War & Pizza by Aled Lewis

Everybody knows the Shredder couldn’t beat the Turtles in a pizza eating contest. But, for the nonbelievers, artist Aled Lewis has recreated the scene of the famous showdown here with pixel art pulled straight from the old Ninja Turtles arcade game.

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Alex

Flannery O’Connor’s Reading of A Good Man is Hard to Find

As a former English major and a lover of Southern Gothic literature, I don’t know how I’ve gone my entire life without reading single word written by Flannery O’Connor. Thanks to Grant’s recommendation (who himself was turned on to the author by Andrew Combs), I picked up A Good Man is Hard to Find, a collection of O’Connor’s short stories, and I’m sucked in. While searching around the web for more info on O’Connor, I stumbled across this reading of the collection’s eponymous story. I’ll let Ms. O’Connor do the rest of the talking.

The post Weekly Discoveries 04.02.2015 – Aled Lewis and Flannery O’Connor appeared first on Blackwing.

Frank’s Noodle House

I’m a sucker for handmade stuff, and that includes food. Last night, I finished up the 12 hour drive from our headquarters in Stockton, California to Portland, Oregon, where we’ll be exhibiting at Coffee Fest later this week. Needless to say, when I rolled into town, I was starving. That’s when I discovered Frank’s Noodle House.

As the name suggests, Frank’s Noodle House serves noodles. Tons of them. And they’re all made by hand every day. I ordered the handmade noodles with tofu, served extra spicy (that’s three “x’s” on Frank’s hot meter), and it was delicious. If you’re ever in Portland, check it out.

Grant

Trigger Hippy

One part rock ‘n roll, one part rhythm ‘n blues, two parts The Black Crowes. I heard Trigger Hippy for the first time on Sirius’ Outlaw Country this morning. Their music is like a pretty girl you can’t get off of your mind. It’s been a while since I’ve heard such poetic soul, and I can’t wait to buy the record.

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Mahlon

Kenner’s Recalled Alien Action Figure

This year the Alien franchise celebrates the 35^th anniversary of the original film’s release so, when I came across one of the film’s first merchandising ventures, the 18 inch tall Xenomorph figure produced by Kenner, I was floored.

Kenner struck gold after obtaining licensing rights to produce figures based on Star Wars.  Seeing Alien as “the next big Sci-Fi license,” Kenner acquired the rights to produce action figures based on the film. In 1979, they released their first figure to coincide with the film’s release.  Although the film was highly praised on its release, the figure wasn’t exactly a hit for parents. Parental outcry caused the figures to be recalled, but some of these figures can now be found selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay and in the homes of some lucky collectors.

John

Jorge Luis Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings

I picked up Jorge Luis Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings at Logos Books in Davis while visiting a friend.  It’s not quite a novel, not quite an anthology – it details 120 mythological beings and entities from various Eastern and Western cultures and religions. Borges did not mean for the reader to read the book from beginning to end – rather, he meant the reader to flip through its pages at random or by interest. My favorite entry is the one for Bahamut, an unfathomably large mythical fish that supports the earth. It can be quite rewarding to buy a book blindly.

The post Weekly Discoveries 10.16.2014 – Noodles, Trigger Hippy, Kenner, and Borges appeared first on Blackwing.