H.P. Lovecraft is known for his sub culture of horror , but also for his bar too? The American author became so popular in Portland, Oregon that they have a dance bar dedicated too him. Funny enough Lovecraft was from Rhode Island, and doesn’t really have much connection to Oregon at all that I could find. Why Oregon has a Lovecraftian horror themed bar/dance club is a mystery that is not really explained, but it is quite odd and surely a place I would love to check out one of these days.
“Sleeping Beauty” in her glass coffin
The mummification process has been happening for about 5,000-7,000 years at this point in time, and after all of that practice we have managed to preserve humans and animals so that they are considered “art” in museums. Although we have managed to preserve the insides quite well the skin and features of the bodies are hard to hit right on the head and keep young and beautiful. There is an exception to this though; “Sleeping Beauty” they call her. Sleeping Beauty is identified to be a 2 year old Rosalina Lombardo (Italy) who is know know as the worlds most beautiful mummy . Not much is known about the mere toddlers life except for the fact that she was embalmed by Alfredo Salafia. The young girls body was preserved so well because of the mixture of formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid and glycerin. She is on exhibit at the Capuchin Catacombs in Italy. She is deaths eternal playmate, deaths doll.
There are many different types of art out there, and oddities art is a coming of age movement that is just starting to take the world by storm! I have already introduced you to Forgotten Boneyard, an artist who takes bones and makes them everyday art and attatches them to household objects. Another coming of age artist is Jana Miller who created Bonelust Studio. She is a nature lover who makes bone jewelry. She uses the bones of animals to make ornamental one of a kind pieces. These necklaces are the next level of oddities art in the fact that they are so accessible and somewhat cheap for what you are getting. Bonelust Studio also does collaborations with Forgotten Boneyard which come out to be some amazing works of art, so be sure to check both of them out!
Bottled snake wine
Last night for lack of better things to do I re-watched an entire season of Oddities: San Francisco, when I realized there was an episode that I must have just glimpsed through before because I had missed one of the coolest items that I have ever seen on the show. A seller brought the ladies at the shop snake wine that he was looking to sell. I was unfamiliar with the item so accordingly I googled it. Snake wine is an Asian booze that contains the bodies of venomous snakes and sometimes scorpions as well. It is known as a cure all and there are still people in Asia that drink it. When googling where you can find this product and just how much I would have to pay for it, i stumbled upon an article about a woman in China who makes her own snake wine and was bit by the “dead” pickled snake that had been in the wine for three months! If i do end up buying a bottle I’m for sure going to make sure that its a few years old to be positive that the only thing in the bottle with a bite is the drink itself!
Any horror movie fanatic knows that its getting to be that time of year when the frights come out in the daytime, no it isn’t halloween its Texas Frightmare Weekend. Last year I was unable to attend because of work, but this year I have high hopes of being able to attend. Upon attendance I am hoping to be able to meet the bone artist that my last post was about Forgotten Boneyard. He will be attending the 3rd -5th and selling some of his one of a kind pieces. There will be many guest attending such as George A. Romero the director of Night of the Living Dead and other “dead” movies, and actor Tobin Bell who played as Jigsaw in all of the SAW movies. There will be screenings of movies such as The Den,the world premiere [SX_Tape], Call Girl, and the world premiere of Circus of the Dead. Along with the screenings there will be parties held, a 666 horror movie trivia contest and of course the scariest thing of all karaoke! If you can’t make it out to any of the days of the actual event , Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is having a bit of a pre show where you can go and watch screenings of other popular horror movies such as The Blair Witch Project, and REPO! The Genetic Opera.
While horror movies are not technically an oddity in themselves I believe this festival to be quite odd in the attention that it draws, and some of the people who show up. I myself have always been a bit of a horror fanatic which drives the need to see the odd, grimy, gory things in real life. In fact some of the bone artist that i have come across such as Forgotten Boneyard are driven by their love of horror movies and it is what inspires them to make their odd art.
Texas Frightmare Weekend Logo 2014
Tim Prince – Scorpion
Mirror – Tim Prince
When I first started this blog, I went through Twitter excessively trying to find strange things, and one of them that I came to admire is one that came to me. Forgotten Boneyard is an artist that I am very proud to have following me and likewise be following in return. The pieces created by this mastermind are unique, terrifying, and adorable all at the same time. The best part is that all of the pieces are made of bone, or real animals that have either been mummified or turned into wet specimens.
Tim Prince is an artistic genius in my eyes. Of all my years of finding and playing with animal bones growing up, never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought to make art out of them. Prince has taken the scientific aspect of bone arrangement and turned it into an art all his own making beautiful replicas of creatures to display along with taking the bones and creating his own “monstrosities”. The best part is, he does not just work in bone, but also mummifies animals, and most interestingly to me creates wet specimens (kind of like those you would see in a Biology class lab except more artistic). These beautiful pieces are like none I have ever seen before. His bone pieces range from skeletons of his imagination, to pieces where he is using bone to adorn mirrors and household items. The bone adorned mirrors are by far my favorite pieces that I have seen, there is a mystique that is carried within the mirrors, and a beautiful parallel between life, death, and beauty. Prince also makes custom orders, if you have something creepy that you would like to come to life for you much like his deathly flowers. The one flaw I do believe this art carries with it though is not an artistic flaw, in fact I believe these pieces are flawless, but I do believe that the market of buyers for this type of art is limited. Most people do not even realize this type of art is out there just yet, but the great thing alongside that is the fact that buyers of this art are actively seeking it out and craving more. Prince himself has already been featured on countless websites and in Girls and Corpses Magazine, but personally I believe he deserves much more attention that he and his artwork have already received. Personally I am a huge fan of his works and adore his artistic style, and hope to own one of those gorgeous mirrors one of these days!
In class we have looked up supernode blogs, and I tried to find a supernode through twitter, but there were none that stuck out to me overall that I did not already follow so I quickly started stumbling through blogs and sites and where and what they would lead me to. Strangely enough one of the blogs that came up as an oddities supernode is a blog that I already follow on my personal Tumblr account. This tumblr account by Sarah Gill came up when I searched through some of the blogs that I follow for this blog. Along with this tumblr that comes up as an oddities supernode there is also the Animal Planet Page that comes up, where an animal oddities blog is run. These two blogs have been linked before in common talk, but not majorly in the fact that while they do both talk about oddities they are very different aspects of odd. I was unaware that I was following an oddities supernode, and while this tumblr is mostly pictures of oddities, it has become very popular for oddities lovers and connects to small businesses such as Etsy.
Healing Crystals and related Chakra spots
When I was told that we would be editing Wikipedia pages as an assignment I started to understand why all those years teachers and professors had said that “Wikipedia is not a credible source”. Once we started getting into talking about Wikipedia though and how edited it is it made me question whether or not it actually is credible, because while anyone with a Wikipedia account can edit pages that are not protected they are so edited that any bad information gets edited out pretty quickly. I took on editing by adding content to the Crystal Healing page. Once I read through the page I realized that it is lacking much information about crystal healing in general and which crystals and gems are used in the act of using crystals to heal someone/something. I took the courtesy to add a list of commonly used crystals and gems along with what they are known to do and what they help with overall. While the page is still lacking in much information, I believe that adding this portion helps readers to understand what people mean when they say crystal healing. Venturing back into editing the rest of this page might be a future task for me, to expand on what is already stated to make the overall idea more clear to those who know nothing about the subject. Overall editing the actual page was not difficult and my edits have stayed up thus far. It is scary and entertaining knowing that anyone can get in there and change my work, but I enjoy it for the most part because it is seemingly based of the “it takes a village” ideal. Although the complete idea of crystal healing is not something that I believe in thoroughly (I do not believe that crystals can cure diseases or serious illness of any sort), I do believe that there is something mystic about the crystals and gems themselves. There is an unexplained beauty and simplicity that comes from them that I believe does give off energy. I have multiple crystals spread around my house, in windows being cleansed by sunlight, and many pieces that are jewelry that I consistently wear because I believe they bring a positive energy to me when I wear them. I am going to research this idea further and expand on it on the Wikipedia page, because I found the overall experience of editing it enjoyable in knowing that I am informing others on something that I believe that others are not familiar with. After being able to actual get into Wikipedia and play around I do understand why it will probably never be considered a credible source, but I believe it all depends on the page. I believe that some pages especially the protected ones are pretty credible for the fact that they are not as edible as others. Overall editing Wikipedia was easy and interesting, and personally I will be getting back on to edit some of the pages such as this one that I have researched and believe in.
Case from Museum Fragonard
Last night I was watching Oddities: San Francisco which features the shop Loved to Death. The owners of the shop were helping a customer who wanted something to remind him of his old pal his organ grinding monkey. While trying to meet his request they go to Raymond Bandar’s Bone Palace. This mans collection made me curious as to what other bone palaces exist out there and and I stumbled upon a post on twitter posted by @morbidanatomy which is a list of the 5 Must Visit Oddities Museums Around the World . While all of these museums are not just featuring bones, they are bone palaces, and some of the most interesting Oddities Museums that i have ever looked into. I hope to one day be able to visit each of these at least once!
In fact Ryan Matthew Cohn just posted pictures a week ago on his Instagram from the Museum of Natural History and the Museum Fragonard (in the above article), while on his latest visit to Paris.
To begin I would like to state that i co wrote and co researched this with Matthew.
Exterior (night)
Brewing in Houston has been a ghost story in the making since the founder Brock Wagner started the St. Arnold Brewery in the building that resides at 2000 Lyons Avenue in 2009. The building itself has been around since 1914, which has given it the chance to be many things before, including haunted, but according to city records, the building at 2000 Lyons Avenue, doesn’t exist. Images from 1914 show the building and others around it, but City of Houston records show now buildings having been built there during that time.
A brewery is not the first place that many would imagine to be haunted, yet behind Texas’ oldest craft beer there is an odd story that includes the building being an overall mystery and ghost children possibly from the fire of 1912. On top of their fine crafted beer, a ghost story is lurking in the depths of that brewery. In fact, many stories have been told by employees of the brewery about hearing childrens laughter, singing, and shadows roaming inside.
“Philip Dagger, our packaging manager, and his 2- or 3-year-old daughter Sydney were in the brewery’s beer hall one night. Dagger was sitting at one of the tables while Sydney was playing near one of the corners of the hall. All of a sudden she points to an area near the windows that separates the beer hall from the brewhouse and shouts, “Hey Daddy! Kids!” Dagger looks over to where she is pointing but sees no one. Still, Sydney is insistent that there are children in that corner and continues to say, “Kids!” – Dennis Rhee
It has gathered so much attention that 39 Ghost Hunters visited there just last year to investigate the happenings of the brewery and had quite the experience. While they did not have a huge experience there, there were definite moments of paranormal activities of sorts. There are faces seen and children interacting with them, along with what sounds to be breathing and mumbling at one point. Personally, I am not totally convinced that all these ghost stories are true, and I would have to go down there and take my Ouija board with me and play around to find out, and one of these days I just might.
Another wrench in this scary story is that some of the employees aren’t even aware of the “supernatural” occurrences. When a family member of one of the employees was asked about the story by me, he had never heard of the rumors. He promptly asked his brother (who works for St. Arnold’s) who hadn’t heard of them either. As for now though I will say that there is something different about their story and their building, something eerie.
If the story behind the brewery interests you, there are daily tours every weekday and weekend. During this tour you can see if you have any paranormal experiences yourself and have one of their craft beers while you are at it! There are many skeptics towards this story along with any other ghost story,so whether it is the haunted history behind the brewery itself or just the good ol’ beer, go check it out and you can be the judge.
If you can’t make it down to Houston, though, there are plenty of places in DFW where you can get St. Arnold brews:
Matthew took the liberty of swinging by Central Market this week and picking up some to try for himself. Lack of full six packs made it impossible to get all of the kinds they carried, but he was able to grab Lawnmower, Santos, and Amber Ale. Lawnmower was my personal favorite, and since it seems to be their most popular, he is going to go over that.
From their website:
“A true German-style Kolsch. Originally brewed in Cologne, this beer is crisp & refreshing, yet has a sweet malty body that is balanced by a complex, citrus hop character. Multiple additions of German Hallertauer hops are used to achieve this delicate flavor. We use a special Kolsch yeast, an ale yeast that ferments at lager temperatures, to yield the slightly fruity, clean flavor of this beer. Fancy Lawnmower Beer is a world class brew yet light enough to be enjoyed by Texans after strenuous activities, like mowing the lawn.”
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Creepy Little Things 