Princess Bubblegum is a main character and the most recurring princess of Adventure Time, an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network. Princess Bubblegum is a scientist, inventor and ruler of the Candy Kingdom. The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo.
Note:Adventure Time launched as a Cartoon Network series on April 5, 2010. It’s been five years of Ooo!
Maya Angelou was an American author, poet, dancer, actress and singer. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays and several books of poetry, and was credited in plays, movies and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim. Her books center on themes such as racism, identity, family and travel. Angelou was active in the Civil Rights Movement, and worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. She was born on April 4, 1928 and died on May 28, 2014.
Jane Goodall is an English primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 55-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots program, and she has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. She has served on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project since its founding in 1996. Goodall was born on April 3, 1934.
Carson Ellis is an artist and illustrator of children’s books. Born in Canada on October 5, 1975, her illustration work includes bestsellers The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket and The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy (her husband). Ellis recently finished work on Home, a whimsical picture book she wrote. Her editorial illustrations have appeared in The New York Times and The New Yorker, and her fine art is exhibited at Nationale in Portland, Oregon. Ellis is also the illustrator-in-residence for the band The Decemberists. She lives on a farm in Portland with Meloy and their two sons.
P.S.Home is due out on February 24, 2015. That is today. Check it out. Also, here’s a playable Portland family feud: Carson Ellis vs. Colin Meloy.
Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer and peace activist. She is the widow and second wife of John Lennon and is also known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo, and studied at Gakushuin University while her family moved to the U.S. to escape the war. They reunited in 1953, and she became involved in New York City’s downtown artists scene, including the Fluxus group. Ono first met Lennon in 1966 at her own art exhibition in London, and they became a couple in 1968. She achieved commercial and critical acclaim in 1980 with the chart-topping album Double Fantasy, released with Lennon three weeks before his death. Since 2003, 11 of her songs, mostly remixes of her older work, have hit No. 1 on the U.S. dance chart. Ono was born on February 18, 1933.
Carmen Miranda was a Portuguese Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress and film star who was popular from the 1930s to the 1950s. In 1940, she made her first Hollywood film, Down Argentine Way, with Don Ameche and Betty Grable. In the same year, Miranda was invited to sing and dance for President Franklin Roosevelt. Nicknamed “The Brazilian Bombshell,” she was noted for her Latin accent, exotic clothing and signature fruit hat outfit she wore in her American films, particularly in The Gang’s All Here (1943). By 1945, she was the highest paid woman in the U.S. Miranda made a total of 14 Hollywood films. She was the first Latin American star to be invited to imprint her hands and feet in the courtyard of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, in 1941. Miranda was also the first South American to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was born on February 9, 1909.
P.S. The United Fruit Company took advantage of the Carmen Miranda craze by creating the cartoon mascot Chiquita Banana. Speaking of which, consider this matchup: Carmen Miranda vs. Chiquita Banana. Fight!
Betty White is an American actress, comedian, singer, author producer and television personality. She is best known for her television roles on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973-77) and The Golden Girls (1985-92). In a career that has spanned more than 70 years, White has won six Emmy Awards (five for acting) and received 23 Emmy nominations. She is the only woman to have won an Emmy in all performing comedic categories. In May 2010, White became the oldest person to guest-host Saturday Night Live, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award. She also holds the record for longest span between Emmy nominations for performances—her first was in 1951 and her most recent was in 2011, a span of 60 years—and became the oldest nominee overall as of 2014, at age 92. She is also the oldest winner of a competitive Grammy Award, which she won in 2012 for a spoken word recording. Due to her pioneering efforts in early TV and her acting legacy, pretty much everyone has given White a lifetime achievement award. She was born on January 17, 1922.
The Chiquita company mascot Miss Chiquita, now Chiquita Banana, was created in 1944 by Dik Browne, who is best known for his Hägar the Horrible comic strip. Miss Chiquita started as an animated banana with a woman’s dress and legs. Advertisements featured the trademark banana character wearing a fruit-filled sombrero. The obvious inspiration was Brazilian bombshell Carmen Miranda, who was known for wearing exotic fruit-adorned hats/headdresses. Miss Chiquita was depicted as a banana until 1987, when artist Oscar Grillo, creator of the Pink Panther, transformed her into a woman. A new Miss Chiquita design was unveiled in 1998. Peel-off logo stickers have been placed on bananas since 1963. This year was Miss Chiquita’s 60th anniversary.
P.S. As a playable 8-bit character in my retro artillery game, Miss Chiquita throws bananas (obviously), just like the original gorilla character and inspiration for this entire project, QBasic Gorilla.
Major Motoko Kusanagi is the main protagonist in Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell anime and manga series. She is a cyborg employed as the squad leader of Public Security Section 9, a fictional intelligence department of the real Japanese National Public Safety Commission. Her counter-terrorist unit specializes in technological warfare against cyber-crime. Being strong-willed, physically powerful and highly intellectual, Kusanagi is known for her skills in deduction and hacking.
Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist who first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916. She made large-format paintings of enlarged blossoms, presenting them close up as if seen through a magnifying lens, and New York buildings, most of which date from the same decade. O’Keeffe has been recognized as the mother of American modernism. In the 1920s, she turned to working more representationally in an effort to move her critics away from Freudian interpretations. While her earlier work had been mostly abstract, O’Keeffe became best known for sensual, floral works that evoke veiled representations of female genitalia. She rejected feminists who celebrated her as the originator of “female iconography.” O’Keeffe was born on this day in 1887.
P.S. This 8-bit version of Georgia O’Keeffe was inspired by her flower paintings and the many nude portraits her husband, famous photographer Alfred Stieglitz, took of her. I think the three colorful flowers I drew ended up kind of looking like Wonder Woman-themed underwear or maybe a boxing championship title belt.
Usagi Tsukino, better known as Sailor Moon, is the superheroine protagonist and title character in the Sailor Moon manga series and anime adaptations. Usagi is introduced as a carefree, underachieving schoolgirl in Tokyo. She is initially believed to be an Earthling, but is later revealed to be Princess Serenity of the moon kingdom Silver Millennium. Usagi meets Luna who discovers that she is destined to save Earth from the forces of evil. Luna gives Usagi a broach to transform into Sailor Moon, and asks her to form the Sailor Soldiers, find their princess and protect the “Legendary Silver Crystal.” As Usagi matures, she becomes one of the universe’s powerful warriors and protects her adopted home planet, Earth, from villains who wish to harm it.
This 8-bit Sailor Moon was created at the request of my wife Heidi and her sister. Speaking of sailing (or at least ferries), Heidi and I are heading to Orcas Island, the largest of the San Juan Islands, to stay in an apartment in Eastsound for the next few days. It’s her birthday present from me.
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as lead singer of R&B girl-group Destiny’s Child, which disbanded in 2005. Beyoncé released her debut solo album in 2003 and has since released four additional studio albums. She also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe-nominated performance in Dreamgirls (2006), and several starring roles including The Pink Panther (2006). In 2008, Beyoncé married Jay-Z and starred as blues singer Etta James in the 2008 musical biopic, Cadillac Records. Over her 16-year career, she has won 17 Grammy Awards and sold over 75 million records as a solo artist, plus 60 million with Destiny’s Child, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Beyoncé was born on this day in 1981.
Note: This 8-bit outfit is based on the getup Beyoncé wore for her Super Bowl XLVII halftime show performance at the New Orleans Superdome on February 3, 2013. Here is a playable family-feud matchup: Beyoncé Knowles vs. Jay-Z.
Dominika Cibulková is a Slovak professional tennis player. She is currently ranked No. 10 on the WTA Tour. Known for her quick and aggressive style of play and diminutive height, she has won four career singles titles. Cibulková has reached the quarterfinals or better of all four Grand Slam tournaments. The most notable achievement of her career to date was a finals appearance at the 2014 Australian Open. Cibulková became the first female Slovak to reach the championship round of a Grand Slam. She was born on May 6, 1989.
After the retirement of Kim Clijsters in 2012, I was looking for a new favorite women’s tennis player to root for. I can’t cheer for the insufferable shrieking banshees of women’s tennis (e.g., Sharapova, Azarenka, Serena Williams), as I am somewhat inclined to agree with tennis great Martina Navratilova that grunting or screaming during play “is cheating, pure and simple.” Some women’s players I like include Sloane Stephens (WTA no. 18), Australia’s Samantha Stosur (WTA no. 17) and Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard (WTA no. 13), but Dominika Cibulková is my favorite. Happy Wimbledon!
Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska) was a Polish nurse/social worker who served in the Polish Underground during World War II, and as head of children’s section of Żegota, an underground resistance organization in German-occupied Warsaw. Assisted by some two dozen other Żegota members, Sendler smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and provided them with false identity documents and housing outside the Ghetto, saving those children during the Holocaust. The Nazis eventually discovered her activities and tortured her, but she managed to evade execution and survive the war. Known as “the female Oskar Schindler,” late in life she was awarded Poland’s highest honor for her wartime humanitarian efforts. Sendler was born on February 15, 1910 and died on May 12, 2008 at the age of 98.
Note: Sendler was reportedly a candidate to receive the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, but that honor was awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) instead.
Katharine Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage and television. Known for her headstrong independence and spirited personality, Hepburn was a leading lady in Hollywood for more than 60 years and received four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. In 1999, Hepburn was named by the American Film Institute as the greatest female star in Hollywood history. In the middle of her career, Hepburn found a niche playing middle-aged spinsters, such as in The African Queen (1951), a persona the public embraced. Three more Oscars came for her work in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981). She remained active into old age, making her final screen appearance in 1994 at the age of 87. She was born on this day in 1907 and died on June 29, 2003 at the age of 96.
Grace Kelly was an American film actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III. After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, she appeared in New York City theatrical productions and more than 40 episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. She starred in films from 1953 to 1956, including Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and The Country Girl (in which she gave a deglamorized, Academy Award-winning performance). She retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Prince Rainier and enter upon her duties in Monaco. She retained her American roots, maintaining dual U.S. and Monégasque citizenship. She was born on November 12, 1929 and died on September 14, 1982.
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 realms of the 53-member Commonwealth of Nations (the “Commonwealth”). She is also the head of the Commonwealth and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Upon her accession in 1952, Elizabeth became head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries (since expanded to 16 realms). She is the longest-lived and, after her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria, the second longest-reigning British monarch. Now 88 years old, Elizabeth was born on this day in 1926.
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-American motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. During the silent film era she became one of the first great celebrities of the cinema and a popular icon known to the public as “America’s Sweetheart.” She was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. Pickford won two Academy Awards in her lifetime, one for Coquette (1929) and one in 1975. She was born on this day in 1892.
Ruth Elizabeth “Bette” Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in cinema history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was reputed for her performances in a range of film genres. Davis was the first person to secure 10 Academy Award nominations for acting, winning two. Some of her most celebrated films include All About Eve (1950), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Now, Voyager (1942). Davis was born on April 5, 1908 and died on October 6, 1989.
Bonnie Blair is a retired American speedskater. She is one of the top skaters of her time, and one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history. Blair competed for the United States in four Winter Olympics (1984, 1988, 1992, 1994), winning five gold medals and one bronze medal.
Sailor Moon – No. 789
Usagi Tsukino, better known as Sailor Moon, is the superheroine protagonist and title character in the Sailor Moon manga series and anime adaptations. Usagi is introduced as a carefree, underachieving schoolgirl in Tokyo. She is initially believed to be an Earthling, but is later revealed to be Princess Serenity of the moon kingdom Silver Millennium. Usagi meets Luna who discovers that she is destined to save Earth from the forces of evil. Luna gives Usagi a broach to transform into Sailor Moon, and asks her to form the Sailor Soldiers, find their princess and protect the “Legendary Silver Crystal.” As Usagi matures, she becomes one of the universe’s powerful warriors and protects her adopted home planet, Earth, from villains who wish to harm it.
This 8-bit Sailor Moon was created at the request of my wife Heidi and her sister. Speaking of sailing (or at least ferries), Heidi and I are heading to Orcas Island, the largest of the San Juan Islands, to stay in an apartment in Eastsound for the next few days. It’s her birthday present from me.