Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Glad you like it! I just PMed you the download link, let me know if you have any issues getting it. It was a good night for painting last night, I finished two paintings of my friends dogs (spoilered below)

I'm rereading the Wheel of Time for the 5th time and the world that Robert Jordan created is incredibly deep, and some of my favorite things in this series are the small details. One of my favorite bits in all of fantasy is the sign for the Inn called Easing the Badger, which has a white striped badger walking on its hind legs, and a smiling man holding a shovel. I love that no one knows what this actually means. Another small detail that is great is in The Great Hunt, when Rand is at Lord Barthanes' party and he's getting swarmed by the Cairhienen noblewomen, and he gets trapped between the wall at his back and the wall formed by the noblewomen's overly wide dresses. Good stuff! What are some of your favorite small details/moments in the Wheel of Time? It would also be fun to try to come up with a dice/card/tabletop game for Easing the Badger, with rules that are nonsensical and the gameplay is just ridiculous.

The Way of Kings - 9 Oathbringer - 10 Dawnshard - 6 Rhythm of War - 5 Mistborn: The Final Empire - 2 The Hero of Ages - 7 The Bands of Mourning - 10 Secret History - 7 Warbreaker - 10 The Emperor's Soul - 7 Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell - 3 Sixth of the Dusk - 7 Hurt RoW, heal Emperor's Soul (also adjusted totals for Honorless' last round)

The fountainhead is really good, she's definitely not for everybody though. Her philosophy is a reaction against the collectivist mediocrity of Stalin's Russia and she's an unabashed apologist for capitalism and the supremacy of the individual. Her work is definitely a product of her time and her peculiar psychology but her writing is great and the fountainhead's central premise of remaining true to one's own vision is compelling stuff. My wife loves Atlas Shrugged, I've never read it myself. She is also the author of The Virtues of Selfishness and the founder of the Rand corporation, for what that's worth. The Fountainhead also has a pretty decent film adaptation starring Gary Cooper, if you like old movies.

Thanks! She's adorable and fun to paint! @Knight of Iron, here's the finished painting, if you want a high resolution scan of it just let me know and I'll PM you a link to a high resolution JPG of Coco. The request line is open for any other sharders who want paintings of their furry friends (or feathered or scaled, whatever the case may be). I'm a bit busy at the moment, so it would be at least 3 weeks out, but I'll get to them.

Hey @Knight of Iron, I had some more time to work on the Coco portrait, just need to add some final fur flourishes, and paint her tongue and rose headband. And spoilered below is the current state of my buddy's dog's portrait. Just need to paint the table and the fruity tropical drink.

The Way of Kings - 4 Edgedancer - 5 Oathbringer - 10 Dawnshard - 6 Rhythm of War - 6 Mistborn: The Final Empire - 6 The Hero of Ages - 6 The Bands of Mourning - 8 Secret History - 5 Warbreaker - 10 The Emperor's Soul - 6 Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell - 4 Sixth of the Dusk - 7 kill Elantris, heal Edgedancer

It's a very cool username. Sorry, I gotta go now. Some guys in an unmarked van just pulled up...wait why are they coming in through the windows... That's beautiful! Kind of reminds me of Maaya Sakomoto. Kiseki No Umi (from Record of Lodoss War) And Hemisphere (opening song for Rahxephon).

I joined the TOR website to speculate about prerelease chapters for Oathbringer, and as a lark, I phonetically spelled out how Credence Clearwater Revival sings Heard it through the Grapevine. John Fogarty's Southern California imitation bayou brogue allowed me to cleverly insert Hoid into my user name. If I had to change my username, say because I had to have a human alias when I am in fact a robot, I would choose Tobor. How did you pick your username? Or isit really an anti-username? If you picked a new username and then your new username collided with your old username, would they mutually annihilate each other? It's great, and it's extensively researched too. Historically accurate with a great romance, win win! Checking it out right now...

Granted! It's a sentient awakened dagger named Melvin. It constantly drones in your head with a nasally monotone voice and it's also a total grammar nazi that's always correcting your grammar. And it likes to point out patently obvious things, like when you are trying to go into a store and you pull on the door handle when it's a door that opens by pushing, it says things like "You know really should push the door open". Your bane is that like the dagger from Shador Logoth, you must always carry the dagger with you or die. I wish that wishes were both wings and horses, so that beggars could ride flying pigs.

Hey @Knight of Iron, I painted the bg of your Coco portrait, and did some more work on the portrait of my buddy's dog:

@Knight of Iron, I am finally getting to the portrait of Coco, here's the pencil undersketch: I'll probably get to the underpainting tonight, and I'll post another update if I do. She's adorable, by the way, and the rose headband is going to be fun to paint.

Just per-ordered my copy of the God is Not Willing (should arrive November 9th) good Thanksgiving reading that, if I can hold off reading it until then. What did you think of it @Quick Ben?

Sweet! Interesting, will see if they have it at the library. If you like historical romance, The Rose of Versailles is great (and the anime is amazing too). That's a very pretty song, reminds me of one of my all time favorite songs, Toki Wo Koete Kagome, from the Inuyasha OST (this is the best song to listen to in the spring, while watching the cherry blossoms sway in the breeze and occasionally detach and swirl to the ground): I have a finite amount of time right now, but I listened to enough of your recommendations to make three determinations: They are all very good songs (I especially liked the Hozier collection) I will definitely listen to the whole collection. I think I have just the songs for you. Here you go: Band of Horses Beirut: Magnetic Fields (really Stephen Merrit) Alt J - Breezeblocks Nada Surf - Blonde on Blonde (from the album Let Go, and it's the prettiest song ever made) That's it for the moment, thanks for the recommendations!

A lot of you probably already know that the prior company that held the tv/film options to WoT made a pilot that they paid to air at 1:30 am EST on the FXX network, on February 9th 2015, shortly before their rights were to revert to the Jordan estate. It is truly bizarre, but it's worth watching just to see Billy Zane's campy but oddly endearing performance as Ishmael. There's an older thread about this where you can read more about the sordid details of this questionable venture (suits and countersuits), but if you haven't seen the ashcan pilot that is essentially the EotW prologue, then here it is: WoT, Winter Dragon:

With the exception of The 4 on 2 duel, almost all of Adolin’s story arcs are dull. The girth strap investigation in Way of Kings was the the thing I looked forward to least when rereading the SLA, it's up there in the pantheon of painful to get through fantasy moments with Galan Luca's Traveling Circus in WOT, Tom Bombadil in the LOTR, and the SPEW house elf bits in Harry Potter. He's also not really a character, he's a series of affectations (fashion loving, hair tousling, etc) wrapped up in a bland nice guy persona. In RoW, when he goes off by himself to rescue Notum, he didn't need to rush off just by himself except to have a noble principled stand. Kinda lame. Also, the one interesting and out of character thing that he did, namely eye stabbing Sadeas, was an action in a void, it had no effect on his character development and he suffered no consequences for murdering a high prince. He just needs to smile a boyish good natured grin and muss his handsome head of hair and the world just shrugs and says "Oh you". Also I hated the trial in RoW, the whole thing again felt like a canned set piece to show Adolin’s principled stand, but again it was an act of rash stupidity. He was being tutored on the legal process in an alien society by *gasp* an antagonistic party, but thankfully some spren of tousled hair were in the jury, and he won the trial, not by any of his own cunning or clever stratagems but because the Honor spren were wrong about the nature of the Recreance. Once again Adolin blusters headlong into the maw of danger without a plan, and the world just shrugs and says "Oh you." Those are just my two dollars and two cents, if you want to defend Adolin I promise I'll read it. Fun questions! My favorite book series that I read this year was the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams. Williams' descriptions of environment are some of the best I've read, I'd say he's as good at describing setting as Flaubert. The characters are great, the story is paced incredibly well, his prose is understated but sublime, and the ending of To Green Angel Tower is epic in a Sanderson avalanche kind of way. All the threads come together quite beautifully. I also really enjoyed Martian Time Slip by Philip K Dick. It's about a schizophrenic simulacra repairman, Jack Bohlen, who left Earth to colonize Mars after having a breakdown. He was talking to his boss and had the following hallucination: The novel involves land speculation based on the pre-cognitive visions of an austic boy, who sees everyone as if they are dead and leaking gubbish. It's a bit uneven, but there are some truly great scenes in this book. This is probably my 3rd favorite book by Philip K. Dick (the top two being Ubik, and Flow My Tears the Policeman Said). As far as music goes, one of my favorites that I've heard all year was recommended by @Orlion Blight, Steeleye Span's Long Lankin (spoilered below). New music that I've liked a lot (new to me at least) that I've heard from my daughters are: MGMT, Little Dark Age: Marina and the Diamonds, Hollywood: Lemon Demon, Matches and Nails: Vance Joy, Riptide: And Will Wood, Laplace's Angel: There's an Elliott Smith song that's perfect for Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell: And this remake of a Linkin Park song that was used for the Magic the Gathering: War of the Spark trailer is perfect for the first Part of the Battle of Thaylen Field, when Shallan, Kaladin and Adolin are stuck in Shadesmar and it looks like Dalinar is going to become Odium's Champion: How about you? What are some of your favorite books that you've read recently? What are some of your favorite songs that you've heard this year? Cosmere themed songs?

Adolin. If you want a rant reply with the following "I love Ken WAY more than Barbie." All that aside I have supreme empathy for Spook, just imagine if your name was Lestibournes. I would wish my parents had named me it's me I've got poop in my pants instead of that horrible name (Itsmeiivgotpipenmipsnts. Doesn't roll off the tongue, does it?)

Ok, so I've been around a bit (the pleasant way of saying I'm a grumpy old man). I know some things, and more importantly I know what I don't know. This is a place for serious questions that will elicit serious answers. Please don't send me templated questions about my favorite cosmere characters, etc. But any real question I will endeavor to answer earnestly and to the best of my ability. If anything I say is speculative or a surmise it will be presented as such. Ask away, ask away.

The Nightwatcher says "Go Go granted". Your bane is that when you pass gas it's now mostly helium (instead of methane), and that to fill your flying Go Go gadget jacket you have to eat mainly beans. But on the positive side, you are the only person who passes "noble gas". Doh too slow Granted! The Nightwatcher hands you a set of those blacked over lens glasses you see in cartoons and a cup of pencils. Your bane is that you have to pose for cartoonists. I wish for something flat.

First broadcast over the radio in 1977, this song would have reached the potentially habitable exoplanet TRAPPIST-1g five years ago. If there wasn't life on that chunk of rock before, bet there is now.

The Nightwatcher smiles and says, "Finally, I am released! Fourscore and seven Desolations ago, I, a simple spren of well built log cabins, was joined with the spren of the spirit of the law, and the spren of large cylindrical hats and became something greater than the sum of my parts. I have striven to uphold my sacred charge of dispersing fitting and sometimes ironic boons and banes, never turning the unending legions of supplicants away. And when I came into being, Mother Cultivation promised that one day, a man of uncommon wisdom would come forth, and I would know this worthy by his judicious desire for the most morally upstanding chapeau in the Cosmere (and in the known universe as well). This beacon of uncommon good sense would request simply 'a hat like President Lincoln'. And she said to me thus, 'This shall be thy bondsmith'. So I'm going to kick back with some horneater white, and have myself an Emancipation Celebration, because from now on I'll be passively supplying you power and you're going to be the one giving out the boons and banes. Easy street here I come. Look, there's a hammock spren, I'm going over there for a bit, wake me up when the Final Desolation hits." My wish is that after reading my parody of "He's Got a Hat Like President Lincoln's", ya'll will watch the video of the original song "She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina" (spoilered below).

That looks amazing! The inking is great, I love how you shaded the flame hair and the limited shading with the purple looks fantastic!

That is fantastic!! I love the deep rumble of the orchestra drums (perfect for Conquistador), and it's pretty awesome that backed by a philharmonic band, they still broke out the Moog synthesizer. Here's a little bluegrass magic for your Friday.

Your trouser cuffs are dirty, your shoes are laced up wrong, you better take off your homburg, because your overcoat is too long It was true back in 1967, and it's still true today.

Saw this earlier, I'm definitely going to be watching it, but this trailer... The Good: The environments look pretty sweet. The village, totally looks like Randland. Rand is a great bit of casting (but let's see if he can act). Perrin looks like great casting too. Moraine looks great, wish she was shorter, but I will take perfect except for height on this one. The Meh: Some of the effects look like they would be great for a free phone game, where it's dazzle and no substance (and really you can do all that, but no color shifting cloak? Really?). Matt, one of my all-time favorite characters, looks like they cast for cool not so much for mischievous. This is based on the Dagger scene, but the jury is still out on this one, they could get him right (even Brandon struggled with Matt afterall) Lan, seems a bit like the Aragorn problem from the LOTR movies, went for the look but from the admittedly small bit of information, seems to be lacking the gravitas. Vigo Mortenson is a great Aragorn, but his voice is garbage in those movies (he actually squeaks a couple of times). The Bad: Maybe I am just an old crank, but everything seems like it's set to 11. Not every moment needs to be emoted at 100%, one of the things that I like about WoT is that it has so much time for small moments. The jury is still out on this one as well, but hopefully they steer clear of the every moment is fraught with tension brand of storytelling that the trailer seems like it's set to deliver. Nyneave pushing Egwene off a cliff? What? This is just bizarre, but you know, the jury is still out on this one too because it's a different thing right? You have to make some changes to the story to fit the medium, ok, let's see if this works. The What???? So can anyone tell me what the heck this is? I don't remember a dual axe wielder (who do you think this is??), and what is this scene supposed to be? I am totally baffled here: I do have to say, the Myrdraal look pretty sick, but looking closer, it does beg the question: