The Troll Doll Channel: Forbidden love!

Trolls are another rekindled fascination from my far-ago youth. When I was about ten, and everything was right with the world, I had a troll collection, and I collected "with" some of my girl friends. None of us had more than, maybe, half a dozen trolls at any one time, though a certain amount of trading and swapping went on. Some hair washing ended in disaster, as the hair was lumpy mohair and actually got rotten, so that collectible trolls now almost all have replacement mohair which is long and gorgeous. My two Iggy Normous trolls are a case in point. I never made outfits for my trolls back then, as they were all the teeny-tiny ones with DAM on the back (I only have one of those now, and it cost more than most of the rest of them). This collection just builds on itself, and I wonder where it will end sometimes - when I run out of money, or room?

Hardest thing I've ever knitted! Emily's fancy peplum

Knitting is a solace and a comfort to those of us who find it difficult to be a participant in this world. Sometimes I just want to withdraw, to put my feet up. To have a cat. To knit is to "make", while the world unmakes itself right before my eyes. It knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, and all that. I no longer have babies to knit for, so I BUY babies now: though I did not have the slightest interest in dolls as a child and even scorned them, I now find myself drawn to them as a comfort, collecting them (all right, I have three - or two and a half, as one of them has been ordered but isn't here yet), even wanting to knit things for them. I am old now, do not give two figs what anyone thinks, and if I like doing something and it gives me joy, then I'll do it, flaky or not. This was one of my harder and hokier creations, with a bobbly stitch that would look much better in a larger size. In this case, the bobbles are the size of golf balls in relation to the size of the sweater, which is supposed to fit a newborn baby. But who can tell what sorts of interests will creep in where other things, much more painful or stressful things, have vacated or been taken away? 

COVID-19: the new etiquette

NEVER FORGET! The appalling way Meghan left the royal family

Meghan and Harry: Royal Cha-cha!

Meghan Markle is so desperately awful, I just have to do something about it - such as, make video clips, gifs and animations. Not that I think she's completely at fault. Harry seems to WANT to be taken over, and steps back and away from her in a sort of startled deference. This woman's smile is teeth-baring, with some speculating she's had new veneers and must show them off. How very veneer of her.

Cha-cha-cha! The Meghan Markle two-step/sidestep (with accompanying "barge")

"Awwwwww, Bentley!" (totally silly cat gifs)

The Dutch Boy's Lead Party

Spinning heart troll animation

 

 

OSTRICH MANIA!

The Amazing Disappearing/Reappearing Christopher Walken Dance Video

This is a version of what I call the Amazing Disappearing/Reappearing Christopher Walken Dance Video. It has popped up in various guises, including a shorter, more tightly-edited version set to the neo-disco classic Dance Now. I preferred the music on that one to the various other versions, but it was taken down not once but twice on copyright grounds (for the music or the video, I don't know, because other versions of it still exist on YouTube). 

The music here doesn't have that funky hip-hoppish madness to it, is more laid-back and even somewhat sexy, which Walken both is and isn't. I can't even figure out what I think about him, how I feel, if I feel anything. It's more of a fascination. I can't stop reading about Meghan and Harry, either, and I definitely cannot stand them.

Some of his roles have been jaw-droppingly sociopathic, though he has gone on record to say he won't play anyone who doesn't live up to his moral standards (or something). Either he can't stop working, or can't stop needing the paycheque (he lives not in a house but a mansion, on an estate somewhere in Connecticut, with staff). 

He lives like a movie star, in other words, and as we all know, character actors have much longer careers because it doesn't matter if they get old and ugly. He has not aged well, AT ALL, has let his hair get frizzed and wears dumb old man glasses and ratty sweaters and has this annoying whistle when he talks.

In short, he now seems bent on making himself look as hideous as possible, like some Galapagos turtle on an island somewhere far away, WAY far, the last turtle of his kind. Anyway, as a dancer he is eccentric but capable of some nice moves, though his work in Communion was execrable and consisted mainly of spinning his arms around. 

The low point of this whatever-it-is I keep returning to, the one I am really embarrassed about, is the Walken 101 podcast, which is without a doubt the worst scummy excuse for a podcast I have ever listened to, yet I keep listening to it. It's just these two guys who claim to be filmmakers and actors (unemployed!) sitting around in a rec room complaining that they hate Christopher Walken. Meanwhile the whole purpose of the podcast is to watch every single movie, TV show or anything else Walken has ever done, in chronological order, and comment on them all. So far, they hate everything. I got started listening to this thing after they made four really funny initial YouTube videos about Walken, then stopped and did this thing instead.

At any rate, if you just want to see him dance and don't care about the music, this one is OK. I can find a nice visual version AND a separate audio of the music I like, but my God, why go to all this (or ANY) trouble about someone I don't particularly like, or at least can't make my mind up about?

"Don't spill the tea!" (glorious tea-pouring gifs)

Cat steals the show during classical music concert

Cute cat video of the year, if not the century (and it's only February)!

Big Hair Claire!

Just ordered this beautiful lady today from Etsy (Lucretia's Lair, my favorite custom/OOAK troll store). This is courtesy of the Canada Council, who once in a while remembers that I published three novels and sends me a cheque in compensation for my total poverty.

EXCLUSIVE: 3-D Movies from the Civil War!

These stereoscopic images from the Civil War represent perhaps the first 3-D "movies", if a movie can consist of two alternating frames. Which it can! These folks look as if they drank a fearful amount of coffee.

Tiny dancer (Victorian ballerina gif)

"Bad kitty!" Cat vs. toilet paper

L'isle joyeuse

This is still the best version of one of my favorite piano pieces - wild, fey, mystical, an island of ponies from my girlhood, ponies of pink and green and silver. And joy, pure joy, joy from another time, brought wildly and prancingly into the present.

RATS-Os and JOE BUCKwheats

 

Very small horse animation

Horse animation in three speeds

Dead man Walken