This went viral a week or so ago but just in case you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a look. Sergei Polunin, who was with Britain’s Royal Ballet until recently, dances to Hozier’s bluesy hit “Take Me to Church” in this impressive video.

Little Embroidered Bones – An interview with artist T.C. Hutchinson of tinycup needleworks. I adore all of her little skeletons.

Alex Stoddard – Wonderfully surreal photography, some of it quite creepy. NSFW for artistic nudity. (via Spooky Moon)

The Black Mudpuppy – Webcomic where, to quote its creator, “an Aztec god of the dead is trapped in an axolotl and forced to be a superhero.” We’ve all had days like that.

The Perfection That is Anatomia Humani Corporis – Photos of an astonishingly elaborate hand-bound book. (Hat tip to xJane)

Popular Skullture – A look at the skull motif in pulp magazines, paperbacks, and comic books, back when the image of a skull was still striking and macabre instead of something routinely slapped on baby clothes.

Bat Photos – Stunning closeup photos of bats by researcher Merlin D. Tuttle.

DIY Skull Bookends – Easy tutorial using a cheap plaster skull.

Insect Alphabet – Gorgeous hand-drawn font featuring insects as each letter.

Lord of the Rings Dinner Party – This is a great idea, with many geeky details.

Carmilla – Artist Isabella Mazzanti did a lovely showcase set of illustrations for the Le Fanu novel.

Writer and comedian Dana Schwartz is writing the ultimate dystopian young-adult novel, one tweet at a time.

This class system seems really stratified. But I guess if it's the way it's always been, it must be for the best.

— Dystopian YA Novel (@DystopianYA) February 13, 2015

I saw my friend Jessum through the crowd outside the Testing Center, her coffee/chocolate/hazelnut/cocoa/caramel skin glistening in the sun.

— Dystopian YA Novel (@DystopianYA) February 13, 2015

I'm so clumsy. I accidentally spilled the Nutrition we had for dinner all over my grey tunic.

— Dystopian YA Novel (@DystopianYA) February 11, 2015

It just seems like I don't fit into our Society's prescribed categories.

— Dystopian YA Novel (@DystopianYA) February 11, 2015

"Anthem!" I cried out, "Your rebellious sacrifice isn't worth it!" Anthem looked back at me. "You're worth everything to me, Val."

— Dystopian YA Novel (@DystopianYA) February 11, 2015

My sister Harpa played with her hair. In a lot of ways, she reminds me of a metaphor for my childhood innocence.

— Dystopian YA Novel (@DystopianYA) February 11, 2015

People from This Category haven't gotten along with people from That Category. Well, not since the Civil Schism.

— Dystopian YA Novel (@DystopianYA) February 11, 2015

She told Buzzfeed:

Since I read Divergent a few years ago, I became hyperaware of the sort of tropes that have become overused in YA novels

Things like trains, overly simplified first-person narration, and love triangles. I started another parody Twitter account a few months ago @GuyInYourMFA, and I realized how fun it was to skewer overused literary cliches.

So, two nights ago, I decided to do the same thing for YA writing, not really intending it to be a full or cohesive story, more just a collection of random sentences and elements.

But as I wrote and saw the response, I realized it would definitely be more interesting to try to add plot and tell something from start to finish.

The feed is @DystopianYA; her main Twitter account is @DanaSchwartzzz.

I can’t wait for this to be made into a blockbuster movie.

Giant squid are undeniably awesome, but just as undeniably hard to cuddle due to their unfortunate insistence on living underwater. No more must your squid-snuggling proclivities go unslaked–this Build-a-DIY tutorial has a pattern and easy instructions for making a big plush squid of your very own.

Their sample squid is 8 feet long, but the pattern could be scaled down (or, I guess, up if you want a mega-colossal squid). You could make a whole shoal* of different sizes and colors.

The tutorial calls for felt, but the construction method seems to indicate that it would work with pretty much any fabric so this would be a good way to use up scraps from other sewing projects. You could have velvet squid, brocade squid, even faux-fur squid if you’re feeling particularly ambitious.

The tutorial also suggests polka-dot fabric for the underside of the tentacles to suggest suckers, but also links to a method for creating quilted circles for a more three-dimensional appearance. You could also do both, quilting the polka dots on the fabric for a really sucker-y look.

This is a fun project which doesn’t require advanced sewing skills, and the payoff is a cuddly squid of your very own. What could be better?

*I couldn’t remember if a group of squid was called a “school” or not, so I startled typing, “a group of squid” and Google auto-suggested “a group of squid is not called a squad,” which makes me sad. I want to be able to yell, “Look! A squad of squid!” and I’m terribly disappointed that I can’t.

If you bought any craft pumpkins on clearance after Halloween last year, here’s the perfect project. If you didn’t, well…that was silly of you. Keep this in mind for next Halloween.

The Merrythought did a neat tutorial for Design*Sponge for carving constellations in Jack-o’-Lanterns. I love how restrained and elegant they look.

Their method uses real pumpkins, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t do the same thing with craft foam pumpkins like Funkins. As they suggest, you could do one or more small pumpkins with one constellation each, or carve several constellations into a larger pumpkin.

They suggest spray-painting the pumpkins black, and that’s certainly the most dramatic presentation (it has the added benefit of making the “stars” look like they’re hanging in midair when the lights are out); you could also paint them white and use purple or blue lights for better contrast.

Drilling holes and etching straight lines is refreshingly easy, so even those of us without any pumpkin-carving mojo should be able to play along. It’d be fun to do the zodiac constellations of family members, or a set of them associated with a particular myth (such as Orion and his dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor).

Richard Grayson is a composer and pianist who is known for improvising classical music. In a concert in 2009 he received a request from the audience to do Darth Vader’s theme in the style of Beethoven.

Impressive.

12 Zodiac Signs Reborn as Terrifying Monsters – Today’s horoscope: You will be messily slaughtered.

Vintage Monster Valentines – These Topps Valentines featuring classic monsters are fabulous.

Meet the Family – A collection of antique cabinet cards, surreally altered by artist Colin Batty. You can see some examples and buy prints of individual cards at Peculiarium (about halfway down the page).

Handicorn – Turn your boring old hand into a unicorn with these finger puppets. I love this much more than I should.

Enchanted Forest Mushroom Lights – Instructable for making li’l glowy mushrooms. Be sure to check the comments, where one person shared a pretty blue version.

The Stock Photobomber – Art director Matthew Vescovo amuses himself by photoshopping his image into stock photography.

Origami Vampire Fangs – There are several steps, but origami-wise this is a fairly straightforward design. (Hat tip to xJane)

omgliterallydead – The Instagram account of Skellie, a plastic skeleton that appears to have a better social life than I do.

Texts from Jane Eyre – Mallory Ortberg of The Toast has a book which imagines texts from various literary characters.

Cthulhu Valentines – A very dapper Old One woos his fishy paramour.

It’s your lucky day. Sure your bus broke down and you can’t find your iPhone, but there’s a sinister mansion down the street that will surely have a phone you can use…

…a KNIFE PHONE!

Game designer Doctor Popular and some friends created this “point-and-stab” adventure as a Web-based game in 2010. He’s recently updated and released it as an iPhone app, and I would play it for the title alone.

It’s described as “our short love letter to Monkey Island and the adventure games of yore,” and one of the comments on the app version begins, “Tip.if you can’t find a way past the mutant chicken lion thing go tap around in the kitchen,” so it definitely sounds like a winner.

(via Laughing Squid)

Once in a while, in my webby wanderings, I encounter an idea that just completely smacks my gob. This Instructable for making haggis “lollipops” is such an idea. It is just marvelously out there in left field.

Haggis, um, connoisseur PenfoldPlant walks you through each step of making the wee haggises (haggi?), from cleaning the sheep stomach to preparing the offal, with plenty of wry commentary and suggestions for extracurricular activities like using a drinking straw to inflate the lungs (fun!).

He brilliantly uses a ping-pong ball as a pattern for cutting out bite-size bits of stomach to wrap the pops; the honeycomb texture of the finished lollies makes them look like pretty little mushrooms.

If you can’t find sheep bits or don’t feel like making your own haggis from scratch, similar savory pops could be made using cow stomach (which seems to be more widely available in supermarkets) and the sausage mixture of your choice.

It’s too late for Burns Night this year, but this is worth saving for next year.

Be sure to check out some of PenfoldPlant’s other Instructables, like Frankenstein’s Meatballs and–just in time for Valentine’s Day–Candy Hearts (made with real heart). I like this guy. He’s twisty.

(Hat tip to Kitten Herder)

Hey, do you guys remember View-Master stereoscopes? If not, you can read the following in Peter Falk’s “When I was your age, television was called books” voice from The Princess Bride: They were a toy that looked like binoculars, into which you slid a paper disc containing color transparency film cels. When viewed through the lenses, the images appeared to be three-dimensional. They were originally intended to be an alternative to scenic postcards, and the first discs featured natural wonders like the Grand Canyon.

Eventually they expanded into other subject material, and in the 60s and 70s they were immensely popular as supplementary marketing media for cartoons, TV shows, and movies. The discs were usually accompanied by a booklet which explained the contents of each slide, so you’d view an image and then read its description in the booklet. (Yes, we were lame.)

Anyway.

Over in the Facebook Elders of Goth group, “Roman Gheesling” recently shared a link to a View-Master set featuring The Addams Family.

He noted:

“Portrait of Gomez” is the fourth episode of season 3 of The Addams Family. This rare View-Master packet recreating the episode was part of merchandising for the show. Sawyer’s, the makers of View-Master, always sent their own photographers to set when creating licensed View-Master packets of TV shows and always shot their slides on Kodachrome color film.

Thus, this images in this View-Master packet are the *only* color images in sequence depicting an actual Addams Family episode. In short, it’s the only color “episode” of the original TV series.

I found seeing the Addams Family in vibrant high-chroma Kodachrome color quite weird. Even the in-color Raul Julia/Anjelica Huston film had a muted color palette to stay in harmony with the original ink wash illustrations of Chas Addams.

He’s quite right; the colors are rather jarring. Here’s the first slide, along with its accompanying booklet description:

A full moon shed its eerie light over the front yard of a gloomy Victorian mansion on the outskirts of town. Reveling in the silvery brightness, a strange-looking family moonbathed in the yard.

Morticia Addams, wearing dark moonglasses, sat under a tree, affectionately watching her children, Wednesday and Pugsley. With little buckets and pails, they were busily building up an oddly human-shaped pile of sand. Her husband Gomez, in a gaudy 1910-style bathing suit, peered at the moon through a telescope, while bald, beady-eyed Uncle Fester sprawled in a beach chair.

Morticia looked at the pile of sand. “Are you all right, Mama?” she asked it. “Getting enough air?”

“Fine—fine,” came a muffled voice. “I took a real deep breath before they covered me up.”

(Told you we were lame.)

The site–it makes me oddly happy that there’s a site devoted to nothing but View-Master reels–has some other color episodes of black-and-white TV, such as Dark Shadows and The Munsters. If nothing else, they’re a rich source of avatar thumbnails.