The Art of Darkness

Tim Burton to Direct “Alice in Wonderland”

December 31st, 2007 by Cobwebs

Well, it’s certainly his kind of material.

Burton will work from a script by Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast), and the film will use both live action and “performance capture animation.”

“The stories are like drugs for children, you know?” Burton said. “It’s like, ‘Whoa, man.’ The imagery, they’ve never quite nailed making it compelling as a full story. So I think it’s an interesting challenge to direct.”

To say the least.

Link

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Feel Like Doing a Good Deed?

December 30th, 2007 by Cobwebs

Here’s your chance.

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Shall We Play a Game?

December 28th, 2007 by Cobwebs

A bit too late for Christmas, but if you’re looking for some unusual board games to play at an upcoming gathering, Wired has a pretty neat list.

Fiji
Rio Grande Games, two to five players, ages 10 and up, $30

Buy it for: The mastermind

You play: A souvenir hunter with little respect for the dead

The object: Amass a large, unsettling collection of shrunken heads.

I’m really quite taken with a couple of these, particularly Ra and Battlelore. Although the latter may be just because I like the image of ostrich-riding goblins.

Link

Posted in Bittens, Needful Things | No Comments »

Bloody Necklace

December 27th, 2007 by Cobwebs

Clay NecklaceFrench artist Delphine Roche de Montgrand created this inspired choker out of polymer clay. I love how something so simple can be so striking.

This looks like it would be a snap to copy, even for someone without much experience working with clay. You’d want to make sure it curved slightly to fit snugly against the throat, so you might need to lay it over an upturned bowl or something for baking. The ties appear to just be black ribbon.

Here’s a FAQ about working with polymer clay to get you started.

Link [site is in French] (via CRAFT)

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Things That Have Amused Me Recently

December 26th, 2007 by Cobwebs

  1. The phrase, “I am the ‘I’ that’s not in ‘team’.” Which I am going to put on a plaque and hang up at work.
  2. The following conversation with Shadow Jack, regarding a friend’s comment that the PT Cruiser had been discontinued:

    Me: “I always thought they sort of looked like a VW Hearse anyway.”
    Him: “So that would make it a Carrion Beetle.”
    Me: “….”

  3. tinylittledivision, a blog by some of the creators of Hallmark’s “Shoebox” cards. Includes wonderfully subversive cartoons that will never make it onto a greeting card.
  4. This:

    Razor


Posted in Funny Peculiar | 1 Comment »

Happy Holidays!

December 25th, 2007 by Cobwebs

I’ll be chasing a Santa-addled toddler around the house today, plus I’m having far too many in-laws over for dinner, including the niece who was raised by wolves, so I’m afraid you’re on your own where gothy crafts are concerned.

Instead, you can get in touch with your Inner Grinch by leaving a comment about your favorite holiday tradition or your best holiday memory. (You pick the holiday; I’m easy.)

I’ll start by sharing a memory of my own, which also illustrates my family’s motto, “If a Thing is Worth Doing, It is Worth Overdoing.”

I was four years old, it was Christmas Eve, and I was completely beside myself with anticipation in the way that only small children can be. Just before bedtime, my father suddenly said, “Listen! Do you hear that? There’s something on the roof!”

He held me up to the window to look out, and suddenly a blinking red light eased out over the edge of the roof, stopped for a moment, then eased back out of sight. I had seen Rudolph’s nose! Santa was on my roof! I’m sure that my cerebellum simply fused with joy.

My dad–whose love of Christmas is so profound that X-rays have shown his entire skeleton to be comprised of candy canes–had rigged a blinky red light on a mechanical arm, which he triggered by remote. I talked about my close brush with Mr. Claus for months.

Hm. My heart just grew three sizes.

Now it’s your turn. Hope your day is fabulous!

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Holiday Music

December 24th, 2007 by Cobwebs

I don’t know about you, but most popular holiday music sets my teeth on edge; if I someday plow into a parked car because “Feliz Navidad” came on the radio and I was frantically trying to change the station, nobody who knows me would be particularly surprised.

I ran across this site the other day (I know nothing about the music, but am amused by their logo), and started thinking about holiday music that I do like.

Gregorian chants are always nice (although I’m quite entertained that there’s a “Best of” monks album), and carols in Latin can sound meditative and atmospheric, but there are also some albums that are aimed at the darker psyche. Here are a few to get you started:

Dark Noel Vol. 1 (Excelsis)
A Winter’s Song (Excelsis)
Winter’s Knight (Nox Arcana)
Dark Noel (Projekt)

Don’t forget to put out some cookies for Santa tonight. You’re on your own with the reindeer chow.

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Halloween Tree Part 6

December 21st, 2007 by Cobwebs

And now, to finish up, here are a few other “quick hit” ideas for a gothy tree:

The Craftster forum has a tutorial for making ornaments out of fabric scraps and polystyrene balls. Instead of traditional holiday fabrics, look for prints with skulls and bats.

For something a little more in-your-face (both literally and figuratively), pick up some miniature skulls from Anatomical and hang them from festive bows. A garland of little vertebrae would also be interesting, but might wind up being fairly pricey.

Hollyberry has done an all-witch tree, to wonderful effect.

Hauntspace has a nice tutorial for making your own skull ornaments.

The Cafepress store Ophelia’s Art has a great selection of porcelain gothy ornaments. (via frykitty)

Artist Nene Thomas has a line of ornaments based on some of her gothic and faerie prints. The link goes to her official site, but I’ve seen more ornaments than are listed there, so you may want to shop around.

Make candy canes, either fake ones out of polymer clay or real ones, and change the color scheme: Black and white, black and scarlet, or whatever strikes you.

For a really formal tree, consider Gothic or Celtic crosses; they’re mainstream and easy to find in a wide variety of materials.

Also easy to find are Nightmare Before Christmas ornaments such as these. As with any licensed merchandise these tend to be expensive, but you could use a few as accents.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Doom It Yourself, Paint It Black | No Comments »

The Possum Gets All the Press

December 20th, 2007 by Cobwebs

Giant RatA couple of new mammal species have been found in a remote area of Indonesia, and news outlets have been prominently featuring this adorable photo of one of the new finds.

Being somewhat downplayed is the fact that the other species is a whopping big rat. It’s about five times the size of a normal city rat, and seems to have no fear of humans.

I want to take it home and cuddle it.

Link

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Silly WordPress Plugin

December 20th, 2007 by Cobwebs

You bloggers using WordPress are probably familiar with the “Hello Dolly” plugin: It comes bundled with the standard install, and (for reasons that elude me) puts a random lyric from the song “Hello Dolly” on each page of your admin interface.

Carol Channing and Barbra Streisand both give me hives, so I’ve edited the plugin to instead display a random line from Poe’s “The Raven.” If you’re running WordPress, feel free to use it on your own site.

Hello Ennui Plugin

Download, unzip, and upload to your blog’s “wp-content/plugins/” directory. Then go to the blog admin interface and activate the plugin. Easy!

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