Rick Veitch is the comics writer and artist who got famous for the Swamp Thing issues he drew for Alan Moore, and is probably still best known for a later issue he planned (the infamous cancelled #88) in which Swamp Thing went back in time, met Jesus and served as the cross on which the messiah was crucified. Although Moore resurrected Swamp Thing, it was Veitch who wrote that story about a hippy actually eating one of the monster’s tubers and tripping Veitch continued the series’ psychedelic path and took it in some even more dangerous directions.

Veitch split from DC for many years, and became a sensation on his own, publishing extremely bizarre yet resonant psychedelic fables. Psychedelic being the operative word.

Now they’re back - bigger and brighter than ever before. And in my experience, it’s the first time a second dose has packed more wallop than the first. His seminal 1980’s graphic novel Brat Pack which will finally be republished in a deluxe edition in spring 2009, read like Teen Titans on crank, and served as a template for those super-bad-ass do-gooders in The Boys, Authority, and Kick Ass. He’s also reprinting very high quality editions of his classics The Maximortal (free preview) and my personal favorite, Heartburst (which includes a reprint of the almost forgotten “Mirror Of Love” with Alan Moore and S.R. Bissette).

Veitch also drew a story for Harvey Pekar in Smith’s fabulous ongoing Next Door Neighbor series (disclosure, my wife has one coming up, as well), and is starting his second year of a disturbingly entertaining war comedy-horror series for Vertigo called Army @ Love.

1. Robots and Monsters: A Charitable Menagerie, is back. They launched in 2007 to fundraise for SF AIDS Foundation, and now they’re relaunching to support the EFF. For fifty dollars, Joe Alterio or another fabulous artist will pen a custom robot or monster for you - defined by three words you supply - and send it to your door. You get a cool picture and the EFF gets fifty bucks to help keep the net a happy and good place.

2. Scott Draves Software Artworks, 1992-2008. This short film chronicles the work of software artist Scott Draves. And it’s pretty cool. Dreams in High Fidelity.

3. Consumatron. Do you know this guy? He writes down and reviews everything he buys. It’s kind of obsessive, but tells a story.

4. Trajal Harrell Dance Style is a totally different approach to dance - an effort to rewrite the language of dance by using real world movement (from fashion show walks to bar room swagger) instead of whatever that stuff is we usually think of as “dance.” His performances are infrequent, but there’s one coming up this month at DanceTheater Workshop and if you’re near NYC I’d suggest you be there.

5. The Atheon: A Temple of Science for Rational Belief. If I were going to join a church, this would probably be it. It’s like a church for brights, but it’s not as serious or anti-God as Richard Dawkins. Just an effort to make faith rational - but still fun and inspiring.

Douglas Rushkoff is a guest blogger.

Our favorite use is acorn pancakes. Just mix the acorn flour 1/2 and 1/2 with wheat or other flour from your favorite recipe. I love the acorn flavor - slightly nutty, very hearty. If you make your own, let us know how it went.
I’m going over there uninvited for pancakes.

Link

My most successful crops were figs, cayenne peppers, and tomatoes. They came so quickly and in such abundance that we couldn’t eat them fast enough. I gave a lot away to friends (except the figs, which are too delicious to share with anyone), and I dehydrated the rest using a Ronco food dehydrator. (The particular model I use is not available on Amazon any longer.)

It took several attempts to learn the best way to prepare different fruits for drying. Figs are tastier when dried whole instead of cut in half, and tomatoes are better halved rather than sliced into disks. I dried the peppers whole until they were crunchy and ground them up in a food processor.

I put the tomatoes and peppers into my eggs every morning and I cut the figs up and sprinkle them on my nightly bowl of blueberries and cream.

Next summer, I’m thinking of making a solar dehydrator (the “Appalachian Dehydrator”) like the one Kelly and Erik of The Urban Homestead made.

The Smithsonian has flickred 39 high resolution, public-domain images from the Scopes “Monkey” trial, the first major US trial over the teaching of evolution. Dig that natty straw boater!

During 1925, Watson Davis (1896-1967), Science Service managing editor, took numerous photographs while covering the State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes trial as a reporter. In what was dubbed “The Trial of the Century,” Scopes was tried and convicted for violating a state law prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution. William Jennings Bryan served on the prosecution team, and Clarence Darrow defended Scopes. Almost eighty years later, the nitrate negatives, including portraits of trial participants, and images from the trial itself and significant places in Dayton, were discovered in archival material donated to the Smithsonian by Science Service in 1971.

Marcel C. LaFollette, an independent scholar, historian and Smithsonian volunteer uncovered these rare, previously unpublished photographs of the 1925 Tennessee vs. John Scopes “Monkey Trial” in the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA). In 2005, SIA restored fifty-two of the negatives with funds granted by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee. Included here are thirty-nine of the images.
Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes Trial Photographs

(via Wendy Seltzer)

A. Andrew Gonzalez’ strikingly beautiful paintings have an uncanny 3D effect.

A. Andrew Gonzalez

Eren Göksel provides a step-by-step for drawing this apple. How to Create a Delicious Green Apple Illustration

Fantastic EP cover from 1957 for The Goons.

There’s an MP3 of “I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas” (sung my Spike Milligan) at the link.
The Goons: “I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas”

Artist Paul Fryer calls his piece of art Rehabilitation. Because it has a little room inside, I would have called it Bomb Shelter. (via Shedblog)

John saw a spy cam-watch from Brando, an awesome Lego chess set, and—drool!—Moleskine iPod cases.

There was also a floating DVD player, a Roomba from 1959, and a crazy 1980s ad with Zack! Lego Maniac!