Unhoppy Chocolate
Vulture has oft wondered what it’s like to live and die in the pastel microcosm of the Easter basket womb. And now we know. A visually stimulating video collaboration between Dutch artists Sander Plug and Lernert Engelberts, Chocolade Haas was commissioned by Cut-n-Paste for Grote Kunst voor Kleine Mensen (Big Art for Small People). You can view Chocolade Haas on either artist’s website or at the project’s site.
Sexy Halloween Costumes, Funny YouTube Videos Never Grow Old
Every year for Halloween, a multitude of women forgo the traditional Halloween costume fabrication/procuration process, throw on a selection of seldom worn and mismatched clothing from their closet depths, put on lots of garish makeup, and proclaim their costume to be “sexy” or “whore.” We are pretty sure this tradition has roots in Puritan days of yore when Halloween was, by law, the only day of the year womenfolk were allowed to show their ankles. Thanks Halloween.
Putin is the New Push-Pop
America isn’t the only place where election fever has gripped the nation years early; the former Soviet Union, aka Mother Russia, has been wrestling with its own political conundrums leading up to their very own 2008 presidential elections. Will incumbent Vladimir Putinnany, despite statements to the contrary, defy his country’s constitution and get hisself a third straight term in office? Or will he transfer presidential power to his semi-new political Wet-Nap™, Prime Minister Victor Zubakov and continue on as Prime Minister? Or will former World Chess Champion Garry “Checkmate, Bitch†Kasparov ride into the Kremlin with strong support from the opposition party. Or will Boris Yeltsin rise from his grave looking slightly less bloated than Jon Goodman on the 3rd season of Roseanne and claim victory?
Only time will tell but Vulture is sure of one thing: few politicians seem to have has much politically vitality as ex-KGB man Putin. It’s like you can just keep squeezing some more of him out from inside that little Push-Pop podium. Guy could still father healthy children after vacationing at Chernobyl. Plus, he’s still undefeated when it comes to computers.
T.I. is the New Charlton Heston
Vulture was pleased to learn 31 minutes ago that Southern Hip-Hop superstar Clifford Harris Jr., rapper alias T.I., was finally released on $3 million bond after 13 days in jail following an October 13th arrest for federal weapons charges. A week and a half ago, an hour before performing at the BET Hip-Hop awards, T.I. was busted by federal agents for attempting to purchase several machine guns and two silencers. Schwing!
Ban on assault weapons? “Nay†says T.I., joining an elite group of pop culture icons like Ted Nugent, Hunter S. Thompson and the ever-so-never popular Penn & Teller, who all feel strongly about their Second Amendment rights and well regulated militias. It’s about time the NRA moved on “From my cold, dead hands,†and “Pull up in the Chevys spraying rounds through the glass. See you laying face down in the grass and I’ll laugh†has a real nice ring to it. Remember, guns don’t kill people, bullets do.
A Different Kind of Pot Head: The New Johnny Appleseed
Everyone likes to think of themselves as an instrument of social change these days. Everybody got some great idea for changing the world around them when they aren’t in the club gettin’ tipsy. Perhaps your philanthropy might take the form of a recently purchased, vertically-integrated-manufacturing-ed Rib Boy Beater Tank from sweatshop renouncer Am App , or, you might have traded in your decade-old Vespa for a fixed gear several years ago. Regardless of how you express your good will towards man and/or planet, we are all blown away when a true social visionary materializes out of nowhere.
Enter Paul Glover (having a Wikipedia page lends a person more legitimacy than a library card), a contemporary Johnny Appleseed. Young Glover has transplanted himself from the post-industrial wastelands of Upstate New York to the oft-swept-by-Center-City-District-Munincipal-Employees-and-gunfire sidewalks of Philadelphia where he has made a pledge to transform Philadelphia’s some 40,700 vacant lots into viable apple orchards. Sixty-year-old Glover plans to achieve this lofty goal through the Philly Orchard Project, or POP (a convenient acronym), and his elephantine green thumb.
Scoff though some may, Glover has an impressive list of personal accolades to support the legitimacy of his cause. The social activist is credited with creating the “first US bioregional currency, accepted by thousands of residents and over 500 businesses” (Ithaca HOURs) and founding several nonprofit, collective health financing systems, as well as being a 2004 Green Party presidential nominee (no sheeeeeeet). Regardless of what happens, dude’s serious ‘bout ripened ovaries and coming to a bombed-out lot near you.
Read up on Sustainable Development.
Adidas Ad Rocks
We spotted this “New York is my Running Mate” ad campaign while catching the L in NYC the other day. Probably pictures rendered to look almost like paintings. Beautiful and large, for a second the grungy subway stop was turned into a Chelsea Gallery and we heard birds and saw a shimmering light from above. Why can’t everyone have this good of taste?
Afraid our flick doesn’t really do it any justice, just go to the Union Square stop.
Voodoo Funk: Collecting Records with Risk of Death.
A blog by a german man who moved to Guinea on the coast of West Africa in order to collect rare African Funk 45s. This blog details his adventures through civil wars, corrupt governments, disease and gun fire all in the pursuit of obscure records. Includes MP3s. This blog is a gift. Use it well.
Trend Involved? We believe more people can live this sort of dangerous/irregular lifestyle because markets are eaisier to find via the internet. Also maybe there were always people like this only we couldn’t see them then and now we can.
Also! The rapid onslaught of new music causes some to want to find and protect the old. Also! Because new music is so easy to find via myspace and etc. music that requires a challenge to hunt down becomes all the more valuable. . . you want what you can’t have, not what you can.
In case you missed the in-text link, here it is again: blog
Science Fiction is the new Fantasy
An article in the New York Times this morning pointed out that there aren’t going to be any top-shelf video-games this season with dragons and wizards in ‘em, instead there’s aliens. We at The Vulture think this is a trend that runs deeper then video games, and has something to do with the death of Harry Potter and LOTR mixed with the onslaught of copy-cat fiction and fantasy movies that no one wants to watch.
Instead of wizard battles people are turning to new William Gibson novels and pouring over old Philip K. Dick stories, it might still be a story but people fighting in the face of new technologies has a slightly more realistic ring to it. Imagination paradigm shift–ho!
REALLY BAD STAR WARS TRUMPET
Basically wow; It took nerve or zero brains to pull this off in front of an audience:
The Psychic Soviet
Former “Nation of Ulysses” front-man, former “The Make-Up” front-man, current “Weird War” front-man/host of vbs.tv’s Soft Focus, Ian Svenonius, was in Philly last friday on a lecture tour/talking up his book The Psychic Soviet. Soviet is a great collection of pseudo-intellectual essays concerning subjects such as the essence of rock and roll, depression and divorce rates resulting from the fall of The Soviet Union, and how Seinfield has influenced individualism and movement of the white people back to the cities.
A must read for anyone who over-thinks this chaos we call society, and something fun for everyone, even if you just read it for the cultural implications. The book itself is something of an art object and beautifully encapsulates some of Ian’s dramatics. It’s small, so it’ll fit in the back pocket of your jeans. The cover of the book is pink and water-proofish, durable, so you can take it everywhere and there are blank pages for making notes in the back, writing in the margins is encouraged. All in all The Psychic Soviet is the sort of text destined to be quoted by aficionados of undergroundish culture and loved by cool geeks everywhere.
This Woman Snores Like A Duck
Cleveland: The Land Where Bears Are Made Of Cardboard
Louisiana Government Loves Themselves Some Halle Berry
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