Oh, Darling, Oh, Maroussia

Get ready for a Cossack weekend with Otava Yo.

Just in case WWIII breaks out

Radiation induced  mutation

These days we prefer to terrorize ourselves with Ebola, Marburg virus, zombie outbreaks and other pandemics (and don't even get me started on EMP and asteroid collisions), but back in the good old days we mainly worried about A and H bombs.

It seems -- and this is not to minimize the dangers of bacteria and virii -- like we are allowing such fears to side-track us from preparations for nuclear war. So, as a public service, I bring you the above educational video to prepare you for the mushroom clouds in your future.

As a bonus, below is a video of an old air raid siren being fired up. Fairly creepy sounding all in all. Well, with that I'm off on a test run of my 'below a workbench' fallout shelter. Laugh if you must, but I won't be the one turning into a radiation mutant because I was unprepared. Then again, the mutants do get the pretty girls in the end, don't they?

Happier memories

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Yesterday was Memorial Day, where we remember those who sacrificed all in combat. There were happier times as well. These are a small sampling of WWII brides and grooms from Vintage Everday's Wartime Marriage: Lovely Photos of WWII Soldiers With Their Brides. Many more photos can be found at the link.

In Remembrance

The Battle Hymn of the Republic -- Skylar Shupe

Making tater chips in India

Jaymukh, the father of the Village Food Factory YouTuber, makes a batch of potato chips. After frying them, he seasons them with chile powder and salt. Then they package them and they hand them out for the villagers to enjoy. At the link are many other videos of Jaymukh cooking various dishes.

You can read more about the father and son pair making the videos at the New Yorker article, The Indian Filmmaker Who Made His Dad’s Village Cooking a YouTube Sensation. From the article:

Like the other addictive food videos ... the videos on Village Food Factory have their own formula for viral appeal, built on Jaymukh’s quiet, matter-of-fact way of preparing large quantities of food with the scantest equipment. Jaymukh hacks down shrubs with a machete to make space for himself to cook, and lugs huge branches from nearby trees to build his fires. He makes homemade coconut oil by methodically cracking open a hundred coconuts, and scrambles hundreds of eggs in a kiddie-pool-size pot. In the channel’s most popular video, he drops two hundred pieces of chicken into a deep vat of oil for a K.F.C.-style preparation.

In the eye of the beholder

Top: Beauty and the Beast

Bottom: Ulysses and the Sirens

Contradictions - Jordan Malik

Our eyes show us what is in front of us
But they don’t show us what is there
The sun gives us our light
Yet it brings with it the shadows
Our hearts are meant to love
But hate lingers here
Opposites with the same home
You cannot hate without having loved
Yes, this world
It is a beating, living heart
Filled with love, Full of hate
It is broken and scarred
Yet it is fresh and beautiful
Hate cannot take over this heart
But love cannot win
Life in itself is just one contradiction after the next

Gimme Shelter

Get ready for a hematic weekend with  Groovy Waters featuring Lizette.

From civilian to soldier

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This is a 1942 series of photos of George Camblair being inducted into the army and undergoing training. I tried to find out what happened to him, but had no luck in my search. I did quite like the touch that he got the pretty girl in the end. I wonder if he used the ol' "I don't want to die a virgin" line on her?

I found the pictures at Flashbak's The Making Of A GI: One Man’s Journey From Working Stiff To Man Of War (1942). There are more after the jump, and of course more at the Flashbak link.

Homemade gypsy pegs

Gypsy pegs are another name this English fellow uses for clothes pins. He's showing how to DIY make them in the video. I dunno, for as cheap as a package of them are this seems like an awful labor intensive way to save a buck or two. I suppose there is some satisfaction to it all, if only in drinking the beers needed to use the cans for metal strips in their manufacture.

The fellow's name is Harry Rogers, and his YouTube channel is full of all sorts of other odd and interesting DIY projects.

There’s always an end to the glory

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I've noticed that frequently Oriental artwork is not bound by the golden proportion. Rather, the division is one side full of detail and the other a void. Our human reality balanced against something else altogether. These oil paintings, and the text below, is from the website of the Japanese artist Arisa Kumagai.

Leisure Class

I grew up in the red light district.

My family ran a business selling glitzy Italian clothes to mafia, and to the ladies working in the brothel located just behind our fancy shop.

Surrounded by decadent luxury, I was literally pounded in to acquire the taste of leisurely class.

Defined by T. Veblen, people from this class spent until they drop on themselves to attain social dignity.

I was born in 1991,so the history of socio-economic decline synchronized with mine.

I grew to believe that vanity was the only salvation.

In the absence of God, I saw beauty in excessive decoration.

There was swirl of desire, poor and rich. The more prosperous meant more ornamental.

There was gush of beasty energy, life and death. The more vibrant meant more embellishing.

But I found in that whirl a gleam, a residue or a kind of mutant, in the form of a human body.

Now my religion is to worship the surplus, something magnificent and yet something non-functional, like art.

But I also know from my up bringing that there’s always an end to the glory; that it all sinks into the dark, death-like void.

Wicked Game

Get ready for an unrequited weekend with Serena Sophia Weir.

A Mongolian breakfast

A simple video showing a family making a Mongolian breakfast. I'm not sure about the milk tea (not a big milk drinker), but it looks interesting. I wouldn't mind trying it.

As an aside, below is a recipe for milk tea, although I think it is more of the Chinese 'bubble' tea variety than what the family in the video were using.

1. 3/4 cup brewed tea (such as black, green, chai, or jasmine)
2. 1 cup ice cubes.
3. 2 tablespoons Sugar Syrup (more or less to taste)
4. 1/2 cup milk (or soy, almond, or rice milk)
5. 1/4 cup Tapioca Pearls

Bela Lugosi movie posters

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Bela Lugosi is famous for his portrayal of the vampire in Dracula. Aside from that film, his Hungarian accent and eventual morphine addiction greatly limited his roles. He was type cast to play only in horror films, and the quality of his roles greatly diminished over time. Still, he is an icon.

These posters, and those after the break, are from his various films. they are from 100 Years of Movie Posters. There are more of his posters at that site. Enjoy.

Babylon

Get ready for a degenerate weekend with DJ Zet & Sonny Flame.

Evolution rather than extermination

Nomads with Drones

(picture from Nomad Stunts, click to enlarge)

At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace the savage races throughout the world. - Charles Darwin

A visit to Moldova

Above a fellow tours Kishinev, the capital city of Moldavia. Apparently Moldavia is the least visited country in Europe, and after his tour I can see why. It is a pretty run-down and depressing looking place.

Below he takes a Moldovan road trip to a dot on the map in the countryside called Ratus. On the trip he listens to Moldavan pop music on the radio, rides in an old Lada as well as a horse drawn cart and muses at an abandoned Soviet bus stop. Ratus ends up being a sleepy little village, but the Moldovans met along the way are friendly and much more cheerful seeming than those in Kishinev.

I'm also pretty sure, but not certain, that Bald and Bankrupt -- the fellow who made the videos -- was the traveling companion of the guy who showed us the roadside cafe on the way to Jaipur.

Finally, inspired by the pop music on the radio I bring you a video of Moldova's Dan Balan's Chica Boom in which a stylish pop star, I assume he's Dan Balan, sings 'chica boom' over and over while a young lady undulates around and sings her lyrics in English while pouring water over herself and so-forth. Uh... it may be slightly NSFW.

Missionary Man

Get ready for a revivalist weekend Left Hand Solution.

Happy May Day Comrades

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Have a joyous May Day comrades as we boldly march forward stomping the hoarders, wreckers, Kulaks and other assorted running dogs of Capitalism under our feet on our way to the Workers Paradise. Also, be sure to enjoy -- if the bread lines aren't too long -- your traditional May Day feast of onions, borscht and wodka.