Today I just ordered a Lumedoll Erine, large bust, and a Lumedoll Lucas, regular body! I didn't get the aforementioned Soom Uyoo after all, so I went ahead and got the two chronologically first characters in Me and My Muses: Ellery and Lucian. In 6 to 8 weeks, I should have them!

Also Janvier Jett is here, a mere 1.5 miles from me, but waiting at the post office till Monday. Bleh.

Even smaller than my 14 cm Elfdoll tinies, I have a 3.5" Takara Microman/Microlady figurine with no face and no name. I keep her casually posed on the bookshelf right next to my chair…

Check out the fidelity in my new photo studio setup! Two lights really add to the crispness of the results.Continue reading My smallest doll

I think it should be easy to find a French maid outfit to fit a 27cm fashion doll, without having to resort to the ridiculously expensive and unattractive French Maid Barbie Doll. Silkstones are so unappealing, and they're not even articulated well! This complaint is in reference to Jessica Jamisia, Ellery's third muse, who should be dressed in a French maid outfit.Continue reading Complaint about doll clothes: no French maid outfits

There's a beautiful Soom Uyoo on the DOA marketplace now, and I waaaaaant her. Scratch my plans about having a Lumedoll Arine for my Muses protagonist and doing the faceup myself; this Uyoo is perfect.

I've long had a crush on Uyoo. I love her big eyes and her full lips. Her mouth always seem slightly open, as if she's about to speak.

I used to have one with a default Soom faceup that I loved; she was the first incarnation of Jennifer, but I sold her, which I shouldn't have done. I eventually got another to provide the body for Absinthe and the head for Little Anneka, but I never liked that one as much because she had a non-default faceup. This one currently on the MP has sweet, arched eyebrows and a delicately done mouth, very close to the default. WANT WANT WANT WANT.

EDIT: Inquired to see if she was still available. If all goes well, I will soon on the road to HELL, no turning back, since I'm now buying dolls for Me and My Muses.

My earlier plot of putting a Lumedoll Lucas [male] head on a Lumedoll fem body will not work for Mazzy, so he needs a different headsculpt. I may just get another Lumedoll Arine and paint it differently, emphasizing the link between Ellery and her muses by similarity of features. In that case, maybe Jessica should be an Arine as well with a small bust?

Dolls, updated

• Ellery: Lumedoll Arine, large bust
• Lucian: Lumedoll Lucas
• Mazzy: Lumedoll Arine, large bust
• Jessica: Lumedoll Elin, small bust, or Souldoll Jandi, or Souldoll Metel
• Avery: ? [the doll formerly known as Cutey Honey?]
• Kristin: ? [the doll formerly known as Cory?]
• Melinda: ? [the doll previously appearing as Maybe?]
• Jo: ? [the doll formerly known as AJ?]
• MacKenzie: ? [the doll formerly known as Tamsin?]

I just got a tracking number today for Janvier Jett’s EMS package: EM068874069KR.

I hope she ships quickly and that everything is perfect with my order. I ordered her with Hyang’s body and the faceup as shown on the order page, and I hope both of those requests are successfully granted.

Sarah sits by Lake Champlain, Oakledge Park, Burlington, VT. Actually the first one is just in the front yard of someone in my neighborhood.Continue reading Sarah by Lake Champlain

Ellery: Find something in clothes bin.

Lucian: open white collared shirt, jeans, black boots

Mazzy: ridiculous underwear

Jessica: French maid outfit

Avery: Find something in clothes bin.

Kristin: Cory's clothes

Melinda: Maybe's clothes

Jo: AJ's clothes

MacKenzie: Tamsin's clothes, shoes

So if there was a town that made a deal with death that the town would enjoy health and good fortune in exchange for everyone who was born there having to be buried there and made to keep from walking by a hereditary Graveminder and an Undertaker, and then the dead started walking and eating people because of a reluctant Graveminder, that would be a pretty cool story, wouldn’t it?

Such is the conceit of Melissa Marr’s Graveminder, in which Bekka, shocked over the death of the previous Graveminder, her grandmother, resists her fated role as stalker of the dead until it’s almost too late. Throw in a preordained romance with an equally unprepared Undertaker, and you have the makings of a supernatural romance that might explore determinism vs. free will in an interesting way.

Sorry. No dice. Marr succeeds at fleshing out an original mythology, sustaining a mood of slowly increasing creepiness and making the walking dead scary but also kind of pitiable. Unfortunately, Bekka, the main character, who should be sympathetic or at least interesting, is nothing more than a dishrag who spends over half the book insisting that she is not in love with the Undertaker. Multiple scenes go by in which she and Byron, the Undertaker, dance around the subject of their mutual attraction and complicated past, then stall out. I keep wanting to yell at Bekka: "Stop it! You’re preventing the plot from moving forward!" Alas, she does not heed me.

Yet, despite my objections, I am finishing the book because I want to see what happens.

Labeled "vampires" because it involves people coming back from the dead and eating other people.

EDIT: Well, things picked up toward the end when more dead people started going on a human-chewing rampage, and there was a bit of a conspiracy going on, but, all in all, this book was destroyed by repetitive conversations and poor pacing.

This trailer for Twixt is of the sort that obviates watching the actual movie. Based on the trailer, this movie looks overlong, overdone and overacted. A pity because I think there’s an interesting idea rattling around in there somewhere.

Dolls

• Ellery: Lumedoll Arine, large bust
• Lucian: Lumedoll Lucas
• Mazzy: Lumedoll Blaze head on large bust fem body
• Jessica: Lumedoll Elin, small bust
• Avery: ?
• Kristin: ? [the doll formerly known as Cory?]
• Melinda: ? [the doll previously appearing as Maybe?]
• Jo: ? [the doll formerly known as AJ?]
• MacKenzie: ? [the doll formerly known as Tamsin?]

Check drawer of heads and doll parts for parts for other characters.

Names

• The protagonist: Ellery 
• The first muse: Lucian
• The second muse: Mazzy
• The third muse: Jessica
• The protagonist's sister: Avery
• The protagonist's long-distance girlfriend: Kristin
• The protagonist's first actual girlfriend: Melinda
• The protagonist's second girlfriend: Jo
• The protagonist's third girlfriend: MacKenzie

The plot goes something like this:

• Introduction. The protagonist creates the first muse, tending him with all the frustrated energy of her muddled sexuality and her loneliness. They have lots of fun.
• Uh Oh. Because she spends so much time on him, the first muse becomes realer and realer to the protagonist. She wonders about the nature of his existence and also her own sanity.
• Cracking. Things come to a head. The protagonist’s sister expresses worry about the protagonist. The protagonist’s long-distance girlfriend delivers an ultimatum: me or him.
• Banishment. The protagonist chooses her long-distance girlfriend over her first muse. He tries to reason with her and come back. She refuses sadly. All is desolate.
• Substitution. The protagonist, unable to live without muses, substitutes the first one for the second and third ones. Frolicking ensues. Meanwhile, the protagonist has a mentally stimulating, sexually unsatisfying relationship with her first actual girlfriend.
  
• Coming Back. After breaking up with her first actual girlfriend and moving on to the second, the protagonist decides to bring the first muse back.
• Rage. The protagonist and the first muse fight.
• Coexistence. The protagonist and the first muse reconcile. Meanwhile, all three muses get used to each other. The first and the second muse fall in love!
  
• The Boot. The protagonist and her second girlfriend fight because of their temperamental differences and because the protagonist won’t tell her second girlfriend about her muses. The protagonist and her second girlfriend break up.
• All By My Selves. The protagonist swears off romantic relationships for a while. She becomes closer to her sister. She feels less dependent on her muses. She writes stories that aren’t about them and thinks about them, but doesn’t talk to them all the time.
• Beginning Again. The protagonist meets her third girlfriend. From the outset, the protagonist tells the third girlfriend about her muses. Everything looks promising…

Last night I came up with the next obvious storyline for creation in a 1:6 doll drama format: the story of a young woman and her relationships, emotional, sexual and otherwise, with her three muses. "Me and My Muses" is its title. Is it based on my life? Why certainly.

There are four main characters:

• The young woman. A morbidly introspective and self-analytical person, she is, as the series starts, a college student who is confused about her sexuality and increasingly disturbed by the robustness of her muses. She writes and plays with dolls.
• The first muse. Also morbidly introspective and lonely, he combines playfulness, pushiness and seduction in a threatening and irresistible combination. He writes in his diary and makes paper.
• The second muse. Sunny, buoyant, extroverted and confident, he is an androgynous, polymorphously perverse hermaphrodite [mythologically speaking]. He invents things and designs fashions.
• The third muse. Quiet, conscientious and punctiliously correct in all things, she is the second muse’s servant. She rides her mountain bike and sketches human figures.

There are also a limited number of secondary characters, including, but not limited to:

• The protagonist’s long-distance girlfriend. Passionate, loyal, insecure and possessive, the long-distance girlfriend is going through her own difficulties in college. She resents the closeness between the protagonist and the first muse.
• The protagonist’s sister. Creative, imaginative and similar in temperament to the protagonist, the sister used to be very close to the protagonist, but going to separate colleges has driven distance between them. Succeeding socially and emotionally at school [in contrast to the protagonist], the sister worries that the muses are driving a wedge between her and the protagonist.
• The protagonist’s first actual non-long-distance girlfriend. As a struggling poet, the first actual girlfriend, who is signifcantly younger than the protagonist, is attracted to the protagonist’s mind and creativity. She and the protagonist break up over the protagonist’s lack of sexual confidence, among other things.
• The protagonist’s second girlfriend. Extroverted, high-strung and enthusiastic, the protagonist’s second girlfriend is much different temperamentally than she is. This contributes to their relationship’s downfall, as does the protagonist’s unwillingess to talk about her muses.
• The protagonist’s third girlfriend. As a vampire lover and fan fiction writer, she is involved in sci fi and fantasy conventions. The protagonist tells her about her muses up front, and the third girlfriend thinks that they are awesome.

Blogger supplies multi-paragraph examples of bad writing that he has written. Tee hee!

For example:

"She looked into his eyes and saw them grinning at her. But was there something else there? A hint of trepidation, perhaps? Behind their apparent delight, what were his eyes really feeling? It was impossible to know what was going on in those eyes’ head. Was their heart truly in it?"

I bought my Souldoll Zenith Shiva G with the express purpose of making her look like Jennifer Connelly’s character, Sarah, in the 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth, which is my favorite in the whole world. My Sarah is not exactly the same character as Sarah in the film, but she is bookish, fantastical and quiet, like her film inspiration. Anyway, I wanted to give her the outfit that Sarah wears for most of the film when she is questing through the Labyrinth to rescue her baby brother Toby.

Arianne02 did the faceup to look like a young, freckled Jennifer Connelly, while the talented Isabeau made Sarah’s blouse and vest as accurate to the film as possible. The wig is a size 7-8 "brown black" from Monique. Soom supplied the Mecha Angel jeans [yes, I know they are sparkly], while the inaccurate [but still cute] stripey socks came from Obitsu, the black loafers [should be brown] from Dollmore. Just for an in-joke, I gave Sarah a button with a picture on it of Jareth, the Goblin King, who seems to be in love with her and who serves as her antagonist throughout the film.Continue reading Souldoll Shiva G as Sarah from Labyrinth

I’d like to get one of those frothy dresses for my dolls, probably Sarah, since she is the only one who would wear it. It would have petticoats and panniers and ruffles, lots of ribbon and lace trim and a resemblance to a classic wedding cake, only much! pinker! So far all the dresses I have seen are too dark in color or not froofy enough. Tsk tsk.

Supernatural mashups are a thriving subgenre in which a modern-day author grafts supernatural elements — most frequently vampires — onto a classic of American or British literature and then watches the profits roll in. These books really owe a debt to the Internet renaissance of fan fiction, where people write stories in another author's universe, with another author's characters, for the sheer enjoyment of it. Just like fan fic, supernatural mashups provide clever and diverting amusement, illuminations on the themes of the original, if done right, but frustration and hebetude if done poorly…and they're very easy to do poorly. I am sad to report that, in my travels of YA fiction, supernatural romance, sci fi and fantasy, I have so far not come across any truly good specimens of supernatural mashup, though they must be out there….

Mashups I would like to see:

• Emily Dickinson and vampires…"Birds, Hours, the Bumblebee…and bloodsuckers!"
• Charles Dickens and vampires…I think Great Expectations could use some.
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman and steampunk
• George Eliot and vampires…Middlemarch could be a great, sweeping portrait of vampire society and mores.
• William Makepeace Thackeray and vampires…would certainly make Vanity Fair less of a boring slog.

So my Dikadoll jointed hands for 60cm fems arrived today! Lola Paprika got the right one; Janvier Jett will get the left. You can see the increased realism of Lola Paprika’s hand as she surreptitiously uses Janvier Jett’s guitar again….Continue reading Lola Paprika’s articulated hand

…but Janvier Jett plays it on her curly guitar! I just got her a black [with some bits of white] wig with Jarethian hair, you know, spiky all over the crown and then long and ragged elsewhere. She has the perfect hair for hair metal!

After more than 8 months of owning Sarah, I’m finally getting her default hair, a straight, dark brown, bangless wig with a center part, made to resemble Jennifer Connelly’s hair when she played Sarah in Labyrinth. Then I can dress Sarah up in her Labyrinth-going clothes: custom blouse and vest with swirlies, blue jeans and loafers and take some pictures. Sarah will be so happy…if I can get her nose out of a book.

My favorite part of Ms. Magazine was always the last page, showing a collection of sexist ads sent in by readers.

I got some awesome knee-length, white, faux fur leg warmers for Janvier Jett, as well as some thigh-high black-and-white checked stockings. I figure that her outfit will look more striking if it’s not just black, but black and white with interesting textures.

Janvier Jett, being the guitarist for the band Flaming Hot Pussy, insisted on having a real guitar, not just an air one, so I bought one for her. Some of my dolls have dolls; she has a guitar, apparently.

Lola Paprika hyangs out at a little park on Shelburne Road in the South End of Burlington with some sphinxes.Continue reading Lola Paprika and the sphinxes

I just ordered Janvier a black fur wig with a kind of mullet style and also some cat’s-eye glasses [2 pairs, in case I break one]. Catty glasses for my Cat Avatar, hee hee hee!

Longform.org aggregates long-form, non-fiction journalism about a variety of fascinating topics. Most of the stories it links to have been published in the month in which they are linked, but sometimes older stories appear in the lists as well. Bonne lecture!

ABC Radio National in Australia has a weekly program called All in the Mind described as "a foray into all things mental." I’ll have to check it out.

I ordered Janvier just now! She should come in 1-2 months. Woo hoo, a "Hooray, you moved!" present to me! Come on — yellow and blue eyeshadow!!!

As much as I like Soom’s dolls for their fantasy parts [hooves, claws and wings], I think I might be the only person who thinks that the headsculpts [for me, one of the most, if not the most, important parts of the doll] are uniformly generic and blandly pretty.

I mean, compare Migma’s "hollow head," the one with fangs, to that of, say, B&G Doll’s Burrysa sp, another vampire doll. With childlike, rounded curves and a demurely opened mouth on her headsculpt, Migma with her "hollow head" looks a lot like your average Asian BJD. That is to say, there’s nothing distinctive about her. On the other hand, there is no doll quite like Burrysa, who’s all angles and who has a mouth far more open than any other ABJD I’ve seen, with the exception of AOD’s Fenris.

Of course, I’m also biased because I own a Burrysa and like her very much, and I do not own a Migma. However, this example does illustrate that there’s more than one way to make a vampire ABJD, and Soom chooses the safest way of modifying the headsculpt. I do like Migma; she’s attractive, but she doesn’t have a lot of character in the way she’s presented as a default.

In case you haven’t heard, Radiolab publishes weekly radio shows of about an hour around a certain provocative theme, such as Talking to Machines, about humans and robots meeting in the uncanny valley. Less pretentious that This American Life and always interesting, Radiolab mixes science, history, pop culture and psychology into an intriguing combination.

Angelsdoll Ieseul Cat Avatar comes with a weird body without ball joints. But I asked the company if I could get her with a body like Lola Paprika’s, and they said yes! I just need to note it in my order. That clinches it. I’m getting Ieseul Cat Avatar with default faceup when I have the money. She can wear the outfit that came with Lola Paprika, and she will be a punk rocker!! Meow!

I’ve decided that her name will be Janvier.

Lola Paprika hyangs out in the Mountain View Cemetery, Essex Center, VT.Continue reading Lola Paprika a la cimitiere

Lola Paprika and the pink peony.Continue reading Les pivoines a la vase

Oh my God, I think Angelsdoll [whence Lola Paprika] just permanently lowered their prices on their 60 and 70cm BJDs!!! As you may recall if you care about these things, I got Lola Paprika at a 30% discount + eyes + outfit + shipping, all for $309.00. And that was a special sales event. Now, though, it looks like the base price of their lovely ladies has gone down to $220.00 for a doll only, no eyes, faceup, outfit or shipping.

Just to test the new pricing, though, I threw in my cart a Cat Avatar Ieseul [who, with that faceup, obviously needs to have a silver tinsel fright wig and play in a hair metal band], then added faceup and shipping. She came to $316.96, just a few dollars more than my Lola Paprika.

Clearly I need to get one, using the outfit and eyes that I got in the Hyang renewal event when I purchased Lola Paprika. She would have tinsel hair and an air guitar!

—

I know that Angelsdoll has an ambivalent reputation. On the minus side…

• Sculpts have thin, breakable resin in places.
• Elbow and knee joints look blocky; they don’t blend in very well with the limbs.
• Some people have reported long waits to resolve customer problems.

On the plus side…

• Headsculpts are beautiful!
• Dolls are relatively inexpensive.

I’m willing to accept the lower quality and aesthetic appeal of the bodies as a trade-off for the beauty and character of the heads, not to mention the inexpensive price of the dolls. Plus I note that Angelsdoll is constantly improving, having come out recently with an upgraded female body [shown on their new release Rin] that addresses both the shape of the joints and the thin resin problem. I like Angelsdoll myself.

Lola Paprika hyanging out by the bars on the side porch.Continue reading Lola Paprika behind bars

Lola Paprika shows us all the flamingos in my parents’ backyard. Continue reading Lola Paprika visite aux flamants.

Shots at 25% to show the beauty of her and the fleurs, which are peonies. Continue reading Lola Paprika aime les pivoines.

Lola Paprika!Continue reading She’s such a gentle soul.

Gentil miroir,
Dites-moi qui est la plus belle?
Continue reading O miroir…

This type of lilac blooms much later than mid-May [when they usually do around here].Continue reading Lola Paprika stops to smell the flowers

See what I did there? I made a pun!

Here she is, in all her tacky, mismatched glory!!Continue reading Lola Paprika [Angelsdoll Hyang] hyanging out amongst the lilacs

I haven’t done one of these since my first BJD back in 2004! Forthwith…here’s the box opening for Lola Paprika, my Angelsdoll Hyang.
Continue reading Hellooooooooo, Lola Paprika! [box opening]

Dorothy says hello to the Johnny-jump-ups in the yard of my apartment. They are taller than her.Continue reading Dorothy parmi les fleurs

Sarah wears a yarn wig that I got today from Lynn Nexus on DoA. I like the color and wriggliness of the yarn. Continue reading Sarah’s yarn wig

Sarah has a nifty new outfit with a shirt with reverse leg-o'-mutton sleeves and a double-tiered skirt. Look!Continue reading Sarah’s new outfit

Dorothy surveys her domain in Vermont outside my parents’ house this weekend.Continue reading Dorothy in spring

Lola Paprika’s hair on Sarah’s head.
Continue reading The hair is here [Lola Paprika’s, that is]!

So I got the Dollzone outfit today, removed the fur from one of the armholes and the mesh holding the two sides together, thus turning it into an asymmetrical vest with silver leather and studs. Bluish or greenish, patterned underbust corset coming to finish off the outfit. Sarah just looks weary with the whole proceedings at this point.
Continue reading Lola Paprika’s vest

Finally Dorothy has clothes that fit!Continue reading Dorothy’s correct outfit is here.

Now she can sit down without getting a wedgie or having her pants fall down.Continue reading Junebug got new overalls today!

These had better catch the light well when they're in her head — dammit — or else I won't be very happy. Note the subtle gradations of pastel yellow, pastel blue, aqua green and whitish pink. Continue reading Lola Paprika’s Captured in Glass eyeballs

The pink hot pants and yellow stockings came in the mail today, along with Junebug’s armbands. Sarah looks increasingly worried about the tackiness of this outfit, while Junebug thinks she is awesome for having bright pink armbands.

Regarding the status of this outfit, I think I’m slowly achieving meretriciousness. Needs more necklaces and some sort of belt, though.

EDIT: I have [hopefully] commissioned a waist cincher somewhere in the neon green to turquoise section of the spectrum. I have also purchased the Dollzone outfit at the link here [secondhand, so as not to support evil cheating BJD co.] with the intent of modding the top into a beautifully overdone vest.

Continue reading Sarah in Lola Paprika’s outfit so far, minus shoes, with bonus Junebug!

Dorothy skating.Continue reading Dorothy boarding in the sky

Just a little sequence of my doll taking pictures of her doll…

I got a new 1:3 camera today, a keychain actually, so voila my messy bed as a photo studio.  Continue reading Sarah takes pictures of Dorothy.

Today I designed a custom fur wig for Lola Paprika. The left half is light pink, the right royal purple, with a stripe of hot magenta dividing the two. See diagram below. That should amp up her OQ [obnoxiousness quotient] quite a bit!Continue reading Lola Paprika’s hair

Sarah: "This is humiliating."
Me: "It’s only for as long as I need to take a picture."
Sarah: "Please return me to my NORMAL clothes."

Thoughts: Needs more yellow, green, layers, stripes and patterns. Wig is also a bit too big.
Continue reading Sarah models Lola Paprika’s outfit so far.

So I got Junebug some pants recently from the horseriding outfit set put out by Karito, but I really dislike the pants. They’re very tight, and they keep slipping down when Junebug is sitting, which she does most of the time. I’ve been looking on and off for a maker of clothes for Karito Kids, but I haven’t had much luck, since KKs are 21", not 18" like the hideous beasts from the depths of Hell American Girls. But I just found a maker who works with Karito Kids: Doll Clothes by Carole!! Look at the patterns available for overalls; I think that Junebug would find the red curduroy print simply fabulous! I just E-mailed her to see if she would make a pair of overalls for Junebug with extra-long legs, so Junebug can cuff them. Junebug will be so happy when she’s not getting a wedige AND her underwear is not falling out.

So today I went to Claire’s Accessories, your neighborhood purveyor of tacky shit, and picked up some hair clips for my dolls and a necklace for Lola Paprika. Unfortunately, Junebug was a little too enthusiastic about modeling it.Continue reading Lola Paprika’s jewelry

Some more shots of Sarah outside, NOT reading.Continue reading Sarah’s hair gets in her face

Okay, here’s what I have gathered so far for Lola’s outfit. The only definite items so far are the shirt and the shoes. I’m disturbed by the amount of matching going on between the wig and the shirt, so the wig may be replaced for a light pink mohair, even though I truly adore the violent magenta. The existence of the skirt depends on how loud it looks compared to the multiple layers of legwear and armwear. Right now it’s clashing nicely with the stockings, which may or may not be in the final ensemble. Further bulletins as events warrant, say, when the yellow polka-dotted slouch socks and the pink leggings come in. Excelsior!! Continue reading Lola Paprika concept 2.0

This is my concept of Lola Paprika as of last night. Please ignore the long arms, short legs and other misproportions. Unfortunately, the concept has problems with it:

Colors are not accurately represented.
Patterns are not shown.
Outfit is not tacky enough. Not enough clashing patterns.

I’m working on all three of the problems as we speak. The result, I hope, will be very LHFy.Continue reading Lola Paprika concept

Where the company used to have more dinners, lunches, appliances, accessories and furniture available, it now seems to be reverting to its reliable standbys of candy and desserts. A lot of uninteresting things with various Disney and Hello Kitty themes are also appearing.

When new, interesting sets do appear, they recycle pieces from old ones. For example, the Teddy Bear’s Housekeeping set, which I like, includes dishwashing, soup cooking, and doughnuts, all of which Rement has done before. http://www.re-ment.co.jp/products/teddy/index.html  Even Rement pendants are boring this year, with the new panda pendants recycling the old set of Panda Kindergarten. http://www.re-ment.co.jp/products/animal_panda/index.html

I’ve also noticed a trend: the reduction of the size of Rement sets. Instead of a complete place setting with individual pieces of food, a single package of Rement might now contain just a cup, a saucer and a cookie. Compare #2 of the aforementioned Teddy Bear’s Housekeeping – a bear, a spatula, a pan, a pancake, a plate and a pile of pancakes – to #2 of Fun Meals, a set that came out a few years ago. Fun Meals #2 contains a waffle iron, a plain waffle, a waffle with syrup and berries, a plate, two crates of berries and a syrup dispenser. http://www.nrfbqueen.com/rement/lgpics/funmeals.htm Fewer pieces for your money in Teddy Bear's Housekeeping.

I look at Rement with an eye for diversity, usefulness and quantity in 1:6 scenes, and I’m not seeing much of any in the past year or so.

I love to take pictures of Sarah. She’s very photogenic. Sometimes the pictures actually come out well! I think this set is particularly nice. The increased file size of my photos and the accuracy of where I want the focus to point both seem to improve the photos.Continue reading Sarah in the sky

I realized that I had drawn Dorothy’s new eyebrows different colors of brown, so I went over them with black. In my attempt to do so, I made them thicker. I like them this way. She looks even more supercilious.Continue reading Dorothy’s new eyebrows

This is what Dorothy is doing right now, hanging out on a table to the right of my computer armchair. [Look — I read a lot of young adult books!] Continue reading Dorothy hangs out.

Two mohair wigs on Sarah. She looks good in any color hair, light or dark, I think. And the lines of her neck are so elegant!Continue reading From the hair of the wild mo: Sarah in two wigs

I told her not to. She didn’t listen.Continue reading Don’t skateboard in the library!

So I redid Dorothy’s eyebrows and managed to shove her into her too-small overalls [a temporary measure]. I also glued her middle finger back on. She remains cool and blase about the whole experience. Continue reading Skateboarding while dressed

My latest doll, Dorothy, an Elfdoll tiny Dodo, poses in a characteristically inimitable way. Her cute little outfit of T-shirt and denim overalls is too small, sniff sniff, so I have to get a replacement. I also want to redo her eyebrows to make her happier looking. And I already broke one of the fingers on her "peace" hand. Ah, the joys of doll ownership!Continue reading Skateboarding while naked

Noodge hangs around atop my Tarot cards.Continue reading Some pictures of Noodge

1. The Cowardly Lion is so gay in this interpretation. All his mannerisms are stereotypically swishy.

2. Despite Dorothy’s fervent proclamation that "There’s no place like home," her home pales in comparison to Oz. Let’s see — at home, Miss Gulch tries to kill Toto; her guardians, Em and Henry, dismiss her constantly and talk over her; even the hired hands pay no real attention to her. To top it all off, the place is in boring sepia and infested with tornadoes. No fun at all. By contrast, Oz contains Technicolor glory, magic and Dorothy’s acclamation as a hero just for being the rather nice, forthright, polite, unassuming girl that she is. No one in Kansas accepts Dorothy for who she is, but, in Oz, everyone valorizes her character. Why does she wish to return to a place that’s so actively hostile toward her?

3. Wow, that movie version is looooong. Takes about 50 minutes to collect all 4 companions together. I’m sure it could have been done in half the time, but many of the songs, if not all, would have to be cut.

I had never watched Die Hard (1988), with Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman [yay!], before, so I watched it streaming last night. ‘Tis a silly film – are we really supposed to believe that Willis’ character, John McClane, routs the baddies while not wearing any shoes? Come on now!

I also noticed that Die Hard seems to share with Fatal Attraction a reactive misogynist hatred of the independent woman. The specter of independence raised by Holly, John’s estranged wife, who dares to use her maiden name and separate from her husband for her career, is ultimately subsumed into the patriarchal family mode. In fact, the whole movie sets up a situation wherein the wealth and success of the Nakitomi Company, where Holly works, brings the terrorist attack upon itself. Therefore, we can see Hans Gruber [Alan Rickman, yay!] and co. as narrative punishment for Holly’s proto-feminist attitude. She’s so uppity, being a successful career woman and having a Rolex, that she deserves to be smote with the degradation of victimhood at the hands of the terrorists. But she learns her lesson; by the end, she’s using her married name again, happily signifying that she belongs to the manly-man action hero of John McClane. What a load of sexist crap.

Also this weekend I watched a weird three-part miniseries, Tin Man, the SyFy Channel’s story inspired by The Wizard of Oz. I really liked looking at the world, a combination of majestic Vancouver forests and glitzy, vaguely 1930s cities where everyone wears weird hats. Grey machinery mixed with verdant landscape in a cross between steampunky dystopia and wildlands utopia. However, I felt that the pace was rather draggy, especially in the middle episode [middle episodes of trilogies almost always suffer from sluggishness]. I liked the fact that a sisterly bond between the Dorothy equivalent and the Wicked Witch equivalent redeemed the Witch equivalent’s character, but I disliked the fact that monkey bats came out of the Witch equivalent’s heaving cleavage. That was just SILLY.

Sarah poses for moody shots in the various windows in the house.Continue reading Sarah in the window again

And yet I have watched the trailer a few times. Something about it appeals to me. Probably James Franco and Natalie Portman making fools of themselves.

The concept of Daybreakers is: When everyone’s a vampire, who’s the lunch? In the near future, humans are becoming extinct as more and more of them are turning into vampires. Hematologist Ethan Hawke pairs up with humans Claudia Karvan and Willem Dafoe to find and propagate a cure. Many car chases, scenes with evil businessvampires, dramatic washed-out shots in mostly colorless tones and scenes with portentous music result, but I find it hard to be sympathetic, even if Ethan Hawke can’t stand to drink human blood and feels pity for humans. Something about these vampires, indeed, this whole movie, is remarkably bloodless. Entertaining time-passer, though.

P.S. Also the slow-mo gore is unintentionally hilarious. Oh the humanity vampirity!

Watched the first two eps of the BBC’s Sherlock the other night, starring Benedict Cumberbatch’s lips and cheekbones as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as John Watson. The three-ep first season transplants the crime-solving duo from Victorian/Edwardian London to present-day London, where the two act as “consulting detectives” to Detective Inspector Lestrade and the rest of the new Scotland Yard.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes really reminds me of David Tennant and Matt Smith as the Doctor. With a spectacular intellect that moves much faster than the brains of mere mortals, Cumberbatch’s Holmes astounds people with his rapid-fire deductions in the same way that Tennant’s and Smith’s Doctors shock people with their free-associating intelligence. Additionally, both this Holmes and those Doctors take a self-conscious, performative glee in their superiority, enjoying the way that they befuddle people. Just as Smith’s Doctor is an adventure junkie, gleefully shouting “Geronimo!” as the TARDIS speeds toward a crash, so Cumberbatch’s Holmes enjoys living on the edge, dancing near suicide in the first ep just so he can get the buzz of adrenaline. I attribute some of this similarity to the fact that Sherlock was co-written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, both writers of eps for the New Who. Also interesting to note is that Cumberbatch has something of the Doctor – or at least the Doctor’s potential in him – as evidenced by the fact that he discussed taking over for Tennant, but never did. 

Needless to say, I love Sherlock for its strong characters, its Doctor-like Holmes and its stellar lead actors. I dislike it for its pointless exoticization of Chinese people as demonstrated in the ep The Blind Baker. From the minute the eerie stereotypical bamboo flutes start playing in the first scene as a clay tea set is ceremonially laid out, we know we’re in for Chinese stereotypes. The stereotypes continue throughout the ep, including a scene in which the Chinese tea set-laying-out character speaks to her brother in unsubtitled Chinese, reinforcing the idea of foreign characters as strange and incomprehensible.  This ep’s main villain, General Shan, leader of a gang called the Black Lotus, even delivers, as her first line, a supposed Chinese proverb in halting English [something about a book being a magic world in your pocket]! [I also noticed that General Shan’s English started out broken in her first scene and markedly improved throughout the rest of her scenes, making me think that she was directed to speak in stereotypical stilted English.] I condemn such lazy, thoughtless characterization as racist.

Remember "Identity," that SVU episode that I’ve been harping on for several entries now?[ Here’s my plot summary. Here’s my analysis.] Not only is it ridiculous, melodramatic and bigoted, but it’s also scientifically wrong.

The identical twins in the ep commit a supposedly "perfect crime" at the end of the ep by murdering the doctor who molested them. Actually, only one of the twins murders the doctor, but no witnesses, including the security camera, can discern which twin it was, and the twins aren’t talking. Furthermore, there was DNA from one of the twins left in the form of spit on the doctor’s corpse, but DNA tests, according to the ep, will not point to one twin or the other, because, as Stabler says, "Identical twins, identical DNA."

WRONG! Identical twins have been long thought to have identical DNA, but recent research suggests that their genes are very very similar, but not the same. See the New York Times "Really?" column for details.

In all fairness, though, the SVU ep "Identity" did come out in 2005, three years before research about identical twins’ different genes was published, so it was still within a period during which identical twins were thought to have identical DNA. Granted, but I still fault SVU for sloppy, stereotypical thinking about the similarity of identical twins, making us seem like magical duplicate halves of a single entity, instead of two very similar, but separate, people. >:

I got my Seed Dolls Inkling late last week and finally had the time to work on her today. I painted her in my usual messy style, gave her a dress by Spampy Stuff and glued pink yarn on her head for hair. Then I gave her some pancakes [Rement], which I think puzzled her.
Continue reading Petula, Seed Dolls Inkling, painted, wigged and dressed

So I was reading reviews of Return to Labyrinth, volume 4, a shitty manga predicated on Jareth naming Toby as heir to the maze. As I did so, I said to myself, “Some movies just shouldn’t have sequels.” And Labyrinth is one such. It creates a convincing and immersive world that wraps up conclusively at the end of its time frame and needs no embellishment in the form of further adventures. [That said, I will not censure fanfic writers for doing their damnedest to prove me otherwise. :p ]

As I scanned the reviews, a thought occurred to me: the sequels to Labyrinth stink for many reasons, one of the major ones being that they expand on the human population of the Labyrinth. The Return to Labyrinth series, for example, brings in Mizumi, Queen of Moraine [what?!], her two daughters, a mysterious girl named Moppet, etc., etc., etc. These additions negatively affect the original, true population of Labyrinth, i.e., just Jareth.

In order to prove that more humans in the Labyrinth is a bad idea, I should probably tell you why having only one is a good idea, no? As the sole human in the Labyrinth, Jareth provides a 1:1 correspondence to Sarah. He matches her. He becomes her complement in a way that clearly identifies him as a central figure of fantasy fulfillment, undistracted by other people. His symbolic appearance as the flip side of Sarah [hello there, Jareth, walking on the underside of the Escher maze while Sarah runs along the top!] is obviously telegraphed in his solitude. Jareth as sole human makes his symbolic role and his connection to Sarah crystal-ball-clear [nyuk nyuk].

Jareth’s aloneness also highlights another important aspect of his and Sarah’s character: their loneliness. Just in case you weren’t convinced by his pre-Magic-Dance boredom that Jareth feels lonely, his sad isolation also comes through in the sheer numbers. That is to say that he’s outnumbered by Muppets. He sits in his castle, spinning idle fantasies, in the same way that Sarah roams the park alone, practicing her lines with no one. Jareth’s singleness underscores the dangerous estrangement that Sarah suffers when she’s too immersed in her daydreams.

Having more people than Jareth in the Labyrinth depersonalizes the whole adventure for Sarah by diffusing Jareth’s symbolic heft and downplaying his twinship with her.

I always thought that Junebug’s original outfit, with a skirt and tights, was impractical for all the activities she likes to do, so I finally got her some pants and an overshirt yesterday. Here she is in all her bright, non-matching glory.Continue reading Junebug’s new clothes

Noodge in the Xmas tree.Continue reading Noodge in Xmas tree

Noodge on a ball. Continue reading Noodge having a ball

Noodge, who came to my parents’ house with me for Xmas break, hangs out [literally] in a tree.Continue reading Noodge in a tree deco

Gawd, Sarah’s such a brooding beauty. Continue reading Sarah with flash

My Fairyland RealPuki Soso arrived in the mail today, sadly, after doll club, so I couldn’t show her off this month. I will next month, however. I took a few photos of her in front of her box and with the violent pink yarn that has stymied me in my knitting progress.Continue reading Noodge is here!

In tribute to my grandmother, who died in July, I’m redoing all of season 2 [in which Anneka’s grandmother dies] with dolls, rather than digital renders. In this ep, the funeral is held for Minerva.

In tribute to my grandmother, who died in July, I’m redoing all of season 2 [in which Anneka’s grandmother dies] with dolls, rather than digital renders. Previously, in LHF, Anneka and Will were up in Vermont, struggling in their own ways with Anneka’s grandmother’s death. Disturbed by flashbacks of the deaths of himself and his parents, Will finally reveals to Anneka what’s on his mind. We find out how Will was turned into a vampire and just how stupid his first clan was.

In tribute to my grandmother, who died in July, I’m redoing all of season 2 [in which Anneka’s grandmother dies] with dolls, rather than digital renders. In this ep, Anneka takes her grandma’s illness hard and tries to console herself with help from her best friend.

http://oddpla.net/lhf/?p=51

I ordered my Seed Dolls Inkling today. She'll come with a neutral open-eyed faceplate and the one that she will wear most often, the pouting one. Her name will be Petula, a word that has the same cognate as "petulant," which describes her character: chronically unimpressed. She'll be Sarah's second BJD, after Precious Little.

In tribute to my grandmother, who died in July, I’m redoing all of season 2 [in which Anneka’s grandmother dies] with dolls, rather than digital renders. In this ep, Will thinks of a time in his own past when he was close to death. He has flashbacks of his relationship with the vampire Absinthe.

I really want an Inkling BJD, done by Seed Dolls, or armeleia [aka the person who modded Jareth and Frank BJDs for me]. Done in 1:9 scale. Inkling was made to be a 1:3 doll for 1:3 dolls — a BJD’s BJD. She appeals to me because of her small size, because apparently my own BJDs like BJDs and because she has multiple faceplates. I especially like the pouting faceplate.  I would get an Inkling and have her wear the pouting faceplate all the time, being a permanently bad-tempered doll. HAH!

Experimenting with photos at 20% of original size, rather than 25%.Continue reading Sarah has a Gothy edge, I think.

In tribute to my grandmother, who died in July, I’m redoing all of season 2 [in which Anneka’s grandmother dies] with dolls, rather than digital renders. Here, Anneka’s parents, Mamie, Anneka and Will visit Minerva.

Verdict: Sweet, smooth milk chocolate blends with equally sweet and smooth cream filling with a sparky flavor from freeze-dried strawberries. The creaminess of the chocolate mixes well with the slightly lighter weight of the cream filling. This is a squishy, rich bar — I could only eat half at once — with a dominant, but complex, taste. The two sweetnesses together may be too much for some people, but I really liked it. This is delicious high-grade chocolate for a decent price. Buy it!

I took some pictures in my driveway today after work. When she’s clowning around with the leaf, you can see how small she really is! Continue reading Doll in the fall

One of her big toes is sculpted so that it’s slightly upturned.Continue reading Little feets

In tribute to my grandmother, who died in July, I’m redoing all of season 2 [in which Anneka’s grandmother dies] with dolls, rather than digital renders. In another one of his flashbacks triggered by being around Anneka’s dying grandmother, Will remembers the time over 100 years ago when his old girlfriend, Absinthe, tried to vamp him.

Si chouette!! I wired her arms with pipe cleaners, and she poses much better now.  Continue reading Precious Little with 1:3 nail polish

Here’s Precious Little again. I love her profile.Continue reading Here’s a better picture of her.

Here is Precious Little, a Dollmore Banji Eomji. She’s a BJD who belongs to my BJD Sarah. Pretty cute!Continue reading Meet Precious Little

In tribute to my grandmother, who died in July, I’m redoing all of season 2 [in which Anneka’s grandmother dies] with dolls, rather than digital renders. In our previous ep, Anneka mentioned that she was resting while Will was talking to her parents. Here are the excruciating details of that conversation.

Before I send her head off tomorrow, here are a few more shots of Sarah, showing her current fabulous outfit!Continue reading More Sarah

I don’t know where my 1:3 Tarot cards went or my 1:3 book about Puritan cemetery iconography [handmade by me], so I bought some new mini Tarot cards and books for my 1:3ers. I got them a mini version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and a mini book of The Raven and two tales by Poe. The total shipping was more than the total price of the items. :p Anyway, then they won’t get bored if they want to do something other than talking to each other.

In tribute to my grandmother, who died in July, I’m redoing all of season 2 [in which Anneka’s grandmother dies] with dolls, rather than digital renders. This episode occurs after Anneka and Will have driven up to Vermont to see her family and her dying grandmother. In this ep, Anneka suffers the consequences of being out during the day.

My doll Sarah’s jeans and loafers have been purchased and will soon be in the mail.

I have an inquiry in to PamSD about making her poet’s blouse and vest.

I’m also hoping to commission Lynn Nexus on DOA to make 2 yarn wigs, one wiggly and hot pink, to satisfy my desires for pink hair, and one straight and dark brown, for hair like Sarah had in the movie.

And Arianne02 has agreed to do a custom faceup on Sarah that will give her a complexion and features like Sarah’s in the movie!

I can’t wait. She’s gonna be really cute. Now I just need to find some 16mm hazel or green eyes….

EDIT: Green eyes found and ordered!

Here’s what my Shiva looks like now, before her custom "Sarah" faceup. Picture by zouzou, the DOA seller.  Continue reading Souldoll Shiva G with default faceup

In tribute to my grandmother, who died in July, I’m redoing all of season 2 [in which Anneka’s grandmother dies] with dolls, rather than digital renders. Here is the second episode, in which Will and Anneka are on their way to Vermont to visit Anneka’s ailing grandmother. Along the way, Will dreams about his past.

…a Soom Breccia head. Owner pictures show her much more full of character and smirks and less vapid than the promo pics.

Yeah…like I need any more big dolls.

In tribute to my grandmother, who died in July, I’m redoing all of season 2 [in which Anneka’s grandmother dies] with dolls, rather than digital renders. Here’s the first episode, in which Anneka and Will show off a bit of their huge collection of kinky sex toys.

I got the genius, bad, tempting idea this afternoon that Bobobie Charisma looks like Jareth. And there’s a Bobobie Charisma human head on the DOA Marketplace right now for $30.00. Of course, it’s slate-blue, which Jareth most emphatically ain’t, but that’s why people who have airbrushes who can be hired to recolor a head were invented.

To quote Hoggle from Labyrinth, "Damn you, Jareth! And damn me too!"

Like I need more Jareths in my life…especially after I already got rid of a BJD one [but it didn’t really look like him anyway].

EDIT: Well, shit. I see that Bobobie is on my list of cheating doll cos.

…But Charisma has a smirk...and a cheap price tag.

Did I mention the smirk? And the seductive androgyny? And the face that looks older than most preternaturally young-faced BJDs?

How morally compromised am I, considering the abandonment of my principles for a cheap smirk?

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, maybe I can go to bed.

Anneka models more Moxie Teens fashions, all of which fit CGs beautifully. The first is marketed as a night gown, but it works very well as a dress and bolero for action figs. The second outfit is made of Melrose’s top and Bijou’s pants. Bijou’s pants actually go up to Anneka’s waist and close in the  back, making a very effective pair of skinny jeans! I bought all four Moxie Teens and the night gown set at full price, but I am very pleased with the results. Now I have to figure out what to do with four naked Moxie Teens on my desk….
Continue reading Anneka in more Moxie Teens clothes

This is The Morning After, by WooThemes. What do you think? Is it readable? Clear? Inviting? None of the above? Any thoughts would be helpful.

In which shoes are lusted after.

I ordered Moxie Teens Melrose and Bijou [I already cannibalized Tristen and Arizona for their clothes], along with a pajamas set that looks like a nice lightweight summer dress. Melrose and Bijou shall donate their clothes to my 1:6ers, and I shall be up more 1:6 outfits at an exorbitant price! I’m really looking forward to Bijou’s transparent pink over-blouse and the jeans [over some long shirts, of course, for I hear they are too short-waisted otherwise]. Since I have a lot of extra money, compared to when I lived at my previous apartment, I can afford to invest in my dollies, hurrah!

Continue reading More Moxie Teens clothes

Anneka and Will wear clothes from Moxie Teens. Will’s skirt and scarf are Moxie Teens, as are Anneka’s shirt and skirt. Fabulous?!Continue reading Anneka, Will and the Moxie Teens

I got my pink-headed Harumika today and promptly named her Bering Lusk. She’s quite imperious [hence the quote from David Bowie’s Within You, from Labyrinth], even with her limited articulation. However, she willingly donned an an42 creation made for a larger doll and allowed herself to be shot in the dying sun.Continue reading “How you turn my world, you precious thing”: Bering Lusk, the Harumika mannequin

Just two more photos of my new AJ.Continue reading My new AJ again

In which we look in on Velvette’s designing skills.

I got a MIB AJ Mcleod recently. I just took off her default outfit and dressed her in an an42 dress, with a hat from someplace and Shoezies fuzzy cowskin boots! In these pictures, she is showing off some new cosmetics erasers that Val gave me, a little big for 1:6, but still workable.Continue reading My new AJ

Ordered today from Amazon! Soon to be mine! I love her headsculpt and elegant hands. I may paint her head and rebody it…not sure.

In which we get a glimpse into Rori’s busy, busy life.

The first Cy Girl I picked up, back in 2001, was A.J. Mcleod. Her pale, melancholy face and brown hair reminded me of Jennifer Connelly as Sarah, but AJ looked more intelligent because her mouth was closed. I’ve loved and used the CG02 headsculpt [appearing on A.J., Blaze, Shadow and Destiny] many times in my collection, but, after customizing my last, I have no stock examples of this beautiful head. A fellow MWDer is selling me a MIB AJ, though, so I can enjoy her pure, unalloyed beauty as the second part of my "congratulations-I-successfully-moved" present to myself. I’ll leave this one untouched, though I’ll certainly change her clothes. I find AJ’s default outfit uninteresting.

P.S. If anyone wants to send me more congratulatory gifts because I successfully moved, comment here, and I will E-mail you my new address. 😀 😀

Tonight I painted Sophie’s eyes orange. I worked on her lips, but I didn’t like them in either black or yellow, so I erased them. I also ended up erasing a bit of the silver around her mouth, so now her lips look very slightly matte in comparison to the rest of her. I don’t think I’ll mess with her any more; her eyes are more visible, and she looks welcoming, rather than creepy. As a bonus, there is a self-portrait in Sophie’s forehead of me holding my camera. :pContinue reading Sophie with orange eyes

I painted Sophie’s eyes black this evening in an effort to make her features stand out a bit more. What do you think I should do to her lips to make them more visible? In these pictures, she’s meeting Ebru, my YNU Group Mixi Houda, who has a new hat. Both of them are wearing an42 dresses!Continue reading Sophie meets Ebru.

Here is my latest 1:6 acquisition. She is a Comic Con 2003 special edition silver Cy Girl. Even though she was produced in small numbers, she’s still available from Echobase Toys, who sold her to me for <$30.00 including shipping. There are only two unusual things about her: first, her color, and, second, her headsculpt, which, as far as I know, was used only on the Comic Con exclusives [there was a gold one too], but not on any flesh-colored dollies. Made completely of silver plastic [except for her joints, which are whitish], Sophie, as I have named her, is very difficult to take pictures of. She has the opposite problem of Velvette, my darkest doll, who swallows light; Sophie, instead, reflects everything. Forthwith, some photos.Continue reading Sophie

In which Viktor listens to the Rolling Stones, who describe his life.

C’est a dire, I have purchased the doll who would play Scanty Sophie if the Intellectum Library project ever came to fruition: a Comic-Con 2003 special silver Cy Girl 1.0. She is part of my "Congratulations, you successfully moved!" present to myself. She will be part of LHF, a robotic creation of Janet’s, and her name will be Sophie. I used to have a silver CG a long time ago, and I’m pleased to be getting one again. Thanks, Echobase Toys. Watch out for her eventual inclusion in LHF!