Video Valor & Villainy

The first two acts of the fabulous Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog are up now, and I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't already. It's a great introduction to the wonderful world of Whedon for those who have yet to become fans (and the only reason a sentient being wouldn't be a Joss Whedon fan would be an unfamiliarity with his work).
The popularity of the site is causing the video to bog down at times - my secret to dealing with this is to play the video in a background window with the volume off while doing something else, and once it is done, clicking the "watch again" doodad and it will now play through perfectly. I also recommend watching, rewatching, then watching one more time, as it gets better with each viewing. It will only be up until midnight on Sunday, so don't dilly-dally. Go now. What are you still doing here?
eta: If you missed it you can purchase all three acts for a mere pittance through iTunes. Trust me, it's worth at least seven pittances.

On a similarly wacky entertainment note, I've been watching the new series The Middleman and really enjoying it. It's a fun, funny, goofy, comic sci-fi action comedy with deliberately cheesy special effects and rapid-fire witty dialog. I only get about half of the pop-culture references (and that's being charitable - wait, is it considered charity if I'm both giver and receiver?), but that doesn't seem to hinder my enjoyment.
It's sort of like Men in Black, but centers around a female slacker who's in training to protect the world from evil.

One, Two, Cha Cha Cha

My studio is in a complete state of disarray due, ironically, to an attempt at reorganization. I get tired just looking at it right now, so it could be awhile before it's a useful space again. In the meantime, I thought I'd share some things that are making me happy:

1) I'm totally digging the Ray Charles cover of One Mint Julep.
I've listened to it countless times over the past three days, and every time I'm compelled to dance around to its glorious lounge-y strains while picturing myself as a Shag-esque 1960s animation. My rebirth as a 60s cliche has also lead me to try to convince Davis to take up smoking a pipe while wearing v-necked sweaters.

2) I just got a pinball machine!
A while back I discussed my desire to own my own pinball machine (you can read about it here - no really, read it) while oohing and aahing over the amazing graphics of some of the vintage games. Sadly, my machine is not one of the lovely ones, but at least it is a real full-sized arcade pinball machine. It's from 1979 and has pictures of "sexy" elves and these sort of dwarf/Conan type figures (the Barbarian, not the O'Brien) that aren't especially attractive, but the fact that it was found at a yard sale just up the street for just $50 more than makes up for that. It needs a bit of work and is currently sprawled across Davis' workshop, so I'm spending my time asking him "Is it ready yet?" "How about now?" "Well what about now?"

3) Son of Rambow - I just saw it a few days ago and loved it. So funny and sweet and adorably weird.


4) There's a new gallery in town that has lots of fun eye candy. This area has a ton of very traditional landscapes-&-lighthouses galleries, but the In Between Gallery is totally different - in fact, the owner made a rule that there will be no landscapes or lighthouses of any kind. Aahh, sweet relief! I was really impressed by pretty much everything she had on the walls, and most of the prices were quite reasonable for original artwork.
Here's a piece from there by FletchyO:

Beatrix Ballet

I ran across a reference in a blog a little while ago (I believe it was one in my blogroll, but I can't seem to find it now - let me know if it was you!) about a production of Beatrix Potter stories performed by the Royal Ballet. You can see a video from it here.
I couldn't believe the costumes!
How had I never heard of this before?
If I had one of those costumes, I think I might want to wear it on a daily basis, and not just around the house, but to work, the supermarket, the bowling lanes, etc.... Obviously I wouldn't want to wear it in the summer, but it might really be nice and cozy this winter. Beyond just being a-dorable, the outfit could potentially be so toasty warm that I would want to set the thermostat lower, and as a result we could save thousands on our heating bill! It's really so practical that I think I neeeed one!
If you see someone who looks a lot Squirrel Nutkin when you're in town, please be sure to give me a wave.

The Glorious Garlicscape

I've been wanting to purchase a CSA farm share ever since I first heard about them, but I kept thinking of it too late in the year. Most places want you to sign up in March, and around here we're not convinced that there will actually be a growing season until May rolls around.
This year I finally remembered to do it early enough, and I'm so glad I did. It's great to have a gigantic bundle of organic vegetables handed to you every week, and there have already been some I hadn't tried before. "Our" farm, Hatchet Cove Farm, supplies us with tips and recipes for braving this new world.
The pleasant surprise this week was a beautiful bundle of garlic scapes. Scapes are the leafless flower stalks that grow above the ground, and they get cut off to allow more plant-growing energy (green chi!) to go into the bulbs. More importantly, they're deeeeelicious when sauteed with butter and served with pasta. mmmm....I'm getting dreamy just thinking about it....
Sadly, I don't think the garlic that I'm still exhaling is quite as enjoyable to those around me who didn't get to enjoy the meal. Perhaps I should invite everyone over for next year's garlic scape banquet so we'll all smell equally well nourished.