Real Monstrosities recently had a post that reminded me of a small collection of Blue Ringed Octopus photos I’ve had floating around in my “Sea Creature” folder for years now.
These tiny cephalopods are actually among the most venomous, possessing enough poison to kill up to a couple dozen humans.
Since Real Monstrosities did such stellar job of giving the scoop on these beauties, rather than repeat the info I’ll guide you to that post.
PS. Don’t the rings remind you of an even more hypnotic version of Hypnotoad?
I’m going to begin this post with a statement some might consider utterly blasphemous: I hate chicken wings. Never touch ’em.
The Great Chicken Wing Hunt proves that a well made documentary can keep one thoroughly interested and entertained by subjects one has absolutely no natural inclination to enjoy. I, lifelong chicken wing hater, genuinely loved this film and I highly recommend it.
I cannot imagine a single human being (wing lover or otherwise) reading the following synopsis and NOT rushing to see it:
American expatriate, international journalist and upstate New Yorker Matt Reynolds forsakes a successful life in Eastern Europe, compelled by a singular obsession: find the world’s best Buffalo chicken wing. Joined by his long-suffering Czech girlfriend, a perplexed Slovak film crew, and a ragtag gang of wing-obsessed misfits recruited online, Reynolds embarks on THE GREAT CHICKEN WING HUNT. After 2,627 miles and 284 varieties of wings, the quest ends in the very countryside of Reynolds’ childhood, where he discovers that the perfection he has sought so hard to find was right under his nose all along.
Watch the trailer:
Hulu links will not embed on WordPress, but you can watch the full movie for free HERE!
The film has, for good reason, snatched up a number of indie film awards. It’s remarkably clever, surprisingly touching at times, and for the wing enthusiasts out there…rather informative. Let me know what you think!
BONUS SHORT FILM by creator Matt Reynolds: Lebowski, My Czech Wife and Me; a heartening look at a husband and wife’s divergent opinions on one of the best comedic feats of recent film history (I guess that qualifier reveals my own stance on the issue).
Los Angeles based pop surrealism painter Mia Araujo conjures beautiful scenes rich in symbolism, mythology, alchemy and dreams.
She says: I have long been fascinated by the multi-faceted complexity that makes each person unique. I believe that all individuals contain an entire universe within them, which is invisible to the naked eye.
My work concentrates on giving shape to the unseen forces within my subjects– their thoughts, memories, emotions, and complex histories. These qualities fit together to form a vast, rich inner-landscape of identity and mythology for my characters.
Seung-Hwan Oh is a South Korean experimental photographer and microbiologist. In the series Impermanence, he creates thought provoking abstract portraits at the intersection of art and organic decay. They are ethereal, electric, psychedelic, and in some ways almost spiritual…but always intriguing.
In the artist’s own words: This project is about the superimposition of a moment in microbial growth upon a moment in the life of a person through the projection of one spatial-temporal reality onto another.
This captures the evanescence of film photography, the transiency of life, and the continual entangled creative and destructive processes; a millisecond of an expression, an instance of an autonomous geometric evisceration of film, an exploitation of chemical materiality, a vestige composed of millions of pixels, and a complete obliteration into intangible atoms that dissipate into something else.
The process involves the cultivation of chemical consuming microbes on a visual environment created through portraits and a physical environment composed of developed film immersed in water. As the microbes consume the emulsion over the course of months, the silver halides destabilize, obfuscating the legibility of foreground, background, and scale.
This creates an aesthetic of entangled creation and destruction that inevitably is ephemeral, and results in complete disintegration of the film so that it can only be delicately digitized before it is consumed.
From what I’ve seen, this blog has some incredibly creative, talented, bright, out-of-the-box readers…
Soon, I am debuting a Kickstarter campaign very dear to my heart. No public spoilers quite yet, except for the fact that it’s a gorgeous photography book commemorating the triumph of the human spirit, via surrealist art and narrative.
JOIN MY BRAINSTORMING TEAM!
What does this mean? You’ll get the first look at everything, before it’s posted anywhere, including Kickstarter…and some nifty little perks as the project goes forward. And candy. Definitely candy.
Lengthy feedback is never required, so this is not a time commitment. You don’t even have to say anything at all unless you feel moved to comment.
Leave a comment or contact me to get our little focus group going!
Stag & Serpent is the work of illustrator, designer and printmaker Glyn Smith.
From the artist bio: Whilst his illustration is often associated with underground metal bands, (for whom he has created many album covers, posters and merchandise) his work is chiefly informed by interests in the fields of folklore, myth and magick.
His artwork has been featured in several books on illustration as well as in various art, music and esoteric journals. In recent years he has exhibited and sold prints in the UK, Ireland, Europe and the United States.
Gabriel Schama makes incredible large scale laser cut pieces (click photos to enlarge). The depth and texture are mesmerizing!
Each layer is cut and mounted, one by one, allowing the shapes and forms to evolve in ways even the artist himself doesn’t plan (aside from the initial cutout shape). Isn’t it wonderful that they grow like organisms?
It’s like geometric shapes that have melted and broken free from the confines of their own rigid lines!
We’ve come to the final post of Strange Remains Week (I thought it was interesting, but my readership dropped by HALF for these posts only, so I gather others were not as entertained. Sorry!).
So let’s go out with a bang. Literally. Heavens Above Fireworks will shoot cremains into the air. This is great for anyone who is asked “What makes an ideal funeral” and replies “pyrotechnics.”
We offer a variety of professional fired displays. These are planned to meet specific client requests and can be supported by other activities. We also offer other services including rockets for self firing incorporating funeral ashes and these can be supported by other fireworks to create your own mini display and we can provide the service for pets ashes too.
And speaking of bangs…did you know a human body can be turned into a bullet at Holy Smoke?
The process of having cremated ash placed in live ammunition begins when you contact us. Once the caliber, gauge and other ammunition parameters have been selected, we will ask you (by way of your funeral service provider) to send approximately one pound of the decedents ash to us. Upon receiving the ashes our professional and reverent staff will place a measured portion of ash into each shotshell or cartridge.
The bottom of their website features this image, for no discernible reason.
I’ve always had a thing for hourglasses (one day I’d like to have a nice one in my library). They make a rather poignant cremation statement, don’t they? In The Light Urns can do it.
The Rings of Time Hourglass Keepsake Urn makes a statement due to it’s beautiful workmanship and size. It is a wonderful way to reflect on the sands of time and the time that you and your loved one shared.
Hourglass urns for ashes are made differently than a regular hourglass timer. The Rings of Time Hourglass Keepsake Urn is a keepsake and holds a small portion of cremains. They cannot be an exactly timed, due to the consistency of the cremains. However, they are a memorial like no other. The hourglass is the ultimate symbol of the passage of time, and will become an family heirloom, passed down for generations.
Memorial tattoos are nothing new, but using ashes in tattoo ink has gained a bit of ground (it’s only a “microscopic amount” so it’s more of a symbolic gesture).
This was one of the creepier offerings I came across: a 3D printed model of the deceased from Cremation Solutions to serve as an urn.
Here’s a model of Obama, to show the “perfect likeness” (which to me, registers way more as uncanny valley):
Life size models are also available.
According to the site: One benefit to these personalized urns is that there will never be a doubt about what they are. With a regular urn, you are undoubtedly asked questions about what it’s for, and that leads to a conversation about the deceased. People who are unfamiliar with the urn might mistake it for a vase or some other container and try to open it. With these urns, you can avoid those questions.
You may not, however, be able to avoid the question “WHY?”
A less jarring option is is the eco friendly textile coffin from Natural Legacy.
This is an innovative coffin and something completely new for the alternative coffin market, but the use of wool in burials is nothing new. The Burial in Wool Act of 1667 made it a legal requirement for the dead to be buried in woollen shrouds in an attempt to boost the struggling woollen industry of the time. With the current social eco agenda, rising concerns on the environmental impact of burials and this innovative product, the industry has come full circle.
SheWalksSoftly 