Today's self-proclaimed theme: Siberian folktale. (( This blog is now an experimental stage for digitally discovered treasures.)) The men balancing on their swords are Cossack dancers, but don't let their jolly mustaches conceal their costumes' hint at Cossack historical military might.


The image above is by Tessa Hulls, who also has a mural located in the Gray Center at Reed College. Check out her blog at Tessa Hulls Art and Illustration on facebook. Reindeer really exist in Siberia.

For a wonderful tale of love, magic, and a ride on the Tran-Siberian railway with a circus crew, I highly recommend Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus, a brilliantly surreal and hilarious novel. I have yet to read her Book of Fairy Tales.

And a time lapse video of an Amanita Muscaria, the mushroom of fairy tales and shamanic journeys (a poisonous, in addition to psychoactive, fungus). Apparently, reindeer like to eat the Amanita Muscaria, or Fly Agaric, as they tramp through the tundra.