astridv

Oh hey, ScarJo might be playing another character with superpowers, in a Luc Besson movie. That sounds promising. (It's not a Black Widow movie but hey, superpowers. That's cool. And Luc Besson is not known for cheap and shallow movies.) link @ themarysue
Speaking of themarysue, I remember when they introduced the website concept I was extreeemely skeptical because of the name... I thought it signalled an entirely different purpose, like it was to ridicule female characters instead of celebrating them. I'd have figured that the word "Mary Sue" is so fraught with negative connotations that it couldn't be reclaimed. Well, maybe it's really worth trying. I like the website, in any case.

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Yesterday jae was visiting my beautiful (if still a litte chilly) city, and we geeked about The Americans* and had some delicious asparagus. (Asparagus is kind of A Thing here... it's like a two-months feast of deliciousness.)
Also, I found out that jae could totally have a career as an undercover spy in Germany because her German is so flawless that I kept forgetting she's not from here. Really fascinating. I'm reasonably fluent in English but I never got to the point where I lost my German accent.

*If you haven't watched The Americans but are in the market for something different: The Americans is something different. It's set in the 80s, about two undercover Soviet spies in the US who're posing as a married couple with kids. If you liked The Wire, for example, you should really check this one out... it has a similar flavor. It's realistic, nuanced and gripping, and what I really love is that when it comes to East vs West ideologies and politics, the show doesn't take sides. It shows individual people's actions and motivations, similar to The Wire. That's rather bold (I think, for a US show) and it's refreshing.

I love having visitors. Especially from abroad. Earlier this month pentapus and a friend had stopped by (and were hardy enough to brace the freezing wind and go on a bike tour which is also A Thing here, and I got to show them our sights, among which is the world's largest ammonite. (Seriously, the thing is huge.)

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Today the weather was actually great and with my illos finished I went to our hidden meadow to shoot a few arrows AND went climbing at the owl tower AND I think I finally found the perfect route along the back wall, so I'm almost ready to try to traverse the entire building in one go. *rubs hands* It's gonna be a ~15 minute climb (which is funny because it feels so much shorter when you're on the wall; time passes very differently when you're climbing.)

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One potential job for May fell through, and another one got postponed for a year. I'm okay with the former, not so happy with the latter. But I still have a lot of half-finished projects of my own, some of them fanart. I had been about to post some new fanart when that last job landed on my desk. Gonna get back to that.

Something different today... this was posted to awesome_places: 10-storey slide in City Museum (St. Louis/ Missouri)

St. Louis City Museum consists largely of repurposed architectural and industrial objects.
One of the most popular attractions are the Enchanted Caves and Shoe Shafts that run through the center of the Museum, all the way to the 10th floor.
In the Enchanted Caves, guests will find an elaborate cave system hand-sculpted by Bob Cassilly and his crew. From every direction, a different creature is staring back.

8 photos of a surreally beautiful structure. I want to visit this place and see it first hand.

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bonus rec: Alone on the Wall: Alex Honnold
~4 minute film. Honnold does free solo climbing... scaling mountain faces without a rope, which almost no one does for obvious reasons. Dude actually can't seem to feel fear. It's really fascinating to watch him climb. (Some of the clips are a bit vertigo-inducing, if that's not your thing. That slightly overhanging crack starting at 1:50... gulp.)

(xposted from disobey_gravity)
I have a question for the people with outdoor belaying experience. I have my eye set on this bridge. It's conveniently situated in the middle of nowhere, there's barely even foot traffic, and I figure it might be possible to use the railing for toprope belay. However it's a sandstone railing and I don't know if it's advisable to hang a rope directly around a stone structure or if the friction would damage it. So I'm wondering if there is some kind of gadget that you could fasten around the stone railing, with a metal ring or roll through which the rope would go. If there is, what's it called?

I just climbed my very first 8- (like a 5.11a, I think.) Yeah, BABY! Okay, I hung twice so strictly speaking it may not count yet, but it was just because I didn't see the route. I'm pretty sure next time I can get it in one go. Harrgyeah. Hee.

From Buildering.net: Cragrat's guide to UBC
DISCLAIMER
Buildering, i.e. climbing buildings, is stupid dangerous. Buildering always results in serious injury and horrible death. Buildering is illegal. You will be caught, charged with trespassing, and spend years in jail. All media contained within this guidebook is fictional. It is a fictional account of fictional characters doing fictional things. All photos have been doctored to give the appearance of buildering. They are not real. This guidebook is not intended to promote or legitimize the illicit activities of criminals. Buildering.net promotes climbing in gyms, walking on sidewalks, and good dental hygiene.

That's a pretty awesome guide, too! It would be cool if we had something like that for our city but I suppose the climbing crowd isn't large enough - or in any way organized - to make it worth the time.

Here's a video of a cool traverse, just above the ground at Doe Library on the UC Berkeley campus

Yesterday I managed the last missing part of the owl tower traverse. Woot.

Buildering - A Climbing Story
A human interest piece on the sport of buildering.

A pretty good intro video for those interested in the sport of buildering (aka urban climbing). Most of the vids I link here are by advanced climbers and many of the routes in them are really pretty freaking scary and not necessarily something that would've made me think "I gotta try that!" But the sport itself is no more dangerous than you want it to be, and it's great fun to experience an urban environment in an entirely new way.

Age is no limit: A Nine Year Old Climber, Ashima Shiraishi
Ashima Shiraishi and a few other talented kids at the bouldering Youth Nationals in Boulder, CO. Beautiful technique, seemingly effortless climbs! Watching these kids climb is a sheer joy (and makes one wish one had a climbing wall right here, right now. *g*)

Today's vid is very short (46 sec) but worth a click. Someone climbs down a wall at the gymn - hands first. I don't even know, man. O.o
Rock climbing with a difference

Sean Ehrlich - Parkour and Urban Climbing
I could watch this guy jump on buildings all day long.

(So far I haven't been able to master that move where you run at a wall full speed and use your momentum to jump way up. I can't figure out how to convert my forward momentum into upward momentum, instead of bouncing back like a rubber ball. Then again, I haven't tried it a lot because the results were so frustrating. And this guy makes it look so EASY.)

seen on my reading list: hardcore buildering cat. Heh.

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Selenak makes me wish I could vid when she releases this bunny into the wild: ... in my current mood I'm more inclined to be cynical and demand an equally cynically minded vidder vid woobies from several fandoms - Loki, Lex, maybe Lindsay from Angel to the tune of "I'm just a soul whose intentions are good, pleaaaaase don't let me be so misunderstood".

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vid recs:
Needs by tearful_eye
sources: crouching tiger, hidden dragon | hero | house of flying daggers | memoirs of a geisha
This is an incredibly beautiful vid. The footage she uses is gorgeous to begin with, and the way it's cut together... there's a flow of motion, of color, and the whole thing is so seamless that you can't even tell it's different sources.

Bismarck City Climbing
... a couple of builderers climbing the world's (well, Germany's, where else would they want to build one of these) highest Bismarck statue in Hamburg