The inestimable pdq pointed me to this post on Quirky Japan Blog, which deals with some of the more peculiar Japanese books about fortune telling.
The first one in particular, Cat’s Paw-pad Fortune Telling, is sort of wonderful; apparently, “A cat’s mental condition, its character, tendencies, and even its fate are written on the pads of its paws.” (pdq noted, “The cat paw fortune book link on Amazon Japan is utterly worth using Google translate on for the sheer flavor,” which is certainly the truth: It’s where the post title came from.)
I initially thought that some of the items might be novelty/humor rather than genuine guides to fortune-telling, but apparently not; even the capybaras are taking themselves seriously.
If you’d like to know what penguins have to say about your love life or want to tell fortunes using Hello Kitty tarot cards,* go take a look.
Last Thursday at Comic-Con, Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) announced that he will co-write and produce–and may also direct–a movie based on Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction. He also took pains to emphasize that it will have no relationship to that hideous Eddie Murphy thing.* And thank gawd for that.
It’s apparently going to be family-oriented but “scary.” Walt Disney Studios also unveiled a new piece of artwork for the movie (seen above, with a larger version at the Disney blog), which looks promising.
I’m assuming the story will be based on the whole “phantom bride” thing that’s hinted at in Disneyland’s version of the ride and fleshed out more fully in EuroDisney’s Phantom Manor. Given del Toro’s fantastical imagery in his other movies, this could really be pretty cool.
*I’m told his exact quote was, “We are not returning Eddie Murphy’s calls.” Hee.
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The Skull Mate – Cute little ceramic skull thread storage/pincushion. This appears to be just an artist’s concept rather than something for sale, which is a pity.
London Dungeon Ad Banned – “Have Queen Mary morph into a zombie in front of children? What could possibly go wrong?”
Repuglicans – Political satire featuring icons of the U.S. Republican party made over into monsters. Some nice Photoshop work. (You can see a selection of images here).
Last year on Craftster there was a post about a cute “zombie girl scout” Halloween costume which included merit badges for things like “limb reattachment” and “brain eating.” I’m not an enormous fan of zombies–I prefer my monsters less stinky and without bits falling off–but I loved the individualized merit badge notion. The idea has been rattling around in the back of my head ever since, and I finally decided to run up some badges for the local Vampire Scout troop (click to enlarge):
Transformation
Glamouring
Garlic Eradication
Coffin Repair
Fang Maintenance
Blood Type Identification
I tried to keep the designs simple enough that they could be easily rendered in embroidery, fabric paint, or whatever your medium of choice is; in a real pinch you could simply print them on stickers.
These were the achievements that I came up with off the top of my head, but there are plenty of others that could be used to expand the set: Burial Plot Landscaping, Care and Feeding of Children of the Night, Minion Recruitment, Anti-Sparkle Outreach….
Somebody sent a note to my Halloween listserv a few days ago, alerting us that Rob Johnson of DarkSyde Acres was raffling off his custom hot rod hearse, the Lost Souls.
I have yet to be able to access the raffle site, winahearse.com, but Rob has posted about the raffle several other places so I can provide a few details.
The tickets are on sale now, and the drawing will be held October 31, 2010 at midnight. Tickets are $10 each or 3 for $25, and a maximum of 3,000 will be sold. The winner is responsible for picking up the hearse, so if you’re not local to Jonesville, MI, there’s transport to consider.
Taxes may be an issue–the stated value of the hearse is over the $5,100 amount that the US government allows before it expects a cut. On this thread Rob speculated that he might drop the hearse’s stated value to be in line with the cutoff, although I suspect that might open a whole other can of undead worms.
Additionally, by law raffle proceeds are supposed to go to a non-profit organization. In the same thread Rob said that the organization was “Wicked Jester,” but aside from the clothing company the only Wicked Jester I can find is this one, which does not appear to be a non-profit. (It’s possible that this is addressed further on the winahearse.com site, but since I can’t get to it, I don’t know for sure.)
The upshot of all of this is, there’s a chance to win a custom hearse, assuming a bunch of legal stuff is worked out and you’re either in Michigan or willing to travel.
They’ve said that if this raffle goes well, they plan to raffle off a custom hearse every year. If you don’t get in on the action this time, you can try again next year.
My wife is listening to Katy Perry so I’m heading to Rivendell to see if the elves know what to do about this wedding ring.
— sween
I’m waiting for someone to make a t-shirt that says, “Team Bestiality or Team Necrophilia?” Get it done, people. I need this!
— bedheadblonde
Instead of downloading WebMD for the iPad, I taped a piece of paper to the screen and scrawled “IT’S CANCER” on it.
— phyllisstein
If you think commas don’t matter, try asking the girl for whom “Come On, Eileen” was written.
— goldengateblond
If you’re wearing clean socks and you don’t have hooks for hands then I’ve succeeded as a mother.
— The Bloggess
I downloaded the Friday The 13th ch ch ch ah ah ah to my iPod to listen to while I did my trail run tonight. I beat my best time. By a lot.
— AngelaHelga
Doomestic bills itself as “The Home For Haunted Housewives And Menacing Mommies,” with a mission statement that seems to indicate its focus as being, essentially, “Hints from Hell-oise.”
The site appears to be almost brand-new (its copyright is 2010, and its apparently-now-de-rigueur Facebook page only became active in June) so content is extremely sparse, but it looks like it might have some potential. It’s got what appear to be categories for recipes, sewing/crafts, household tips, parenting, and–somewhat inexplicably–an arcade area. Their sidebar also suggests that they’ll eventually have a blog and forum.
The site is definitely ambitious; it’ll be worth keeping an eye on to see how they build it out.
Part of the site’s appeal is that no attempt is made to interpret these photos. I’m sure that many of them have some reasonable explanation, but the fact that they’re just there, with no context, makes them altogether more surreal. (I think this one might be my favorite. So. Many. Questions.)
A few are mildly NSFW in that they contain various unclothed bits, but frankly that’s probably the least of your worries where this site is concerned. Weird. Eerie.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller recently uploaded this to YouTube, saying:
This was a fake commercial we made in 1998 for a series of educational shorts about action figures based on historical figures. Its educational value was somewhat suspect. It was never aired.
And I stand by that statement.
Last Thursday at Comic-Con, Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) 
Here’s a wonderful time-waster: The