Sci-Fi Round-Up: October 6, 2017

"Lord Of The Rings" by Zaki Hamdani

Interviews

The Orville: Adrianne Palicki On The Incredible Sets And The Hopeful ...

Link Round-Up: June 7, 2017

"The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring" by Tom Miatke

Part of 'Soldiers Of Fourtune’ exhibition presented by Hero Complex Gallery

Adam Savage Builds a LEGO Model of the NASA Apollo Saturn V Rocket

Anime recommendation chart for beginners

Bob Dylan's Nobel Lecture is now online: "In a lot of ways, some of these same things have happened to you. You too have had drugs dropped into your wine. You too have shared a bed with the wrong woman. You too have been spellbound by magical voices, sweet voices with strange melodies. You too have come so far and have been so far blown back. And you’ve had close calls as well. You have angered people you should not have. And you too have rambled this country all around. And you’ve also felt that ill wind, the one that blows you no good. And that’s still not all of it."  Here's a great explanation of Why Bob Dylan Won The Nobel Prize.

Sweets: LOTR Birthday Party

Imgurian Skip172 shared the preparations his girlfriend made for her "Long Expected" 25th birthday.  Decorations include some familiar signage, and the party featured a buffet of Lord of the Ring themed foods.  Imgur being Imgur, they of course advise him to immediately wife her, and I have to admit, I'd love to meet a fangirl this into my fandoms.

Link Round-Up: May 25, 2017

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" by Jonathan Burton

Limited edition prints available for purchase from Bottleneck Gallery. US$50

CNC Routing A 12 Foot Wide Piece Of Window Art

This Gorgeous 10-Second Milky Way Photo Was Shot Hand-Held

How many ways can you destroy a piano? Piano smashing contests were a UK fad in the 1960s, eventually crossing over to the US. Teams used sledgehammers to destroy an upright piano to the point where pieces of the piano could be passed through a 9-inch diameter hole. Infrequent piano smashing contests have been held in recent years although Guinness World Records has retired the category from active competition. Using sledgehammers is one thing, but composer Annea Lockwood has several creative ways to dispose of pianos.

Music Video: May It Be (LoTR)

"May It Be - The Lord of the Rings" by 2CELLOS

Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser of 2CELLOS performed an incredible cover of the song “May It Be” from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with the London Symphony Orchestra. The mesmerizing track is from 2CELLOS' new album, Score, which is now available to purchase from Amazon.

Quick Pic: Dwarven Statue

"15 foot tall Dwarven statue at the Auckland Airport in New Zealand"

Source: Imgur via Reddit

Favorite comments: "Obviously, not life size." and "Should be more stout, Like my beer."

Sweets: Minas Tirith Wedding Cake

Minas Tirith Wedding Cake

Source: Imgur via Reddit

"Wedding Cake I helped work on for a super stoked bride who was a huge LOTR fan."  All I can think is that this would make for a really morbid birthday cake with a Denethor candle on top.

Link Round-Up: November 7, 2016

After experimenting with "Ottoman Star Wars" for his graduation thesis portfolio, Istanbul artist Murat Palta created a series of illustrations for classic Hollywood films in the style of Ottoman miniatures, including, among others - The Godfather, Alien, Ghostbusters. Rich in detail and full of humor, he extends his attempt at 'combining global with local, traditional with contemporary...', by turning to classics of Western Literature - Don Quixote, Lolita, Harry Potter.

A blog dedicated to poor decisions that make great stories.

Edvard Munch's The Scream Is Infinitely More Horrific as an Action Figure

OldNYC is a beautiful way to discover historical photos of New York City.

Redditor mbingcrosby created a Google Maps-style mockup of Middle-earth from The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien, including walking directions from the Shire to Mordor. As the map notes, orcs and trolls present serious potential traffic delays.

Scientists explain how happiness makes us less creative

Stealth Cell Tower is a project by Julian Oliver that blends art, technology, and awareness using a disguised office printer.

Ten 3D Printable Articulated Toy Robots

Why do College Campuses have so much Art: Thoughts on the role of the campus museum

Link Round-Up: February 3, 2016

"Battle of Five Armies: Warriors of Dain" by Tulikoura

The China National Space Administration released all of the images from their Chang'e 3 moon landing mission, including hundreds of amazing true color, HD photographs. Some 35 GB of datasets, including photographs of and by the Yutu rover have been difficult to retrieve outside of China and have been mirrored by Emily Lakdawalla at planetary.org.

The Food Surgeon 4 minutes and 33 seconds of exactly what the title says. Do not try this at home without a medical degree and sterile conditions.

Graphics Revealing What Over 3000 Designers And Creatives Want From Their Jobs

The "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy... Suicide Squad Style!

Reinterpreting the Van Gogh’s masterpieces with a Tilt-Shift effect

Stephen King On What Hollywood Owes Authors When Their Books Become Films: "I want a dollar, and I want approvals over the screenwriter, the director and the principal cast. We try to make these people understand, the people that are doing the deal, that I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. I’m not a hard guy to get along with. In all the time we’ve been doing this, I’ve never put up a red light to anybody about anything that they wanted to do. Because if they want to make changes, if they want to be a little bit out on the edge, I’m all for it. I like it."

This Shark Shepherdess Looks Like She Stepped Out of an Underwater Fairy Tale

Super Mario Maker Wallpaper Editor

Link Round-Up: January 26, 2016

"Sauron's Fall" by Volkan Baga

Event: This weekend, New York City hosted the 24th Annual Outsider Art Fair. Director Rebecca Hoffman shares some highlights, the New York Times provides an overview, and Bloomberg Business considers whether Outsider Art has gone mainstream. Meanwhile, a Christie's Ousider Art auction the same weekend brought in over 1.5 million dollars.

Chaz Hutton Draws Graphs: Most recently "A Map Of Every City."

Check Out the Massive, Motorized Wings on This League of Legends Cosplay

Literary Witches, a new comic by Katy Horan and Taisia Kitaiskaia, author of Ask Baba Yaga.

The Maker's Guide to Boards

Microsoft Commissions MINECRAFT 7 Wonders of the Ancient World

Star Trek: Enterprise Stamps from Liberia

Take an Audio Tour of Classic Paintings Transformed Into Soundscapes

Sculpture: Gandalf Bust

"Gandalf Bust" by Opi ForbiddenScrolls

Prints available for purchase from Etsy. US$124.44

Merchandise: Middle Earth Throw

"Middle Earth Acrylic Tapestry Throw" by Northwest

Prints available for purchase from Amazon. US$32.22

It probably won't come as a huge shock that I'm not the sort of guy to waste a lot of time on interior decor, but this acrylic throw blanket could change my mind.

Woodwork: Gimli Smoking Pipe

Gimli Smoking Pipe by SVpipesdesign

Via: Imgur via Reddit

SVpipesdesign makes smoking pipes with detailed carvings on them. His latest work features Gimli son of Glóin, the mighty and jovial dwarf warrior, friend to the elves, lord of the Glittering Caves and president of the Galadriel fan club. The pipe can be yours for a mere US$2,500.  SVpipedesign is currently working a pipe shaped like the head of Gandalf the Grey.

Paintings: Wizard

"Wizard" by Estonia-based Kinko-White

Watercolors, ink, white gel pen, golden leaf

"...From Wilderland to Western shore,
from northern waste to southern hill,
through dragon-lair and hidden door
and darkling woods he walked at will..."

Quick Pic: Marvelous Dwarven Beard

"They said I should try something different with my hair - so I did." by morihime

"Especially my parents will never say it again."

Sweets: Gingerbread Barad-dûr

Dark Tower of Barad-dûr in Gingerbread by Finland-based Jarno Koivulan

Source: Turkulainen

Two Finnish students decided to build a slightly more hardcore gingerbread house. Two students, Jarno and Roy, recently made the news in Finland for winning a gingerbread house competition with a 13.5 pound model of the Dark Tower of Barad-dûr from The Lord of the Rings.  You'll remember it as being the one with the giant flaming eye top it.  The two friends are (of course) computer science majors, and they speak briefly to a reporter in the article about the competition.  Unfortunately, the article isn't in English.

Sweets: Gingerbread Smaug

Gingerbread Smaug created by Caroline Eriksson

Source: Imgur via Reddit

This astonishing rendition of the mighty Smaug is worth its weight in gold!  It's the work of 3D confection designer Caroline Eriksson.  She's from one of the Scandinavian nations, but I'm not going to pretend to know which one.  She's the same artist who created the Gingerbread Gingerbread Optimus Prime.

Check out the making of video at VGTV!  You can't really appreciate this piece until you've seen how much patience went into attaching each of those scales.

Props: Lord of the Rings Lightsaber

Lord of the Rings inspired custom Lightsaber with Crystal Focus by VadersVault

[ Previously: Props: 3D Printed Spider-Man Mask ]

This Lord of the Rings-inspired lightsaber is as elegant as it is deadly.  It would be great for a Legolas Jedi cosplay!

"Made especially for the engagement of one of our good customers, this saber takes on design cues and themes from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. With hand engraved Tengwar script as well as natural gemstones, gold leaf and vine work, and detailed leather grip. The inscription is in Sindarin, and is a play on the last 3 lines of the original Ring poem from the books. In english it says: "One ring to confirm their love. One ring to unite them. One ring to bring them both, and in this lifetime bind them."

Powered by the Crystal Focus Version 5.1 and ignited by a LEDengin 10W RGBA set for purple and FoC™ (Flash on Clash™). Featuring a custom soundfont made especially for this saber based on sounds from the movie trilogy and displayed on an awesome 7 piece acrylic stand made by Sanjuro Systems featuring matching Tengwar script. Congratulations Dave and Jenna!"

Video Round-Up: December 10, 2015

"Gandalf vs Dumbledore Wizard Showdown" by Jamie Costa

Two of literature's (and cinema's) greatest wizards, Gandalf the Grey from the Lord of the Rings series and Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series, humorously battle each other in the latest video by Los Angeles-based actor and impressionist, Jamie Costa.

‘90s Footage of Fans Reacting to the Premiere of The Phantom Menace - To celebrate the upcoming release of the next Star Wars film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, YouTube channel Funny Local News compiled this hilariously cringeworthy footage of local news reporters interviewing Star Wars superfans before and after they experienced the May 19th, 1999 premiere of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the first installment in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Amazing Bike Stunts Riding Across Rooftops Spain - GoPro recently teamed up with Mount Creative to make “Cascadia,” a fascinating riding video where professional street trials rider Danny MacAskill performs amazing bike stunts while riding across the rooftops of Gran Canaria, Spain.

Couple Performs 3-Minute Mashup Medley of 2015’s Top Hits - Musicians (and married couple) Us the Duo are back with another year-end mashup medley of the year's most popular songs. This year's performance includes hits like Adele's "Hello," Drake's "Hotline Bling," Omi's "Cheerleader," Silento's "Watch Me," Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood," The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face," and more (Here's a full list of songs).

Video: The Hobbit: Dance Battle

"The Hobbit: Dance Battle with Sean Astin" from Alberto Belli

This video features an unexpected dance off featuring Sean Astin as a bar tender in a STEP UP style dance-off.