My 2012 Wordle

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Our last theme post for the 2012 Blogathon features a Wordle.

If you go to the website, you'll see that when you type in a website with a feed (like a blog), it will grab random words from all your posts and form them into a word cloud. Last year I created two Wordles, but this year I am very content with one. I really enjoy the random combination of words that created some great phrases. Interested in making your own Wordle? Check out this post for instructions and inspiration.

The Beginning of My Gluten-Free Journey

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Photo credit: Dawn Huczek

I'm beginning a journey towards eating less/no gluten, and of course, the first thing to research is gf friendly restaurants in the Boston area. So after some searching online, I present my first round of restaurants to try that cater/offer gf options in the Metro area.
Uno Due Go—Located in Downtown Crossing, this pizza joint offers a few gluten-free options I would l ike to try. Though they do offer gluten-free options, the website doesn't offer information about cross contamination for different food preps.

Stone Hearth Pizza—With restaurants in Cambridge, Allston, Needham, and Belmont,a nd frozen versions available in select supermarkets, you are sure to find Stone Hearth somewhere near you. What I find most inspiring about Stone Hearth is their explanation of what gluten-free means in their establishments. Bravo for being attuned to your customer's needs.
Sweet Gracie Cakes—I haven't found a gluten-free bakery in Boston as of yet (my search has just begun), but I did find Sweet Gracie Cakes—an online GF bakery that I am dying to try. And everything is gluten-free—yay!

Find Me Gluten-Free—I just discovered this app before publishing today's post, so I've only had a short time to check it out, but I love that it has options to search via my current location, or a specific address.

Does anyone have recommendations or more information about my links above? I would love to hear your feedback and comments below.

Summertime TV Must Sees

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Photo credit: LargePrime

As many TV shows have finished new episodes until the fall, it's time for summer TV. Yes, I do get out of my house and enjoy the sunshine, but when it's rainy, or the couch feels like the perfect afternoon cozy spot, I like to have some shows on hand to look forward to. I'm an avid fan of Hulu, so here are some shows I've found on the site that should be added to your summer "to watch" lists:

Coffee Prince—Sometime last year I discovered South Korean TV shows, and so far Coffee Prince has been my favorite. This romantic comedy follows the lives of the employees at a local coffee shop. The relationships and character developments are quite endearing, and the show won many awards when it first aired.

Misfits—Season one originally aired in 2009,  and after discovering it last summer I was hooked. Misfits takes a new spin on the superhero idea, adds in a nice pinch of darkness mixed with a dash of British humor. All the seasons are watchable, but season one remains my favorite.

My So-Called Life—Yes, you may already know this show, and yes that is a young Claire Danes and Jared Leto in some of their first roles. And YES this is a great teen-angsty type show. At the time it first aired in 1994/1995 MSCL offered cutting edge subject matter and great actors, but not in a normal cheesy sitcom fashion. ABC actually offered some grittiness, and as a high school student watching this show, I was transfixed. Today the show is still relevant, and I'm a little bitter it was cut after only one season.

Do you have some shows that will be in your Hulu/Netflix queue this summer? I would love for you to share your suggestions below.

We did it!

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Photo credit: Waldo Jaquith

Congrats 2012 Blogathon participants, we did it!

The month felt like it moved so fast at times, and there were a few days that brought some writer's block, but I'm happy to say I posted all of the 31 days. May is definitely the month I post the most throughout the year, and I welcome WordCount's challenge to write every day and get to know the other participants. Here's to the end of a great month! Did you make it all the way through?

SHIA LEBEOUF COMIC BOOK SENSIBILITIES DRAW COMPARISON TO MY OWN

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Sean T. Collins reviews Shia LeBeouf's comic book work over at The Comics Journal and draws the comparison between LeBeouf's sensibilities and my own:

So too is his footing upon the fine line between irony and sincerity. Cyclical winks at the melodramatic excess of its story yet does so with a straight face, if that makes any sense. Like, say, Benjamin Marra, LaBeouf understands that the ridiculousness of a period-’60s motel sign (“Pink” in Vegas-style quasi-cursive, “MOTEL” in big block letters, palm fronds swaying in the background) or a demonstrative sex scene between a man with an eightball back tattoo and a dreamlike blonde I can’t help but mentally refer to as “his girl” (“Oh fuck…Davey…Your [sic] the best there ever was baby…the best there ever was…Stay with me”) doesn’t cancel out its weirdly primal power.

This is awesome to me. I haven't read LeBeouf's comics yet, but I've seen is acting work and it's tremendous. I've been telling people he's the best actor of his generation for years. The Transformers trilogy he was in are some of my favorite films from recent years.

Collins also interviewed LeBeouf for Rolling Stone. Check that out here.

ELF BOOKLETS | AMERICAN PSYCHO BROADSHEET EDITION | NOW AVAILABLE!

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Floating World has teamed with Traditional Comics to reprint Benjamin Marra’s sold out Elf Booklet series, Drawings Inspired by the Motion Picture “American Psycho”. The original artwork was rescanned and published as a 32 page broadsheet (15” x 22.75”) newspaper. Three new illustrations and brand new covers were created for this limited edition of 1500 copies.

"Employing Raymond Pettibon’s aesthetics and inspired by the movie “American Psycho”, these 28 illustrations “seem almost mathematically calculated to haunt the eyes they meet: whether it’s the sublimely balanced blacks and whites or the point-of-impact axe to neck shots… the real story here is Marra’s art, which is far and away the best work of his career.” – Matt Seneca, Comics Alliance

Now available to order

LINCOLN WASHINGTON: FREE MAN! | REVIEWED AT THE COMICS JOURNAL

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Matt Seneca reviews the first issue of LINCOLN WASHINGTON: FREE MAN! over at The Comics Journal. Check out out here. And here's a sample:

It seems unlikely that anyone would have guessed the missing element Benjamin Marra needed to deliver his first bona fide masterpiece was a dose of realism, but then again he does have a way of confounding expectations. After all, it was always a long shot that the most consistently excellent alternative cartoonist of the post-Kramers Ergot generation would be a purveyor of straight-ahead action serials whose style springs from Paul Gulacy and Todd McFarlane.