Thursday, May 24, 2012

Love: Evil Party Trick

This is a little something my dad showed me as a kid. It's a great party trick, and can be used to creep out unsuspecting Christians.



All you need is a piece of paper and some scissors.










first thing, take your paper and fold the corner down, like so







 



Then fold the other corner down, like making a paper airplane









and just like a paper airplane, fold it in half








Now, we are goign to cut it into thirds, first the top of the "wings" get cut off









The cut whats left in half









This gives u three sections









Now, take the bottom piece, the one to the left, and put it aside, just focusing on the first two piles we made, unfold these





We end up with this, these will form letters!






Pull out the two "L" shapes first....the rest of the shapes with form an "H" and a "E".....now whats that spell???????






HELL!!!!! now take that piece we set aside earlier, can u guess what that unfolds to make????



 



An upside down cross! Isn't it cute....




You Gotta Read It: The Walking Dead...Rise of the Governor





WOW.........

This book was amazing! The book was written by Robert Kirkman (the man, the myth, the legend) and Jay Bonansinga (his debut novel The Black Mariah was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award ooooo..... ahhhhhh) and I read this shit in two sittings, that's how good it was.


Those of you familiar with the Walking Dead comic book series will recognize the "Governor", the crazy, cut throat, torturing rapist, diesal ass mofo in charge of the town of Woodburry. Well, this book is the story of how he becomes the Governor, not just in name but in mind, body, and soul (or the lack there of).


The story chronicles the hardships of four men and a little girl, (well at least that's how many begin the journey) from the very beginning of the plague that turns people into flesh hungry zombies, as the group travels into and out of Atlanta, into the country side for a stay, then off to the discovery of the crumbling town of Woodbury.


It is nonstop action and shows one man's decent into madness, another man's struggle with loyalty and righteousness, and another man's struggle with his own cowardliness and weakness; all the while trying to keep a little girl safe, sane, and feed. Full of gains and losses, bad mistakes and near misses, opportunities and twists of fate, and of course tons of blood, guts, and gore.


This is not a STAND ALONE and it ends with you wanting more! However, the next book in the series; The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury is not being released until fucking October. BBLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

Monday, May 14, 2012

You Gotta See It: The Woman



I watched  this tonight on netflix, and it was so good! I found out after watching it that it's actually a squeal to a movie called Offspring. But I watched "The Woman" and totally enjoyed it without having seen the first one. The movie begins with this creepy dude finding a feral woman in the woods, he captures her, takes her home to his family, ties her up in a shed with the goal of trying to civilize her (or so he clams). Then all hell breaks lose!
The actress who plays the "woman" (Pollyanna McIntosh) embodies the role so freaking well. Her body language, and her facial expressions, everything, is just perfect. She is a amazon of a woman, she is fucking wild!!!! totally in love with her.
The quality of the film is really good too. Who ever was in charge of the lighting, is a fucking genius. There's one scene at the beginning where the woman is in a cave, and only her eyes and the bridge of her nose are visible, its so primal. In another scene, the mother (played by Angela Bettis, you know May!!! love her!!!) anyway in this one scene she kind of slinks up from the back ground into her daughters room and its soooo fucking creepy, just because of the way its lit.
The sound track is weird though, it's one of those movies where the music at first doesn't seem to really match whats going on, but then you realize it makes the scenes even more thrilling by the strange juxtaposition. The ending is pretty fucking classic too, throwing a real twist on everything. Now I have GOT to see the first one, and hope there will be a third!
UPDATE: I turn on Chiller and behold, they are playing Offspring AND the woman, back to back. So I get to watch the offspring, however, it's edited....so all the T&A is blurred out....boooooo.....but it was pretty good, not as good as the sequel, but alright. much more low budget and the cinematography isn't as good, but its got some cool parts.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

You Gotta See It: The Divide

We rented this movie last night from redbox and I thought it was pretty awesome. It's one of those movies where the whole time you're urging the main character to just KILL EVERYONE! The plot of the movie is simple, a nuclear bomb is dropped in a city, a group of strangers end up together in a bomb shelter in the basement of their apartment building, add in some creepy military government plot that causes these people to be locked in, and mofo's start getting crazy and start suffering from fallout, shit gets intense. The movie's point is to show how desperate people will do desperate things, and people will grasp for power and control over others when in a shitty situaton they have no power or control over. Makes you question, were these people crazy to begin with or does their environment make them so? Would you fall in line, bow down, even give your body to those stronger than you, even if its for protection, for food, or for peace. Would you do your share of the dirty work? In the end are you just as self-serving and cutthroat as those you condemn?

Friday, May 4, 2012

Eat Me: Salad

The easiest, yet most delicious salad you could EVER make is so simple even I can do it. All you need is:
  • Strawberries sliced
  • Spinach

  • Red Onion sliced
  • Olive Oil
  • Balsamic Vinegar (a good bottle)
  • Salt and Sugar (pinch of each)




Place the strawberries and onion in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and sugar. Pour some balsamic over it then some oil. Taste. Add oil and/or balsamic as needed to make the dressing, just keep tasting it so u don't get it too oily. Toss it, and pour over a bed of fresh spinach.... And enjoy!!!

You can also do a simple citrus salad just as easy but instead of strawberries use mandarin oranges that come in those little cups and instead of balsamic use red wine vinegar and a splash of the liquid from the orange cup. Just don't use any sugar or salt. Throw in the red onion and pour over spinach.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Craft Time: Framing Embroidery

So I put together this little tutorial on the simplest way to finish your embroideries. I was learning as I went, but they came out awesome. You will need:
  • the embroidery...duhh
  • a wooden hoop (painted a cool color and sealed with a fixative)
  • a piece or thin fabric (for the back)
  • iron
  • towels
  • pillowcase
  • dish liquid
Ok, first things first, you have to clean the piece, so fill up a sink with lukewarm water and a tiny bit of dish soap.....and swoosh the embroidery around a little, don't go too crazy....

oops, too much dish soap 











Let that sit for about 10 minutes then rinse it off really good under running water. Now you have to pat it dry some, so place it in between two towels and pat away....Depending on the fabric you may have to let it sit in between those towels awhile, you want the fabric damp not wet.














Now its time to iron. Place your embroidery on a pillowcase, and with your iron on the correct setting, mine was on the highest cotton setting, start ironing. its a good idea to start it off by ironing it in between two pillowcases first to make sure your iron isn't too hot. then move on to ironing it straight up with the iron. iron it face down first then flip it. if your piece is really 3 dimensional, and you don't want to flatten it or it's really delicate or done on some fancy ass fabric, then keep it between the pillow cases and don't bare down too hard, mine didn't matter so I ironed the fuck outta it.

Now its time to frame! Place the outer hoop where you want it, and flip it over, then place that piece of back fabric down, this makes it look cool and protects all those loose and crazy threads back there. Now place the inner hoop and push it down. You will have to tighten the fabric and stretch them so its smooth on the front, if you embroider you already know all about that shit.



Trim the excess fabric now. the back fabric can be cut pretty close to the hoop, but the embroidered fabric needs enough over hang to fold down the inside edge of the hoop.


You may notice that the embroidery I am using has miraculously changed, this is because I had to re-soak the skull in the soap cause I got it dirty, be careful! Make sure your work area is clean!






Ok now back to the demo...See, nice over hang!!!









You can decide now if you want to iron the fabric overhang over the hoop so its easier to glue or not, the first one I glued I didn't iron but the rest I did, I found it faster to have it creased. Anyway, get your glue, I used this shit I found at the craft store, its pretty awesome. 














So, run an edge of glue on the top lip of the inner hoop as well as around the inside edge. Do it a few inches at a time. Fold and smooth the fabric down over the hoop to secure. 








Because the hoop is round you are gonna get bunching so go with it, try to make it as neat as possible and secure as possible.








And that's it, you're done!!! look how pretty!!!!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Art?: Crunch Time (part two)


Today I went to Jerry's to get my mats and they had some hideous gold frames on sale... So I bought 4. When I got home I began painting my bones and and while doing that had a great idea on what to do with the frames. I rushed out to the store and bought some stick on letters, then on each frame I spelled out the title of the piece. Then spray painted the whole frame black so when I peel off the letters the gold is left behind. I also decided to paint the embroidery hoops the same red as the bones, so they have come continuity within the grouping.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Art?: Crunch Time



In a couple weeks I am going to be in an art show, so of course I wait till the last couple weeks before then to start trying to get my shit together. I only had two Lino blocks carved (war and famine) and one print ready for framing (famine). So I have been frantically carving another block (pestilence) printed the other initial block (war) I had previously carved, hand embroidered two anatomy drawings (rib cage and pelvic), harvested a decomposed deer and peroxided the bones. But that's only the beginning, still on my to do list: fix my third carving (pestilence) and reprint it, carve the last limo block and print it (death), embroider two more pieces (phalanges and skull), paint the deer bones ( red enamel), paint the picture frames (black) and embroidery hoops (black), get to Jerry's to buy some mats, affix bones to frames, frame all four prints and all four embroideries.... and if I get all that done with time to spare I may do a few more stitched body parts, like a uterus or a vagina or some shit. The only thing is I have to hand over 30 percent of my sales, so I have to jack up the prices of my stuff, which fucking sucks. The only way I thought people would even consider buying my stuff was if it was cheap! So I doubt I will sell anything.








Tuesday, April 10, 2012

You Gotta Read It: Rat Girl A Memoir

Oh man, Kristin Hersh's book is pretty awesome, it reads more like a fantasy then a memoir. This is because, the lead singer of the Throwing Muses uses her own lyrical-esque story telling to create this surreal look back at a time of her life that was fantastical and hyper, full of hallucinations, and self discovery, and music that lived and forced its way out of her small frame as if possessed. See Kristin is a synesthete. She see's colors as a result of hearing music. She also, following a hit and run accident, began to constantly "hear music" which would haunt her until she played it and gave it substance. Add this to a girl with a crazy high IQ, who was raised by hippies, who was lead singer in a truly unique band, who was diagnosed with manic depression, who carried an imaginary snake around in a bag.. And who got knocked up young while still playing shows and recording their first record.... Add all that up with some of the most poetic characters imaginable, and well, you have quite an extraordinary read. S/N....I just wrote this blog on my phone, using some free blogger app, hopefully it publishes correctly if not I will fix it later :p

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Slightly Greenish Thumb: Fittonia

AKA...Nerve plant, Mosaic plant, Silver net plant, Lace leaf, Painted net leaf, and Snakeskin plant. This is a low light, worry free plant, just the way I like it. All you need to do is remember to water it, which inst hard cause the leaves will get all wilted, but will perk right back up with a little H2O.  I love the look of this thing, with its bright green and pink leaves. Another cool thing about this plant it that it is also pest free! and you can find them cheap at any place with a gardening section, this one I got from Wally World for a dollars (I had too...I seen it there with no light and water all sad looking and I had to bring it home to nurse it back to health, I also got a silver veined one but that one didn't make it)