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

gal-dem interview with Pam Grier

For gal-dem, Kemi Alemoru spoke to Pam Grier about her life and legacy:

In a number of her films, Grier would bare her body, distracting hopeless men and wielding her sexual power over her enemies. “I wanted society to see Black women as owning their sexuality. Isn’t that a part of my humanity?” she asks. “You don’t own a woman’s body. You don’t tell the woman how she uses her body which has been oppressed and controlled.” This is a personal mission of hers she says, as a survivor of rape at age six and again in college. She’s developed a fierce criticism of misogyny and other forms of control, including organised religion and white supremacy.

Autonomy is a prevailing theme in her work. In one of the most powerful scenes in her career as Kit Porter in The L Word, Grier depicts a woman who is trying to terminate her pregnancy but gets lured into a pro-life crisis pregnancy centre that offers her an ultrasound to deter her from the procedure. It’s one of the only scenes in mainstream TV that looks at not just the conflicting emotions around people seeking abortions but also the traumatic tactics used against them by fundamentalists in the US. Fittingly, Grier passionately segways into talking about the assault on Roe V Wade and then highlights the hypocrisy of the pro-life movement in a country that has systematically shown it does not value life, especially not the lives of ethnic minorities. “The Sand Creek massacre happened just behind my house. They killed Native American women and children and tore out unborn babies. They didn’t care about African slaves and killing those women and their babies. Now we have to listen to ‘oh babies should survive’. Let’s sit and think about all of that.”

Pam Grier related: iconic Blaxploitation posters and the fitting room scene from Jackie Brown synced up

Is coffee or tea healthier for you?

WaPo posted a cool infographic examining the health benefits of coffee and tea. But which hot beverage is the healthiest?

Do you start your mornings with a potent dose of caffeine from a freshly brewed cup of Joe? Or do you prefer a slightly less caffeinated nudge from a warm and gentle cup of tea?

Whatever your preference, scientists have found that regularly drinking coffee or tea can provide a variety of health benefits. But how do coffee and tea compare in a head-to-head matchup? We took a look at the research, and here’s what we found.

Of course, there are broad spectra for both drinks as there are myriad of teas and coffees but the main criteria for analysis were:

  • As sources of fibre
  • Their effects on mental focus
  • What they do to your gut
  • Their effects on heart disease, cancer, Type 2 diabetes, stress, and life expectancy

Tea and coffee related: panda tea, made from panda poo, how to brew Chinese tea correctly, how to brew coffee like it’s the 19th century, and some cool coffees with Rikesh and Adriel.

'YOKAI' explores the centuries-old traditions of Japanese supernatural folklore

An illustration of a yokai

If you’ve ever wondered what inspired some of the more peculiar designs of the Pokémon franchise, look no further than yokai, the Japanese word meaning ‘strange apparition’ which describes a wide group of monsters, ghosts, and other spirits.

YOKAI explores those traditions in a book containing more than 500 pages of incredible illustrations and words from author Koichi Yumoto.

Lurking beneath the global obsession with manga and anime, there is a world of Japan’s yokai monsters, mutants, and vengeful mononoke spirits, which have long held people’s imaginations in their terrifying grip ever since the Edo period (16th-19th centuries). These fearsome creatures are now gathered together in this gorgeous new release that, for the first time ever, shows many enlargements of these masterpieces! Selections include over 60 works chosen from the collection at the Yumoto Koichi Memorial Japan Yokai Museum (Miyoshi Mononoke Museum), Japan’s – and, in fact, the world’s – only museum specializing in Japanese yokai monsters, each reproduced in high-resolution images with explanations. This compilation provides readers with the rare experience of seeing the brushwork of Edo-era painters like Tsukioka Yoshitoshi in detail firsthand. This is a must-have book for those who love strange worlds and mutant creatures, and for anyone wanting to know more about Japanese yokai monsters.

book’s Blurb

Buy Yokai on Bookshop.

Codex Gigas: the mysterious Devil's Bible 

Codex Gigas

I’ve covered a few codices on the site including Codex Seraphinianus, Codex Argenteus, and Codex Regius. But there’s a giant one with a sinister edge: Codex Gigas.

What is Codex Gigas?

Codex Gigas is a medieval manuscript from the 13th century, written by a monk from Bohemia (now part of modern Czechia/Czech Republic). The name literally means “giant book” but the “sinister edge” refers to the Devil drawn on one of the pages:

“If the scribe worked for six hours a day and wrote six days a week this means that the manuscript could have taken about five years to complete. If the scribe was a monk he may only have been able to work for about three hours a day, and this means that the manuscript could have taken ten years to write. As the scribe may also have ruled the lines to guide the writing before he began to write (it probably took several hours to rule one leaf), this extends the period it took to complete the manuscript. The scribe also decorated the manuscript, so this all means that the manuscript probably took at least 20 years to finish, and could even have taken 30.”

These elements alone are enough to qualify the stunning manuscript as a wonder of the world. Yet the most bewitching element of the Codex Gigas is a single page of illumination that defies explanation, tucked away within the tome. Spanning nearly the entire face of a page is a full-color rendering of the Dark Lord himself.

via Atlas Obscura

What is it about?

The book contains:

And that drawing of The Devil.

Who wrote it?

An anonymous monk wrote Codex Gigas but we know that he wrote the book in Bohemia and alone.

Where is it located?

Codex Gigas can be found in the National Library of Sweden, located behind a glass box on the second floor. The room is kept dark to avoid damage from the light.

Facts about Codex Gigas

Book Riot wrote an article on 10 facts about the book in 2015. Here’s are a couple of them:

7) In 1594, The Devil’s Bible was brought to Prague from the Broumov monastery, where it had been kept since the year 1420. King Rudolph II (1576–1612) asked to borrow The Devil’s Bible. He promised the monks that when he was finished with the book, he would return it. Which he of course never did.

8) The Devil’s Bible has been given its name because of a full-size portrait of the Devil. Portraits of the Devil were common during the Middle Ages but this particular portrait is unique. Here, the Devil is portrayed alone on the page. The image is very big—nineteen inches tall. The Devil is crouching and facing forward. He is naked apart from an ermine loincloth. Ermine is worn as a sign of royalty. It is believed that the Devil wears ermine in this image to demonstrate that he is the Prince of Darkness.

When ketchup won the catsup war

A Simpsons cartoon of Mr Burns holding a bottle of Ketchup in one hand and a bottle of Catsup in another

Sam Lin-Sommer chronicled Heinz Tomato Ketchup’s victory of catsup for tomato sauce supremacy in Atlas Obscura. It came down to marketing, and an attack on those using preservatives:

Thanks in part to high-quality ingredients, Heinz’s new tomato ketchup cost two to three times more than its competitors. But the price increase also paid for the largest advertising campaign the industry had ever seen. In one of several advertisements to grocers, “Heinz stated that grocers should ‘get rid of any chemically preserved foods’ before they were confiscated by the government,” Smith writes. Heinz took out a two-page spread in the Saturday Evening Post that shouted, in block letters: “WARNING! THE U.S. Gov’t Says benzoate of Soda in Foods Produces Injury to Digestion and Health.”

There’s also a good article about the history of Heinz Ketchup on The Lange Law Firm’s website:

Although the ketchup was free of more novel preservatives like sodium benzoate, it wasn’t preservative free in the strictest sense. Instead, the shelf life of the sauce could be attributed to a particular blend of tomato pulp and acidic vinegar developed by Heinz’s cousin Samuel Muller. Blum writes that “He wanted a bacteria-killing acid concentration in the formula and so sought the right balance of vinegar and pectic acid, the latter occurring naturally in tomatoes. To get the acid levels right, Mueller discovered, he needed both high-quality tomatoes and high pulp content. Ketchups had traditionally been thin sauces of mixed content. To create its preservative-free ketchup, the company switched to a thicker, tomato-rich version—the foundation for the condiments of today.”

Kenyan art made from flip flops

How Flip-Flop Art Helps Clean Kenya's Beaches | World Wide Waste | Business Insider

A company in Kenya turns old flip flops into amazing works of art that have garnered the attention of millions, including the Pope.

“Flip-flop waste is a global problem. We have received numerous inquiries from India, Indonesia, Brazil. They have the same problem, and they’ve asked us when can we come and set up shop in their countries. Narrator: But the Ocean Sole model might present the most effective use of flip-flop waste.”

Narrator: Until they run out of material, artists like David [Kaloki] will continue turning trash into treasure, one shoe at a time.

Recycling in Kenya related: how fish skin is used for leather

What if there was a Breaking Bad spin-off about Hank's MINERALS?

MINERALS | Official Teaser, AMC Comedy Series

A very inventive teaser trailer for MINERALS, starring Dean Norris as Hank, “a DEA agent whose avid passion for minerals has led him to set out on a quest to find the purest mineral in existence”. I kinda wish this was real.

Breaking Bad related: Cook In The Breaking Bad RV with Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston

TIL: Disney had its own legal currency for nearly 30 years

How Disney Legally Issued its Own Currency for 29 Years

Disney has been given a lot of carte blanche in the US to grow and absorb everything in its wake. The above video by Half as Interesting shows how Disney made their Disney dollars a legal currency at an exchange rate of $1 DD to $1 USD.

[…] they are not compatible with coin machines, and must be exchanged for U.S. currency if machines are to be used. In addition, if Disney Dollars are used for purchases and change is given, the change is provided in U.S. currency.

They are often kept as souvenirs or collected by Disney memorabilia fans, but at Disney resorts, they can also be exchanged back to U.S. currency.

Disney stopped distributing and printing the currency on May 14, 2016; however, they will still accept them in the future.

via Wikipedia

Disney related: Yesterworld on the history of The Disney Channel and a brief history of DisneyQuest

Money related: The precarious economics of gift cards

The Amish Funeral Pie

For Atlas Obscura, Sam O’Brien examined the history of Pennsylvania’s forgotten baked good, the Amish funeral pie:

Of all the parties to crash, a funeral in the traditionally parsimonious Mennonite community doesn’t seem like an obvious choice. But the funerary feast was a rare opportunity for extravagance among Pennsylvania Germans. Instead of the usual cabbage and dumplings, there was beef, ham, or chicken. Instead of the usual coarse rye bread, there was white or wheat. The fixation on funeral food even made its way into slang: In 1907, a grandmother recounted how “thoughtless youngsters” called funerals weissbrot-frolics, or “white bread frolics.”

But the sweet star of the funeral banquet was raisin pie, a dish so tied to the event that it became a euphemism for death itself. When an ailing member of the community took a turn for the worse, it was not uncommon to hear someone solemnly declare, “There will be raisin pie soon.”

Raisin pie itself isn’t particularly foreboding. But in 19th-century Pennsylvania German homes, it meant one thing: Death was near. Once it arrived, so too would friends and neighbors, coming to “redd up” the bereaved family’s home for the funeral. This meant cooking, cleaning, and baking raisin pie. The treat was such a common sight at post-memorial meals, it also became known as funeral pie (or, in Pennsylvania German, leicht-boi).

There a plenty of recipes out there such as this one from Amish 365. I could go for some raisin pie right now. You know, to honour the Que— kidding.

Pastry related: a split decision pie pan, an emerald marine chocolate mint tart, and have you tried the water pie?

The oral history of Face/Off

Inverse took a deep dive into the surreal history of Face/Off, speaking to various cast and crew (but notably not John Woo, Nicolas Cage, or John Travolta) about their experiences of the 1997 blockbuster:

MICHAEL COLLEARY, SCREENWRITER: Face/Off was always a pleasure.

MIKE WERB, SCREENWRITER: We were aiming to pay off our student loans. It was the decade of the big spec sales. We initially set out to write a piece set in prison. We were very influenced by James Cagney’s last great gangster movie, White Heat, and the sequence that takes place in prison.

MICHAEL COLLEARY: I did a little research in the library, back in those pre-historic days, about the Attica Riot. What if a guy goes undercover into a prison and there’s this huge riot? He’s a law enforcement officer and he’s stuck in there under a fake identity. How about a prison in the future?

MIKE WERB: Once we said, Why can’t the good guy be the bad guy and why can’t the bad guy be the good guy?, then we were trying to figure out how to make that work without doing things that had been done before: good and evil identical twins, some sort of voodoo, personality swap. Melding that with the futuristic prison, we thought, Well, facial surgery. I had been frightened as a child when my aunt Sunny used to announce that she had to go “take her face off.” To a 7-year-old, it was terrifying.

I love Face/Off because it’s buckwild, full of nonsensical action, and I loved seeing John Travolta do a Nicolas Cage impression for most of the film. It’s so 90’s it hurts and all for the better. I also love that it’s part of the Disney conglomerate universe; it’s one of the least “Disney” movie you can think of.

Similar world flags

John D. Cook used Mathematica’s CountryData database to find similar world flag designs and I’m shocked at how many are practically identical bar slightly darker/lighter shades of colour:

A week ago I posted some pairs of similar flags on Twitter, and later I found that Mathematica’s CountryData database contains flag descriptions. So I thought I’d use the flag descriptions to see which flags Mathematica things are similar.

I had Mathematica output a list of countries and flag descriptions, then searched the output for the word “similar.” I then made the following groupings based on the output [1].

While some of countries that share a similar flag are close in proximity and culture, Indonesia and Monaco isn’t as similar and not very close together, geographically:

Geography related: How many countries can you name in Europe? (QUIZ)

Lean like a smooth criminal with these Michael Jackson leaning shoes

When I first saw the video for Smooth Criminal, like everyone, I was mesmerised by the spectacle and That Lean. How did he do it? Well, a quick Google search will tell you if you don’t already know (a patented anti-gravity illusion). Not that a some machinery can take away from the magic. But if you want to replicate it, you can with a pair of Michael Jackson leaning shoes from The Jacket Shop. They’ve been reduced to $249.99 if that’s within your budget and they’re made of real leather with a super high quality finish.

Michael Jackson shoes related: MJ vs. MJ and the fall of LA Gear