Julie

@kvarko.northsky.social

222 Followers 578 Following

Roller derby, Computer engineer, Esperanto, Aotearoa NZ, 🏳️‍⚧️

An old door with a mechanical sign that displays "VACANT" until the lock is turned. Or, as shown here, "CANT".
A sign at a museum exhibit of Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests, kinetic sculptures that use wind to walk around the beach. Many can be pushed by visitors, but when one is out of order, this sign with black and yellow caution stripe is used, “This beest can’t walk right now.”
A port-a-loo on the side of the road, next to an unintentionally ironic sign, “No dumping”
Short brick wall with an arch built into it. The back of the arch is painted, possibly by a child? perhaps a group effort? The painting is in bright colors, of a pair of tūī sitting on abstract plants, with a rainbow in the background above a distant blue mountain range, with the birds and flowers and two ladybugs (a parent and child?) on a grassy rolling foreground. The style reminds me of southwestern US art, with the heads of the tūī turned to the right.
Where to even begin? On top of a brown paper envelope with a canceled circular USA global forever stamp (with a compass rose design) is a business card for the band Sapling and a couple of the band’s stickers. The card has a picture of the three band members and says: “Sapling: bitchpop/art rock/bad jazz. ‘The best band in America.’ -some drunk guy at O’Brien’s. www.saplingband.com saplingthree@gmail.com” One sticker is a coat of arms: a shield with a canon shooting confetti, a fleur-de-lis made of a peeled banana hovering above, the shield flanked by a rubber chicken holding a vibraphone and a dog, I think, standing upright and recursively holding a rubber chicken with a vibraphone, standing on a banner with the motto “Noli bibere aquam pigmentosam” (“Don’t drink the paint water”). The other sticker is the band’s name in a sort of Arabic-ish font, that gives it a “metal umlaut” but below the letter rather than above, in a fiery pattern on black background. Phew.
Movie poster for /The Incredibly True Adventure of 2 Girls in Love/ unfurled on the floor. It has the title in big chunky irregular block letter smushed to fill the entire space (in kinda 90s throwback to 70s style) in pastel-ish but more 70s-ish colors. A still of the movie in the upper corner, with the girls locking hands and leaning foreheads against each other. The tagline is in the lower left but mostly out frame except that it ends with “coming-of-age”. In the upper left, a review quote: “It makes the big studios' romantic comedies look artificial and old hat. First love, straight or gay, has rarely been so expertly enacted.” David Ansen, Newsweek
QR code for the game day booklet for our roller derby doubleheader today
Mascot statue in front of Bob's Big Boy restaurant in Burbank, California, which was designated a California Point of Historical Interest in 1993. The larger-than-life mascot is of a stubby cartoonish style, with a pompadour hairstyle, red-and-white checkered overalls, blue shoes, white T-shirt ringed with blue, and holding a Big Boy sandwich on a plate lifted by one hand above his head. On his T-shirt, in blue, are the words “Big Boy”.
Animated GIF of Columbia from Rocky Horror Picture Show shouting “Eddie!” and running excitedly with arms outstretched
Photocopy clip-and-paste style flyer, with photos of a student flat and a streetlight pole with “punk” painted down it, and text: The ‘Beer and Chicken Art Collective’ presents ‘House of Goth’ (H.O.G.) April 24th/25th 2021, 10am to 7pm. Venue: Palmerston North Community Leisure Centre, 569 Ferguson Street, Terrace End, Palmerston North. Photographers and artist include: Jen Clyde - Eris Newson: Edward McEwan - Beck White - Rob Haakman - Bob Naylor - Paul Woods - Karen Larking - Victoria Forbes - Nigel Joyce and many more unknown contributors. Over 200 pieces reflecting an alternative side and time of Palmerston North's Art and political history.
Animated GIF of Columbia from Rocky Horror Picture Show shouting “Eddie!” and running excitedly with arms outstretched
Tim Roth as Guildenstern, from the movie of Tom Stoppard’s play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: “Just a conspiracy of cartographers, you mean?”
Rally for trans youth: Back PATHA at the High Court! 6th May, 12pm-1pm. Meet at Wai-Titi landing, corner of Molesworth and Lambton Quay.
Grassy area in front of forest, with a big informational sign stretching all the way to the ground, with the title in large letters, “OURS.” (The French word for bear.) In much smaller letters underneath, it says, “The Manawatu River Leaders’ Accord”.
A metal statue of the Riff Raff character in the final scenes of the Rocky Horror Picture Show movie, in the quilted triangular costume and hair-do with a ponytail on top gelled to point forward, and with a pronged laser gun steadied on his arm. The statue has a square metal base reminiscent of the RKO tower from that scene. It sits on a circular island in a concrete plaza off the street, next to the new Embassy Theatre with a modern glass facade and tiled walk. Red laser lines, styled as in the movie, run from the statue to a plaque in the ground. The view is a wide-angle webcam from the roof of a building on the opposite side of the plaza from the Embassy, along that street.
A round silvery insect with spikey hairs sticking out sparsely from all over its body, reminiscent of the Pinhead character in the Hellraiser movies. Below the square photo is the caption: Hellraiser Mite.
Reti-Ā-Nuku / Learn to Skate Poster for Swamp City's 2026 Learn to skate 6 week course. From Rātapu (Sunday) 15th Hui-tanguru (February). And an open skate 1st Hui-tanguru, Koha entry. Rātapu 2:30 - 4:30pm Central Trust Arena, Arena 3, or Bell Hall (Waldergrave Street) $15 per session or $75 for full course. 18+ or 15+ with parent permission QR code to register interest: http://linktr.ee/swampcityrollerderby The poster is in Swamp City colors (green) with a circular design of roller skates around the info, with Swamp City's logo (a skater in action with arms and legs out, in front of a windmill blade).
Cover of Suzanne Vega's album 99.9F°, featuring her face, obscured by her hand over her mouth and nose, with maybe a bandaid around the middle finger, all in monochrome (blue-ish? black and white? I don't know, I'm color impaired) surrounded by a fiery blend of her hair and the background in oranges and yellows, reminiscent of a heat map.
Two side-by-side photos that can be viewed as 3D by having the right eye see the right picture and the left eye see the left. The images are of a pōhutukawa flower lit against a black background, with its red spines coming towards the viewer, with yellow pollen on the ends. Photos by Philip Garnock-Jones, Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 4.0
Watercolor of a stylized Tamagotchi — not pixelated, more like a larger-than-life cartoon, obscuring even some of the icons — in a purple case with lines of constellations and little yellow stars, and pink and red accent panels. The Tamagotchi fills the frame, but is on a striped background of similar colour stripes with darker circles and spirals. It is framed with double matting, purple inside a medium gray, to provide accent but let the color of the artwork shine.
A paved path going up over the grassy river stopbank has a darker colored patch in the shape of a smiley face — presumably intentional, but crude enough that it could be accidental?
A yellow flag with a smiley face on a pole rising out from a walled in yard at the corner of a house. The wind is strong, fluttering the flag and swaying the trees in the background.
What looks like a fire hydrant, but is actually a standpipe for metro stations, seen here in front of the brick and concrete plaza (and a few trees and ivy) at the entrance to the station it services, in the city of Montreal. The pipe is a lovely baby blue and immediately next to it is a tall sign with a baby blue silhouette of the pipe. It seems silly to have a sign that provides no additional information that the object itself isn't already providing, but turns out it's because Montreal gets lots of snow and this way the pipe can be found even if it's buried under snow. Barely a foot away is a parking meter -- apparently another difference between fire hydrants and standpipes, besides red vs blue, is that it's legal to park in front of a standpipe.
Muppet character, Pepé the King Prawn, looking sharp in a dark suit jacket, blue shirt, and a patterned tie, but with a blank look on his face
Paĝo 128 de Pola Esperantisto de Oktobro 1934, sub titolo "Novaĵoj el Esperantujo": Fine vera esperanta tonfilmo. La dekan de aŭgusto estis projekciata en Stokholmo la unua esperantlingva filmo s. t. "Hodiaŭ komenciĝas la vivo." La filmo, tute korekte teknike farita, estos prezentata en ĉiuj pli grandaj urboj de la mondo.
Photo of snow-capped Mt Ruapehu peeking out over the top of green hilly pasture with sheep and cattle and a wood post fence along the road, taken from a car whose front dashboard is visible in the foreground
A while flag with a little furry dinosaur scurrying with a Dunkin Donuts styrofoam coffee cup in its hand and off-center above it is the name “massachusetts” in lowercase, in a bubble font that’s possibly Comic Sans. Below it text from the article: Who's that cute guy running on Dunkin'? It is, of course, the state dinosaur, Podokesaurus holyokensis, or "the swift-footed lizard of Holyoke." Image courtesy Massachusetts Seal, Flag, and Motto Advisory Commission
“We mic'd up one of our Reti-a-nuku and let them announce the pãhotanga mataora (livestream)”
Poster for event: Mythbusting De-extinction: to sort fact from fiction What’s the truth around de-extinction? A New Zealand perspective 14TH OCTOBER 11AM - 12.30PM NZDT ONLINE EVENT De-extinction hit the headlines recently with the 'resurrection' of the dire wolf and the push to bring back the moa. However, can scientists actually de-extinct animals, and more importantly, should they bring them back? In this talk Associate Professor Nic Rawlence from the Otago University Zoology Department will delve into the science, ethics, and indigenous concerns surrounding de-extinction. ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND SEE YOU THERE! This special talk is brought to you by Genomics for Aotearoa New Zealand (GFANZ). Find out more about what we do at https://genomics.nz
"Dedicating our lives to interactivity" They Might Be Giants on WFNX (1990s?)
An event poster with text, the logo for Queer History Boston, and two characters drawn by Edward Gorey. Title: "'A Curious Discovery': Queer Subtext in Edward Gorey's Work". Presented by the Edward Gorey House, Thursday, October 16, 7-8pm. The characters are taken from a page of Gorey's book, "The Osbick Bird", about a dignified gentleman and his life with a ridiculous bird, that looks like a parrot with absurdly long legs. In this scene, it is winter and they are wearing galoshes. The bird is also wearing a striped scarf and Emblus Figby is wearing a textured tartan-ish overcoat with a capelet.
WordBuilder jumble puzzle from the newspaper’s puzzle page, with the letters E, T, N, A, O. “How many words of three or more letters, including plurals, can you make from the five letters, using each letter only once? No words beginning with a capital are allowed. There's at least one five-letter word. Good 13, Very Good 17, Excellent 21.”
It’s just a round black puffball perched on a branch! Seriously, it’s like a chibi bird come to life, though with small eyes. Little tiny black eye and tiny black beak on a big round fluffy head body, with little tiny feets poking out from thin little legs wrapped underneath. Photo by Oscar Thomas, from birdoftheyear.org.nz
Little round bird walking on the sand. Its head is black, sharply separated from its body that is white on the breast and brown on the back, and on the top of its head is a brown circle lined with white, making it look like it’s wearing a suit and a little hat! Short, but not very short, orange beak, and orange legs that lift it slightly off the ground. Photo is by James Russell, October 2020, Rangatira Island, Chatham Islands, from nzbirdsonline.org.nz
Poster for an event by The History Project (documenters of LGBTQ Boston): Oral History Live! Roundtable with Boston Roller Derby. In conversation with Frankie de la Cretaz. Thursday, September 4th, 2025, at 7pm ET. Virtual panel via zoom. RSVP at the URL: OHL-BRD.eventbrite.com
Wall of a bathroom stall with a chalkboard looking thing on it? On which someone has written, “You are a babe, go girl!” and a smiley face :)
Alternate cover art for “Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers, volume 1” comic book, the first appearance and origin of Throg (Simon Puddlegulp) who was transformed after finding Frogjolnir, a sliver of Mjolnir. It is a realistic depiction, rocks are flying and the scene is fiery orange from lightning, as Thor strikes a mighty pose while holding Mjolnir. In the foreground, a tiny frog appears larger than life, due to the close perspective. The frog is wearing an identical costume and striking an identical pose, while holding tiny Frogjolnir. You are blown away by the simultaneous epic-ness and ludicrous-ity.
Photo of a home television setup: a TV sitting on a long, low console with drawers and a shelf full of DVD boxes. In the foreground is a Terasic DE2-115 FPGA board, connected to the TV and display the startup image of the board itself. In the background, a sock monkey sits, smiling, but watching with one cautious eye.
Mangopare (Hammerhead Shark) These designs come from kōwhaiwhai that can be found in Māori art. Depicting a hammerhead these designs symbolise strength, courage, and determination. These values are important for the self when facing the world and the struggles we face. I have chosen the placement of these mangopare because some iwi believe the direction indicates gender. Upwards for feminine, downwards for masculine. They also don't point directly in either direction to allow for our diversity in gender identities. Niho Taniwhā / Pākati (Teeth of a Taniwhā) These designs are found in multiple forms across whakairo (wood carving), tukutuku (woven panels), and kōwhaiwhai (designs). I have added these teeth to the tail of our mangopare because they symbolise strength, unity, and guardianship.
Snapshot of a video advertising Swamp City's Reti Rapa / Roller Derby Double Header. Doors Open 12.30pm. 30 August 2025. Arena 3, Pascal St. Koha entry. The image is on a green background (Swamp's color) with two skaters from a past interleague Quads vs Queens game: one in Quad Bomber blue (a jammer / kaipiro) and one in Trauma Queens white (a blocker / kaiārai, moving to hit the kaipiro out).
"Manaakitia Tāngata Irawhiti" in pink/white/blue trans flag colors on a dark gray shirt, next to a scrolling Māori pattern (kōwhaiwhai) with mangōpare (symbolic of the hammerhead shark and of determination, strength, and courage) with trailing chevrons in trans flag colors. Below is the smaller text "Protect Trans People" with the logos of OutLine Aotearoa and Team New Zealand Roller Derby.
Computer keyboard with all the key caps removed and pretty color-coded 3d-printed over-sized caps added for just the roller derby scoreboard functions: Lead, Lost, Call, Stop, TO, +1, +2, +3, +4.
An event poster, on a background photo of stars in the night sky: Matariki Mashup, live roller derby, presented by KC/DC (Kāpiti Coast Derby Crew). At Kāpiti College, 28 June, 2pm. $5 for adults, ages 12 and under free.
Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu) looking crazed through a hole smashed in a door, parodying the “Here’s Johnny” scene in The Shining, in a fourth season episode of Wellington Paranormal
Cover of a bilingual Esperanto-Hebrew Haggadah (opening right to left), in white with green lettering and the outline of a green six-sided star. The title is Verda Stelo (Green Star), translated into Esperanto by Erin Piateski.
View of my pasty legs, wearing roller derby skates and knee pads, while sitting on an outdoor concrete rink, just after I’ve geared up. Outside the railing of the rink is a grassy embankment and concrete stands. The sun is low in the sky, illuminating sideways and casting long shadows.
A panel from The Cat in the Hat Beginner Book Dictionary, for the word “match”, showing a cartoon anthropomorphized dog holding a match that has gone out while looking in surprise at a raging fire, with the caption: “Be careful. Little matches make big fires.”
Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters made-up to look like stiff-faced robots in the poster for the 1981 movie, Heartbeeps
Stills from the animated Ren and Stimpy episode, “Space Madness”, where Ren is taking a bath, but there’s no tub, just a rectangle of water floating through the air. Ren is clutching a bar of soap and saying, with a crazed look in his eyes, “It is not I who am crazy… It is I who am MAD!”
Webcomic by Julia Kaye from 9 July 2017: Julia, a trans woman, sits at a booth with another queer person over coffee. In three panels, they have a conversation consisting only of the word "gender", but through a range of emotions, expressed by their face/body and by the word bubbles: They start with smiles, "Gender?" "Gender." Then dripping bubbles and a sense of dread and exhaustion, "Gender.." "Gender.." To sharp pointy anger, in unison and capital letters: "GENDER! GENDER!!" Julia's website and social media handles for UPandOUTcomic are listed, though some are out of date now -- she's on Bluesky @upandoutcomic.bsky.social
A panel from Alison Bechdel's 2006 graphic memoir Fun Home, at the point where she's wondering about herself and checks out the gay student group and first encounters the idea of queerness as an identity beyond sexuality: After being asked if she's going to see the lesbian-feminist singer in concert, she thinks, "Lesbian singers? These people are weird. Maybe I'm not a homo after all."
The Lavender Rhino, a symbol of gay resistance from the 1970s in Boston (with a red heart symbol on its shoulder), shown baring teeth and charging aggressively
Two panels captured from Alok Vaid-Menon's comedy special, "Biology!", of ALOK holding a microphone, standing in front of a curtain, and looking fabulous: "Tonight I want to make the argument that trans people are human" ... "by which I mean insufferable just like you!"
Poster advertising Swamp City Roller Derby's event, in green (the color of Swamp City) and with a photo of the legs of a group of people wearing derby skates and knee pads: Open Skate 2:30pm Rātapu (Sunday) 2nd and 9th Pēpuere (February) Central Trust Arena Arena 3 Te Papaioea Koha Entry [Tino Rangatiratanga Flag] [Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag] [Swamp City Roller Derby Logo]
Gif of the scene from The Simpsons where Grampa says, "The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time," except instead of "onion on my belt" it says "a salmon on my head"
Gif of the scene from Jaws where Martin Brody says "That's some bad hat, Harry" but Harry is replaced with an orca wearing a salmon as a hat (an orca fad from the 80's that's back!)