Adrian Webster as Aragorn

Award-winning unofficial prequel to The Lord of the Rings dramatising Aragorn & Gandalf’s long search for Gollum. This 40-minute film, made by fans for fans is based on the appendices of LOTR and was painstakingly shot on a low budget as a homage to Peter Jackson’s trilogy and the writing of J.R.R. Tolkien. Costing less than $5,000 to make, with a team of volunteers, Independent Online Cinema are proud to have brought Middle-earth to the screen once more. (From YouTube)

• Watch the film (choose among several options)
• Behind the Scenes (fascinating making-of documentary)
• Independent Online Cinema
• The new feature-length LOTR prequel, Born of Hope (I’m watching this tomorrow!)

It’s tough living in the 21st century, when mythical beings not only roam the earth, but camp out on your sofa and raid your refrigerator. Jobs are scarce; angels infest Brooklyn (the demons have taken all the good property in Manhattan) and minor gods bus tables at the local diner. The mortals of New York must balance not only their checkbooks but keep a close eye on their souls’ karmic account. (From Darwin Carmichael Is Going To Hell, by Sophie Goldstein and Jenn Jordan)

Semi-random pages:

I hope the near future is exactly like this. As Laurie Anderson says, “Heaven is exactly like where you are right now. Only much, much better.” And with demigods.

McKell's runway look

Read more at Tom and Lorenzo.

I'm amazed on various levels

The word cabbagehead always gets my attention:

Cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne (Capitata Group) of the Family Brassicaceae (or Cruciferae), and is used as a leafy green vegetable. It is a herbaceous, biennial, dicotyledonous flowering plant distinguished by a short stem upon which is crowded a mass of leaves, usually green but in some varieties red or purplish, which while immature form a characteristic compact, globular cluster (cabbagehead).

The plant is also called head cabbage or heading cabbage, and in Scotland a bowkail, from its rounded shape. The Scots call its stalk a castock, and the British occasionally call its head a loaf. It is in the same genus as the turnip – Brassica rapa. Cabbage leaves often have a delicate, powdery, waxy coating called bloom. The occasionally sharp or bitter taste of cabbage is due to glucosinolate(s). Cabbages are also a good source of riboflavin. (Wikipedia)

Because it means you’re aligning with Who-You-Really-Are.

Nothing serious is going on here. If you seek serious, please look elsewhere.

“Those blessings I have flow gladly from me to you. And those blessings I do not have, you will have to find for yourself.” — Seth