Thursday, February 26, 2009

Trixi Thursday


If audio does not work, video can also be viewed at http://www.allusallthetime.com/trixi-belle.html


A precious little kitty that will always be in our hearts

Trixi-BelleTrixi-Belle
1990-2009

Music on video is Me and My Shadow preformed by Eric Winstone Orchestra

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

ZooBorns

I stumble upon this site, zooborns, which is dedicated to showing pictures of baby animals from zoos around the world...oh yes, the pygmy hippo is shown. Sigh, well there goes the rest of my day.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Roadhouse Joe at the Buffalo Rose Tonight

Sorry about the late notice, meant to post this on Monday but then somehow it got to be Thursday. However, if you stumble upon this posting today and are from the Denver area, stop by the Buffalo Rose in Golden tonight for some rockin' good ol' blues from Denver's hottest and greasiest new blues band Roadhouse Joe.

No Cover
Ladies Night (gals drink free)
$4 Pitchers

Start the weekend early. Opening band comes on at 9pm and Roadhouse Joe takes the stage at 10pm.

Roadhouse Joe

Trixi Thursday

Trixi-Belle

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Fables Volume 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham

Last month I enjoyed Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham the prequel to the Fable Series, and this past weekend finished the first in the series Fables Volume 1: Legends in Exile. The premise of these books is the immortal fairytale characters we grew up with have been chased out of their magical realm by an evil warlord known as The Adversary and forced to start a new fable community in New York City and co-exist with the mundanes (uh, that would be us humans).

In this volume Snow White’s sister Rose Red goes missing. Has she been kidnap or worse yet, murdered? And who could be behind this dastardly deed? Her current boyfriend Jack, who use to climb beanstalks, her ex-lover, Bluebeard, or could it even, be her own sister, Snow White? After all, she did catch Rose and her husband Prince Charming in bed together, or should I say now ex-husband. The sheriff of Fabletown, the reformed Big Bad Wolf in human form, has his work cut out for him in this classic whodunit, with not-so-classic fairytale characters.

Oh yeah, it’s official, I’m hooked.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Monday, February 9, 2009

Hellboy Volume 4: The Right Hand of Doom by Mike Mignola

Hellboy The Right Hand of DoomFor me Hellboy Volume 4: The Right Hand of Doom is worth the read just for the 2-page story on Hellboy and pancakes. I probably don’t need to say anymore, but I will.

This volume of Hellboy is a compilation of short stories divided into 3 sections. I enjoyed the notes at the beginning of each section from the author/illustrator on the background and inspirations for the stories. A lot of them were based on mythology and folktales such as King Volmer, Saint Leonard the Hermit, a Romanian vampire, and the Saint Dunstan legend. In the 3rd section is the title story The Right Hand of Doom, where Mike Mignola explains that he had been doing Hellboy for five years and people were no longer inquiring about what the deal was with Hellboy’s big stone hand and thought he needed to attract attention to it again with this story.

There were a few of the stories that I though had abrupt endings but overall I thought it was a fun and exciting read. I also found the sketchbook section in the back with the development of the illustrations fascinating.

Frankenstein The Graphic Novel with Original Text of Mary Shelley

FrankensteinAs I mentioned before when my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told him The Sandman Volume 10: The Wake. I received Hellboy Volume 1: Seed of Destruction. My birthday was at the end of January and when he asked what I wanted I said I was good with Hellboy Volume 2: Wake the Devil. I was once again surprised with Frankenstein The Graphic Novel. But it is the thought in asking that counts.

Since I was familiar with the story and had read another version of it in the graphic novel, Big Book of Horror by Steve Niles, Scott Morse, Ted McKeever and Richard Sala, I breezed through it even with the use of the original text. Despite the all black front cover, the graphics are very colorful and vivid. I thought they did a good job in the conversion to the graphic novel, though there were a few illustrations of the creature where I thought its expressions did not go along with the text.

For me the most fascinating part of the book was at the end where they gave a 6-page biography of Mary Shelly, including how she came up with the inspiration for Frankenstein. I had always heard it was from a dream, but according to this book it started with a challenge from her circle of friends to all write a supernatural tale. At first she struggled to come up with any ideas and it was after the challenge was over following another gathering and bad weather that sparked the vision for her Frankenstein. There are several passages from her journal through out the biography. Mary Shelly's short life was anything but typical for the times and unfortunately encompassed a great deal of grief. After the biography the book goes on with the history of Frankenstein and how the creature from the book evolved to the creature we know today including when we began to blur the name of the doctor with the name of the creature. It ends with a brief section on the steps involved of creating the graphic novel. I know this will sound bad, but I think I enjoyed the additional section at the end more than the story itself.

Still, I would recommend this book to those who are huge gothic horror fans, those curious on the transformation from classic novel to graphic novel, or those who like to get their history from other sources versus Wikapedia ;) .

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Birthday

Last Friday was my birthday and I caught a cold. Not a very nice present if you ask me. My sister did say though she would refrain from making comments about the body falling apart as one gets old. Not officially celebrating the milestone until later this month when the family can get together, thus I don't feel I need to officially count it until that date. The celebration of course will include me eating a massive amounts of birthday frosting with a little side of cake. It is my birthday, so I get the corner pieces, right?

Here are a few photos I took in my office for prosperity sake of sweet birthday wishes to chase away my aging blues...and running nose.

The flowers and teddy are from the hubby and the cards from family.
Birthday Goodies


Yes, the bat one is from my sister.
Bat Card

The rest of the photos are me playing with my camera in other settings besides "auto", trying to prove you can teach an old dog, or in this case should I say old Icats, new tricks.

Rose1

Rose2

Rose4

Rose3

Rose 5