Mean Girls Monday: Vivien Leigh is a priceless, timeless international treasure for ever and always

God, her expressions. It’s me and Vivien Leigh to the mortuary, I swar to gar.

Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).

Not my favorite of my Vivs-ohs’ films, but it’s a movie that’s totally up there on my general list of greatness, because of Viven Leigh and Clark Gable, not those above two or their characters. I think I’ve mentioned before that my love of GWTW comes from a weirder place than the traditional romantic little girl with collector’s plate of the burning of Atlanta standpoint.

As for that scene, the original lines are dangerously close to the Mean Girls script enhancement. Scarlett calls her a “simp,” not a slut — but you know she was thinking it. Besides, Melly is a simp, and Ashley is her cousin. It’s like, Jesus Christ, Scarlett, can you move to Atlanta any faster? Gtfo of Clayton County. Bush league down there.

I was searching my drives for another GWTW screencap and stumbled over the above, which I used in the first Mean Girls Monday ever. Synchronicity! But my lack of a wider range of stills from this movie is a scandal. I got a phat sexy remastered collector’s edition for my dad last Christmas, and as far as I can tell he hasn’t watched it. Six months on makes it fair game, right? I might nick it and screencap it. Maybe give it its own category. Big job, but it’s food for thought.

Question for discussion: Would you move to Atlanta if the boy you liked married his cousin? Explain.

Extra credit: Without looking it up, what was Victor Fleming’s less commercially successful film of 1939 which has come to gain iconic status?

(Stop looking it up. You know this.)

Mean Girls Monday: Gremlins edition

Still from Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984). Silliness by me.

It took eleven minutes of my life to make this, minutes which will never again present themselves to me for use in a different or more meaningful way.

No regrets.

Daily Batman: Hidden underneath

I think hidden underneath a lot of teachers are very sexy women.

(Andie MacDowell).

I know I have been a total slug about posting lately and the last time I did that was because I nearly croaked, but fear not. This time it’s nothing so dire, and is good news instead. I’ve been scrambling to get my shit together to make this whole substitute-teaching my Scamps thing in to a full-time gig, and I felt that I had to put all my fire under that. I was busy being well-dressed and using my gracious telephone voice while applying to a credential program, throwing my hat in the ring for an open position at the private school where I teach, and sending out queries for letters of recommendation — my least favorite thing to do on the planet. I don’t just burn my bridges: I dynamite them in my wake and launch the ashes in a coffee can in to space and I sow the land around where the bridge used to be with with salt and then I seek out the bridge-builder and I rough him up and cut out his tongue in front of his family. You cannot imagine how horrible I am at looking back, seriously.

And I’m even worse at admitting I need a favor. I’d rather drink bleach then ask for help. I’m working on all this, honestly.

But now it’s basically all in other people’s hands so I’m back.

It was recently pointed out to me during my absence that even though I like plenty of comics and link them to literature and artistic tropes all the time in conversation, I don’t focus much on anything except the Bat on this journal. That’s true. It’s lazy and misrepresents the entirety of my interests. I’ll work on remedying that more often. I’ll try and throw something up today as an example.

Daily Batman: Never forget

PSA: This arcade belongs to the fucking Batgirl!* And none of you cockmongering assmunchers best forget it. She will mess the shit of all you ne’er-do-well cuntnecks** the fuck up, but proper!!

Ohhh, DC. You and your “leaks” and “apologies” for/of cusswords. Your lust for sales will slay us all.

*Is that anything like “the goddamned Batman?” you wonder. Mmm. Not yet. But delicious, memey-riffic time will tell.

**What is a cunt neck? I don’t know, it just came to me as a good insult. Like it seems it is a comparison to the neck of someone plump and vital in youth but maybe now gone to seed that has become all wrinkly and fleshy and vag-y? It is an insult that I think invites understanding of repulsion and distinct un-sexiness. Not sure exactly. I just know I am being vulgar as all kinds of heck in this post and I am (clap-clap, criss-cross-gesture with hands) ALL DONE for the day! King-size cusses. So done. SeaQuest out!

Daily Batman: The agony of hindsight edition

He can’t wait to go the theater tonight!

via retconpunch on the tumblr.

But soon….

“My parents are DEEAAAAAAAD!”




Yes, I know this makes me a terrible person.

Mean Girls Monday: “OMG, Sulu” edition

Mean Girls Monday: The Devil Wears Prada edition

Daily Batman: To walk safely through the maze of human life …

Today’s incarnation of the draw batgirl meme is done by violetice, aka becky, on the lj.

Mean Girls Monday: Star Trek reboot edition feat. Spock’s mom

And, continuing that, Zachary Quinto and Winona Ryder at the premiere of Star Trek.

Finally, because it is extremely true:

Of course.

I got about a million Star Trek ones, as you might guess. So prep yourself.

Mean Girls Monday: Inaugural Edition feat. Gone With the Wind

Last week was a rough one, so I asked my husband to mail me some of the DVDs sitting around our house in Portland and he graciously did. One of them was Mean Girls (Mark Waters, 2001), a movie that I am not ashamed to call a guilty pleasure. Introducing … Mean Girls Monday! A maybe-weekly feature directly or indirectly referencing the film. Because I can.

First Edition. What if every movie were Mean Girls? As Picard would suggest, make it so. This is a wonderfully dorky meme that’s been floating around where people juxtapose lines from Mean Girls with screencaps from other flicks and I’m loving it. Thought I’d kick it off with a little classic Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).

(God, Vivien Leigh’s faces are so priceless. I’m planning an upcoming The Way They Were on Vivien and Laurence Olivier. Mad love for my Vivs for-evvvv-errr.)

This has been your first Mean Girls Monday!

Catherine Brooks’ Personal Mythologies: NSFW and beautiful

“The Phoenix and the Fruit.”

Extraordinary contemporary artist Catherine Brooks is based in Richmond, VA and I think she is rad.

“She traveled alone.”

My paintings are part of a story, a science fiction diary, rich in allegorical symbolism.

“Mirror Gaze.”

They are not self portraits, but instead physical manifestation of the lives within me.

“Waiting for Epimetheus.”

At a superficial blush, I think her paintings deal with imagery and conventional styles that are popular right now in the commercial world of art: lissome nymphs interacting with the natural world, an almost photo-realistic style, like a photograph or illustration recreated with oil paints, but I feel like that is, like I said a superficial comparison. The truth is that she really finds the darkness at the heart even of the popularity of those images, and more nakedly and skillfully tells the story behind them.

“Isabel’s Secret.”

The work has authority. I suppose maybe if you were to just striaghtforwardly describe her painting next to another, similar product on Etsy or something, telling only what you literally see vis-a-vis the subject matter and depiction, it could be accidentally mistaken for one of this genre of lesser and more wanly committed artistic storytellers, trendy but sort of twee, but that is not the case for me with Brooks.

“Wanderingbel.”

Besides her obvious superiority even of strictly mechanical talent — which gives her paintings a sophisticated weight lacking in some illustrations that deal with similar subjects and imagery — for me, there is more going on thematically in her compositions.

“The Gaze.”

I feel like if you look at her work, Brooks digs much deeper, like her work is a more authentic prototype than a lighter imitation, a more complete interpretation of an older and overarching theme.

“Reverent and revered.”

I am fascinated by the legends and tales that have been passed down through the rise and fall of empires and how they are weathered by oral tradition and cultural change.

“A Promise to Return.”

I work with my own personal mythology to reflect ideas on love, memory, and the inexplicable human talent for anthropomorphizing the cycles of life and all its manifestations. (via)

“Isabel and the Life Web.”

Adjusting to being Single and Living in Richmond is a bit of a roller coaster ride, but I’m pretty sure its more Tank Girl and less Hope Floats so it ain’t all bad. (blog)

Love Tank Girl. Sold.

“Driving Into the Sun.”

To discuss commissions or wholesale orders (or just to say howdy!) please drop me a line at: Robotroadkill [!at] gmail.com. (etsy)

“Half a second,” my favorite one.

I should first mention that all my analogies of life tend to be nature based, I was raised in an all female landscape business that was founded and run by my mother, for years we shared generations of stories over the tops of the flowers we cared for. Those ecosystems provided a framework and context to talk about the more complicated parts of life. That is where my imagery comes from. (interview)

I think it’s beautiful.

Daily Batman: The Goddamn Batman.

I think I’ve referred to this title a time or two, but here is the origin of “the goddamn Batman” line.

All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, written by Frank goddamn Miller (Sin fucking City, 3cuntface00, Dareshit-fuck-christ-pissdevil).

Perhaps the book’s single most infamous moment occurred when Miller’s gritty style of dialogue led the title character to introduce himself to Grayson as “the Goddamn Batman.” The phrase went on to become something of a meme among comic book fans for its perceived comedic value,[11] and has, since its sudden fame, been repeated at least once in nearly every subsequent issue of the comic. According to reviewer Brett Weiss, the line “drew derision from fans and critics alike”. (the wiki)

Oh, Frank Miller. I may get mad or sneer at you from time to time, but I swar to gar, things like this make it impossible not to love you. Thanks to that outre bit of forced tough-guy dialogue, a whole new world of wonderful jokes have erupted. I for one am grateful.

Thanks, buddy!

Daily Batman: Four more drawings of Batgirl

“Batgirl” by punchyninja on deviantart, aka Vince Riley.

I am not including the ones my kidlet and I drew and colored yesterday. They were really awful. I didn’t realize how hard it is to draw a knee pit. And braces? Way more difficult to make look cute and not disgusting in a sketch than you’d imagine! You don’t want to know. My faith in my comic skills took quite the pummeling. I commented to Miss D a while later while chatting, “Hey, you know what would be fun? If we all took a figure drawing class together.” Subtext: Because I suck at drawing Batgirl.

“Batgirl thinggggg” by doctajules on deviantart, also to be found on hokuten.net, which has its own story.

Anyway, these are some of the first I’ve found recently of my favorite results from the “draw Batgirl” meme from deviantart, livejournal, and elsewhere. Click through for links to the artists.

“Batgirly whee!” by Whirring Blender, aka the lovely and talented Carly Monardo. She drew this one actually for the second round of the meme, which was started both times by artist and lj raconteur Jamie Dee Galey.

I have dozens of these saved here and there that I'm slowly recovering along with bits and pieces of all my other lost data, so lots more to come eventually!

“Batgirl a la Nouveau” by urdsama on deviantart, aka Olga Ulanova.

Daily Batman: Drawing Batgirl really is a Thing

I have mentioned the “draw Batgirl” lj meme before, but apparently it is a Thing to do even among more serious artists.

“Batgirl,” by chriss2d on deviantart.

The artist says, “Another commission piece, this time of Batgirl illustrated for UDON’s Chief, Erik Ko. Inked full size illustration.”

Character copyright © DC Comics

Daily Batman: Meaghan Quinn Cute LJ Batgirl meme edition

So a while back there was this meme going around on livejournal where it was a Thing to draw Batgirl. This is one of my favorites, drawn by Meaghan Quinn, who does the webcomic “Eat the Roses.” I think it’s really cute and fun. A lot of the sketches that came out of this meme were fun reinterpretations of the character, and I liked those too, but there was just something about this one that I thought was really well-composed, and captured the essence of the character in a new and unusual way without deliberately putting her in a different setting, outfit, or semi-nude situation as a prop to change the perspective. Do you know what I mean? She is recognizably herself, but in a fresh light:

…do you see? She seems young and kind of a little funky, a little slinkier and more confident than do-goody or ass-kicky, but also maybe slightly “Here goes nothin’!” about it, like it is her first or second night out on Gotham City’s rooftops and she’s about to tuck her hair behind her ears, pluck up her courage, and soar right offa that building. Does this make sense? Oh, god, I’m still talking.

I’m pretty high right now on Advil Cold and Sinus and I don’t know if any of this even makes sense. Not gonna lie.