O-Negative (beach blanket bingo)

My Shelter at Home recapping chore brings us to Episode 4 of the Thai TV show O-Negative (Episode 3). I picked the above promotional poster to start this recap because I've been looking at it and wondering... is it my imagination, or is Art picking his nose in it? I don't think I actually want an answer to that question.

Anyway, this episode starts with Professor Buddy's class in the park drawing the scenery. Art and Peun are sitting together in one spot, Prim and Foon in another. Peun and Foon are texting like mad and, at the same time, Foon is still trying to keep their budding relationship secret from the others. I've got to say, the longer this plot line goes on the sillier it gets. I mean, Art and Peun are supposedly long time friends, in what universe do 20 years old guys who are friends not discuss the girls they are chasing?

Elsewhere Chompoo shows up wearing a school uniform instead of the regular clothes like the rest of the kids are wearing. She tells Prim and Foon that it would be too hard to explain to her parents -- that they would just think she was skipping classes if she wore regular clothes. Then Chompoo gets to her real problem. The school is having a Beach Hazing this weekend and she wants to go to it, but is worried her parents won't allow it. Wait - now she thinks hazing is fun?

The girls suggest asking Professor Buddy to help, but when she asks him he thinks that having Go, who was one of the Senior Drill Sargents, talk to her parents is a better choice. Chompoo is a bit skeptical of that idea, but she doesn't have a lot of options.

You're not the only one who is wondering about that

In the next scene Peun has gone home. His Mom and Dad are eating diner and the mysterious dorm room business resurfaces when she says that, had she known he was sleeping there that night, she would have cooked him food. So the kids are staying in dorms? Who knows, but trust me on this, that is going to be far from the biggest puzzle of this episode.

Later, when he's in his room, his Mom comes up to talk to him. Her and his Dad had looked at his drawings, and she is mainly curious of the picture of Prim. She asks if she is his girlfriend. He says no, just a friend. She's not exactly buying that, and when she finds out that Art drew the picture and Peun took it she seems even more confused.

After she leaves the kids get on group chat to discuss what their theme for the Beach Hazing will be. Eventually Foon notices that Peun has been quiet so she calls him and asks if he's mad at her. He confesses that he is bothered by her lying about coming to class together when she drove him. She gives him some song and dance about how it would reflect badly on her character if people knew they drove to school together.

I don't know about that. Korean and Chinese dramas are often chaste to comically ridiculous degrees, but I'm not getting that feeling  about Thai dramas at all (this is the first Thai drama I've watched). Would Peun actually buy that excuse? Well, he does in this story, although she mollifies him by offering to drive him to school again.

Go tells Chompoo's parents a bunch of BS

What the bus trip actually looks like

The next morning they all meet at the school to board the bus. Chompoo latches onto Go and talks him into convincing to her Mom to let her go on the trip. Go tells her Mom a bunch of BS about how well behaved the kids are, there will be no alcohol or drugs, and that the boys and girls will be separated. Apparently Chompoo's Mom is an idiot, because she believes Go and gives Chompoo permission to go on the Beach Hazing trip.

We see a bit of the bus ride and I feel sorry for the poor driver. The kids are wild, with Chompoo as possibly the most out of control as she happily dances in the aisle.

When they get to the beach, as soon as they get off the bus the Seniors revert to their Senior Drill Instructor mode and order them to drop their bags and line up. The freshman are upset because they thought hazing was over. You would think that the fact that the event was named the Beach Hazing might be  a clue, but not with this group of Einstiens.

They get even more nervous when the Seniors tell them to put blindfolds on. They get led to a spot where the Seniors stop them, deliver an ambiguous speech, and then tell them to take their blindfolds off. When they do the Freshman are impressed and touched by what they see. Chompoo is even moved to tears by it, although admittedly Chompoo blubbering isn't a rare sight.

The Freshman gaze in wonder at what they see...

So, what did the Freshman see?

Beats me. Incredibly, after lingering for a long time with several reaction shots, including a long pan where we are shown the backs of what they are looking at, we cut to a shot of the beach at night and we are never shown what the Senior's surprise was nor does anyone mention it again.

However, we do find out what is the O Group's theme. When they introduce themselves they're dressed as primitive tribesman, with spears, shields, face paint and, as an odd touch,covered with leaves and branches. The only other group spotted is dressed in pajamas as a theme.

We cut to O Group sitting together. Art shows up with a guitar. Violette Wautier, the actress who plays Prim, is a Thai singer so after a bit of Compoo comic relief she starts singing. Peun and Foon sit back to back slyly holding hands, but soon Prim has Peun join her in singing a duet. Peun gets into it a little bit too much and pretty soon the hand holding is done and Foon is looking distraught. Art doesn't look to thrilled by the development either.

Except for two people there are smiles all around

The singing is interrupted by the need to attend the ceremony of Announcing the Beach Hazing Royal Court. Naturally, this being a soap opera after all, Prim is chosen as the Queen and Peun as the King. Neither Art nor Foon is thrilled by this, and salt is further rubbed into the wound when the Seniors tell the Royal Couple to hold hands as they walk.

Foon gets so upset she leaves, telling Chompoo she is going to sleep. However, on the way back to their camp some Seniors spot her and call her over. One fellow is drooling over her and he challenges her to a drinking contest. Gee, I wonder what his intentions are? Apparently she is stupider than she looks, because she agrees to the contest and is soon guzzling down drinks. We end the episode with the Senior leering at her as she drinks.

[Episode 5]

The spider and the fly

Time After Time

Get  ready for an out of sync weekend with Boyce Avenue featuring Megan and Jaclyn Davies.
  

From my ranch to your kitchen

These are videos from the YouTube channel De mi Rancho a Tu Cocina. A Mexican woman, I couldn't find her name, cooks some tasty looking food. The recipes seem authentic, although the ingredient quantities are not given so duplicating them in your own kitchen may be difficult.

If you don't understand Spanish turn on captioning. In some of the videos you may need to also go to 'Settings' and turn on auto-captioning and select English.

O-Negative (Chompoo gets knocked silly)

Foon reinforces the stereotype of Asian women being bad drivers

Episode 3 of the Thai TV show O-Negative (Episode 2) starts with the kids in their rooms at night text messaging questions about the next day's class to Prim, who has emerged as the de facto leader of the group. The scene is quite curious because in Episode 2 they clearly stated, although never showed, that the kids stayed in dorms during the week. Well, it looks like that all went out the window, who knows -- maybe their dorm set was too expensive.

Prim eventually decides to create a group chat room so she doesn't have to answer each person individually. As they're all goofing off in it Foon texts Peun privately and ends up calling him. She's flirting up a storm with him and offers to drive him to school.

The next day Foon picks up Peun. On the drive to school she says she doesn't have her driver's license yet (huh?) and admits she's kind of a bad driver. She soon demonstrates that fact when, in the midst of their flirting he tells her she's pretty and she gets embarrassed and takes her hands off the wheel to cover up her blushing face. Hilariously they have a shot of the car swerving into the other lane as Peun needs to grab the wheel. Regardless of their near death driving experience they both get a good laugh out of it. Ah, young love.  

That'll boost their confidence for sure

When to two arrive at school Chompoo notices and asks if they came together. Surprisingly, Foon lies and says they just met. Peun looks confused by that, but they are quickly off to their painting class. We don't get the teacher's name, but she is an attractive and well dressed woman who obviously doesn't suffer from a lack of self esteem. 

At least -- unlike Professor Buddy -- she actually teaches them something before having them pair off to do portraits. Foon and Prim, now the best of friends, pair off while Chompoo gloms onto Peun  before he can get away. Art is the odd man out in the class and so he says he'll do a self portrait.

After class we're back to the hazing torment. The Senior Drill Sargents tell them that tomorrow will be the last day of hazing, but there is still one group that has to perform. Also, if that group fails the hazing will continue. They call the three members of the final performing group up: Art, Peun and Chompoo. Hey, with Art as part of the team what could possibly go wrong? 

As an aside, it took me a while to figure out why these three were getting punished, than it occurred to me that they were the three caught trying to runaway on the first night. The show can be confusing like that at times. I don't know if it is sloppy writing, scenes left on the editing room floor, or Thai story telling conventions I'm missing.

Chompoo starts her journey towards turning into a falling down drunk

That night they take Chompoo to her first visit to a bar. She is nervous about having a drink because she is afraid her Dad might find out, but they talk her into it. She gets the hang of drinking pretty fast and, after guzzling down several drinks, she is soon up and wildly dancing at the table with Foon and Prim.

When they leave the bar Foon drives Chompoo home. Chompoo tries to sneak in, but her Dad catches her. Luckily for Chompoo her Dad is a bit of a dunce because he never notices that his daughter is drunk. However, he does scold her for being out so late.

Meanwhile Prim, Art and Peun have taken a taxi together. They stop ay Prim's house first, where her Mom is at the gate waiting for her. The boys introduce themselves. She asked if they've been drinking, but is obviously not bothered by the kids having a fun night out. When the boys leave she asks Prim which boy she likes better. Prim protests neither, that they're just friends. Her Mom seems skeptical and amused by the answer.

Also, the Mom mentions to Prim to tell her father that she is back. This is the second or third time he's been mentioned, but we've yet to see him. I suspect that is a plot point of some sort.

The plot thickens

We cut to Foon in her room. She's text messaging Peun to wish him good night and sweet dreams. He seems a bit distant, no doubt because of her earlier lie to the others about just meeting him before class, but she is quite happy. Then she notices a package on her night stand. What's this? She opens it and inside is post card from London signed by somebody called Ong-art who says he sent her this gift because he was thinking of her. The gift is a bottle of perfume. Hmm... I sense another apex of a soap opera polygon.

The next day the freshman are all in a class room and planning what to do for the Senior Drill Sargents. Art is on the phone. A guy snaps at him to get off the call and help. Art does hang up, but he says he won't be at the hazing today because something important came up. Art bailing on hazing again? Knock me over with a feather.

If looks could kill

The kids are all pleading with Art to come. Finally the guy who told him  to get off the phone starts swearing at Art and insulting him. Chompoo is trying to hold the guy back but he gets free and pushes Art. Art retaliates by punching the guy and in the process Chompoo gets knocked down. She ends up on the floor, bleeding with a dazed look on her face.

Prim is livid. She charges Art, pushing him and screaming, "I'm pushing you, are you going to punch me?" I dunno Prim, considering Art's track record of clobbering coeds I'm not sure I would be in a hurry to encourage him. She pushes Art into a pile of chairs before Peun gets between them and restrains her.

At the hazing Art missing naturally infuriates the Senior Drill Sargents. Peun and Chompoo try to do the performance by themselves, but poor Chompoo is crying and shaking uncontrollably from being screamed at and they screw up their dance. The Seniors are telling the class they are a pack of losers who are being disowned when, you guessed it, Art finally shows up. Now the three of them do the dance (you see parts of it in the teaser in the Episode 2 post). They nail their dance and the Seniors approve.

So, hazing is over, right?

Wrong. The Senior Drill Sargents ask them if they know what day it is. Nobody can answer, so they drag poor Chompoo back out and start screaming in her face asking her what day it is. She's on the verge of having a nervous breakdown when one of the Seniors turns to the group, spreads his arms and asks, "what sort of a girl doesn't know it is her birthday?"

With that the now smiling and friendly Seniors bring out a cake, tell the group that it is Chompoo's birthday, and invite everybody to sing Happy Birthday to her. When the cake comes out, as it slowly registers on her what's happening, Chompoo comes out of her state of abject terror until she finally melts with delight at being the center of attention.

The portrait that is sure to cause problems

In the final scene Art is handing in the portrait he did. He didn't do a self-portrait at all, instead he did a portrait of Prim. Oh Art, you love struck little puppy! Luckily for him Prim seems to have calmed down and was actually friendly to him when Chompoo's birthday cake came out.

The teacher hangs the picture on the wall where Peun eventually sees it. He's admiring it and he notices that Art drew it, so he asks Art if he can have it. Art says sure, although it isn't clear exactly how he takes Peun's request. That said, I'm sure we can all guess what Foon's reaction will be.

[Episode 4]

Chicken Attack

Iron Ian does a touching cover of the Takeo Ischi masterpiece Chicken Attack. 

Struggles against isolation

Copying propaganda posters (click to enlarge)

We are all lost, so lost, vulnerable and insecure. We are separated from love at birth, we are separated from God, from each other. All we want, all we yearn for is to connect. ― Kamand Kojouri

O-Negative (the kids put on a skit)

I'm a cool cat. Do you dig me daddy-O?

Episode 2 of O-Negative (Episode 1) gets the kids to the second day at the School From Hell. Surprisingly, instead of just getting screamed at by the Senior Drill Sargents, they actually have a class. All five of them are in the same beginning drawing class which is taught by Professor Buddy, who is a hipster sort of a hepcat. He doesn't really teach them anything, just tells them to do a pencil drawing of some cubes and cones he's set up.

The kids spread out to draw. Peun makes sure he is sitting next to Foon, and Art sits next to Prim who is oblivious of him gawking at her. Meanwhile Chompoo is more or less a third wheel  as she tries, none too successfully, to get one of the boy's attention.  

Aside from Prim and Foon continuing their feud via dirty looks, the only thing we learn is that Art is apparently a great artist. Or at least Professor Buddy thinks he is, because he positively gushes over how wonderful Art's cubes and cones drawing is. This fact dully impresses Prim, so maybe there's hope for our man Art after all.

The ridiculous 'College Bus' song and dance

After lunch it is back to the Senior Drill Sargents and their hazing. Because of their fight the night before, Prim and Foon are dragged to the front of the class and told they need to cooperate to put on a performance. Sensing a chance to score points with Foon, Peun raises his hand and volunteers to help. The Senior Drill Sargents are inclined to say no, but Peun pulls the 'we're friends' card and, considering all their blithering about Unity the day before, they have to agree to Peun helping. Peun then drags Art up to help as well.

The four of them can't think of a performance, so they decide the guys will sing the 'College Bus' song and the girls will randomly dance around. Yea, it's as bad as it sounds. After about a minute of their act the Senior Drill Sargents scream at them to knock it off and tell them it is the worst performance they've ever seen. Amen to that. They're told to come back the next day and try again with a better idea.

Somehow the four of them rope the rest of the freshmen into helping. In a rare burst of believability for this show, the group brainstorms and decides to do a skit that's a mash-up of a popular TV show or movie. It is easy to believe that college freshmen would actually do that. They all then get busy learning their lines and making props and so forth.

The next day, when they show up to hazing to do their skit they discover that Art isn't there. Naturally the Senior Drill Sargents blow a gasket over this and, after a lecture about friendship, it is back to the boys doing pushups while the girls have to hunch over in their weird squat. The kids are told in no uncertain terms that without Art there will by no skit, and with no skit there will be nothing but misery.

We cut to Prim, Foon, Chompoo and Peun trying to talk Art into doing the skit. His excuse for not being at hazing is that he has a part-time job. Really Art, you're tossing Unity overboard for a bit of filthy lucre? Have you no shame?

After getting badgered for a bit Art finally snaps and more or less tells them if they're stupid enough to do the hazing that is their problem, not his. This insult gets Foon upset, so she slaps him. In a pretty shocking scene Art responds by slapping her back. In fact he slaps Foon so hard she staggers and nearly falls to the ground.

"Ve haf vays of making you talk..."

When Art is next seen he is in the Senior Drill Sargents' interrogation chamber. It is dark, except for a slide projector shining the word 'FREE' on him. Needless to say, his inquisitors are not happy with him smacking a coed around.

Meanwhile in another room a pissed off Foon is sitting, with a red mark on the side of her face from Art's slap. Peun is trying to calm her down and talk her into helping to get his friend Art out of the jam he's in. Prim is having none of it and Chompoo is blubbering her eyes out, but Peun gradually wears Foon down with his appeals.

We cut to Art still standing in the interrogation room. Foon walks up next to him. She takes responsibility for the fight by saying she started it by slapping Art first and asks them not to punish Art. The Senior Drill Sargents are not impressed, pointing out that regardless, guys slapping women around is frowned upon. She hoists them on their Unity Petard by saying Art is her friend and so Art gets off with just a warning.

Emotions run amuck in Champoo's cranium

The next afternoon we finally get to the skit. It is a parody of Pixar's Inside Out. Chompoo is viewed through a set that looks like a TV. She is crying and going on about how sad she is that she has to go to the hazing. In her cranium's control room Foon is the Sad emotion and Prim is the Happy one. Happy reprimands Sad and goes to the keyboard and types away. Chompoo immediately cheers up and then babbles some kiss-ass claptrap about how wonderful the Senior Drill Sargents are.

Art enters last, comforts Chompoo a bit and ends his speech by telling her when hazing is over he's going to rip the moustaches off the Senior Drill Sargents. The male Seniors aren't amused, but the Female Seniors get a yuck out of that. At any rate they pass, only to be told that they now have to shed blood. This is just a Senior Drill Sargent joke though, because what it really means is the five of them have to go and donate blood.

On a ferry on the way back from the blood donation they check their slips and realize they all have  type O blood. Chompoo suggests they name their group the O Group. Art, ever the rebel, scoffs at this and points out O is the most common blood type and probably everybody else on the ferry shares it. However, in the end he agrees to the group's name and there are smiles all around.

I'll end with the Thai teaser for the show. You'll recognize many of the scenes. As for me, I'm looking forward to the scene where they're on the beach dressed as bushes. Before watching it be sure to get your box of tissues ready, because all the angst, heartbreak, drama and scenery chewing teased in it will likely get you blubbering worse than Chompoo does at the drop of a hat.

[Episodse 3]

Max Zorn's packing tape art

Click any image to enlarge

Max Zorn is a Dutch street artist who uses packing tape as his medium. He also creates works on plexiglass that are backlit. Much of his work has a mid 20th century feel to them. You can buy his work at his Tape Art by Max Zorn website.

These images, and those after the jump are samples of his work. There are many more examples at his website.

I Want to Hold Your Hand

Get ready for a subversive shelter in place weekend with Shane & Emily.

O-Negative (love can't be designed)

The main characters of O-Negative
(L-R: Chompoo, Art, Prim, Peun and Foon)

A while back I reviewed a couple of Russian TV shows: Vyzhit Posle and Sparta. A side effect of watching these show was clips of East Asian dramas and romcoms started showing up in my YouTube feed. Like a fool I clicked on them and before long I was hooked on the insanity of East Asian TV shows.

The one I'm talking about today is the Thai TV show O-Negative (love can't be designed) and is available on Netflix. I have no idea if it is a soap opera, a comedy or what. The Netflix blurb describes it as "Five schoolmates who share a blood type navigate the vagaries of friendship, love and university life." Um... shared blood type as the premise? Well, OK.

We start with our 5 main characters at their computers nervously waiting for news that they got accepted into the art department of a university. They are:

• Prim - presumably she is the good girl. Curiously, the actress is of Belgian descent so she looks European.
• Foon - is the spoiled rich girl who is treated like a princess by her parents. They buy her a car as a present for getting into college. 
• Chompoo - she's a bumpkin (I think) who has strict parents. She joyfully dances around singing that she's going to be a boy chasing bitch now that she's on her own. 
• Peun - who appears to be a bit of a goody-two-shoes doofus and is friends with
• Art - who I think is supposed to be a rebel of sorts.  

They all get accepted and the next we see them is at orientation. They're in a large lecture hall checking each other out. Chompoo comes in and sits with the two boys and tries to strike up a conversation with them, but they're both too busy googoo-eying Prim and Foon to pay much attention to her.

A teacher comes in welcomes them, tells them they are adults now and reminds them that the main purpose of art is to foster unity (err... what?). He then says they can break for a session of getting to know each other and to make new friends.

Note to self - turn cellphone ring to mute if ever in Thailand

They're all gathered outside, presumably making friends and whatnot, when some older students, led by a long-haired guy and a bearded guy, run up and start screaming at them like Marine drill sargeants to form up in lines by gender. As the new and confused students are trying to do that Chompoo's phone dings.

Well, that must be a social gaffe of epic proportions in Thailand because the two drill sergeants fly into a rage and start ranting about how they're all in it together and also something about unity (I'm sensing a pattern here). The guys are instructed to drop and start doing push-ups while the girls have to sort of crouch in a rather odd position as punishment.    

We then cut to the boys marching down a street at night. The drill sergeants instruct them to stop and ask for the gays to fall out and form their own line. As we're puzzling over that development we get our answer to it when the next scene shows the boys all in some sort of bath house pouring buckets of water over their heads. Apparently, I guess, it was just to keep the gays from ogling them during bath time. Oh yea, it all ends with another unity talk for some reason or another.

Meanwhile, after the girls take their showers Foon is looking for her missing hair dryer. She decides, for absolutely no reason, that Chompoo must have stolen it so she dumps out the contents of Chompoo's bag, breaking poor Chompoo's phone in the process. This infuriates Prim, who storms over and dumps out the contents of Foon's bag. This looks like this is going to lead to a cat fight, which us male audience members hope involves hair pulling, clothes tearing and the nearest mud puddle. Alas for us, a female drill sergeant steps in and breaks them up, reveals that she had the hair dryer, and -- you guessed it -- she gives a lecture on unity.

A pack of Unity Deniers get caught

Later that night the two boys decide they've had enough of this nonsense, so they plan to sneak out and runaway. On the way out they hear a girl blubbering. It turns out to be Chompoo, still clutching her broken phone, so they agree to take her along. The three make it about five feet before they find themselves surrounded by drill sergeants who point out, none to tactfully, that running away violates their precious Unity Principle. So much for the great escape.

The next morning they are all gathered for breakfast. First the drill sargeants mock to two guys as a couple of crybabies who tried to run away, then they hand out breakfast which is a Styrofoam fast food box with plain rice and what looks like fried rat meat or something equally as unappetizing. While this is going on Foon's parents show up with a bento box of gourmet food for her. Roh-oh. I'm sure you can imagine the browbeating poor Foon gets over her lack of Dining Unity.

It's a good thing her potential love interest was there to catch her

The last activity of the orientation session is the 10 mile run. It ends with one of the most beloved Asian drama tropes -- the girl somehow flopping into the arms of her potential love interest. Usually it is the girl tripping, but in this situation Foon fake fainted (we see her peek at him while they're fussing over her) into the arms of Peun. Asian romances favor love quadrilaterals over love triangles, with each member of the main couple being pursued by a different suitor. I'm guess Peun and Prim will be the main couple, with Art and Foon chasing them.

After the run all of the students go home where, surprisingly, they just treat all this yelling and screaming as hazing by older students. It also looks like the story writers are setting up the domestic situations of the characters so they can develop what ever ridiculous backstories each has.

I'll watch this show, which had an entertaining first episode. I have no idea how often I'll post about it, but it is shelter in place time so's it's not like I have a lot to do anyway. If it keeps being amusing I'll write about it more.

[Episode 2]

PSA - Flares' recommended home exercise regime

Click any image to enlarge

Naturally, in these days of the 'sheltering at home' panic, the staff at Flares is concerned for our regular readers' health and fitness. So we've slapped togeth--- uhhh… I mean we've carefully custom designed an exercise regime to insure the wellness of your body, mind and soul. Etc., etc.

These exercises, and those after the jump, are from the Public Domain Review's archives: Physical Training for Business Men (1917) and Swedish House-Gymnastics (1913).

The Unseen Enemy

This seems out of date even for 1945. I mean, the advice not to use your corn field as a latrine. Seriously, did that many farms not have outhouses back then?

Of course, if a question is asked it must be answered. Below are some pictures of old outhouses and privies. There are more after the jump and even more at Photogrammer for those with a twisted desire to look at outhouse pictures.

Click any image to enlarge

Who Do You Love

Get ready for a hoodoo weekend with Elise LeGrow.

The salvage of the Murmansk

Click any image to enlarge

The Murmansk was a Soviet light cruiser. In 1994 she was sold to India for scrapping. Enroute to India she ran aground off the coast of Norway. It was thought that she would break up in the harsh weather, but she stayed together as she turned into a rusted hulk.

By 2009 enough money was raised to begin salvage work. She was in too bad of shape to be refloated, so it was decided to build a breakwater and drain where she say so she could be disassembled. The salvage was completed in 2013 (via Deserted Places).  

Unheard songs and hearts of stone

From First Miss Soviet Union beauty pageant, 1988

The Fountain - Sara Teasdale

Oh in the deep blue night
The fountain sang alone;
It sang to the drowsy heart
Of a satyr carved in stone.

The fountain sang and sang
But the satyr never stirred--
Only the great white moon
In the empty heaven heard.

The fountain sang and sang
And on the marble rim
The milk-white peacocks slept,
Their dreams were strange and dim.

Bright dew was on the grass,
And on the ilex dew,
The dreamy milk-white birds
Were all a-glisten too.

The fountain sang and sang
The things one cannot tell,
The dreaming peacocks stirred
And the gleaming dew-drops fell.

Fever

Get ready for a pyrexic weekend with The Kabosy Brothers.

Wuhan Virus art

Illustration by Masashi Shimakawa

In my earlier post Plague Art I posted some old artwork from the Black Death and other historical pandemics. I opined that modern Plague Art might be scenes of the frenzied rush on the toilet paper aisle, but I had forgotten facemasks.

The image is by Masashi Shimakawa (I showed other of his work in the earlier post Illustrations of every day Japan by Masashi Shimakawa). I think it really isn't Wuhan Virus art because, as near as I can tell from the Google translation of the IG post it came from, it is actually an illustration from an article(?) called "Slapping the Door". I've repurposed it as plague art none-the-less.

Buying a smoothie in Saigon

The above video starts with its maker Harald Baldr buying a smoothie from a little shop in Saigon. He then goes on a short walk through some back alleys where he discusses real estate prices with his guide Tom and also runs across a number of women making money by cleaning and peeling onions for local restaurants. Below is a video he filmed of a small family owned flip-flop factory.

Plague art

Click any image to enlarge

Whelp, with the Wuhan virus upon us it is time to visit older pandemics via art. These images, and those after the jump, are primarily of the Black Death, but there are a few other plagues tossed in for good measure. Hopefully, if we're lucky, future Wuhan Flu art will only be of rushes on the toilet paper aisle and not stacks of dead bodies.

Life Could Be A Dream

Get ready for fantasy this weekend with Street Corner Renaissance.