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

Aditya Singh lived inside O'Hare Airport for 3 months unnoticed

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Aditya Singh

I’ve always wondered how long you could stay in an airport before someone noticed. For Aditya Singh, that was 3 months.

The 36-year-old man from California told officials after landing at O’Hare Airport in Chicago on 19th October, he was so afraid of COVID-19, he didn’t fly back home and stayed in the airport until 16th January. That means he spent Christmas and New Year’s alone at the airport.

And no one noticed.

Mr Singh was later charged with felony criminal trespass to a restricted area of an airport and misdemeanour theft. The judge presiding over the case was surprised he’d gone undetected for so long.

“So if I understand you correctly, you’re telling me that an unauthorized, nonemployee individual was allegedly living within a secure part of the O’Hare airport terminal from Oct. 19, 2020, to Jan. 16, 2021, and was not detected? I want to understand you correctly.”

As of now, he’s still in police custody with a bail set at $1,000.

Related to airports: Tom Comitta’s airport novella could have kept him company

Officials: Man lived inside O’Hare Airport for 3 months before detection

(via Oddity Central)

Favourite typefaces of 2020

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I Love Typography and PRINT listed their favourite typefaces of 2020. I’m subscribed to a few typography newsletters and catch a glimpse of new fonts as they’re released but I wasn’t familiar with most on these lists.

There was a lot of love for serif and display fonts in I Love Typography’s list while PRINT was more varied, featuring Atkinson Hyperlegible amongst other sans serif typefaces (a lot of which I like).

I think my favourites from these lists would be Atkinson Hyperlegible, Pacaembú, and Futura Now. The serif ones are either too similar or verging on illegible.

Related: Burger King’s cool rebrand, a typography cheatsheet, the story of Comic Sans, and the omnipresence of Cooper Black.

(h/t Typewolf)

A samurai made out of a single piece of paper

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A samurai made out of a single piece of paper

A Finnish origami artist named Juho Könkkölä made an incredible samurai in plated armour with nothing but a single sheet of 95x95cm paper:

Juho Könkkölä spent upwards of 50 hours scoring and folding just one sheet of Wenzhou rice paper to create this painstakingly detailed samurai complete with plated armor, traditional helmet, and sword. Beginning with a 95 x 95-centimeter page, the 23-year-old Finnish artist used a combination of wet and dry origami techniques to shape the 28-centimeter-tall warrior of his own design.

Juho has over 15 years of experience in origami modelling and takes inspiration from “history, folk tales, mythologies, books, movies, video games, and real-life observations”.

  • Tired: trying to fold a piece of paper more than 8 times
  • Wired: trying to fold a piece of paper into a crane
  • Inspired: trying to fold a piece of paper into a samurai

Related: Indo apples, samurai, and Japanese farmers and Yasuke, an African samurai in Japan

The folding process of origami Samurai Warrior

(via Twister Sifter)

Shoji Morimoto: a Tokyo "rent-a-person"

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Sometimes you just need someone to be there for you, especially during times like this. Not to say or do anything—just be there. Shoji Morimoto, a 37-year-old Tokyo man, can offer that service for ¥10,000 per request (about £71 or $96).

Shoji Morimoto has been advertising himself as a person who can “eat and drink, and give simple feedback, but do nothing more,” since June 2018, and has received over 3,000 requests.

His work has garnered high praise from his clients and people on Twitter:

“I’m glad I was able to take a walk with someone while keeping a comfortable distance, where we didn’t have to talk but could if we wanted to.”

“I had been slack about visiting the hospital, but I went because he came with me.”

“He listened to me without shaming me about going to the adult entertainment shop. It felt like a support to just have him by my side without forcing his opinions on me.”

Semi-related: The insular world of hikikomori and the internet cafe refugees of Japan

(via The Mainichi)

Toni Morrison on Martin Luther King

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As it’s Martin Luther King Day, people have taken to social media to share quotes and meta-opinions about those quotes (and who says them). I’m very wary of white allies who use MLK as a shield against criticism or some kind of threading on their quilt of equality.

And then I saw this quoted on Twitter today:

“Since the murder of Martin Luther King, new commitments had been sworn, laws introduced but most of it was decorative: statues, street names, speeches. It was as though something valuable had been pawned and the claim ticket lost.”

Toni Morrison, PARADISE

Ain’t that the truth? But then again, Toni Morrison always knew.

I'm obsessed with Michael Keaton's Easter Candy SNL skit

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While looking for Michael Keaton movies to buy/rent on YouTube, I came across this skit from SNL Season 40 Episode 17 (2015) starring Michael Keaton.

Entitled “Easter Candy“, it shows Keaton as himself but in a very creepy way showing all the easter candy he has in his basket. He’s joined by Portia (played by Kate McKinnon) and a cameo from his friend Jordan (who’s “a nut” as you’ll see later on, played by Bobby Moynihan).

Keaton started out in comedy but pivoted towards more serious work during the late 80s and throughout the rest of his career, thanks to impressive roles in Clean and Sober, Batman, and Batman Returns. He then came back to prominence in 2014 in Birdman, winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

What I love about Michael Keaton is his range and having grown up knowing more of his serious stuff—that happens when you watch Batman and Batman Returns hundreds of times each in 28 years—I thoroughly enjoy his comedy, past and present. In “Easter Candy“, there are some hilariously creepy moments and some new quotables added to my repertoire.

Stream it below.

Easter Candy - SNL

Detroit's real life Carl Brutananadilewski

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Carl Brutananadilewski

In 2012, Detroit’s 7 Action News tracked down a man called Ihor Stetkewycz who was accused of dumping tree parts. He claimed it was accidental but when asked why he left them there, he decided to show his misogynistic colours.

Man Tells Female Reporter He Won't Take Orders From Women

“You don’t have to ask me, and I don’t take no orders from no woman by the way. By the way, I don’t take no orders from no women […] I don’t listen to women yelling. I tell them to shut up.”

Ihor Stetkewycz, male chauvinist from Mars

He then dubbed himself “Mr. Clean Up” in response to being asked whether he’d clear the tree parts and then told Action News he was from Mars.

A year later, ChiliConQueso on YouTube uploaded “Real Life Carl Brutananadilewski” which showed a comparison of Carl Brutananadilewski from Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Ihor Stetkewycz. The resemblance is uncanny. Sarcastic, brash, and terrible behaviour towards women.

Real Life Carl Brutananadilewski

Asshole related: Was Jim Carrey an asshole on the set of Man On The Moon? And Picasso: the misogynistic douchebag.

The evolution of Pinhead

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The evolution of Pinhead

I stumbled on this video by Darwin’s Media last year, showcasing the evolution of Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies.

Pinhead is one of the leaders of the Cenobites, formerly humans but transformed into creatures which reside in an extradimensional realm, who travel to Earth through a puzzle box called the Lament Configuration in order to harvest human souls. His origins and the nature of the Cenobites vary depending upon the medium: while the character began as an amoral entity blindly devoted to the practice of experimental sadomasochism, later depictions have portrayed him as explicitly evil and even demonic in origin.

I’ve never watched Hellraiser (maybe I will one day) but I’ve always been fascinated by Pinhead and after watching the video, I’m a big fan of his one liners.

What I didn’t know was how many times he’d been portrayed, on film and television:

Pinhead has also appeared in The Simpsons, Robot Chicken, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Family Guy, and South Park. That’s a lot of media for someone who doesn’t get the recognition he deserves compared to Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, or Leatherface.

Stream it below.

Pinhead Evolution in Movies & TV (Hellraiser)

The history of the chili pepper

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chili peppers

Matthew Wills wrote a great piece on the long, wonderful history of the chili pepper. Straight off the bat, we get educated on something most people associate with chilis—hotness:

Not all chilis are hot. Some are mildly sweet, others comfortably warming. Used in widely different cuisines on every continent, chilis originated in the Western Hemisphere. “Chili” itself comes from a Nahuatl word.

But I prefer the hot ones. In small quantities, not super hot, and preferably in flake form. I also enjoy videos of people eating chilis such as AyyOnline and this classic.

Oh, and for anyone who wonders why water doesn’t help when you’ve eaten a chili: it’s because the water spreads the capsaicin (the alkaline chemical that produces the burning sensation) across your mouth. Therefore you need an acid to neutralise it; drinks like milk (which contains lactic acid) and any citrus juice will help.

Related: Hellboy Right Hand of Doom hot sauce, the world’s hottest gummy bear and Gabrielle Union eating hot wings on Hot Ones.

Philip Crowther telling the news in 6 languages

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philip crowther and elmo

Philip Crowther is a reporter for the Associated Press and he covered the Capitol insurrection in 6 languages last week.

  • French
  • English
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • German
  • Luxembourgish

And if you wanted to know what “the news” was in those languages?

  • Les nouvelles (French)
  • The news (English)
  • Las noticias (Spanish)
  • As notícias (Portuguese)
  • die Nachrichten (German)
  • d’Neiegkeeten (Luxembourgish)

And shout out to all the polyglots out there who could do this as a means of survival.

See also: Viggo Mortensen speaking 7 languages and 2 polyglots speaking 21 languages to each other

Amen and awoman

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women praying

To paraphrase Ross Geller, congresspeople say all kinds of… stuff.

On 4th January, The New York Post reported on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver closing Congress’s opening prayer with the phrase “amen and awoman”:

May the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us and give us peace,” Cleaver said during his two-minute invocation, “peace in our families, peace across this land, and dare I ask, o Lord, peace even in this chamber.

We ask it in the name of the monotheistic God, Brahma, and ‘God’ known by many names by many different faiths. Amen and awoman.

I’m no stranger to this kind of gendered prayer; the God interlude from OutKast’s Speakerboxx/The Love Below uses a similar variation:

Amen
Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry
A-lady

But that was in jest. Cleaver meant what he said. Victor Mair from Language Log dissected the utterance, with etymologies of the word “amen” and, for those who didn’t know, it isn’t connected to the word “man” in any way.

Old English, from Late Latin amen, from Ecclesiastical Greek amen, from Hebrew amen “truth,” used adverbially as an expression of agreement (as in Deuteronomy xxvii.26, I Kings i.36), from Semitic root a-m-n “to be trustworthy, confirm, support.”

There’s something to be said about the trustworthiness, confirmation, support of men but that’s for another day. Needless to say, you don’t need to feminise the word “amen” but what Congress should do is make women’s lives better—especially women of colour—with better legislation for their rights and their bodies.

Jean-Michel Basquiat – "Milk and Asbestos"

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Jean-Michel Basquiat – "Milk and Asbestos"

While on my internet travels, I stumbled upon a Basquiat artwork I’d never seen before.

Milk and Asbestos was painted between 1980-1984 in acrylic and gouache on a smaller surface than usual for Basquiat; a board at 16x12x2 inches. The piece depicts a skull as the focal point with words such as “JAIL JAIL”, “SOAP SOAP”, and the title “MILK + ASBESTOS” painted in the space.

It’s currently held by Mandarin Fine Art Gallery, having been in various private collections since its completion.

For more on Jean-Michel Basquiat, check out Sammy Willbourne’s top 5 Basquiat paintings.

Burger King rebrand is simple, nostalgic, and effective

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You may have heard about Burger King’s recent rebrand, their first in over 20 years. Older customers may also think the “new” logo looks the same as the logo used between 1994–1999.

Burger King logo, used between 1994–1999
Burger King logo, used from December 2000

It’s fundamentally similar but there are noticeable differences and I’m sure a designer could explain why they’re significant. But a rebrand is more than a different logo.

But my favourite part? This ingenious monogram.

It’s a B and a K and it looks like a condensed version of the fuller logo, in the style of a burger.

The Flame brand font family was designed by Colophon Foundry in bold, regular and sans, reminiscent of Cooper Black and Raphael Abreu, global head of design for Burger King’s parent company, told It’s Nice That he “wanted a font that make people want to take a bite out of it.”

“We are also very playful and bold in how we use the new font. There is a variable version where we stretch and compress it and create expressive and impactful illustrations with it.”

Unfortunately, I swore off ever eating from Burger King 20 years ago this year after a bad experience and, well, I’m not going to change that. But I still love The Slider.

Doom Haikus, sponsored by 2020

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edvard munch's scream

Doom Haikus is a collection of “gloomy haikus” and its origin story is simple:

Everyday* in 2020, we posted the top news stories to Mechanical Turk, asking turkers to respond with a 5, 7, 5 syllable haiku. These are the results.

*almost

And those results are “about 2,000 people” who responded with over 2,700 haikus, “forever memorializing the worst year of our lives, as anxious sets of 5, 7, 5 syllables.”

Here’s one from January I thought was funny:

AOC Makes Claim
Joe Biden is too Centrist
She is Progressive

There’s been a lot of discourse around doomscrolling and the physical and mental drain on us but these doom haikus seem almost… cathartic? They don’t solve the issues we have faced, are facing, or will face but they try to make sense of things, even for 17 syllables.

Nancy Grace reading Shakespeare (by Ryan Ken)

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It’s been a long year and we’re only into the second week. Things are heavy for so many of us and sometimes you need a bit of light relief to keep you going.

Of the main people I follow on Instagram for that purpose, Ryan Ken is one of my favourites. His hilarious send-ups of white people in all kinds of situations are mental palate cleansers and this one is no exception.

Yesterday, Ryan donned his blonde wig to impersonate Nancy Grace reading Shakespeare. The impersonation is spot-on and Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet never sounded so American South and fed up.

Black comedy related: The TikTok meme with the dancing duck and Steve Harvey on getting fired.