Month: April 2021

Carry A Bag Man's carrier bag designs

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(Copyright © Carry A Bag Man, 2020)

Aaron Thompson’s job involves garden maintenance and clearing out derelict homes but in his spare time, he goes by the name of Carry A Bag Man on Instagram. The account is dedicated to retro carry bags he finds on his travels.

The power of something so simple as a crinkled old carrier bag hit Aaron time and time again on his searches, and when he found a bag relating to his own life in a 1990s Kwik Save bag, “I was hooked.”

Since expanding his collection, he decided to include bundles from local auctions: “After collecting them for five years, I started to realise that I should probably do something with them all,” Aaron tells It’s Nice That. In need of a way to revisit his finds “without having to haul out all the storage boxes under my bed,” he began to photograph each find, laid flat to showcase their iconic design and shape. Instagram resultantly appeared to be “the fasted way to go about archiving them all,” and is where Aaron has been selflessly pasting design inspiration over the past two years as Carry A Bag Man.

The retro designs on these carrier bags are glorious. They transport me back to the 90s.

(via It’s Nice That)

The woman who's lived in a Swedish forest cabin for 8 years

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She has been Living in a Cabin in the Forests of Sweden for 8 years | Home Tour

Tova Christoffersson lives in a tiny cabin in the forests of Jämtland, Sweden. She has done so for the past 8 years. In the above video, she gives viewers a tour of her home and how she lives, with her husband and child.

If you have ever seen a cabin in a movie, Tova’s is very similar but more modern and without the impending doom/horror vibes (like The Hateful Eight or Evil Dead, for example). The purpose of living “off-the-grid” is to live a more sustainable life and what could be more environmentally friendly than this?

It’s not something I could ever do but it works for them and that’s the important thing.

That time two white girls ate a Carolina Reaper

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two girls tasting carolina reaper pepper hahah

Some background info:

In 2016, YouTuber Lizzy Wurst posted a video called WORLDS HOTTEST PEPPER CHALLENGE (GONE WRONG) – CAROLINA REAPER PEPPER – 2.2 MILLION SCOVILLE UNITS. It has over 20m views at the time of writing and features Lizzy with her friend Sabrina trying the Carolina Reaper challenge (related to but not the same as the One Chip Challenge that ProZD and LGR did.

The original video is around 4 minutes long as shows the natural and devastating effects of the pepper as it destroys both challengers, particularly Sabrina who did not cope well. But it’s the edited version that I saw first and the cuts make it even funnier.

Let’s do a quick analysis:

  1. Why the hell did they bring water?
  2. If you know it’s the hottest pepper in the world (still is, as of 2013), would you not know to take acidic drinks with you: milk, citrus juices, tomato juice if that’s your thing
  3. Why were they wearing gym gear?
  4. Did they plan to jog the heat off or namaste it away?
  5. My favourite line was: ‘I didn’t think it hurt that bad.’

I can’t feel sympathy for anyone who knowingly takes this challenge on and suffers the consequences. As my mother would say, ‘if you cannot hear, you must feel’.

100 quotes from 100 movies, counting down from 100

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

I love stuff like this. AlonzoMosleyFBI made a video of 100 quotes from 100 films that count down from 100.

You can find the list of referenced movies on their old blog but, being the maths geek I am, I wanted to single out the prime numbers with their referenced movies (with Amazon Affiliate links btw):

97 – Blade Runner
89 – The French Connection
83 – The Magnificent Seven
79 – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
73 – The Jerk
71 – When Harry Met Sally…
67 – The King and I
61 – Singles
59 – The Awful Truth
57 – The Manchurian Candidate
53 – Midnight Express
47 – The Big Sleep
43 – Monty Python and the Holy Grail
41 – Ben Hur
37 – Men in Black
31 – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
29 – Young Frankenstein
23 – The Wizard of Oz
19 – The Shawshank Redemption
17 – The Maltese Falcon
13 – Lawrence of Arabia
11 – This is Spinal Tap
7 – To Kill a Mockingbird
5 – The Godfather
3 – L.A. Confidential
2 – Once Upon a Time in the West

The Klingon language and its influence on modern culture #

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Like any story worth telling, the history of the Klingon language begins with improvisation. Some reports—including the DVD commentary for Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Cut—maintain the genesis of the language rests with James Doohan (who played Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on the original show) and the film’s associate producer Jon Povill. The two had a meeting where they established a few basic words the aliens would utter throughout the movie. Doohan recorded the words for veteran Trek actor Mark Lenard, who portrayed a Klingon captain in the film. Lenard transcribed the words phonetically and practiced them to nail the delivery of his lines in the film. Doohan and Povill didn’t develop the language further. That honorable duty befell another man who wouldn’t enter the picture until Wrath of Khan’s editing phase.

Enter legendary linguist Marc Okrand, the creator of the Klingon language.

(via Tedium)

See also: Triqqa Pli’c: a Pizza Hut advert for Klingons

Icon vs. Superman, as told by Evan Narcisse

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Comic writer and journalist Evan Narcisse wrote a piece on the Icon/Superman crossover from “Worlds Collide”, an intercompany crossover event from 1994 where characters from Milestone Comics met with Superman. Part 4 of the series featured Icon (#16, August 1994)

An alien ship lands on Earth. Its occupant gets raised as human, hiding special abilities for fear of reprisal. But when the superpowered extraterrestrial becomes an adult, Truth, Justice and the American Way mean something very different. Because this strange visitor from another planet is black.

If you like Black superheroes, check out my crowdsourced list of them.

The last 10 seconds of every episode from Star Trek: TNG (Season 1)

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The Last 10 Seconds of Every Episode of the First Season of Star Trek: The Next Generation

There was a lot of engaging in the first season of The Next Generation and a few appearances from Wil Wheaton.

Star Trek related: Star Trek + Design: a site dedicated to collected Star Trek memorabilia and this is some kind of Star Trek: The Next Generation supercut

Superman as Clark Kent as Superman

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Superman changes to Clark and then back and forth

This scene is one of my favourite scenes in movie history. It shows Christopher Reeve as Superman in Superman II playing Superman, Clark Kent, Superman again, and then Clark Kent again. All it took was a change in body language and vocal tone and he was both characters.

Here’s what Ben Kuchera from Polygon had to say about it:

There are many remarkable things about the first Superman film, up to and including the obvious influence on every comic book movie that came later. There wasn’t much of a blueprint in pop culture for what a serious look at a comic book character should look like. There were not yet giants who had shoulders on which Superman could stand.

But what really made the film so special was the performance of the late Christopher Reeve, the only actor who could make the idea that no one recognized Clark Kent as Superman due to his glasses even remotely plausible. His performance as both Clark Kent and Superman kept the characters distinct, and it was done through his body. Christopher Reeve was his own best special effect.

One scene shows this transformation perfectly.

It happens after Superman takes Lois flying, right before her date with Clark Kent. He nearly tells her the truth, and shifts into the part of Superman to prove he is who he’s about to say he is.

The amazing part of this performance is how clearly you can see Christopher Reeve shift his body from Clark Kent to Superman. His voice changes a bit, sure, but it’s all there in the body language. It’s a powerful, physical performance that doesn’t require a change into the costume or any of the special effects that went into the flying scene. The burden is on Reeve to sell the transition, and holy hell does he do it convincingly.

Shout out to the Alexander Technique, which Reeve and a host of other actors and authors used (although there is no scientific proof of its alleged health benefits—I have to make that clear).

MORTAL KOMBAT!!!

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For Vox, Aja Romano wrote about the “cheesy, exotified, incoherent action movie mishmash” that was Mortal Kombat the movie.

The first time I watched the 1995 movie Mortal Kombat I felt like I was drunk. Movies can sometimes be joyously terrible, such that they cease to be terrible and instead become transcendent. Reader, I was transported.

Since I first randomly encountered it while Netflix-surfing a few years ago, I have come to love Mortal Kombat — a movie made about a video game I have never played — so much that I no longer know whether I love it merely ironically or have crossed over into loving it sincerely.

My personal memories of the movie actually go back to the mid-00s. I was at my friend’s house and he told me about the movie (I was aware of the game although I’d never played it) and how funny the “MORTAL KOMBAT!!!” shout was at the beginning. And then I heard it and we spent about 10 minutes giggling. Still gets me to this day.

In terms of the game, my last memory was playing MK III with another friend on his Sega Megadrive. Lots of fun was had that day.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember much of the movie. Fortunately, it’s streamable and I will rectify that soon.

Mortal Kombat 1 Movie Opening

Ekow Nimako's Afrofuturistic LEGO® universes

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Ekow Nimako is a Toronto-based artist who makes Afrofuturism sculptures from black LEGO.

Ekow Nimako is a Toronto-based, internationally exhibiting LEGO artist who crafts futuristic and whimsical sculptures from the iconic medium. Rooted in his childhood hobby and intrinsic creativity, Nimako’s formal arts education and background as a lifelong multidisciplinary artist inform his process and signature aesthetic. His fluid building style, coupled with the Afrofuturistic themes of his work, beautifully transcend the geometric medium to embody organic and fantastical silhouettes. 

I haven’t played with LEGO in years so I didn’t know there were so many varied pieces to make these majestic sculptures. It’s truly breathtaking to witness.

(via Colossal)

Julie Adenuga on Catfish UK and the new rules of romance

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I don’t believe in guilty pleasures but Catfish was a rare exception. Even though I know it’s predominately fake and mostly for clout-chasing, it was still wild, messy, dramatic and fun. Now we’re getting a UK version, co-hosted by Julie Adenuga, and she spoke to gal-dem’s Adwoa Darko about the show and romance.

The presenter wants viewers to watch the show through an empathetic lens. “Anyone I said ‘I’m hosting catfish, UK’ to, their first reaction was ‘oh my gosh, it’s gonna be so funny’. That’s their first reaction. And I look at them,” she says before pausing. “These are real emotions.” She also understands how the road to dating someone is often paved with half-truths as she’s had a few people lie to her about knowing her two brothers without knowing she’s related to them (“now you look like the biggest clown of all time”).

We all learnt the rules of the game from Nev: reverse Google image search people if you’re unsure, video call them, ignore people with only one picture because it’s 2021 and everyone has a camera phone. However, through working on the show Julie reveals she’s learnt a new one: “Tagged photos really became our friends. We’ve had profiles sometimes when we see they’ve got 2,000 followers and only one person has tagged you. What’s going on there?”

Bad times for Adwoa, though, who opened the interview with an admission: she had been catfished.

gal-dem: Lets start with the fact that I was catfished

Julie Adenuga: When did this happen?

I met this guy from Ghana right. I was thinking ‘rah we’re gonna do up Kente get ready’. He said he’s single and later he drops that he has kids and an ex-wife that has gone off and married somebody else, and the kids are in Ghana. We go on the date and this man is doing the most, he’s like toasting to us and I’m thinking ‘rah is this me yeah?’

No one has ever toasted to us. This is live.

Read the rest of the interview to find out what happened and stream the Catfish UK promo below.

Meet Catfish UK Hosts Julie Adenuga And Oobah Butler | Catfish UK

Google celebrates the letter 'ñ'

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Today’s Doodle artwork, illustrated by Barcelona-based guest artist Min, commemorates the consonant Ñ (pronounced “enye”). The only letter in the Spanish alphabet that originated in Spain, the Ñ is not only a letter but a representation of Hispanic heritage and identity as well.   

The Ñ’s story started with 12th-century Spanish scribes. While hand-copying Latin manuscripts, these scholars of the Middle Ages devised a plan to save time and parchment by shortening words with double letters. They combined the two figures into one and scrawled on top a tiny “n”—a symbol now known as a ”virgulilla” or tilde—to signify the change. Thus, “annus,” Latin for “year,” evolved into the Spanish “año.” 

'Brutalist Paris' to explore post-war Brutalist architecture in the French capital

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from the curved concrete balconies of ‘les choux de créteil’ to oscar niemeyer’s ‘bourse du travail’, ‘brutalist paris’ documents the movement’s most significant examples in and around the french capital. back in 2017, blue crow media commissioned robin wilson and nigel green of photolanguage to research, write and shoot photography for the brutalist paris map. since the map’s publication, through their research, writing and photography, photolanguage have continued to draw attention to brutalist architecture across the city and its suburbs.

See also: Souvenir d’un Futur and the forgotten brutalist estates of Paris

(via designboom)

Doug Bradley (aka Pinhead) on his idea of Hell and his biggest fears

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DOUG BRADLEY of HELLRAISER: His Vision of Hell, Biggest Fears, the Band GHOST

I watched Hellraiser for the first time a few weeks ago and fell down a very dark and sadistic rabbit hole as I watched the next two sequels (II was very good, III was not). But the common denominator from both films was Doug Bradley aka Pinhead (and, as a brilliant Freudian slip, I initially wrote that as demoninator).

The British actor spoke to Elliott Fullam of Little Punk People about his life, his roles as Pinhead, and what his vision of Hell was. I loved this interview because it cut out all the rubbish you often get with celebrity interviews. The questions were clear and interesting, and so were the answers. No bullshit.