When I went to Prague in 2005, I fell in love with Cubism. Oh, I went for the Art Nouveau, don’t get me wrong — but I left loving Cubism, an art movement that had a vigorous, localized growth spurt in Prague from 1910-1914. Most people have seen one of Picasso’s Cubist paintings, but very few know that the Czech Cubists leapt off the canvas and left their mark on typography, architecture, sculpture, interior decor, furniture and everyday items.

Sharp points, slicing planes, crystalline shapes. These are the trademarks of the Czech Cubists – a unique, avant-garde group, feverishly active in Prague between 1910 and 1914. As well as fine art, they left behind them building facades prickling with little pyramids, furniture bursting with energy, and decorative objects dynamized with stark black lines.

Why do I like Cubism?

Cubists attempted to supplant the right-angled forms of modernism with oblique, broken, pyramidal ones; they desired to give shape to the boxlike, modernist interiors through the use of forms reminiscent of the inside of a crystal. (Quote from here, emphasis mine.)

The movement venerates natural, crystalline shapes. How could I not like it??

I went through the Cubist Museum (housed in a peculiar Cubist building) from top to bottom (all four stories.) The one thing I really didn’t see much of was Cubist glasswork. Oh, they had one piece, a candy jar or something, but it wasn’t that exciting. Bohemia, later Czechoslovakia is famous for their glass; perfume bottles especially. Collectors just love the stuff, and have for centuries. I never really thought to wonder whether something like Cubist glass-ANYTHING could be found in Prague, antique or otherwise. (I love art glass. Not just any old glass object, mind you, but a lot of them have Danielle-magnets inside, I admit.)

Anyway. Very long ramble short, I received my birthday presents early from my mother this year, in honor of the big three-o:

Genuine Czech Cubist glass, almost a century old. Two small lidded boxes, and an atomizer — boudoir accessories, basically. (I didn’t think to put it in the pictures below the cut, but the original tassel/bulb cover and cord came with it, but are unusable. I think I can replace the bulb, get a new cord, and …use it!) The color of the two diamond-shaped objects is a green-grey; the rectangular box is a shade between clear platinum and smoky quartz. They are very precious and are living on my dresser, holding my favorite earrings and necklaces. I love-love-love them, and want to share.

MANY pictures below the cut. [Read more →]

So it’s the end of June, and I’ve been crazy-busy. I’ve done a lot of cleaning. I’ve done a lot of cleaning out, and I’m selling myself through several square feet of containers of anime goods. I’ve already sold several things, given away a few. I will be auctioning more as I get it together; there’s a LOT of stuff to go through, so it’ll take me the summer most likely to get everything online here or there.

I haven’t written in a week or more. I haven’t started, much less finished, the first draft of my Selene short story. Hopefully this month will be different. I felt the need to get my collections organized and reduced; it feels good to be purging some things, from a mental standpoint. The money is also very helpful, but mostly it’s my mind that benefits.

I have some fantastic pictures to post, but they demand their own post, and the post needs some research work done for maximum effect, so I will likely put that up tomorrow. I received my birthday presents early from my mother, and I have some fantastically obscure art antiques to show. :D :D :D (I’m very excited.)

If you’ve ever seen a picture or watched video footage of the Space Shuttle launching, you probably have a vague idea that what’s coming out of the business end is… powerful. Powerful enough to hurl it into the sky, right? Go and see today’s post at Common Themes on how powerful it can be, and what it can do when it’s feeling more destructive than usual!

I will be posting more things like this, of the neat, awe-inspiring and beautiful, on a regular basis; this in addition to the regular assortment of interesting, amusing and weird. I invite you to subscribe to the feed and give it a whirl! Guaranteed entertaining, if not always informative. ;)

ETA: I don’t know why comments were off, but they’re back on now. [shrug] WordPress gremlins or somesuch.

…I’m working on Serenitatis version 8. First fansite layout I’ve done in… quite a while. We’ll see how it goes. ^^;

Here’s my sale site for anime/manga goods.

I am selling over ninety percent of my collection, I’d say. I’ve only got a few things online right now, am at this moment alphabetizing by series three boxes of shitajiki to sell, and I have two large storage bins of Sailor Moon and Tanemura Arina goods of all kinds, and another large box completely full of Ribon furoku. Also three Tanemura large-format calendars, UFO catchers, a gigantic B3 BSSM Mecca Harajuku shitajiki, two BSSM cels, figurines, keychains… cosplay items….

I’m going to put some of the things listed on eBay: here’s my seller profile. I’m selling my BSSM star locket and Eternal Tiaru cosplay toys, if anyone’s interested. Things most likely to be auctioned include Tanemura zenin/festa goods (I have some bags, purses, etc), probably the B3 shitajiki unless someone makes me an offer, and possibly a few of the regular shitajiki (Card Captor Sakura 0397EV comes to mind.) Keep an eye on the two above links and you’ll stay in the know!

We’ve been watching Crusade lately, and on the whole mourning how short-lived it was, the silly things the network did to it, and how fantastic the characters are. I especially love Gary Cole; Office Space may have typecast him after Crusade, but I’m going to put that behind me because he deserves recognition for the character of Matthew Gideon. So there.

I’ve also started rewatching Babylon 5 season two while I do housework in the evenings, and loving on that set of plot arcs and characterizations. Every time I rewatch B5 I catch more enticing foreshadowing of future events, subtle hints and just… bits of wonderful things. It’s helping to feed my writing urge, so I’m trying to keep in the sci-fi and ease back on the fantasy, just for now. After this story is written, I’ll work on Olivine again.

Zenin Princess is no more. I’ve moved the proxy bidding guide and Japanese periodicals guide to TPnet’s Buyer’s Guide section, as articles. Those were the only things being viewed @ Zip anyhow. I am setting up a subdomain here to handle goods sales, which I really need to get started on, as the boxes are oozing out of my closet and I no longer can tell what’s mine and what’s for sale. Erg. Will post the URL as soon as there’s something there to show (and buy!)