Weekend Roundup

So, who's ready for some distractions?

Neil Gaiman, easily one of my favorite writers since the earliest days of my love affair with scifi, also has a kickass library. Just look at this place! His basement is wall to wall, ceiling to floor books, gargoyles, and kitties. Just thinking about all those fantasy books, scifi books, mythology collections, and great works of literary genius--well, if that doesn't turn you on just a little bit, you're spending too much time on the Wii.

Urban Prankster posted today on great crosswalk sign hacks. Sure, they're funny, but are they art?

Some jumping off points: they do make you stop and take a closer look at the world around you and reconsider aspects of your life that you may take for granted. However, they are by their nature transitory and involve little technique beyond a clever wit and some basic computer skills, which describes pretty much 95% of Internet users, and they can't ALL be considered artists.

Discuss.

Sweet Zombie Buddha, the wife of Japan's prime minister elect believes she was abducted by aliens. Miyuki Hatoyama, you just upped your country's awesome tenfold in my eyes. It's not enough that the opposition party wrested power back from the party that has governed Japan since the end of World War II--now they're building diplomatic bridges to the stars!

And now, in the useless-crap-I-desperately-need category, here is a samurai umbrella.

Finally, here's to my sister, who works six days a week but will get TWO DAYS OFF IN A ROW thanks to Labor Day. Hurray!