to my attention. I can't even imagine how long it must have taken to do all this. I'm linking it because the animation style is freaky enough to scare the young 'uns. Also, it is in Russian, so you may want to activate subtitles... though you really won't need them.

As one comment says, "I feel like I was shown everything. Ever. All at once."
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Art of the Day!

Not much to see here. Just a Swampert.

PAX East and shameless filler... I mean, Links of Interest!

It's the weekend of my birthday holy cow! March 11-13 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (right across the street from where Comicon was last year.) More information at the official website. The events that most directly tie into illustration are on Sunday morning (and, of course, I have a prior commitment that day. Wah.)

And now, since this would be a very short post otherwise, here are random interesting links for you.

First off, there is a review of a very weird Canadian children's film over at the Realm of Mad-Ness.

This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count! I'm not going to be able to do my usual live-blog of the event, but there is an excellent reason for that. Hopefully I'll have some great stories afterward.

I am a sucker for interesting (but still recognizable) variations on fantastic creatures, and Art Evolved guest artist Midhat Kapetanovic delivered with his unusual unicorns. If you love different takes on mythical beasts, check out the Alphabeastiary blog.

Everything is Terrible is a wonderful website that shares clips from the world of bizarre direct-to-video productions. (They were the ones who dug up that wondrous "Kids Inc." clip I shared during the Superbowl live-blog.) This week, they found something very special. At first I thought this was a straight random weird kids movie that decided, just because, to spend several lines of dialogue in the beginning explaining why their aliens happen to speak English. And then...

So how does one actor play a pair of twins? The answer is a heady combination of trick photography, animation, and lots of cooperation. I feel a little bad for Josh Pence here, but this clip is still fascinating.

Tipping Forties just finished their play through of "Super Mario Bros. Wii" and... it's something to see. (NSFW language.)

Over at Gurney Journey, a fan wrote in to ask why illustrators are so often ignored in art history courses, and prompted a much-needed list of good books on the history of illustration.

TetZoo has a brief but interesting article about avian display structures. Go forth and be inspired.

It is also the 150'th anniversary of the naming of Archaeopteryx. Those commemorative coins are amazing..

CHUD did a double-feature of "The Secret of N.I.M.H." and "The Plague Dogs", and expresses the confusion we all feel over a certain less-loved Pixar film.

Apparently there was a musical award show or something this weekend. Cee Lo Green did an awesome tribute to the well-loved Elton John episode of "The Muppet Show" (although, dear mainstream press, those were not Muppets. Stop being wrong.) Also, Lady Gaga finally turned into a giant bird. (Incidentally, her song doesn't sound like "Express Yourself" any more than "California Girls" [the Katy Perry one] sounds like "Tik Tok" sounds like "Just Dance" sounds like "Love at First Sight"...)

Toontown in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom has been shut down to make room for the great Fantasyland expansion, and Progress City has a fun look back at the strange little mini-park's history. I remember seeing that exact play once. It didn't get any less weird.

This is too cool not to share and it tells me that I need to get reacquainted with my friends who live in California. One of them works at Stargate Studios, which recently released a demonstration / promotional video that got some attention at The Best Week Ever. It's kind of mind-blowing.

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Feederwatch / Sketch of the Day Supercombo!

I looked out my window and saw this:

Super Bowl Commercial Live-Blog Extravaganza!

This probably isn't going to work, but I said that about the Macy's Parade earlier this (excruciatingly long, it turns out) season, didn't I? Just in case, I will give you plenty to keep you busy.

A Stranger In The Alps, who may just have the greatest online handle I have seen so far this year, recently posted a series of photographs from his trip to the Kenosha Dinosaur Discovery Museum. There is a wealth of reference to be found here, from this museum I hadn't ever heard of and is now a place I desperately want to visit some day.

I-Mockery paid a visit to the famous Cabazon Dinosaurs (as seen in "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" and also possibly "The Wizard"!) And it turns out that they are actually stranger in person.



Also, it is the Year or the Rabbit! I am posting Symmetrical Sal here (instead of the more obvious Wild Carl) because he is, get this, my most popular upload ever at Flickr. Seriously, he has had 6,261 views. This is despite the fact that I probably spent the least time on this one drawing out of everything I've posted online. What the heck is going on here?

Anyway, I will have more rabbity things going on this week later.

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5:37 PM - Yeah Celtics! Yah yah yah!!! Also, there is a football game later tonight. (Naughty language in that link)

5:45 - I like how the ads for "Drive Angry" are (a) emphasizing that the thing was "filmed in 3D" because they have to do that now I guess, and (b) neglecting to explain what "Drive Angry" is actually about ("The Punisher" meets "Spawn". Really.)
Meanwhile, FOX has a weird definition of "fun".

5:58 - Today I learned that the Declaration of Independence exists so that we could ultimately drink beer, play football, and anticipate summer blockbuster movies. Yup.

6:36 - (Took a break for dinner.) The Superbowl isn't as important as the Berlin Wall falling, WTF? It is a football game.
Also, looks like I missed the "Kung Fu Panda 2" trailer. <: span="">

6:46 - Glad that "Far Side"-ripping-off Doritos commercial went in the less obvious direction. Also, WTF Audi?

6:51 - WTF Doritos cheese-obsessed guy
And Pepsi has given us this year's Women Are Vengeful Evil B*tches Ad.

6:55 - By the way, I know absolutely nothing about football or how it works. I just got to the part about Tyrannosaurs in Greg Paul's book.
I did enjoy the Bud Light product placement satire and the Chevy "Lassie" parody.
Apparently, there is another "Fast and the Furious" movie coming out "in summer". Actual release date: sometime in April. The trailer actually said, "summer begins this April". I predict that there will still be snow on the sidewalk by then (although I certainly hope there isn't).

7:03 - Once again, WTF Doritos
(They are sponsoring the game, so we're going to get to see a lot of these. Yay.)

7:06 - I guess Quetzelcoatl just wanted that KIA the most.

7:19 - Not sure if this one was just local, but I think we'll be hearing a lot of waargarbling over that Sealy's/Sleepies ad.

7:26 - I like how that last trailer was basically, "They allowed a third 'Bay-Formers' movie to be made; just to forwarn you."

7:28 - I got a Motorolla not-iPad it makes me diffrent an spechul!

7:33 - OK, here we go. LOVED the "World of Warcraft"-ish Coke ad (the look on the dragon = yay!) "Thor" looks pretty awesome. And the much-hyped mini-Vader VW ad was actually really cute.

7:41 - I wasn't the only one who got chills from the "Super 8" commercial am I? Love how it started like "E.T." and ended like "Cloverfield."

7:50 - No. No, no, no, no, no, NO NO NO GODDAMMITSOMUCH WE DO NOT NEED A CAR THAT WILL TELL YOU WHAT IS GOING ON IN FACEBOOK F*** YOU WHOEVER THOUGHT OF THAT WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU GAAAAHHH!
Also, "America! F*** yah!!!"

8:02 - Adorable Android mascot + Grafted-on human thumbs = There isn't enough in the world.

8:12 - You know what? Fergie came up with that "I'm so 2008 / you're so 2,000-LATE!" And she still loves it so much, she isn't going to change it. Good for her I guess.

8:13 - Oh hi, random Slash.

8:16 - If anyone's sick of the Peas, I have for you an alternative in the form of what is STILL the best song Fergie has ever been involved in:



8:21 - God, Chatter!Will.I.Am is terrifying.

8:45 - OK, thus far we've got to see:
* - A dude licking Doritos cheese off his coworkers fingers and pants.
* - A dude reanimating a disintegrated grandpa using Doritos.
* - A cute little CGI robot with realistic human thumbs messily sewn on.
* - An ostensibly cute CGI Will.I.Am with eerily realistic gooey human eyes.
And now,
* - A baby flying through the air and splattering it's face on a glass wall. (We are assured it is a doll, but still...)
What the hell, creepy factor of this year's ads?

8:55 - That last one took forever to write. So... new "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. Yeah.
Also, momentarily saving money through groupon is more important than the plight of whales or the people of Tibet.

9:02 - In an earlier and very disappointing stop-motion commercial, Eminem assured us that he doesn't do commercials. OK. He has been in two commercials so far. Just pointing it out.

9:20 - Actual football playing. Meh.

9:23 - D'aww the classic (or not) TV characters watching football montage.

9:33 - I... don't know about "Rango". Nothing has really sold me on it yet.
On the other hand, that Cars.com commercial was wikkid cute.
Obligatory Animals That Think They're People Ad, this time from Bud Light.

9:36 - Eh, I could be sold easily on "Rio".
(Awkward pause.)
It has birds in it, you shut up. >:(

9:40 - And more actual football.

9:46 - Oh, just stop it, GoDaddy. Just stop it. S**t's getting old.
The Bridgestone beaver was cute.
The VW Beetle was freakin' adorable!

9:48 - Ba-hahaha, the "House" Mean Joe Green tribute.

9:57 - Teachers = Bad. Ass.

10:02 - OUR VERY FIRST "TERRA NOVA" COMMERCIAL HOLY CRAP!
And... it looks like "Lost" with "Jurassic Park" dinosaurs. *sigh*
I am still willing to wear a frilly tutu/the most ridiculous thing I find in Garment District/something equally embarrassing and inconvenient if we see a single feather.

10:07 - Oh, the Packers won. Yay, I guess.
Look, the Pats screwed it up again; I wasn't too emotionally invested.

10:11 - The more I see of "Mars Needs Moms", the more... repulsive it's characters become.
And we get to watch the Nightmare Fuel-errific Android with thumbs ad again.

10:34 - "Battle L.A." is DIFFERENT from "Skyline." IT JUST IS!!!
And with that, it looks like we're back to normal ads. Almost time for "Glee"! New post on Tuesday, see you then!

EDIT: Most of the trailers are viewable over at good ol' /Film.
And the rest of the commercials can be seen here.

Quickie: Art Evolved Speedpaintings!

Yesterday morning, Dave Maas invited the Art Evolved crew to a Speed Paint challenge, based on questions posed to the extremely useful (and oftentimes unintentionally amusing) website Ask a Biologist. For the unfamiliar, a Speed-Paint is a quick digital (or not) painting finished within a half-hour or less.

For this week's game, I chose this question, because who could resist? "Who would win, a harpy eagle or a grizzly bear?" With this question for the ages and the memory of an excellent satirical book that is more than a little tangentially related in mind, I spent twenty minutes on this:



I will confess I cheated a tiny bit: I just had to double-check on what a Harpy eagle looks like. Wound up mostly going from my memory anyway.

(NOTE: Simulposted at Art Evolved.)

I Hope the Titanosuchians Love Their Children Too... - Let's Read _The Synapsida_

I know next to nothing about early mammals. There, I was honest. I can lecture you into oblivion when it comes to the natural history of birds (thank you, Gregory S. Paul and your beautifully illustrated doorstopper), but when it comes to our furry little titty-sucking (record-scratch sound effect)

Concerned Parent: "OH MY GOD SHE DIDN'T JUST SAY THAT CHILDREN COVER YOUR EYES WAAAARRRGAAAARBLLLLZ!!!!!"

Yes I did just say that. Because we are going to be talking about mammals. And I know this is going to blow your mind if you are the kind of person who thinks the split-second sight of a breast is going to corrupt your children (even after they spent the better portion of their babyhood attached to one), but the one defining characteristic of mammals, the one thing that separates us from all other animals, it isn't the hair, it isn't the live-bearing of our young, it is the mammary glands. Deal with it.

Aaaaa-nyway, when it comes to our furry, titty-sucking forebears, I am totally clueless. This is not entirely for lack of trying: There are hardly any good books at all about "proto-mammals" (which I know is an old term, but a lot of people grew up with seeing it when this subject was ever brought up, so I'm only using it so more people will know WTF I'm talking about). Most people have only ever heard of Dimetrodon and the majority of them think that thing is a dinosaur anyway, because if your skeleton is on display at Harvard Museum of Natural History, you're a dinosaur, right? (No, really. I have overheard as much.)

Enter our old friend John C. McLoughlin, he of the unique and often very nice pen and ink illustrations and, err, equally unique ideas about the anatomy and behavior of prehistoric creatures. Published in 1980 by Viking, in the wake of the far, far better-known The Archosauria, The Synapsida is an attempt to tell the complete story of mammals. Turns out it's a very interesting story, though unfortunately I am unable to call B.S. or not on some of McLoughlin's claims (though it turns out that the "Walking With Whatever" writers weren't the first to come up with venomous synapsids).

But what we're really here for are the illustrations. And McLoughlin's draftsmanship is phenomenal, even when the animals he is drawing aren't the prettiest things:



Venyucovia here might give us a hint as to why you don't see scads of kid's books, stuffed animals, big Hollywood movies, and cartoons of questionable educational content about Synapsids. By now, we know how to make dinosaurs "cute", what the heck do you do with this thing?

Undaunted, McLoughlin introduces us to all the strange creatures at the base of our family tree. I mean it when I say ALL of them. His history of mammals starts with early Chordates and doesn't stop until we hit humans. And humans, by the way, are bastards.



Really, that's the strangest thing in the book. McLoughlin wears his politics right on his sleeve, and seems almost ashamed that the majestic beasts he chronicles in the book gave rise to us. Here's an example of how jarring this can get:



Subtlety is not one of McLoughlin's strong suites. There's another odd moment where he describes the fascinating story of the Pelycosaur, Cotylorhynchus, the world's first very large herbivorous four-legged animal. It was able to survive in a colder climate than any of the animals that could have preyed on it. The animal in question is a big, monstrously fat critter with a disproportionately tiny head and nothing at all to worry about. McLoughlin invites America to look at the horrors of our inevitably morbidly obese future when viewing his illustration of the unsuspecting beast.

Um... so, Dimetrodon!



Aww, look how ugly-cute he is! Here with Edaphosaurus who, it turns out, isn't a close relative at all (though they are both Pelycosaurs)! See, I never knew that because my childhood books couldn't be bothered to spend more than two pages on these guys.

Speaking of ugly-cute, here is a confusingly-named Dromosaur (not to be confused with those more famous guys with the fluffy feathers and the large talons). McLoughlin informs us that this little fellow has been discovered preserved in a sleeping position with his tail wrapped around his body. Given that McLoughlin was one of the first paleoartists to illustrate theropods with feathers, I'm honestly surprised he didn't give this guy a coat of fur.



Fact is, fur doesn't appear at all until late in the book. Even then, all we get are a few whiskers at first:



Again, I don't know very much about these animals. I have no idea if there have been any skin impressions found from them. I can't begin to guess where hair would have first appeared on mammal-like creatures in the fossil record. It seems this Thrinaxodon would be a good candidate for being furry, so it's very strange to see McLoughlin restore him naked.

Or... maybe that's just how McLoughlin renders fur; through stippling? Take a look at this... animal... we'll call him Generic Cenozoic Critter:



Yeah.

All in all, The Synapsida is not the strange ride that is The Archosauria, but it is definitely a worthwhile read. You will, at the very least, learn about some very fascinating animals you may have otherwise never heard of.

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Feederwatch Friday! I forgot to do this last week, but I've been sick:

Rock Pigeon 1
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Northern Cardinal 2
House Sparrow 25

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Festive Thing of the Day!

I sat down at the computer after setting up the TREE, covered in sap and bruises and scratches, when what to my wandering eye should appear but a Bad Santa Gallery! Numbers 7, 24, and 25 are my favorites. (Some NSFW ads.)

30 Photos Of Children Terrified Of Santa

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Sketch of the Day!

Here are doodles I drew while watching the Quincy Christmas Parade. And being violently sick (my sinuses are still painfully dry, but I am otherwise feeling much better).

Let's Read McLoughlin's _The Tree of Animal Life_

Lookie what I found at the library:



John C. McLoughlin's epic popular biological science book, The Tree of Animal Life: A Tale of Changing Forms and Fortunes! Published in 1981 by Dodd, Mead, and Company. And it is indeed epic. In this book, McLoughlin is going to do no less than tell us the entire history of animal life on Earth.

Now, I'll admit I don't know enough about animals in general to call B. S. on some of McLoughlin's claims here. Then again, nothing stands out as particularly weird. As the title graphic implies, the book is heavy on the concept of Convergent Evolution. We also have a McLoughlin Butthead-ceratops right on the title page. There's another a little later on in the book:



A little different from the iconic Archosauria image, but still pretty weird.

Right off the bat, I like how McLoughlin writes out my Linneus Rant so I don't have to:



McLoughlin's own pointillism ink drawings are back. As in Archosauria, they are quite lovely, like this rather sprightly Rhamphorhynchus:



Certainly, McLoughlin spends a lot of time in the Mesozoic era. But he does take a while in ancient times as well. Here are some rather odd-looking Opabinas. (Read that again: Odd-looking Opabinas. For those who do not know what an Opabina is, it's essentially a real-life Starfish Alien. From Earth. They looked very weird, but a little different from this illustration.)



In Archosauria, I was unspeakably happy to see that nearly every small-ish theropod in the book was drawn with a fine coat of feathers. Strangely, even though this book is relatively more recent, McLoughlin ditches this trend entirely. And he gets Deinonychus and Deinocheirus confused:



You may need to click for big, but yes, he refers to the dromeosaurs in this drawing as Deinocheirus. To be fair, there was an odd time in the 80's where any dinosaur with large talons would be lumped in with the dromeosaurs. That's why your old copy of the used-to-be-seminal Simon and Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures (I will eventually get to that one) has Baryonyx in among the 'raptors.



And that's... that's not a Quetzalcoatlus. (But again, to be fair, there wasn't much good evidence of Azhdarchids back then. Some reconstructions could get... weird.)

Since McLoughlin was an early champion of feathered theropods, you may wonder what his take on Archaeopteryx would look like. Well, it looks like this:



With crazy hands and a bonus Syntarsus. I love blog posts where I come up with five or six other possible posting subjects while writing. The strange history of the critter called Syntarsus in paleoart might be one.

McLoughlin ends the book with the appearance of humans on the animal life playing field. And... it turns out he is an illustrator like myself who may do well to avoid drawing people altogether:



Then again, the look on the guy on the right. It's on the very border of hilarious and horrifying.

----Festive Thingie of the Day! Speaking of the border of hilarious and horrifying. Head over to The Realm of Mad-Ness and there is a review of a truly ghastly holiday special from our brass-balled friends at Filmation.

Last year, I did a brief post on forgotten Christmas specials and lamented that there was very little evidence online that Ralph Bakshi's "Christmas in Tattertown" ever existed. This year, a Google search turned up... slightly more information. I'm still hunting around for the complete special, but at least I can point to the clips in this montage of odd Christmas moments from specials (with possibly the greatest musical accompaniment imaginable) and say I wasn't making it up:

 
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 I have no idea if this is for real or not, but here is more evidence that George Lucas needs someone to tell him, "No." 
 EDIT: And bullet dodged. Thank goodness there are lines he will not cross. (Now a really nice Christmas present would be some assurance that Robert Zemekes will not be allowed on the same continent as wherever "Who Discovered Roger Rabbit" is being made and that his motion capture remake of "Yellow Submarine" has sunk...)
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Sketch of the Day! 
This kinda has to do with the content of this book:

Thanksgiving! Also, I Attempt to Live-Blog the 2010 Macy's Parade

Which probably is a logistical nightmare that will not work. We'll see.

Heck, I may not even be awake in real life yet. I did have the foresight to set the DVR and my alarm, so we shall see what happens.

I recommend reading all the parade recaps at X-Entertainment (conveniently collected in this blog post), this Onion AV Club post from a few years back (very good but why the "Foster's Home" hate?), and this recent follow-up. And this terrific Homestarrunner.com cartoon (what the heck happened to those guys anyway?) They deftly summarize why I cannot get enough of this stupid parade every year. It is deeply strange, shamelessly commercial, and at times you almost feel ashamed for everyone involved. However, it also acts as a very odd yet accurate pop-culture barometer, and that is what makes it fascinating.

With that in mind, here is a (coffee!) Drinking Game I invented last year. Excellent examples of all these instances can be seen in the above-mentioned X-E articles. Take a sip...
* - Every awkward and/or off-model character float or costume.
* - Every time the hosts mispronounce someone's name.
* - Every time the hosts misidentify someone.
* - Every weird juxtaposition between the performers on a float and the theme of the float. (On that note, this year Kanye West is the equivalent of a "free space" in Bingo.)
* - Drink deeply when you notice how much bigger and more elaborate the Barney and Barbie floats are compared to the Sesame Street float.
* - Here's the big one. Take a shot every time it is blatantly obvious that the hosts only have a small notecard explaining (or not) who the fictional character, band, or other entity now visible in the parade is. (In other words, for you Tropers, Cowboy Beebop At His Computer = You Taking A Drink. The "Snoop Doggie-Dogg" incident still wins.)

What odd things shall we see this year?

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JUST in case this is a total failure, I have for you a very strange and almost-totally-forgotten Holiday special appropriate for today: Nick's Thanksgiving Extravaganza!



If my foggy memory is correct, this was aired in 1989 and ran several times during Thanksgiving Day (making it seem like it went on for hours and hours). This special seems a little rushed in parts (especially the beginning of "Thanksgiving Dream"), but it showcases a nice variety of animation directors who made those wonderful Mtv networks bumpers. I rather like the shorts by Joe Ahlbum more than the longer stories. Kevin Altieri's "Thanksgiving Nightmare" is kinda fun, but gives me a nasty "Capitol Critters" flashback, and Joe Pearson's aforementioned "Dream" is just... strange. It feels too much like one of those "sappy" episodes of "Animaniacs", like "A Gift of Gold". Highlights are the narrator acting like it is an unimaginable horror that the story takes place in a pre-Atari world (really) and a bad guy who inadvertently made Oogie Boogie and Clayface my crack pairing. The special was uploaded by Youtube user Bbahalt, and her(?) Channel is making me gleefully rub my hands for Christmas...

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Macy's Parade Live-Blog!

9:10 - I'm awake! I didn't forget! I was in the kitchen getting breakfast and they cut the ribbon and I put too much sugar in my coffee cause I got surprised and... nobody's actually reading this live, are they?
(Ahem) Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving everyone! So there's a squirrel who is stubbornly trying to attack my (squirrel-proof) feeder, and in Parade action, we have learned that for some people "Cotton Eye Joe" will never stop being funny.

9:17 - OK, the people who made that creepy rocket-baby photo commercial have *never* paid attention to the lyrics in "Brand New Rollerskates" have they? (At least they are more subtle than, say, "Ride My Pony".)
Also, DO NOT LEAVE BABY UNATTENDED IN THING THAT CAN ROLL AWAY GOD DAMMIT!!! (I almost died when I got to watch a family take a picture of their baby -in a carriage- on the f***ing edge of a T platform *as the train was approaching*. )

9:20 - There are lots and lots of "F*** it, let's just write a musical around our favorite band's popular songs" musicals out there, so this was only a matter of time. But... Green Day has one of these musicals now. I am old.
Also, the title of the song is "Good Riddance". Take a sip.

9:26 - So according to Coca-Cola, Santa Claus is... God. Also, we all live in the Tommy Westphall Universe.

9:29 - Could something like "Rent" even survive if it had debuted in this "Let's just write a musical around popular songs"/"Let's just turn a move into a musical" Broadway environment?

9:40 - "PLEASE watch 'Outsourced'! And we PROMISE that 'The Cape' is different from all those shows by Glen Larson in the 80's!"

9:45 - Yeah... "Elf: The Musical"... yeah...

9:50 - Jeez, American Girl dolls still exist? Except it looks like now, instead of having to pick from three girls from three different historical periods (later to be joined by at least two more "ethnic" dolls: an escaped slave and a pre-Columbian Native American. Yeah...), you get to create your own modern girl.

9:55 - Ooh, the Rockettes! That means the actual parade part of the Parade is about to start!
Ad thanks to a quirk of Spellcheck, I JUST got the Rockettes/Rockets pun.

10:00 - So there is a new Peanuts special coming soon? Also, horribly off-model Peanuts costumes! (Characters with heads bigger than their bodies tend not to translate well at all.)

10:02 - On the other hand, those old big-head pilgrim things have got to scare children.

10:05 - I take it Arlo isn't going to get to sing the later verses of this song (as with "Born in the USA", it was a protest song misconstrued as a fist-pumping patriotic anthem). Also, the sight of a giant turkey serving a Thanksgiving feast as on that float is... unsettling.

10:08 - I still don't know what to think of the new "Muppet" movie.

10:11 - D'aww, Sesame Street. And they didn't say anything in the spiel, but is Wimpy Kid the first literary character balloon?

10:13 - It strikes me as very odd that the whole selling point of the X-Box KINECT is, "Aren't Wii-motes soooooooo hard to figure out?"

10:16 - RE: "Hop!" I... I don't even know.
Actually, I do: they're asking us to get excited about an Easter movie on Thanksgiving. I've lately had the existentially horrific perception that time is speeding up as I grow older, and this isn't helping.

10:18 - I hope people are aware that The Roots predate Jimmy Fallon's show by a good... however long it's been since my freshman year in college.
By the way, anyone who hates on "Do They Know it's Christmas" can go right to hell. (I have seen a surprising amount of dissent for it in the past few years. Jeez, it's a charity single, who'd complain about something so well-meaning? [The recent remake of "We are the World" is up for mockery, however. I'll take Bob Dylan over Autotuning any damn day.])

10:22 - This is what the group of humans behind "Mannheim Steamroller" looks like. Huh.

10:24 - A McDonald's commercial where a mother lies to her adorable daughter about where her food comes from. THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!!!
On a happier note, the Chickadees are loving something in the bird feeder. Can't quite tell what though. I have experimented with Safflower this year, so...

10:26 - So... you announcers never watched "Despicable Me".
Also, the minions on the Statue of Liberty float. Take a sip.

10:29 - I know they want to remind us that the Disney Dream ship is setting sail soon, but wouldn't you love to have seen an "Epic Mickey"-style balloon?

10:30 - I have nothing at all to add to the pizza-twirling team.

10:34 - Pink and lime green = timeless.

10:40 - Oh God oh God! (No, I hadn't seen the "Yogi Bear" trailer yet. Yes, the dead-eyed characters are doubly horrifying in motion.)


10:47 - Kylie Minogue on a float made of creepy giant pull-toy ducks = Take a sip.

10:50 - Munchkins with bits of sausage inside. Dunkin' Donuts, what happened to you?

10:54 - That Shrek balloon is bound to frighten children. That grimacing face!
Also, the "Imagination!" song from "Fantasmic" in the Disney parks is "a patriotic march" according to the announcers.

10:57 - You know what, Takashe Murukami woke up in the morning, put that costume on, looked in the mirror, and liked what he saw. So, preemptively, shut up.

10:58 - You know what I just said about the Shrek balloon? Yeah. That goes double for whatever the heck that blue-haired thing is on the Princess Academy float.
Ah, the five minute long Barbie retrospective commercial is back! I can use the ladie's room and get more coffee.

11:07 - OK, I hope I didn't miss anything interesting. Here is yet another band I have never heard of. And they are singing the least convincing song about being a hard-partying rock star since that excremental Nickelback song.

11:09 - Listening to the announcers tackle the pronunciation of Reshiram and Zeckrom = Sublime. Bonus: "Po-kee-mans".

11:15 - A-a-a-a-n-d begin the "Turn Off The Dark" jokes!

11:17 - And so, Kanye rides on the Big Apple float. I was secretly hoping it really would be the Barbie float.

11:22 - The Horton balloon looks... odd to me. And what I sad about big-headed characters definitely applies to Dora. She looks like the infamously terrifying Rainbow Brite costume.

11:29 - This Dance Troupe: "Well, we have a great medly of holiday classics and a dance routine all set. Now, you want us to wear WHAT?!?"

11:30 - The Build-A-Bear float unleashes a hurricane of bear puns from the announcers. Oh, God, I feel like I'm stuck in a Xanth novel!
Also, ADD is a fun thing to sing about.

11:45 - I know the Macy's floats and balloons are going to go down to Universal Studios Florida but... why?

11:48 - Aww, it's good to see the Smurfs back in the parade.

11:51 - Ooh, the Snow Queen float is pwetty.

11:57 - SANTAAAA!!!
By the way, why the heck aren't they just singing "I Still Believe in Santa Claus"?
And is it me or did they slip something funny in Santa's coffee?

12:00 - Welp, this was fun, and probably would have been even more fun if I wasn't such a terrible typist. I'm off to enjoy delicious orange goo and T. rex-sized drumsticks. Everyone have a happy Thanksgiving and I'll post again on Tuesday!

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Oh, hey, guess what?

Feederwatch Thursday!

Rock Pigeon 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Northern Cardinal 2
House Sparrow 25

Speaking of birds, here's a nifty Dinosaur Tracking post about things to pause and think about before you fight over who gets to crack apart the wishbone.

Costumes (already?) and some more trailers

It may still technically be summer, but there's a cold chill in the air at night, the pumpkin beers are out, and the Big Party (I refuse to call it iParty because, come on) is stocking it's shelves with Halloween Costumes! Hooray!

I haven't decided on who/what/where I want to be this year. I briefly entertained the idea of somehow assembling a Neytiri costume and... that plan still seems reasonable. Because the officially licensed "Avatar" costumes, to my astonishment and self-kicking lack of camera on hand, look like crap.

I'd like to say that this is some kind of cash-in. That somebody took a generic bodysuit, sewed whatever leftover tails they had lying around to it, and spray-painted the whole thing blue. But no, this thing right here is apparently the official Neytiri costume,and it retails for $72.00.

It's not the most upsetting women's costume available, however. That award would have gone to this little number here.  What you are looking at is called the "Sexy Cookie Monster Costume". It is real and I have seen it for myself. It reminded me why this old, old, old Infographic from The Onion is getting less and less funny and more and more horribly prescient every year.

However, it isn't the worst. Because in searching for a picture of the Sexy Cookie Monster, I found the worst ever Halloween costume for women. And it is the worst ever, because somebody went ahead and stole The Onion's idea.  Ignoring the brain-breaking reality of an actual non-satire real life Sexy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume for now, here are a few new animated film trailers that... broke my mind for other reasons. (You can read previous trailer reviews here.)

First off, here's a link to Cartoon Brew's reaction to the infamous "Double Tower" trailer for "Tangled". *Sigh...*

And here is the new trailer for Dreamwork's "Megamind", which is, of course, in three-effin'-dee. I wasn't all that excited about and looks... well, it looks like the very definition of "m'eh":



This thing is called "Alpha and Omega", from a brandy-new studio called Crest Animation, and it is -of course- also in three-effin'-dee. I am going to go ahead and pretend that this is, in actuality, "The DeviantArt Movie" (to go along with "The Social Network" "The Facebook Movie":



But really, the only bad things I can say about "Megamind" and "Alpha and Omega" is that they suffer from lack of imagination. Uninspired animation, boring music choices (it says a lot that the music cue at the 1:50 minute mark of the "A&O" clip made me groan instead of cheer), and generally reminding me of older, better films.
And I say that because this next trailer is for "Quantum Quest". It is "a sci-fi action film set in a scientifically accurate rendering of our solar system in 3-D stereoscopic (that) blends computer animation with billions of dollars of fantastic images captured during recent NASA space explorations". While I hate celebrity voices as a selling point in an animated film, it is worth noting that the promotional material proudly boasts that the cast includes "two Captain Kirks, two Darth Vaders, two Jedi Knights, and Neil Armstrong" OMG WTF LOLers!!!
So with all this in mind, it's kind of a tragedy that "Quantum Quest" looks like this:



Oh... oh God...

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Art of the Day!

Speaking of people in costumes:

The weird, wonderful world of Polish movie posters.

(This one's a little slapdash because I was -horrors- Away from the Internet for a few days and had to get this ready to post in a hurry.)

So FARK.com recently linked to this news article, which in turn linked to this website, a online shop providing original movie promotional art from Poland. The story goes something like this: for about fifty years, during the communist era, Polish movie theaters were not able to use the official movie posters or other promotional art from the studios. So they went ahead and created their own.

But never mind the history of the posters or the politics behind the scenes. These posters are beautiful, and the website give you a fantastic array of almost-forgotten outsider art. They run from the surreal, to the whimsical, to the "dang, this movie actually looks watchable", to "here comes nightmares", to "what the hell freaked-out movie did you watch, crazy poster painter guy?"

Man, and here I was thinking it was just some interchangeable '80's buddy action-comedy movie. I think I need to see it now.

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Sketch of the day!
Birds are cool, here are some!

In Which I find an Old Painting in the Basement, and it makes me Worry about my Younger Self.

So in case you're wondering why new posts have been very sporadic, it's because I've been preoccupied with helping my family clean out the basement. Fortunately, I have some cool things to write about. Like this really, really old thing I made (you will have to click for the big, as usual):



Oh... Oh God...
Now, occasionally, I will find an older painting or drawing that will make me realize just how much figurative space there is between the person who drew it and the person currently looking at it. The scary part comes in when I realize both those people are me.
This is very definitely one of those times.
Now I think I remember the context, at least. I was asked to paint a backdrop for some fantasy-themed sculptures made by myself and other students (I haven't found any of these, sadly). The result was this thing right here, which looks like fourteen-year-old me (best guess at my age at the time) decided to throw every crazy idea I ever had at an unsuspecting sheet of cardboard. Let's look at some of these things in detail.

I really like this dragon/mountain guy. He's so cute. It's funny how this is essentially the same face I use on cute goofy characters today. The anatomy's usually less confounding, though. Look at those nostrils!

Many parts of the painting look like I threw neon, glow-in-the-dark fabric paint at it. Remember, it was the early '90s. I have no idea if it still glows.

Love the hell out of the river. It has heard of this thing called "Physics" and wants nothing to do with it. It also proves that "Kidd Video" still had a big impact on me, years after it had been canceled. (Someday, I will tell you how much fun it was to be a girl in high school championing and cheerleading for animated films and series nobody else in my peer group had ever heard of. Oh, wait, that wasn't fun at all.)
But then... there's that thing in the upper-right corner.

Seriously, what in the holy f*** even IS that?!? I get that there's a giant face, and a bunch of different iconic buildings stuck together, but... I have no idea what the hell is going on here and I'm SCARED.


So... SCARED...
Thankfully, I can rest assured that all the other old, old art I've made is accounted for. Anything else is probably lost forever, never to be uncovered again... right?
(Cue the foreshadowing music again, but make it more ominous this time.)
I found some less-scary, more-awesome things in the basement too. Some of them are unspeakably awesome. Worth Ebaying in fact. Before I auction them off, they'll be the focus of the next post.

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Now, speaking of kids painting, I just watched "My Kid Could Paint That" recently and... wow. Just... wow.
This is the fascinating -and, in many ways, haunting- story of Marla Olmstead, a painter who has unwittingly dropped a bomb in the middle of the abstract art culture. She has been compared to Monet and Pollock. She arrives at a gallery showing chewing a cookie with her mouth open and donning her best macaroni necklace. She playfully puts handprints, Mickey Mouse heads, and dribbles of puff-paint in her work. Art critics have read heavily symbolic meaning in her paintings, and believe her work deserves to be hanging in the big, famous art museums in New York City. She relaxes by playing with her collection of My Little Ponies and jumping on the bed. She is likely to answer any question with "I dunno" and hasn't got a grasp on the fact that people are shelling out thousands of dollars for her pieces. She is also barely three feet tall and *isn't old enough* to fully understand the fact that people are paying a lot of money for her paintings, or why she gets to go to a special party at an art gallery every so often, or why her father turns all white when she says her brother made one of the paintings, even though this is normal for her, because she doesn't yet understand that her father and her brother are not somehow extensions of herself, or even that they existed before she entered this world.
Because, you see, Marla is four years old.
This movie is a must-see for anyone who gives a crap about art. But there's a part of me that wished I had a pint with me so I could take a drink whenever I wanted to scream at the adults onscreen, "SHE'S FOUR!!!!!" I'm not going to say what happens (lets' just say that the film-maker set out to make one documentary and circumstances caused him to make a very different one), but I wound up feeling so bad for this kid caught in the middle of this spectacular debacle. She's blissfully unaware that, in the space of one year, she's gone from a prodigy with a dedicated fandom, to a disgusting fraud, to... well, there's a moment where the director basically says with images, "Look, draw your own conclusions. I want to stay out of this."

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Photo of the day!
I can't believe I didn't mention this before, but remember the bulbs I planted in late October? The ones I covered with the Christmas greens? Well:

This is actually from a few weeks ago. I'll get a more current picture up in the next post.

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And I deem it okay to get excited about this: