Charles Schulz plus Morrissey = This Charming Charlie
It’s the pop-culture connection we had to have. A new Tumblr, This Charming Charlie, pairs Charlie Brown comic strips with the lyrics of Morrissey’s The Smiths - and they fit surprisingly well, like a hand in a baseball glove. Gloomy old Charlie Brown and the king of sadface pop make a great pair.
Fantasy fan turned sword-maker to the stars
When we think of film and television production, we usually turn our attention - and interest - to the stars, directors and (sometimes) screenwriters. But what of the hundreds of little jobs that make the imaginary world of the screen feel palpably real?
Wired has run a fascinating profile of ‘the most famous blacksmith in Los Angeles’, Tony Swatton - the go-to guy for handcrafted weapons, including the hook from Hook, the blade from Blade and the swords for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Bodyscapes
Photographer Carl Warner is known for his ability to turn anything into fantastic landscapes, from office supplies to nuts and bolts - and, most famously, food. Now he’s turned his imagination to the human body, in a series called Bodyscapes.
Top ten fictional newsrooms
As the fortunes of old media continue to fall, it’s worth casting a nostalgic eye on the top ten fictional newsrooms of the recent past - from the cynical (classic 80s journalism-plus-love-triangle flick Broadcast News) to the idealistic (Redford and Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein in All the President’s Men), and the flat-out send-up (Will Ferrell’s Anchorman - stay classy, San Diego).
Writers pick fantasy pen-name projects
Following J.K. Rowling’s unmasking as the author behind retired colonel Robert Galbraith and the crime novel A Cuckoo’s Calling, the New York Times has asked a series of writers to imagine what they might write under their own pen names, in a different genre to their own. International Man Booker prize-winning short-story writer Lydia Daviswould write memoir, in the voice of her cat Percy, while Florida crime king Carl Hiassen imagines ‘a series of vampire-romance novels set at an assisted-living facility in post-apocalyptic Boca Raton, Fla. Perhaps there could also be trolls and pythons.’