Señorita, I feel for you*

Magnet #617 - Señorita Joy

Talk about creeeepy. Or, just a bad Photoshop job, honey.

Heh. Inside work joke.

A friend of mine brought this Spanish dancer back for me from Spain. Love her, even if she freaks me out because she's a little bobbleheady. (No, it's true. I'm not so good with the bobbleheads, it makes me bobble my own head.)

Just figured I'd use this to get into the Halloween mood. I'm supposed to be at a Halloween baby shower in NC today, but didn't make the ride down. Of course, this was the same couple that had a Halloween wedding reception. It was a great idea - they sorta-eloped with their parents and the priest, and then a month later, had a big costume party wedding reception. Genius.

That way, girls could wear their old bridesmaid dresses - my best friend wore my dress that I wore for her wedding. Wait. Is that weird? Maybe a little. I showed up as the wedding planner, in a business suit, clipboard, and lanyard and phones. Yay, 1st place. Of course, I'm sure it was rigged.

I rarely do the dress-up thing anymore, the last time I went allll out with any effort was as Jokey Smurf at Carolina. That's where we do it right - closing Franklin Street down and everyone running around unsober in costume. Really fun stuff. No real trick-or-treating, but that's what Nov 1st is for, to go buy the candy you want...at half price.

Honestly, in my 14 years here in town, I've still not done the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. Dudes. I get freaked out in my cube in broad daylight. The thought of a million strangers in costume and trying to scare people? Scares me.

So, it's the Chocolate Show for me today. We'll see if they have a magnet.



*A la pretty boy JT. And no, not Sweet Baby James that went to Carolina in his mind. Though, there is something in the way he moves, too. Hahaha. See what I did there?

What?

Things that go bat in the night

Magnet # 616 - Indian Echo Caverns

The AGE10* bought me this Indian Echo Caverns magnet during their last Pennsylvania trip.

It's a cool magnet, even though the three of them know that caverns make me crazy with the scary "an earthquake could happen and kill me right here on this tour" thought.

Yeah, I don't know when it happened, but I've become a bit of a fraidy cat.

I think, mostly, it's because I'm hard of hearing, and people come up behind me in my cube, sometimes scaring the bejeepers out of me. Then again, one weekend, STWfiance arrived with a knock on my door. You know, the knock that usually indicates someone's at the door. Logically I knew that, and still when I opened the door and saw him darkening my doorway, I totally jumped out of my skin.

And don't even get me started on movies. The US version of The Ring? Do you know how many unmarked VHS tapes I have at home??? Yeah. That.

But, truly, the last time I was Cover my eyes, cover my eyes! scared was when we went to the Central Park Zoo, and into the rainforest pavilion. Dudes. Not only were the birds all free-range-y and flying around, but they had a whooole BATcave. A cave. Full of bats. Ummm, yeah, I hightailed my butt out of there.

The bats were probably ok. Really, it's the birds I totally can't stand.

Particularly pigeons, if you must know.

But that's just cuz a dead pigeon tried to kill me once.

Uh, yeah, that's totally a different magnet.

*AGE10. My new name for my two sisters, and the one sister's fiance. Made up of our last name, and his last name, combined with the fact that they live in the 20010 zip.

Forever love - Guest blogger, Vampire Lover

Magnet #615 - Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake

Remember when I said that I was superdupertired of the whole vampire craze? Yeah, well, even though I can totally see the attraction to vampires, and I'm totally watching Vampire Diaries, I'm still thinking they're pretty much around every corner.

But, that's good! Especially since I was fortunate enough to meet Jocelynn Drake at NY ComicCon this year, and she was kind enough to give me magnets from her series. Woot!

Anyway, I'm in the middle of Nightwalker, and thought that maybe it was time for you guys to hear from a vampire-loving friend of mine who is responsible for a lot of that stuff being out there.

Ready, set..stake?

- joy

____________________________________

I love the paranormal. Vampires? Let me see those fangs. Shape shifters? Please. Manimal was one of my all time favorite TV shows.

Between the Twilight series, True Blood and Vampire Diaries, there seems to be no escaping these vampires. And even more books are being published that feature otherworldly creatures.

Jocelynn Drake, for instance, has her Dark Days series, featuring a vampire (also known as a Nightwalker) enforcer. Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress novels has a half-vampire battling evil. And let's not forget those sexy shapeshifters in Pamela Palmer's Feral Warrior series.

I have to say, though, vampires still remain my favorite species. A taste for blood aside, they have super strength, can see in the dark, and will love you forever. Forever!

Don't judge.

____________________________________

eta:
So. Weird. A Vampire Weekend. No, not the band.

The Paley's doing a whole weekend of screenings and panels: Dark Shadows at Twilight: A Paley Center Vampire Weekend, from Friday, Nov 13 to Sunday, Nov 15 - all around vampires.

Who is going. Me. And the chick who wrote this post.

I think she has to go for work. I just want to go because you know I loves me some panels. And this one's gonna be cool. Check it out. It's on their site.

Saturday Event, 2:30 to 4:00 pm
TV Vampire (s)Takedown

Our panel of expert fans will debate the relative merits of different vampires across media in an appropriately spirited and irreverent fashion. Special attention will be paid to the rankings of TV vamps determined by the Paley Center's TV Vampire Poll (vote through November 2). Come argue for your vamp of choice. Trivia, special gifts, and a bloody good time for all!

Panel:
Angel Cohn, Senior Editor, Television Without Pity
Sammy Buck, Blogger, tvland.com
Chelsea Doyle, Freelance Writer, Starpulse.com
Jim Pierson, Author/Producer, Dark Shadows DVD releases
Moderator: Ken Tucker, Editor-at-Large, Entertainment Weekly

Free to Members and $10 (general admission) for nonmembers. Reservations are recommended. The first 200 ticket holders will receive fang-tastic vampire giveaways!

Tiger father begets tiger son.*

Magnet #614 - Chibs from Sons of Anarchy

A friend of mine made this Sons of Anarchy magnet for me, because we're very worried about Chibs after he got blowed up a couple of weeks ago.

I can't believe we're already in the back half of season 2.

Storyline-wise, the systematic breakdown in the Club hierarchy and camaraderie has been fascinating to watch. The show has always blurred the line between gray and more gray, and it's been interesting to see where everyone's loyalties have been placed. The intensity hasn't let up - with each episode getting crazier and freakin' awesome, and more bad-ass than the one before.

Viewers are showing up for the show, too. Basic cable, and last week, they beat Leno.

I realize that I'm watching out of my demo. On so many levels. And yet, I don't care. it's rapidly become my only appointment TV of the week - which is saying a lot, given how much television I actually watch.

SoA's become not only a must-watch the night it airs, but a must-watch twice the night the night it airs.

That's just how damn good it is. Thanks, @sutterink!

And that's all I'm going to say. Don't want to spoil last night's kick-ass episode.




*- Chinese Proverb

Check each column

Magnet #613 - National Building Museum

There's this interesting sentiment in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead (that I still haven't finished reading) about how Greek and Roman classical architecture has just been copied over and over again through the ages - in wood, in stone, in marble, and finally, steel and glass. The point being that there's no more originality in architecture.

This is not that magnetpost. After all, the same could be true of television and books and movies, and life, really.

I for one, am always caught between not knowing if I like the classical stuff, or the modernist stuff or the whatever stuff. I tend to just like some design, and some not. No rhyme or reason for my tastes, but most likely attributable to not having any architectural training or education in this stuff, as someone pointed out to me today.

Anyway, the National Building Museum is a particular favorite of mine. Besides the really great tour, it's just an awesome building to wander around in, and filled with such history.

It was designed by US Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs a couple of decades after the Civil War. Meigs modeled the exterior after Michelangelo's Palazzo Farnese, while the interior was after the Palazzo della Cancelleria, both of which are listed here. And the Corinthian columns were inspired by the ones in Michelangelo's church, Santa Maria degli Angeli. Whew. What a mishmash.

Still, it's totally one of the more interesting government buildings out there. It was the pensioners building! Can you imagine all the Civil War vets and civil servants filing in for their monies during the day, and then at night, the building being used for Washingtonian social gatherings?

The building spent years as a government building before being repurposed with a new life as the National Building Museum Yes. Repurposed. Unlike other buildings we know - crackheads who destroyed Penn Station, I'm looking at you. Now, it's a forum for all things, well, building. Exhibitions, collections, seminars, events, tours, discussions, the works.

From this magnet, you can see that they weren't joking calling this room the Great Hall - it's 316 feet x 116 feet, and like 159 feet at its pinnacle. You could play football games in here. For reals, yo. Well, ok, you'd have to ditch the 26-foot-fountain in the middle, but you catch my drift. Whoa.

Check out gigantor Corinthian columns in the forefront (see little people to the right?) and toward the back. They're 75 feet high! Eight feet in diameter! Twenty-five feet circumference! Seriously! Of course, I was surprised during the tour to see that it was just bricks...painted to look like marble. Wha?

I do love that on top of the Corinthians, there are 72 Doric columns on the ground floor, topped by 72 Ionic columns on the second floor.

This room always gives me a giggle, because it reminds me of the school project that I didn't do back in elementary school. I haven't the faintest why we were learning about Doric, Ionic and Corinthian Columns in elementary school, but I distinctly remember the three types of columns on posterboard - complete with knife-sharpened pencil guidelines, beautifully hand-lettered labels, painstakingly drawn detailed sketches...by my dad.

What? It's not like I didn't learn the difference between all three of them. I did! I did!

Also? Thanks, Tatay!

I'm looking over, a four-leaf clover

Magnet #612 - Fabergé Egg #4, Imperial Clover Egg

Yes, I'm writing this magnetblog as I'm watching U2's live streaming U 2ube concert. Good concert, actually.

I'm not even a giant U2 fan - I just like the idea of a live streaming concert around the world that everyone's watching online right now, that everyone's Tweeting about.

Plus, I like that they snaked the YouTube logo and made it U 2ube...and I like that Bono told The Edge that the concert would be on YouTube..."on Google." I dunno why that tickles me. And that Bono thanked their latest corporate sponsor Google. Heh. Check.

I can't wait to see the traffic numbers for the concert - worldwide. It's bound to be astronomical, though I wonder if it'll be a real source of revenue for them. @TVMoJoe Tweeted an article from The Wrap about how they're slow to show a profit on this tour, and it's fairly interesting to see how ticket sales are going. Particularly when half my FB newfeeds consist of my friends going to different US concerts.

But, back to my clovers. I totally admit using this particularly one is way cheesy - stereotypical, even. But even though I've been to Ireland - I don't have a second magnet from there!

So at my new love, the Clearance Store at the Met, I picked up the best find ever in that store - Susanna Pfeffer's Fabergé Eggs: Masterpieces from Czarist Russia. Half price!

Dudes, I freakin love this book. It goes through the whole series of eggs, with beautiful full-bleed beauty shots of each egg and their surprises! Really gorgeously done. You'd be surprised how much cooler this egg looks on a green background. Heh.

This Imperial Clover Egg was thought to have been given by Nicholas II to Alexandra in 1902, and is a beribboned bunch of three-petaled clovers made from a treasure trove of gold, diamonds, and rubies. Crazy beautiful. The surprise inside has been lost to history, but I'm gonna go with a four-leaf clover ring or brooch. Made of emeralds and diamonds and gold.

Yes. I just made that up. And I'm sticking with that.

Tastes great, less...wait, really?

Magnet #611 - Oxo with Milk ad

Ok. I just caught up on seven episodes of Mad Men. I know, I know - I'm usually pretty good when it's a show I really love, not just trying to get off my DVR. But I knew I'd want to concentrate while catching up.

And now I know about that John Deere episode that I've been la-la-la-ing with my fingers in my ears. In a word, ewwwww.

But, yay for being caught up.

And so I'd celebrate with this odd little ad magnet that I picked up at the cool Museum of Brands in London that I mentioned a while ago.

I picked it up because at night in London, off in the distance, you can see the giant well-lit letters of the OXO Wharf Tower on London's Southbank. It's had an interesting history, first as a power station, then as a cold storage center for OXO products, and finally, it's been rehabbed into a neat shopping/residential area. I didn't get to visit, but I did just learn that the letters aren't all neon-y, like regular building signs. The giant OXO are actually made out of windows, that are just lit through at night. How cool.

But, I also didn't understand the thing about OXO that "makes milk interesting." So I just looked it up. Classic ad, selling something that you just can't believe. OXO beef products. Apparently, they were suggesting that you mix these beef cubes...with milk. Uhhh, beef-flavored...milk?

Mind you, you're reading this blogpost from the chick who, at the age of 5, hid behind the counter to mix together milk and Pepsi like Laverne always used to do on Laverne & Shirley.

But, dang. I have my limits.