Five Links for Wednesday

Image from Phawker. Definitely a blog to watch.


Dang I am so late to this, but FranIam held a fundraiser and I just sent her the teensy little amount left in my PayPal account. I can attest that when you do ask for money on your blog, every little tiny contribution touches your heart. If you read her and have it, give a little. Thanks.

Two Political Junkies has Going Galt Magazine. Hilarious.

Also, Danger Will Robinson at DistributorCapNY.

When a dominatrix makes you happy and proud to be a knitter, that's a fine post indeed. Thanks, Bitchy. (Your houndstooth rocks in more ways than one.)

Dear IRS: It's in the mail.

The good news is, I don't owe a cent, and will get some back. That's how you want your taxes.

But it was a fascinating exercise from a historian's standpoint. I'm a little astonished at how much my life has changed in the past year, and how it took sitting down for two hours with paperwork to make that register. Divorced, bought a house, moved out of state, changed my family structure...and the IRS had a line-item for each one of those, at least.

I can see a historian/archeologist saying to his work-study undergraduates: "see if you can find the tax records." That and funeral records and you'll really get to know the folks and what they valued.

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I emailed the fellow bloggers on this, but wanted my readers to know as well.

Dr. Zaius wrote me this am, and I'm passing it along as a favor to him, because I love that simian.

"The reason that I write is that I am intrigued by a contest that Bubs has posted on his blog. His daughter, Nora O'Sullivan, is hoping to win Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors Spooksmodel Contest. The contest is judged by online voting."

BG here: Nora is the only contestant dressed like a nurse. Also, she had the good taste to not have blood on her picture. Vampiresses are so 1988.

The link to the contest is here.

The link to Bubs' blog is here.

Whatever you guys can do....Thanks.

My favorite Photoshoppers

I wanted this to be a movie but since I have to spend an extra couple of hours each day this week (a) deciding if it's worth the risk and effort to go into another room (b) picking up my crutches and standing and (c) actually getting there in thrice the time it ordinarily takes, I am just going to make it a post.

None of these Photoshoppers need any publicity from me, but they are among my favorites (in alphabetical order by blog name) and this is my way of saying thanks for what each of them does.

I noticed when I compiled this list that each of these artists also has the gift of writing well, and that their talent for illustration is often, though not always, in service to their writing genius.

1. Mark Hoback of The Aristocrats.



I'm really privileged to be on the Aristocrats masthead for how little I actually contribute there. Not only is Mark the resident photoshopper there, he only occasionally keeps us in line by insisting on original content for the whole blog. I love that. (BTW Zappadan is only a couple months away, folks.)


2. Darkblack



I've said this to him before, but Darkblack proves the absurd limitlessness of art. Darkblack has very few of the filters that stop other artists from saying what so often just needs to be said. Nuff said.


3. Driftglass



The Photoshops DG does often have some historical reference, and are done with such precision that...well, is that a little OCD peeking through? Probably. I totally forgive that because his writing blows me away every. single. post.


4. Jesus' General



Well, at least I've gotten everyone to stop genuflecting every time he shows up at Salon. There is only one General. Incidentally, I love his nickname for Palin: "Bible Spice."

5. Tengrain of Mock Paper Scissors.



I love Tengrain. Not only does he do great photoshopping work, but he's really created community with his Scissorheads. Salon would not be the same without him.

6. Dr. Zaius of Zaius Nation



Another huge community builder and Presidential Candidate in his own right. Zaius is not only at the end of the alphabet, his photoshops are at their own far end of the artistic spectrum. That's a very GOOD thing.

I used to call these guys the Photoshop Six but there are sevens and eights and others out there. Morse at Media Needle has left photoshop for film, and there are other talents out there that I know in my broken bone haze I'm forgetting. If you know who they are, remind me in comments. Thanks.

Go say Hi...

You may already know TRex from his previous blogging with FDL. But now he has his own lovely place. If you go visit and say BG sent you.

And I quote....

Mark at The Aristocrats on the GOP field:

Tancredo and Hunter sure must enjoy campaigning, because there's no good reason for them to be there. ...Fred Thompson is still the candidate easiest to satirize. Ron Paul's meds finally seem to be kicking in.

If only that were true of his supporters. (Shit I'm gonna regret typing that.)

I wish you could link to individual comments at Skype Salon. I'd never be hard up for a post again. For instance, Driftglass at salon last Monday: "My kingdom for a brokered GOP convention."

And some darn fine writin' from Peeling Wallpaper. Click on that link and read the whole thing if you want entertainment, but here's a snip:

Just so you know, I’m dreaming right now. That you’re reading this while I sleep has to do with my new dream-to-blog technology which allows me to transcribe my dreams real-time onto my blog. Pretty cool, huh? Oh, there are the electrodes to deal with. The fire wire. The cranial wifi router. It only hurts a little.

Bob Marley is here with me. He says that I'm stressing too much in my day life and it's affecting my sleep cycle....

That cranial wifi router will getcha every time....

Go say Hi

Not another....MONKEY!

Monkey has now officially taken over from "vixen" as the most used blogger identity.

Anyhow....

Go say hi to Powder Monkey at Only Sayin', the latest edition to the BG blogroll.

I poke fun at Netroots Nation knowing full well I wanna go next summer.

a find

redpawmarks has written what Garrison Keillor would call "really good poems". Go say hi.

Go say Hi

To Peeling Wallpaper. Since it's a poetry blog (and friend of The Aristocrats which guarantees teh cool) we'll have to wait to see if "peeling" is an adjective or a verb. I suspect a little of both.

Happy One Year Blogiversary

To The Sunshine Empire.

I'm late, so here's a mini-blog roundup

Vlog will be late this morning, in fact I may wait until tomorrow except that tomorrow's busy too. It's that kind of week, at least for the first three days.

I have cub scouts until 8:30 eastern so I may be a few minutes late to salon but it will be set up and the link will be here.

BTW do check out Threading Water as she's vlogging now, too! (Twins.)

And Cap'n has Muffin, Cross-Dressing Bear o' Mystery, which is so wonderful it better become a regular feature. Just saying.

Skippy is embroiled in an embroilment with FDL as to whether they only link Big Box Blogs, as Skippy calls them. I loved that FDL defended themselves with: we didn't link to big blogs, hey, Down with Tyranny only gets 2000 hits per day!

I love FDL as much as the next blogger, but honeys, I can't stop laughing. Can't.

Finally, I want to tell you how much I love my children. Love them. But there are moments, moments when I wish no mess would get made in my house for five whole minutes? It's at those moments that I totally, totally get this.

Go say Hi

To Quaker Fruit Salad.

She's left for college and started her own blog in her own voice and all of a sudden her Mom's friends (and Friends, as in Religious Society of) in the blogosphere are coming to visit. Oh well.

She's as cool as her mom too so it's worth the click.

A blog has moved.

Long time personal FOBG (how long? 26 years? NAH. NOT POSSIBLE.) qwerty has moved his blog to

http://www.qwertysqoncepts.com

Somebody wrote back to ask me if it's a marketing blog. It's not a marketing blog it's more of a media blog but his latest post is about wonky web positioning stuff. Yeah. Stick around Qwerty though, and his brilliant ex-English major sense of humor always comes out. Like when he writes about Alabama Governor Bob Riley:

The happy, grandfatherly, Reaganoid gent over there is Governor Bob Riley of Alabama. I won’t bother mentioning his party affiliation. Just dig his ‘do and you’ll know.

The author has a point.

Katrina Anniversary

Suspect Device posted this terrific image to commemorate today (and Bush's visit to NOLA, heh.) h/t Online Blogintegrity.

Anyone in this entire country and those in particular who type "everything's fine here" are liars. And Republicans who apologize to their constituents for admitting their guilt are demoted two more levels in Dante's hell, imho.

Oh shoot now I'm in a bad mood. Better go knit.

"Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises." --Elizabeth Zimmermann, 1910-1999. She wrote that during the Watergate hearings, which, I hear, was really good knitting time.