Photographer Rosanna Anson did a photo series involving a girl and a bear. I’m not sure whether to think this is cute and sweet, a girls fantasy of being friends with a bear, or if it’s more of a Furry type of thing….either way her clothes are really cute.

Leave us a comment and let us know what your fantasies in-real-life are, even if it’s holding hands with a bear in a forest. We want to know!! (Nothing dirty please.)

Pink Chickens and now this?! Farmer Andrew Jack from Scotland started painting his sheep in bright colors to “spice things up” so people could smile on their way to and from work. That is so cute!!

“They are sprayed with animal-friendly paint, something they don’t mind at all, and they will remain colorful until sheared. It all started when the farmer wanted to paint them blue to mark St Andrew’s Day, but now that it has become an attraction in itself, the thought of using other colors as pink has crossed the farmers mind. Sheep has been used as ideas to several other things, like these sheep sculptures made out of rotary telephones.”

Thanks This Blog Rules!!

You are looking at pictures of a real life hobbit house. It was built in Wales by Simon Dale, his family, and friends and took only 4 months. It was also built from natural materials with maximum regard for the environment which gives them “a unique opportunity to live close to nature.” I think my favorite thing about this house, besides the fact that it’s awesome and would do J.R.R. Tolkien proud, is that it really is dug into a hillside, making this a truly authentic house suitable for The Shire.

And there’s a slideshow!

You can view all of the construction here.
Thanks Lace & Tea.

This is the second test shoot I’ve done for a video that I’m working on.  This piece is my way of dealing with a childhood fantasy, the desire to be/become a robot/cyborg, and the anxiety one feels as they come to realize that their fantasies can never be real.  In the video, I’m literally breaking-down/peeling away/deconstructing the fantasy in a way that’s physically painful/stressful to mirror the emotional pain and stress.

As you can see, the video cuts off.  Camera problems, lighting problems, and some other problems mean I have to do it again.  I guess that’s why they say the third time is a charm… They say that right? Please, God, tell me that’s what they say.  This shit hurts!

Yay my first post! :)

The weekend of Jan. 8-10 was the annual AnimeLA convention at the LAX Marriott hotel.  It’s a relatively new convention and mainly known for being small, hospitable, and relaxing.  I was there with some friends, cosplaying of course.

This is me as Rimi (pink hair) with Colleen as Ayase (short silver hair) and Yoshiko as Sena (long dark hair) from the anime series, “Chaos;Head”.  We made our own costumes but the weapons were made by a friend.  Photo taken from American Cosplay Paradise.

Me as Haku from Spirited Away.  Photo by sklathill.

Two of my friends cosplaying as Chane and Rail Tracer from the anime, “Baccano!”.  Photo by me.

It’s pretty common at anime conventions to see people cosplaying from everything but anime… here we have the Progressive commercial girl and a frightening clown. Photo by sklathill.

As I mentioned earlier, AnimeLA is known for being hospitable and that’s through features such as the Con Suite.  Attendees can pop in for a quick snack or even a small meal completely free of charge.  It was a bit strictly regulated this year and only 20 people or so were allowed in at a time, but I remember last year being pretty hectic with everyone rushing in all at once. Photo by sklathill.

Something I had not seen at AnimeLA (or any anime convention) before was the Parent’s Lounge, which was run by LASFS.  I noticed that this year, AnimeLA seemed to be especially parent-friendly with this lounge and even with panels for parents to attend about “dealing” with their anime-crazed children or for parents who were fans themselves.  It was pretty interesting to see the convention making an effort in this aspect. Photo by sklathill.

Overall, lots of good fun and I was sad that Sydney and Senna couldn’t make it… maybe next year!

Today in my Critical Theory and Analysis of Video Games class, we discussed an article by Ian Bogost, Comparative Video Game Criticism, which was published in the first issue of the publication Games and Culture. He presents an interesting way to look at games in the tradition of literary criticism instead of purely as cultural and entertainment objects.  Here’s a summary:

This article explores comparative criticism and videogame software development
through the figure of the bricoleur, the handyman who assembles units of preexisting
meaning to form new structures. An intersection of these two domains — what the author calls comparative videogame criticism –suggests a more intimate interrelation between criticism and production. The author offers a critique of functionalist approaches to videogame analysis and argues instead for a comparative analysis of the expressive capacity of games and how they relate to other forms of human production.

View the entire PDF here.

So friend of Fantasy IRL Alex Paxton from AXPX showed me an interesting spoof video the other day. As part of the Fantasy IRL project exhibition, I am making a video that will take on the format and model of an old-school turn based RPG. Although mine will not be as goofy, it’s worth watching for the epic, nearly ten-minute long boss battle. Ha. Enjoy.

I stumbled upon two really cute costumes that I wanted to share. 

The first are these two little yetis.  So cute!! Thanks I Love The Yeti.

The second is this little cupcake girl.  I would just wear that hat from day to day… Okay, realistically, probably not, but it’s still really cute.

BEHOLD! What could be better than combining mythical creatures and guns? Watch out Iris Schieferstein, Senna will probably be contacting you to get a hold of these.

Thanks Design Milk.

Star Wars Burlesque night @ Bordello in Los Angeles.  The C3PO chick really freaks me out.

via boingboing via LAWeekly

Umm, can I live here please? The Hole House is located in the Swiss Village of Vals. See more here.

Production still from my latest video shoot. I’ll post the final cut once I’m done editing.

I wouldn’t have believed this was real had my friend not taken the picture herself.
In Bali, apparently there are rare pink chickens, supposedly they are not dyed, although some people say they are dyed as babies, either way they are really cute. I like to believe that they are real.

Here are some other pink chickens that I found via the internet.

Acoustic listening devices developed for the Dutch army as part of air defense systems research between World Wars 1 and 2. They look really futuristic to me.

Photographer Brian Ulrich has been investigating the plight of American consumer culture, documenting dead malls and other franchises as they sit abandoned in ruins.  Looking at these, I half expect zombies or cannibals to pop out at me.  They are utterly horrifying (but in the prettiest way possible).  Should we be worried?  Yeah, I think so.

Interested in seeing more on this subject?  Another photographic series to look into is Walead Beshty’s “The Phenomenology of Shopping + Dead Mall.”

(via io9)