I saw some truck nuts today.

So I guess I can cross that off my bucket list.

In case you don't know (and please excuse my own limited knowledge on the subject), truck nuts are a rubber or plastic pair of testicles that really classy people usually hang under their pickup trucks.

The pair I saw were on a four wheeler being pulled by a white van at a gas station. A very sloppy-looking guy emerged from the van and filled the four wheeler with gasoline. We made eye contact, and I think he could tell I was judging him. I was.

What's strange to me is that the truck nuts were hanging from a bar on the back of the four wheeler. To extend the visual metaphor, I was trying to decide what part of the anatomy that bar would be. It seemed to me, from the position it was in that it was the tail bone. So it was like the four wheeler had a scrotum hanging from its tail bone. It was just a really odd placement, in my opinion, and it made me glad my scrotum isn't located there. I feel like the location of the actual scrotum on the human body isn't that great either (not that I can think of a better place for it), but it's still much better than having one on your tail bone. And that's a fact.

LEGO Hip-Hip Troll

My Pretentious Troll didn't get much love. Is it because he's pretentious?

Sure he's pretentious, but he's lovable. Imagine what kinds of things he might paint. Is there a whole art community of fantasy creatures? Is there a dragon that does graffiti art on castle walls?

There's also a music scene of fantasy creatures. This is Hip-Hop Troll.

This guy is a combination of the troll and the Collectable Minifigure Rapper. I also gave him gold horns instead of silver.

What would a troll's hip-hop songs be about?

Chicago Splitscreen

I was looking through old photos of mine the other day and found these.

I took the top photo in Chicago during the summer of 2006. I took the bottom photo in Chicago during the autumn of 2008. The only two times I've ever been to Chicago. I didn't realized I had taken such similar photos on two separate trips until I was looking at old photos the other day. I did not intend to take two photos from almost exactly the same spot, but I guess both of these times I found myself in that spot and decided it was a beautiful view for a photo. There was a little bit of cropping done to reframe them since they didn't line up perfectly, but not much.

LEGO Pretentious Troll

If you liked the LEGO Dinosaur Dracula I made and put in the post yesterday, I think you might enjoy this too. You probably think it's a troll dressed as an artist for Halloween, but you're most definitely wrong about that. He's actually a very pretentious artist troll.

To put this guy together, I combined a troll with a few pieces from the so very pretentious looking Collectable Minifigure Artist, who I always thought looked like Brian Topp from the television show Spaced. Brian is also a very pretentious artist.

Hmm, I wonder what sorts of things a pretentious troll would paint...

Dinosaur Dracula's Halloween Countdown

I wrote about the X-Entertainment Halloween Countdown two years ago. This past summer, the creator of X-Entertainment, Matt, launched a new website called Dinosaur Dracula. It's basically the spiritual successor to X-Entertainment, but is clearly an improvement due to the recently hatched vampiric Tyrannosaurus rex (I love that I know how to spell that without having to look it up or even think about it) that the site has for a mascot.

Since it's early September, any reasonable human being could have expected this... Dinosaur Dracula's Halloween Countdown started recently, and since the site is new, this is its first ever Halloween Countdown. That's something pretty special. It has the renewed energy and magic of the new site, but since there have been so many Halloween Countdowns on X-Entertainment, Matt has had plenty of practice. And you know what they say about practice.

After seeing the Dinosaur Dracula action figure that Matt made in his post about Matchbox Con-Nec-Tors and seeing that he compared the toys to LEGO, I was inspired to make this LEGO version of Dinosaur Dracula.

I combined parts from the Collectable Minifigure Lizard Man and Vampire, and had to find one extra piece to complete it: a black minifigure head to go under the dinosaur mask. Matt mentioned in the Con-Nec-Tors post that despite the fact that one of the figures is an obvious Dracula, they called it a Vampire. Well, you may have noticed that the same goes for that LEGO minifigure. He's called Vampire, but he's obviously Dracula. These toy companies can't fool us.

I hope you enjoyed my LEGO Dinosaur Dracula. I know I enjoy it. Check out Dinosaur Dracula's Halloween Countdown. At this point, you don't have too much catching up to do.

"Default" by Atoms For Peace

For quite a while now I've had Atoms For Peace over in my Music I'm Looking Forward To In '12 section.

From what I understand, Atoms For Peace is a band that was formed by Radiohead's Thom Yorke to play material from his solo album The Eraser live. The band, named after a song from The Eraser (which is named after a speech given by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953), is made up of Yorke, frequent Yorke/Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, percussionist Mauro Refosco, and drummer Joey Waronker. The live shows went well and they decided to take the collaboration to the studio.

The band's website launched yesterday with a video for "Default".



The song is the band's first single, and is available for purchase on iTunes. I like it. I was expecting their music to feel less electronic and more like a band, but maybe this isn't indicative of how the rest of the album will sound. Either way is fine with me as long as it's this good.

The debut album was expected this year, but now Yorke has said that it will be released next year. I guess I'll have to start a Music I'm Looking Forward To In '13 list now.

"And I Will Kiss" by Underworld (featuring Evelyn Glennie)

On my other blog, INT. A CINEMATIC MIND - NIGHT, I posted an entry about the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony. The ceremony, entitled Isles Of Wonder, was designed by director Danny Boyle with music direction by one of my favorite bands, Underworld. I'm not that interested in sports, but the team-up of Boyle and Underworld was enough to get me to watch the ceremony.

After watching the ceremony, there was one specific part I wanted to post on here, but I couldn't find it on youtube. I've at least found the music now though. The music, named "And I Will Kiss" after part of a speech given by the character Caliban in The Tempest by William Shakespeare, was the score to a part of Isles Of Wonder which represented the industrial revolution in Britain. The song, composed by Underworld, features over one thousand drummers led by the percussionist Evelyn Glennie. It was pretty amazing to watch, and it's amazing to listen to as well. It's 17 minutes long, but it's definitely worth listening to the entire thing.

Neil Armstrong

August 5, 1930 - August 25, 2012

I know that I'm posting this late. I apologize. This is something I've been wanting to put here since the day he died, but I haven't really had the time to put the post together until today.

I felt speechless about the topic on the day it happened, and I feel the same now. So I'm taking a cue from one of my friends and posting an excerpt from the speech William Safire wrote for President Richard Nixon to give if the moon landing had failed, stranding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Obviously the speech was unused because the mission was a success, but part of the speech feels relevant and appropriate now.

"In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. Others will follow and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied but these men were the first and they will remain the foremost in our hearts."