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Krampus: Jareth’s interpretation compared to mine

Krampus: Jareth’s interpretation compared to mine published on No Comments on Krampus: Jareth’s interpretation compared to mine

I told Jareth he should be Krampus for the annual Christmas masquerade ball. Krampus, is, of course, a character in German folklore who’s kind of like the anti-Santa. He looks a lot like a stereotypical demon/devil/satyr, with horns, hooves, and tail. He also has an extremely long tongue. He has been known to rattle bunches of chains, whip misbehaving brats, hand out coal, chase women, and eat/drown/take to Hell children, although he apparently can be appeased with schnapps. Nice guy.Continue reading Krampus: Jareth’s interpretation compared to mine

Ringdoll Zombie Amy

Ringdoll Zombie Amy published on No Comments on Ringdoll Zombie Amy

I was mistaken. The zombie BJD previewed recently by Ringdoll is not Lora, but a different sculpt: Amy. She has a sales page here. Looks like she’ll be about $520.00 excluding s/h.

 

There are more pictures showing the details of her headsculpt and body. I find the right side of her face and her exposed spine especially beautiful and promising for decomposing dryad work. I seriously query the placement, however, of what appears to be a china doll head embedded in her intestines where her navel would have been. It just looks silly.

 

Purchase y/n?

I think I may have found my dryad doll.

I think I may have found my dryad doll. published on No Comments on I think I may have found my dryad doll.

Among those floating concepts that have not yet grounded in the form of dolls, I have long wanted to do a dryad [doll concept from May, 2013 linked here] or human/tree hybrid. Now I believe that I may have found the ideal base for one.

Ringdoll, best known for making gleefully grotesque designs, will soon come out with a female counterpart to their very popular Zombie Sol: the also-decaying Lora. Though she hasn’t officially debuted yet, here’s a picture from the Ringdoll FaceBook page.

 

My interest in this sculpt does not contradict my earlier stated distaste for “guts” dolls in favor of “bones” dolls. That’s because I see this sculpt less as an opportunity to throw some red paint and high-gloss varnish around and call it a day and more of a challenge. It’s kind of hard to tell beneath the distracting splatters, but the photo of Lora shows a head and body with stylized pitting, corrugation, and lumps. Guess what else is pitted, corrugated, and lumpy…besides decomposing corpses? Trees!

 

So, instead of having just a fully alive human/tree hybrid character, I think that the best way to make use of the Lora sculpt would be to combine the concept of zombie and dryad. Basically we’d have a dead person, but with moss, dirt, leaves, bark, and humus instead of red paint. Any sculpted wounds would become places where bark and moss were overtaking her skin. She’d be dying as a human, but growing as a tree. And there would be a seedling growing out of her empty eye socket, and her hands would be turning into branches with leaves at the ends of her fingers, and it would be disgusting, but also amusing and awesome!

 

 

Double, double, toil and trouble: Modern Wizard’s chicken tortilla soup redux

Double, double, toil and trouble: Modern Wizard’s chicken tortilla soup redux published on No Comments on Double, double, toil and trouble: Modern Wizard’s chicken tortilla soup redux

Last week’s experiment in slow cooking still delights my taste buds, even five days later, so I’m doing it again this weekend, with the following improvements:

 

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chunked

various amounts of salt, pepper, cumin, EDIT: olive oil for chicken [didn’t taste any spices on chicken, waste of cumin]

1 can diced tomatoes with garlic and onion

EDIT: 1 can [~10 oz.] tomato sauce [for thickening]

sprinkling of red pepper

one big yellow onion, diced

1 jar Green Mountain Gringo medium garlic salsa

14-16 oz. chicken broth made with Herbox

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon each of cumin and chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cilantro

2 cups water EDIT: 3 cups water

8 oz. frozen corn EDIT: increase to 12 oz.

10 oz. frozen mixed veggies
EDIT: increase to 12 oz.

6 cloves garlic, minced

various amounts of salt, pepper, cayenne pepper for the soup

Thaw chicken. Line glass baking dish with foil. Cut chicken into 1″ chunks. Drizzle with olive oil until covered. Add salt, pepper, cumin to taste. Cover baking dish with more foil. Cook in middle rack of oven preheated to 400 degrees F for ~25 minutes.

Remove chicken from olive oil; shred. Put chicken and all other ingredients in slow cooker. Cook for 3 hours on high.

 

Vermont Doll Lovers Halloween meetup, 10/24/2015

Vermont Doll Lovers Halloween meetup, 10/24/2015 published on No Comments on Vermont Doll Lovers Halloween meetup, 10/24/2015

Polly, Jujube, Thalia, and Sardonix had an early Halloween party along with the other dolls at the most recent VTDL meet.  Pictures are over on the official blog.

ModernWizard’s chicken tortilla soup

ModernWizard’s chicken tortilla soup published on No Comments on ModernWizard’s chicken tortilla soup

Adapted from AllRecipes’ Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chunked

various amounts of salt, pepper, cumin, olive oil for chicken

1 can diced tomatoes with garlic and onion

sprinkling of red pepper

one big yellow onion, diced

1 jar Green Mountain Gringo medium garlic salsa

14-16 oz. chicken broth made with Herbox

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon each of cumin and chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cilantro

2 cups water

8 oz. frozen corn

10 oz. frozen mixed veggies

6 cloves garlic, minced

various amounts of salt, pepper, cayenne pepper for the soup

Thaw chicken. Line glass baking dish with foil. Cut chicken into 1″ chunks. Drizzle with olive oil until covered. Add salt, pepper, cumin to taste. Cover baking dish with more foil. Cook in middle rack of oven preheated to 400 degrees F for ~25 minutes.

Remove chicken from olive oil; shred. Put chicken and all other ingredients in slow cooker. Cook for 3 hours on high.

Really yummy this way! Salsa [instead of originally prescribed enchilada sauce, whatever that is] and fresh garlic give it a kick without it having a burning spiciness. I.e., this soup does not make my nose drip, which is fine with me. Mixed veggies add more variety than just corn. Could use a little tomato paste to thicken broth. Almost a stew with all the stuff I added. :d

Half-skullface BJD

Half-skullface BJD published on No Comments on Half-skullface BJD

The only thing that would make Popodoll Ramiel cooler is if his mouth were open and he had fangs.

 

I had to think for a moment why I think Popodoll Ramiel is awesome and Ringdoll Zombie Sol is too revolting for my interests. Turns out I’m less a fan of resin viscera than I am a fan of resin skeletons.

 

 

If I hadn’t just completed Thalia, I would be all over this doll.

Jareth is ^_^ !

Jareth is ^_^ ! published on No Comments on Jareth is ^_^ !

It’s very hard to portray Jareth in this gender presentation without him looking preppy or hipsterish. That’s why I keep coming back to Luthbel’s G2M Horror Survivors Marius for the texture, hair, brows, and beard. It looks casual, weatherbeaten, and a little stylish [ref. sticky-uppy hair], but not really put-together.Continue reading Jareth is ^_^ !

ModernWizard’s slow cooker chili

ModernWizard’s slow cooker chili published on No Comments on ModernWizard’s slow cooker chili

Adapted from AllRecipes’ Spicy Slow-Cooked Chili.

2 pounds ground beef
2 cans [~16 oz] black beans, rinsed and drained
3 cans [~10 oz] diced tomatoes with chiles, drained
1 can [~16 oz] tomato sauce
1 big yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
miscellaneous amounts of chili powder, cayenne pepper, and salt

miscellaneous amounts of grated cheese

miscellaneous amounts of  non-fat plain yogurt

Brown beef. Drain.

Put all ingredients in slow cooker. Cover. Cook for about 10 hours on low.

Put grated cheese and yogurt on the chili if you want.

 

Note to self: It really tastes more like chili if I remember to put the chili powder and cayenne pepper in before cooking it. Also needs more garlic.

Welcome, Honorine!

Welcome, Honorine! published on No Comments on Welcome, Honorine!

I have acquired another Elfdoll 14cm tiny BJD. Unlike Dorothy [Dodo] and Jeff [Kai], I have not had an exemplar of this doll before. She is Olivia [link goes to archived sales page], the only sleeping headsculpt among the 14cm Elfdoll humanoids. [There are sleeping anthro Catsies, but I’m not interested in those.] I’ve decided that her name is Honorine. Here she is [at left] in a photo from the seller, hanging out with what looks to be a Soom Faery Legend Rose [at right].Continue reading Welcome, Honorine!

Crimson Peak: del Toro’s “Fall of the House of Usher” wannabe

Crimson Peak: del Toro’s “Fall of the House of Usher” wannabe published on No Comments on Crimson Peak: del Toro’s “Fall of the House of Usher” wannabe

I saw Crimson Peak on the strength of its baroque costumes and set design. On that front, it did not disappoint. I especially liked Mia Wasikowska’s dressing gown, which had leg-o’-mutton sleeves so voluminous that that were deflating in on themselves, and Jessica Chastain’s end-scene…uh, let’s just call it deshabille, with endlessly flowing sleeves and streaming skirts, perfect for running around shrieking in. I was going to say that I’d like these articles of clothing in 1:3 scale or digital, but neither format would do justice to the restless, watery movement with which they moved on the big screen.

 

Oh yeah, I guess there were some people in those clothes too: aspiringly authorial Edith Cushing [Mia Wasikowska], the ingenue prying into the affairs of suspiciously vampiric Thomas Sharpe [Tom Hiddleston] and his scarily possessive sister Lucille [Jessica Chastain]. I liked the first act, occurring in Edith’s hometown of Buffalo, New York, during which the characters had personality and the Sharpes were obviously engaging in machinations. As soon as the action moved across the pond to Cumberland, England, location of the Sharpes’ ancestral estate, the quality of the costumes and set designs increased, while everyone’s personality evacuated. Opportunities for characters to not only demonstrate their personalities, but also somehow hitch into the plot — Edith’s writerly ambitions and her ability to see ghosts, Thomas’ mechanical aptitude, the whole thread with the dog and the siblings’ ambivalence toward it — appeared and then fell away because apparently del Toro could handle either a cogent script or lavish set dressing, but not both simultaneously.

 

I could have handled the general unraveling of the movie if it weren’t so lazily overdetermined. The movie sets itself up like a mystery, but there’s really no intrepid sleuthing of piecing together of clues. Okay, granted, Edith does a little poking around to find some wax cylinders from a previous tenant, but then the recordings spell everything out for her, as does Lucille during the end scene, as does Edith’s narration bookending the whole film. Look, del Toro — give the viewers a little credit. You don’t need to tell us that “ghosts are real” — Edith’s beginning and end claim. You can just tell the story, and we will recognize very soon that they are. Show, rather than tell. You’ll have a stronger story that way.

 

Crimson Peak would have been greatly improved if Lucille were dead all along, tied to Allerdale Hall, but still exerting influence over Thomas. He would have come to the US alone and then killed Edith’s father under Lucille’s urging so that Edith would feel compelled to marry him. Edith and Thomas would then go back to England, where Lucille would manifest to both of them and start restricting Edith’s life. Most of the plot would occur as usual, although there would be some hints that Lucille was not of the living. The true nature of Thomas and Edith’s relationship would thus be even more disturbing.

The climax would be mostly the same too, only Thomas’ clay extractor would somehow dig up Lucille’s corpse, leading Edith to realize that she’d been dealing with a dead woman all along. Thomas would become unhinged at the sight of Lucille’s body and start talking to it. His words would imply that his attachment to Lucille played a part in bringing her back as a ghost. At that point, thanks to Thomas’ invention, the creaky foundation of Allerdale Hall would fail, taking Lucille’s corpse and Thomas along with it. Edith alone would escape, probably to freeze to death in the blizzard. Sure, this ending owes a lot to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” but it’s also a damn sight creepier and more psychologically interesting than the actual ending.

Polly’s do-over

Polly’s do-over published on No Comments on Polly’s do-over

I recently completed a significant amount of work on Polly, none of which is particularly apparent.

 

 

 

  • I removed her old faceup, thoroughly cleaned her head, sealed it, gave her a new faceup, then sealed that.
  • I got her a new wig.
  • I restrung her core [i.e., everything except her arms] and made a notch in her headback to hold the elastic instead of trying to keep it up in her head with swears and hot glue.

 

Polly is very much a jerry-rigged doll, a fact immediately visible when her wig is removed. Her head started off as an Elfdoll Doona Kathlen sleeping faceplate without a headback, so I made one very messily out of Aves Apoxie Sculpt. Also, when I was removing one of her earliest faceups, I applied Pebeo too aggressively, removing the top layer of resin in a patch on her lower left cheek. Her hair and makeup have mostly been inspired by my desire to minimize the color discrepancies between a) her faceplate and headback and b) her slightly yellowed faceplate and the whiter scars left by Pebeo. I’m pleased to report that her new wig hides pretty much all the Aves Apoxie Sculpt visible when she used other wigs. As for her facial scars, they’re much less obvious than the grey Aves Apoxie Sculpt, and I tend to shoot her from the front and the right side anyway. :pContinue reading Polly’s do-over

What’s more fun that a Christmas tree? A Halloween tree!

What’s more fun that a Christmas tree? A Halloween tree! published on No Comments on What’s more fun that a Christmas tree? A Halloween tree!

Vermont Doll Lovers  has its Halloween meetup in about a week and a half, so I’ve been collecting seasonal props appropriate for dolls of various scales. Today I took the inspiration even further and decorated one of my 11″ fake pine trees, previously serving as a piece of my forest set, to be a Halloween tree. Since a Halloween tree is exactly the sort of thing Isabel would enjoy, we may see one shortly in Zombieville. Pictures below.Continue reading What’s more fun that a Christmas tree? A Halloween tree!

MiracleDoll Vic: another one for the OMV group

MiracleDoll Vic: another one for the OMV group published on No Comments on MiracleDoll Vic: another one for the OMV group

I just came across the most hilarious 1:3 scale BJD headsculpt today: MiracleDoll Vic. The pictures on Stacy’s Pink Ocean don’t really do this sculpt justice; like IOS Infernale, the sculpt clearly draws inspiration from anime/manga for its overall pointiness, as well as its impressively large nose. Even the open, smiling mouth full of pointy little teefs reminds me of IOS Infernale.

 

Vic differs from Infernale, though, in that Infernale is sculpted “straight,” i.e., not humorously, as a gloriously manga-riffic bishounen vampire that’s supposed to be seriously beautiful and seriously deadly, despite the fact that its tongues are hilarious.  Vic, however, has an open mouth sculpted halfway between speech and smile, as well as curving eyes, the right narrower than the left, and raised brows. In other words, I imagine the doll saying, “Hey guys, sorry I scared you with my mouth full of pointy teefs, but it’s just my dentition. Whatcha gonna do?”

Most of the faceups for this sculpt play up the sheepish expression, but I think Vic can do other moods as well. With happier brows, the sculpt could definitely do a a more cheerful, but still awkward and dorky, character.

 

I want one.

Delmar: cute, in need of much help

Delmar: cute, in need of much help published on No Comments on Delmar: cute, in need of much help

Delmar arrived this evening! I took some photos of her current state, just so I have something to compare her future improved self to.

 

She needs more works than I expected, but nothing I can’t handle. As I previously stated, her orange and black color scheme works well on her, giving her a Gothy, zombie look, but it’s all gotta go. See that pale headcap? That represents the color of her resin beneath the grey blush. Faceup, body jewels, and grey blush are all being stripped.

 

As for the orange of her tail, an inspection inside her tail socket reveals even color all around, so I’m pretty sure her lower half is dyed. I’ll clean her tail up, for sure [no stick-on rhinestones, please!], but the orange remains.

 

So Delmar needs blushing, faceup, and rhinestone removal, along with an overall cleaning. She also needs disassembly and [something I was not expected] removal of the sueding in every single joint. Sueding — the insertion of some high-friction material, such as sand, moleskin, or dried hot glue in joint sockets to improve poseability — may work on large, heavy dolls, but it’s less effective on small dolls like Delmar. The sueding keeps her joints from fitting snugly together, and it makes visible layers between pieces that are really distracting. Sueding needs to go, to be replaced by wiring instead.

 

In another unexpected development, Delmar has no hooks at the ends of her arms or her tail. Both her hands and her tailfin are fully strung, which I think limits their articulation. On smaller dolls [like Jujube, Dorothy, and Jeff], stringing is an acceptable way to keep small hands and feets on, but it’s unnecessary on a doll Delmar’s size. I see that I’ll be making some S hooks soon.

 

Though I have to drastically improve Delmar, that doesn’t make me dislike her. In fact, I enjoy working on dolls to improve them; it gives me more time to build affection for them. Even though removal of sueding and exchange of string for S hooks don’t really constitute customizing, I do like such activities, as they are part of how I make dolls accord to my visions of what they should be like.

 

Anyway, now that I have Delmar in hand, I like her even more than in pictures. The official photos seem to emphasize her ungainly proportions and her tiny, puckered mouth, while the auction photos make her look messy, with yellowish undertones. In person, though, she looks more like an awkward kid, with a plump body and stubby limbs, while the extended lip lines make her mouth seem wider. I’m not really impressed with the stiff, simplistic sculpting on the mertail — hip fins aren’t articulated, and there’s no detailing on the main tail section — but her webbed fingers and matching fin-shaped ears are charming.

 

I think she’s a zombie.  Pictures below. Continue reading Delmar: cute, in need of much help

Open-mouthed vampires…

Open-mouthed vampires… published on No Comments on Open-mouthed vampires…

…are obviously my favorite type of BJDs. The interest started back in 2004 when Cerebrus Project came out with an elf-eared version of its 1:3 scale sculpt Lishe. She also had fangs. I ended up getting the unfanged version for Sardonix 1.0, who I suppose could be an honorary open-mouthed vampire [OMV]. However, my interest in OMVs continued, and I currently have three. Araminthe started it all, followed by Yamarrah and, most recently, Thalia.

 

Well, actually, I have four. I just realized tonight that Janvier Jett, my Angelsdoll Ieseul Cat Avatar, can easily be reinterpreted as an OMV. Her sharp canines and pointed ears are supposed to denote, along with her broad, flat nose ridge, the traits of a feline therianthrope. However, because she has an open mouth and pointy teeth, she can also count as an OMV.

Janvier Jett never really came together as a character for me, which is why I’ve put her head on the DOA marketplace twice, but no one wants her. But maybe I do! I got the idea just now to wipe the Ieseul Cat Avatar head and reconceptualize the sculpt as another character with a more definite personality.

 

In fact, I already have a name — Venelda — and a concept: late 1980s/early 1990s. I’ve been wanting such a doll since I saw Angelsdoll Ieseul Cat Avatar’s default faceup, with its fabulous combination of blue and yellow eyeshadow. Both Lola Paprika and Janvier Jett, however, went off into Signature Style Land, rather than remaining in the 1980s. My next attempt at the 1980s, Yamarrah, decided to be a character of fire and ice [cream] instead, though her oversize sweatshirt, massive earrings, leggings, and legwarmers testify to the direction I originally wanted her to take.

 

Anyway, I see Venelda as a vampire turned somewhere in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Bright faceup, big hair [either short curls and a headband, or long hair and poofy bangs, or a high ponytail and poofy bangs], big earrings, tiered skirt, blouse with cap sleeves, fishnet fingerless gloves, armloads of jelly bracelets, jelly shoes if I can find them, slouch socks, etc., etc. She plays with her Gameboy and listens to tapes on her Walkman…or boom box. Maybe she plays games on a Commodore 64? ^_^ She doesn’t trust any technology made after 1990, but also has no patience for recent fetishization of the 1980s and 1990s.

“Okay, but wait — here is some new information: I NEED it.”

“Okay, but wait — here is some new information: I NEED it.” published on No Comments on “Okay, but wait — here is some new information: I NEED it.”

Sean Williams’ column in Slate, “But I Want it,” genericizes conversations between a father and a kid. The father tries to reason with the kid using impeccable adult logic, while the kid counters with airtight kid logic. Hilarity results. You don’t even have to have kids in order to appreciate the humor here; in fact, the first conversation reminds me of conversations I’ve had with past cats.

Have acquired small mermaid #2.

Have acquired small mermaid #2. published on No Comments on Have acquired small mermaid #2.

Last night I bought a Leekeworld Gift Project Little Mermaid for $150.00 [!] shipped off Ebay. She’s a pretty rare BJD, as she was only offered as a gift between August 30th and September 26th, 2012 to customers who spent a certain amount. Those who spent over $350.00 got a version of her with a human body, while those who spent over $450.00 got a version of her with a mermaid tail. This, of course, irritated me to no end, as I of course wanted a 1:6 scale mermaid BJD, but absolutely nothing else from Leekeworld, certainly not $450.00 of stuff.

 

The Leekeworld Little Mermaid is not a $450.00 doll. Despite an overall cute concept — she’s 20cm in human form, so she’s basically a merkid with a chubby face — she suffers from poor design. She has a questionably long torso, which, combined with her short limbs, just makes her look weird. Both human and mer versions have underbust joints and hip joints, but no waist joints, meaning that the long torso never achieves fluid, realistic posture. To make matters worse, while the human version has double-jointed knees, the mer version has articulation only at the hip and at the base of the tail. I thought Soom’s merdolls had abysmal articulation, but at least they can sit down, as Faery Legend Azur demonstrates. Again, Leekeworld Little Mermaid is not anywhere near a $450.00 doll. She’s a $150.00 doll that needs a lot of help.

 

Delmar, as I have named her, requires serious work. I’m not sure what’s going on with her resin color, whether she’s faded and/or blushed, but she definitely needs all current pigmentation, including faceup, removed. The orange and grey color scheme works surprisingly well, so I may keep that, but first she needs disassembly, thorough cleaning, and restringing. I may also shorten her torso so that the horrible hip joint becomes more of a waist joint. There may also be the addition of a “knee” joint in the future or perhaps even a wholesale replacement of that irritatingly unbending tail.

Delmar is a VERY LOUD Goth in training and Submit’s friend. Pictures from auction [taken by seller tealmermaid] below:Continue reading Have acquired small mermaid #2.

Sexually active teenage girls are repulsive; Abenaki Indians are disposable; and “sex changes” are humiliating punishment: lessons from The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant

Sexually active teenage girls are repulsive; Abenaki Indians are disposable; and “sex changes” are humiliating punishment: lessons from The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant published on No Comments on Sexually active teenage girls are repulsive; Abenaki Indians are disposable; and “sex changes” are humiliating punishment: lessons from The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant

Please note that this discussion of Joanna Wiebe’s Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant contains critical examination of huge spoilers. Don’t read further if you want to maintain the mystery. Read further if you want detail on how this otherwise promising debut fails disappointingly.Continue reading Sexually active teenage girls are repulsive; Abenaki Indians are disposable; and “sex changes” are humiliating punishment: lessons from The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant

Desperately scrambling for relevance: Stephenie Meyer’s Life and Death

Desperately scrambling for relevance: Stephenie Meyer’s Life and Death published on No Comments on Desperately scrambling for relevance: Stephenie Meyer’s Life and Death

Apparently Stephenie Meyer decided to redo the plot of Twilight in her most recent work, Life and Death, which stars Beau as a human teenage dude and Edythe as a 100-year-old vampire woman. I don’t know why. Nobody wanted this; as far as I can tell, fans would have much rather had Midnight Sun, i.e., the whole thing from Edward’s point of view.

However, according the Entertainment Weekly article linked above, Meyer explains in the preface that she wrote the follow-up in part to challenge critics’ statements that Bella was a wet dishrag of a main character, a Mary Sue cipher, and a damsel in distress. In fact, Meyer tries to remove Bella’s femininity from the discussion, claiming that Bella and her reimagined counterpart Beau are “human[s] in distress,” out of their depth when surrounded by “superheroes and supervillains.”

In other words, Meyer takes all the criticism of Twilight and friends very personally. She could either use the opportunity to improve her work based on relevant criticism, or she could ignore the critics and continue writing new stuff. But Meyer chooses neither option. Instead, she digs in, doubles down, and publishes 400 rehashed pages that say, in essence, “I’m right, so there! Besides, I can’t hear you la la la la la…” This is not the behavior of someone interested in developing as an author. This is the behavior of someone who perceives dissection of Twilight as a violent attack on her personally.

 

Because I’m still in the midst of reading Grey, I feel like there’s so much self-reference going on with both E.L. James and Stephenie Meyer [not the least example of which is that James’ series started out as fan fiction for Meyer’s series] that the ouroboros isn’t just biting its own tail, but crawling up its ass and eating its own digestive system.

Props to acquire for VTDL meets

Props to acquire for VTDL meets published on 1 Comment on Props to acquire for VTDL meets

I developed a schedule of themed meetups for VTDL:

  • January: New Year’s/General Winter
  • February: Valentine’s Day
  • March: St. Patrick’s Day
  • April: Easter
  • July: Independence Day
  • September: Back to School
  • October: Halloween
  • December: Christmas

I have some appropriate doll-scale props, but would like to acquire more, either in 1:4 scale or 1:3 scale, for entertaining photo ops. Anything with ** by it indicates that I can make it.

 

  • New Year’s: champagne flutes, party hats**, party noisemakers**, Happy New Year goggles
  • Valentine’s Day: valentine cards**, stuffed heart, teddy bear
  • St. Patrick’s Day: four-leaf clovers**, pot of gold, green hats, green beer
  • Easter: basket with fake grass, plastic eggs, wearable bunny ears**
  • Fourth of July: American flag, hats with stars and stripes, ridiculously large firework**
  • Back to School: backpack, notebook, writing implements, blackboard and chalk, globe
  • October: domino mask**, broom, scythe, trick-or-treat containers**
  • Christmas: Santa hats that actually fit**, wrapped presents**, seasonal cards

Jujube, Jeff, Dorothy, and some stuff

Jujube, Jeff, Dorothy, and some stuff published on No Comments on Jujube, Jeff, Dorothy, and some stuff

I made Jeff a wig from some of my versicolor faux fur that looks mostly pink from the front, but contains orange streaks on the sides and back. Continue reading Jujube, Jeff, Dorothy, and some stuff

Monster High Megabloks as dolls for dolls

Monster High Megabloks as dolls for dolls published on 2 Comments on Monster High Megabloks as dolls for dolls

Mattel gave the Monster High license to Megabloks, the building brick company that is not Lego, and the Megablok playsets have recently made it up to the northern reaches of the US. At Toys R Us yesterday I picked up Ghoulia Yelps and her Creepariffic Lab, as well as Ghoulia and Clawdeen figures sold separately. Here’s my sold-separately Ghoulia hanging out in her little lab.Continue reading Monster High Megabloks as dolls for dolls

Rocky Horror at 40, or, “I finally sorted through that”

Rocky Horror at 40, or, “I finally sorted through that” published on No Comments on Rocky Horror at 40, or, “I finally sorted through that”

The New York Times recently published an article on The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the movie version of which is 40 years old this year. It’s an okay article, looking back on the musical’s difficult transition from stage show to movie and its blossoming into a “self-updating” cultural phenomenon. Tim Curry, Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon, and Lou Adler [film producer] reminisce on their roles and offer some analysis, while Richard O’Brien, who is apparently angry at Adler, refuses to contribute anything significant. I find most interesting the following excerpt about Curry:

Mr. Curry, who is recovering from a stroke he had in 2012, was happy to reminisce about his screen creation turning 40. But there was a time when he tried to distance himself from his most famous role because he worried it was holding him back. “I finally sorted through that,” he said. “I realized I’d been lucky. I still feel lucky.”

Magenta has words about luck.

 

Anyway, back off that necessary tangent, I find Curry’s change from rejection to acceptance illuminating. It reminds me of Leonard Nimoy’s distance from [I Am Not Spock] and ultimate embrace [I Am Spock] of his iconic role in Star Trek. I think that both of them started off feeling limited by their famous roles. They felt that people confused them with their characters and that they risked typecasting. Eventually, though, they each seemed to have reinterpreted the audience’s love for those roles/characters as an asset, rather than a liability. Curry, talking about luck, seems to be referring to the rare privilege of a performer who is so successful that they end up embodying some crucial cultural moment and thus becoming objects of endless passionate fascination. Very few performers ever hit that definition of success, and, while it may not be the sort of critical acclaim for one’s talents that perhaps Curry originally sought, he recognizes the significance of personifying the zeitgeist. It’s a pretty damn cool thing to do, and he gets to do it. I think it’s very wise of him to realize that struggling against the momentum is a waste of time and that accepting it, even if that means accepting that his life has gone otherwise to his plans, is easier.

 

I like Smart Dolls!

I like Smart Dolls! published on No Comments on I like Smart Dolls!

Smart Dolls, made by Culture Japan [a Japanese company], are a line of 1:3 scale vinyl dolls with highly articulated internal armatures. They follow the anime aesthetic, so the headsculpts have big square eyes, tiny pointy noses, and small lines for mouths, while the bodies are slim and long-limbed, with very perky breasts. Clothing includes your standard fare like maid outfits and school uniforms, but generally concentrates on more realistic, fashionable pieces like this drapey hippie top, these highly detailed cargo pants with working pockets, and the extra super awesome hijab and turtleneck combo. In other words, I think of Smart Dolls as Dollfie Dreams with none of the downsides of ridiculous expense, limited editions, wardrobe composed only of scanty items, and alarming breasts.

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