It’s funny how I’m virtually unshakable in the face of my traditionally “scary” things, but the thought of knitting with dog hair thoroughly unnerves me.
Even more disturbing is the fact that enough people are interested in the subject for a publisher to put out an instructional book.
Now, here’s something I don’t find myself saying every day:
This chair is too muscular for me.
I guess he’s not ULTRA buff. He hasn’t been drinking protein shakes and telling people to “spot him,” but he clearly works out more than I usually like my furniture to do so.
Found here.
Modern franchised theme restaurants can’t hold a proverbial candle to what may have been the first restaurant of its type.
A hot spot called Hell’s Café lured 19th-century Parisians to the city’s Montmartre neighborhood—like the Marais—on the Right Bank of the Seine. With plaster lost souls writhing on its walls and a bug-eyed devil’s head for a front door, le Café de l’Enfer may have been one of the world’s first theme restaurants. According to one 1899 visitor, the café’s doorman—in a Satan suit—welcomed diners with the greeting, “Enter and be damned!” Hell’s waiters also dressed as devils. An order for three black coffees spiked with cognac was shrieked back to the kitchen as: “Three seething bumpers of molten sins, with a dash of brimstone intensifier!”
How in the world can I be impressed with an old baseball bat on the wall at TGIFriday’s when Hell’s Cafe had writhing lost souls on the walls?
This series of sculptures caught my eye recently (it’s almost fitting for a Halloween post!).
The unusual spiritual visions of an Irishman were created in stone by craftsmen in Mahabalipuram, India, and now populate a sculpture park in County Wicklow, Ireland.
On 22 acres of grounds, the park includes a series of dancing Ganesh figures, Shiva and other Hindu deities. It also includes more bizarre sculptures of a skeletal Buddha-like figure, an enormous disembodied finger, and a sculpture called “The Split Man” which shows a figure ripping itself in two, representing “the mental state of the dysfunctional human”.
I always prefer the hidden oddities of any given region to the highly manufactured tourist attractions. Since I’m often on the West coast, I have to get my hands on a copy of L.A. Bizarro
The book is an updated release of an older version, packed with new strange delights: food, museums, sideshows, dives, cemeteries and the like. I have a feeling there’s much in store for me on my next LA visit.
Book website
One of the most bizarre (and amazing) ITP Spring Show creations had to be the Circadian Squirrel by Jill Haefele. Here we have a taxidermy squirrel who removes and replaces his own head to the rhythm of the 24 hour biological cycle.
Watch it in action here!
I’ve been meaning to post a few projects from ITP grad students since the ITP Spring Show in May.
What a fantastic concept by Mike Rosenthal:
“Imagine that you could listen to any sound, from any place, from any TIME, in the history of the world. That the sonic history of our planet did not start with the wax cylinder in the 1870’s, but that man has been able to capture sounds in jars as though they were fireflies since the 7th century?”
This is the premise of Rosenthal’s Traveling Sound Museum. He gives life to the concept by recounting a rich history and describing the origin of each sound captured in his collection of jars (carried on a vintage cart).
Each jar is a beautifully convincing “antique” that indeed transports the listener to a different time and place.
In a time when people are rushing to make every gadget smaller, more streamlined, sleek and shiny, it’s heartwarming to see a dose of good old fashioned magic in a multimedia project.
See more on the website.
What better way to commemorate leaders of the past than turning a likeness of their corpse into a giant cake?
To mark the 136th anniversary of V.I. Lenin’s birth (odd number to celebrate, no?), artist Yuri Shabelnikov created this life-sized cake in the late nineties.
I love the expressions on the children. The head section was saved for VIPs, naturally.
Source (of course)
Though oddly labeled with what sounds like a personal name, a Jenny Haniver is actually the dried and modified corpse of a cartilaginous fish (usually a ray or skate).
Jenny Hanivers often resemble devils, angels, mermaids and other standard Weekly World News fare. One theory of origin is that Antwerp sailors would sit on the docs and carve these specimens, preserve them with a coat of varnish and sell them to tourists.
Some involve some pretty amazing artistry, and are beautiful collectors items for cryptozoologists.
I love the seemingly ubiquitous grin…
Sometimes Jenny Hanivers show up unexpectedly, without human manipulation. The unassuming seafood shopper in Japan may indeed run across them in fish markets:
Barring the smell, I think it would be quite a treat to walk by something like this.
This chromed armadillo skeleton adorns the hood of a random vehicle in Eugene, Oregon. Perhaps the owner is a Texas native.
I’ve always taken an interest in animal symbolism. The armadillo represents emotional and physical boundaries (a sensible meaning, considering the creature’s ability to roll itself into a ball and be completely armored against attack).
Somehow I doubt the hood ornament has anything to do with that.
I also came across the Benevolent Order of Armadillos, founded in 1997 and now boasting over 1,500 members. I love the internet.
Hood ornament source.
SheWalksSoftly 