Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Wednesday Odds & Ends: embarrassed pets, Edgar Allan Poe, sad crafts and Doctor Who

Wednesday? How did it get to be Wednesday? What the hell happened to Tuesday? Anyway, despite my chronological confusion, let's carry on with today's news...a lot of which involves yesterday's news.

+ First, let's start with the cheerfully disturbing: Sci-Fi Wire's 20 Great Costumes To Dress Up Your Pet. These are great, especially the pug one which looks both horribly wrong and yet totally right.



I love how pissed off the cat looks and then the poor mummy dog is just like, "Whatever. I choose to place my mind somewhere else."

+ The Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, VA is planning a recreation of Poe's funeral for fans and visitors. According to the AP article, "Poe's cousin Neilson Poe, never announced his death publicly, and 'fewer than ten' people attended the 'hasty funeral.' A train and derailed and crashed into a stonecutter's yard, shattering Poe's tombstone before it could be installed at his grave. Poe's enemy, Rufus Griswold, wrote him a 'libellous obituary' that damaged his reputation for decades." Poe should have known never to let a Griswold do his obituary -- did he never see the "Vacation" movies? Anyway, now Poe's getting a 200 year old do-over, complete with state-of-the-art replica body.

+ "Doctor Who" has gotten a new logo, just in time for the new season to start in 2010. Check out the video unveiling below and let me know your thoughts on the new look. Personally, I kind of like it, especially the way the TARDIS is represented:



+ USA Today's Pop Candy has an interview with Felicia Day, who is getting more popular by the second. Good for her!

+ And Popular Mechanics has a nifty Q&A with Adam and Jamie from "Mythbusters."

+ And finally, here's an awesome new site called Regretsy that chronicles the worst in handmade arts and crafts. You have to admit, though, the pink leopard goat coat is pretty awesome.

15 comments:

Michele said...

I like the TARDIS-y DW, but I'm not sure about it in combination with the words Doctor Who. It's very chunky - hardcore HD-friendly, like the new TARDIS and Sonic Screwdriver designs...

shirley2allie said...

Clearly I do not have enough to do today as I looked at the entire first page of stuff on the Regretsy site. My personal fave? The fish in a squirrel suit taxidermy thingy. Blech!

Mickie Poe said...

I apologize in advance for this but it's Edgar Allan Poe (with an A).

Liz said...

Thanks for catching that, Mickie Poe! I hate those darn typos. Plus, I don't want the newly buried ghost of Edgar mad at me for misspelling his name. You may have saved me from a haunting!

Shirley2allie, aren't there a lot of weirdly awesome things on that site? I love it.

Michele, I'm with you on the chunky lettering. It'll take a while for me to get used to...just like Matt Smith. I don't adjust well to change!

Michele said...

I don't mind change per se - been a Who fan long enough to know it's as normal as the Doctor running down corridors and the companion getting locked/tied up! But that graphic doesn't do much for me...

As for the Matt & Karen show (TM), I'd be more inclined to excitement if the Beeb would stop playing their cards so close to their chests - for example, who IS Amy Pond? Which writers are doing S5 episodes?

Michael J. Narlock said...

I have a bad, bad feeling about the new Dr. Who...I have a sense that it will suck mightily.

Cara King said...

I confess I'm still a Doctor Who newbie (I only started watching with Christopher Eccleston), so maybe it's just me, but...for some reason, "DW" doesn't make me think of Doctor Who.

Of course, it could be that I regularly see PW as an abbreviation for Publisher's Weekly...and EW as an abbreviation for Entertainment Weekly.

Which probably makes my brain say "Huh? Doctor's Weekly?" ;-)

Cara

Liz said...

Mike, I've been worried about that too because I'm not a big Moffat fan but I've been spoiling myself silly with photos, videos and set reports from all the filming that's going on right now and I have to say, I'm actually pretty excited about what I've seen. I could be setting myself up for a big fall, but they've managed to whet my appetite for now.

Michele said...

Cara, think how confused I get, then, when people refer to Dreamwidth (the newish version of LJ) as "DW", because for me "DW" IS Doctor Who!

Kelley B said...

I'm not all that worried about Matt Smith as the new Doctor (though my heart will miss David Tennant for quite some time) but the new logo does bug me a bit. I think it's because I think it just looks sorta amateurish. I'm totally digging the use of the TARDIS but the letters/logo looks like something I would create using the Word Art feature in a PowerPoint presentation. It doesn't look like the work of a well-paid professional. And I agree with Michele that it doesn't really jive with the other upgrades that were made when the new series debuted. Ah well….we shall see!

Kelley B said...

Oh good Lord the structuring of my sentences is appalling. My apologies to anyone scratching the heads trying to figure out what I was saying up there ;-)

cl said...

Well, the TARDIS is perhaps my favorite part of Doctor Who (I'm one Doctor [2nd] short of seeing all of the episodes), so I like that it's in the logo. But the D kind of looks like an O to me, which makes me read "OW"

I'm not clicking on the Regretsy link because I'm already avoiding work as it is.

Anonymous said...

If y'all liked regretsy, you should love craftastrophe. They been around longer, so you have hundreds in the archives!!
http://craftastrophe.net/

i used to read all the time, until i finally got too-grossed out, and gave it up. I shan't be visiting regretsy often either.

Michelle said...

The new Doctor Who logo does nothing for me. I see going with the TARDIS as the design base, but going by the initials seems a poor choice.

Anonymous said...

I have to think about the new logo for a while. Have you ever read a book where the blurb and/or cover art were obviously created by someone who hadn't bothered to read the story first? My first impression of the new logo was that it was designed by someone who had no idea what the TARDIS looks like.

The goat coat was tasteful compared to the doggie dresses by the same proud pet mom. she has an Etsy store called furbabies boutique.
Sigh. I suppose she means well.