We do it #ForTheCultrs
The video above shows Tunde Dugantsi decorating Hungarian folk art cookies with royal icing. It’s delicate and beautiful to watch. I almost wouldn’t want to eat it.
Hungary food related: Hungarian cuisine: 5 delicious dishes & recipes
I don’t know if you could cut your pizza at warp speed with this Star Trek pizza cutter but you can say “make it dough” and bask in the groans of your friends and family (or complaints since Picard wasn’t captain of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701).
Star Trek and pizza related: Triqqa Pli’c: a Pizza Hut advert for Klingons
Seattle Brutalism is a showcase of the brutalism in Washington’s largest city. There are only 9 buildings on the site and I don’t know if that number will increase but 9 is enough for at least a day’s worth of exploring and brutalist photography. Interestingly, two-thirds of them are either schools or churches.
Seattle related: How did Frasier afford his Seattle apartment on a radio show host’s wage?
LEGO has an ideas section where people can suggest new ideas for their sets. I spotted this idea by Ian Chance Bradshaw to make Frasier’s condo and it’s quite stylish:
Frasier fans will quickly recognize his eclectic, high-end furniture, exotic decorations, and famous, abstract artwork, which I have neatly adapted to LEGO’s tone and style. Finally, you can recreate your favourite scenes, or throw elaborate but ill-fated dinner parties for a coterie of endlessly critical guests.
Frasier’s Condo features six original minifigures: snooty radio psychiatrist Frasier Crane, his ex-wife, Lilith Sternin, his charming producer, Roz Doyle, his fastidious brother, Niles Crane, their down-to-earth father, Martin Crane, and his eccentric physical therapist, Daphne Moon.
I designed Frasier’s Condo intermittently over the course of several months, beginning in April, 2020. My ideas were inspired and informed by many brilliant creators and creations, especially ALegoLass and their interpretation of Frasier’s condo. Although my idea is complete, I would like to eventually introduce Martin’s dog, Eddie.
As of today, this project has 34 days left so leave your support if you want this to be an official LEGO thing.
Follow the project on Twitter: @realLEGOFrasier
Frasier related: How did Frasier afford his Seattle apartment on a radio show host’s wage?
It’s not quite an H-bomb on wheels but this Batman Bomb by Liz from TipsyBartender.com might still have a kick.
Batman bomb related: When Batman mercilessly killed that Red Triangle Gang member
Something you might not have thought about in Batman Returns are the architectural models found in the film. ‘Architectural Models in Film‘ is a Tumblr dedicated to this kind of thing and they showcased some of pieces, which had parts to play in the plot. And then I remembered the models in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice…
Tim Burton appears to have a thing for architectural models, giving the building model in Beetlejuisce (1988) quite a bit of attention and then these in Batman Returns. The chimneys of the power plant do resemble those of the Chocolate Factory…
Great minds!
Atlas Obscura covered the eternalised life of Amadou Bamba (above) and how his fight against imperialism inspired so many in life and death, predominately though a single photo:
The photo was meant as a kind of a mug shot, so authorities could keep tabs on him. The photographer, a bureaucrat of the French colonial government in West Africa, aimed his camera at the standing Senegalese man, who was being kept under house arrest. The year was 1913 (or maybe 1914). Yet the camera did not capture a man trapped so much as a compelling, mythical radiance—the figure is poised, his headscarf glowing in blinding Sahelian sunlight, his face obscured but indelible. More than a century later the image has become unmistakable.
It’s the only known photograph of Sheikh Amadou Bamba (1854–1927), a spiritual leader of Senegal’s independence movement. Rendered variously in ink, paint, and charcoal, his image, based on that photograph, adorns homes and public spaces everywhere in the modern nation, from musician and politician Youssou N’Dour’s Dakar neighborhood of Médina to roadside villages in the interior. In murals, Bamba shares space with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and his iconic outline festoons all forms of transport, from trucks and taxis to ships. All of these variations go back to that single, overexposed photo, and to the Mouride legacy that it unintentionally heralded.
More on Amadou Bamba: Amadu Bamba and the Murids of Senegal on JSTOR, In Search of Ahmadou Bamba PT.1: The Soul of Islam (video documentary), and The Sacred Coffee of Amadou Bamba
My eyes lit up when I saw Toy Galaxy’s retrospective of Batman (1989), a film fraught with rewrites, delays, more rewrites, and a badass soundtrack from Prince.
Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name that was such an anomaly at the time by completely redesigning and reimagining whole parts of Batman’s established canon. The film was directed by Tim Burton and stars Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, and Jack Palance. 1989’s Batman laid the groundwork for the modern superhero film and all of the marketing surrounding them but also set off a number of other comic book movies to be made at the time.
Batman related: when Danny Elfman didn’t like how his Batman score was used in the movie and Vulture’s Oral History of “Batman: The Animated Series” (which wouldn’t have existed without this movie)
Here’s something you’ve probably not seen before: a Diet Coke commercial exclusive to the VHS copy of Batman (1989):
A classic commercial (or rather “video trailer”) for Diet Coke starring Hammer movie legend Michael Gough in his role as Alfred Pennyworth from the 1989-1997 Batman movie series. This commercial was seen in the original 1989 VHS release of the first Tim Burton “Batman” movie and has not been released on home video since. Michael Keaton also appears as Batman via clips from the film.
I never had Bruce Wayne/Batman as a Diet Coke drinker, regardless of it being sugar free. Or Alfred for that matter.
Batman food/drink related: It’s vichyssoise, sir. It’s supposed to be cold.
I’m not big on Spartan mythology, Roman gladiators, or anything of that ilk (although I have seen 300 and Gladiator and… okay, I did make my own DOOM mask from a toy gladiator mask). Wait, what was my point? Oh yeah, this Spartan whiskey decanter looks cool! It’s marketed as a gift for men but I say balls to gender binaries when you’re pouring alcohol into a well-crafted piece of frosted glassware.
![The Matrix (1999) Trailer #1 [35mm] (Open Matte)](https://cultrface.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F8GdG4Ryt9ro%2F0.jpg)
Since watching this Matrix trailer, I’ve wanted everything in 35mm. Not in replacement of, but rather additionally. I love the colours and the movement. And Keanu Reeves.
For curiosity’s sake, here’s the trailer for The Matrix presented in an uncropped aspect ratio from a raw scan. The Matrix was shot in the Super 35mm format, which captures a larger 4 perf image by using space normally reserved for the optical soundtrack. This 4 perf image (about 1.33:1) is then cropped to 2.39:1 for release, making it an easier and cost-effective way to shoot widescreen. Some Super 35mm films framed with the full 4 perf image in mind so that the eventual VHS transfer wouldn’t have to be cropped. Other films (including The Matrix) framed only for widescreen, leaving visible filming equipment on the top and bottom of the frame knowing it would be cropped for release. Watching this trailer is a cool way to learn how Super 35mm films were assembled. Matte boxes and boom mics are visible, and some of the digital VFX shots have been hard matted for widescreen.
Brb, gonna add a 35mm filter on every photo I’ve ever taken.
While going down a bear hole on Wikipedia (as in a rabbit hole of bear articles), I stumbled upon a link for panda tea. Perhaps a special boba tea variant?
Panda tea (Chinese: 熊猫茶), or panda dung tea, produced in the Ya’an mountainous region of Sichuan, China, is a type of tea fertilized by the dung of pandas.
No, not at all. And drinking panda tea is an expensive endeavour. According to Reuters, An Yanshi, a Chinese entrepreneur who grows the tea, sold the first batch for 22,000 yuan per 50 grams ($3,500 per 50 grams or £22k per pound), which makes about 16 cups.
“I just want to convey to the people of the world the message of turning waste into something useful, and the culture of recycling and using organic fertilizers.”
An Yanshi
I’ll stick to my shop branded decaf tea.
Steven Richter (the guy behind this awesome lightsaber and Jumanji board game replica) recently made this sculpture of Mr. Freeze from Batman and Robin. You set to see the initial sculpting process, followed by moulding, casting, and painting. Arnie never looked so cool… heh heh.
For It’s Nice That, Olivia Hingley profiled 19 years old Brazilian illustrator Kanioko (he/she/they) and their quirky Simpsons-influenced art.
Including a lot of landscapes, fruit and plants in their work, Kanioko also takes inspiration from their surroundings and by extension Brazilian culture and Brazilian designers. Their vibrant palette and simple lines are also representative of the “happiness and playfulness” present in their day-to-day basis. But their abstract forms and cartoony characters come from a much more personal place, reflecting their personality and background as a queer LGBTQIA+ and Latin American. “I believe what motivates me the most to use these elements is to think of my work in a conceptual way as a subterfuge of the harsh contemporary reality that surrounds us,” Kanioko says. “I like these surreal and funny elements because they reveal a part of me that I usually hide from the world, a quirkiness and a more relaxed, queer side of my essence.”
A few years ago, I wrote about Sucklord, the New York artist who made bootleg action figures. Well, he happens to feature in a book called The Bootleg Bible alongside a variety of toy bootleggers including Dano Brown and Marquee Marauders Club:
[…] the book includes a bootlegging 101 guide, which takes the aspiring bootlegger through each step in the toy-making process; from finding materials to sculpting to packaging. It’s helpful advice from some of the best in the bootlegging industry.
Interestingly, bootleg toys can be one of a kind or reproduced, it all depends. But no matter their availability, they’re all made in a low-tech, DIY and homemade way without any pressure to mass-produce them in factories. This makes them extra special, as artists are free to make whatever ideas drift into their heads without the need for corporate consent or approval, not to mention the large budgets and risks that usually combine in the development process.
Excerpt from Creative Boom
Another toy bootlegger who features is Obvious Plant, someone I featured on our sibling site, Playrface.