Feb. 26, 2007

Bossk Bean Art Portrait

All Star Wars bounty hunters deserve their portrait to be created with dried beans and glitter, and Bossk is no exception. Pay special tribute to everyone's favorite Trandoshan with this fun craft project. Feel free to experiment with different beans and materials to make a one-of-a-kind work of art.

Check out my tutorial here on starwars.com:
Bossk Bean Art Portrait

Feb. 16, 2007

Mark Frauenfelder and Bre Pettis: Bringing Geeky Back

I've always been a sucker for a cute, geeky guy in Buddy Holly glasses, a sly smile and the mind of a mad scientist. Any fella who equally collects alternative comics and old issues of Popular Mechanics and Firefox is aces in my book. And if they enjoy crafts and building robots, then I want them on my permanent Christmas card list.

I've known Mark Frauenfelder (and his extremely cool and crafty wife Carla Sinclair) since my college days long ago in Boulder, Colo. In fact, I remember getting asked for my first and only autograph (for hosting the late-night music video TV show "Teletunes") when I went out to coffee with them one stormy Colorado afternoon. Carla's book Net Chick had just come out, and I think I may have been trying to figure out a way to bribe Mark to let me freelance write for bOING bOING when it was a zine. Later on it became one of the most widely-read blogs online today as boingboing.net.

Eventually, we all made it to the West Coast. Mark and Carla to Southern California and myself firmly planted for the next ten years in San Francisco. Over that time, I've guest blogged for boingboing, and Mark created the uber-cool MAKE magazine (his wife started CRAFT magazine).

And even though he's one of the busiest people I know, he was sweet enough to take a moment to review my new book You Can Draw Star Wars. I keep in touch with Mark on such a regular basis that I think I send him more emails than my parents. And so it only made sense that I honor Mark here on my Cute Geek Guy Gallery.

Because I'm so addicted to reading the MAKE blog, I ran across another awesome geeky lad who deserved quite a few kudos -- Bre Pettis. Teacher by day, craft science project guru by weekend. If the Justice League needed a nerdy-yet-handsome superhero, Bre would be their man. He films awesome video tutorials of himself showing kids of all ages how to do everything from a successful egg drop to making working pinhole cameras. In fact, he inspired me to make my R2-D2 Pinhole camera for Star Wars Insider magazine! So thanks, Bre! And for that reason alone, Bre will have permanent status here on the Cute Geek Guy Gallery.

Feb. 13, 2007

You Can Draw: Star Wars Instructional Video Clips!

Check out these awesome instructional drawing video clips from illustrator Matt Busch to promote our new book: You Can Draw: Star Wars from DK Publishing!

Watch the clips here.

Feb. 9, 2007

Podcast all about the FBI's Body Farm

Pioneering forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass is the inventor of the University of Tennessee "body farm," made famous by Patricia CornwellÍs bestselling novel of the same name. Bass is also, with Jon Jefferson, a bestselling author in his own right under the name Jefferson Bass. In this podcast he talks all about forensic anthropology, their new novel Flesh and Bone, and what CSI gets wrong!

LISTEN HERE

Feb. 8, 2007

Ask Bonnie videos on the way...

A short clip from one of my Ask Bonnie videos for @Home Network.

And a wackier one here.

Hopefully soon I'll figure out a way to post them all here on Grrl.com!

Feb. 7, 2007

Retro Geek Accident of the Day

I'm trying to access my Ask Bonnie videos off of zip discs from 1999 so I can upload them all on Youtube and get groupies. Only I plugged it into a 16V adapter instead of a 5V adapter and fried it. Now my desk area smells like burning, and my coworkers are mocking me for using old school technology.

Perfect.

Feb. 6, 2007

The Best Crafty and Cooking Blogs

CRAFT BLOGS:
CRAFT zine
Craftster
Crafty Synergy
Whip Up
West Coast Crafty
Craft Pop
What the Craft
Get Crafty

PODCASTS:
Crafty Pod

COOKING BLOGS:
Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks
Brownie Points
Serious Eats
Chow magazine

Feb. 2, 2007

You Can Draw: Star Wars Podcast Interview & Reviews

Now that my new book You Can Draw: Star Wars (from DK Publishing) is out on shelves now, I'm starting to see more and more reviews pop up in the press, blogs, newspapers and magazines. So myself, and the book's talented artists Matt Busch and Tom Hodges, have been really trying to get the word out about the book so fans know about it. And this includes podcast interviews with our favorite sites like TheForce.net and Rebelscum.com. I'm a big fan of the ForceCast and so when we were asked if we'd like to be guests on the show, we jumped at the chance. The hosts -- Jason and Pete -- are hilarious and they really do an excellent show that all Star Wars fans should be listening to for news, gossip, commentary and truly entertaining interviews. So take a listen!

ForceCast Podcast Interview
(the interviews are toward the end of the podcast in The Cantina segment)
Part 1 of the interview
Part 2 of the interview

Also be sure to check out this great review from the awesome folks at ClubJade.net:
Book Review: You can draw Star Wars (ClubJade.net)

As well as this excellent review from the cool kids at BoingBoing.net:
Star Wars drawing book Review (BoingBoing.net)

The book is available at StarWarsShop.com and Amazon.com, as well as you local book and comic book stores!