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Amongst the many fun things acquired at MOCCA was a newfound obsession over ‘Hark: A Vagrant!‘ Unlike 99% of things calling themselves webcomics, it’s enjoyably drawn and entertaining. It’s history! And cute things! What more could you want from life?
(click for a larger version)
What with me being American a lot of the Canadian history goes over my head, but it’s so entertaining I’m almost willing to Wiki it.
Tags: comics, entertainment, hilarity, history
Walking around Brooklyn I came across structurally identical buildings covered in a variety of faces, one painted demure white, the other an almost lurid shade of mustard yellow.
The faces on the yellow building look more Nordic, Viking-like, while on the paler building they lean more towards stuffy English gentlemen of the 17th century.
This fellow’s the lone exception, looking like he stepped out of the relatively modern late 1800s.
Another building nearby sported a tropical portal to Middle Earth:
…and a closer view.
Over in Central Park, a manhole in the middle of an otherwise grassy knoll broke the pleasant illusion of country.
Of course, the gigantic obelisk sitting a few feet away also did the trick.
Known as Cleopatra’s Needle, the obelisk is an honest-to-goodness relic of antiquity, a gift to New York City (insisted upon after Paris and London got their own needle. Jealous much?)
It’s pretty hard not to take an epic picture of this thing; even the bad photos make it look like the obelisk from ’2001: A Space Odyssey’.
Far, far far more important than any silly bit of history, THIS TUNNEL WAS TOTALLY IN THAT EPISODE OF LAW & ORDER: SVU WHERE JERRY LEWIS PLAYED MUNCH’S UNCLE!
I can’t find any video of it but I’m pretty damn sure that’s the tunnel where they found him sleeping in his own filth surrounded by murder clippings. Ah, Law and Order: SVU, leaving no corner of the city untainted by murder and depravity.
I was unaware there even was an International Womens’ Day until I saw all the hoopla (read: blog posts) around it on March 8th, and was so excited I waited until now to write about it. Apparently International Women’s Day’s been around since 1911, though from 1925-32 it was known as ‘Skirts Day’.
In belated celebration of the ladies, here are some outstanding women as chosen by the Brooklyn Library:
Aww, isn’t that wonderful. We’ve got Harriet Tubman, Mother Teresa, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth:
Ain’t you a woman indeed. A very, very pixellated woman.
Including Princess Di amongst such honored personages seems a trifle light, but it was pointed out she did use her fame to help others, and she was royalty, albeit of the figurehead variety. Another royal lady prominently featured is history-altering Queen Elizabeth, portrayed holding her beloved royal poodle….hey, wait a minute…
Tags: babes, dames, females, gals, history, ladies, skirts, women
I consider myself a fairly thrifty person, and a large part of my penny-pinching includes getting most of my entertainment from public libraries. Reserving stuff online to your nearest branch makes it easy to watch, say, all of ‘The Prisoner’ at one’s leisure, but sometimes the entertainment comes from the library itself.
Perusing the shelves I noticed some…interesting choices in classification, including Borat’s guide to Glorious Kazakhstan amongst the travel guides.
Normally I avoid large groups of kids like the plague, but I’ll make an exception to check out the reaction of those going on Erik’s Reptile Edventure., especially once the inevitable salamander gets loose.
Forget the illegible sticker tag (and aren’t sticker tags a tad lazy?), check out the small scrawl above. Someone just learned to print and is proud of their skills.
Now this is a proper tag. I’m thinking it’s either by ‘You Go Girl’ or ‘Read UP!’; this example’s right on the Gowanus.
Heading into Manhattan on a K-Mart run, I saw this tape fossil embedded in the sidewalk. When did it get there? How long has it been there? Will the day come when someone comes across it having no idea what a tape is? Is there anyway they can determine whether it was a Wham! cassette?
K-Mart in New York is an anomaly; the familiarity of suburbia run through the filter of a city’s poorly-lit corner deli. The strangest part is I haven’t seen a K-Mart out in suburbia in ages; Target sort of took over, making the one by Astor place seem akin to the few remaining porn shops around Times Square-seediness from a passing era.
Above we have two objects towards the same purpose- deep fryin’ food. Why then is the open, presumably more fire-hazardous one the ‘GranPappy’ while the lidded, poor attempt at futuristic design the ‘CoolDaddy’? Are grease burns vintage?
Snow Dog!
Snowpocalypse Twenty-Ten (Snowmageddon’s just not doing it for me) really was a killstorm, with one man dead and one severely injured due to falling branches. Being indoors for 3 days straight in a teeny apartment ensured a bad case of Cabin Fever, but with the very sky threatening doom, what to do? Visit one of the city’s enormous museums, accessible by subterranean transportation, of course! (New Yorkers are a step away from becoming Morlocks in terms of how easy avoiding sunlight is).
The Met’s recreation of a Babylonian king’s hall always makes me nervous, due to watching ‘The Neverending Story’ as a kid:
Tags: babylonian gods, brooklyn, history, tags
As if playing Dracula over 10 times, portraying iconic screen villains Professor Moriarity, Count Dooku and the wizard Saruman, acting in 3 Tim Burton films, and his extensive knowledge of England’s public executioners dating back to the 15th century weren’t enough to qualify him, now Christopher Lee’s cementing his title as England’s Classiest Goth (Senior Division) by recording a metal concept album about the life of Charlemagne.
It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise; long a fan of D&D metal band Rhapsody, Lee recorded vocals for their album Symphony of Enchanted Lands II and starred as The Wizard King in several videos. Seriously.
(their lead singer sort of looks like Weird Al, no?)
He’s also related to King Charlemagne on his mother’s side through Italian nobility, and has long been interested in bringing his ancestor’s story to life. Lucky for us it’s through the magic of song and arpeggios. You can preview the album using the widget below; it’s less ‘metal’ and more ‘Jesus Christ Superstar meets Les Miserables’ (specifically anything sung by Jean Valjean).
I never thought I’d see the day Christopher Lee had a street team.
Tags: history, metal!!!, this entire post was an excuse to show the wizard guitar picture
