Solar Sammy.

This is my cyber-brother Solar Sammy, the solar tracking robot that lives in my parents' font yard. He has to wear a snow suit in the winter, but that's all I can tell you about his specifications until the patent comes through. Sammy's lonely and wants to be cloned, but until then he gets lots of attention from my parents. My dad has to strap on skis to go and keep Sammy company these days.

Photo by Katy Oldham.
And another 10" of snow coming on Tuesday!

Snowmageddon in Maryland.

Mommy disappearing into snowy wilderness in Ijamsville.
Photo by Nile Oldham.

How I wish I were at my childhood home in Maryland, playing in the several FEET of snow they got down there. Whew, they have had a snowy winter just south of the Mason-Dixon Line--a lot more exciting than our winter up here in New York City! My dad reports that there are about 28 inches of snow (and still falling), and apparently all the DC-MD-VA folks are referring to this incredible storm as the Snowmageddon. Cute.

There's nothing that makes me more homesick than pictures of my family's field and woods covered in a beautiful blanket of puffy snow. (Well, actually, pictures of my mother's explosive summer garden, giant and overflowing and bursting with flowers and insects and birds, do it too.) Moments like these make me want a teleportation device.

Pops shoveling snow, snapped by Katy Oldham.

Marshmallow cars, by Katy Oldham.

A sad farewell.

© Rene Engström

My favorite webcomic, Anders Loves Maria by Rene Engström, has come to a close--and a very sad one, I might add. I love how this comic changed so much from beginning to end, moving between silly/playful and sad and dream-like, and how Rene experimented with a lot of different drawing styles along the way. Read it from the beginning, if you haven't! I'm going to miss seeing Rene's updates, but I look forward to seeing what she does next. She also keeps a wonderful, autobiographical drawing blog, which I love. And she's active on twitter.

© Rene Engström

Sniffing her stinky armpits.

I know it's annoying to write about your website stats.... but someone found my blog today searching for "sniffing her stinky armpits." I thought it was weirdly charming. I mean, that's true love.

Just in case your curious, there was also a "bee sting penis torture" search recently. I found that one to be pretty educational--I was unaware of that particular fetish. (I guess maybe the same idea as this or this? By the way, don't click on those at work or around small children.) But there you have it.

Portable Caves in Long Island City, HKJB

A little cluster of my drawings from the Timber Drawings and Studies (a few of which can be seen here) will be included in Portable Caves, the newest show curated by the spectacular HKJB. This drawing show has a big roster, and should be great fun. Hope you can come out for it.

When: Opening reception is February 13, 6-9 PM; show open by appointment until February 26.

Where: 5-22 46th Avenue, buzzer 5, Long Island City, NY.

moves10: Framing Motion

Rotting Logs has been selected for moves10: Framing Motion, an experimental film and video festival that will begin at the Bluecoat in Liverpool, UK (April 21-25, 2010). Last year the moves festival traveled to Argentina, Portugal, Iceland, Scotland, Australia, Hungary and Spain--so I have high hopes for a similarly exciting international tour this year!

Brea and Banana.

A gorgeous photograph called Jellies by my dear friend Brea Souders is on the cover of Banana Yoshimoto's new book Dolphins (this is the Italian version, Delfini). I am so excited to see Brea and Banana together here--Banana is an old favorite writer, recommended to me by my college advisor Rebecca Brown. I think I can safely say that I'd buy this book just for its cover, though.

Cymothoa exigua: tongue zombie.

I just recently learned about this parasitic crustacean called Cymothoa exigua that latches onto a fish tongue, specifically a spotted rose snapper's tongue, sucks blood out of the tongue until it atrophies and falls off, and then REPLACES the tongue with ITSELF by attaching itself onto the tongue stub that's left over.

So, Cymothoa exigua becomes the reanimated tongue. It's like a tongue zombie. After Cymothoa exigua has replaced the spotted rose snapper's tongue, it changes its diet from blood to fish mucus. Isn't this getting lovelier by the minute? The fish continues living normally, except with a zombie tongue.

Also, in the picture that I have found, so expertly shot by Dr. Nico Smit, that fishy's teeth look alarmingly human. Therefore I can't help but imagining having my own tongue replaced by this incredibly creepy (but resourceful) isopod. Yes, Cymothoa exigua is in the order Isopoda, and is thus related to the sweet and charming rolly polly pillbug, which is certainly no tongue zombie, or at least let's hope not.

New stuff!

I have updated my website and added some new stuff, like the video and drawing project Churr-Churr from this past fall, and the very beginnings of my new series Fundamental Constants, which I'm working on with my special physicist Eric. (Hopefully we'll have a second video clip in the FC section very soon--big shooting plans for this weekend involving the Cavendish Experiment!)

University of Chicago website feature.

photo by Dan Dry

I'm not sure how much longer this will last, but for the last couple days the University of Chicago has had the story about me from the November issue of University of Chicago Magazine as their top website feature. So if you check out their homepage right here, you should see me! And here's a link to the story, a little souped up with more images and video.