Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian-born French graphic novelist, illustrator, film director and children’s book author. She became famous worldwide because of her critically acclaimed autobiographical graphic novels, Persepolis and Persepolis 2. The series describes her childhood in Iran, during and after the Islamic Revolution, and her adolescence in Europe. Satrapi and comic artist Vincent Paronnaud co-directed an animated adaptation, also called Persepolis (2007). Satrapi was born on November 22, 1969.
Tori Amos is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and composer. She is a classically trained musician and has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Amos won a full scholarship to the Peabody Institute at age five and was expelled at age 11. She originally served as the lead singer of short-lived 1980s pop group Y Kant Tori Read before achieving her breakthrough as a solo artist in the early 1990s. Amos has since become one of the world’s most prominent female singer-songwriters and has received eight Grammy nominations. Early in her solo career, she was one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument. Amos has sold more than 12 million albums worldwide. She was born on August 22, 1963.
Polly Jean Harvey, known as PJ Harvey, is an English musician and singer-songwriter. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined local band Automatic Dlamini. In 1991, she formed an eponymous trio and released two studio albums, Dry (1992) and Rid of Me (1993) before the trio disbanded. As a solo artist Harvey has released six studio albums, including To Bring You My Love (1995), Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000) and Let England Shake (2011). She began recording her ninth studio album earlier this year. Harvey was born on October 9, 1969.
Maya Lin is an American designer and artist who is known for her work in sculpture and landscape art. She first came to fame at the age of 21 as the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) in Washington, D.C. Her minimalist design aroused controversy but has become very popular with the public over the years. Lin is one of just 13 “groundbreaking Americans” featured in Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, a children’s book by United States President Barack Obama. She was born on October 5, 1959.
Note: After checking the list of people featured in Obama’s children’s book, I realized that Maya Lin is character #13 of 13, thus completing my Of Thee I Sing 8-bit series. Mission accomplished.
Brigitte Bardot is a French former actress, singer and fashion model. She was one of the best known sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s and was widely referred to by her initials. During her career in show business, she starred in 47 films, performed in several musical shows and recorded over 60 songs. Bardot started her acting career in 1952 and became world-famous in 1957 with the controversial film And God Created Woman. She later starred in the 1963 film Contempt by Jean-Luc Godard. French photographer Sam Lévin was instrumental in creating Bardot’s image, particularly with The Towel Session shoot in 1959. Bardot caught the attention of French intellectuals and was the subject of a famous essay, Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome by Simone de Beauvoir. Bardot retired from the entertainment industry in 1973. After her retirement, she established herself as an animal rights activist. During the 1990s, she generated controversy by criticizing immigration and Islam in France and has been fined five times for inciting racial hatred. Bardot was born on September 28, 1934.
Jane Addams was a pioneering American social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in women’s suffrage and world peace. In an era when presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson identified themselves as reformers and social activists, Addams was one of the most prominent reformers of the Progressive Era. She campaigned for better social conditions and led investigations into child welfare, local public health and education. She introduced the idea of the settlement house to the United States, co-founding Hull House in 1889. In 1920, she co-founded the ACLU. In 1931, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and is recognized as the founder of the social work profession in the U.S. Addams was born on September 6, 1860 and died on May 21, 1935.
Margot is my two-year-old daughter Ramona’s favorite baby doll. This 9.5-inch Babi Corolle doll was a gift from my dad. As a Corolle product, the doll’s given (slave) name is Miss Grenadine’s Heart. She has a soft body and wears a sewn-on raspberry-colored dress with an embroidered heart and a lavender collar. She also wears sewn-on lavender shoes and a raspberry-colored cap. Her face is vanilla-scented, which I have come to believe teaches children cannibalism, because it smells delicious. Also, Ramona conceives of “Margot” as a type of person, rather than a specific individual. Hooded cartoon characters, other dolls, and sometimes even humans fall into the category of “Margot” and are differentiated by their color (e.g., Blue Margot, Pink Margot). But this is the original Margot.
Margaret Hamilton is a computer scientist, systems engineer and business owner. She was Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. In 1969, in a critical moment of the Apollo 11 mission, Hamilton’s team’s work prevented an abort of landing on the moon. She was 32 years old when the Apollo Lunar Module landed on the moon while running her code. She designed software robust enough to handle buffer overflows and cycle-stealing, which was instrumental in the success of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Hamilton is also credited with coining the term “software engineering.” In 1986, she became the founder and CEO of Hamilton Technologies, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was developed around the Universal Systems Language, based on her paradigm of Development Before the Fact (DBTF) for systems and software design. Hamilton was born on August 17, 1936.
Margaretha MacLeod, better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a Frisian exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy and executed by firing squad in France under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I. The idea of an exotic dancer working as a lethal double agent using her powers of seduction to extract military secrets from her many lovers made Mata Hari an enduring archetype of the femme fatale. Her life inspired multiple films, including Mata Hari (1931) starring Greta Garbo, which further popularized the Mata Hari legend. Mata Hari was born on August 7, 1876 and died on October 15, 1917.
Mitzi Mozzarella is a character in The Rock-afire Explosion, an animatronic robot band. A mouse and teenage cheerleader, Mitzi is obsessed with gossip, boyfriends, pop music and (appropriate for the time) Michael Jackson. The Rock-afire Explosion played shows in Showbiz Pizza Place from the restaurant chain’s founding in 1980 until the early 1990s, when the Showbiz brand was unified with Chuck E. Cheese’s and Chuck E. Cheese characters steadily replaced the band. The Rock-afire Explosion show was created and manufactured by noted inventor Aaron Fechter, through his company Creative Engineering, Inc. (also known for Whac-A-Mole) in Orlando, Florida; in addition to overseeing the production of the animatronics, Fechter also provided the voices for several characters.
Jennifer Lopez, also known as J. Lo, is an American actress, author, fashion designer, dancer, producer and singer. Her first regular high-profile job was as a Fly Girl dancer on In Living Color in 1991. She received her first leading acting role in the Selena biopic in 1997. Lopez became the first Latina actress to earn over $1 million for a role the following year, with the film Out of Sight. She ventured into the music industry in 1999 with her debut studio album, On the 6. With current record sales of over 60 million and a cumulative film gross of over $2 billion, Lopez is regarded as the most influential Hispanic performer in the United States, as well as its highest paid Latin entertainer. Beyond entertainment, Lopez has enjoyed a highly successful business career, consisting of various clothing lines, accessories, fragrances, a production company, television shows and a charitable foundation. She was born on July 24, 1969.
Note: Deciding on Lopez’s most iconic outfit was easy, since not many dresses have their own Wikipedia page. Her 8-bit clothing is based on the plunging, sheer green Versace dress she wore to the 42nd Grammy Awards ceremony in 2000, alongside then-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, more commonly known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, Georgist and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing that it was often used as a way to control or punish blacks who competed with whites, rather than being based on criminal acts by blacks, as was usually claimed by white mobs. She was active in women’s rights and the women’s suffrage movement, establishing several notable women’s organizations. Wells was a skilled and persuasive rhetorician and traveled internationally on lecture tours. She was born on July 16, 1862 and died on March 25, 1931.
Since Ida B. Wells is a hero of Canadian cartoonist Kate Beaton, there’s an excellent series of Hark! A Vagrant comics about Wells. Also, the Ida B. Wells Commemorative Art Committee is working to develop a monument in Chicago to honor the life and times of Ida B. Wells. Lastly, in unrelated news, with this week’s flyby of Pluto by NASA’s New Horizons space probe, all I can think of is “Bring Back Pluto.”
Debbie Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known as the lead singer of the new wave and punk rock band Blondie. She recorded several No.1 singles with Blondie and is sometimes considered the first rapper to chart at number one in the United States as well, due to her vocals on “Rapture.” She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she recorded and performed with The Jazz Passengers. Her acting career spans over 30 film roles and numerous television appearances. She was born on July 1, 1945.
Batwoman is a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. First appearing in 1956, the character is a wealthy heiress who becomes inspired by the notorious superhero Batman and chooses, like him, to put her wealth and resources towards a war on crime as a masked vigilante in her home of Gotham City. Batwoman was introduced as a love interest for Batman in order to combat the allegations of Batman’s homosexuality arising from the controversial book Seduction of the Innocent (1954). Conversely, the modern Batwoman is written as being a lesbian of Jewish descent. Described as the highest-profile gay superhero to appear in stories published by DC, Batwoman’s sexual orientation drew wide media attention following her reintroduction.
I suppose this is my contribution to the long-awaited celebration of the Supreme Court declaring same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states yesterday. It’s always a nice feeling to be proud of something that happens in my country, belated or not. Rainbows are everywhere. As for my 8-bit characters, the LGBTQIA+ tag keeps growing.
Nicole Kidman is an Australian actress and film producer. Kidman’s breakthrough film role was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. After appearing in several films in the early 1990s, she came to worldwide recognition for her performances in the auto-racing film Days of Thunder (1990), the romance Far and Away (1992) and the superhero film Batman Forever (1995). Other acclaimed performances include her work in the erotic Kubrick thriller Eyes Wide Shut(1999), the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001), the horror-thriller The Others (2001) and The Hours (2002). Kidman was married to Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001. She was born to Australian parents in Hawai’i on June 20, 1967.
Note: In my search for Nicole Kidman’s most iconic outfit, I found this lime-green or chartreuse dress she wore to the 69th Academy Awards in 1997.
Nancy Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of Frank Sinatra and is widely known for her 1966 signature hit “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” Other defining recordings include the title song from the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, several collaborations with Lee Hazlewood and her cover of Cher’s “Bang Bang,” which was used in the opening sequence of the 2003 Tarantino film Kill Bill: Vol. One. The promo clip for “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” popularized and made her synonymous with go-go boots. The song was written by Lee Hazlewood, who wrote and produced most of her hits and sang with her on several duets, including the critical and cult favorite “Some Velvet Morning.” Sinatra also had a brief acting career in the mid-1960s, including a costarring role with Elvis Presley in the movie Speedway, and with Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels. She was born on June 8, 1940.
I have a framed print of “Escape,” a 1962 portrait by artist Margaret Keane, in my living room; the woman depicted has always reminded me of an idealized version of Nancy Sinatra. I don’t care for most of Keane’s big-eyed art, but I specifically love that painting. Also, this dubstep mashup of “Bang Bang” by Fytch is fantastic. I’ve listened to it dozens of times over the past three years. It features samples from four songs—by Nancy Sinatra, Cas One, Biggie and Ella Fitzgerald. You can download it for free.
Ella Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer often referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a “horn-like” improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing. In addition to her singing career, Fitzgerald appeared in movies and on popular television shows. Her musical collaborations with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Bill Kenny and the Ink Spots were some of her most notable acts outside of her solo career. After her passing, Fitzgerald’s influence lived on through her 14 Grammy Awards, National Medal of Arts, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and tributes in the form of stamps, music festivals and theater namesakes. Fitzgerald was born on April 25, 1917 and died on June 15, 1996.
Maria Sharapova is a Russian professional tennis player. She is currently ranked No. 2 on the WTA Tour. A U.S. resident since 1994, Sharapova has competed on the WTA tour since 2001. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions. She became the world No. 1 for the first time in 2005 and last held the ranking in 2012. Sharapova’s 34 singles titles and five Grand Slam titles—two at the French Open and one each at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open—rank third among active players, behind Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Sharapova is the reigning champion in singles at the French Open. She won a silver medal for Russia at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Sharapova was born on April 19, 1987.
My wife, daughter and I returned to Oregon late last night after visiting family in Pennsylvania. Today we will be attending Linework NW, a free illustration and comics festival in Portland. It starts at noon at the Norse Hall, which is in Northeast Portland near Voodoo Doughnut Too. Last night we stayed at the Nordic Motel (fairly close to the airport), so I guess between Norse and Nordic we’re accidentally pretending to be visiting Scandinavia today?
Roshanna Chatterji (also known as Tremor) is a superhero in the DC Universe with the ability to create vibrations, giving her the power to create earthquakes or disrupt land. Tremor is Bengali and was born in India, where she discovered her ability to move the earth with shockwaves. She frequently displayed her powers, which led to people calling her a witch. She moved to the U.S., where she quickly made new friends, before an alcohol-fueled joyride changed her life. Tremor was created by Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore and first appeared in the Secret Six comics. She also appears within the rebooted Prime Earth (or the New 52) continuity, in The Movement comic book series. Tremor, a teenager, is asexual, making her the only known asexual superhero in either DC Comics or Marvel.
Dana Scully is a fictional character in the science fiction-supernatural television series The X-Files (1993-2002) played by Gillian Anderson. Scully is an FBI agent, partnered with fellow Special Agent Fox Mulder for the first seven seasons, and in the eighth and ninth seasons partnered with John Doggett. In the TV series, they work out of a cramped basement office at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. to investigate unsolved cases labeled “X-Files.” In contrast to Mulder’s “believer” character, Scully is the skeptic for the first seven seasons, choosing to base her beliefs on what science can prove. She later on becomes a “believer” after Mulder’s abduction at the end of season seven. Scully also appears in the feature films The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998) and The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008).
Baby Margot – No. 907
Margot is my two-year-old daughter Ramona’s favorite baby doll. This 9.5-inch Babi Corolle doll was a gift from my dad. As a Corolle product, the doll’s given (slave) name is Miss Grenadine’s Heart. She has a soft body and wears a sewn-on raspberry-colored dress with an embroidered heart and a lavender collar. She also wears sewn-on lavender shoes and a raspberry-colored cap. Her face is vanilla-scented, which I have come to believe teaches children cannibalism, because it smells delicious. Also, Ramona conceives of “Margot” as a type of person, rather than a specific individual. Hooded cartoon characters, other dolls, and sometimes even humans fall into the category of “Margot” and are differentiated by their color (e.g., Blue Margot, Pink Margot). But this is the original Margot.