Every January 1, in the USA, a number of copyrighted works lose their protection and become public domain! This year has a pretty neat list - Dashiell Hammett! Miss Marple! The Marx Brothers! Lots of neat things.
And obviously this isn't everything that's coming free of copyright protection, just a list of a few of some significant works. They're already free in some countries: Canada and Australia have shorter copyright terms.
BOOKS Cakes and Ale William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (the full book version) Agatha Christie, The Murder at the Vicarage (the first novel featuring Miss Marple) Carolyn Keene (pseudonym for Mildred Benson), the first four Nancy Drew books, beginning with The Secret of the Old Clock Watty Piper (pen name of Arnold Munk), The Little Engine That Could (the popular illustrated version, with drawings by Lois Lenski) William H. Elson, Elson Basic Readers (the first appearances of Dick and Jane) Noël Coward, Private Lives T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel Edna Ferber, Cimarron Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison J. B. Priestley, Angel Pavement Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (in the original German, Das Unbehagen in der Kultur) Elizabeth Coatsworth (author) and Lynd Ward (illustrator), The Cat Who Went to Heaven Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons W. Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness
CHARACTERS, COMICS, CARTOONS Flip the Frog Betty Boop from Fleischer Studios' Dizzy Dishes and other cartoons Rover (later renamed Pluto) from Disney's The Chain Gang (as an unnamed bloodhound) and The Picnic (as Rover) Blondie and Dagwood from the Blondie comic strips by Chic Young Flip the Frog from Fiddlesticks and other cartoons, by Ub Iwerks after he left Disney Nine new Mickey Mouse cartoons, the initial week of Mickey Mouse comic strips, and ten new Silly Symphonies cartoons from Disney
FILMS The Divorcee All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone (winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture) King of Jazz, directed by John Murray Anderson (musical revue featuring Paul Whiteman and Bing Crosby’s first feature-film appearance) Cimarron, directed by Wesley Ruggles (winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, registered for copyright in 1930) Animal Crackers, directed by Victor Heerman (starring the Marx Brothers) Soup to Nuts, directed by Benjamin Stoloff (written by Rube Goldberg, featuring later members of The Three Stooges) Morocco, directed by Josef von Sternberg (starring Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, and Adolphe Menjou) The Blue Angel (Der blaue Engel), directed by Josef von Sternberg (starring Marlene Dietrich) Anna Christie, directed by Clarence Brown (Greta Garbo’s first talkie) Hell's Angels, directed by Howard Hughes (Jean Harlow’s film debut) The Big Trail, directed by Raoul Walsh (John Wayne’s first leading role) The Big House, directed by George Hill Murder!, directed by Alfred Hitchcock L'Âge d'Or, directed by Luis Buñuel, written by Buñuel and Salvador Dalí Free and Easy, directed by Edward Sedgwick (Buster Keaton’s first speaking role) The Divorcee, directed by Robert Z. Leonard Whoopee!, directed by Thornton Freeland
MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS The Royal Welch Fusiliers Four Songs - I Got Rhythm, I've Got a Crush on You, But Not for Me, and Embraceable You - with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, music by George Gershwin Georgia on My Mind, lyrics by Stuart Gorrell, music by Hoagy Carmichael Dream a Little Dream of Me, lyrics by Gus Kahn, music by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight, lyrics by Al Lewis, music by Al Sherman On the Sunny Side of the Street, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, music by Jimmy McHugh It Happened in Monterey, lyrics by Billy Rose, music by Mabel Wayne Body and Soul, lyrics by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton, music by Johnny Green Just a Gigolo (the first English translation), original German lyrics by Julius Brammer, English translation by Irving Caesar, music by Leonello Casucci You're Driving Me Crazy, lyrics and music by Walter Donaldson Beyond the Blue Horizon, lyrics by Leo Robin, music by Richard A. Whiting and W. Franke Harling (possible inspiration for the Star Trek theme song) The Royal Welch Fusiliers, by John Philip Sousa
Lots of good stuff that creative types can play with without fear of any sort of legal reprisal! The first appearance of Betty Boop, and the original version of Disney's Pluto, then called Rover. It's interesting to see the evolutions of characters, like how Mickey evolved from Steamboat Willy.
[PLEASE post on your LJ account(s) and communities, if you have such, so as many people as possible know about this!]
It looks like the Putin government is getting ready to lock their social media sites in to Russian posters only and to require social media credits. Dream Width is doing what they can to smooth transferring LJ users over, and there are other sites that are LJ clones, but I can't name them. I think Insane Journal was one, I have no idea if they're still around. I moved to DW nine years ago this January and have no particular problems with it, and I would expect that Europeans would have no issues with payment.
I do hope you switch to DW. I know some of you are Facebookers, and if you decide to go there, I wish you well. I do not and will not use Meta properties.
Happy new year indeed.
When a date is announced for this lockout to go live, I will be deleting my account. My DW account is under this name, TheWayne.
First new Thursday Recs of the year; come share some stuff you've found!
Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!
Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!
Hello to all, especially those of you I haven't met here before. I write noblebright novels on hope in dark times, inspired by historical settings. Nearly all of what I write is original fiction, though my Muse occasionally allows me to write fanfic. All my stories are free. My writings are available in various places: my website, blog, AO3, and SqWA.
I've just posted at my Dreamwidth journal the story summaries and links to all the fic (mainly historical fantasy inspired by late antiquity) that I released in 2025. The stories are T-rated, featuring friendships, platonic life-partnerships, and romantic pairings (f/m and m/m). Here's my boilerplate content warning. I'd love to hear what you think of the stories.
Happy New Year! I'm having a fairly pleasant 2026 so far, and hope you all are too! <3
Yuletide reveals! :D
I wrote two things this year (which, it's been a couple of years since I've managed a treat, and I'm very glad I was able to this year).
My assignment:
Voyages of the Valence: The Lanthanide Cluster Job (7862 words) by hamsterwoman Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Elements - Experiments in Character Design - Kaycie D., Object and Concept Anthropomorphism Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Vanadium (Experiments in Character Design), Chromium (Experiments in Character Design), Iodine (Experiments in Character Design), Rhenium (Experiments in Character Design), Sulfur (Experiments in Character Design), Carbon (Experiments in Character Design), Xenon (Experiments in Character Design), Helium (Experiments in Character Design), Dysprosium (Experiments in Character Design), Indium (Experiments in Character Design), Thulium (Experiments in Character Design), Rhodium (Experiments in Character Design), Yttrium (Experiments in Character Design) Additional Tags: IN SPACE!, Space Opera Summary:
The days leading up to story reveals were spent frantically beta-ing a couple of fairly long fics that required a canon primer, so I had given up on the idea of writing a treat. But I felt so blessed by my last-minute crossover treat and the fact that my main gift was in a much rarer fandom than I’d been expecting, that it gave me a sort of second wind – after reveals, obviously, but there was still Madness. And thus:
Challenge #1: The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.
My intro post from a year ago was mostly current but was missing Elis & John a couple of things that feel too relevant not to mention, so, I’m including an updated one below. As for the other challenge questions:
I love the little bright splash of fannishness that Snowflake brings to the start of the year – it always leads to interesting fandom reflections (my own and other people’s), getting to read/watch/look at things I wouldn’t have come across or taken the plunge on otherwise (fic/vids but also trying new canons), creating things I otherwise wouldn’t have created (one tangible highlight: a couple of years ago I wrote a pantoum, a poetic form I hadn’t tried before, for Snowflake’s “try something new” day, and it was actually published this year, which is pretty cool!), and usually also new friends. Which I guess has also answered the question of what I hope to gain from it this year :)
In the book canon, the Volturi have really unusual eyes, kind of cloudy(???) or something (honestly idk, I read the books ages ago, but for some reason that specific detail stuck with me), so I tried to show that
P.S I actually really love this detail, it’s like it shows that time does affect vampires
Your annual reminder that a bunch of cool books just got released into public domain and have been beautifully typeset by Standard Ebooks. (Apparently Nancy Drew is in public domain now—perhaps I'll finally learn what the fuss is about.)
In the last two weeks I've mostly been reading Weak Hero fanfic. I saw both seasons of the drama recently and I was so grabbed by things left unsaid that I had to look up fanfic for it. (And of course, as I do in any new fandom, my first exploration was sorted by word count).
Aside from that, I finished Fluent Forever and it rearranged my brain on language learning. (First victim: Slovenian.) It mostly tells you how to make effective flashcards and what to focus on and in which order to get the most out of learning a new language—and then why the proposed methods work. (Incidentally, I also learned that mačka comes from Hungarian macska. Makes sense though. See: history of magyarization.)
I also continued my read through of Anderson's cookbooks with Tokyo Stories, which I liked a little less than the bento and the izakaya cookbooks. The recipes aren't as approachable as those in his other cookbooks, but the in-depth treatment of Tokyo cuisine(s) is very cool. I liked it a lot.
I accidentally slipped the Semantic Error volume that was supposed to go into this post into the previous post, so that's a wrap for the reading in 2025! 129 books, which is the same as the previous year. I might come back with a list of favourites in a few days. Until then, enjoy the fresh energy of the new year!
Gabriel Wyner, Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It, revised edition
Tim Anderson, Tokyo Stories: A Japanese Cookbook
Current Mood:cheerful
Current Music:"Wild God (Live God)" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.
Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?
There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.
This Week's Question: What are your crafting goals for 2026?
If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.
Today, I celebrated Public Domain Day by uploading a few newly public-domain photos to Wikimedia Commons. Happy 2026!
I played a lot of video games I enjoyed this year:
"The Roottrees are Dead" is a fun web-simulation puzzle game
Oblivion (remastered) is very pretty even when disabling stuff to get better performance, improves on some problems in the original, and maintains that broken Oblivion charm
"The Crimson Diamond", despite my issues with the ending sequence, was a great throwback adventure game
I put a lot of hours into inventing farming and building community in "Roots of Pacha"
I played "Expelled!" in one sitting (does get a bit tedious to replay the day toward the end), but the MC is so much fun in how unapologetically ambitious and ruthless she is
Still haven't finished FFVII Rebirth, but there are so many games in the game!
Just started playing the stat-building game "The Royal Alchemist", and while it's not perfect (easy gameplay, lots of typos), I'm enjoyed the royal intrigue and reputation-building mechanics
And of course, I've been playing and modding Morrowind between writing way too many words of fanfic about it
Unfortunately, I had relatively bad luck in picking books I enjoyed this year. I DNF'd more than usual; the worsening editing standards in publishing are not helping, but I also happened to pick some that seemed interesting but ended up being a slog that I dropped or skimmed through after a certain point. After we started moving, I also did not do a lot of Japanese reading or watching, which I want to focus on more this year.
In skating, I finally received my new boots, which hopefully should fit better. I did a dance lift for the first time and passed a dance test, my upright spins are now much better, we fixed my bad-leg spiral, and my edge work is also improving. We even got me a baby Salchow that my coach immediately said I was doing wrong lmao. Onward and upward.
My partner and I bought a house, which was a pretty big deal. Moving was not at all fun, but we do enjoy being away from our landlord. There is still a lot to work on; however, we have managed some improvements already like replacing the furnace with a heat pump, and Z wants to learn more about plumbing and carpentry so he can do more on his own. I found out that the library system has thermal imaging cameras available, so I have one on hold to help find out where else we can improve our sealing.
Almost everything I post on Dreamwidth is posted access-locked to my circle, but I am going to try to actually participate in snowflake_challenge this year and maybe I can make it a habit to continue posting regularly. I'm making this post public for the duration of the challenge, but I might lock it after January. I'm slightly neurotic about leaving posts public even when they aren't very personal posts. One of the things I like about Dreamwidth is that I'm not that worried about a post going viral here. (I deleted my Tumblr years ago because that platform fed into my neurosis. If I posted something that didn't get much interaction, I'd be sulky about it because it felt like I was being ignored. But then I once posted something political that got a huge number of re-blogs and comments including, of course, from people who disagreed with me, and after that I decided that I preferred being ignored.)
Toad she/her In addition to oldtoadwoman , I have an art journal at eye_of_toad , but I haven't posted much this year at all. And I'm oldtoadwoman on Archive of Our Own (but haven't been active there in ages either). Real-life has really worn me down the last few years. I want to squee about fun things, but I'm often lacking the energy or focus to even post about what I've been watching lately.
Watched recently: Wake Up Dead Man (the latest Benoit Blanc mystery), season 1 of Pluribus, and I'm almost caught up on Stranger Things which I'm about to go finish now. And the on-hiatus show that I most want to see concluded is Severance. One annoying thing that stands out, is that I seem to keep getting hooked on things that get dragged out a bit too long with way too long of a gap between seasons. (I like the Benoit Blanc mysteries for being self-contained stories, but all the others try to drag you along for years' worth of cliffhangers.) And I've been going to the movie theater a lot lately. Most recently saw Song Sung Blue which I enjoyed. I've watched all of the variations of Ghosts with the exception of the Greek one, which I haven't found subtitled versions of yet. It started out as a silly sitcom that my sister liked, but for me the most entertaining part is seeing how each country adapts the story to their own culture and history. (My sister and I marathoned the French & Greek series over the holidays.)
I feel like I should be saying more as an introduction, but at the moment my interests are a bit scattered.
Some days I feel too contradictory to even have a personality. I like trying new food (but still go to my old favorites when I can't make a decision). I like going places and having new experiences (yet I often just curl up in my apartment and never see another human being all weekend). I love the idea of reading (but never seem to actually make time to sit down and read). I love to paint and draw (but always put it off until "later" when I'll have more time). I enjoy journaling and writing letters (but keep telling myself I'll catch back up tomorrow). I teach math (but have no guarantee that I'll be offered the same position next school year) and enjoy teaching (except for the 90% of the time when students are just goofing off and not listening at all). I love writing fan fiction (but almost never write anymore because I can't seem to stay focused on one story idea long enough).
I'm also extra prone to sulking in the winter so I'm going to try to use snowflake_challenge as motivation to get up and actually type something regularly.
Hi. I like (and kinda love) Benjamin and Tia and think they are so underrated and that their relationship and general characters are never interpreted. So far, I haven’t found anything that says: yes, they loved each other very much, etc. Nor how they lived with Amun and Kebi. Were they supervised all the time like two children? Or when did they have time for themselves? Did they even have a bed, let alone a room to themselves?
I also think Tia is mentioned so little and only Benjamin, like: Ohhh Benjamin, the great treasure with his elemental powers. He is an exception, etc.
But Tia was the one who encouraged him (when they were children) to show his fire gift to their uncle…then he was a street performer and was discovered by Amun, who then transformed him…
So theoretically, this ONLY happened because of Tia. Her personality and beauty (she is really almost comparable to Rosalie) are also hardly emphasised. So how often Benji and Tia can sleep with each other (you know…)? Do they suffer from their home environment (Amun and Kebi)? Would they go/ run away to the Cullens? Why? Would Tia be silenty accepted by the Cullens or would she receive more attention (which she deserves) ? PS: i am not from an English speaking country so sorry when you cant read everythink. But Merry Christmas (i know its two days to late) and a Happy New Year!
And can i please be anonym?
I agree that Benjamin (and Tia) often get overshadowed by Benjamin’s power. It’s like “OH WOW! LOOK HOW SPECIAL HE IS” but we don’t get as much about their personalities or relationship.
One thing that’s interesting about Tia is that while she is from the 1800s, that name was actually in use in Ancient Egypt, too! There were a number of princesses and noblewomen with that name, as well as similar names like Tiye and Tey. I don’t get the sense that Amun or Kebi are all that interested in her, but they might like her name. It would seem familiar to them, anyway.
I think I remember in the guide it says that she also has a beautiful singing voice, which made her uncle like her (she could make money by singing). Not as impressive as fire magic, but still! A reliable money-maker and a real talent. I wonder if maybe, since she doesn’t have a ‘gift’ per se, that she might have 'enhanced singing’ or that her voice is even more beautiful than the average vampire (like Rosalie’s enhanced beauty or Emmett’s enhanced strength).
I think also that SM says they live in an abandoned underground temple with Amun, who is paranoid about Aro finding out about Benjamin and taking him away like he did with Demetri. I don’t know what that’s supposed to look like in terms of 'rooms’ or whatever. It also feels weird given my long-standing interest in ancient Egypt. If it’s underground it’s probably a tomb, not a temple. Maybe she just means the ruins of a temple that has been buried by centuries or sand vs actually 'underground?’
My take is that Benjamin has adopted Amun as a father-figure not because he doesn’t understand that Amun’s kind of using him but because that’s what he’s used to? It was the same with the uncle who raised him, he was valuable and 'loved’ because of his talent. The dynamic is no doubt dysfunctional, but it’s familiar to Benjamin, it reads as 'family’ to him. The guide also says that Tia is not as fond of Amun or Kebi and totally understands why Amun’s interest in Benjamin is, but they both want to see Benjamin safe and protected so in that sense she and Amun are on the same page. Likewise I think Amun puts up with Tia’s presence because she makes Benjamin happy and less like to run away.
I don’t really get the sense that Amun treats them like “children,” it’s more than he’s protective of Benjamin because of his power, and would be the same way about it if Benjamin were physically 30. I think Amun has been a vampire for SO LONG that human concepts of children or teenagers are just not something to considers much. I don’t know how much privacy there is in the hidden underground temple or whatever, but I think Amun and Kebi accept the two are mates and will do what mates do and it’s whatever. It’s normal.
As for if they will ever run away … maybe. If SM were interested in a bigger story than Bella’s vampire power fantasy, then I certainly think the events of Breaking Dawn could open Tia and Benjamin’s eyes about the wider vampire world and how they don’t have to live by Amun’s rules. It also showed them that there were covens that were united by something other than powers (Carlisle and Esme love their 'children’ whether they have powers or not) and the vegetarian diet might also be something interesting to them. The Guide says that Tia and Benjamin have strong senses of right and wrong. Might the vegetarian option appeal to them? Maybe. I mean what was the point of Garrett’s speech about how the Cullens “have they found something worth even more, perhaps, than mere gratification of desire?” if literally none of the others become vegetarians. Like you’d think the point of a speech like that would be some converts, yeah? But no. Only Garrett himself and mostly because he wants to get with Kate. If Benjamin and Tia had been moved by Garrett’s speech that could have been really interesting! Maybe it will still happen down the line. I don’t know if they would actually join the Cullens, they might choose instead to become another 'cousin’ coven and travel the world after being hidden so long.
Well, Cindy, at least we can all agree your design is always in demand:
Just keep the kids away, k? We have a reputation to consider.
Thanks to Debby G., Catie C., Veronica F., Wendy T., & Teresa C. for not gushing too much over the little squirts.
*****
P.S. Forget the cakes, the holidays left my house wrecked. I'm so ready for a big purge and organizing blitz - and eyeballing nifty little turntables like this:
I thought I did more of these, but the last one was Sept 1st and honestly, Sept and Oct might as well not even have existed for all that I can remember really what happened.
Previous goals:
finish knitting the sweater because then I can wear it. I really want to wear it - I got to the cuff ribbing, tried the sweater on and realized that I hadn't done decreases on the arms, so I had to rip them back to the elbows.
spin! - did some spinning! Finished an 8oz skein of yarn of pretty stuff, spun 4 oz of grey merino singles, spun 4 oz wensleydale singles
weave! - finished weaving the project on the loom! Tied off the warp ends so I hopefully can tie a new warp onto it
sew! - coat is getting extremely close to done, like I could wear it now. Topstitching and buttons are the only things left
pull out, clean and finish the great wheel while the weather is nice - lmao no
process fleece - I finished processing a fleece!
other - crafting room is partially set up and a Great Sorting is in progress. I went to a fiber festival even though it was inconvenient timing. Put together 25 items to take to the weavers guild show and sale and sold around half of them. I was reunited with my CPW and immediately started spinning on it. I missed it so much.
8 oz of 80/10/10 merino/bamboo/nylon spun up as a two ply yarn. Originally for weaving, I washed it and sold it at the weavers guild sale. 1150 yards. It was really pretty but I didn't think I'd actually do anything with it. The colors in this photo are very bad but I dug through my pictures and couldn't find any good ones. ( Read more... )
January crafting goals
finish weaving yarn inventory - spreadsheet already set up and entry started
get loom into crafting room
spin! and ply the two things I've got languishing
knit the sweater, maybe try and finish it? I've got two crochet projects that I want to make
This is a screenshot from one of the twilight movies. I dont remember which one specificaly sorry lol
But that bite mark got me thinking
He had this guy’s whole-ass thumb in his mouth to bite him.
I tried and put my thumb in my mouth to replicate that bite mark. I hit the back of my throat.
This vampire deep-throated this guy’s thumb. To bite him. That was a choice he made. Putting the guy’s whole-ass thumb in his mouth could’ve easily been avoided. But no. That was delibarate.
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