The Haunting Sound of Neighs

14 years ago when I had recently moved to Alaska, I went hiking with an Aleut friend, and she pointed to a feather lying on the ground and said "hey that's a bald eagle tail feather, you should grab it!" and I was like "uhh I'm very white and that's very illegal" and she went "they're fuckin everywhere up here man. I have 20." so she grabs it off the ground and hands it to me and says "there, now it's a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person."

and I'm like, okay, cool, I guess this is how we do things in Alaska. nice.

so I keep this bald eagle tail feather around for years. display it in my home among other cherished memorabilia from places I've lived and visited, etc.

on a whim, I have just now looked it up. there is no exemption to that law for a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person. the last 7 years I lived in the US, I was technically a bald eagle poacher.

the law against 'picking feathers up off the ground' means that you can't go shoot an eagle then sell the feathers on etsy by saying you 'just found them'. you can't own them no matter where they came from, which makes sure that they're not going to come from any birds killed and then secretly disposed of.

And then went to gloat over his acquisition and opened up the towels. Which had absorbed enough of the oil the metal was stored in to prevent it from reacting with any spare oxygen in the air.

So it started to react and my teacher's friend freaked out and realized he was going to get caught and get in trouble. And in a panic, he ran to the bathroom and flushed it down a toilet. A brilliant strategy, is it not, for disposing of a chemical that reacts somewhat to air, but whose characteristic interaction with water is generally described as "violent"?

Because publishing houses will not continue printing paper books if libraries are their only customers.

[ID. A tweet by Alex Hirsch saying "Oh, this... thisis beautiful." followed by # The Art of Gravity Falls invades bookstores THIS FALL!, and the artist palette and pine tree emoji. The tweet also includes a video showing the book. End ID]

GRAVITY FALLS ART BOOK

FINALLY.

As is now traditional, Barnes & Noble have an "exclusive" edition. From the order page:

This Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition includes a bonus replica of the letter Dipper received in the Gravity Falls finale. Take a road trip . . . back to where it all started. For years, the true origins of Gravity Falls have been hidden under lock and key. Now, for the first time ever, series creator Alex Hirsch and cowriter Rob Renzetti crack open the vault to reveal the definitive visual history of Gravity Falls. Inside The Art of Gravity Falls, youll find never-before-revealed development art from Alex Hirschs personal archives, including first inklings of the characters and world, lost episode ideas, cut jokes, deviously hidden easter eggs, every single one of Mabels sweaters, and much, much more! With interviews from the creative team and a foreword by animation legend James Baxter, The Art of Gravity Falls is a celebration of the incredible artists behind the beloved series, and a blueprint for creatives who want to turn their own ideas into animated worlds. The Mystery Shack is waiting. . . . Are you ready to step inside?

Including the full URL here, because it's kind of hilarious:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/untitled-7869-anonymous-anonymous/1149516579

"untitled-7869-anonymous-anonymous" lollll

Yeah, if you search "Gravity Falls" on their site, it does not come up yet. But the order link is live, I just pre-ordered.

[ID. Above, a tweet from Alex Hirsch saying, "This book is MASSIVE - 256 apges of behind the scenes secrets, concept art, cut stories, never-before-seen origins, a fold-out of every Mabel sweater, and MUCH more! (Emojis of artist palette, pine tree, and question mark.) Me and Rob Renzetti waited 10 years to share this with you and crammed it with as much love as physically possible. Pre-order your copy now!" With a link to the Disney pre-order page - link in body text below. Followed by pages from the book showing concept art for Dreamscaperers, and Into the Bunker. End ID]

Here is the link to the Disney pre-order page. Its drop-down menu links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and Books-a-Million sites.

And, here's a tidbit: the Disney page says the book is 252 pages. But Alex's tweet above says it's 256 pages. The longer version seems to be the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition, which also comes with the "See You Next Summer" letter.