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

A 'Monkey-Themed Banana Holder' is at the centre of a racism row in Hutto, Texas

Previously on The USA is Not a Serious Country — A Monkey-Themed Banana Holder Is Tearing a Texas City Apart:

“I believe the mayor has some racist tendencies that I think should be really alarming to the citizens he claims to represent,” Brian Thompson, one of two Black members of the seven-seat Hutto council, told The Daily Beast last week.

Calderone insisted that her gift’s monkey theme had no racial implications. Snyder apologized for offending anyone but claimed he wasn’t even aware of the monkey trope, and insisted that he was not racist.

Sure, Jan. Who the hell has a banana holder? They do just fine on a table or in a bowl. And for a whole bunch? Grow up.

Turning banana stems into useful fibres in Uganda

Did you know that you could make fibres out of discarded banana stems that can be “softened to the level of cotton”? I didn’t until the other day, and it’s happening in Uganda.

Uganda has the highest banana consumption rate in the world and is Africa’s top producer.

In rural areas, bananas can contribute up to 25 percent of the daily calorie intake, according to figures from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

[…]

To harvest the crop, the stem must be decapitated, they’re often left to rot in open fields.

But local startup TEXFAD, which describes itself as a waste management group, is now taking advantage of this abundance of rotting stems to extract banana fibre that’s then turned into items such as hair extensions.

John Baptist Okello, TEXFAD’s business manager, says it makes sense in a country where farmers “are struggling a lot” and have tonnes of banana-related waste.

The company, which collaborates with seven different farmers’ groups in western Uganda, pays $2.7 (USD) per-kilogram of dried fibre.

Uses for these fibres include the making of hair extensions, lampshades, and rugs. Now that’s what I call recyclable waste!

Related: how fish skin is used for leather in Kenya and Kenyan art made from flip flops.

I am obsessed with Chef Tyler and his grilled cheeses

$1 vs $100 Grilled Cheese

YouTube’s recommendation engine throws up all kinds of randomness when you watch enough videos of a certain type. Eventually, it decided to show me videos of some dude making grilled cheeses. And I watched more. And more. And now I’m obsessed.

The “dude” in question is called Chef Tyler, a lactose intolerant food photographer and grilled cheese connoisseur. Yes, you read that right: he’s lactose intolerant. So that means he has to try cheeses with minimal-to-no lactose in them (and I learned through his videos that there were a few, such as Muenster and Camembert with a 0–1.8% lactose range. Cheddar has 0–2.1% lactose range).

I haven’t had many grilled cheese in my life but having seen Chef Tyler’s, it has inspired me to search out different types of cheese and make my own. I hope to get a cheese pull as epic as his one day.

The enduring myths of Halloween poison candy in the US

For Atlas Obscura, Jennifer Byrne spoke to sociologist and “Halloween sadism” expert Joel Best about the enduring myths surrounding Halloween poison candy in the US. Since 1982, the fear of rat/ant poison in Halloween candy and razor blades in apples has caused a panic amongst parents and officials with the latter going as far as imposing jail time for offenders and hospitals offering free X-rays on seasonal treats (because radiation isn’t a problem, right?) But Best knows better:

“All I can say is I don’t know of a single case of a child killed by a Halloween poisoner,” says Best. “I’ve seen five news stories that attributed deaths to Halloween poisoning. In one case, it was the child’s own father, and the other four were all retracted.” […]

“My favorite story of this kind was the one where a kid had taken a bite out of a candy bar and said to his parents, ‘I think there’s ant poison on this candy bar,’” says Best. “So the candy bar got analyzed, and sure enough, there was ant poison on it, but it was on the end of the candy bar the kid hadn’t taken a bite from.” The child later admitted to having put the poison on the candy bar himself.

In a similar case, a child claiming that he’d found a pin in his Tootsie Roll led his parents to accuse a neighbor of the deed. After 20 years of no doubt awkward neighborhood interactions, the child, by then an adult, confessed to planting the pin himself.

I think the wildest story I read was an 8-year-old who died after eating a poisoned Pixy Stix. The culprit was his father who was “intent on collecting his son’s life insurance money”. I think that says a lot about where the dangers of unfounded moral panic really lie.

Halloween related (without the poison or razors): a mini Halloween post, Eva Marie’s Venom cosplay for Halloween, and awesome queer Halloween parties in Castro

Steve Harvey in an orange suit

Steve Harvey: “Where the hell do y’all live??”

That’s it. Just Steve Harvey in an orange suit. The clip is from Family Feud where people were the contestants were asked to name the top 6 things your friends dared you to eat as a kid.

I gotta say, I like the orange suit on him so props to his stylist and his tailor.

Related to Sartorial Steve: Steve Harvey, in a yellow suit, on getting fired

Zanele Muholi's 'The Politics of Black Silhouettes' exhibit in Paris

A bronze statue of a Black person sitting down on a plain of grass.
© Zanele Muholi, taken from the Paris+ par Art Basel website

Zanele Muholi (they/them) is a South African artist and “visual activist” known for their critically acclaimed photography. Their work mainly focuses on race, sexuality, and gender, partocularly the lives of LGBTQIA South Africans.

In their latest exhibition, The Politics of Black Silhouettes, Muholi taps into that Black queer community with the help of bronze statues:

Part of Paris + par Art Basel, Muholi’s The Politics of Black Silhouettes encompasses a series of figurative works positioned alongside statues by art historical greats like Auguste Rodin and Alberto Giacometti. While the previously installed sculptures are often presented on pedestals in stately positions, Muholi’s rest directly on the ground, exploring notions of value and reverence. One work depicts a figure sleeping softly on their side, while another shows a subject bound to a chair with belt-like restraints, their hands and feet anxious to move. The artist’s intent is corrective and “to rewrite a Black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in South Africa and beyond.”

via Colossal

The Politics of Black Silhouettes is available to view until 31st October so if you’re in or around Paris for the next couple of weeks or fancy a culture break, here’s some inspiration.

Pepper X is now the world's hottest pepper

Pepper X is now officially the hottest chili pepper in the world, according to Guinness World Records. It’s a small, yellow-green pepper and measures an average of 2.693 million Scoville Heat Units (SHUs), beating the classic Carolina Reaper, which averaged 1.64 million SHUs. And the creator of both? Ed Currie. The founder of PuckerButt Pepper Company also appeared on Hot Ones to get his Guinness World Records award and now I’m thinking there should be a Hot Ones award too.

Sidenote: what is it with things being called X this year? Come up with a decent name, please!

(via NPR)

Our Frasier Remake: a crowdsourced art project made by over 130 artists and fans

Our Frasier Remake

Our Frasier Remake is an amazing art project created by more than 130 filmmakers, animators, and fans from 11 countries around the world, all coming together to recreate one Frasier episode. Each creative was tasked with making one frame for the remake, like a vibrant patchwork quilt.

I recommend that you read the video’s description to find all the people who made this possible. I love collaborative art projects like this.

Related: Steamed Hams but every scene is in a different animation style and Steamed Hams but there’s a different animator every 13 seconds

Frasier art related: Someone made Frasier’s apartment with LEGO and I want a full season of Grunge Frasier please!

The mixed media pop art of Rasha Eleyan

Rasha Eleyan is a Palestinian pop art artist who currently lives between the UK and Singapore. Born in Dubai to Palestinian parents, Rasha mixes classical styles and realistic work with modern pop art to create her work. For those in the know when it comes to Palestinian art, you may also know her father Nasr Abdelaziz Eleyan, an artist and TV producer, who mentored her throughout her childhood.

Rasha’s style has drawn the attention of many, having worked as a portrait artist for a variety of client around the world. Fun fact: Rasha used to work for Walt Disney Television International in Singapore!

I love pop art as a genre but Rasha’s work is especially vibrant and they tell stories beyond the usual motifs found in this genre. The mixed media is *chef’s kiss*

Palestinian art related: Rami Afifi on Palestinian art and pop culture and a guide to Palestinian cinema for newbies (by Hyperallergic)

Yaya Azariah Clarke on 'the state of the creative industry from a Black perspective'

For It’s Nice That, Yaya Azariah Clarke examined the creative industry’s responses to the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, 3 years on. She spoke to a variety of Black creatives, including brothers Akil and Seth Scafe-Smith and Melissa Haniff, who run an interdisciplinary collective called Resolve:

“We haven’t really had the time to stop and think about 2020,” Seth tells us. A difficult time for the trio, with the overwhelming climate full of statements of solidarity, Seth adds that he “found it so very overwhelming, we turned down a lot of opportunities”. Three years later, in what is their biggest institutional feat to date, in April the collective opened an exhibition at the Barbican Centre in London titled them’s the breaks – which proved to be a bold continuation of their communal approach, having featured a library, a stage built with recycled materials and a series of workshops. A month before its scheduled close, people across Instagram, the architecture world, and Black and PoC communities were left to sit with yet another example of the institutional failings for Black creatives, after the collective announced that they’d be pulling the show due to “hostility towards close family and friends; heavy-handed and overly-suspicious treatment when entering our exhibition with a group of other Black and Brown artists […] and anti-Palestinian censorship,” (in a statement published in Fumbalist Magazine).

Shameless plug: I wrote an article from a digital marketing perspective on how Black marketers felt post-2020 and a lot of the people I interviewed felt similar things: lots of overwhelming pledges followed by a disappearance of action and energy—and back to normal with microaggressions and racism.

The creative industry is even broader and therefore Black creatives are exposed to harsher working conditions, both from a physical and emotional perspective. We didn’t ask for any of this and yet we have to bear the brunt of faux-action, reaction, and deathly silence. But I am grateful for everyone who carries on and wish love and guidance to those who need a damn break!

A slideshow of Black British style and joy in the 2000s

Black women dancing at a UK garage rave. Photo by PYMCA/Universal Images Group/Getty Images.

For Refinery29, L’Oréal Blackett showcased photos from the 2000s depicting Black British culture in all its stylistic splendour:

I know. The early noughties doesn’t feel that long ago, does it? Yet, as the 1990s have been gradually released from pop culture’s nostalgia grip, many have been heralding the early ’00s and its defining style and cultural impact (the best, worst and once forgotten). For Black British millennial women, the 2000s offer a time capsule to when young, Black, British female celebrities — from T4’s June Sarpong to songstress Jamelia — became much more visible, guiding us into early adulthood. 

I was a teenager in the 2000s and I remember that period fondly as a Black child. The summers were amazing, the music was amazing, and everything was cooler. Black joy was a priority (even though I hated high school) and I enjoyed engaging with Black British culture as much as I could. So Solid Crew, Lemar, Miss Dynamite, Jamelia, Misteeq, baby hairs, incredible plaits, getting a fresh cut and hopping into my sister’s Renault Clio on the way home with Lisa Maffia blasting on the stereo. Uh, what a time!

A $2 gourmet burger, according to Joshua Weissman

The 2 Dollar Gourmet Burger | But Cheaper

$2 for a “gourmet” burger? Count me in! Joshua Weissman went through the steps to make it but on closer inspection, it’s gonna cost more than $2 for many of us (and I’m not talking about exchange rates). The reason I say this is because Joshua makes his own buns and has the kind of equipment that’ll cost a lot of money to get to a level he’s at. Oh, and lots of trial and error unless you’re experienced in making burger buns.

Am I nit-picking? Maybe. The title was likely chosen to get clicks (which it did) and the burger looks delicious so who cares? But it’s best to know what to expect. You could just buy some brioche buns like I have in the past. And smash your burgers with something clean, flat and metallic. Bon appetit!