Neatorama |
- The Story Pod: An Unfolding, Open-Air Library
- An Interesting Analysis of Edward Hopper's <i>Nighthawks</i>
- Mother Of Dragon Charms - She Has Many More Tricks Up Her Sleeve
- Brain Tech Support
- The Long and Glorious History of Cat Ladies
- Martial Arts School Teaches How to Use a Selfie Stick in Combat
- Ring Box Dioramas by Talwst
- Skydiver Jumps with an Entirely Functional Living Room
- Custom Portrait Cookie Cutters Make It Fun To Get Baked
- 8 Unusually Large Musical Instruments
- The New Robot Cat
- Cat Costume Comes with Built-in Cat Pockets for Cat Storage
- I Sit Around
- Chicago Dynasty - Strictly For Hockey Heads
- Ouija Board Couch and Coffee Table
- 52 Facts about Popular Cities
- Photographer Proves the Power of the Smartphone to Create Stunning Images
- A Reason to Keep On Going
- GIFs With A Twist You Won't See Coming
- The Hobart Tree Controversy
- Comic Book From 1980 Revealed Doctor Who's Real Name
- Colin Furze’s Apocalyptic Underground Bunker
- Six Famous Films That Were Hell Behind the Scenes
- A Veteran’s Playlist: The Top 10 Songs of Vietnam
- The "I.T." Girl - Ollie Ought To Give Her A Raise
- Woman With Cystic Fibrosis Surprised by a Visit With Her Favorite Celebrity
- Behind Those Awful Album Covers
| The Story Pod: An Unfolding, Open-Air Library Posted: 19 Nov 2015 04:00 AM PST
The architecture firm Atelier Kastelic Buffey (AKB) developed the Story Pod--a free, lending library that sits in a park in Newmarket, Ontario. During the day, it opens and unfolds into an array of shelves and benches. Exposed and covered areas let visitors select the right amount of shade for reading. At night, the Story Pod is closed and locked, fitting neatly into 8 by 8 by 10 foot space. Lights, powered by solar panels on the roof, provide illumination to nighttime visitors to the park. It's such an inviting design! -via Contemporist  | ||||||||
| An Interesting Analysis of Edward Hopper's <i>Nighthawks</i> Posted: 19 Nov 2015 03:00 AM PST American realist painter and Manhattan resident Edward Hopper created many iconic images of life in America, both urban and rural. Hopper generally painted simple, restrained scenes, yet he worked during some of the country's most chaotic, tumultuous times; throughout the Great Depression and both world wars. | ||||||||
| Mother Of Dragon Charms - She Has Many More Tricks Up Her Sleeve Posted: 19 Nov 2015 02:00 AM PST Mother Of Dragon Charms by Djkopet Daenerys had grown tired of watching conflict from afar, and she wanted to be in on the action rather than standing on the sidelines. She began to study the magical arts, finding spell flinging to be every bit as fun as taming dragons, and when her skills were sharpened enough she decided to test the effectiveness of her spells on live subjects. Soon soldiers from all over Westeros were whispering about the girl who could both ride dragons and raze the battlefield with her magical fire, as the legend of the Mother Of Dragons continued to grow... Add some spellcasting game to your geeky wardrobe with this Mother Of Dragon Charms t-shirt by Djkopet, it's a stylish way to show everyone who you're voting for when it comes time to decide who should sit on the Iron Throne... Visit Djkopet's Facebook fan page, official website, Instagram and Twitter, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more fantastically geeky designs:
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama! | ||||||||
| Posted: 19 Nov 2015 02:00 AM PST Just make sure that you don't restore your brain to factory settings or you'll lose a lot of important files, such as human language and printer drivers. Got your own hardware problems? Turn off your computer, take a nap, then turn it back on again. You'll feel a lot better. | ||||||||
| The Long and Glorious History of Cat Ladies Posted: 19 Nov 2015 01:00 AM PST I recently got a lesson in how one becomes a "cat lady." All my family members were out of town, and I was alone with four cats. It wasn’t my idea to have four cats, but I was the one taking care of them, which I had time for as everyone else was gone. Lucky for me, it was a temporary situation. It’s a small leap from being called a "cat lady" to "crazy cat lady," especially from people who don’t care that much for cats. But where did this stereotype come from? Cats have been domesticated since ancient Egypt, and even worshiped.
Being an "odd" woman in medieval times could get one burned at the stake. Things have improved since then, but we still have the stereotype cat ladies. In fact, some cat lovers became quite well known for their obsession, which you can read about at io9. -via Nag on the Lake | ||||||||
| Martial Arts School Teaches How to Use a Selfie Stick in Combat Posted: 19 Nov 2015 12:00 AM PST
The selfie stick is an ingeniously designed weapon disguised as a narcissistic indulgence. When you see someone carrying one, you're not looking at someone who is vain, but a living weapon ready to destroy any threat. Fox News tells us that the M-Profi Combat Sports Center in Moscow, Russia has developed a martial art called monopod fighting. A trained monopodist responds to an attacker by smashing the selfie stick into vulnerable areas, such as the groin or throat, or uses it to trip, entangle, or throw an opponent to the ground. This Russian language video shows monopodists in training. Watch them respond to surprise attacks with amazing dexterity--often caught on camera, thanks to the selfie stick. -via Atlas Obscura | ||||||||
| Posted: 18 Nov 2015 11:00 PM PST The Canadian-Trinidadian artist known as Talwst makes tiny dioramas inside vintage and antique ring boxes in a series called Infinity. The subjects range from a prehistoric mann paying cave walls to a Star Trek porn shoot. According to the artist, the idea for this series of miniature dioramas came about when a street vendor in Paris handed him an antique ring box and told him “I want to see what you make with this.” Talwst created a scene of a figure emerging from the sea and has been creating tiny scenes ever since. See more of them at Bored Panda and at Talwst’s site. -via Metafilter | ||||||||
| Skydiver Jumps with an Entirely Functional Living Room Posted: 18 Nov 2015 10:00 PM PST The root message of this commercial is that people who own the Nvidia Shield tablet computer are cool--so cool that they can jump out an airplane with a parachute and a living room set and remain completely calm about the experience. This ad features professional skydiver Jeff Provenzano. He and a cat strap into parachutes and fall out of an airplane while seated in a luxurious living room arrangement that includes a TV, a couch, and a tuba. Provenzano watches TV and plays video games while plunging down to the ground at a frightening speed. The cat, despite not getting the chance to play, seems to be in good spirits when he arrives on the ground. -via Nerd Approved | ||||||||
| Custom Portrait Cookie Cutters Make It Fun To Get Baked Posted: 18 Nov 2015 09:00 PM PST Has someone ever told you they'd like to eat you all up? Have you then imagined what that might look like, only to picture that person chewing on your head? Then you'll probably appreciate these portrait cookie cutters created by Etsy vendor Copypastry, they're custom made to look like you, or you and a loved one, or your pet...basically anyone you'd like to see people chewing on. Copypastry makes each cookie cutter to order with a 3D printer, and a single portrait cutter costs about $50 before shipping from Hungary. It's a really cute idea that would make a great project for someone with a 3D printer and a desire to devour themselves. -Via Huffington Post | ||||||||
| 8 Unusually Large Musical Instruments Posted: 18 Nov 2015 08:00 PM PST (Photo: Maria Ramey) This massive instrument is, believe it or not, a flute. Specifically, it's a subcontrabass flute. It plays notes 3 full octaves below that of a concert flute. It typically measures 17.7 feet long. That's a lot! So it's not surprising that it's necessarily bent into a triangle shape, bringing it down to 7.7 feet when stood up straight. It weighs 33 pounds, so it's not ideal for a marching band. This is 1 of 8 unusually large musical instruments rounded up at Mental Floss by our own Miss Cellania, including a pipe organ that has 7 keyboards and more than 1200 stop keys. -via The Presurfer | ||||||||
| Posted: 18 Nov 2015 07:00 PM PST Hasbro is introducing a line of realistic, fur-covered, robotic cats called Joy For All Companion Cats. They are being marketed to senior citizens who wish they could take care of a pet. These cats are uncannily real; they open and close their eyes, meow, purr, tilt their heads to be petted, and even roll over for a belly rub! If you stop playing with it, it just goes to sleep. Like a real cat. I know a few people in nursing homes who would flip over these. See a series of videos at the product site. The cats available so far come in orange, silver, and creamy white for $99.99 each. All the care they need is replacing the included 4 C batteries when they run down. -Thanks, Greg Wright! | ||||||||
| Cat Costume Comes with Built-in Cat Pockets for Cat Storage Posted: 18 Nov 2015 06:00 PM PST The Meowgaroo Suit is the conclusion to humanity's long quest to perfect clothing fashion. We now know how the human body is supposed to be clad. Unihabitat's cat suit, which is an expansion of its cat-carrying hoodie, makes you look like a cat, what with the ears, tail, and paws. It's so realistic that you may be mistaken for an actual cat--right up until the moment when other cats begin crawling out of the cat-sized cat pockets in your cat suit. Thanks to this brilliant invention, there will no longer ever be a need for you to not have a cat with you. -via Kotaku | ||||||||
| Posted: 18 Nov 2015 05:00 PM PST Mike Wagner is a private jet pilot and musician. He’s written and performed a few songs about the life of a pilot before, which are pretty popular within the industry. Now he uses the Beach Boys’ song “I Get Around” to describe what he does all day -sit around! See, while airline crews are maximized by schedule, private jet pilots and crews are supposed to be ready when they’re needed. That means a lot of sitting around in various pilot lounges at airports all over. The ties are little distracting. They obviously shot the entire video before realizing that the ties had identifiers they didn’t want to show us. -via Viral Viral Videos | ||||||||
| Chicago Dynasty - Strictly For Hockey Heads Posted: 18 Nov 2015 04:00 PM PST Chicago Dynasty by DC Visual Arts The Blackhawks are taking to the ice once again to see if they can continue the Chicago dynasty and bring the Stanley Cup back home to Chi-town. Many amazing players have called the Blackhawks home during their 85 years on the ice, from Stan Makita and Bobby Hull to Ed Belfour setting franchise records in the goal to Jonathan Toews leading the team against their rivals to retain possession of the Cup. What does the future hold for those who don the Indian Head jersey? Keep tuning in, hockey fans, and find out for yourself! Show your favorite town, and hockey team, some love with this Chicago Dynasty t-shirt by DC Visual Arts, it's one easy way to win a hockey based argument at the bar! Visit DC Visual Arts's Facebook fan page, official website, Twitter and Tumblr, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more slammin' designs:
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama! | ||||||||
| Ouija Board Couch and Coffee Table Posted: 18 Nov 2015 04:00 PM PST Dave Delisle developed this clever design concept for a living room set. It would be the ideal setting for parties, except that the planchette keeps moving around the carpet, spilling anything that's placed on top. It would be helpful if Delisle could ensure that the spirits only speak when spoken to. -via Dangerous Minds | ||||||||
| Posted: 18 Nov 2015 03:00 PM PST Sit back and relax, because you’re about to learn a lot of new things about the big cities of the world. It’s the mental_floss List Show with John Green, from Helsinki to Johannesburg, from Shanghai to Hollywood. They even included Reykjavík, which only has about 122,000 people, but since it’s the capital of Iceland, it’s included as a city. | ||||||||
| Photographer Proves the Power of the Smartphone to Create Stunning Images Posted: 18 Nov 2015 02:00 PM PST Spanish photographer Guido Gutiérrez Ruiz posts to his Instagram account images that are so arresting it's hard to believe that they are captured with his phone. A true testament to the saying "It's not the camera but the person behind it," Ruiz and his work might make some rethink their plans to get that expensive camera in order to produce interesting vacation photos. Via Design Taxi | Images: Guido Gutiérrez Ruiz | ||||||||
| Posted: 18 Nov 2015 01:00 PM PST When you get old, and can’t do the things you used to do, and your family is gone, you don’t have to look far to find (dare I say it?) a New Hope. This look into the future is brought to you by Lunarbaboon. | ||||||||
| GIFs With A Twist You Won't See Coming Posted: 18 Nov 2015 12:00 PM PST GIFs are like sweet little nuggets of digital eye candy that sit there cycling through a series of frames, treating our eyeballs to a tiny visual tale we should, in theory, enjoy watching. Truth is, many GIFs are sorely lacking in payoff, and viewers are left feeling like they wasted a few precious seconds of their lives watching that goofy GIF play out. But those who enjoy their GIFs with a surprise twist will surely find something enjoyable to stare at in this collection of 10 GIFs Twists You Won't See Coming, where you won't have to wait long to be pleasantly surprised. See 10 GIFs Twists You Won't See Coming here | ||||||||
| Posted: 18 Nov 2015 11:00 AM PST Hobart is the capital of Tasmania in Australia. A new city Christmas tree is up, and the citizens of Hobart are not at all pleased. In fact, they are taking to social media to air their grievances. Well, it is minimalist and untraditional, but for a large outdoor decoration, it’s not all that bad, is it? The lights even change color! What’s the problem?
Oh dear, I understand now. The cost wasn’t because they hired a famous artist to design it: it was designed and erected by Hobart City Council members. No wonder townspeople are trashing the city on Twitter! But maybe it’s not as bad as it seems. Hobart’s Lord Mayor Sue Hickey has lost a lot of sleep over the internet brouhaha.
City budgets are downright incomprehensible. Ever since my small town elected an interior decorator as mayor, we’ve had a winter wonderland of Christmas decorations. And now I know why my property taxes are so high. -via Buzzfeed | ||||||||
| Comic Book From 1980 Revealed Doctor Who's Real Name Posted: 18 Nov 2015 10:00 AM PST The Doctor's real name (or lack thereof) has been used as a running joke since the early days of Doctor Who, and even though Steven Moffat recently claimed The Doctor's real name is Mildred we know this is simply not true. But what about this unpronounceable, and totally mathematical, name that appeared in a Doctor Who comic book from 1980, could this be The Doctor's true name? Redditor swanzie shared this earth shattering info, but many weren't convinced since comic book adaptations of movies and TV shows tend to stray from the show's canon as conceived by the creators. Still, it would explain why he would rather simply be known as The Doctor... -Via Boing Boing | ||||||||
| Colin Furze’s Apocalyptic Underground Bunker Posted: 18 Nov 2015 09:00 AM PST Inventor Colin Furze has shown us many crazy things he’s built, but what’s he been up to lately? He’s been busy digging up his backyard for a unique man cave. A self-sustained underground bunker. In case the zombies come. That’s a big project! And he’s stocked his bunker with necessary things, like food, things he loves, like his cat, and all his previous inventions -plus some he’ll show us in the future. Want to see how he did it? The build process was documented, too, in parts one, two, three, and four. -via Tastefully Offensive | ||||||||
| Six Famous Films That Were Hell Behind the Scenes Posted: 18 Nov 2015 08:00 AM PST
| ||||||||
| A Veteran’s Playlist: The Top 10 Songs of Vietnam Posted: 18 Nov 2015 07:00 AM PST Doug Bradley and Craig Werner interviewed hundreds of Vietnam vets for their book We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War. They talked about the songs that meant something to them while in country. The music they shared was tied to the war experiences they shared, whether because the song lyrics had meaning or the music just sounded awesome. From those responses, the authors compiled a top ten list, with explanations and videos.
The top ten isn’t all rock music. See (and hear) the rest of the top ten at Next Avenue. -via Boing Boing | ||||||||
| The "I.T." Girl - Ollie Ought To Give Her A Raise Posted: 18 Nov 2015 06:00 AM PST Felicity Smoak has come to represent all that is good in the world of crime fighting, and even though her hacking sometimes crosses lines between common and criminal she's still flies straight as an arrow. She was once totally green when it came to the whole crime fighting thing, but with a little help from Oliver Queen and the rest of the Starling City cleanup crew she proved you don't have to possess superhuman reflexes, powers or an impressive array of weaponry to totally kick tail! Show some love for your favorite hacker honey with this The "I.T." Girl t-shirt by Ninjaink, it's the finest way to spread the word about that fan favorite Felicity! Visit Ninjaink's Facebook fan page, official website, Twitter and Tumblr, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more superheroic designs:
Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama! | ||||||||
| Woman With Cystic Fibrosis Surprised by a Visit With Her Favorite Celebrity Posted: 18 Nov 2015 06:00 AM PST In this "keep a Kleenex box on standby" video, social media darling Manny the Frenchie, a very vocal French bulldog whose human is no stranger to philanthropic gestures, visits a fan of his in New Orleans. Joycelun, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, recently underwent a double lung transplant. Her stepsister contacted Manny's owner to let him know about Joycelun and her love of the canine celebrity. In this video footage, under the guise of an interview about her disease, Joycelun is surprised and thrilled by a visit from Manny and is presented with other surprise gifts as well. Via Uproxx | ||||||||
| Behind Those Awful Album Covers Posted: 18 Nov 2015 05:00 AM PST Neatorama is proud to bring you a guest post from Ernie Smith, the editor of Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. In another life, he ran ShortFormBlog. Lists of the worst album covers ever have been around forever, but often it's the images that spread—not the stories behind the albums. Let's fix that. Nearly as long as there has been the internet, there have been lists of terrible album covers—many of which predate the internet and are looked at using modern standards for humor and kitsch. But the problem with these images is that there's often no story behind them, because they're often not shared with any information to speak of. They're historic memes, but they never seem to have any attached history. You can listen to some of the music on these albums here, but today we're gonna dive into some of the most infamous album covers ever … and talk about the fact that this music was actually created by human beings.
Freddie Gage's claim to fame among most internet users is the album cover for the audio version of his book All My Friends Are Dead, which is understandably a little morose and a bit on-the-nose for most people. But Gage, nonetheless, had a career as a preacher that lasted decades, one predicated on the early lessons he learned as a former gang member in the Houston area. "He was blunt," fellow Rev. John Bisagno told The Houston Chronicle after Gage's death last year. "He didn't put things in theological terms but in street language that they all could really understand. He didn't pull any punches. Second only to Billy Graham, Freddie Gage was undoubtedly the most successful evangelist of the '50s, '60s and '70s."
Ken Snyder may perhaps have the most famous face of all the bad album covers—and it's arguable that Snyder's cover isn't so much "bad" as "cheesy in the best way possible." The album, a gospel-style record released in 1976, came about as part of Snyder's career as a preacher, which still remains active today in an Iowa church. Snyder's album was featured on The Ellen Show back in 2012, which led him to do an interview with a local radio station. Listen over this way.
The 1983 album Joyce, much like Ken, is also something of an enigma on the odd album cover front. And much like Snyder, Joyce came to music from her religious background. But based on this anonymous comment sent by her niece to a retro-culture site in 2010, the Texas-based preacher's wife doesn't really have much of a desire to let the album define her. "There are too many lame people making fun and trying to find out who she is," the niece wrote. She added that "everyone looked like that in the 80's." Well, yeah. They did.
Devastatin' Dave, the Turntable Slave became infamous in recent years due to his Electric Boogaloo-esque album cover for his 12" single "Zip Zap Rap," a 1986 song that certainly is very much of its time. The funk-tinged hip-hopper, born David Cary, is still active in music to this day—you can find his tunes over at Reverb Nation and follow him on Twitter here.
The leg-stretching album cover for Tino's 1983 single "Por Primera Vez" ("For the First Time") wasn't the first time Tino had been featured on the cover of an album. In fact, it was the 16-year-old Spaniard's first step away from the kid-focused pop that had previously defined his career. Menudo-style success wasn't to be, however. Tino, once a member of the kid's group Parchís, failed to gain any serious momentum from the song, and soon he joined the military and left behind his music career.Today, he lives a mostly normal life in Barcelona, outside of a car crash in the late '80s that took his left arm.
Slim Goodbody's schtick seems quite awkward in the context of this oddball record cover, but he's actually been doing this schtick for longer than a bunch of you have been alive. Since 1975, Goodbody—birth name John Burstein—has been wearing an anatomically-accurate onesie as a way to help teach the public (particularly children) about health issues. The painted suits, which cost roughly $4,000 each to produce, have changed over the years, but the guy wearing them hasn't too much. “I’m in good shape. I love the work I do,” Burstein told the Associated Press in 2005. “As long as I keep evolving, keep changing and growing, I won’t stop.”
Unlike most people with a weird album cover in their past, Dr. Gary Solomon doesn't hide it—in fact, he threw it on his website, where you can listen to the whole thing. Today, Solomon has a more interesting career than "man who knows how to hold his hips in a dramatic way": he's a therapist whose main focus of expertise involves recommending people watch movies to deal with the difficult issues they're facing. Solomon has written three books on the concept of Cinematherapy.
Say what you will about Swamp Dogg, but he knows how to make an impression. The Virginia-born psychedelic soulster has been on a musical tear for five decades now, and while he hasn't reached the success of his namesake Snoop Dogg, he has larger musical body of work than all of the other artists in this newsletter combined. Dogg, born Jerry Williams, Jr., has even written some hit pop songs in his day—most notably "She's All I've Got," which has been covered by many artists. But despite his weird offbeat brushes with his success, he embraces his past—rats and all. “I have two things that I’m proud of, that maybe I shouldn’t be proud of,” he told Los Angeles magazine. “One of them is making Richard Nixon’s ‘enemies list’ and the other is having my Rat On! album called the worst album cover in the world. That has kept me alive!” The thing about worst album covers lists is that they're, quite often, cheap content fillers that allow for a nice amount of long-tail traffic. All they require are a couple of hours, an intern to find the images, and a writer to make the same modestly funny jokes that you've already heard about these records elsewhere. (The exception is this list by former Pitchfork writer Brent DiCrescenzo, which appears to have been heavily researched.) As I was researching this—as I don't have an intern—I found myself a little drawn to the fact that these people have been kind of crapped on, in many cases for no good reason other than changing tastes. Some of these people are and were community pillars; others just had a weak moment where a music career seemed like a potential path. Beyond the people that have learned to embrace them, they're like yearbook photos that will never go away. Won't someone please think of the adults?
|
(Photo: AKB)
View more designs by 
(
(
(
The Island of Doctor Moreau | Image: New Line Cinema
All his friends were dead, but he made many more. 
The best request one could make. 
Putting things into perspective.
Still a turntable slave after all these years.
The Ricky Martin that wasn't.
Yes, he's wearing a bodysuit.
A man who knows how to wear a pair of jeans.
Despite my cool hat, I am still just a dude on a rat.
A version of this post by Ernie Smith originally | You are subscribed to email updates from Neatorama. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.