Dearling NYC-folk,

May I humbly recommend waiting in the absurdly long line to view mysterypants-british-street-artist Banksy’s “Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill” on 7th avenue between Bleeker and W.4th. It puts the ‘bing’ back in disturbing, or something. whatever. go see it because it’s only here until halloween (yay ephermal!).

For ye who liveth in elsewhere, I took some video:

(yes that is a swimming fish stick)

learn more about banksy if you like.

Dearlingest, talentpants etsy-staffer Claire and I were discussing the fashion animal phenomenon the other day and came up with a list of former and future fashion beasts (below).

Recent fashion animals (like so 5-years-ago)

1. Birds (49255 items on etsy)
   • or more specifically, owls (10354 items on etsy)

   

   • and vintage-tattoo swallows (2525 items on etsy)

   

2. Various underwater creatures
   • cephalopods/octopuses (2651 items on etsy)

   

   • whales/narwhals (1699 & 79 items on etsy, respectively)

   

3. Woodland animals
   • Bears (12661 items on etsy and 1541 pandas)
     
   • Deer (4196 items on etsy)

   

   • Wolves (1485 on etsy, but there were like 1kerflillion indie-rock ‘wolf’ bands in the last 5 years)
4. The Moustache (admittedly not technically an animal, but it’s furry anyway) (325 spelled “ou”, 463 spelled with just the “u”)
   

The next hip-and-now fashion animals

1. Crustaceans (MY PREDICTION)
   • SHRIMP (not cooked/cleaned/sushified shrimp, but the real swimming antennaeful little guys are adorable)

   

   • HERMIT CRABS (cute like turtles, but meaner)

   

2. Capybara (CLAIRE’S PREDICTION)
   
3. *bonus* Mashups: take the that’s-so-last-year animals and mix them together and you get PURE cryptozoological amazingness.
   • The Octo-Owl

   

At long last, pt. 2 of my wall-improvement series is ready. My plan had been to show just a couple of samples from the nature illustration print collection of the NY public library’s Digital Gallery, but, well, there were way too many that I adored.

and so BELOW are just an itty bitty smattering (apologies for the nautical prejudice - it’s just where my interest lies) of the vast collection of archived science/nature book pages scanned and available for purchase (for like $50 and up, depending on size):

Testudo polyphemus. from North American herpetology; or, A description of the reptiles inhabiting the United States. (1842) (omg, TURTLE BELLIES.)

Sixteen Varieties of Gooseberries, from A collection of the most esteemed fruits…with the blossoms and leaves… (1812) (who knew there were so many varieties of gooseberries? not me, that’s for damn sure.)

Himanthalia lorea, from Photographs of British algae: cyanotype impressions. (1843)

Fig. 1. Male Narwal, or Unicorn (15 Ft. in length); Fig. 2. Under side view of the same Narwal; Fig. 3. Lamantin. from American natural history. Part 1.–Mastology (1826)

Sea Anemones from Animate creation; popular edition of our living world, a natural history (1898)

Les Poissons: le Hareng, la Morue, la Baleine from Cabinet du petit naturaliste (1812) (Woodcut = yay)

Ctenophores. from The new natural history (189-?) (Just LOOK at that loverly shade of blue…)

1. Helix antiqua; 2. Helix Coreanica; 3. Helix leucostoma; 4. Helix orientalis; 5. Helix immaculata; 6. Helix caliginosa; 7. Helix decora; 8. Helix densa; 9. Helix plurizonata; 10. Helix canescens; 11. Helix conoidalis. from The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Samarang; under the command of Captain Sir Edward Belcher … during the years 1843-46 (1850)

Siren lacertina from North American herpetology; or, A description of the reptiles inhabiting the United States. (1842)

They also have cartography, russian civil war posters, fashion illustration (see below), industrial blueprints, architecture, menus… I just… it’s just so… overwhelming. Go forth, acquire.

from Ladies’ dress shoes of the nineteenth century (published 1900)

No, my dears, the bugs below do not have some kind of magical shiny clear tumors - they are just covered in fresh morning dew (WHOA WHIMSYTIME).

macro photos by Martin Amm. (anybody think they are photoshopped? either way, I seem to have a thing for glammified bugs…)

just checkin’ in mid-vacation at a hostel in halifax.  here’s some highlights from my trip thus far:

wolverines on bibles on the US-canadian border:

googly-eyed lemon slices:

lobster-people roaming the streets in apparent distress:

here we saw a woman chasing after a man who has stole the bottom portion of her papasan chair:

gnome pinup photos:

possibly the best movie ever:

questionable labor policies in new brunswick:

more to come. hooray.

I subscribe to a 3.98 gaflillion (approx) rss feeds.

While catching up, I noticed a link on we-make-money-not-art’s feed to a wired artcle called “a nation of guinea pigs” - which, oh my god, promised to be the most amazing article ever written - A whole nation?! full of guinea pigs?! where? what are their primary exports? is the kinship system lineal or dravidian? etcetera.

and anyway.

the article was obviously not about that, at all*.

but to assuage my intense disappointment, I made the following:

that is all.

*apparently drug companies are exploiting corrupt south asian health regulations to perform questionably ethical clinical trials on lots and lots of resource-deprived people. which is awful. and not to be made fun of.

I truly hit the Internets jackpot here, my dearlings. but you know what, I’m going to shush-up because, behold! the pictures speak for themselves:

for your consideration, “hair hats“, by japanese artist, nagi noda

please, PLEASE, let this trend catch on.

via designboom.

If pressed, I could certainly think of far worse blog-schticks to become mildly famous for than for all my slug-talk recently. and thus, here’s summore:

hug-a-slug!

darling plush nudibranches can be bought by you in the passive voice on weirdbuglady’s etsy shop here.

Surrealist Slugs

my wonderously wonderous newfie friend miss lisa has shared with me the following finalist for the National Film Theatre/Hayward Gallery’s 60-Second Surreal competition, “the room”: starring, obviously, a slug or, the shadow of a slug. (to watch, click here and select “the room”)

*at least it does in kafka on the shore. well, leeches. ok so leeches and slugs aren’t the same. blablabla who died and made you Captain Science?**

**it has been a long, long week.

I’ve been bookmarking affordable art stuffs over the last few months and it’s time to share! this may become a series. my love of the following burns with the fire of one thousand suns.

Cardinal & Deer by Berkeley Illustration, buy here for $7-$15. They are just so stately-looking.

if only we could wear pants & Up to no good, marc johns, buy his prints here: $16-$20.

antler girl and horse hostess by Ashley Alexander (or “I’m Smitten”), buy here for $40 each. adore. also, I appreciate another opportunity to use my cryptozoology tag.

and last, but in no way least… No one wants to play sega with Harrison Ford, Brandon Bird, buy here for $7.99 (unsigned). and if you aren’t into lime green, it comes in many alternate shades of awesome.

just tellin’ it like it is:

note: should anyone decide to make a movie about me, please hire a british 1970s-nature-documentary narrator. thank you.

Just when you thought you had seen the final slug this month on NSTGD, the folk behind the “little people” tiny street art project have gone and a-started graffiti-ing snail shells…

and they call it Inner City Snail, and it makes me all pitter-pattery with joy. Also, the little people take snail public transport it seems…

swoon.

Also - hello! to the 1 billion extra hits I have gotten since the lovely jules over at ikeahacker posted my fira-shelf becomes disco-drawers how-to.

via rebet:art.

NOTE: I was very very close to calling this post “feather-man in the netherlands”.

It seems as though a bird-person has built a huge barnacle-looking nest on the side of an apartment building in the netherlands…

I would tell you more, but the website is in some sort of bizarre unintelligible ‘bird-person’ language:

found here.

… but it seems as though the sea slug (specifically the chromodoris toxic nudibranch) might be the new Cutest Most Wonderfulest Sea Creature of All Time, Ever.

I mean, really, what? are you kidding? it’s smiling for heavens-sakes. truly there is *almost* no competition.

Thank you to dearlingest lauren who shared this collection of amazing photographs of sea slugs courtesy of National Geographic.

In honor of NSTGD’s 1st Bloggiversary today (first post 4/4/07), I will be sharing with you a random sampling of totally true facts* about the reclusive and mysterious wolverine species.

#1. The wolverine is the state animal of Michigan.

#2. Their saliva is an exotic aphrodisiac.

#3. Wolverines are not badgers.

#4. Wolverines cannot eat peas using a knife.

#5. Wolverines can not, contrary to popular opinion, easily be portrayed by british actors.

#6. Former President Gerald Ford was the Michigan football team’s MVP in 1934.

#7. Wolverines thumbs are imposing but NOT opposable.

#8: “Wolverines” anagrams to “wore snivel”.
#8a: Also, “loner wives”.

#9. Mating season is in the summer, but the actual implantation of the embryo in the uterus is stayed until early winter, delaying the development of the fetus.

#10. The title part in “Benji” was originally intended to be played by a wolverine, but unfortunately their salary requirements were beyond the budget of the film.

#11: If a wolverine spots its shadow, that means six more weeks of hiding from wolverines.

#13: Wolverines fear the number 12.

#14. There are 3 sub-species of wolverine: the common Grey Wolverine, the Domesticated Wolverine and the endangered Diamond-clawed Wolverine.

#15: Two out of three dentists prefer not to be mauled by wolverines.

#16: The “secret” ingredient in Aunt Louise’s “wolverine stew” is cinnamon.

#17: Wolverines know how many roads a man must walk down.

#18: Wolverine mythology is exactly like Greek mythology, except Charon does not use a ferry to transport souls across the Styx. He uses a surfboard.

#19: They do not like Pina Coladas. They do not like getting caught in the rain.

#20: Wolverine ate my baby.

#21: It only took 38 wolverines and 37 typewriters to recreate all the works of Shakespeare. (Wolverine #15 used a Blackberry.)

#22: Wolverines hold their own Scrabble National Championship, usually at a Denny’s near the Human version. The letter V has been banned from regulation play, for reasons unknown.

#23: When Wolverines take quizzes in Cosmo, they almost always circle C, which usually means they’re saucy attention whores.

#24: C.M. Coolidge turned to his infamous “Dogs Playing Poker” paintings when his “Wolverines Playing Texas Hold ‘Em” idea fell through. The Wolverines kept check-raising before the flop, and also they ate his cat.

#25: Wolverines are derided by other office animals for their lack of productivity. They do, however, have all the high scores on Minesweeper.

#26: Wolverines make up 7/8th of the Idaho Supreme Court. The lone remaining member is an Elk carcass that they have been feeding on for a week.

*credit to -j. (NSTGD-Commentus-maximus/friend-extraordinare) and mace (fellow blogger/dumbo octopus fanatic) who both long ago collaborated with me to provide some of the completely factual material listed above.

holy cephalopods! According to Science*, the first 6-footed octopus (hexapus) has been discovered!

now typically, I would be 100% entirely jazzed about this wonderous, cryptozoology-meets-actually-actual-zoology news, but the 1955 Film “It Came from Beneath the Sea“** prophecized that the city of san francisco would be destroyed by a giant hexapus and, frankly, I’m concerned for my left-coast friends.

SF’ers: MOVE INLAND!

And while we are on the topic, I’d like to encourage everyone ever, who reads my blog, to purchase their very own tentacle arm: