White lion dancer costume for Lunar New Year.
Books and writing:
Imaginary Papers launched its first issue here.
Publishers Weekly gives a capsule review of N.K. Jemisin’s latest, The City We Became.
Cat Rambo hosted Jasmine’s Arch’s post on creating an online haven for writers.
Brandon Sanderson is advertising his new YA series on his blog. It looks like these are coming out this week.
Most new books, especially from Big Five publishers, are released on Tuesdays. (So are magazines and music.) But why Tuesday? No one seems to really know, but lots of people have ideas, ranging from some arithmo-mancy with the New York Times Best Sellers List, to “it’s the slowest retail day,” to shipping issues and so on.
Southern-style lion dancer costumes.
TV and Movies:
Last Sunday’s Doctor Who had a surprise appearance of a character (or maybe two, if you interpret it that way). SyFy interviews one of them here. This spoiler-riddled article from IO9 discusses the other surprise.
Behind the Magic provides some insight into the making of Episode 2 of The Magicians Season Five.
Carnival Row has been renewed for Season Two. Here, from last year, is an article about some of the effects. The fae wings, which I assumed were fabric, are actually silicon. This article insists that the werewolves in Episode 3 “don’t gain mass.” Really? Watch the ep again, and we’ll discuss this.
This article looks lovingly at the costumes of Carnival Row.
Tor.com updated the casting information about BBC’s adaptation of the Pratchett Discworld Night Watch series, The Watch.
Gaming:
Japan unveils a walking statue of Gundam which will, well, walk, I guess, in October. The strangest thing about this article is that it’s in Forbes.
Internet:
I have always known that chocolate was magic, and I wasn’t surprised that 17th century Spanish occupiers of the Americas persecuted women who used it that way.
Saturday was Lunar New Year. This eight-plus minute video shows a lion dance. The real gymnastics start about 2:53 minutes in, and watch all the way to 7:32 for the banner.
Earth:
Ars Technica has an interesting article on climate change and how it will change the USA’s population centers. I should start looking at real estate in California’s Central Valley.
What a great column! I’ve always wondered why Tuesdays were new book days, and it doesn’t look like I’m any closer to knowing the answer now, but I’ve got a some interesting-looking articles to read on the question. And I subscribed to Imaginary Papers, which looks terrific.
I had no idea why Tuesdays, and I still have no idea, but I have a little more insight into the strange world of publishing!