Earlier we brought you an article about the evil lurking in tomatoes. Well it seems that many other vegetables are truly evil. This site features a gallery of mutant vegetables. Some of them look like they might eat you first. Yum!
You know that the barbarians are at the gate when our society turns to new art forms like this one: http://www.chapter9photography.com/2007/biography/archives/forehead_inflation.html#bio_archives_02
Yup, the link just about says it all. This gentleman proudly inflates his forehead with saline solution. He says it is performance art. He also attaches pictures form the Guiness Book of Records, which apparently certified him as achieving the largest forehead inflation (who knew that there was a race to see who could inflate the most?) Guinness’s lawyers felt the need to caution the reader not to try at home.
I can just imagine centuries from now, when after the Long Night, some scholar unearths a tattered copy of the Guinness Book of Records.
Recently we have heard a lot about the horrible practice of dog fighting and as dog lover I certainly deplore the suffering inflicted on these poor animals, who are trained to become fighting machines. But what about the Pokemon. Sure, they may be just pocket monsters, but are they not also capable of affection, are they also not deserving of basic human compassion. How can we tolerate the vile practice of pokemon fighting. Join this Senator in condemning this barbaric practice.
Cartoonist Rube Goldeberg earned everlasting fame with his rube goldberg machines. Rube Goldberg machines are machines or any apparatus that performs a simple task in an amazingly convoluted and unnecessarily complex manner.
Here is a beautiful gif graphic in which a host of machines and little cartoon characters process an endless stream of blue balls on conveyor belts, assembly lines, and factories, for no apparent purpose. You will marvel at the detail and work that went into creating this single gif file. Beautifully weird. See the site http://pizzone.ytmnd.com/
I say tomato, you say tomatoe, these guys say that tomatos are the devil’s seed. Why? Because they are red and so is the evil one. Their slogan is “Tomatoes are Evil” which just about says it all. They claim that even swallowing a cherry tomato by accident will place your soul in jeopardy. Be warned. Spread the word.
Surströmming, is fermented Baltic Herring and apparently is a popular delicacy in Sweden. The practice of fermenting fish allegedly grew out of necessity when salt was scarce, though why salt would be scarce and expensive near the ocean is not explained.
Also not explained is why this medieval practice should have survived into the modern age and why health officials have not put a stop to this.
But devotees of this Swedish fermented fish will tell you that it is definitely “not rotten! To imply as such is almost criminal,” though to my mind it would be difficult to tell the difference.
Basically the fish is left in barrels for a year or more to rot (okay ferment) in its own juices. It is then canned and sold throughout Sweden. Perhaps I can get the distribution rights for America?
When the can is opened, out pours a disgusting brown liquid and an overpowering smell that will likely send you puking to the bathroom. The fish is then placed between two slices of hard bread and eaten as is, without even gutting it or cooking it to kill some of the bacteria. This intrepid world traveller tried it and lived to tell about it. He claims that the taste is not as bad as the smell.
Here is a weird infomercial for a “facial flex product”. Basically you put a spring-powered gizmo in your mouth (which makes you look like a borg with a giant sized braces). The victim then squeezes the springs with her cheeks, sort of like a thigh master for the mouth, and this is supposed to tighten up your face muscles etc. It may work but the whole thing looks so hilariously undignified. Here is the video
I recently came across a brilliant re-cut of Mary Poppins called “Scary Mary” which turns the classic children’s film into a truly creepy and scary horror movie resembling the Exorcist. Here is the YouTube segment:
It is amazing what some eerie music and shuffling the scenes around can do. Who knew that Julie Andrews could be so freaking scary?
I have to admit that I was ignorant of this growing video genre in which movies and movie trailers are recut and so I researched this online. Apparently there is an entire site at http://www.thetrailermash.com/ which showcases recut movie trailers. Most of these recut trailers are really mashups in which trailers and scenes from various movies are combined. Few match the sheer brilliance displayed by the Mary Poppins Horror Recut which produced “Scary Mary” without adding any new scenes at all.
One recut trailer which takes the opposite approach is The Shining Recut, in which the famous horror movie is transformed into a romantic comedy, with Jack Nicholson as a foster parent to the little boy. Again, changing the soundtrack (in this case Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” plays in the background) changes the entire mood of the film. The sickeningly sweet montage makes you wish that Jack would start wielding an axe after all.
I have to say that I am hooked on these weird little videos, and will post more when I find more post-worthy mashups and recuts.