Monthly Archives: February 2006

LEGO Podcasts

Editing drafts of user guides is fairly dreary work. (Writing them is better, but not by much.) I usually listen to music, but every so often I have enough podcasts saved up that I dedicate one day to the musings of people I’ve never met. It’s like a call-in radio show, but without celebrity hosts! Just kidding, just kidding! If you’re actually interested in the subject matter, podcasts can be pretty entertaining.

I finally listened to BimPCast 19 (from a month ago), and listened to my first BrickNebula podcast. Steven Combs of BimPCast says that lots of things are going on in the LEGO Ambassador program, but if he told us he’d have to hunt each of us down and kill us. (He doesn’t actually say that.) The BrickNebula guys talk about Exo-Force, and how they don’t like all the new Star Wars redesigns, which actually came as a surprise to me. I like the music on the BrickNebula podcast — as crazy as it sounds, the western-sounding music really works (I’m clearly influenced by Firefly).

Speaking of podcast music, Sub Pop Records says on their FAQ that you’re free to use the music they’ve posted on their Multimedia page. From The Postal Service and Sleater-Kinney to up-and-coming bands you’ve probably never heard of (yet!), there’s some great stuff on that page.

And music makes a nice segue back into LEGO podcasts, because both BimPCast and the BrickNebula podcast are available via the iTunes Music Store. In iTunes, open the Music Store, click Podcasts, and search for “LEGO.” If you sort your results by relevance, the BrickNebula podcast and BimPCast should be your top two results. Subscribe and enjoy!

LEGO Reference on My Name is Earl

Joy just said:

“Get Mama’s plastic stripper shoes out of your LEGO box!”

Hilarious! (And she said “LEGO,” not “Legos.” Nice.)

LEGO Creations for the Setsubun Festival

Although Japan officially celebrates New Year’s Day on January 1st, until 1873 Japan followed the lunar calendar used by China, Korea, Vietnam, and many other Asian countries. The Japanese calendar is still full of many holidays that mark various important dates in the traditional lunar calendar.

One such holiday, Setsubun, is celebrated each year on February 3. In the past, Setsubun represented the last day of the winter months and the beginning of spring. Celebrating Setsubun involves the usual Shinto shrine visits, but you also toss toasted beans out your door and yell “Out with demons [oni]! In with happiness!” Pretty fun when everybody on your street is doing it!

To honor Setsubun, a couple of Japanese builders have posted really cool creations.

First up, mumu chases an oni away with handfuls of round 1×1 tan plates (I’m really diggin’ the giant oni head):

And PPB hero Izzo offers his take on the same scene:

(These builders’ awesome oni make my own no-face oni look pretty silly.)

Patrick J. Robertscum

Name: Patrick J. Robertscum
Occupation: Televangelist and paragon of moral outrage.
Interests: Blaming hurricanes on gays. Blaming terrorist acts on Hollywood. Bilking old ladies of their life savings. Railing against miscegenation. Spreading God’s love to people everywhere.