I'm Toying With You

Literally
Further to a couple of earlier posts about triffids, I was looking for a few images to post on BOOJUM! and found - well, more than I expected.  Not simply in terms of illustrations, rather in some dubious 'toys' for children.  Art?

Quite.

     Conrad is not entirely sure that you'd want your small inheritors relishing the chance to replicate a)  99% of humanity being blinded and b) the remaining 1% being in peril of imminent death by triffid sting.  Although it might serve as an educational toy in schools as part of "Disaster Preparedness"*.
     There you might expect triffid toys to end.  Your expectations are incorrect!  Take the Honourable Lead Boiler Company, who make figures for wargaming.  Actually, calling these 'toys' will mortally offend wargamers, who are universally middle-aged men.  Art?

Quite.  Again.

     Of course, the people responsible for designing these will go straight out and buy up the Lego versions, for their small inheritors.
     Then there's the Japanese market, where logic and common sense break down, as they appear to have a range of soft collectible toys (for want of a better word), including this:

Quite what?

     To Conrad's eyes it looks more like Quetzalcoatl crossed with a cockatoo, and you can have it for only £35, plus shipping.   I won't fight you for it.

"London - It's Hideous!"
To one raised in the fair city of Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell, that line from "Wonder Woman" fell upon ears (and mind) that agreed wholeheartedly.
     And what's this?  Why, an article upon the BBC website that appears to back up your humble hack.  Art?

London City Island

     For a start, as the journalist responsible notes, this isn't an island.  It, as he so accurately points out, is a peninsula, formed by a loop of the river Lea.  You might also like to call it a promontory.  Whatever it is, LCI is pricey - a two-bedroom apartment is put at £1,000,000, should you wish to purchase a promontory property.  You could buy an awful lot of books for that; and an even larger number of pens.
     "I don't see where the 'hideous' appelation comes in," I hear you quibble.
     Patience.
     At this point the River Lea flows into the Thames, which is tidal.  Journo Brian Milligan points out that, at low tide, there is an awful lot of mud exposed.  Art?

And he's right!

     The thing is, this mud is going to stink dreadfully at low tide, and there's a lot of it.  What's more, given the switchback curves of the Lea here, the river will run very slowly, so that mud isn't going to move anywhere thanks to liquid motion.
     That first photo looks very nice, but the one thing you can't tell from a photograph is - smell.
     London - it's hideous!

You May Be BOOJUM!-less Tomorrow
Your humble hack has to travel to an interview tomorrow, which starts at 4:00 and finishes at 6:00 post meridian; not only that, it's over at Salford Quays, meaning a journey of at least 90 minutes there and back via bus and tram.  So, if I'm setting off at 2:30 and not getting back until at least 7:30, I am afraid the blog might have to take a back seat.
     I know, I know, two lapses in two weeks, shocking isn't it, but a man needs a job in order to be able to afford books and pens.

A sight to warm the heart!

Eye Eye Eye
I noticed an unusual addition to the film posters for that sci-fi classic "Them!" which made me pause and think for a minute or two.  Let's have a couple of posters to illustrate my point.  Art?   Double duty.


     Note the "eyes" present in these posters.  They have been - not sure what the word for this is - faunalised? - by adding pupils, notably not human in nature.  Frankly I doubt you'll find any animal in nature that has eyes like that, outside the Muppets.
     Why is this interesting?  Because the actual filmed ants don't possess animal pupils.


     - and to make the point explicit -


     One can only speculate as to why this was done - perhaps a dead-eyed pupill-less giant monster ant is not quite as terrifying as one that appears to have focussed on You Specifically to be carved asunder by it's huge gnashing mandibles.

Finally
There was a computer game called "It Came From The Desert" that was inspired by Them!, and I can prove it.  Art?


     Conrad has played it, not very successfully; of course the graphics are terribly dated now but it was a hoot back in the day (i.e. the Nineties).

"Aim for the antennae!"

*  Make sure they also get taught about zombies.