Cultrface – a blog dedicated to culture and how it enriches our lives.

Mountain Dew wine? Sure, why not?

MAKING WINE FROM MOUNTAIN DEW

I’ve been growing a collection of wild Mountain Dew-related foods on this blog (unintentionally) and this one might be the wildest. Golden Hive Mead made Mountain Dew wine (specifically mead, which is a honey wine) and about 5 seconds in he said he couldn’t promise it’d taste good, which wasn’t an endorsement as glowing as the green liquid you’d get at the end.

But if you want to make this green monstrosity, you’ll need 2.5 litres of Mountain Dew, 2lb/900g of honey, 71B yeast, and 1/4 tsp of nutrient. And life insurance. Just in case.

Wine-related: Is tea the new wine? and ‘Sideways’ and its unfortunate influence on mediocre pinot noir

Me-no-Sen-You-no-Come

Last week, I found out about an interestingly named village in Jamaica:

Me-no-Sen-You-no-Come is a village in the Cockpit Country of western Jamaica. It is now a part of a district called Aberdeen, Jamaica, in the north-east section of Saint Elizabeth Parish, and is not extinct, as was originally believed. From the Jamaican dialect, the village name translates in English as, ‘If I don’t send for you, don’t come.’

[…]

In 1812, a community of runaways started when a dozen men and some women escaped from the sugar plantations of Trelawny into the Cockpit Country, and they created a village named Me-no-Sen-You-no-Come. It is located near some cliffs and boasted fertile soils in its valleys. The unofficial maroon community of Free black people in Jamaica grew from its start of less than 20 runaway slaves to a large village that supported 14 buildings with shingle roofs and wood floors, raised poultry, hogs and nearly two hundred acres of cultivated land, thickly planted with provisions.[3][4]

It is believed that runaway slaves who secured their freedom during the Second Maroon War, and had been a part of the community of Cuffee, joined Me-no-Sen-You-no-Come in succeeding years.

via Wikipedia

Jamaican dwelling related: Seaford Town, a former German settlement in Jamaica

Tatreez: a Palestinian embroidery tradition

A Palestinian refugee woman cross-stitching tatreez, Gaza, 1967. © UNRWA Photo Archives

Tatreez is a form of traditional Palestinian embroidery, originating from rural areas of Palestine but now commonly seen and made in the wider Palestinian diaspora.

The practice of tatreez originated in Palestine over 3,000 years ago […] Motifs were area-specific, as well as symbolic of important events, such as a wedding or pregnancy. Colors utilized would also symbolize different stages of life; in Hebron (a city now in the West Bank), for example, green was primarily worn by young women whereas purple indicated a woman who was farther along in age. Furthermore, different shades of colors denoted regional differences, where for example the city of Ramallah primarily used a pure and bright shade of red where the area of Khalil instead stitched with a brownish red color.

This is Artful Resistance: The Power of Tatreez – Erin Quinn

Shout out to John Pittman: Number One Nut Man

(credit: 80s News Screens)

I don’t know who John Pittman is but I do know he’s the Number One Nut Man and he seems proud of that fact. I found this hilarious screengrab on an Instagram account called 80s News Screens where they post random scenes from 80s news shows. Everything about it, from the weird lightning-style glitches to John’s expression to the name and the moniker. It’s golden.

John, I suspect you’re no longer with us but regardless, I thank you for the laughter and you will always remain the Number One Nut Man in my heart.

'Beware the Ides of March': a link post

a bronze coin showing Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar, early 16th century, bronze//Light brown patina (via, public domain)

Today is the 15th March and that means it’s time to settle your debts, be merry, and watch your back! Wait, we aren’t in Roman times anymore. And what the hell are “ides” and why should I beware?

What are the Ides of March?

The Ides of March was a day in the Roman calendar, (for us, 15th March) that was used as the deadline for settling debts in Rome as well as a time for celebration as the date was used as the marker of a new lunar phase—and even a new year in some cases.

However, the ominous association came from the Ides of March being the death day of Julius Caesar (in 44 BC) and the phrase ‘Beware the Ides of March’ comes from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, where a soothsayer warned the Roman emperor of a fateful event.

Be aware the links of March

Now you’ve got an idea of what it means, let’s dig deeper with some links about the day and everything inspired by it:

Here's how they mixed milkshakes in the 1890s

1890s Milkshake Mixer In Action

Before milkshake machines—in and out of order—people in the 1890s had their milkshakes shook with a hand crank device. Fun fact: you could buy milkshakes in drug stores as these machines used to mix liquid medicines before they started making sodas and then milkshakes, all as alternatives to alcohol.

“No country drug shop or cross-roads store is now considered complete without a machine for making milk-shakes,” San Francisco’s Evening Bulletin reported in California. “The milk-shake is the craze, and the city people on their vacations come upon it everywhere. The shake is merely a glass of milk and an inch of fruit sirup [sic]. The glass that contains it is put in place in a machine that jolts and bounces it terrifically for a minute or two, mixing in into a light substance like whipped cream.”

True West MAgazine

Milkshake related: 3 levels of milkshakes and the $5 milkshake from Pulp Fiction

Patricia Hernandez on MrBeast's symbiotic relationship with YouTube

For Polygon, Patricia Hernandez wrote a really insightful peace on MrBeast, his symbiotic rise with YouTube, and how he warped YouTube in his image — but YouTube is warping him back:

MrBeast embodies this ostentatious era of YouTube so fully that some, like Smigel, consider the platform’s current phase synonymous with Donaldson. You see his influence everywhere, in the types of boisterous content people make, the brisk editing styles populating all of YouTube’s trending content, and even in the way YouTubers style their video thumbnails. Up until recently, MrBeast had the biggest video on the platform. Rare is the video that doesn’t take cues from MrBeast’s signature and endlessly memeable reaction face. As far as detractors like McLoughlin are concerned, MrBeast copycats are a plague on YouTube. And even if they do wholly original content, by and large, the most visible creators on the platform produce videos that mimic the extremes of someone who is willing to spend millions on a shoot.

“With MrBeast, it feels like you are watching a millionaire live out his fantasies,” Smigel told Polygon.

As I read the article, I could feel myself getting more and more queasy with each paragraph. I wrote about my weird feelings towards MrBeast on Bluesky a few days ago and while I feel kinda validated by the article, I also feel hollow inside. It’s all so soulless. I watch content that isn’t related in terms of subject matter but the inspiration is clearly there: the opened mouthed thumbnails, the ostentatious titles, the cookie-cutter themes.

I don’t find any of this aspirational or a way to live life. Most of us will never amass the fortunes that MrBeast has, and that’s by design of capitalism. For people to be that rich, most people have to be that poor and philanthropy is more of a moral signpost than a remedy of balance.

He could just give the money away without a video showing people moonwalking on hot coals (I don’t know if MrBeast has ever made a video about that but it wouldn’t surprise me). But millions of people love it and don’t see—or want to see—the murky underbelly of how it got there, nor think it’s “deep” enough to look. All I know is it won’t last forever, because nothing like this ever does.

Kingyo-sukui (goldfish scooping): a Japanese pastime

kingyo-sukui : Goldfish scooping

You may be familiar with “hook-a-duck”, a carnival game where you use a long rod with a hook on the end to catch a duck and potentially win a prize. Well, imagine, instead of a hook, you have a paper scooper (or poi) and instead of a duck, you’re trying to catch goldfish. Now you’re playing Kingyo-sukui, or “goldfish scooping”.

Kingyo-sukui can be played casually or competitively (there’s even a National Goldfish Scooping Championship). Each person tries to scoop as many goldfish from a pool as they can with their poi and put them into a bowl. Because the poi is made of paper, players have to be careful not to tear it completely or the game is over.

The game originated in the early 19th century as a child’s pastime and the poi had nets rather than paper. A century later, they started replacing the nets with paper and opened them out to the general public in stalls. The National Goldfish Scooping Championship started in 1995 and has a children’s section, a general section, and a group section.

The Cool Japan Fund is a public-private fund, founded in November 2013, as a way to contribute to the sustainable growth of Japan’s economy through the expansion of overseas demand and supply of attractive products and services unique to Japanese lifestyle & culture.

The FADER tweeted "Jason Derulo thought 'Cats' would "change the world." and La Primera Vaca quoted "It did. Look around you! We're all in hell now!"
Oh, sweet Jason.
a drawing of a moomin holding a molotov cocktail
Molotov Moomin sticker