"Do they know it's Christmas?": how about "Do you know you're racist?"

This Band Aid stinker is the most colonialist, objectifying, racist, condescending piece of shit ever. I mean, seriously. African people experiencing hunger, starvation and food insecurity are even explicitly referred to as "the other ones," thus distanced and separated from the ostensible audience of the song, which is privileged [non-African] listeners from colonizing countries who have enough to eat. I understand that the song is trying to contrast the want of some people with the plenty of others, but the words that the lyricists use make the people in need sound practically subhuman.

I also really love how an entire continent is portrayed as a miserable monolith. No one's ever happy -- "...the only water flowing / Is a bitter sting of tears" -- in part because the weather's rotten ["that burning sun"] all the time. The entire landmass is apparently omitted from the water cycle, as there are no rivers there...or any precipitation, for that matter. Most tragically of all, everyone on the continent has no idea what date it is because they suffer a grievous calendar shortage.

Of course, the song portrays the solution to this dire lack of date tracking as colonialism: "Let them know it's Christmas time and / Feed the world." Yeah, have a sudden attack of white guilt and throw food at those ignorant people down there...or at least throw money. Your donations will magically function as a civilizing process that will turn them into devout Christians who can tell time and appropriately worship Our Lord and Savior the Son of God Capitalism.

Holy shit, that's a wretched song.

Is there some ordinance I'm unaware of...

...that requires every single freakin' minifig to be holding things in both hands and/or waving their arms around? I understand that minifigs are supposed to be in dynamic stances, but, when everyone has a ridiculously huge weapon in one hand and the other arm flailing over their head, it looks silly.

Context: Poking through tabletop wargaming minifigs again, I was looking for a Lucian doll for Ellery and Jamisia. I finally tracked down some male elf mage/wizard/sorceror types in heroic scale. Here's one, a Mordheim elf mage. And here's a cheaper dude, Larnach the gray elf mage.

I'd like to go with Mr. Mordheim Mage because he looks less tense than Larnach. His ears also appear more in proportion to his head, and his clothing resembles Lucian's the most of the two figs. He appears to be 28mm, which is about 1 inch, which would make him 6 1:6 inches high. I wish he were double that, but ugh...he was hard enough to find in the first place.

Whenever I'm poking around in the world of minifigs, I think of the Calvin and Hobbes strips where Calvin is trying to put together model airplanes. He and Hobbes grow increasingly frustrated and baffled by the confusing directions and their inability to make the pieces resemble anything as it is shown on the box. At one point, Calvin asks, "How'd they paint eyebrows on a pilot less than an inch high?!?!?!?!"

Hobbes, looking at the model box, says, "I think that's a real plane superimposed on a toy stand." :p

EDIT: Holy poop, this guy is even better! He's much closer to 12 1:6 inches, plus he has a sly expression. He has gratuitous wings, but that's okay because he doesn't come with them on. The only thing is that he's ridiculously ripped, but I'm willing to live with that.

Of course I'm interested in the guy who's extra expensive because he's some collector's edition. :p

"My brain is losing power / Twelve hundred neurons every hour..."

Mose Allison's My Brain is my current favorite song, which I've been hearing regularly on Jazz 24. Here's an article about Allison's continuing status as a living jazz legend, even past the age of 83, which is when he wrote My Brain. And here's a studio recording. Lyrics are in the top comment by High Northerner. Here's a live version. It's all the sharper for being sung by a man near the end of his life. If Zombieville had an official song, this would be it: a gallows humor celebration of life.

Bleeding heart liberal Chaz

Chaz got some eyes and clothes this weekend. The eyes are 8mm acrylics that came with my Elfdoll Doona Ryung. Surprisingly for acrylics, they really reflect light well, so she's keeping them.

Chaz is one of my favorite dolls. There's something to be said for neutral expressions that can be subtly or dramatically altered through paint jobs. I must admit that I do like a definite expression, though, and Chaz' is so charming. She looks just so sweet-tempered, as if she has a constant sense of wonder at how amazingly beautiful life is. I think she's a bleeding heart liberal who rescues bugs and puts them outside... ^_^ She won't need much of a faceup to bring out the beauty of her headsculpt.
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54mm generics!

Well, that took long enough to find. Bronze Age Miniatures sells 54mm unpainted generics, which are the minifig equivalent of naked dolls. As with 1:6 scale action figures, there are only two body types available: 1) ripped and boobular ["female"] and 2) ripped and slightly taller ["male"]. God forbid that anyone be fat or scrawny!

I could probably work with a generic, though, giving it at least some fiber hair and a simple skirt like Flower and Mellifer's. I really need to know, though, about the body modding potential of these individuals. Does white metal respond to Dremelling? Sanding? Sawing? Addition of modeling paste? If so, I could easily get a female generic and perform Ye Olde Masectomie on it to have a body shape more approximating Lucian's. Hmmmm...

EDIT: I really wonder about some of these minifig sculptors' grasps on anatomy. The erect nipples on all the femfigs are way out of scale.

EDIT 2: Bronze Age Miniatures female generic #2 is a possibility, as are #3, #4, #8, #11 and #21. #8, #11 and #21 are relatively neutral stances. #11 and #21 are notable for having minimal knock knees and relatively relaxed arms.

Wait...wait...54mm ARMATURES!

54mms come in PIECES! You can buy sprues of heads, hands, weapons, etc., etc. And you can get not only generics, but ARMATURES [= skeletons], some of which can actually POSE a bit! And some of them are in RESIN,  a material I actually like working with much better than vinyl/ABS/action figure plastic! This means that I can make SOMEWHAT POSEABLE DOLLS FOR MY DOLLS WITH VARYING BODY TYPES, FIBER HAIR AND REALLY SIMPLE FABRIC OUTFITS!

I am so excited about this! I've wanted articulated ~1:6 scale dolls for my 1:6ers for YEARS!

JMD Miniatures provides a 3-pack of articulated armatures without heads or hands. They appear to be guy bases, but I don't really care. They also have two sets of 5 heads and 6 pairs of hands apiece, but, irritatingly enough, all the heads are for dudes.

Historex Agents makes a 5-pack of female heads with sculpted hair. They also have a wonderful series of 5-packs of "expressive heads," again, all for dudes, but more versatile than JMD Miniatures' because there's no facial hair. On this page, they've also got hairless heads and massive packages of hands.

EDIT: Wonder if I could buy heads and hands and make my own damn armatures?

EDIT 2: Red Lancers has some Historex heads and hand sets. And they're a US dealer!

Colorado Miniatures, also a US dealer, has Hornet head sets and hand sets. The "African" and "East Asian" head sets are pretty neat. There's a "Female" set too that frankly has nothing to distinguish it from the "male" sets.