You think you’ve seen some truly disturbing crochet work over the years? If you haven’t checked out Patricia Waller’s works in crochet and other media, you ain’t seen what yarn + imagination is capable of.

In this video walk-through of an art exhibit (armchair travel, anyone?), Bugs Bunny and friends become an “artistic metaphor for malice, violence, and the inevitability of disasters”… and you can make of that what you will…

How’s about that for Yarn Art?!

Personally, I find the piece of Miss Piggy in the old-fashioned meat grinder a bit too strong (luv luv luv Miss Piggy), but the floor arrangement of sharks breaking through around a flailing hand, the iconic “Who Killed Bambi?” and the beautiful big Bugs with giant fork in him? Clever, clever, clever. Okay, also a tad creepy… but very clever.

Chilean-born Patricia Waller now lives and works in Berlin. Her most recent solo exhibition, called Follow the thread, is open now at the Museum junge Kunst in Frankfurt Oder, Germany.

I saw a promo for this SpongeBob SquarePants camera on a CNet video round-up of new tech toys, and the guy had it hanging around his neck on a cord.

Hey, I thought, who couldn’t use a camera on a cord (less fumbling for a camera in a pocket, for those spur-of-the-moment candid shots)?

But I’ve looked and looked and looked, and I don’t see a cord mentioned anywhere in the specs or ads.
Disappointment!

More second thoughts — a bright yellow camera in the form of a cartoon character might be a bit noticeable to pull off the truly subtle snapping of blackmail-worthy pics.

And there’s nothing subtle at all about the shutter sound-effects that come with — you get to pick your choice to suit the mood: Marimba, Ukulele, Foghorn blast, or Seagulls squawking their heads off.

On the plus side, there’s the fun of slipping off SpongeBob’s pants when you want to reveal the USB thingie, to plug in and download your photographs to computer.

It takes photos up to 640 x 480, which is plenty good enough for the aforementioned candid snaps you might want to embarrass folks with on Facebook or your blog. (“You’ll do my weekend shift for me, George, won’t you? Oh, lookee-lookee who ol’ SpongeBob saw together at the club last night!”) Not that we would. Ever.

But, c’mon, it’s SpongeBob.

And the camera’s cheap enough for butterfingers like me — which means the price is not out of line for kids, if you yourself are more into the suave DSLR sort of thing. Running $26 at Amazon, with some serious discounts — even some that are under $10 — from third-party vendors…

Sadly, however, Memorex is only shipping its SpongeBob SquarePants to customers in the US at the moment.

And no, Hello Kitty is not a fair substitute!

Cartoon: Barbara Smaller

I love this cartoon:

One woman says to another, “My favorite part of being a stay-at-home mom is when they’re at school.”

Oh, c’mon, Mum, are you trying to tell us the thought never crossed your mind?

Not even once at the end of a long summer with three kids who don’t wanna do tennis lessons, Daddy away at work, and that new not-house-trained-yet puppy? (I was there, remember. Kids know these things!)

Originally published in The New Yorker October 14, 2002 — I think it should have hit the magazine in September, though — the cartoon’s shared here by kind permission.

I always wanted to be more animated…

You’ve probably seen a lot of these Voki animations around… more frivolous stuff, driven by advertising, right?

Well… yes.

But in defence of the 15 minutes I just blew away by making my own talking cartoon self… let us not forget that a clever educator can find all sorts of ways to make a teaching experience out of this sort of thing.

Anyway, the animated characters also come in dog, cat, celebrity, alien, and anime styles, as well as the “classic” bland cartoon face style I’ve used here. (And believe me, I was sooo tempted to go all talking poodle on this!)

You can pick the clothing, hairstyle, background, etc., of course. Sliders and a color-picker let you refine the appearance of your Voki in some fairly entertaining ways, more than I’d expected would be possible, so there’s fun to be had in that.

The service does give you the option to upload an actual sound file, or to record your voice by phone or microphone… but the text-to-speech thing is good enough for this talking avatar, thank you very much.

So, there you have it — that’s Voki.

Have at it, if you’ve got a few minutes to spare or maybe an 11-year-old visitor to entertain on a rainy afternoon!

You know how the other day I went on quite a bit about personal taste in decorating? And about how some people manage to pour all kinds of money into making their home look… well, quite hideous, really?

Cartoon: Robert Weber
The New Yorker, April 3, 1989
by permission

That whole discussion of “good taste” in the home has reminded me of this favourite cartoon from The New Yorker…

And who doesn’t like to poke a bit of fun at pretentious rich folks?

Well, other gaudy rich folks, maybe…

Afterthought #1:

Here’s a little travel tip for my fellow femmes:

If you’re travelling alone in North America, and you don’t want to be hassled by optimistic convention-going salesmen in hotel lounges or on long flights… I’d strongly recommend picking up a copy of The New Yorker and letting ‘em see you enjoying it.

Don’t ask me why — perhaps it’s the implication that you might be too intelligent and refined to look twice at any man who tries to get dates in an airport? — but it works like a charm!

Afterthought #2:

My uncle always used to say, of pretentious people who were rude to him, There ain’t no couth like uncouth!: I’m pretty sure that wasn’t original to him, so feel free to make it your own. In fact, I’d love to know who came up with that quip, if anyone happens to know…

… okay, that’s all I’ve got here.