Not Really About The House.

It sort of started off that way though. I was browsing Repro Depo for some cool new fabric. I came across this, which I thought was really cute:



Until I looked closer and realized that the racoon appears to be on fire. I immediately sent it off to Bek and Ted to confirm the weirdness. They in turn pointed out that not only does he appear to be on fire, he is also dead and bound in front of the house and drowning in water. Ted got on the case quickly and found that the fabric is based on a whacked out Japanese fairy tale about a "racoon dog" Tanuki that terroizes a man and his wife and is eventually tortured by the rabbit that is depicted. You can read all about it here.

So then Bek started talking about a character called "Gloomy Bear" which her friend who is living in Japan had told her about. I found some more information about it here. We've now been passing emails back and forth all afternoon about how crazy these characters are and making jokes about pimping out our babies nurseries in this stuff. I was cracking up over this whole Gloomy Bear character, so I did some more research and found this GEM over here. Go ahead, click on it! I know this post has been full of links and you might be tired of it, but FOR REAL. You've gotta see this.

Here's another good one Ted found. Watch it for a few seconds...

You can read more and see a few more links at Bek's site too.

Anyone know of any other crazy fairy tales or toys that are this violent? I mean, I know the old school fairy tales always had some strange violence in them (Hansel and Gretel is one of the best), but this Japanese one is CRAZY.

Anyway, it's been a MOST productive day, as you can see!