Nöl Collective is a Palestinian women’s fashion collective centred on cooperatives, family-run sewing workshops, weavers, and embroiders who come together in the name of garments and fashion. Our garments are dedicated to illuminating the extremely human nature of fashion. We hope that through our garments you can see a story of craft, tradition, community, and land in Palestine, picturing the hands which made them.
Cultrface
A blog dedicated to culture
and how it enriches our lives
Mashed on Salt Bae's rise, apparent fall but actually a shift of power to other places
For Mashed, Charlotte Pointing chronicled Salt Bae’s weird and wonderful career journey to butcher’s apprentice to egotistical restauranteur (to put it very mildly):
Nusret Gökçe has a phenomenal social media presence. If you take a look at his Instagram account, for example, he boasts around 53 million followers. If you simply search for his nickname “Salt Bae” on TikTok, you’ll come across more than 147,000 posts of the steakhouse chef and restaurateur. In most of them, he is wearing sunglasses, sporting his signature ponytail, and performing his signature salt sprinkle (more on that later).
But while Gökçe’s social media presence tends to be fun and entertaining, the reality for his employees seems to be far from it. The businessman has been the subject of multiple allegations and lawsuits, and former workers have accused him of everything from racial discrimination to tip misuse.
His restaurants are notably bad for many reasons, including the fundamental ones (expensive and mediocre food, bad service, and inhumane treatment of staff). And yet he got propped up by celebrities and social media and despite all of these criticisms and downturns, he’s looking to keep it going in Central and South America. Given those regions’ historical association with corruption by the rich and famous at the literal expense of the people, I’m not surprised.
Former Uruguayan president José “Pepe” Mujica passed away on 13th May at the age of 89. He spoke to the NYT last year about life and politics and you should give it a read.
The Kuleshov effect
Kuleshov Effect / Effetto Kuleshov
The Kuleshov effect is a phenomenon where viewers interpret two sequential shots differently compared to a single one. It was named after Russian filmmaker and theorist Lev Kuleshov who conducted an experiment by editing a short film showing the expressionless face of actor Ivan Mosjoukine between shots of a bowl of soup, a girl in a coffin, and a woman laying on a divan. While his reaction was always the same, the idea was to suggest that he was hungry after the soup, sad after the girl in the coffin, and perhaps lustful after the woman on the divan.
The experiment tried to demonstrate the power of editing on a viewer’s reactions and emotional responses to scenes.
It’s a concept that stuck with me since I was introduced to it at university and I always forget its name so I wrote it down here. So next time you and someone else watch a movie scene or even read a body of text and you both get two different reactions, think of the Kuleshov effect.
Today is Nakba Day
Today is Nakba Day (ذكرى النكبة, in Arabic), a day to commemorate Palestinian displacement before and after the State of Israel declared its independence (on 14th May 1948) and began claiming Palestinian land for itself.
The day often involves protests and marches and now more than ever we must support the plight of the Palestinian people as they continue to become displaced via an ongoing genocide. If any of that bothers you, close your tab.
Links about Nakba Day
Cooking with Christopher Walken
Cooking with Christopher Walken
Spoon is your weapon. Your wooden friend. I call mine Natalie.
The Lagos Studio Archives is an artist-run project by Karl Ohiri & Riikka Kassinen that resurrects studio archives documenting life in Lagos from the 1970s to post millennium.
This looks so cool! (via Colossal)
The amazing spectacle of tatami
Japanese Tatami That Tricks Your Eyes
Tatami are types of soft mats used for flooring Japan. They’re unique in that they can show different colours when position at certain angles in certain light, allowing tatami makers like Kenji Yamada to work his artistic magic (see the video above).
Nob Ogasawara on animal-themed idioms in Japanese
You may not know Nob Ogasawara by name (unless you’re into Pokémon) but if you ever played the early games, you’ll know his work as he translated the text of every game in the core series up until Pokémon Platinum1.
On Bluesky, he wrote about some cool animal-themed idioms in Japanese, similar to ones found in English (e.g. crocodile tears, dog-eared, hen-pecked). Here’s the opening post from his thread:
There are words with animal names in ENG: Dog-tired, crocodile tears, scaredy cat, etc., right?
They also exist in JP.
Like:
狼狽 ろうばい rou-bai (wolf + mythical wolf) = panic
猫舌 ねこじた neko-jita (cat + tongue) = Tongue sensitive to heat (temp)
犬死 いぬじに inu-jini (dog + death) = Meaningless death in war
The Kennedy family and its historical link to magic and the occult
For JSTOR Daily, Livia Gershon examined the unusual history of the Kennedys and the occult:
[Ellie] Crookes writes that Kennedy’s presidency came at a time when a fascination with the occult, the medieval period, and, specifically, the legends of King Arthur’s court was well-established in the American psyche. In 1960, the year he was elected, Camelot debuted on Broadway and became a favorite of the president.
In an interview shortly after JFK’s assassination in 1963, his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, cited a line from the musical: “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.” The comparison of the Kennedy administration to King Arthur’s reign resonated with many Americans.
Erm, okay? If there’s one thing Americans are gonna do, it’s align themselves with wild conspiracy theories and the occult (“grand wizards” anyone?) Sadly, a member of the family is now an important member of the current administration and he’s all about mis/disinformation.
See also: the Kennedy curse, JFK assassination theories, and the satanic-influenced plot to kill Ted Kennedy
Sad Guys on Trading Floor: schadenfreude in Tumblr form
Here’s an evergreen Tumblr called Sad Guys on Trading Floor showing stockbrokers looking despondent at work: Turning the economic crisis into one of those clever internet memes.
To think this started in 2008 and it’s still relevant.
Steven Richter repainting Halloween masks
Repainting Cheap Halloween Masks - Part 5
As a kid, I loved the cheap Halloween masks you got from your local shop down the road. They were a couple of pounds and they weren’t realistic but they did the job because you knew what they were supposed to look like: a witch, Frankenstein, a nondescript monster, something from a swamp.
But times have changed and Steven Richter decided to flex on us by transforming a selection of masks into realistic visages. His masks included Carnage, Venom, Freddy Fazbear, Wolverine, and Skeletor. Of course I love the Venom one.
OMG the Pizza Pooch from Pizza Hut is still alive in El Salvador
When someone mentions Pizza Hut in a nostalgic way, I always look up the Pizza Pooch. He was a mascot for the company in the 90s and early 00s but he disappeared along with his friends, the Hut Mutts. Today, I went to look them up and I found something amazing: the Pizza Pooch is still around! summerardon on Instagram posted a video of her visiting a Pizza Hut in El Salvador and the Pooch (named Pizza Puch) was outside the entrance. She even got a Pizza Pooch mask and plush.
Anyway, see ya later I’m looking up flights and hotels in San Salvador (just kidding, their president seems super sketchy)
Making a traditional Yixing clay teapot
Traditional Culture Zisha Teapot Making Technology
These clay teapot videos pop up on my feed every so often and they’re so relaxing to watch. This one is a Yixing clay teapot (also called a Zisha teapot) and they date back to the 15th century. The name comes from the city of Yixing where the clay originally came from and they are made mainly for black and oolong teas where brewing and heat aren’t as much of a problem (as long as you don’t put boiling water in them—must be 85℃ or less).
As for the technique in the video, it requires careful consideration, a variety of tools, and a keen eye to get the proportions just right.
Nature.com on Mtamu Kililo confronting Kenya’s housing crisis by building with mushroom waste
For Nature, Miles Lizak spoke to Mtamu Kililo who has found a unique way to try and tackle Kenya’s housing crisis: building with mushroom components [archived version]:
“In my view, the most important thing to communicate is that this is a practical solution to problems that people are facing day-to-day. Even somebody who doesn’t understand the bigger picture of the environmental impact can still use the product, build, and get the benefits.”
Mtamu is the co-founder and CEO of MycoTile, a company that makes affordable building materials out of food waste and oyster-mushroom mycelium.
Mycelia are key to ecosystems on land and sea as they help decompose plant materials improve the organic makeup of soils by supplying food to creatures that live in it. They also help to put carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere and play a huge role in plant health. So to use these kinds of materials to build houses for people is simultaneously unorthodox and par for the course.