Photo by Mats Kangur
“Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness.” ~Karen Joy Fowler, Sarah Canary
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I love this project described on Humans of New York:
“I’ve always liked to do nice things for strangers. I worked in the mail room at my college dorm, and whenever I emailed a package notification, I’d always add a little something extra. Like an awesome shark pic. Or a link to Japanese jazz. Lately I’ve been doing this thing where I buy really weird antique post cards, write poems on them, and mail them to random people I find in the white pages. The first time I sent one, I added a full-page disclaimer because I was worried some old person would think it was from ISIS and call the cops. I basically wrote: ‘Don’t worry. It’s art. Everything’s cool. You won’t be hearing from me again.’”
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Stephen Fry welcomes visitors to Heathrow (via):
Take this tour of London as a ghost town:
Photo by Narrotographer
2015 produced a surprising number of alternate maps for the London tube, like this one for Harry Potter:
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2016 is of to a sad start with several celebrity deaths, including Alan Rickman and David Bowie. Here are my two favorite homages to them:
Daniel Radcliffe on Alan Rickman:
Neil Gaiman‘s short-story homage to David Bowie, “The Return of the Thin White Duke,” with illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano (click Amano’s name for additional images).
Illustration by Yoshitaka Amano
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Completely irreverent and inappropriate, I know, but maybe Bowie might have appreciated the sentiment of this caption from Natalie Kossar‘s Pattern Behavior:
I mean
I don’t want to be rude or whatever but
This funeral just got sexy as fuck
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Because Victoriana endlessly fascinates me:
Young people used these absurd little cards to get laid in the 19th century:
Victorians loved to communicate via calling card. It was the proper, dignified way to communicate with other people. But wouldn’t you know, young people just had to mess it up. Check out these oh so risque Victorian flirtation cards.
Check out these links for rare photos of Victorian women of color and also rare photos of Victorian men of color!
Selika Lazevski, photo by Felix Nadar (1891)
Young man in top hat and wool pant coat (1890)
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Australian artist Andrew Firth does interesting work with skulls and bones, like the skull below, which uses a PVC-cast skull (molded from a real human skull) as the base for the miniature bonsai garden. Via.
Grave Yard Bosai Skull by Andrew Firth
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McSweeney’s Travis Tack tells us that 10 objects around your house that are actually just Tilda Swinton getting lost in a role. And enjoy this photo of Swinton by Tim Walker for W Magazine:
Tilda Swinton, photographed by Tim Walker
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Dream about this Inception-inspired coffee table by Stelios Mousarris (via):
Click on the photo for more images of Mousarris’s coffee table
Related, after a fashion, is this sculpture by Wang Ruilin (via):
Wang Ruilin
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Mallory Ortberg offers signs you’re about to be in a sinister homoerotic subplot in a midcentury drama. Watch out!
David Sarno‘s short film Richard und Gilbert moves the homoerotic up to full plot (it’s a bit bloody, as you might imagine, though not gory–but it’s probably NSFW for other reasons). Thanks to Steve for sending me the link!
And another thanks to Steve for sending me the link to this wonderful commercial for Cillit Bang, in which Daniel Cloud Campos dances like everyone should dance:
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Artist Mike Maihack did a lovely watercolor of Wonder Woman to start off the new year:
Wonder Woman by Mike Maihack
And then there’s this Wonder Woman cookie made by Dolce Sentire for Comicake 2015. Click the image below for more pictures. Via.
Wonder Woman cookie by Dolce Sentire
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Mathematicians invent complex new ways to perfectly equal pizza slices. It’s about time!
I’m not sure how you slice this way with a conventional pizza cutter, though.
Just because:
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Fairchildart‘s miniature cheeses are too cute (via):
Fairchildart
For her Micro Matter series, Amsterdam artist Rosa de Jong made vertical dwellings inside glass test tubes (via).
Rosa de Jong
Dutch artist poppenkraal made a very cool Cabinet of Curiosities (Wunderkammer, baby) shadowbox miniature. Click the artist’s name or the image below for a few more images. You can purchase it on Etsy (If I wasn’t saving up for a trip, I’d buy it today!). Via.
Cabinet of Curiosities shadowbox by poppenkraal
Who doesn’t want a miniature bakery in a book? Via.
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Artist Brian Dettmer on old books reborn as intricate art (via):
Chilean artist Sebastian Errazuriz builds functional shelves and tables from fallen South American trees. I’d definitely love a non-traditional bookshelf like the one below in my house! Via.
Bilbao Tree Shelf by Sebastian Errazuriz
For a number of reasons, I enjoyed Samantha Hunt‘s brief history of books that do not exist, though I was disappointed that she never mentions Lucien and the library in The Dreaming, which shelves only books that do not exist. Thanks to Liz for the link on FB!
Lucien the Librarian gives a tour of The Dreaming’s Library
Photographer Michal Zahornacky‘s storytelling portraits visualize the imagination at work in Slovak poems. I’ve included two examples of his work below, but, really, all of the photographs are beautiful—go check them out!
Touch of Fear by Michal Zahornacky
Remember the Others by Michal Zahornacky
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Film Theory has a theory that Anna and Elsa in Frozen aren’t really sisters. Pretty fun, whether you buy it or not:
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Many thanks to Barbara for sending me the link to Mulder, Scully, and Jimmy Kimmel in The X-Files—funny stuff!
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My friend Andrew posted his 10 favorite records from 2015 (with videos). He has great taste in music, so check it out!
I’m sure by now everyone’s seen the James Corden‘s Carpook Karaoke with Adele, but I think it’s so charming and funny I’m sharing it again anyway. Thanks to Rossie for sharing the first link of it I saw on FB!
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For those of you who need this today, some GIFs from Grey’s Anatomy.
(These look much better on the site where I originally saw them—tumblr does have its advantages over blogs, I suppose.)
