Heptu Bidding Farewell To The City Of Obb by John Duncan
✸ An Interview With Roxanne Carter by David Hoenigman from Word Riot
I have long admired Roxanne’s work from afar, and this one question interview
only solidifies the notion I have of what an excellent person she is. One day, I hope we shall meet, and have tea!
✸ I’m joining the throngs of devotees who (j’)adore the majestic Catherine Baba!
I don’t have very many living fashion icons, so I’m very happy to have found one to inspire me constantly. What a wonderful woman!
Gala Darling put together a super piece on her for her Style Icons series
✸ Casting Our Favorite Books: The Secret History
Casting characters from beloved books is one of my favorite fantasy games, and I’ve long imagined who I would cast in a film version
of The Secret History. I don’t disagree with most of the picks in the article, though I do think Cillian Murphy is far too pretty and delicate
to be Henry Winter. They needed Nick Cave for that, about 30 years ago. Oh, how I wish they would just finally hurry up and make it, though!

Julie Heffernan, Budding Boy
✸ Q and A: John Seed Interviews Julie Heffernan
“In ‘Self-Portrait Setting Up Camp’ I’m imagining re-making the world where the only people who exist are the Builders,
the Buriers, the Mothers, the Healers, the Story-tellers, the Fishers, the Dreamers and the Growers. The trees are bedecked
with billboard size copies of paintings that have given me wisdom in my life. Others are there for protection from the sun.
The space is constructed as a gigantic spiral. As we end we begin again.”

✸ In Remembrance: Kenneth Grant (1924-2011) from Coilhouse
✸ Show The Monster Guillermo del Toro’s quest to get amazing creatures onscreen –
a fascinating piece on one of my favorite auteurs from the New Yorker.

✸ 8 Beautiful Bioluminescent Creatures From the Sea
✸ At the Core of Traditional Witchcraft from Speculum Celestae

Natural Dark by Lindsey Carr
✸ Carnivorous Plant Feasts on Bat Dung
✸ Fuck Yeah Altars – This is just wonderful. I was very happy to find one of my own included among the beautiful altars there!

Portrait of Madeline von Foerster: An interview with the New York based artist about “The Red Thread” –
the key painting of her 2010 solo show “Reliquaries” at Strychnin Gallery, Berlin. Von Foerster works in “mischtechnik,”
a mixed technique of oil and egg tempera used by the Flemish Renaissance Masters. Her current series is concerned
with endangered/extinct wildlife, and also inspired by the reliquaries of the Ursula church in Cologne, Germany.
✸ Swan on Swan – Black Swan’s Sexy Tropes from the ever enchanting Jiz Lee
✸ Interview with a Female Funeral Director By Susannah Breslin I really need to meet both these women.
✸ The Pale Blue Door, Prinzessinnen Garten, Berlin. Pictures by Manuel Vazquez (Thank you for this, Mlle. Verhext!)

✸ Trouvelot Astronomy from BiblioOdyssey
(Thanks for the tip go to Miss Patience Meliora Blythe – her real name, folks!)

“Frenchman Étienne Léopold Trouvelot (1827–1895) was primarily a portrait artist when he arrived in Massachusetts in 1852.
During the following 30 years that he remained in America his amateur passion for science would ensure a legacy that straddles
both fame and infamy. Trouvelot had a particular love for silkworms and he had a 4 acre plot behind his house where he cultivated
a native variety. To increase production he hoped to crossbreed the regular type with a species from Europe. He brought back Gypsy
Moth eggs from a trip home and so introduced a virulent pest that ravages forests in America to this day. To his (slight) credit, he realized
the enormity of the problem straight away when some of the introduced moths escaped. He made it publically known, but unfortunately local
entomologists did nothing at the time to eradicate them. Trouvelot turned his attention from moths to the stars and began illustrating celestial
phenomena. His drawings were so good that the Director of Harvard College Observatory put Trouvelot on staff where he gained access
to their powerful telescope.”